Rosie Wrighting

This Government wants to ensure the £400bn spent annually on procurement can be felt by people in their local communities and supports British industry.

On the 26th March, we announced our intention to redefine, streamline and simplify social value to ensure that government procurement takes into account when suppliers deliver good jobs, skills development and opportunities for those that most need it when they deliver contracts. The Cabinet Office is working with business, trade unions, and the voluntary sector on this and will update Parliament shortly.

This builds on recently announced three-year SME spending targets, published in March, which will see £7.4bn of direct spend going to SMEs by 2028. This is in addition to the introduction of new powers to allow authorities to reserve lower-value contracts specifically for SMEs or local suppliers.

This Government wants to ensure the £400bn spent annually on procurement can be felt by people in their local communities and supports British industry.

On the 26th March, we announced our intention to redefine, streamline and simplify social value to ensure that government procurement takes into account when suppliers deliver good jobs, skills development and opportunities for those that most need it when they deliver contracts. The Cabinet Office is working with business, trade unions, and the voluntary sector on this and will update Parliament shortly.

This builds on recently announced three-year SME spending targets, published in March, which will see £7.4bn of direct spend going to SMEs by 2028. This is in addition to the introduction of new powers to allow authorities to reserve lower-value contracts specifically for SMEs or local suppliers.

At the CreativeUK summit, Government announced the Creative Industries Sector Pan to increase support for designers, including DCMS investment in the British Fashion Council's NEWGEN programme, providing funding and mentoring to emerging talent.

The Department for Business is supporting the Creative Industries, including fashion designers, through expanding the capacity of the British Business Bank.

This new capacity includes £4 billon for fund and direct investments across the eight Industrial Strategy sectors over the next four years. On 17 February the Bank announced a £45 million commitment into Redrice Ventures, which specialises in seed-stage investments across the creative industries sector.

Helping our world-class fashion industry grow remains a government priority. The FTA will expand consumer choice, reduce costs for UK businesses, and strengthen their competitiveness in India’s fast-growing market.

DBT’s impact assessment, published at signature, noted a small decrease in output growth in clothing and textiles, but the UK and Indian sectors are largely complementary; clothing retailers will benefit from cheaper imports and luxury UK garments like Harris tweed will se tariffs removed. There is a bilateral safeguard mechanism to protect any sector facing injury.

We will continue working closely with industry to monitor and maximise the FTA’s benefits.

The Government is continuing to deliver the Creative Industries Sector Plan to help meet government and industry's shared objective to make the UK the number one destination for creativity and innovation by 2035. We are driving regional growth and innovation by devolving £150m to local leaders through the Creative Places Growth Fund and launching the £100m Creative Clusters competition. We are supporting key subsectors with recently launched £30m Games and £54m Screen packages, and have provided 15% business rates relief for music venues. We are strengthening our talent pipeline through measures including expanding the National Film and Television School, and through the ‘Every Child Can’, funded through the Dormant Assets Scheme, which will deliver £132.5 million for new enrichment programmes, including in arts and culture. Our new AI Champion recently published a Creative Industries AI Adoption Plan, and the Government joins the Champion in supporting an augmentation-first approach to AI adoption within the sector. One year on, the Plan is working, with the creative industries achieving 3.1% growth last quarter.

The British fashion industry is a key driver of economic growth, estimated by the British Fashion Council to employ over 800,000 people and contribute nearly £30 billion in gross value added to the UK economy. London Fashion Week is a world-leading event in the fashion calendar, featuring over 250 designers to a global audience of media and retailers.

As part of our Creative Industries Sector Plan we’re continuing our support for the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN scheme for emerging designers. This funding helps the next generation to develop the global high-end brands of the future through opportunities to showcase their work at London Fashion Week and take part in mentoring from business experts, showing the best of British to the world.

The standard process confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

Up to the end of the 2023/24 the total amount received by the Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in funding for their new hospital scheme is £9.4 million.

The breakdown of how much the trust received for their new hospital scheme is published annually as part of the Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, with Public Dividend Capital to individual Trusts included in the Financial Assistance Report under section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006. The 2022/23 report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023

The trust is currently developing their Strategic Outline Case for the Kettering General Hospital, and are at Royal Institute of British Architects Stage 2.

The standard process confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

Up to the end of the 2023/24 the total amount received by the Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in funding for their new hospital scheme is £9.4 million.

The breakdown of how much the trust received for their new hospital scheme is published annually as part of the Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, with Public Dividend Capital to individual Trusts included in the Financial Assistance Report under section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006. The 2022/23 report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023

The trust is currently developing their Strategic Outline Case for the Kettering General Hospital, and are at Royal Institute of British Architects Stage 2.

The standard process confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

Up to the end of the 2023/24 the total amount received by the Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in funding for their new hospital scheme is £9.4 million.

The breakdown of how much the trust received for their new hospital scheme is published annually as part of the Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, with Public Dividend Capital to individual Trusts included in the Financial Assistance Report under section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006. The 2022/23 report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023

The trust is currently developing their Strategic Outline Case for the Kettering General Hospital, and are at Royal Institute of British Architects Stage 2.

The standard process confirming the total funding amount for major infrastructure projects involves the review and approval of a Full Business Case. All trusts in the programme have previously received indicative funding allocations to support planning, however these are commercially sensitive.

Up to the end of the 2023/24 the total amount received by the Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in funding for their new hospital scheme is £9.4 million.

The breakdown of how much the trust received for their new hospital scheme is published annually as part of the Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts, with Public Dividend Capital to individual Trusts included in the Financial Assistance Report under section 40 of the National Health Service Act 2006. The 2022/23 report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023

The trust is currently developing their Strategic Outline Case for the Kettering General Hospital, and are at Royal Institute of British Architects Stage 2.