Written Statements

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

Monday 2 June 2025

Apprenticeships and Skills Training

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

We have announced radical reforms to the skills system to support 120,000 new training opportunities this Parliament. We are continuing to invest in programmes designed to boost the workforce in key growth sectors and making changes to support opportunity for young people. Skills are an engine of economic growth, improving productivity and giving people the opportunity to thrive in work and life. To deliver on our plan for change, we need a skills system that is geared to deliver the skills we need, focused on economic priorities and supporting opportunity for learners.

Creating more opportunities for young people with the growth and skills levy

Last year, the Prime Minister announced a new growth and skills levy, which is now backed by its largest ever budget of over £3 billion. This will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners and widen the apprenticeship offer, helping more people gain the skills they need, fuelling business innovation, and providing high-quality pathways for young people.

The rate of young people’s apprenticeship starts have fallen more dramatically than the overall decline over the last decade. We want to rebalance the programme back towards young people beginning their careers. As a first step, we are introducing new foundation apprenticeships, which are an employment-based training offer that give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage while developing vital skills.

The first foundation apprenticeships will be available from August 2025. They will be focused on industrial strategy priority areas including construction and the built environment, engineering and manufacturing, health and social care, and digital. They will be underpinned by an employer incentive payment to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career, such as through coaching and mentoring. We will continue exploring how to make foundation apprenticeships work in other sectors like hospitality and retail too. We expect this to drive up to 30,000 apprenticeship starts across this Parliament.

This reform will be complemented by changes to the wider apprenticeships offer that we have already set out, such as shorter duration apprenticeships and more flexible English and maths requirements.



Creating more opportunities for young people at the start of their working lives means we need to prioritise public funding towards them, rather than those already in work with more prior learning and qualifications. That is why we announced our intention to move funding away from level 7—masters-level—apprenticeships, to support a more flexible offer at lower levels.

I am now confirming that we will proceed with this reform. We will continue to fund level 7 for those aged 16 to 21—when they start their apprenticeship—and support apprentices already on a level 7 apprenticeship through to completion. This change will apply from January 2026 across all sectors.

Skills England was asked to provide insight into the impact of defunding level 7 apprenticeships. They engaged with over 700 stakeholders from various sectors, employer representative bodies, and young people, which indicated that, in general, level 7 apprenticeships were high-quality and were well supported, by employers. Many learners who completed these apprenticeships saw higher wages one year after study, compared with the average UK salary. It was also clear that these apprenticeships are important for meeting the skills needs of the economy. However, alternative routes are well supplied and Skills England’s evidence suggested there was unlikely to be a significant or unavoidable fall in the supply of these skills in the long term, post-defunding. Therefore, we will be encouraging employers to invest in upskilling their staff to this level, to enable levy funding to be rebalanced towards training at lower levels.

Skills England did not find a strong enough economic rationale to exempt a small group of level 7 apprenticeship standards from defunding. While level 7 apprenticeships can be a valuable route for some disadvantaged learners, a significant proportion are from non-deprived backgrounds and are significantly less likely to be deprived than apprentices at lower levels. Level 7 generally has a higher proportion of older learners than other apprenticeships, particularly the senior leader apprenticeship—where 99% are over 25—and standards with an embedded postgraduate qualification.

However, there are several exceptions which benefit young people at the start of their careers, like solicitors and accountancy or taxation professionals. This is why we have decided that younger learners, from all backgrounds, will continue to be funded under our reforms. Level 7 apprenticeships are a valuable entry point for young people into good careers, such as law, accountancy and town planning; we have seen thousands take advantage of these opportunities and this will continue under our new approach.

This decision was informed by a wide range of evidence, including Skills England’s analysis of official apprenticeship statistics and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. We also considered wider data and representations and weighed this up against the Government’s clear priorities.

This decision to prioritise young people is a crucial step in delivering the Government’s plan for change and achieving its missions of driving growth and breaking down barriers to opportunity. We are prioritising funding towards young people and creating more opportunities for those entering the labour market, who need skills and training to get on in their careers, and powering growth across the country by providing the skills businesses need.

Expanding skills funding via the immigration skills charge

We are also expanding funding in the wider skills system to support growth and opportunity. In the immigration White Paper published on Monday 12 May, the Government confirmed a 32% increase in the rate of the immigration skills charge, which will be used at the oncoming spending review to support skills funding for priority sectors to upskill the domestic workforce and reduce reliance on migration over the medium term. The increase in the immigration skills charge could help deliver up to 45,000 training places across this Parliament.

Boosting investment in skills for growth

We are also increasing investment in construction skills, building on more than £600 million announced by the Chancellor in March. We are boosting job prospects for adults interested in jobs in the sector, expanding training in priority sectors via skills bootcamps and free courses for jobs:

The Department will devolve around £14 million of additional adult skills funding for the construction sector to local mayors for next academic year, giving them the freedom to make the right choices for their areas. We expect this to deliver up to 5,000 additional adult learners on training courses.

For non-devolved areas, 13 new construction courses at level 2 will be added to the free courses for jobs offer available for adults so more people can upskill, improve their job prospects and earn a higher wage.

The Government are confirming £136 million for providing skills bootcamps across a range of priority sectors in 2025-26 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-bootcamps-funding-allocations/skills-bootcamps-funding-allocations-2025-to-2026 providing training to over 40,000 learners. This is on top of £100 million over the next four years to expand skills bootcamps in construction, as announced at spring statement.

The Government are also launching technical excellence colleges (TECs) specialising in construction skills. Colleges will be able to apply to become construction TECs and the application process will open this term for 10, to launch in September 2025. These colleges will be leaders in delivering specialist skills, directly training learners and supporting other providers of construction skills across their regions—ensuring local people can benefit from this investment. They will serve as leaders in world-class skills training, combining excellent teaching standards with close working with industry experts.

Formal establishment of Skills England

These reforms will be driven forward by Skills England, which today becomes an Executive Agency of the Department for Education. Skills England will build our nation’s world-class skills, enabling growth and opportunity by:

Understanding the nation’s future skills needs and improving our skills offer.

Simplifying access to skills to boost economic growth.

Mobilising employers and other partners, co-creating solutions to meet national, regional and local skills needs.

To do this, Skills England will combine new functions with some of those previously undertaken by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE). On 15 May 2025, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Act received Royal Assent. This provided functions and assets to the Secretary of State that were previously held by IfATE, which has now been formally closed. These functions will broadly be exercised by Skills England and, combined with its broader work in the skills system, enable it to take its work forward as an Executive Agency of the Department for Education, with the approval of Cabinet Office and HM Treasury Ministers. Final accounts for IfATE will be presented to Parliament in due course.

The Government are also confirming board appointments to Skills England, and the latest analysis from Skills England is being published to help develop the Government’s understanding of skills needs and how they can be met.

The reforms announced today mark an important step in Government’s comprehensive strategy for post-16 education, delivering our youth guarantee, and our commitment to addressing skills shortages to drive growth while creating better opportunities for young people and adults across England.

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Capacity Market: Consumer-led Flexibility

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)]

I am tabling this statement to inform Members of a publication relating to the capacity market. The publication provides a response to the Government’s recent consultation on improvements to capacity market rules and treatment of consumer-led flexibility. It sets out the Government’s intention to proceed with all of the changes proposed in the consultation, after all received majority support from respondents.

This Government have committed to delivering clean power by 2030 and accelerating progress towards net zero, while ensuring continued security of supply. The capacity market is Great Britian’s main mechanism for ensuring security of electricity supply by procuring additional capacity needed to meet peak demand ahead of time.

The funding provided through the capacity market incentivises investment in new and existing capacity, as well as interconnectors, batteries, and consumer-led flexibility. This capacity is acquired through annual auctions held at intervals four years ahead and one year ahead of their respective delivery years. The Government regularly amend the capacity market prior to auction cycles to ensure it remains fit for purpose, is cost-effective, and supports broader strategic objectives.

This Government response sets out our intention to proceed with policies to streamline how consumer-led flexibility, delivered by demand-side response mechanisms, participates in the capacity market. As participation in the capacity market from demand-side response portfolios increases, it is important that capacity market rules are updated to better incorporate and enable access from technologies that can respond flexibly to periods of high energy demand. In addition, the Government are also introducing a termination fee for demand-side response capacity market units that fail to demonstrate agreed capacity, improving delivery assurance to enable the capacity market to fulfil its central principle of ensuring security of supply.

The response also outlines our intention to move forward with changes to the capacity market rules to improve accessibility and provide policy intent clarifications. The changes confirmed in the Government response will enable capacity market units to change their opt-out status following a change in their operational circumstances and will remove rules on transitional and coronavirus arrangements which are no longer required. The proposed changes also extend a policy to allow existing generators to use data older than 24 months to prequalify for auctions held in 2026 and clarify the role of the scheme’s delivery body. These changes should increase participation in future Capacity Market auction and therefore increase competitiveness and value for money for consumers.

The Government intend to introduce these changes prior to the 2025 prequalification period for the next capacity market auctions. This will give participants clarity and certainty ahead of their entrance into the auctions and allow them to adapt to the changes we have made.

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Africa Approach Consultation

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)]

My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa (Lord Collins of Highbury) has today made the following statement:

Today, following the Foreign Secretary’s (Mr David Lammy) announcement of a five-month consultation in November last year, the Government are publishing a summary of our consultations.

The summary reflects what we have heard in our discussions with partners in the UK, and over 47 national governments, 25 multilateral institutions, and over 600 organisations covering a range of sectors, from businesses and civil society to creatives and diaspora organisations.

We are grateful to all those who generously gave their time and contributed their ideas to the consultation. We are drawing on the evidence to shape and inform the new Africa approach.

This will be formally launched in the second half of the year. It will set out how the UK can partner with African countries to boost sustainable economic growth, combat the climate crisis, tackle insecurity, and address our migration priorities, drawing on our shared cultural and people-to-people links.

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Planning Reform and Housing Delivery

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

I am today providing an update on various measures the Government are taking to further reform the planning system and achieve our ambitious plan for change milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament.

Speeding up build-out rates on large sites

Last year, the Government took decisive action to overhaul national planning policy through our December 2024 updates to the national planning policy framework. The changes made included the introduction of a new, mandatory standard method for assessing housing needs, and a new strategic approach to green-belt land designation and release that prioritises development on lower-quality grey-belt land. By allocating more land for development, the pro-growth framework that is now in place provides the foundation for higher rates of house building.

However, to significantly boost housing delivery we must close the gap between the amount of land allocated and permissioned and the number of homes being completed. The Competition and Markets Authority and others have concluded that most homes in England are not built as fast as they can be constructed, once permission is granted, but only as fast as the developer expects to sell them at local second-hand market prices. This leads to a build-out rate for large sites which can take decades to complete. While it is commercially rational for developers to operate in this way, the systemic impact is a lower level of house building than is needed.

As a result, the Government have published a “Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out”, setting out a five-part strategy and a series of proposals to speed up build-out. These include measures to support mixed-tenure development; the implementation of conditional confirmation of compulsory purchase orders; and, as a measure of last resort, exploring the case for a delayed homes penalty, for use in instances where build-out is falling significantly behind the agreed schedule without a reasonable justification.

Alongside the working paper, we published a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve build-out transparency to gather views on the introduction of a new statutory build-out framework, which requires developers to submit information at different stages of the planning and development cycle, and a power for local authorities to decline to determine applications submitted by developers who persistently fail to build out sites quickly. We will also make it easier for councils to issue completion notices, which require housebuilders to complete development within a reasonable period of time, else the planning permission will cease—a form of “use it or lose it”.

Supporting small and medium-sized housebuilders

The Government are clear that we cannot achieve our ambitious house building targets without diversifying the housing market and making it more competitive. That means supporting a range of different developers, including small and medium-sized housebuilders.

The share of new-build homes delivered by SMEs has declined significantly since the 1980s, when smaller house builders delivered 40% of the country’s homes. To arrest and reverse the decline of SME house builders, and so maximise the contribution they can make to new housing supply, the Government are acting to support them by increasing their access to land, providing further financial assistance and easing the burden of regulation.

In respect of land, the Government have launched a pilot of a new form of partnership between cities, developers and the private sector—a small sites aggregator—that will bring together small plots of land and accelerate their development. The pilot will be trialled in Bristol, Sheffield and the London Borough of Lewisham, with support from the relevant regional authorities.

Alongside this, Homes England will release more of its land exclusively to SMEs, and the Government have also announced a £1.2 million PropTech innovation fund for up to 12 tech innovators to share to work with industry on scalable solutions that accelerate housing delivery and unlock the development potential of small sites.

In respect of finance, the government is allocating up to £100 million of the £700 million extension to the home building fund announced in December to introduce SME accelerator loans. These will provide SMEs with the finance they need to acquire new sites while they are building out existing developments.

We have also provided longer-term certainty of access to finance for SMEs by committing to providing a range of funding tools for SMEs as part of a new national housing delivery fund. This will include revolving credit facilities, alongside loans and lending alliances, to provide unprecedented Government support and ensure SMEs have the access to finances they need to grow, invest and support delivery of 1.5 million homes. Further detail will be provided at the forthcoming spending review.

Lastly, in respect of regulation, the Government have published a “Planning Reform Working Paper: Reforming Site Thresholds” to seek views on reforming site size thresholds in the planning system to better support housing delivery. The working paper proposes a gradated approach to the planning system—removing and streamlining disproportionate requirements on small and medium sites, while maintaining and strengthening requirements on major ones.

The proposals would see minor developments of up to nine homes benefit from streamlined planning and eased biodiversity net gain requirements, alongside faster decisions being taken by expert planning officers, not planning committees. A new proposed category of medium development for 10 to 49 homes would come with simpler rules and fewer costs—including a potential exemption from the building safety levy, and simplified BNG rules that make it easier to deliver biodiverse habitats on these sites, delivering a win-win for nature and development.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also launched consultations on how the implementation of BNG for small and medium developments could be simplified and improved, as well as BNG implementation for nationally significant infrastructure projects. The respective consultations can be found on www.gov.uk/government/consultations/biodiversity-net-gain-for-nationally-significant-infrastructure-projects

Planning committee reform

To further support the changes set out above, we have published our promised “Reform of Planning Committees: Technical Consultation”, providing detail on how we intend to implement the Planning and Infrastructure Bill provisions relating to the delegation of planning decisions, the size and composition of planning committees and mandatory training for members of planning committees.

The Government have been clear that planning committees have an integral role in providing local democratic oversight of planning decisions. However, in exercising that democratic oversight, we must ensure that planning committees operate as effectively as possible, focusing on those applications which require member input and not revisiting the same decisions.

Our detailed proposals for the operation of a national scheme of delegation involve directing the majority of minor and technical planning applications to expert local planning offers (tier A), while enabling all other planning applications (tier B), which will include all significant new housing and commercial developments, to be determined by committee, if the local planning authority chief planning officer—or equivalent officer—and chair of planning committee mutually agree to depart from an assumed delegation. This will ensure that there is greater consistency and certainty across England about who in a local planning authority will be responsible for making planning decisions.

We believe these proposals strike the right balance between empowering professional planning officers and ensuring elected local representatives determine the most significant and contentious applications. I look forward to receiving feedback from hon. Members, local authorities, house builders and other important stakeholders.

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Artificial Intelligence: Cross-Government Experiment

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Peter Kyle)]

I wish to inform the House of the findings from the recent Microsoft 365 Copilot experiment —a landmark Government artificial intelligence experiment, which demonstrates this Government’s bold commitment to harnessing cutting-edge technology to transform public service delivery and gain better value for the taxpayer.

The Government Digital Service led this cross-Government experiment using an AI-powered assistant from September to December 2024, involving 20,000 civil servants across 12 major Government organisations. The experiment used a robust methodology to evaluate whether AI tools could:



improve user satisfaction at work

reduce effort required to complete tasks

improve task quality

reduce time spent on routine activities

The eye-opening findings report will be published shortly on www.gov.uk, and will show that AI tools are liberating civil servants from repetitive administrative tasks, so that they can unleash their talents on strategic priorities that deliver greater value for Britain and British taxpayers.

Key findings

The most common benefits reported were increased productivity and reduced time searching for information. Importantly, many users indicated that productivity gains allowed them to spend more time on strategic and satisfying tasks.

Data received from the 12 participating Departments indicates a strong impact on time savings, with people saving an average of 26 minutes per day. Users reported increased work quality and motivation, as well as improving employee experience. In particular:

Adoption and usage: The experiment achieved an impressive 83% adoption rate within the first month. Adoption levels of around 80% were maintained throughout the experiment.

Time savings: the tool has a strong impact on time savings, with people saving an average of 26 minutes per day. More than a third of users reported to have saved more than half an hour a day.

User satisfaction: Users display a strong value attachment to using the tool and reported it increased work quality and motivation. 85% of users agree that the AI tool provides good value to the organisation. 82% of users would not want to go back to working without using an AI assistant.

Limitations: 17% of users did not notice any clear time savings. Professions that saved the least amount of time were those with the lowest satisfaction scores.

Conclusions: Priority should now be given to implementing an AI tool with groups showing the highest and lowest time savings, to better understand the tool’s impact and limitations across diverse user segments and professions. Priority should also be given to exploring how AI tools can improve accessibility, on which we have got some anecdotal evidence, and implementing benefits tracking for deeper insights.

This experiment is just one example of how we are using technology to drive far-reaching reform across the public sector. By putting the power of AI to work for the British people, we are creating a Government who are more efficient, responsive, and equipped to meet the challenges of the 21^st century, aligning with our broader vision set out in “A blueprint for modern digital government” to harness the power of AI for public good.

In line with our commitment to AI adoption in the public sector, we will take these findings forward through the newly established AI adoption unit within the Government Digital Service, which will build and deploy AI into public services, grow AI capacity and capability across Government, and ensure trust, responsibility and accountability in all we do. As part of this work, we are exploring a range of AI tools to assess their benefits, recognising that different AI tools and technologies may add more or less value depending on the use case.

We will continue to update the House on our progress as we work to make Government more efficient, responsive, and fit for the digital age.

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Public Switched Telephone Network Migration: Communications Campaign

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms (Chris Bryant)]

The Government are publicly supporting the national telecare communications campaign, which has been funded by BT and Virgin Media O₂ and is being launched today. This campaign seeks to raise awareness of the migration of landlines from the old analogue copper landline, also known as the public switched telephone network, to digital voice over internet protocol.

The Government and industry want to appeal directly to vulnerable people and their friends, relatives and carers to ensure that they are migrated carefully. The national campaign is designed to raise awareness amongst support networks and encourage vulnerable individuals who use telecare alarms to identify themselves to their communication provider.

The campaign aims reach this target audience across the UK through various multimedia channels. It includes TV adverts, print, and community radio, with translations of the script to ensure that the campaign has a broad reach across the UK.

Further information for the public is available at www.digitalphoneswitchover.com as well as on www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-transition-from-analogue-to-digital-landlines

The PSTN is a privately owned telecommunications network, and the decision to upgrade it, which has been taken by industry, is a necessity due to its age and deterioration and is therefore supported by Government. In the period April 2024 to March 2025, there were over 2,600 major incidents on the PSTN, each affecting 500 or more customers, posing risks to vulnerable individuals, such as those using telecare devices, as well as a risk to critical services such as power plants, traffic lights, and hospitals.

Over two thirds of PSTN lines have already been migrated to VoIP, leaving fewer than 5.6 million lines operational. However, it is imperative for their own safety that vulnerable people are safely migrated.

The previous Government secured voluntary charters in December 2023 and March 2024 from the major communication providers and network operators, pausing non-voluntary migrations. A non-voluntary migration is where a communications provider migrates a customer without their consent following multiple attempts to contact the customer using different means, as it is essential that everyone is safely migrated.

In November 2024, I secured safeguards from communication providers and network operators to protect consumers, particularly the vulnerable. This includes anyone relying on their landline for any reason, including where mobile coverage is lacking, such as in rural areas. These safeguards are set out in the non-voluntary migration checklist at www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-switched-telephone-network-non-voluntary-migration-checklist/pstn-non-voluntary-migration-checklist The checklist includes data sharing agreements with local authorities to identify vulnerable people; timely and repeated communications with customers; free engineering visits; and providing vulnerable customers with a battery back-up for use in the event of a power cut. At the same time, I secured commitments to protect our critical services through a critical national infrastructure charter.

For these safeguards to work it is essential that vulnerable people are identified. This is being facilitated by data sharing agreements between the communication providers, alarm receiving centres and local authorities. As of May 2025, over 96% of local authorities that provide telecare have signed a data sharing agreement with at least one communication provider, reflecting significant progress since the first agreements were signed in May 2023. I will be writing to all authorities that have not signed data sharing agreements to encourage them to do so.

Anyone who is concerned about what the PSTN migration means for them, or their friends and family, should contact their communication provider and let them know. They should do so particularly if they identify as vulnerable for any reason, including age.

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UK Airspace Design Service: Consultation Response

Monday 2nd June 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mike Kane)]

The Department for Transport and the UK Civil Aviation Authority are publishing the response to the consultation to establish a UK Airspace Design Service, CAP 3106 https://www.caa.co.uk/ukads The UKADS will act as a new single guiding mind to deliver a modernised and holistic design of UK airspace, enabling quicker, quieter and cleaner flights.

UK airspace is an invisible but essential piece of our national infrastructure. Its design has remained largely unchanged since the 1950s when there were around 200,000 flights per year in UK airspace, compared to 2.47 million in 2024. If UK airspace is not modernised, it has been estimated that by 2040 one in five flights could experience disruption and delays.

Airspace modernisation will ensure that the UK’s airspace is fit for the future, enabling aircraft to fly more direct routes with optimised climb and descent profiles to and from energy-efficient cruising altitudes. This will benefit UK consumers through greater system capacity and better resilience to disruption. Crucially, it will help UK aviation achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Government and CAA have carefully considered the responses to the consultation last autumn. These helped to inform the decision to proceed with the creation of the UKADS and establishment of an airspace design support fund, announced by the Chancellor on 17 March 2025, and our aim is for the UKADS to be established and operational by the end of 2025.

NATS (En Route) plc—NERL—will be responsible for providing the UKADS. NERL is the only organisation in the UK with the necessary level of resource and design expertise to deliver the UKADS at pace.

The initial priority for the UKADS will be to design airspace for the London cluster of the airspace change masterplan. The London cluster has the most complex airspace in the UK, and modernisation will unlock significant benefits. This would include any airspace change required for a third runway at Heathrow.

Airspace modernisation will continue to be funded by industry, following the user-pays principle. The cost of the UKADS will be met through a new UK airspace design charge, which will primarily apply to commercial airlines. This charge will also enable a new airspace design support fund to help unlock the benefits of modernisation around the rest of the UK.

Two statutory instruments will be laid before Parliament, using powers in the Transport Act 2000, to enable NERL to be tasked with delivering the UKADS. The CAA will consult on the charge as well as proposed changes to the NERL air traffic services licence.

Consultation responses also identified opportunities to streamline and simplify the regulatory framework, including the CAA’s airspace change process and the Government’s air navigation guidance and air navigation directions. DFT and CAA intend to start consulting by September 2025 on possible changes, which will continue to support safe and efficient airspace design; proper and proportionate assessment of environmental impacts, including noise; and engagement with local communities.

With the establishment of the UKADS, these measures will strengthen the UK’s role as a global aviation leader and confirm this Government’s support for airspace modernisation and the benefits it will bring for the country.

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