Written questions by Wilkinson.

Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with the creative industries on joining Creative Europe.

The UK is not part of Creative Europe, and has not been since the UK left the European Union. This government has not proposed any plans to rejoin Creative Europe, though we are committed to finding constructive ways to work with the EU and deliver for the British people on shared priorities and global challenges. We recognise the UK’s creative and cultural sectors provide a unique and valuable contribution to Europe’s diverse cultural landscape. We are working with our world-leading sectors to ensure that they can continue to promote growth and enrich lives, at home and abroad, including through initiatives such as the £7 million UK Global Screen Fund, and the £1.6 million Music Export Growth Scheme.

Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the UK's departure from Creative Europe on its creative industries.

The UK is not part of Creative Europe, and has not been since the UK left the European Union. This government has not proposed any plans to rejoin Creative Europe, though we are committed to finding constructive ways to work with the EU and deliver for the British people on shared priorities and global challenges. We recognise the UK’s creative and cultural sectors provide a unique and valuable contribution to Europe’s diverse cultural landscape. We are working with our world-leading sectors to ensure that they can continue to promote growth and enrich lives, at home and abroad, including through initiatives such as the £7 million UK Global Screen Fund, and the £1.6 million Music Export Growth Scheme.

Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of joining Creative Europe.

The UK is not part of Creative Europe, and has not been since the UK left the European Union. This government has not proposed any plans to rejoin Creative Europe, though we are committed to finding constructive ways to work with the EU and deliver for the British people on shared priorities and global challenges. We recognise the UK’s creative and cultural sectors provide a unique and valuable contribution to Europe’s diverse cultural landscape. We are working with our world-leading sectors to ensure that they can continue to promote growth and enrich lives, at home and abroad, including through initiatives such as the £7 million UK Global Screen Fund, and the £1.6 million Music Export Growth Scheme.

Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making legal aid available to people working in creative industries to enable them to pursue technology firms suspected of breaching copyright laws through artificial intelligence.

The Government has no plans to make such an assessment. We are working to ensure that copyright and intellectual property frameworks remain robust and fit for purpose in the age of AI. We have received over 11,500 responses to our consultation, principally from creators, and are analysing those responses to shape our approach. We have been clear that AI developers must be more transparent about the content they use to train their models and that rights holders should have effective control of their works. We encourage rights holders who believe their work has been used unlawfully to seek independent legal advice and we continue to assess how best we might support the creative sector to harness the opportunities this technology provides.

What discussions she has had with herFrench counterparts on reducing the time taken to check passports at Paris Gare Du Nord station.

Border Force work closely with partners to minimise passenger wait times and deploy officers flexibly and when required to meet demand and support passengers. We have introduced ePassport Gates to Paris Gare Du Nord station in two waves, the last being timed to ensure that we had maximum gate coverage within the allotted space provided to us by SNCF prior to the Paris Olympics. Since eGate deployment, we have lowered the age of people able to use eGates and increased the number of nationalities that are also able to use them. We have also installed new front desk technology that is quicker and more robust than its predecessor. We are also prioritising the deployment of new eGates to Paris and other parts of the rail network when they become available which will help streamline increased passenger fluidity during peak times. Border Force enjoys a strong operational relationship with Eurostar which has allowed us to successfully plan and deploy our resources at peak times – evidenced by the successful recent operational deliveries of both the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024 and the Easter bank holiday period in 2025 that was equally as challenging from a passenger flow perspective.

What discussions she has had with her French counterpart on the impact of restricted passport checking facilities at Paris Gare Du Nord station on Eurostar passengers.

The Government recognises the importance of smooth passenger flows at Paris Gare du Nord, given this is a key terminal for cross-Channel passenger services. Eurostar and SNCF Gare Connexions, the station operator, are delivering a project to expand the number of border control points and eGates within the current terminal footprint, which will increase border capacity. There are also longer-term plans to significantly expand the cross-Channel terminal in the station to accommodate expected growth in passenger numbers. My officials regularly engage with key European and industry partners, including Eurostar and the French authorities, including holding recent discussions to understand long-term expansion plans for the station.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the discount offered by the disabled persons railcard.

The Disabled Persons Railcard provides a third off rail travel for the traveller plus an adult companion. This discount is in line with other railcards. The current criteria for the Disabled Persons Railcard has been in place for some time, however, in the years since these criteria were established, our understanding of disability has improved. The Department is considering how the Disabled Persons Railcard could better meet its objectives with any changes made requiring balancing against the potential impacts on passengers, taxpayers and the railway.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential role of the cyber security industry in Cheltenham in growing the UK defence industry.

This Government is committed to bringing forward a Defence Industrial Strategy which ensures the imperatives of national security and a high-growth economy are aligned. Defence is not just a cornerstone of national security, it’s also a powerful engine to drive economic growth - this Government’s number one mission. The new Defence Industrial Strategy will unlock the potential of every region and nation across the UK. We are working collaboratively with colleagues across Government to maximise the linkages between the Ministry of Defence and other Departments. We will set out our plans for strengthening the UK defence sector in the Defence Industrial Strategy later this year.

Media and Sport, if she will make it his policy to consult on any changes to (a) actors' and (b) performers' employment rights within the cultural sector.

We are committed to giving British creators increased security at work, and providing the creative industries with a regulatory and fiscal environment where imagination and innovation can flourish. To support this aim, DCMS is working closely with the sector to understand the implications of the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay on the Creative Industries. The Plan to Make Work Pay will represent the biggest upgrade in employment rights in a generation, bringing the UK back into line internationally. It tackles poor working conditions and job security, and by making work more flexible and more family-friendly, will support our wider programme across employment, health and skills policy to get Britain working. This includes a commitment to consult on a simpler, two-part framework for employment status. Some reforms in The Plan to Make Work Pay will take longer to undertake and implement, and we see this consultation as a longer-term goal.

How colleges can apply to the Technical Excellence College scheme.

At the Spring Statement 2025, this government committed £100 million to establish ten new Technical Excellence Colleges specialised in construction across every region in England and to further build capacity to boost the provision of skills in construction. Boosting skills in construction is a crucial part of delivering on this government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes in England this Parliament and progress vital infrastructure projects. The department will set out further details on Technical Excellence Colleges in due course.

When the application process will open for the Technical Excellence College scheme.

At the Spring Statement 2025, this government committed £100 million to establish ten new Technical Excellence Colleges specialised in construction across every region in England and to further build capacity to boost the provision of skills in construction. Boosting skills in construction is a crucial part of delivering on this government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes in England this Parliament and progress vital infrastructure projects. The department will set out further details on Technical Excellence Colleges in due course.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of legally recognising humanist wedding ceremonies.

The Government is aware that humanists have long been campaigning to conduct legally binding weddings. We are grateful for the contributions that humanists make to our society.The Law Commission’s 2022 report on weddings raises a number of issues around weddings law. Given marriage will always be one of our most important institutions, it is right that as a new Government we take the time to carefully consider this report before we set out our position in the coming months.

What assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the framework governing private clinics offering ADHD diagnoses.

The Department has not made these assessments. Medical practitioners must demonstrate that they work in line with the principles and values set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) Good Medical Practice. This applies to all doctors, whether they work in the National Health Service, the independent sector, or undertake private work. The GMC is the regulator of all medical doctors, anaesthesia associates, and physician associates practising in the United Kingdom, and is directly accountable to Parliament.Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent public body that provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. The guideline for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) aims to improve recognition and diagnosis, as well as the quality of care and support for people with ADHD. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences, and values of their patients or the people using their service. The NICE guideline recommends that an ADHD diagnosis should only be made by a licenced specialist psychiatrist, paediatrician, or other healthcare professional with specialist training in ADHD diagnosis. We expect integrated care boards and private providers to take the NICE’s guidelines fully into account when commissioning and providing services on behalf of the NHS.Independent providers who offer diagnosis and treatment of ADHD are currently in scope of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and are therefore regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). However, independent providers who only offer diagnosis of ADHD, without any form of treatment, are not within scope of CQC registration, as the regulations currently stand. Further information on the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 is available at the following link:https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111117613/schedule/1

Media and Sport, what advice her Department provides to creative industries considering the use of legal recourse when artificial intelligence has been used in breach of copyright.

It would be inappropriate for the Government to provide direct legal advice to individual creators or organisations, but we fully recognise the serious and evolving challenges posed by the use of copyrighted material in AI development. The current UK Copyright Framework enables creative rights holders to prevent the unauthorised use of protected works, but this can be very difficult to implement in the context of AI, especially for individual firms and creators. We encourage rights holders who believe their work has been used unlawfully to seek independent legal advice. More broadly, the Government is working to ensure that copyright and intellectual property frameworks remain robust and fit for purpose in the age of AI. We have received over 11,500 responses to our consultation, principally from creators. It is only right that we take the time to read and understand those responses and use them to shape our approach. We have been clear that AI developers must be more transparent about the content they use to train their models and that rights holders should have effective control of their works. Addressing this is an urgent priority for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, but no decisions will be taken until we are absolutely confident we have a practical plan that delivers for the creative industries.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department has taken to assess the impact of the proposed streamlining of workers definitions on the creative industries.

We are committed to giving British creators increased security at work, and providing the creative industries with a regulatory and fiscal environment where imagination and innovation can flourish. To support this aim, DCMS is working closely with the sector to understand the implications of the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay on the Creative Industries. The Plan to Make Work Pay will represent the biggest upgrade in employment rights in a generation, bringing the UK back into line internationally. It tackles poor working conditions and job security, and by making work more flexible and more family-friendly, will support our wider programme across employment, health and skills policy to get Britain working. This includes a commitment to consult on a simpler, two-part framework for employment status. Some reforms in The Plan to Make Work Pay will take longer to undertake and implement, and we see this consultation as a longer-term goal.

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of ADHD diagnoses made by private sector specialist clinics.

The Department has not made these assessments. Medical practitioners must demonstrate that they work in line with the principles and values set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) Good Medical Practice. This applies to all doctors, whether they work in the National Health Service, the independent sector, or undertake private work. The GMC is the regulator of all medical doctors, anaesthesia associates, and physician associates practising in the United Kingdom, and is directly accountable to Parliament.Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent public body that provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. The guideline for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) aims to improve recognition and diagnosis, as well as the quality of care and support for people with ADHD. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences, and values of their patients or the people using their service. The NICE guideline recommends that an ADHD diagnosis should only be made by a licenced specialist psychiatrist, paediatrician, or other healthcare professional with specialist training in ADHD diagnosis. We expect integrated care boards and private providers to take the NICE’s guidelines fully into account when commissioning and providing services on behalf of the NHS.Independent providers who offer diagnosis and treatment of ADHD are currently in scope of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and are therefore regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). However, independent providers who only offer diagnosis of ADHD, without any form of treatment, are not within scope of CQC registration, as the regulations currently stand. Further information on the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 is available at the following link:https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111117613/schedule/1

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that cyber tech businesses in Cheltenham are able to access funding through new defence innovation organisation.

UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) will equip Britain’s Armed Forces with cutting-edge tech faster. It will support the growth of high-tech businesses across the UK – including in Cheltenham, capitalising on new ideas, supporting them rapidly through development and exploitation. To achieve these aims UKDI will be given a ringfenced budget of £400 million this year. The Spring Statement also confirmed that the Ministry of Defence will spend at least 10% of its equipment procurement budget on novel tech including dual-use technologies such as uncrewed and autonomous systems and AI-enabled capabilities. This will benefit the UKs cyber tech industry. UKDI will be closely linked to the DE&S and DASA teams which have recently been involved in rapid procurement activities and currently give businesses across the UK access to funding. UKDI will be operational by July 2025 and work is ongoing to confirm the detailed design of the organisation.

What steps her Department is taking to support secondary schools with increases in SEND costs.

Through the national funding formula in the 2025/26 financial year, secondary schools are being allocated over £4 billion through formula factors that act as a proxy for their pupils’ special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and other additional needs. In addition, high needs funding will total over £12 billion this financial year, a proportion of which local authorities will use for supporting secondary schools with their pupils who have more complex SEND. Of the total high needs funding, Gloucestershire County Council is being allocated over £105 million through the high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant.In the high needs funding system, it is the top-up funding allocated to schools by the local authority which is intended to reflect the cost of provision for pupils with complex SEND. Schools should therefore discuss with their local authority the funding that they believe is necessary to make the provision that has been commissioned, taking into account expected levels of inflation and particular costs such as for energy and staff pay, as well as any reprioritisation within their budget that schools can achieve to ensure best value from their overall resources.

What steps her Department is taking to increase levels of recruitment and retention of teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor to a child’s educational outcomes. Recruiting and retaining more qualified, expert teachers is critical to the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and boost the life chances for every child. This is why the department will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers, get more teachers into shortage subjects, support areas that face recruitment challenges and tackle retention issues. To deliver this pledge we are resetting the relationship with the sector to ensure teaching is once again a valued and attractive profession.The department agreed a 5.5% pay award for teachers in 2024/25, and increased the funding available for bursaries for trainee teachers to £233 million from 2025/26, to support teacher trainees with tax-free bursaries of up to £29,000 and scholarships of up to £31,000 in some shortage subjects. The department has also expanded its school teacher recruitment campaign, ‘Every Lesson Shapes a Life’, and the further education teacher recruitment campaign ‘Share your Skills’.A successful recruitment strategy starts with a strong retention strategy and we want to ensure teachers stay and thrive in this profession. In the first five years of their careers, new teachers of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing will now receive a targeted retention incentive of up to £6,000, after-tax, if working in disadvantaged schools. There are three schools in the Cheltenham constituency where teachers are eligible for targeted retention incentives.The department has also taken steps to improve teachers’ workload and wellbeing, to support retention and help re-establish teaching as an attractive profession. This includes opportunities for greater flexible working, by making key resources to support wellbeing, developed with school leaders, available to teachers.The department is also funding bespoke support provided by flexible working ambassador schools and multi-academy trusts, ensuring schools are capturing the benefits of flexible working, whilst protecting pupils’ face-to-face teacher time. Malmesbury School is the flexible working ambassador school providing local, tailored peer support for Cheltenham schools.High quality Continuing Professional Development is also key to ensuring the retention of an effective teaching workforce. The department has established teaching school hubs across the country, who play a significant role in delivering initial teacher training, the early career framework and National Professional Qualifications. Balcarras Teaching School Hub is a centre of excellence supporting teacher training and development across Cheltenham, Cotswolds and Stroud.

What changes he plans to make to rules governing SME procurement in public contracts, in the context of the Spring Statement 2025.

This Government is taking major steps to give SMEs greater access to public contracts - including the publication of the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which sets out a mission-led procurement regime focused on driving economic growth that supports Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSEs), giving them greater opportunities to win public contracts by instructing contracting authorities to maximise their spend with these organisations. To support implementation of the NPPS in central government, we have announced new rules requiring all government departments and their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs from 1 April 2025, and from 1 April 2026 for VCSEs, and publish progress annually. We will be consulting on more reforms including a requirement for large contracting authorities to publish their three-year targets for small business and social enterprise spend and report on this annually - as well as the exclusion of suppliers from contracts worth more than £5million if they don’t complete prompt payments of invoices. In the Spring Statement, the Chancellor also announced measures to reform our procurement system to give small businesses across the UK better access to Ministry of Defence contracts.