Written questions by Brackenridge.

Media and Sport, what progress she has made on moving decisions on youth services funding to local communities.

The National Youth Strategy includes a shift from ‘national to local’ - this means there is a renewed focus on the role, capability, and leadership of local authorities, working closely with local partners. It also means local young people being more involved in funding decisions.The £70m Local Youth Transformation programme is improving local authorities’ capability to rebuild a high-quality youth offer and develop a network of 50 Young Futures Hubs which will be co-designed by local authorities and young people. Through the Richer Young Lives Fund, we are also investing over £60 million over the next 3 years, enabling local organisations to deliver high-quality youth work and activities.

Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2024 to Question 7047 on Holiday Accommodation: Licensing, what progress she has made on developing a short-term rental registration scheme.

We hope to be able to make further announcements soon.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure adequate funding of youth services in Wolverhampton.

Local authorities hold the statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. Local Authorities fund youth services from their Local Government Settlement in line with local need, and this was increased to more than £69 billion in 2025/26 - a 6.8% increase in cash terms compared to 2024/25. We will be launching the Local Youth Transformation pilot this year, which will support local authorities to build back capability to improve local youth offers. This government has also committed to co-producing a new National Youth Strategy. As part of the Strategy, we will be consulting closely with young people and the youth sector. The Strategy will be published this summer.

Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the accessibility of cultural activities in Wolverhampton.

This government is committed to supporting culture, and making sure that arts and cultural activities will no longer be the preserve of a privileged few. As part of our Plan for Change, we are committed to ensuring that arts and culture thrives in every part of the country, with more opportunities for more people to engage, benefit from and work in arts and culture where they live.The government supports the arts predominantly through Arts Council England (ACE) funding. ACE’s open funding programme, National Lottery Project Grants, is currently accessible to organisations and individuals across the country, including those in Wolverhampton. This programme provides over £100 million of support annually to individuals and organisations, and since 2020 has invested over £2.3 million into arts projects across Wolverhampton. Alongside this funding, organisations in Wolverhampton currently receive £1,029,081 per annum through ACE’s National Portfolio programme.Our new Creative Foundations Fund, announced in February, will also invest £85 million into arts and cultural organisations across England to support urgent capital works to keep venues across the country up and running and open to the public. In addition to this, we were pleased to announce last week that Wolverhampton Art Gallery has been awarded a major Capital grant of over £1.6m from Round 4 of the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND), and that a fifth Round will launch shortly.