Lancaster House 2.0
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)
We are in a new era of threat which demands a new era for defence. Yesterday I, together with my French counterpart Minister Sébastien Lecornu, agreed on implementing the detailed direction for rebooting the Lancaster House defence and security treaties between the United Kingdom and France. With the Lancaster House treaties originally signed in 2010, this reboot will modernise and build on our bilateral defence and security relationship in order to affect a generational shift in both our bilateral co-operation and our joint contribution to the defence of Europe, of its citizens and of its interests. It fulfils a commitment from the countries manifesto and the SDR which states that the UK’s defence relationship with France is “fundamental” to our security.
The UK and France, as Europe’s only nuclear powers, share a special responsibility for European and international defence and security. Our two nations represent nearly 40% of the defence budget of European allies, and more than 50% of the European spending on research and technology.
This reboot of the Lancaster House treaties builds on this strong foundation between the UK and France, reflecting the continuation of our shared values and strategic interests. It will enable us to continue to protect our shared interests, values, partners in Europe and beyond, and, fundamentally, our democratic way of life.
The reboot will deepen our long-standing and resolute commitment to co-operation on nuclear deterrence. Since 1995, we have stated that we do not see situations arising in which the vital interests of one could be threatened without the vital interests of the other also being threatened. Thirty years on, the Northwood declaration, signed by the Prime Minister and the President at the 2025 UK-France summit, states for the first time that our respective deterrents are independent, but can be co-ordinated, and that there is no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by our two nations. Any adversary threatening the vital interests of our nations should know that they could be confronted by the combined strength of the nuclear forces of both nations.
The UK and France will improve co-ordination across defence nuclear policy, capabilities and operations, and strengthen our ability to make joint decisions if needed. We will also deepen co-operation on nuclear research and technology, building on the 2010 Teutates treaty. A new UK-France nuclear steering board will be established to provide political direction for our collaboration. Both the UK and France remain committed to article V of the North Atlantic treaty and are dedicated to burden-sharing on wider nuclear deterrence. Only the Prime Minister can authorise the use of the UK’s nuclear weapons. The UK’s strategic nuclear forces remain fully operationally independent and sovereign, but we are able to co-ordinate with France should the situation demand it. Our deterrent remains declared to the defence of NATO. We remain committed to our obligations under the NPT to pursue effective measures relating to nuclear disarmament, and to the long-term goal of achieving a world without nuclear weapons.
The reboot will overhaul the existing Combined Joint Expeditionary Force into the Combined Joint Force to refocus it on the Euro-Atlantic and warfighting at scale to deter, placing it on an operational footing for the first time. This will be done through increasing the declared joint force capacity for a deployment of a combined corps capability as the land component of a broader joint force combining all military functions, as part of NATO or on its own. This will also provide for the creation of a joint operations cell, refreshed governance structure and a new strategic alignment process to better co-ordinate our forces.
The reboot will establish an “Entente Industrielle” to enhance capability and industrial co-operation, bringing our defence industries and militaries closer than ever before to strengthen NATO and grow our economies. We will develop capabilities such as the future cruise anti-ship weapon, acquire new Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles, strengthen our co-operation on complex weapons and include other European allies where appropriate. We will expand our co-operation across the new domains of space and cyber and we will also reinvigorate and expand our co-operation on wider science and technology and innovation co-operation, including on artificial intelligence.
In the land domain, we will develop together the UK and French combined corps concept in order to better jointly support NATO defence, and strive to facilitate aligned training at brigade, divisional and corps level to drive interoperability. In the maritime domain, we will expand our existing global maritime security dialogue at defence ministries level and global maritime domain awareness co-operation to better deter maritime hybrid threats, as well as continue to co-ordinate our carrier strike group deployments, including with other European carrier nations through ECGII and NATO. In the air domain, we will increase the complexity of our training exercises and enhance development of counter unmanned aerial systems.
The UK Government remain steadfast in their commitment to the defence of the United Kingdom and our allies; we are confident that the reboot of the Lancaster House treaties will contribute to the security, growth and prosperity of both our nations and the wider European region. We look forward to working closely with France to ensure its successful implementation.
As with the original 2010 treaties, this reboot will continue to serve as the cornerstone of our defence and security relationship with France and will be implemented by both the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. This reboot of our defence and security relationship marks a significant milestone in strengthening co-operation with France, particularly in a time where the threats we face have changed fundamentally. It is ever more crucial for us to work closely with our allies and partners to strengthen the security of the Euro-Atlantic region, as well as wider global arenas.
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Major Projects and Programmes: Business Case Publication
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Darren Jones)
Business cases form the basis of UK public spending decisions. They underpin the allocation and approval of billions of pounds of public expenditure and are essential for ensuring this expenditure demonstrates value for money.
At autumn Budget 2024, the Government committed to increasing the transparency of investment decisions by publishing business cases for major projects and programmes. Greater transparency around investment decisions can support the evaluation of projects and programmes, inform subsequent analysis, and enable better allocation decisions over time. Sharing best practice also helps to build capability, which in turn leads to better outcomes for project delivery and the public.
As of 11 June 2025, all projects and programmes on the Government major projects portfolio are required to publish a summary business case, full business case or programme business case within four months of HM Treasury approval. The Treasury has published guidance to support Departments in meeting this requirement.
To facilitate transparency and ease the process of ensuring these important documents are made available to the House, I am making a commitment on behalf of Government that all business cases published as a result of this requirement be placed in the House of Commons Library. This commitment will allow Departments to meet their obligations to Parliament easily and promptly.
I have also asked the Treasury Officer of Accounts to write to all accounting officers to instruct them to ensure that all relevant business cases are properly deposited. The public will be able to access these documents via gov.uk or the relevant body’s website.1
1 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-case-publications-collection
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UK-France Migration Co-operation
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Yvette Cooper)
Yesterday, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the French Republic announced a first-of-its-kind agreement, which will be operationalised in the coming weeks, between the UK and France to return people who have arrived on small boats as part of a new one-for-one pilot agreement to prevent small boat crossings.
The initiative will help undermine the organised criminal gangs business model. This pilot will enable the readmission of small boat arrivals from the UK to France and, in return, an equal number of people will be able to come to the UK from France through a new legal route. These will need to be fully documented, subject to strict security checks and only those who have not attempted illegal entry to the UK will be eligible.
This controlled and managed pilot will be reviewed and refined over the course of the pilot.
This groundbreaking initiative is a pivotal moment in a new phase of UK-France co-operation and comes alongside the French maritime review on operations in French waters.
The UK and France recognise there is no single silver bullet to tackle illegal migration and dangerous boat crossings and this pilot forms part of a multi-step strategy—starting with our upstream co-operation, our two countries are working together through the new joint upstream working group, chaired by the Border Security Commander and the Minister of Interior’s special representative on migration. We will scale up operations, enhance intelligence sharing, and explore how we can strengthen our returns procedures. We are targeting from source to transit countries to deter people from making these perilous journeys. We are strengthening our law enforcement partnership to disrupt the criminal gangs and enhancing our joint maritime effort.
Law enforcement will be bolstered to be at the heart of our activities in France, this includes a new specialist unit—Compagnie de Marche; a new specialist judicial and police unit in Dunkirk and Lille—the Groupe d’Appui Operationnel to speed up arrests and prosecutions; and increased capacity in Police Nationale.
As part of this transformed approach, we have also been working closely with France on enhancing maritime co-operation and supporting their review through resources, equipment and expertise. The ongoing maritime review is a big step, and this shift will make it increasingly difficult for smugglers to launch boats and put lives at risk.
No one should be making these dangerous boat crossings which undermine our border security and put lives at risk.
This new co-operation with France goes to show how this Government are taking action to secure our borders and deliver our plan for change.
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Private Parking Code of Practice
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Alex Norris)
The Government have today published the private parking code of practice consultation. The consultation www.gov.uk/government/consultations/private-parking-code-of-practice sets out the Government’s proposals and seeks views on raising standards across the private parking industry. This consultation will inform the preparation of a code of practice and compliance framework for private parking operators.
The private parking industry plays an important role in supporting our local economies and high streets. But we continue to hear reports of poor behaviour by parking operators that make it difficult for motorists to comply with the terms and conditions and leave them open to parking charges and escalating costs.
The proposals we are announcing today will deliver on the Government’s legal obligation in the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 to lay a code. The proposals seek to raise standards to better protect and support motorists who make every effort to comply with the car park’s terms and conditions, thereby allowing motorists to park without fear of receiving a parking charge while balancing the legitimate needs of operators to run their car parks in a way that benefits all motorists.
The consultation covers issues including standards in relation to signage, the duration of the parking period, including consideration periods and grace periods, the design and language of parking charge notices and the handling of complaints. It also seeks views on the levels at which parking charges and debt recovery fees should be capped. The current industry cap for parking charges is £100, with a 40% discount for early payment, while the cap for debt recovery fees is £70. The consultation seeks views on the retention of the existing £100 parking charge cap, and on the appropriate level for the current £70 debt recovery fee cap. It also, importantly, proposes new data collection requirements for private parking operators and trade associations, which will build a stronger evidence base to inform any future changes to the code.
We are consulting on improvements to the second-stage appeals service that motorists can use if they are not satisfied with a parking operator’s response to their first appeal. We also plan to produce non-statutory Government guidance for motorists. This will provide clear and easy-to-understand information to inform the motorist of their options throughout the process once a parking charge has been issued.
Alongside the code, we propose a transparent and robust framework for ensuring compliance with the code. The compliance framework comprises an independent scrutiny and oversight board and a United Kingdom Accreditation Service approved certification scheme to oversee the compliance of private parking operators with the standards in the code. This means that the parking industry will no longer be enforcing its own standards, and this will improve public perception of private car parks as well as ensuring fairness for motorists.
We are keen to hear views from as many people affected as possible, especially from users of private parking facilities and those who manage and operate them, so that we can create a new framework that works for both motorists and operators.
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