Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps he has taken to support tourism businesses experiencing labour shortages in (a) Newport West and (b) Wales.

The government understands that the tourism sector is currently facing significant skills gaps in some of England's most popular destinations. As stated in the Tourism Recovery Plan, we recognise the importance of building back better post-Covid with a more resilient tourism industry, employing more UK nationals in year-round quality jobs.

There is a significant amount of activity being undertaken by the government on skills which benefits the tourism industry. For example, the National Skills Fund represents a £2.5 billion investment in helping adults to gain the skills they need to improve their job prospects, while the Kickstart Scheme is providing funding to create hundreds of thousands of new job opportunities for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit.

We will continue to work closely with the industry-led Hospitality and Tourism Skills Board on a coordinated approach towards recruitment, retention and upskilling of the workforce.