Paula Barker

In December the Government launched the £100 million Innovation Fund to pioneer Public Service Reform by deploying new test-and-learn teams around the country to find innovative ways to fix some of our biggest challenges, including temporary accommodation.

My officials are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on this programme, ensuring they build on and complement the extensive programme of work the Secretary of State is taking forward on temporary accommodation and homelessness, including the Emergency Accommodation Reduction Pilots announced on 18 December 2024. I am a member of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Inter Ministerial Group on homeless and temporary accommodation. I have also met with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping and we have jointly met with council leaders to discuss this issue.

Trialling new, innovative ways of doing government is right at the heart of the Public Service Reform agenda, and we will be sharing the lessons learned from our pilots across government, including with the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness.

The Test & Learns are a new way of working. The Cabinet Office, in close partnership with MHCLG, will be working across government and with local partners to codesign the detailed approach to the allocation of the Public Services and Innovation Fund in early 2025. We will partner with the Local Government Association (LGA) on this process. The initial projects include work on temporary accommodation with Liverpool City Council and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Essex County Council.

The Government remains committed to helping small businesses thrive and will be publishing our Small Business Strategy next year. This will set out our vision for all small businesses, from boosting scale-ups to growing the co-operative economy.

At the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced £250 million for the British Business Bank’s small business finance programmes in 2025/26. Additional funding for two key growth-driving programmes was also announced for 2025/26: Growth Hubs in England and Help to Grow: Management across the UK. These programmes aim to help businesses and entrepreneurs unlock their potential through bespoke support and resources.

The Government’s plan to Make Work Pay is a core part of the mission to grow the economy, raise living standards across the country and create opportunities for all, including young people.

In addition, the Department for Education has established Skills England to sit at the heart of a system that provides young people with the skills required to thrive in life.

Skills England has set out a package of financial support to businesses which provide apprenticeships for young people to help drive up participation among this group.

Under competition law, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as the UK’s competition authority, is responsible for investigating anti-competitive practices such as an abuse of a dominant position. The Government has ensured that the CMA has significant powers to investigate and act if it finds that businesses are behaving anti-competitively in a market. As an independent authority, the CMA has discretion to investigate competition cases which, according to its prioritisation principles, it considers most appropriate.

With respect to the secondary ticketing market, the Government has committed to introducing new consumer protections in relation to ticket resales and we will be launching a consultation in the autumn to seek views on potential options.

Different restrictions apply for those engaging in regulated activity dependent on many factors, such as the type of provision, the age, Special Educational Needs and Disability status of any children involved, and staff providing the activity. The Government expects anyone engaged in regulated activity with children and vulnerable adults to comply with all statutory requirements and safeguards, with appropriate oversight applied.

The Regulator of Community Interest Companies decides whether an organisation is eligible to become, or continue to be, a community interest company, and has no role in overseeing or ensuring compliance with any requirements (e.g. licensing or regulatory compliance) outside of this.

The Government is committed to supporting households with the cost of energy this winter, and we are continuing to deliver the Warm Home Discount which provides a £150 rebate off energy bills for eligible low-income households.

I have also outlined our expectation to energy suppliers that they should do everything they can to support customers who are struggling with their bills, especially vulnerable consumers. Last month I met with energy suppliers and encouraged them to sign up to the Voluntary Debt Commitment for this winter, and I will work closely with them in the weeks ahead to ensure vulnerable consumers are supported through this winter.

The Government has not made an assessment on the impact of energy price rises on child poverty. The latest statistics on fuel poverty in England cover 2023 and can be found in the published Official Statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics. Table 22 provide estimates of the number of households in fuel poverty by age of the youngest person in the household. Statistics for 2024 will be published in early 2025.

The Government is working with the recently announced Child Poverty Taskforce to deliver an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackle the root causes, and give every child the best start in life.

The Online Safety Act requires in-scope services to protect users from harmful illegal content, much of which disproportionately affects women and girls. Services must also employ age-appropriate measures to protect children from legal abusive and hateful misogynistic content. User-to-user services and publishers of pornography must also prevent children from encountering online pornography.

Services over the designated threshold will need to remove misogynistic content where it is prohibited in their terms of service. Companies will need to have effective, accessible mechanisms in place for users to be able to report abuse and receive an appropriate response from the platform.

Media literacy helps address online safety issues by raising awareness that online actions have offline consequences, encouraging critical engagement with content and fostering a respectful online environment. Since 2022, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology has provided almost £3 million in grant funding for a range of media literacy projects. This covered funding for the National Literacy Trust’s ‘Empower’ programme which includes delivering media literacy education with a focus on women and girls’ online experiences to students aged 11-16.

The government is firmly committed to supporting the growth of the film industry across every nation and region. Through our UK-wide funding programmes, investment in infrastructure, tax reliefs and support for independent British content, we want the UK to be the best place in the world to make films.

We fund the British Film Institute (BFI) to support the film sector through nationwide funding and initiatives. The BFI’s ten year strategy, Screen Culture 2033, sets out its core principle to reach across the full breadth of our nation. The BFI have sought to devolve funding, share power, and support networks across regions, in particular through their Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) which is a collaboration of 8 film hubs, managed by leading film organisations and venues around the UK. Film Hub North covers Liverpool.

The BFI is also tackling skills shortages in the sector to underpin growth across the UK. Under the BFI’s National Lottery Skills Clusters Fund, £8.1 million has been awarded to enable six Skills Clusters across the UK to identify skills gaps, coordinate local skills training, and develop clearer pathways to long-term employment in the sector. This programme includes £2.3m awarded to Screen Alliance North - created by the Liverpool Film Office, North East Screen, Screen Manchester, and Screen Yorkshire - over 2023-2026.

We support the British Film Commission (BFC) work, with £6 million in funding, to support the growth of seven geographic production hubs across the UK, by investing in infrastructure and attracting global film productions that bring inward investment into the local and national economy. This includes support for Liverpool, most recently supporting and advising on the Liverpool Littlewoods film studio development.

We also want to support independent British content, to ensure stories from across the UK are told on screen. We recently brought in the Independent Film Tax Credit to support homegrown talent, and we support indie content to grow internationally through the £28 million UK Global Screen Fund (UKGSF). Daliland and The Almond and The Seahorse, both of which were shot in Liverpool, received international distribution awards from UKGSF.

In addition, to boost the contribution of film tourism to local economies, DCMS Arm’s-Length Body VisitBritain uses high profile filming locations as part of its international tourism marketing activity.

The government is firmly committed to supporting the growth of the film industry across every nation and region. Through our UK-wide funding programmes, investment in infrastructure, tax reliefs and support for independent British content, we want the UK to be the best place in the world to make films.

We fund the British Film Institute (BFI) to support the film sector through nationwide funding and initiatives. The BFI’s ten year strategy, Screen Culture 2033, sets out its core principle to reach across the full breadth of our nation. The BFI have sought to devolve funding, share power, and support networks across regions, in particular through their Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) which is a collaboration of 8 film hubs, managed by leading film organisations and venues around the UK. Film Hub North covers Liverpool.

The BFI is also tackling skills shortages in the sector to underpin growth across the UK. Under the BFI’s National Lottery Skills Clusters Fund, £8.1 million has been awarded to enable six Skills Clusters across the UK to identify skills gaps, coordinate local skills training, and develop clearer pathways to long-term employment in the sector. This programme includes £2.3m awarded to Screen Alliance North - created by the Liverpool Film Office, North East Screen, Screen Manchester, and Screen Yorkshire - over 2023-2026.

We support the British Film Commission (BFC) work, with £6 million in funding, to support the growth of seven geographic production hubs across the UK, by investing in infrastructure and attracting global film productions that bring inward investment into the local and national economy. This includes support for Liverpool, most recently supporting and advising on the Liverpool Littlewoods film studio development.

We also want to support independent British content, to ensure stories from across the UK are told on screen. We recently brought in the Independent Film Tax Credit to support homegrown talent, and we support indie content to grow internationally through the £28 million UK Global Screen Fund (UKGSF). Daliland and The Almond and The Seahorse, both of which were shot in Liverpool, received international distribution awards from UKGSF.

In addition, to boost the contribution of film tourism to local economies, DCMS Arm’s-Length Body VisitBritain uses high profile filming locations as part of its international tourism marketing activity.

The Government is committed to resetting the relationship with civil society and treating them as an equal, expert partner who will be integral to delivery of the Government’s vision for national renewal.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has policy responsibility for civil society. Ministers and senior officials are engaging regularly with a range of civil society leaders to discuss the contribution that civil society can make to Government priorities.

Work is currently underway across Government to shape and define the five core missions and DCMS is working closely with lead departments to ensure that civil society is appropriately involved in delivery of these missions.

The Government is committed to resetting the relationship with civil society and treating them as an equal, expert partner who will be integral to delivery of the Government’s vision for national renewal.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has policy responsibility for civil society. Ministers and senior officials are engaging regularly with a range of civil society leaders to discuss the contribution that civil society can make to Government priorities.

Work is currently underway across Government to shape and define the five core missions and DCMS is working closely with lead departments to ensure that civil society is appropriately involved in delivery of these missions.

The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to and benefit from quality sport and physical activity opportunities.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding. Since 2019, Sport England has provided over £34 million of support to programmes which facilitate participation in grassroots rugby league.

The Rugby Football Union (RFL) is the National Governing Body for rugby league and receives £11 million of funding from Sport England across up to five years to help deliver strategic objectives, including tackling inequalities and improving access to sport.