Shivani Raja

The AI Labelling Taskforce will gather evidence and consider best practice for the labelling of AI-generated content online. We are working at pace to establish the Taskforce – including appointing a chair and membership. We expect the Taskforce to be operational by the end of the year, ahead of publishing its final recommendations to Government next year.

The government recognises that parents and carers need clear support to feel confident helping children stay safe online. The ‘You Won’t Know Until You Ask’ campaign and Kids Online Safety Hub provide practical tools to build children’s resilience to misinformation and critical thinking skills. The Hub offers trusted guidance and resources to help parents and carers discuss harmful or misleading content. We are also introducing a ban on social media services being offered to under-16s.

The government recognises that parents and carers need clear support to feel confident helping children stay safe online. The ‘You Won’t Know Until You Ask’ campaign and Kids Online Safety Hub provide practical tools to build children’s resilience to misinformation and critical thinking skills. The Hub offers trusted guidance and resources to help parents and carers discuss harmful or misleading content. We are also introducing a ban on social media services being offered to under-16s.

On 8 September the Secretary of State made an Oral Statement confirming that the Government will introduce primary legislation, if necessary, to require major technology companies to build in stronger device-level protections for children. The Secretary of State made clear that any legislation introduced must be capable of being effectively enforced. The Government is considering the detail of those enforcement arrangements as legislative proposals are developed.

The Secretary of State made an Oral Statement on 8 September following the Government’s engagement with technology companies to strengthen device-level protections for children and made clear that further action is needed. The Statement confirmed that Government will introduce primary legislation, if necessary, to require major technology companies to build in stronger device-level protections for children, alongside exploring legislation to ensure apps used by children take steps to prevent access to or sharing of nudity.

Under current rules the House Authorities would object to an attempt to register a company or charity using a title which associates it with Parliament. There are no clear routes to objecting to names which have been registered under the previous rules, such as in the case of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is responsible for monitoring and enforcing the application of the UK’s data protection legislation, independently of government.

Personal data processed in the course of a purely personal, private or domestic activity, with no connection to a professional or commercial activity, is outside the scope of the UK’s data protection legislation – regardless of the technology being used.

We are in regular discussions with social media companies about their obligations under the Online Safety Act and the UK GDPR and expect them to take these obligations seriously. We recently strengthened the Online Safety Act to require platforms to remove reported non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid report. This would include any relevant intimate images captured by smart glasses.

The Youth Investment Fund (YIF) awarded over £300 million to over 250 projects to build, renovate and expand youth provision across some of the less advantaged areas across England. It is projected to support an additional 45,000 young people to regularly attend activities in funded facilities. Applications for the Youth Investment Fund closed in June 2023 with the majority of facilities completed by March 2026.

On 10 July, DCMS launched the delivery partner competition for the Youth Matters Fund. The Youth Matters Fund will provide over £400 million to enable youth organisations across the country to deliver high-quality youth work and activities as well as refurbish or build up to 250 youth facilities. Further details will be available in due course.

In December 2025, DCMS published Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy, a 10-year cross-government plan backed by over £500 million of DCMS funding over three years to improve opportunities for young people, including establishing or refurbishing up to 250 youth spaces.

Local Authorities have a statutory duty under Section 507B of the Education Act 1996 to secure sufficient youth services and activities based on local need. The National Youth Strategy committed to improve local youth offers so young people have access to more opportunities in their area. To achieve this, DCMS is funding local authorities to deliver the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme to improve local youth services and establish a network of 50 Young Futures Hubs by March 2029.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport clubs through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery Funding. This investment includes over 90 Place Partnerships in various locations across the country with high deprivation and low activity levels.

For holiday activities, the Department for Education funds the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme to support children from low-income families by providing access to nutritious meals, enriching activities and safe places during school holidays. Over £600 million has been confirmed for the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme over the next three financial years from 2026/27.

The Department works closely with Sport England to target grassroots investment toward high-need areas experiencing elevated youth violence. Through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme supported with £400 million of funding over the next four years, we are expanding peak evening and weekend capacity by funding floodlights and durable all-weather pitches that offer up to 80 hours of weekly use, alongside targeted partnerships with local Violence Reduction Units. To ensure funding accounts for operational realities, DCMS guides non-departmental public bodies like Sport England to allow outreach providers to include secondary costs, such as indoor venue hire, within grant applications, while enforcing Community Use Agreements to guarantee subsidised or free access for high-priority youth programmes.

The Department works closely with Sport England to target grassroots investment toward high-need areas experiencing elevated youth violence. Through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme supported with £400 million of funding over the next four years, we are expanding peak evening and weekend capacity by funding floodlights and durable all-weather pitches that offer up to 80 hours of weekly use, alongside targeted partnerships with local Violence Reduction Units. To ensure funding accounts for operational realities, DCMS guides non-departmental public bodies like Sport England to allow outreach providers to include secondary costs, such as indoor venue hire, within grant applications, while enforcing Community Use Agreements to guarantee subsidised or free access for high-priority youth programmes.

The Government is determined to ensure that everyone has access to affordable quality sport and physical activity opportunities. That's why we’ve invested £3 million into new all-weather, covered cricket domes this year which ensure accessible sport year-round, building on the £1.5m investment into covered cricket domes made last year. New and refurbished facilities give families low-cost options to stay active, helping when many are facing cost-of-living pressures. The wider sports sector helps to drive good growth in every postcode, something I saw when I visited Loughborough University’s Women in Sport Research and Innovation Hub last year.

Between 2022 and 2029, we are supporting grassroots participation with a £13.4m investment via Sport England and the England & Wales Cricket Board. Earlier this year, the ECB also launched their Building Belonging in Cricket Fund - a £45m investment to improve grassroots cricket facilities and help enable year-round play through the construction of all-weather cricket domes, indoor halls, multi-use games areas and community hubs. The ECB is working with Regional Cricket Boards, including Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Foundation, to identify potential projects.

In order to increase availability and accessibility to the local community, Sport England factors in a site's Community Use Agreement, and their capacity to offer free/low cost bookings when determining whether individual projects should receive funding.

We are collaborating with the sports sector, including the ECB, and local leaders to develop investment plans for a range of sports across the country based on what each community needs.

The Government is determined to ensure that everyone has access to affordable quality sport and physical activity opportunities. That's why we’ve invested £3 million into new all-weather, covered cricket domes this year which ensure accessible sport year-round, building on the £1.5m investment into covered cricket domes made last year. New and refurbished facilities give families low-cost options to stay active, helping when many are facing cost-of-living pressures. The wider sports sector helps to drive good growth in every postcode, something I saw when I visited Loughborough University’s Women in Sport Research and Innovation Hub last year.

Between 2022 and 2029, we are supporting grassroots participation with a £13.4m investment via Sport England and the England & Wales Cricket Board. Earlier this year, the ECB also launched their Building Belonging in Cricket Fund - a £45m investment to improve grassroots cricket facilities and help enable year-round play through the construction of all-weather cricket domes, indoor halls, multi-use games areas and community hubs. The ECB is working with Regional Cricket Boards, including Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Foundation, to identify potential projects.

In order to increase availability and accessibility to the local community, Sport England factors in a site's Community Use Agreement, and their capacity to offer free/low cost bookings when determining whether individual projects should receive funding.

We are collaborating with the sports sector, including the ECB, and local leaders to develop investment plans for a range of sports across the country based on what each community needs.

We are absolutely committed to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to participate in sport and physical activity, and recognise the crucial role school facilities play in delivering this.

As part of this Government's commitment to school sport, we have announced nearly £200 million to improve school sport and PE infrastructure. We are working with Sport England to ensure the funding tackles inequalities in access to sport and physical activity.

In addition, the new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network, announced in June 2025, will better connect schools with National Governing Bodies, local clubs and other providers. The model will build on learning from current and previous initiatives, such as Opening School Facilities, and support schools to make more effective and strategic use of their assets, including facilities.

The Department works closely with Sport England to target grassroots investment toward high-need areas, which includes areas experiencing elevated youth violence. Through the Community Sports Facilities Programme, which is investing £400 million of funding through to 2030, we are expanding peak evening and weekend capacity by funding floodlights and durable all-weather pitches that offer up to 80 hours of weekly use.

In addition, Sport England have partnered with StreetGames to produce a Theory of Change document focused on Sport, Youth Offending and Serious Youth Violence. The document sets out clearly how sport can reduce risk factors linked to youth offending while strengthening protective factors that keep young people safe. That theory underpinned the Ministry of Justice’s £5m Youth Justice Sport Fund, which now informs more than a dozen place-based partnerships with Active Partnerships, Police and Crime Commissioners and Violence Reduction Units.

The Department also funds the Million Hours Fund, in partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund, which provides youth organisations with funding to deliver additional hours of positive activities for young people in areas with higher levels of anti-social behaviour. The latest phase of the Fund, which runs until March 2027, awarded £18 million to 292 organisations, including grassroot sports programmes.

DCMS is also funding the Young Futures Hubs and Transformation Programme to improve local youth services and establish a network of 50 Young Futures Hubs by March 2029. Each Young Futures Hub will meet three outcomes of increasing opportunities, improving mental health and wellbeing, and reducing crime.

This Government is committed to addressing the challenges young men face online and the development of radicalised misogynistic networks. The Online Safety Act requires platforms to take responsibility for the safety of their users by tackling illegal content and protect children from harmful content including misogynistic content. The Government has built on the OSA and gone further in announcing its intention to restrict social media companies from providing services to under-16s.

The Government has also launched its "You Won't Know Until You Ask" campaign to help parents and carers support children in developing critical thinking skills online and resilience to misleading, polarising or harmful content.

The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. The delays and unacceptable standard of communication facing scheme members and parliamentary offices are entirely unsupportable. This Government has taken robust action to enforce contractual accountability and rectify service delivery.

While Capita committed to a complete return to standard contractual service levels by the end of June 2026, they have failed to meet this critical milestone. In response, the Government has withheld £9.9 million in contract payments for undelivered milestones and is recovering all public sector surge team costs directly from Capita. To enforce strict compliance, independent auditors are conducting a comprehensive technical systems review, and an on-the-ground Remedial Adviser has been appointed at Capita’s expense. The contract includes an enhanced penalty architecture featuring automatic financial deductions linked directly to missed service metrics, including correspondence wait times.

To directly address the backlog of unacknowledged correspondence, a dedicated 140-person government support team was deployed to stabilise operations, successfully clearing the 15,000 inherited unread emails. These resources will remain in place while the Government conducts an intensive assessment of Capita's operational data post-June to ensure long-term stability. To safeguard urgent casework from parliamentary offices, the Cabinet Office has instituted dedicated, daily virtual surgeries for Members of Parliament and their staff to provide direct intervention and updates on priority cases.

The Cabinet Office is committed to delivering value for money to the public. There is no additional or marginal cost of issuing a nationwide Emergency Alert; the most recent activation of the Emergency Alert capability on 14 August was issued at no cost to the taxpayer.

The government contracts with Mobile Network Operators to enable provision of the capability 24/7 nationwide, allowing for individual Alerts to be broadcast at no cost.

The Emergency Alerts system remains ready for activation at short notice around the clock, in response to a range of emergencies.

New model Gender Reassignment guidance has been issued to Civil Service departments for them to use as a template for their own departmental guidance. Internal HR policies and guidance are not published externally.

The Cabinet Office also believes disclosure of the model Policy and Guidance: Supporting Trans and Non-binary Employees would also contravene Section 36(2)(b)(i), (ii), and (c) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The planning and activation of the Emergency Alert capability on 14 August was issued at no cost to the taxpayer.

Young people have consistently expressed a strong desire for more education on climate change, so they are prepared for life and work in a changing world. Teachers have also highlighted previously that limited depth on environmental topics in the national curriculum has made it difficult to develop effective provision in this area.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended earlier sequencing and updated environmental content within the subjects of citizenship, geography, science, and design and technology. The Secretary of State is considering the recommendations of the Review, and we expect there will be a public consultation on the proposals for the curriculum and assessment system in due course.

The department takes periods of hot weather and heatwaves seriously and has published a climate risk assessment and continues to support Responsible Bodies and schools to provide education in a safe environment. The department has published guidance on hot weather available via the Education Hub on www.gov.uk.

In addition to the recent guidance published by the Department for Education, on Friday 14 August, millions of people were sent wildfire emergency phone alerts warning against any activity that could start a fire. The Emergency Alerts system is used to amplify and complement other methods of warning and informing the public in emergency situations. In this case, we took the decision to use the system after a direct request from fire and rescue services on the front line of the fight against wildfires.

The Government furthermore released a press notice reminding the public not to light fires and to take litter home, and took action to implement a temporary ban on disposable barbecues. Various public information campaigns from the Fire and Rescue Services (national and local) include fire safety advice for the public.

It is long established that effective policy development relies on the ability of ministers and their officials to exchange views and provide free and frank advice on the options available. Disclosing the requested information is likely to have a detrimental effect on the quality of the advice and the way it would be given, which would not be in the public interest.

The MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Chris Ward, acted as the qualified person and gave his opinion on 24 June 2026, during his time as Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office.

The Cabinet Office fully accounted for the status of the requested information when making the public interest assessment under section 2(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. While the central model policy templates are finalised, broader rollout of departmental guidance is at active consultation and implementation phase.

In line with the Ministerial Code, Ministers should be as open as possible with Parliament, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest which should be decided in accordance with the relevant statutes and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Departments are undertaking consultation with relevant stakeholders to revise their own policies.

New model Gender Reassignment guidance has been issued to Civil Service departments for them to use as a template for their own departmental guidance. Internal HR policies and guidance are not published externally.

In common with the Department of Transport, the Cabinet Office has not issued formal guidance regarding the provision of official cars outside the Government Car Service (GCS).

At any point in time, there is likely to be a small number of individuals who have been displaced due to restructures within their business units or, for example, have returned from a loan from another department and their role no longer exists. The exact number changes on a day-to-day basis.

Each department is responsible for specifying its own contract requirements, so the meaning of “Bed Space Size” and “Bed space" may vary based on the criteria established by each department.

The Government is committed to helping small and medium-sized enterprises in Leicestershire and across the UK scale up and expand internationally. The Department has brought together business and export support through the Business Growth Service (BGS), providing tailored market advice, free Business Academy training and support from our international network to help businesses navigate global markets and seize opportunities.

Leicestershire businesses can access BGS support and free, impartial advice through Business Gateway, their local Growth Hub, at every stage of their business journey.