Sarah Bool

In line with our current priorities, the Hydrogen Production Business Model is intended to support domestic, primary methods of hydrogen production, such as electrolytic and CCUS-enabled production. The production of green hydrogen from ammonia through ‘ammonia cracking’ would not create any new hydrogen (given the ammonia itself is produced from hydrogen) and so we do not consider it to meet these criteria. The HPBM does provide revenue support to selected low carbon hydrogen producers who may sell hydrogen for a variety of applications including as a feedstock for the production of ammonia.

The Government is aware of the significant potential that commercial rooftops have in our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower. We are working to unlock this potential. The recently published Solar Roadmap sets out actions for government and industry including developing guidance for landlords and tenants to traverse the complex lease agreements that often hold back sector enthusiasm for rooftop solar deployment.

We will convene a joint government / industry Solar Council to monitor progress and drive delivery of the actions in the Roadmap.

Additionally, solar will play an important role in the Future Buildings Standard for new build non-domestic buildings due to be introduced later this year, and the UK’s overall approach to Net Zero commercial buildings will be set out in the government’s Warm Homes Plan strategy later this year.

The Government is aware of the significant potential that commercial rooftops have in our mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower. We are working to unlock this potential. The recently published Solar Roadmap sets out actions for government and industry including developing guidance for landlords and tenants to traverse the complex lease agreements that often hold back sector enthusiasm for rooftop solar deployment.

We will convene a joint government / industry Solar Council to monitor progress and drive delivery of the actions in the Roadmap.

Additionally, solar will play an important role in the Future Buildings Standard for new build non-domestic buildings due to be introduced later this year, and the UK’s overall approach to Net Zero commercial buildings will be set out in the government’s Warm Homes Plan strategy later this year.

The National Policy Statement for Energy (EN-1) and the National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure (EN-3) detail the Secretary of State’s considerations regarding the prioritisation of Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land. EN-1 notes at 5.11.12 that Applicants should seek to minimise impacts on the BMV agricultural land (grades 1, 2 and 3a) and preferably use land in areas of poorer quality (grades 3b, 4 and 5). EN-1 notes at 5.11.34 that the Secretary of State should ensure that applicants do not site their scheme on the BMV agricultural land without justification, and where schemes are to be sited on BMV agricultural land the Secretary of State should take into account the economic and other benefits of that land.

The National Policy Statement for Energy (EN-1) and the National Policy Statement for Renewable Energy Infrastructure (EN-3) detail the Secretary of State’s considerations regarding the necessity of Best and Most Versatile (BMV) agricultural land. EN-1 notes at 5.11.12 that the Applicants should seek to minimise impacts on the BMV agricultural land (grades 1, 2 and 3a) and preferably use land in areas of poorer quality (grades 3b, 4 and 5). EN-1 notes at 5.11.34 that the Secretary of State should ensure that applicants do not site their scheme on the BMV agricultural land without justification, and where schemes are to be sited on BMV agricultural land the Secretary of State should take into account the economic and other benefits of that land.

According to the independent website Thinkbroadband.com, over 99% of homes and businesses in the South Northamptonshire constituency can access superfast broadband speeds (>=30 Mbps) and over 93% have access to a gigabit-capable broadband connection (>1000 Mbps).

To improve this coverage further, CityFibre is delivering a Project Gigabit contract across Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes, targeted at bringing gigabit-capable broadband to homes and businesses in hard-to-reach areas that are unlikely to be otherwise reached by suppliers’ commercial rollout. Approximately 1,700 premises in the South Northamptonshire constituency are currently expected to benefit from this contract. The vast majority of these premises are in rural parts of the constituency.

The Secretary of State has not carried out an assessment of the funding allocated for arts and heritage in the South Northamptonshire constituency specifically, however, the Department has carried out an initial review of publicly funded arts, culture and heritage sectors, including looking at national and local government funding. This work ensures any future policy development is evidence driven.

Ministers have also launched a review of Arts Council England, our arms-length body who are responsible for the distribution of arts funding across England. The review will examine everything from funding mechanisms to community engagement. Baroness Hodge of Barking is leading the review and will provide government with her report and recommendations in the autumn of 2025. The government will then publish the conclusions of the review along with the government’s response in 2026.

Details of Arts Council England funding since 2021 can be found on the Arts Council England website here https://culture.localinsight.org/#/map

The Secretary of State has a range of discussions with Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund across the whole of her portfolio, and DCMS officials regularly discuss support for arts, culture and heritage with their counterparts at our arms-length bodies.

The Secretary of State has not carried out an assessment of the funding allocated for arts and heritage in the South Northamptonshire constituency specifically, however, the Department has carried out an initial review of publicly funded arts, culture and heritage sectors, including looking at national and local government funding. This work ensures any future policy development is evidence driven.

Ministers have also launched a review of Arts Council England, our arms-length body who are responsible for the distribution of arts funding across England. The review will examine everything from funding mechanisms to community engagement. Baroness Hodge of Barking is leading the review and will provide government with her report and recommendations in the autumn of 2025. The government will then publish the conclusions of the review along with the government’s response in 2026.

Details of Arts Council England funding since 2021 can be found on the Arts Council England website here https://culture.localinsight.org/#/map

The Secretary of State has a range of discussions with Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund across the whole of her portfolio, and DCMS officials regularly discuss support for arts, culture and heritage with their counterparts at our arms-length bodies.

The Government is committed to ensuring that communities across the UK benefit from high-quality sports facilities, removing barriers to participation and enabling as many people as possible to be active.

The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England - which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.

In March, DCMS confirmed an additional £100 million investment in new and upgraded facilities across the UK as part of our Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme. Our delivery partner for the programme in England is the Football Foundation, who plan their investment pipeline using Local Football Facility Plans (LFFPs), which are developed in partnership with local authorities so as to understand the needs of each community. These plans are being updated to better reflect current demand.

Future funding is subject to the ongoing Spending Review process, with further details to follow in due course.

In the South Northamptonshire constituency, Arts Council England has provided over £600,000 of funding between 2021-2025.

This includes 11 awards across combined arts, music and theatre, totalling more than £290,000. “The Play’s The Thing” Theatre Company received £39,366 for their biennial ‘Taking the Stage’ symposium, celebrating the role of women in the performing arts.

Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice has also supported four individual artists with a total of £47,113 across theatre and visual arts. ItsCreative People and Places funding stream has awarded £321,703 per annum to ‘Made with Many’ for 2022-25 – to produce events and activities that put the community at the heart of commissioning artists and producing new and exciting events, through conversations with local people and community decision-making panels.

Since 1994, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded more than £18.2m to 95 projects in South Northamptonshire. Examples of organisations and projects they have supported include £11.6m in support of Silverstone Heritage and a grant of £233,800 supporting much needed repairs to the roof of the Grade I listed All Saints' Church, Middleton Cheney.

Since 2020, Historic England provided £56,000 towards re-roofing the Brewhouse at Sulgrave Manor. They also provided financial support for the Peterborough Diocese Places of Worship Support Officer for 10 years up to 2024 and £4,000 for Weedon Lois Castle site.

The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme provide grants towards VAT paid on repairs and maintenance to the nation's listed places of worship. Since August 2022, a total of £228,640.15 has been awarded to 33 Listed Places of Worship in the South Northamptonshire constituency area.

This year, the Secretary of State also announced a new £270 million Arts Everywhere Fund. This will include support to museums, heritage, arts and music venues across the country and is a critical step that this Government is taking to help create jobs, boost local economies, and expand access to arts, heritage and culture for communities.

The department does not hold data on the number of children absent specifically due to long COVID.

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. As set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ and ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ guidance, schools and local authorities should work together to ensure that pupils at school with medical conditions, including long COVID, should be properly supported so that they have full access to education.

Both sets of guidance are available here:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.

The department does not hold data on the number of children absent specifically due to long COVID.

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. As set out in the ‘Working together to improve school attendance’ and ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ guidance, schools and local authorities should work together to ensure that pupils at school with medical conditions, including long COVID, should be properly supported so that they have full access to education.

Both sets of guidance are available here:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance.
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3.

The department has a long-standing commitment to uphold the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant and support the education of children and young people from military families within the state-funded education system in England.

The department is supportive of the extension of the Armed Forces Covenant, and officials have liaised with the Ministry of Defence on plans to improve and extend key policies that target support for service pupils and their families.

The department spends around £600 million annually supporting the provision of free and nutritious meals to around 1.3 million infants and almost £1 billion supporting around 2.2 million of the most disadvantaged pupils. In addition to this, we have set aside over £1 billion over the multiyear spending review period to back our significant expansion of free meals support to all households on Universal Credit, taking effect from September 2026. This will benefit over half a million children.

For the 2025/26 academic year, we have allocated a meal rate of £2.61 for universal infant free school meals. As with all policies, we continue to keep free meals policy, including funding, under review to ensure that nutritious meals continue to be deliverable. Departmental officials meet regularly with the sector, including the school catering industry, and use these insights to inform our work.

Our Industrial Strategy puts skills at the heart of economic growth. This means ensuring training opportunities match growth areas like artificial intelligence (AI).

We are introducing Technical Excellence Colleges (TECs) to specialise in training skilled workforces for priority sectors, starting with Construction TECs. The number and design of TECs will reflect sectors’ needs, and further information will be published in due course. The government will introduce short courses in England, funded through the Growth and Skills Levy, in areas such as digital, AI and engineering.

The Technology Adoption Review (June 2025) considered barriers to adoption of transformative technologies across the Industrial Strategy’s priority sectors. The AI Opportunities Action Plan (January 2025) considered barriers for AI take-up across the economy aligned with the Industrial Strategy. The government will take forward all 50 recommendations, including recommendations on AI Skills and Talent.

The Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan (June 2025) set out government’s approach to supporting AI, including via one-stop-shops to offer expert advice for businesses around technology adoption.

The Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan (June 2025) establishes actions the government is taking to integrate AI into clean energy sectors, including accepting the findings of the Technology Adoption Review.

Supply of nitrogen fertiliser to the UK is competitive and the proportion that is met by domestic production varies from year to year. As well as domestic production, the UK typically imports fertiliser products from a wide range of countries which means the supply chain has remained dynamic in sourcing product, while maintaining a good diversity of nutrient supply.

Defra is aware of the merits of having a national fertiliser recording system and will consider if it is appropriate to have one for Great Britain.

The Government remains committed to implementing the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from 1 January 2027. CBAM will apply to imported goods from the fertiliser sector, and the rate charged will reflect the final carbon price paid by domestic industries after support mechanisms (such as free allowances within the UK ETS) have been taken into account.

Therefore, it is expected that initial liabilities arising from the CBAM will be modest, and the Government does not expect CBAM to put UK farmers at a significant competitive disadvantage.

CBAM, like all taxes, will be kept under review by the Chancellor.

The Government has allocated a record £11.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. This is being targeted to a range of grants and schemes which farmers can use to support cashflow.

Defra grants include the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), with application window 1 due to open in June 2026. This reformed SFI offer will ensure more farmers can support their cash flow by accessing SFI funding.

Defra officials regularly engage with financial institutions providing farm lending and will continue to work to ensure farmers have access to finance.

Defra is assessing the impact on farmers and fertiliser suppliers of high prices, and impacts in the wider supply chain. Defra is working closely with industry and farmers to understand risks and issues, and options for action where needed.

Current fertiliser regulations are outdated and do not support the marketing of new and innovative products. The department is consulting on new regulations to strengthen future fertiliser supply, protect the environment, and diversify supply for farmers.

Through the Belém Declaration on Fertilisers, launched at COP30 last year, the Government is working internationally to reduce long‑term supply chain vulnerabilities.