We have special money for areas across the country, because every year the Arts Council has £444 million to spend. It spends a significant amount of that money in music.

Since 2020 NHS England has provided hospices with over £350 million nationally, to secure and increase National Health Service capacity and to support hospital discharge. In addition, since 2021/22, nearly £63 million has been provided to children’s hospices as part of the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Separate, further investment in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, including hospices, has also been made through the NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment to match-fund clinical commissioning groups, and subsequently integrated care boards (ICBs), totalling over £23 million.

The Government is committed to retaining the UK’s position as one of the most innovative and competitive financial centres in the world. The Chancellor recently set out an ambitious reform programme at Mansion House, building on the success of the Edinburgh Reforms, which will help to deliver the Government’s vision for a financial sector that is open, sustainable, technologically innovative, and globally competitive. Additionally, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 introduced new secondary objectives for both the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulatory Authority to facilitate the international competitiveness of the UK economy (including the financial services sector), and its growth in the medium to long term.

Financial stability is a pre-requisite for economic growth and is crucial for the competitiveness of the financial services sector. The government, working closely with the financial regulators, has made major improvements to the resilience of the banking system since the financial crisis with capital requirements for banks now three times higher. The government has also considered it a priority to build resilience in the non-bank system and has been working closely with the regulators and international bodies to achieve this.

The Bank of England also undertakes regular stress tests on the UK’s major banks to test their resilience to severe economic scenarios and for the first time will be undertaking a system wide exploratory scenario which aims to improve the understanding of how banks and non-banks behave during stress and how these behaviours might interact to amplify shocks.

Since the Dormant Asset Scheme’s inception in 2011, £982 million has been transferred to The National Lottery Community Fund to tackle financial exclusion and problem debt; break down barriers to work for young people; and invest in charities and social enterprises, particularly in more deprived areas. As of February 2024, £771 million has been apportioned to England.

Funding for the English portion is distributed through four independent organisations, to deliver the Scheme’s initiatives. These organisations draw down from their allocations annually, according to need. Up to and including the 2023/24 financial year, the Secretary of State has allocated the following sums in England:

• Youth Futures Foundation has been allocated £125 million;

• Fair4All Finance has been allocated £145 million;

• Big Society Capital has been allocated £444 million; and

• Access - The Foundation for Social Investment has been allocated £73 million.

These allocations include support for initiatives such as £15 million to expand the No Interest Loan Scheme to reach 69,000 more people and £15 million for the Building Futures Programme, supporting young people at risk of becoming not in employment, education or training.

Since the Dormant Asset Scheme’s inception in 2011, £982 million has been transferred to The National Lottery Community Fund to tackle financial exclusion and problem debt; break down barriers to work for young people; and invest in charities and social enterprises, particularly in more deprived areas. As of February 2024, £771 million has been apportioned to England.

Funding for the English portion is distributed through four independent organisations, to deliver the Scheme’s initiatives. These organisations draw down from their allocations annually, according to need. Up to and including the 2023/24 financial year, the Secretary of State has allocated the following sums in England:

• Youth Futures Foundation has been allocated £125 million;

• Fair4All Finance has been allocated £145 million;

• Big Society Capital has been allocated £444 million; and

• Access - The Foundation for Social Investment has been allocated £73 million.

These allocations include support for initiatives such as £15 million to expand the No Interest Loan Scheme to reach 69,000 more people and £15 million for the Building Futures Programme, supporting young people at risk of becoming not in employment, education or training.

Since the Government introduced the charge, it has generated over £190 million for good causes and the number of single-use plastic carrier bags used in the main supermarkets has fallen by more than 7 billion, a reduction of over 98%.

A full dataset of details for each retailer on the amount of gross proceeds, VAT, total costs and net proceeds can be found on gov.uk.

Defra publishes a summary of this data which includes the amounts of money given to good causes: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england.

There is no requirement in the legislation which requires retailers to donate proceeds from the charge to good causes. Only large retailers are required to keep a record of and report on the uses to which these proceeds have been put.

With regards to the request to provide a detail of how much money has been raised (a) in total and (b) for (i) charitable and (ii) community causes by the charge each year since 21 May 2021, this level of breakdown is not something that Defra holds.

Since the Government introduced the charge, it has generated over £190 million for good causes and the number of single-use plastic carrier bags used in the main supermarkets has fallen by more than 7 billion, a reduction of over 98%.

A full dataset of details for each retailer on the amount of gross proceeds, VAT, total costs and net proceeds can be found on gov.uk.

Defra publishes a summary of this data which includes the amounts of money given to good causes: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/carrier-bag-charge-summary-of-data-in-england.

There is no requirement in the legislation which requires retailers to donate proceeds from the charge to good causes. Only large retailers are required to keep a record of and report on the uses to which these proceeds have been put.

With regards to the request to provide the detail of which (a) charities and (b) community organisations have received funds each year since 21 May 2021, this information is not something that Defra holds.

I of course share the hon. Gentleman’s concern about the deaths of anyone on the roads, but particularly of young people. I do not recognise the characterisation he has set out. Our road safety record remains one of the best in the world. [Interruption.] Well, it does. The Department spends a great deal of resource on campaigns to get people to drive more safely, and we do that when we are engineering and delivering new roads. Safety is one of the very important things that we think about as we design and roll out new road infrastructure.

As usual, we are ahead of the Opposition. We have already invested in 21 institutes of technology, which are where a group of colleges and universities work with employers in the area. They are a great addition to the landscape, along with all the other technical qualifications and skills training that we have introduced since 2010.

I would refer to the answer already given at PQ 181920 in relation to the support provided to customers in our Jobcentres.

As part of its commitment to make services accessible to all customers, the Department provides computers for customer use in Jobcentres which have assistive technology built into them and are managed separately from the wider DWP IT estate. The Department also provides a range of peripheral items in each Jobcentre such as alternative keyboards. This provision has funding identified and ring-fenced within the current spending review period.

The DWP have also improved access to our Wi-Fi services in all Jobcentres, allowing customers to use their own personal devices if they prefer.

DWP Work Coaches undergo comprehensive learning to support customers with additional or complex needs, particularly disabilities. As part of their learning DWP provides the Work Coach with an understanding of assisted digital, and how they can effectively coach claimants who find using digital services a challenge.

As we explore possible approaches to consumer protection from April 2024, we are working with disability organisations, considering the costs for disabled people, and assessing the need for specific support for disabled people using medical equipment in the home.

I am attending the next quarterly meeting of the Disability Charities Consortium on Wednesday 24th May, and I am meeting my Hon. Friend the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work on 6th June to discuss consumer protection for people with disabilities.

The National Union of Teachers and Association of Teachers and Lecturers amalgamated in 2017 to form the National Education Union (NEU).

Departmental Ministers and officials have had extensive engagement with the NEU and the other teacher and headteacher unions on school funding. Through the primary physical education (PE) and sport premium, the Department has devoted over £2 billion of ringfenced funding to primary schools to improve PE and sport since 2013. On 8 March 2023, the Government announced over £600 million of funding across the next two academic years for the PE and Sport Premium and £22 million to fund the School Games Organiser network. The Department is aware of the importance for schools to have this timely confirmation of funding, which will allow them to effectively plan and implement high quality PE and school sport for pupils.

BlueLight Commercial works with the National Police Chief’s Council and the Forensics Capability Network to manages forensic science contracts and other commercial functions in England and Wales.

The Home Office is providing funding to BlueLight Commercial and the Forensic Capability Network in 2022/23, and we fully support them in their role.

Forensic science is critically important, as the hon. Gentleman says. The Home Office is continually discussing forensic science provision with our colleagues in the policing family to make sure there is adequate provision. We are always looking at the funding arrangements and the range of providers, so I can assure him that this topic is the subject of continual scrutiny.

The December 2021 UK Food Security Report examined past, current, and predicted trends relevant to food security, with chapters on UK Food Supply and Food Security at Household Level. This report serves as an evidence base for future policy work, and the Government is committing to producing such an assessment at least once every three years.

We know that rising food prices are a big contributor to the high levels of inflation that people are currently experiencing. However, we have seen a slight fall in the official food price inflation figures for January and we will watch to see if this is the start of a sustained fall in food price inflation.

Given the impact of high food prices, tackling inflation is this government’s number one priority, with a plan to more than halve inflation this year, and we’re monitoring all key agricultural commodities so that we can work with the food industry to address the challenges they face.

Low-income households are the most affected by high food and energy prices. This is why we have provided a package of support to help people with the rising cost of food. This includes £37 billion the government has committed to support households with the cost of living. £1 billion of this has gone towards help with the cost of household essentials.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

Defra has well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains. We speak regularly with food industry figures, who remain confident in the food supply chain.

We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments.

NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population. Many of these functions will transfer to integrated care boards (ICBs) from April 2023.

We have assessed the merits of ringfencing National Health Service dental funding provisions. NHS England has provided guidance for ICBs that requires dental funding to be ringfenced, with any unused resources re-directed to improve NHS dental access in the first instance. A schedule setting out the dental ringfence has been issued to ICBs. NHS England’s 2023/24 revenue finance and contracting guidance, which provides more detail, is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/2023-24-revenue-finance-and-contracting-guidance/

As a Tory, you think about resigning most of the time—over the years. I am interested in trying to deliver for the men and women of our armed forces. I went into politics because the men and women of the armed forces needed and deserved better, and I am determined to try to stick that through. But I am also worried about the direction of threat for this country and for the world: not only what we have seen in China, as I think has been quoted—equipping for war, as they announced last week—but we have seen 83.4% enriched uranium being discovered, as the International Energy Agency has published in its report. That is weeks away from 90%, weapons-grade, should that be a decision. I have seen a growing problem with Russia and its violent extremism spreading across Africa. The threat is going up across the world, and we are more anxious and more unstable. I think that means long-term investment from whoever the Governments are over the next 10 to 15 years.

Since 2019, the Home Office has provided the Transforming Forensics Programme with the following funding in each year since Financial Year 2019/20:

The Transforming Forensics Programme supports the modernisation of forensic services through the development of new services, tools and applications.

Since its inception, achievements have included setting up the Forensics Capability Network which supports forensics practitioners nationally, supporting the government response to the Rape Review by rolling out specialist digital forensics equipment to 24 forces, and developing an end-to-end digitised fingerprinting app which is available to forces for adoption.

The programme will close at the end of this financial year, having transitioned its ongoing activities into the Police Digital Service.

The department recognises that it is crucial to the success of an adoption placement that the adopter has time to care for and bond with their child.

Self-employed adoptive parents may be supported in a range of ways by local authorities, including through financial support where applicable, as set out in the statutory guidance on adoption. This states that local authorities should consider making a payment, equivalent to Maternity Allowance, in cases where adopters do not qualify for any statutory payment because of their self-employment. This payment is discretionary and is means-tested to ensure that resources are targeted at those adopters who need it most, as part of a package of post-adoption support.