To ensure people get effective care and treatment, the Department and NHS England have set out recovery plans for elective and urgent and emergency care. We will also soon publish a Primary Care Recovery plan that will set out how general practices and Primary Care Networks can be supported to improve access.

The new medical technology (MedTech) strategy published in February identifies, as a key priority, the need to streamline the innovation pipeline to ensure effective technology can be adopted at scale.

We continue to provide investment across a range of technology to support integrated care systems, including new community diagnostics centres, virtual wards and accelerated decision making through adoption of new artificial intelligence tools.

The Medical Technology (MedTech) Strategy, published in February 2023, aims to ensure that everyone has timely access to safe, effective and innovative medical technologies when they need it, no matter where they live in the country.

A number of initiatives are in development, including identification of technology suitable to be adopted at scale, wider multi-tech evaluations by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to identify effective technology, and expansion of outcome registries across England to improve visibility over unwarranted variation. This work will be supported by the establishment of national clinical leadership councils, to advise on the best products, and promote consistency across the National Health Service to see the best products reaching patients.

We are also promoting meaningful choice of MedTech in the community, making it easier for patients, healthcare professionals or purchasers to compare, contrast and select the most appropriate products.

Supporting patients’ equitable access to innovative technologies and empowered decision-making in care are key priorities for the Department and NHS England (NHSE).

The Department’s Plan for Digital and Social Care details significant steps to promote the uptake of new technologies, particularly digital products, and improve access, experience and outcomes for all. The Department and NHSE further strive to mitigate against risks of digital exclusion through Integrated Care Boards’ work and the upcoming framework for National Health Service (NHS) action on digital inclusion by May 2023.

Enhancing access to and uptake of emerging transformative technologies, especially digital ones, also aims to help patients gain greater control over their care by making informed choices that address their strengths, needs and preferences, as envisioned by the NHS Long Term Plan and its new service model for the NHS centred around personalised care.

No specific assessment has been made.

To support elective recovery the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available to systems last financial year to help drive up and protect elective activity. As part of the autumn statement, the Government is investing an additional £3.3 billion in each of 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support the National Health Service in England, enabling rapid action to improve emergency, elective and primary care performance towards pre-pandemic levels. As part of that funding settlement, there has been an investment in technology to improve patient experiences of care and help patients manage their conditions.

The forthcoming Medtech Strategy will be published shortly and acknowledges innovation as a priority area. We will work with the National Health Service and other stakeholders to implement the Strategy. The NHS Long Term Plan committed to accelerate the uptake of selected innovative medical devices, diagnostics and digital products to patients faster by developing the MedTech funding mandate.

We have committed £5.9 billion from 2022 to 2025 for new beds, equipment and technology, including medical technologies such as diagnostic scanning. This is in addition to £8 billion over the next three years and £1 billion in 2021/22 to increase and protect elective activity. This aims to ensure that the National Health Service in England can deliver approximately 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 than before the pandemic.

The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ includes the expansion of surgical capacity, separating low complexity surgical pathways, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressure on hospitals. Utilising medical technology such as artificial intelligence and automation aims to improve patient outcomes by reducing waiting times and offering improved care. Digital technology can assist healthcare workers to complete non-clinical tasks and increase the time spent on patient care.

The Government recognises the importance of the technical support and production services industry to the entertainment sector, and its contribution to the UK economy. We appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to this industry.

The Government undertakes a monthly assessment of the GVA of the cultural sector as a whole. It is estimated that GVA in the cultural sector shrank by 28% in March to December 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. In comparison, DCMS sectors (excluding Civil Society) shrank by 18% and the UK economy as a whole shrank by 11%. These monthly GVA estimates are based on incomplete information and should only be used to illustrate general trends, rather than be taken as definitive measures.

The Government recognises that there are many individuals and freelancers working across these industries. This is why the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) were extended to September 2021 at Budget. Also announced at Budget were changes to the SEISS scheme, meaning that 600,000 more people are now able to claim for the first time.

Through the CJRS, the Government is currently supporting 315,000 employees in the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation sectors.

The Department has remained in close contact with the technical support industry and production services sector throughout the pandemic and continues to hold regular meetings with a wide range of companies and representative organisations to understand the challenges they are facing and provide Government support targeted to their needs.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) do not publish information on the tax lost to avoidance by particular sectors of the economy.

HMRC publish estimates of the tax gap in Measuring Tax Gaps each year. The 2014 edition (published on 16 October 2014) presents a time series of tax gaps from 2005-06 to 2012-13, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps

HMRC has also produced an illustrative breakdown of the tax gap by behaviour, including avoidance, for several years including 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Previous editions of ‘Measuring Tax Gaps’ can be accessed at the same link given above.

This Government has been relentless in its crackdown on tax avoidance, and has taken a range of action to prevent avoidance at the outset, and to detect and counter it effectively where it persists. The Government has made 42 changes to tax law, closing numerous loopholes and introducing major strategic reforms to the UK tax system, such as the UK's first General Anti-Abuse Rule. Supported by the Government's investment of £1 billion in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, HMRC has secured over £77 billion in compliance yield since the start of this Parliament. As part of this, since April 2010 HMRC has secured around £31billion from large businesses. So it should come as no surprise that we are considering action in this area.

In his recent Conference speech the Chancellor stated that action will be taken to stop technology companies that go to extraordinary lengths to avoid tax in the UK. The Chancellor's foreword in the UK position paper on "Tackling aggressive tax planning in the global economy", published at the last Budget, stated that such behaviour is unfair and wrong. Further details will be set out this Autumn.

In addition, the UK is working with the G20, OECD and other countries to take forward the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. Part of this involves work on the tax challenges of the digital economy through the Task Force on the Digital Economy, and UK officials are fully engaged in this process.