Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the lessons that they learned from allocating funding under the European Social Fund that have influenced the design of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The Government understands the importance of local growth funding to places and people and is committed to creating the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to succeed European structural funds, providing vital investment in local economies, cutting out bureaucracy and levelling up those parts of the UK whose economies are furthest behind.

The Government has engaged with key stakeholders on the design and priorities of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund since 2016, including holding a series of engagement events across the UK. As we approach the transition from European Social Fund to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, we will continue to engage with partners in order to aid policy development.

Final decisions on the design of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will need to be made through a cross-Government Spending Review, and we will set out further plans for the fund in due course.