Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 increase participation in creative apprenticeships in the North East.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to empowering local leaders to take decisions related to their local skills needs. As part of this, DCMS is providing £25m to the North East Strategic Authority through the Creative Places Growth Fund. This will allow areas to distribute funding according to local barriers and opportunities and maximise the impact of national interventions, including supporting regional skills initiatives like apprenticeships.
More broadly, this government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners. In the Creative Industries Sector Plan, we committed to working with industry to refine and develop this offer, to deliver apprenticeships and skills training that recognises the particular needs of the sector.
This will build on flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and new flexibilities like shorter apprenticeships, which were introduced in August. From April 2026, we will also introduce short course ‘apprenticeship units’ in areas such as digital and AI, to support Industrial Strategy sectors like the Creative Industries.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
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 increase digital skills within the video-games sector.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is making the UK the best place in the world to create video games, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy. We understand that digital skills are a key part of this.
The government is working with the creative industries to build evidence, support sector training pathways and ensure the workforce is prepared for the future of work. We will introduce short courses, in England, funded by the Growth and Skills Levy, in areas such as digital, to support Industrial Strategy sectors like the Creative Industries from April 2026. We have also committed to a new £187 million “TechFirst” programme to bring digital skills and AI learning into classrooms and communities and train up people of all ages and backgrounds for the tech careers of the future.
As set out in the Creative Industries Sector Plan published earlier this year, a Video Games Skills Strategy is also being developed by an industry-led UK Games Skills Network. This will build on findings from the Creative Industries Council Skills Audit, giving video games skills organisations and delivery partners a clear remit for tackling persistent skills gaps.
Asked by: Baroness Barran (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Smith of Malvern on 10 November (HL Deb col 40), whether they plan to pilot media literacy within the curriculum, and if so, how its efficacy will be assessed.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 5 November, the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review published its final report which includes recommendations for a refreshed curriculum and assessment system in England.
As part of the response to the Review the government has committed to ensuring our young people have the skills they need to identify and challenge misinformation, by strengthening media literacy in citizenship and English.
To ensure primary-aged children are introduced to key content on media literacy we have made a commitment to make citizenship compulsory in key stages 1 and 2.
We will also reform the computing curriculum and create a broader computing GCSE so that pupils have the vital digital skills needed for the future such as AI literacy and we will explore a new level 3 qualification in data science and AI.
The department will engage with sector experts and young people in working out how best to reflect this content in the updated curriculum. There will be public consultation on the updated curriculum programmes of study, to seek views on the content before they are finalised.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing new technologies including biometric checks and digital verification to strengthen identity checks at driving test centres.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
To ensure Great Britain’s roads remain among the safest in the world, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has robust measures in place to stop people using false identities when taking a driving test, to prevent illegitimate licences being issued.
At the start of the driving test, all driving examiners (DE) carry out thorough identification and documentation checks to satisfy themselves of the person’s identity, the validity of the driving licence and theory test pass certificate.
To make it harder for fraudsters to impersonate a candidate, DVSA has worked in partnership with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to give DEs access to an enlarged photograph of the candidate, as shown on the driving licence, to help the examiner decide if the person presenting for test is the correct candidate. If a candidate fails to satisfy the examiner that they have complied with the requirements, the examiner will, under legislation, refuse to take the test.
DVSA takes very seriously any allegations of fraudulent activity, including candidate impersonation. It has a dedicated Intelligence Threat Hub for the assessment of available information, prioritisation of investigations, and a dedicated counter fraud team to investigate such allegations.
Due to the nature of impersonation, there is not a high level at a single location, as an impersonator would be easily identified as such, if they attempted to take several tests at a single location. DVSA uses other data, such as details of the vehicle used by a suspected impersonator, to track and investigate attempts across the country.
The table below shows the number of intercepted impersonation attempts for driving practical tests from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2025. Interceptions are where DVSA colleagues have challenged the impersonator and stopped the test or a licence has been revoked if evidence of impersonation comes to light later.
Please note, practical test impersonations were included in general impersonation figures until 2021, therefore DVSA has no individual figures for this category between 2018-2020.
Date period | Practical Test Impersonations |
1/10/2024 to 30/09/2025 | 647 |
1/10/2023 to 30/09/2024 | 388 |
1/10/2022 to 30/09/2023 | 442 |
1/10/2021 to 30/09/2022 | 146 |
1/10/2020 to 30/09/2021 | 0 |
As a civil service department, DVSA has certain principles and processes that must be followed, and all employees must meet the standards of conduct and behaviour set out in the Civil Service code and the DVSA’s Staff handbook.
Effective performance is expected of all employees. Addressing poor performance fairly, effectively and promptly is critical to maintaining a professional service, and DVSA, as with other civil service departments, has poor performance policy and guidance in place.
The role of a DE is complex and requires rigorous training. There is a statutory requirement for DEs to undertake continuous professional development to ensure they maintain their skills. All DEs go through an extensive training regime and attend regular periodic training. This ensures they carry out all of the test properly. In addition, there is a robust monitoring system in place and DE performance is regularly assessed.
As civil servants, DEs, are required to undertake fraud awareness training and regular refresher training on this topic.
Asked by: Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
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 promote NHS innovation in nano surgery.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan and Life Sciences Sector Plan, the Department encourages innovation in the health sector that helps to support the three big shifts in healthcare: moving care from hospitals to communities; transitioning from analogue to digital; and focusing on prevention over treatment.
The Department is actively supporting the development and evaluation of game-changing innovations as well as the adoption of technologies to give our world leading clinicians the technology and skills to improve outcomes for patients.
Improving innovation, adoption, and procurement of game-changing technology, including nano surgery, will help the National Health Service secure the best possible outcomes for patients whilst also delivering greater value-for-money and unlocking further economic growth. In addition, the National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). As well as funding research directly through NIHR programmes, the Department also funds NIHR infrastructure which are centres of excellence and collaborations, services, and facilities to support health and care research.
The NIHR research infrastructure drives innovation through research across a range of health and care areas, including nano surgery. For example, the Surgical and Perioperative Care Translational Research Collaboration brings together NIHR infrastructure to develop new surgical interventions, improving patient safety and patient care before and after surgery.
The NIHR HealthTech Research Centres (HRCs) work with industry to develop medical devices, diagnostics, and digital technologies. The NIHR Accelerated Surgical Care HRC’s focus is on minimally invasive therapies which enable surgical care to be delivered with greater precision, minimal trauma, and improved outcomes.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has been made as to the impact on placement students following the changes to the apprenticeship levy.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will give greater flexibility to employers and learners and support the industrial strategy.
In August, we introduced new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, as well as shorter duration apprenticeships. These flexibilities will help more people learn new high-quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across the country.
From April 2026, we will introduce new short courses as part of the growth and skills offer with the first wave called apprenticeship units. They will be available in critical skills areas such as artificial intelligence, digital and engineering. Further details will be shared in due course.
An apprenticeship is a job with training, rather than a placement which is something that is part of some further or higher education courses.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking with industry partners to develop innovation funding and training programmes for the use of generative artificial intelligence in the video games sector.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has partnered with leading tech firms to deliver AI skills training to 7.5 million UK workers. In the creative industries, Skills England have conducted research and analysis to identify AI-related skills gaps across the creative industries and support emerging creative AI roles. As outlined in the Creative Industries Sector Plan, we will introduce short courses in England, funded through the Growth and Skills Levy, in areas including AI. We will also work with the Digital Skills Council, an industry-led advisory body, to support sector training pathways and ensure the workforce is prepared for the future of work.
The Government recognises that AI already plays an established role in the UK's video game sector, having multiple use cases from content generation, character behaviours, and more. As technology advances, AI has the potential to further enhance creativity, efficiency, and accessibility in games development.
DCMS will continue to engage with the games industry to understand opportunities and challenges related to the responsible use of AI, ensuring that we continue to support our innovative games industry to thrive in the age of AI.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of continued professional development on the ability of teachers to tackle misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories in the classroom.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The initial teacher training and early career framework sets out the foundational core content that defines great teaching. This includes anticipating common misconceptions within particular subjects, which is an important aspect of curricular knowledge. In the context of misinformation, this can help teachers to spot pupil misconceptions that may arise from various sources. Beyond this, providers can design a curriculum which is responsive to participant needs, including additional training where necessary.
In October 2024, Ofcom published its three-year media literacy strategy, which commits to supporting teachers through continuing professional development, evaluation of training outcomes and stronger collaboration with regional partners to share learnings and effective practices.
The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report was published on 5 November 2025 and includes recommendations for reform to the curriculum, which the government has accepted. Vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy will be embedded into the revised curriculum from 2028.
To support schools in the meantime, Oak National Academy provides adaptable, optional and free curriculum support for schools, including resources for computing and secondary citizenship, which can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/.
Asked by: Patrick Hurley (Labour - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of initial teacher training on the ability of teachers to tackle misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories in the classroom.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The initial teacher training and early career framework sets out the foundational core content that defines great teaching. This includes anticipating common misconceptions within particular subjects, which is an important aspect of curricular knowledge. In the context of misinformation, this can help teachers to spot pupil misconceptions that may arise from various sources. Beyond this, providers can design a curriculum which is responsive to participant needs, including additional training where necessary.
In October 2024, Ofcom published its three-year media literacy strategy, which commits to supporting teachers through continuing professional development, evaluation of training outcomes and stronger collaboration with regional partners to share learnings and effective practices.
The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report was published on 5 November 2025 and includes recommendations for reform to the curriculum, which the government has accepted. Vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy will be embedded into the revised curriculum from 2028.
To support schools in the meantime, Oak National Academy provides adaptable, optional and free curriculum support for schools, including resources for computing and secondary citizenship, which can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she will take to support children’s media and digital literacy education before 2028.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Media literacy is covered in the current citizenship, relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), and digital literacy is covered in the computing curriculum.
In July the government published updated RSHE statutory guidance containing new content related to artificial intelligence (AI), online safety and pornography, which will be mandatory from September 2026. The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report was published on 5 November 2025 and includes recommendations for reform to the curriculum, which the government has accepted. Vital applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy will be embedded into the revised curriculum from 2028.
To support schools with teaching in the meantime, Oak National Academy, an independent arm’s length body, provides adaptable, optional and free curriculum support for schools, including resources for computing and secondary citizenship, which can be found here: https://www.thenational.academy/.
The ’Educate Against Hate’ website hosts a series of online media literacy resources to support teachers and school leaders to build resilience to extremist narratives online in children and young people. The website is available at: https://www.educateagainsthate.com/.
The National Centre for Computing Education provides teachers with continuing professional development and resources to support the teaching of computing topics, including digital literacy and AI.