Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of Baroness Hodge’s independent review of Arts Council England; and whether she will implement the recommendations.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government’s full response to Baroness Hodge’s independent review of Arts Council England was published on 26 March and deposited in the House Library.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that touring in Europe is viable for UK artists.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We have reset our relationship with the European Union and are determined to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU and help our touring artists. This is in full recognition of the challenges that creative and cultural professionals, and their support staff, face when touring in Europe.
On 19 May 2025, the first ever Summit between the UK and EU was held. At the Summit, the UK and European Commission recognised the value of cultural exchange, including the activities of touring artists.
We continue to engage with the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament and the sector, both in the UK and across Europe, with a view to addressing the challenges that touring artists and their support staff face. This is mutually beneficial - it will help our artists to contribute to Europe’s rich cultural landscape and support shared growth.
We are also working with the EU and Member States to promote wider cultural exchange to further the UK-EU strategic partnership.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment has she made of the effectiveness of the Arts Council England’s Incentivising Touring scheme.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government welcomes the continued success of this fund, which expands domestic touring into new areas. This investment will enrich our cultural landscape and boost local economies by bringing popular productions to communities nationwide, allowing more people to enjoy the arts locally.
The second round of this pilot makes £2.9 million available to enable more mid-to-large-scale theatre and dance productions to tour. The funding aims at giving venues and producers the capacity to create, tour, and programme a wider range of work, providing audiences with more opportunities to see a greater range of quality dance and theatre productions at scale.
It’s great to see such excellent productions as Dear England, Fiddler on the Roof and Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of) being enjoyed across the country in part thanks to this fund.
Arts Council England has commissioned AMION Consulting to undertake a process evaluation and an assessment of the impact of the scheme across the pilot rounds, including an assessment of the economic and social impact of the programme.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the rates of teacher retention in further education.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Having sufficient and skilled further education (FE) teachers is key to deliver on the government’s skills missions and help learners achieve good outcomes. The department continues to assess retention in the FE workforce based on available data and sector engagement.
The most recent published figures indicate that for FE teachers starting in 2016, 51% were still in post by 2019. For those starting in 2014, 39% were still in post by 2019. The department also collects workforce data through the annual Further Education Workforce Data Collection.
To improve retention, the department is delivering several programmes, including the targeted retention incentive for teachers in priority shortage subjects, reforms to initial teacher education and a strengthened professional development pathway with additional support for special educational needs and disabilities training.
We will also continue to work closely with the sector, including through the Improving Education Together group, to understand drivers of retention and support meaningful improvement in teacher experience.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what number of settlement visas have been issued in total for Gurkha veterans who retired prior to 1 July 1997.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure funding disbursed by Arts Council England is fairly distributed across the country.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government’s full response to Baroness Hodge’s independent review of Arts Council England was published on 26 March and deposited in the House Library.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to promote teaching as a career path for young people and current teachers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Since July 2024, this government has taken targeted action to boost teacher supply. This work started with our reset of the relationship with the sector, to re-establish teaching as an attractive profession, making it one that existing teachers want to remain in, former teachers want to return to, and new graduates wish to join. We have published our delivery plan for 6,500 new expert teachers, focusing delivery across three key themes:
We are offering recruitment incentives in the subjects where they are needed most, with significant investment in tax-free teacher training bursaries and scholarships of up to £31,000 for school and college teachers.
We have recognised the importance of teachers with a pay rise for school teachers and leaders of nearly 10% since this government took power.
Our approach is already starting to pay-off, with the secondary and special school workforce growing by 2,346 teachers between 2023/24 and 2024/25.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration her Department has given to paying national non-domestic rates on behalf of early years education settings.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
It is our ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.
The small business rate relief scheme provides up to 100% relief for eligible businesses occupying one property with a rateable value of £12,000 or below and reduces bills up to £15,000. Furthermore, if a nursery is a charity, charitable rate relief provides 80% off rates bills, which can be topped up to 100% by the local authority.
The government funds local authorities to deliver the early years entitlements through the early years national funding formula for the three and four-year-old entitlement and a separate formula for the two-year-old and below entitlement. The hourly funding rate paid to local authorities for these entitlements is designed to recognise the average costs across different provider types and is intended to reflect staff and non-staff costs, including business rates. The national average three and four-year-old hourly funding rate of local authorities is increasing by 4.1%, the two-year-old hourly funding rate is increasing by 3.3%, and the nine months to two-year-old hourly funding rate is increasing by 3.4%.
There are no current plans to extend the centralised payment system to private, voluntary, or independent early years settings or to make these settings exempt.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of clinical trials running in the UK for people with brain cancer; and whether he has any specific targets on this to reduce the number of patients who travel overseas for treatment.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to turbocharging clinical research and delivering better patient care, to make the United Kingdom a world-leading destination for clinical research. We are working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes, and accelerate the development of medicines and therapies of the future, including treatments for brain cancers.
The Department is supporting the delivery of brain cancer clinical trials through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) that funds research and research infrastructure to support patients and the public to participate in high-quality research. In January 2026, the NIHR announced total investment of over £25 million in the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium to accelerate research into new brain tumour treatments across the UK. The consortium will develop and enhance innovative clinical trials.
There are no specific targets around increasing the number of brain cancer clinical trials, although the Life Sciences Sector Plan aims to double all commercial interventional trial participants in the UK by 2026, and double again by 2029.
As set out in our National Cancer Plan, the Government will implement the Rare Cancers Act, making it easier for clinical trials on brain cancer to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the pace at which the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium is developing; and when the organisations that constitute the research consortium will have access to the funds.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests over £1.7 billion per year in research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium was announced as part of the Government’s commitment to developing new lifesaving and life-improving research, supporting those diagnosed and living with brain tumours.
In December 2025, the NIHR announced an initial £13.7 million investment in the Brain Tumour Research Consortium. In January 2026, the NIHR announced further investment of a minimum of £11.7 million in the Consortium through funding of work packages. This brings the total investment to over £25 million. Payments will be issued over the period of the award contracts which range from five to ten years, as per the schedule of payments agreed between NIHR and the consortium.
We are expecting to be able to make further updates on the progress of the NIHR Brain Cancer Consortium in due course. The NIHR is working to ensure that new investments can get up and running as soon as possible.
In addition, the NIHR continues to strongly encourages brain cancer research applications through its regular funding opportunities.