Nuclear Energy Infrastructure
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Minister for Energy (Michael Shanks)
The UK’s nuclear sector will play a critical role in delivering the Government’s clean energy superpower mission and supporting economic growth. The Government will ensure that the right enablers are in place to support the sector to deploy new nuclear projects across England and Wales, including a suitable planning framework.
To improve the planning framework for nuclear infrastructure, today the final version of the new national policy statement on nuclear energy infrastructure—called EN-7—was laid before Parliament, according to section 9(8) of the Planning Act 2008.
EN-7 sets out the policy for considering development consent applications for new nuclear fission infrastructure. The NPS will be applicable to nuclear infrastructure proposed to produce over 50 MW of electricity in England and 350 MW of electricity in Wales. It introduces a criteria-based approach, removes the deployment deadline for new projects, and expands the range of technologies covered to include small and advanced modular reactors in addition to the existing gigawatt-scale reactors. The new planning framework is robust, transparent and agile, and it will empower developers to identify potentially suitable sites against a set of criteria, ensuring safety, sustainability and the mitigation of impacts on the host community.
Once EN-7 is approved, either by resolution by the House of Commons, or by deemed consent by the House of Commons following a “consideration period” of 21 sitting days, it will enter into force.
[HCWS1049]
Transforming the Health Service
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)
I am today updating the House on the Government’s plans to reform the health system in England, in line with our commitment to deliver a more accountable, productive and patient-focused national health service.
The Government intend to abolish NHS England by March 2027, subject to the will of Parliament. And as we have set out, the role of integrated care boards is also changing. ICBs now have a clear purpose as strategic commissioners, tasked with building a neighbourhood health service focused on preventing illness.
We are doing this to deliver a more streamlined, efficient and strategic centre. The size of the centre has more than doubled since 2010. The 2012 reorganisation of the NHS led to worse care for patients, at soaring costs, leaving taxpayers paying more but getting less. That is why the Government’s ambition remains to reduce staff numbers by up to 50% across the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and ICBs. These reductions will be made by March 2028.
Patients will experience better care as we end duplication and slash bureaucracy across the NHS, with around 18,000 posts abolished and more than £1 billion per annum saved by the end of the Parliament. These reforms will also give more power and autonomy to local leaders and systems—stripping away red tape and bureaucracy, and providing more freedom to better deliver health services for their local communities. Today’s announcement comes ahead of next week’s Budget, which will focus on cutting waiting lists, cutting the national debt and cutting the cost of living, and driving more productive and efficient use of taxpayers’ money by rooting out waste in public services.
As set out in our 10-year health plan, we are revitalising the foundation trust model that drove previous improvements in performance, but with the shift from treatment to prevention at its heart. And as our next step in delivering this commitment, I can today update Parliament that eight high-performing trusts will be assessed by NHS England to become the first advanced foundation trusts, based on their record of delivering quality care, strong finances and effective partnerships with staff and local services:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/advanced-foundation-trusts/
Further waves will follow over the coming years, driving up standards in every community.
This new designation will reward excellence with greater freedom for providers and clinicians to make decisions locally—from how services are organised to how money is spent—so that care can be designed around what works best for local people, not dictated from Whitehall.
On top of this, the best foundation trusts—those embracing the three shifts and demonstrating the strongest partnerships—will also be given the opportunity to hold integrated health organisation contracts. As an IHO, they will hold the whole health budget for a local population, alongside responsibility for improving health outcomes.
From the first wave of advanced foundation trusts, two will go forward as candidates for first wave IHO designation. We will work with these designates to further develop the IHO model, and over time we expect IHOs to become the norm.
All of this adds up to a very different kind of NHS. It marks a fundamental shift: from command and control to collaboration and confidence. It will not happen overnight, but with our investment and modernisation, this Government will rebuild our NHS so that it is there for you when you need it once again.
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Prevent Programme
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Minister for Security (Dan Jarvis)
On Thursday 6 November, the Home Office published official statistics for “Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme from April 2024 to March 2025”. Prevent is a key part of Contest, the national counter-terrorism strategy, and aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It has supported nearly 6,000 people to move away from a pathway to radicalisation since 2015 and plays a vital role in safeguarding those most vulnerable in our communities.
Key statistics
In the year ending 31 March 2025, the Prevent programme experienced a significant increase in activity, with 8,778 referrals recorded, compared to 6,922 between April 2023 and March 2024. This represents a 27% rise compared to the previous year and marks the highest annual total since records began in 2015. Of these referrals, 1,472 were adopted as Channel cases, accounting for 17% of all referrals. This proportion is notably higher than the 7% recorded last year. As set out in the full publication, changes in methodology mean that caution should be exercised when making direct comparisons with previous years.
Looking at the nature of concerns raised, 21% of referrals were related to extreme right-wing radicalisation (1,798 cases), while 10% were associated with Islamist extremism (870 cases). A substantial proportion of referrals—34%—concerned individuals for whom no specific ideology was identified.
The UK terrorism threat level has remained substantial, with Islamist extremism the most significant threat, followed by extreme right-wing terrorism. Of those concerns related to Islamist extremism, 26% were adopted into Channel for support the year ending March 2025, an increase from 13% last year. While the increased number of adoptions is welcome, we recognise that given the prevalence of this threat type, Prevent must go further to build awareness and understanding so that people can identify and refer Islamist extremist concerns.
We continue to see an increase in concerns regarding those that have a fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks. The tragic attack in Southport last year demonstrates the very real threat from non-ideological extreme violence, and the increase in referrals of this type to Prevent shows the vigilance of frontline professionals in identifying and reporting these concerns.
It is vital that Prevent remains threat agnostic so that it can deal with the full range of threats we face. As an early intervention programme, Prevent is in a position to intervene and provide support to anybody who is on a pathway to radicalisation. While the presence of ideology is clearly an important factor, Prevent must not limit its scope to cases where a terrorist ideology has clearly already taken hold.
Under this Government a range of steps have been taken to improve the ability of frontline professionals subject to the Prevent duty to spot the signs of radicalisation.
A new Prevent assessment framework was rolled out in September 2024 to support CT police to strengthen the quality and consistency of decision-making on all Prevent referrals.
In November 2024, we launched a new ideology training programme for frontline staff such as teachers and healthcare workers. This will help them to identify extremist ideologies, including Islamist extremism, and to refer people they are concerned about into Prevent for further support.
The role of independent Prevent commissioner was created in December 2024, to provide additional scrutiny and oversight of Prevent policy and delivery.
In September 2025, the Home Office issued new guidance which clarified Prevent thresholds for practitioners, following recommendations made the independent Prevent commissioner.
As the nature of radicalisation evolves, it is essential that Prevent can effectively tackle the threat we see today. The Home Office will continue to work with partners including counter-terrorism police, local authorities, health and education to ensure that Prevent can offer support to the right people, where they are at risk of being drawn into terrorism.
[HCWS1045]
Medomsley Detention Centre
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jake Richards)
The Government would like to make a formal apology to all victims and survivors who endured abuse while they were at Medomsley Detention Centre.
Medomsley held young men sentenced or remanded by the courts in the north-east of England from the early 1960s until the late 1980s. In the years since, it has become clear that shocking and systematic abuse took place at Medomsley, which was carried out by staff who were meant to protect the young people in their care.
Today, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has published a report into what happened at Medomsley. This report makes for harrowing reading and gives an account of the physical, sexual and psychological abuse.
The PPO report was commissioned to investigate what authorities knew about the abuse, and if any action was taken at time to intervene.
The report sets out that the abuse often began when detainees arrived and for some continued after the young men had left Medomsley. It highlights that vulnerable victims were often deliberately targeted, including men from ethnic minority backgrounds who were subjected to appalling racism. Young men were hospitalised as a result of the abuse, and there were at least two tragic deaths, which were likely caused by neglect from the staff, who should have been caring for them.
The report highlights the huge impact of the abuse for those who had to endure it. This cannot be understated. Many detainees turned to self-harm, others to drink and drugs and some attempted suicide.
The report makes it clear that the staff believed that rules did not apply to them, that violence was an appropriate training method and that degrading and humiliating the young men was part of the culture at Medomsley.
In some of the worst cases, there was systematic rape and sexual assault, which involved ritual humiliation and degradation.
In regard to action taken at the time by authorities, the report details that there was a litany of failures. The complaints process was utterly flawed at Medomsley and young men were intimidated into silence. When complaints were made, they were denied or dismissed by Government officials. This means there was a complete lack of effective action in response to complaints or allegations.
In addition, much of what was happening at Medomsley was an open secret within the local community. The young men sent there were warned of the violent culture at Medomsley by lawyers, police officers, friends and family members. Some had never spent a night away from home and were subjected to terrible abuse at Medomsley.
Medomsley should have helped young men turn their lives around. Instead, it became a monstrous perversion of justice for the young men who walked through its gates.
There is nothing that will completely make amends for what happened and we cannot change the abuse which occurred at Medomsley. However, this statement, representing the Government, is to apologise.
We apologise for what victims and survivors endured, and for how long it was allowed to continue. On our own behalf and that of past Governments, we are truly sorry for what happened.
We must do everything we can to support victims and survivors of Medomsley. And in 2019 the Ministry of Justice established a settlement scheme for victims and survivors of physical and sexual abuse. To date, this has paid out over £10 million to over 2,700 individuals. Anyone who suffered abuse at Medomsley is still able to make a claim, and we encourage them to come forward.
However, victims have understandably wanted answers about how this was able to continue for so long. Today the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report lays bare a combination of outdated societal attitudes, poor and ineffective governance, failures of leadership at every level and a complete imbalance of power. All these factors contributed to putting Medomsley, in the Ombudsman’s words, effectively beyond the law .
There are important lessons to be learnt from this, and this report also shines a light on conditions in today’s youth custody estate too.
The youth custodial estate today bears little resemblance to the one in which the abuse at Medomsley took place. The number of children in custody has significantly reduced and children are no longer detained for less serious offences. The Government’s approach is that depriving a child of their liberty must always be a last resort and where that is unavoidable, we must provide decent and dignified care, with rehabilitation at its core.
Children who are currently in youth custody are some of the most complex and vulnerable in society. Therefore, we must do our utmost to ensure they are kept safe and given the opportunity to lead positive and happy lives on release. We know that children are most likely to do that when cared for in therapeutic environments, by highly skilled staff—the opposite of what the victims of Medomsley experienced.
The Youth Custody Service today recruits and provides training for youth justice specialists in Young Offender Institutions, which accommodate many children across the estate. It is now mandatory for all staff to undertake safeguarding training, and other training packages such as the youth justice worker qualification are grounded in trauma-informed practice.
Although the estate looks different today, the recent inspection reports on Oakhill Secure Training Centre and Oasis Restore Secure School demonstrate that more must be done to keep children safe.
Today, I am announcing that we will create a youth custody safeguarding panel, which will be led by the chief social worker for children and families who will have responsibility for reviewing safeguarding arrangements in youth custody, including the complaints process. This to ensure victims voices are heard and not dismissed, like they were at Medomsley.
The panel will undertake a review of the safeguarding practices to ensure they are fit for purpose and subject to appropriate scrutiny. It will review the roles of all of those involved in caring for and supporting children, and it will report directly to the Minister for Youth Justice. I will ensure it drives forward changes to safeguarding children and commit to reporting on the panels progress in six months.
This Government are also making a number of legislative changes to protect children.
This includes implementing several recommendations from the 2022 independent inquiry into child sexual abuse and the 2025 national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The response to the independent inquiry places a new statutory duty on individuals who work with children in England to report sexual abuse, or face being struck off from working with children. And those who try to deter them from doing so will face prosecution under a new criminal offence. This makes it clear that there will now be consequences for failure to act.
We will also consult on the creation of a new child protection authority to provide system leadership and ensure there is consistency in safeguarding nationally.
This Government are also bringing the landmark Hillsborough Bill through Parliament, which will place new obligations on public servants to provide evidence with candour proactively and without attempting to cover up wrongdoing. This will bring failures to light more quickly and mean those who abuse their position or fall short of the behaviour expected of those who hold public office will face criminal sanctions.
Finally, we are also introducing the Victims and Courts Bill, which will establish a new victims’ code. This will enhance the legal rights of victims to ensure they are informed, supported, and heard throughout the justice process.
Taken all together, each of these changes aims to protect children from harm, improve safeguarding, and ensure victims are supported throughout the justice process. Ultimately, they will help prevent a repeat of what happened at Medomsley.
This statement also pays tribute to the many who have campaigned tirelessly on this issue for so many years, including the hon. Members for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) and for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend (Mary Glindon), and many others.
I would like to recognise the families, who have supported their loved ones as they struggled to come to terms with what happened to them, and, finally, the men themselves. I cannot imagine what you have been through. I can only commend your courage, for being prepared to talk about your abuse, and your determination to get answers. Your fight to have your voices has been heard and will protect children in the future.
On behalf of the Government, I am truly sorry for what happened to you and that those in power failed you.
We may never truly make amends for the horrors you suffered at Medomsley. But we can, we must, and we will, take steps to prevent it from happening again.
[HCWS1050]
Cyber-security and Resilience
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Kanishka Narayan)
In June 2024, Synnovis, a supplier of pathology services to the NHS, was the victim of a ransomware attack. Computer systems were hacked, private patient data was stolen, and IT systems were rendered useless. This resulted in disruption to services at five NHS trusts and local care service providers across several London boroughs, causing delays to over 11,000 out-patient and elective procedure appointments and, tragically, contributed to the death of a patient. For Synnovis itself, the financial impact of the cyber-attack is estimated at £32.7 million.
The internet is one of the greatest engines for creativity and innovation, transforming every part of our lives, from how we communicate to how we book an appointment with our doctor. It is embedded into every part of the critical systems we rely on daily, with huge benefits. However, as the attack on the NHS provider shows, the technology that underpins cyber-space—the invisible world where all our online activity happens—can be attacked and weaponised by those who mean to do us harm.
Vulnerability to cyber-attacks is not limited to the NHS. Last year, over 600,000 UK businesses were subject to a cyber-attack. Independent research commissioned by DSIT—published today—shows the average cost of a significant cyber-attack for a UK business is over £190,000. When taken at the level of the economy, this suggests an estimated annual cost to businesses of £14.7 billion, or 0.5% of the country’s GDP. These statistics and recent high-profile attacks serve as a sobering reminder that cyber-security is not a luxury, and all organisations should take steps to defend themselves.
The Government are taking a wide range of actions to improve cyber-resilience across the economy. This includes:
Writing to leading UK firms asking them to take urgent action on cyber-security. So far, over 130 firms have responded to the letter with details of the actions they are taking, including requiring suppliers to adopt the cyber essentials scheme.
Launching a new cyber action toolkit to help small businesses boost their online defences.
Offering free cyber-security guidance, tools, training and codes of practice.
Offering practical, hands-on cyber-security help to small and medium-sized enterprises via nine regional cyber-resilience centres.
The “Stop! Think Fraud” campaign, which provides advice to the public and small businesses on how to prevent fraud and cyber-crime.
But where organisations provide essential services that the public and businesses rely on every day, we must go further to ensure that appropriate and proportionate safeguarding measures are in place. As the CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre warned,
“the challenge we face is growing at an order of magnitude”.
Yet as the threat has grown more intense, more frequent and more sophisticated, our defences have become comparatively weaker. The UK’s only cross-sector cyber legislation—protecting the essential and digital services the public and businesses rely on every day, like the NHS, transport system and energy network—is out of date and no longer sufficient to tackle the cyber-threats faced by the UK.
As the Prime Minister has said,
“national security is the first responsibility of any Government—that never changes. But as the world changes, the way we discharge that responsibility must change with it”.
In response to the growing cyber-threat, it is crucial that we act now to enhance the UK’s security and resilience—to protect our essential public services, deliver a step change in UK national security, and underpin economic growth.
This is why today we will introduce the Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill to Parliament, updating the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 through three pillars of reform.
Expanded scope: The regime does not cover every UK organisation. It is about those services that are so essential that their disruption would affect our daily lives. The original regulations in 2018 brought into scope services such as the NHS, the transport system and the energy network. Since then, cyber-criminals are exploiting new routes—managed service providers, data centres and critical parts of supply chains—to threaten our way of life. Recent incidents impacting Marks & Spencer and Heathrow airport involved managed service providers, leading to considerable business disruption and interrupting check-in and boarding services, respectively. This reflects the interconnected economy we live in. By bringing into scope more of the core services relied on across the economy, UK businesses and public services will be more secure and resilient.
Effective regulators: 12 regulators are responsible for implementing these laws. This allows for a sector-specific approach, as different organisations are vulnerable to threats in different ways, such as through the technology they use. The Bill will drive a more consistent and effective regime, with expanded and more timely reporting of harmful cyber-attacks, a stronger mechanism for Government to set priority outcomes for regulators to work to, and a fuller toolkit for sharing information, recovering costs and enforcement.
Enabling resilience: The Government do not currently have the powers to head off the threats faced by the UK as they change and evolve. That is why the Government will be given the tools to quickly strengthen our cyber-security and resilience in response to the ever-changing threat landscape, such as bringing more sectors into scope or updating security requirements, and responding to imminent threats to our national security and way of life.
The measures set out today respond to the threat we face—protecting the public at home, putting national security first, and making the UK a safe and confident place to do business.
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Fund Advance for Cash Paid in to Social Fund: Contingencies
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Torsten Bell)
I would like to notify the House that the Department for Work and Pensions has obtained approval for an advance from the Contingencies Fund of £1,610,000,000
The voted cash requirement for cash to be paid into the social fund exceeds that provided for in the main estimate 2025-26 due to changes to eligibility in the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payments Regulations 2025.
The Contingencies Fund advance is required to enable payments into the social fund to meet obligations until the supplementary estimate receives Royal Assent.
Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £1,610,000,000 will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the Department for Work and Pensions. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £1,610,000,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.
The advance will be repaid at the earliest opportunity following Royal Assent of the Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Act 2026.
[HCWS1047]
Annually Managed Expenditure Budgets Increase
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Torsten Bell)
I would like to notify the House that the Department for Work and Pensions has obtained approval from His Majesty’s Treasury for an increase of £1,610,000,000 to non-voted AME—annually managed expenditure—budgets and the total AME budget control, to fund increases to the winter fuel payment in line with the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2025.
[HCWS1048]