HMRC publishes statistics on the cost of video games tax relief here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/creative-industries-statistics-august-2023

A breakdown of claims by production budgets is not available. However, within the National Statistics (Video Games – Table 4.2) there is a breakdown by the size of the claim.

HMRC publishes statistics on the cost of video games tax relief here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/creative-industries-statistics-august-2023

A breakdown of claims by production budgets is not available. However, within the National Statistics (Video Games – Table 4.2) there is a breakdown by the size of the claim.

I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting this point. There is the household support fund, help to claim, and opportunities to pop into the local library to get additional support, for example. There is also an extra £500 million out there on top of the £1 billion through to the end of this month. I would say to anybody: “The benefits calculator is out there, and do talk to the CAB and your local council”—perhaps in Swindon.

This Government is committed to supporting the growth and success of the UK’s video game sector, as part of our ambition to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and to support one million more jobs by 2030.

DCMS provides support for UK video games development through the UK Games Fund (UKGF) which is investing £13.4 million over 2022-2025 to support new intellectual property (IP) and talent development in small and medium-sized UK games studios. This includes the Tranzfuser programme and Dundee Development project which mentor teams of talented and entrepreneurial graduates across the UK to develop their professional and business skills as well as their own IP. The UKGF also provides grants of up to £150k for the development of new games.

DCMS has also invested £28.4 million in the Create Growth Programme (CGP) to support high-growth creative businesses and SME in twelve English regions outside London to scale up and become investment ready. Nine regions including Greater Manchester, Hull and East Yorkshire, Nottingham and West of England and Cornwall have identified the video games sector as a priority and have developed a suite of measures to support their growth. Interventions include access to relevant workshops and masterclasses, as well as one-to-one mentoring with industry experts.

More widely, we are taking steps to build a pipeline of talent into our creative industries, which includes supporting those in, and returning to, the video games sector through interventions such as Apprenticeships, the Lifelong Learning Entitlement and the Good Work Review. There will be up to 35 regional skills bootcamps in the creative sector across 16 regions in England this year, subject to successful training provider procurement. A number of upcoming national skills bootcamps in the creative sector will be aimed at the video games sector. SME employers pay only 10% of the total cost of training existing staff during these 16 week bootcamps.

DCMS is currently evaluating the impact of the updated UK Games Fund, which is providing £13.4million over 2022-2025 to accelerate the growth of the UK games sector. In 2023, an independent evaluator, Alma Economics, was procured to produce a process, impact and economic evaluation of the fund between 2022-2025. This evaluation is due to be completed in Spring 2025 and will assess the impact of the fund across a range of metrics, including employment, investment, business formation and growth, and IP development.

It will also review the longer-term impact of earlier funding administered from 2015 onwards. A previous evaluation of the UKGF in 2019 found that the UK Games Fund had an estimated return on investment of £5 for every £1 spent.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/video-game-tax-relief-evaluation.

At Autumn Statement 2023, the Government published the report of an independent evaluation of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), conducted in 2022. The evaluation explored the impact of the SEIS in meeting its policy objectives and found evidence that it was appropriately designed to mobilise additional investment in start-ups and early-stage companies from private investors, providing those businesses with valuable funding for business development and innovation that would otherwise be difficult to find from other sources. The full report can be found here: Evaluation of Venture Capital Schemes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

HMRC publishes information on the number of companies that claim Video Games Tax Relief on an annual basis. The latest figures include data up to the 2021-2022 tax year.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/creative-industries-statistics-august-2023.

The UK Games Fund supports the development of new intellectual property (IP) and graduate talent.

The UK Games Fund has provided 308 grants supporting the development of new games IP from UK studios. This includes grants for 27 studios that participated in Tranzfuser, and four studios that participated in the residential programme DunDev. It does not include grants from the new £5 million Content Fund which was launched in September 2023.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency, which is now part of JISC, is responsible for collecting and publishing data about UK higher education. The latest statistics refer to the 2021/22 academic year.

The number of full person equivalents [1] studying at undergraduate level in the subject area ‘Games and Animation’ [2] in 2021/22 was 13,430, including 4,820 first year enrolments. To note, figures have been rounded to the nearest five. An additional 4,075 full person equivalents, including 1,420 first year enrolments, were recorded in the ‘animation’ category’ [3], which falls under ‘Cinematics and photography’ subjects, and includes other forms of animation, not gaming animation specifically.

More information is available via the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-52.

Updates on the timing of statistics for the 2022/23 academic year are available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/upcoming.

[1] Counts are on the basis of full-person-equivalents (FPE). Where a student is studying more than one subject, they are apportioned between the subjects that make up their course.

[2] Enrolments in Computer games and animation (code 11-01-06 of the Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) tier 3). More information on CAH codes can be found at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/hecos/cah.

[3] Enrolments in Animation (code 100057 of the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS)). More information on HECoS codes can be found at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/hecos.

The Government agrees with the view of the independent and expert Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) that the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) is only of "negligible benefit" to the UK video games industry – namely reduced visa fees. The industry can use the Skilled Worker route, regardless of whether its jobs are on the SOL.

The main benefit of the SOL is in providing a discount to the general salary threshold for the Skilled Worker route, currently set at £26,200 per year. The going rate for ‘Programmers and software development professionals (Standard Occupational Code: 2136)’ is above the current general threshold of £26,200 at £34,000 per year. Occupations with going rates above the general threshold would not benefit from this discount, as Skilled Workers would need to be paid the higher of the general threshold or the going rate for that occupation.

NHS England is responsible for the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), and has completed a review of the AIS considering a wide range of evidence to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment or sensory loss are met in health and care provision.

The review considered the effectiveness of the current AIS, how the standard is implemented and enforced in practice, and identified recommendations for improvement. One of the aims of the review was to strengthen assurance of implementation of the AIS, and a self-assessment framework has been developed to support providers of National Health Service and social care services to measure their performance against the AIS and develop improvement action plans to address gaps in implementation.

Following publication of the revised standard in due course, NHS England will continue work to support its implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it. NHS England is developing the updated e-learning training modules on the AIS. NHS England has and will continue to work with the voluntary sector and those with lived experience to ensure that the modules are fully accessible, reflective of people’s experience in using services and cover a range of examples across health and adult social care. These actions should support better and more consistent implementation of the standard.

In December 2023, there were 1,000 Single Academy Trusts (SATs) running one school compared to 1,321 Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) running more than one school, which accounts for 9,603 academies and free schools in total in MATs. A full breakdown of the number of SATs in each local authority and more information is available here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Downloads.

In terms of assessing effectiveness, a direct performance comparison between SATs and MATs is not possible because many good and outstanding schools converted as SATs and some remain as such. Schools that underperformed as local authority maintained schools are typically transferred into MATs as sponsored academies.

The department believes that the best way to improve school standards is for all schools to be in strong families of schools, benefitting from the support of the best in the group and the resilience that comes from being part of a larger group of schools. Over time, the department would like all schools to be in a strong multi-academy trust because of the positive impact it can have on children’s lives. The department aims to have the vast majority of schools in trusts before 2030.

The department expects schools to have access to high needs funding wherever the costs of additional support for a pupil with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are in excess of £6,000 per pupil per annum. Local authorities can provide this additional SEN funding for schools in respect of pupils who are awaiting the completion of a statutory Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment, or do not otherwise have an EHC plan. Local authorities determine the circumstances in which such allocations of high needs funding are made and the amounts to allocate to schools.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Loughborough on 15 December 2023 to Question 5695.

We understand the devastating impact that the theft of a pet can have. The Government launched a Pet Theft Taskforce in May 2021 in response to concerns about a perceived increase in pet theft during COVID-19 restrictions. The taskforce published its findings and recommendations in September 2021, including the creation of a specific offence. We are making improvements to the cat and dog microchipping regime in England in line with the taskforce’s recommendations. In addition, police forces are working together to better coordinate and share best practice and advice on the steps owners can take to protect their pets.

The hon. Member for Southend West introduced a Pet Abduction Bill on 6 December 2023 and I welcome her interest in improving animal welfare. In accordance with parliamentary convention, the Government will set out its formal position on this Bill when it receives its Second Reading.

The Government takes the illegal importation of pets seriously. It is an abhorrent trade which causes suffering to animals.

The Government is committed to delivering the manifesto commitment on puppy smuggling. We plan to take forward measures to crackdown on puppy smuggling as soon as parliamentary time allows.

No specific assessment has been made. On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services. This guidance will help the National Health Service and local authorities improve autism assessment services and improve the experience for people referred to an autism assessment service. As referenced in the guidance, as part of an assessment process, when feasible, and consent-permitting, it can be useful to speak with professionals who are currently or have recently been in contact with the person, such as professionals working in health and social care, education, the criminal justice system or third sector organisations. The guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/operational-guidance-to-deliver-improved-outcomes-in-all-age-autism-assessment-pathways-guidance-for-integrated-care-boards/

In addition, we expect integrated care boards (ICBs) to have due regard to relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on autism when commissioning services, including autism assessments. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, in line with these NICE guidelines.

The NHS Long Term Plan committed £1 billion of extra funding per year to transform and expand community mental health services. By the end of 2023/24, it is expected that 370,000 adults and older adults with severe mental health problems will be supported within newly transformed models of care in line with the Community Mental Health Framework.

The Community Mental Health Framework is applicable to people irrespective of their diagnosis, aiming to reorganise community mental health services to provide comprehensive holistic care and treatment to give them greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities.

As part of this new integrated offer, systems are supported to develop specialist services for adult eating disorders and early intervention for psychosis, while the expansion of psychological therapies includes extending the specific treatments people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Therefore, through expansion of community-based services, adults with severe mental health problems will be able to access treatment earlier, and closer to home, leading to better outcomes for them and their families.

The Government Communication Service (GCS) is committed to ensuring that all government communications are available and accessible to all audiences. Its crisis communications operating model commits to improving preparedness plans across the risks facing the government. This includes meeting statutory requirements and setting standards of best practice for accessible communications.

Departments make commonly-requested alternative formats of communications such as Easy Read and Large Print available in order to meet people’s needs. The recently published British Sign Language (BSL) report details what the government is doing to promote and facilitate the use of BSL in its communications with the public.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, GCS continuously engaged with disability charities, using polling and focus groups with hard-to-reach audiences, to better understand how our communications were received. Examples of new guidance were also discussed in regular sessions with disability charities and experts in accessibility, so these groups could review and make recommendations on how to improve government communications. We used these insights to improve government messaging and challenge misinformation.