Shivani Raja

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is implementing the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act which strengthens consumer law enforcement by giving the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) new administrative powers, and the CMA and courts the ability to impose significant monetary penalties of up to 10% of turnover.

The DMCC Act also bans the buying, selling, and publishing of fake reviews, and restates existing prohibitions on misleading consumers in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (2008).

DBT also funds Citizens Advice to provide the consumer service which supports consumers to resolve disputes and assert their rights.

Our sanctions are designed to minimise impact on the UK and avoid unintended consequences. We have sought to minimise the impact on businesses through implementing appropriate exceptions, specific export licences where appropriate, and wind-down periods when some sanctions are introduced. We have also published impact assessments alongside all Russia sanctions legislation.

The Department for Business and Trade does not provide financial support in relation to sanctions. Where possible, we have sought to minimise the impact on businesses through implementing appropriate exceptions, specific export licences where appropriate, and wind-down periods when some sanctions are introduced. UK businesses can access a wealth of online export support via Great.gov.uk and one-to-one support from International Trade Advisers.

The potential impact of the proposed changes through the right to guaranteed hours, the right to advance notice of shifts and the right to payment for short notice shift cancellation, curtailment or movement are set out in the Government’s Impact Assessments. These are published at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments.

All employers must comply with their legal obligations to ensure those they engage receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled.

Entitlement to employment rights is determined by an individual’s employment status. Private hire drivers can fall under any one of the three statuses: employee, limb (b) worker, or self-employed.

We have committed to consult on moving towards a simpler two-part framework that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed.

If individuals believe they are not being afforded the rights they are entitled to, they can contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service for free and impartial advice.

The Government has kickstarted delivery of the Warm Homes Plan, including an initial £1.8 billion to support fuel poverty schemes over the next 3 years. We are also reviewing the 2021 fuel poverty strategy. Wave 3 of the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund in England to support social housing providers and tenants, alongside a new Warm Homes: Local Grant to help low-income homeowners and private tenants in England are expected to start delivery this year.

Current targeted schemes include the Energy Company Obligation, the Great British Insulation Scheme, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, and the Home Upgrade Grant. Additionally, the Warm Home Discount provides £150 off bills to over 3 million low-income households.

We are committed to working with all international counterparts to transition away from fossil fuels, in line with the UK’s domestic and international commitments including from the COP28 Global Stocktake.

Changes have been introduced to permitted development rights, enabling more solar installations to benefit from the flexibilities and planning freedoms permitted development rights offer. This includes a new permitted development right that allows for the installation of solar canopies in non-domestic, off-street, car parks.

For non-domestic rooftop solar, the 1MW cap was removed so that there is no limit on the electricity generated by solar installations.

Our Warm Homes Plan will transform homes across the country by making them cleaner and cheaper to run, from installing new insulation to rolling out low carbon heating like solar and heat pumps.

I note that the honourable member is asking us to spend more money and would be grateful if they could advise me on which other budget should be cut or tax should be commensurately increased. There is a range of funding available via DCMS and the Department’s Arm’s-Length Bodies that supports historic places of worship. These include the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme; the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who have committed to investing around £100m between 2023 and 2026 to support places of worship; the Churches Conservation Trust, which funds repairs and maintenance of over 350 churches in the CCT portfolio; and Historic England's Heritage At Risk grants, funding £9 million worth of repairs to buildings on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register between April 2024 and March 2025.

At the recent Budget, the government took a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the foundations of the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability.

DCMS Ministers have met with representatives from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector to discuss this issue and are aware of their concerns about the impacts of the increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs). The government recognises the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that more than half of businesses (including charities) with NICs liabilities will either gain or see no change next year.

We are also expanding eligibility of the Employment Allowance by removing the £100,000 eligibility threshold, to simplify and reform employer NICs so that all eligible employers now benefit. Businesses and charities will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

Within the tax system, we provide support to charities through a range of reliefs and exemptions, including reliefs for charitable giving. More than £6 billion in charitable reliefs was provided to charities, Community Amateur Sports Clubs and their donors in 2023 to 2024. The biggest individual reliefs provided are Gift Aid at £1.6 billion and business rates relief at nearly £2.4 billion.

According to Sport England’s Active Places database, there are 53,665 grass football pitches in England. This encompasses adult football, junior football 11 a-side, junior football 9 a-side, mini soccer 7 a-side and mini soccer 5 a-side pitches. Furthermore there are also 3,013 artificial full-size grass pitches and 4,419 small-sided artificial grass pitches in England.

There are 9,057 grass cricket pitches in England.

The Government is committed to supporting every aspect of women’s sport and ensuring all women and girls, no matter their background, have access to high quality sport.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport through Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding.

This includes long term investment to the England and Wales Cricket Board, the National Governing Body for cricket, which receives up to £11.6 million for five years to invest in community cricket initiatives that will benefit everyone, including disabled people, women and girls and older people. Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign has also inspired millions of women and girls to get active, including through cricket.

The Government’s new mission-led objectives puts health and children and young people at the heart of our priorities. The Government aims to provide opportunities for all children to access high-quality sport and physical activity, especially those who are less likely to be active. We must capitalise on the important role that being active can have in preventing, and helping to treat and manage, a wide range of health conditions.

The Government is acting to support more people to get active wherever they live through the delivery of £123 million UK-wide through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2024/25. Further spending decisions will be made at the Spending Review later this month.

The department has made no estimate of the number of pupils in individual local authority areas who will leave the independent school system as a result of VAT on school fees. With regard to England, the government predicts that in the long-term steady state, there will be 37,000 fewer pupils in the private sector in the UK as a result of the removal of the VAT exemption applied to school fees. This represents around 6% of the current private school population.

​​Of the expected 37,000-pupil reduction in the private sector, the government estimates an increase of 35,000 pupils in the state sector in the steady state following the VAT policy taking effect, with the other 2,000 consisting of international pupils who do not move into the UK state system, and domestic pupils moving into homeschooling. This state sector increase represents less than 0.5% of total UK state school pupils, of which there are over nine million. This movement is expected to take place over several years.

The impact on the state education system as a whole is expected to be very small. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help raise revenue to drive forward the change the government is committed to delivering for the 94% of pupils who attend state schools.

​The impact on individual local authorities will interact with other pressures and vary.

​Every year many pupils move between schools, including between the private and state-funded sectors. Local authorities routinely support parents who need a state-funded school place, including where private schools have closed. Where local authorities are experiencing difficulties in ensuring there are enough school places for children that need them, the department will offer support and advice.

​​The department provides capital funding through the basic need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools. The department has already confirmed nearly £1.5 billion of allocations to support local authorities to create school places needed over the current, and next two, academic years, up to and including the academic year starting in September 2026, including just under £9.7 million for Leicester City Council.

This government is committed to providing timely support to children and families that need help, and our mission-driven approach is critical to delivering this. In particular, through the missions to break down barriers to opportunity, and to make the NHS fit for purpose, we will focus on ambitious, measurable long-term objectives.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to learn and to prosper.

The Child Poverty Taskforce, which is co-chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, will harness all available levers to drive forward action across government to reduce child poverty. More detail on the approach and priorities for the strategy is set out in the publication ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing our Strategy’, which was published on 23 October and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.

The department is taking steps to reduce the cost of living through our action on the high cost of branded school uniforms and commitment to roll out free school breakfast clubs for primary school-aged children from April this year. The government has also extended the Household Support Fund until the end of March 2026.

To improve access to mental health services, we have committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. This support is critical to high and rising standards in schools and breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will put in place a package of support to drive high and rising standards throughout our education and care systems so that every child can achieve and thrive. It will protect children at risk of abuse, stopping vulnerable children falling through cracks in services and deliver our commitments on children’s social care to ensure that all children can thrive in safe, loving homes.

Across the department, we are already prioritising work that seeks to join up services and provide better local support for disadvantaged and vulnerable children and families to give all children the best start in life. This includes local multi-agency safeguarding partnerships, Family Hubs and targeted programmes like Supporting Families.

Family hubs provide access to vital services to improve the health, education and wellbeing of children, young people, and their families. They aim to make a positive difference to parents, carers and their children by providing a mix of physical and virtual spaces, as well as outreach, where families can easily access non-judgmental support for the challenges they may be facing. Staff at family hubs can connect families to a range of health and education services.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support to succeed in their education and develop the skills they need as they move into adult life.

The department is committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream settings, as well as ensuring specialist settings cater to those with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need. To support this, the department has created an Expert Advisory Group for Inclusion, led by Tom Rees, to advise on how to drive inclusive education practice.

Local authorities must provide to all young people aged 13 to 19, and to those between 20 and 25 with special educational needs, support it considers appropriate to encourage, enable or assist them to effectively participate in education or training. Local authorities are required to collect information about young people so that those not participating can be identified and given support to re-engage. Alongside this, there is also a guaranteed place in education and training for all 16 and 17-year-olds, expanded work experience and careers advice, action to tackle school attendance, and improved access to mental health services for young people in England. The department is working to further support all local authorities to identify and help young people at an increased risk of becoming not in education, employment or training, based on identifying risk factors such as a learning difficulty, disability or poor school attendance. This includes publishing good practice guidance and developing a new data tool for local authorities.

Through our new ‘Youth Guarantee’, this government will ensure that every young person aged 18 to 21 that needs it, is supported in accessing further learning or receives help to get a job or an apprenticeship. This guarantee will bring together and enhance provision and support for young people by offering them tailored support that will help them into further learning or fulfilling work. This will provide support for young people with SEND who may be particularly at risk of not being in education, employment or training. To respond to this challenge, this government will launch trailblazers in eight mayoral combined authorities starting from April 2025, with £45 million of funding being invested in 2025/26 to design and develop the guarantee.

Furthermore, as part of our commitment to helping children and young people with SEND to develop the skills they need as they move into adult life, the department is investing up to £18 million until March 2025 to build capacity in supported internships. The department aims to double the number of internships each year to around 4,500, to support more young people with education, health and care (EHC) plans to gain the skills to transition into employment. The department is also running a pilot in 12 local authorities to test supported internships with young people with SEND but no EHC plan who are furthest from the labour market.

For too long the education and care system has not met the needs of all children and young people, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with parents struggling to get their children the support they need and deserve.

This government’s ambition is that all children and young people with SEND receive the right support to succeed in their education and develop the skills they need as they move into adult life. We are committed to improving inclusivity and expertise in mainstream settings, as well as ensuring specialist settings cater to those with the most complex needs, restoring parents’ trust that their child will get the support they need.

Local authorities must provide to all young people aged 13 to 19, and to those between 20 and 25 with special educational needs, support it considers appropriate to encourage, enable or assist them to effectively participate in education or training. Alongside this there is also a guaranteed place in education and training for all 16 and 17 year olds, expanded work experience and careers advice, action to tackle school attendance and improved access to mental health services for young people in England.

Through our new ‘Youth Guarantee’, this government will ensure that every young person aged 18 to 21 that needs it, is supported in accessing further learning or receives help to get a job or an apprenticeship. This guarantee will bring together and enhance provision and support for young people by offering them tailored support that will help them into further learning or fulfilling work. This will provide support for young people with SEND who may be particularly at risk of not being in education, employment or training. To respond to this challenge, this government will launch trailblazers in eight mayoral combined authorities starting from April 2025, with £45 million of funding being invested in 2025/26 to design and develop the guarantee.

Furthermore, as part of our commitment to helping children and young people with SEND to develop the skills they need as they move into adult life, the department is investing up to £18 million until March 2025 to build capacity in supported internships. The department aims to double the number of internships each year to around 4,500, to support more young people with education, health and care plans to gain the skills to transition into employment.

With regards to the question about transport in Leicester, local authorities must consult with stakeholders in developing their policy statement and any proposed changes to the way post-16 transport is provided. This is to ensure that it provides a full picture of the available transport and support.

The government recognises the impact that the cost of living crisis has had on students. That is why the government is increasing the maximum maintenance loans for living costs for the 2025/26 academic year by 3.1%, in line with the forecast rate of inflation, to ensure that more support is targeted at students from the lowest income families.

The 3.1% increase is based on the Retail Prices Index inflation forecast for the first quarter of 2026, as published by the Office for Budget Responsibility at Budget. Using the corresponding consumer price inflation forecast for the first quarter of 2026 would have resulted in maintenance loans being increased by only 2.5% for the 2025/26 academic year.