Armed Forces Day 2026
(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Minister for Veterans and People (Louise Sandher-Jones)
The Minister of State in the House of Lords, my noble Friend Lord Coaker, has made the following written statement:
I wish to inform the House that Rushmoor borough council has been selected to host the Armed Forces Day national event in 2026.
Aldershot and Farnborough have a long and proud history with our military and are often referred to as the home of the British Army. Communities there have played a vital role in supporting, shaping and honouring our armed forces over many decades. Hosting the national event in the borough offers a chance to build on those deep connections, bringing the armed forces, the local community and wider society closer together. We congratulate the people of Rushmoor, the local council and the local MP, Alex Baker, for their successful campaign.
The national event is part of our wider commitment to renewing the nation’s contract with those who serve, and a whole-of-society approach to Defence, as set out in the strategic defence review.
Under our Government, Armed Forces Day will therefore become bigger and bolder. The day will continue to be about gratitude but also about deepening people’s knowledge of what the armed forces have to offer.
By working closely with local authorities, MPs and communities, we will better demonstrate the contribution that our armed forces make to national prosperity, to technology, skills and innovation, as well as to security.
While the national event will take place in Rushmoor, Armed Forces Day is a celebration for the whole of the United Kingdom. We expect hundreds of smaller events to take place in towns and villages across the country. To support this, applications for grant funding for local events will open in January, and I encourage local authorities and community groups to apply.
Ultimately, this is a moment of national significance to recognise the service and sacrifice of our armed forces community: our serving personnel, veterans, cadets and the families who support them. We owe them our gratitude for their dedication to keeping this nation safe.
In Britain, we are fortunate to have the very finest armed forces. Our Government are committed to ensuring that our forces, our veterans and their families know that this Government and nation are on their side—and not just in armed forces week, but all year round.
Preparations for the event are now under way, and the Ministry of Defence will work closely with Rushmoor borough council to deliver a successful programme. I will keep the House updated as plans progress.
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Campsfield Immigration Removal Centre
(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Alex Norris)
I am today announcing that Campsfield immigration removal centre in Oxfordshire has opened. Detention plays a crucial role in maintaining effective immigration control and securing our borders. It is right that those with no right to remain in the UK are removed if they do not leave voluntarily.
Campsfield IRC will be operated in line with the statutory framework established by the Immigration Act 1971 and the Detention Centre Rules 2001. The centre will provide safe and secure accommodation for up to 160 men. Healthcare provision has been procured by NHS England, and there will be no impact on primary healthcare services provided within the local community. Further expansion will provide an additional 240 male beds.
Campsfield IRC is the first of several new detention facilities planned under this Government, with expansions at this site and Haslar IRC to provide 1,000 additional bed spaces. Every additional detention bed space translates to more offenders and illegal migrants removed from our country as we restore order and control to our borders while providing sanctuary to those genuinely fleeing danger. This expansion will mean thousands more enforced returns of foreign national offenders and failed asylum seekers per year, sending a clear message: if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay.
The Home Office has dramatically intensified enforcement action since July 2024. Returns and deportations of illegal migrants have soared to the highest levels in nearly a decade, with nearly 50,000 returns and enforced returns up 24%. It comes alongside the sweeping asylum reforms, which include resetting article 8 to prioritise the deportation of foreign criminals, and introducing a streamlined appeals process to stop endless legal challenges.
We are committed to ensuring the proper protection and treatment of vulnerable people in detention. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of residents is at the forefront of the new facility. The new contract to operate the centre takes into account the findings of all external reports and reviews of standards in detention, including increased staffing levels.
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UK Anti-corruption Strategy
(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Minister for Security (Dan Jarvis)
Today the Government have published the UK anti-corruption strategy 2025, setting out the Government’s response to tackle the harm that corruption causes to our growth, security and democracy over the next five years.
Corruption harms the UK and its citizens directly. Corruption makes people in the UK poorer and less safe. It undermines confidence in public institutions, damages the UK’s reputation as a trusted place to do business, distorts markets and deters investment. It threatens our national security: corrupt insiders can facilitate organised crime at our borders and in our prisons, and kleptocratic elites overseas seek to exploit our open economy and institutions. In this context of geopolitical instability and accelerating technological change, a clear and concerted strategy is necessary to protect the UK, support long-term economic growth and uphold the integrity of public life. Corruption is a transnational threat that harms our international partners and international interests while fuelling instability overseas: increasing crime, illegal migration and other threats back in the UK.
The strategy is organised around three pillars:
First, it combats corrupt actors and their funds in the UK and overseas. We will strengthen enforcement by expanding the City of London police’s domestic corruption unit and continuing to support the international corruption unit and the international anti-corruption co-ordination centre housed at the National Crime Agency. We will expand the use of sanctions against corrupt actors and their enablers, improve the system-wide response to professional enablers, and pilot the use of artificial intelligence to speed up complex investigations, including within the Serious Fraud Office. We will explore opportunities to reform the UK whistleblowing framework, including through potential financial incentives. We will champion beneficial ownership transparency, including in the UK’s overseas territories and Crown dependencies, to support asset recovery and target corrupt funds.
The strategy also includes reform of the UK’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing supervisory system, consolidating the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisory functions of 22 professional services supervisory bodies. The Financial Conduct Authority will assume responsibility for the supervision of professional services firms, strengthening the UK’s defences against illicit finance and corruption, supporting sustainable growth and simplifying a complex regulatory system.
The second pillar of the strategy tackles vulnerabilities to corruption within UK institutions and systems. We will raise standards in public life by establishing a new ethics and integrity commission, strengthening the business appointments regime and improving the transparency of political donations, including enhanced due diligence requirements. We will bolster integrity in local government through a new statutory local audit office in England and, subject to collective agreement, introduce a mandatory code of conduct for elected local government officials with meaningful sanctions. Across the public sector we will improve vetting, information sharing and insider risk controls in high-risk areas such as policing, borders and prisons, and enhance training and guidance on corruption and procurement.
Thirdly, the strategy sets out plans to deepen our international partnerships aimed at building global resilience to corruption and broader illicit finance. We will host a UK countering illicit finance summit to galvanise collective action against this shared threat; expand our overseas illicit finance network; provide support to partner countries to prevent corruption and implement international standards; and protect and empower civil society and investigative journalism to expose corruption and hold the corrupt to account. We will work multilaterally to protect and enhance implementation of international standards designed to combat corruption and illicit finance.
Delivering these measures will make the UK a harder target for corrupt actors and their funds, improve trust in public life, support investment, and strengthen our national security. These actions will reinforce the UK’s position as a partner of choice for international counterparts sharing our commitment to tackle corruption and illicit finance. The strategy commits the Government to publishing a new anti-money laundering and asset recovery strategy in 2026, alongside the countering illicit finance summit, to complement and extend this work.
Implementation of the strategy will be overseen by Ministers across the Home Office, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and HM Treasury, supported by the Prime Minister’s anti-corruption champion. We are committed to transparent updates and scrutiny of delivery:
We will publish annual progress updates on gov.uk and provide a written ministerial statement to Parliament each year;
We will undertake and publish two in-depth progress assessments at years 3 and 5 of the strategy; and
We will provide updates on progress to an external engagement group, chaired by the anti-corruption champion, and including civil society, academia, business and parliamentarians.
The UK anti-corruption strategy 2025 has been laid before Parliament as a Command Paper (CP 1454) and is available in the Vote Office and on gov.uk.
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Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025: Codes of Practice
(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)
I, alongside Public Sector Fraud Authority Ministers, would like to advise the House that today the Government have launched two public consultations on the codes of practice associated with the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025. One is led by the Department for Work and Pensions and the other by the PSFA. These will consult on the following codes:
Public Sector Fraud Authority: Civil penalties.
Department for Work and Pensions: Eligibility verification notices, recovery of debt via direct deduction order and disqualification from driving and obtaining information to support fraud investigations in the welfare system.
The 2025 Act includes a statutory obligation for the PSFA to issue a code of practice on the administration of civil penalties, and for DWP to publicly consult on the codes for the eligibility verification measure and debt recovery measures before the powers are used for the first time. In terms of the code relating to the information gathering powers, the Secretary of State Work and Pensions similarly has a duty to consider representations on the draft code under section 3 of the Social Security Fraud Act 2001.
As we made clear through the passage of the Act, these codes are important safeguards that will support effective and proportionate application of these powers. They are necessary pieces of departmental guidance and will guide the operation and management of the new powers by outlining, in more detail, how the powers taken through this Act should be delivered, reflecting the newly passed legislation.
The powers granted through the Act will allow the Department to better identify, prevent and deter social security fraud and error and enable the better recovery of debt owed to the taxpayer. The launch of today’s consultations is another step towards delivering the Government’s manifesto commitment to safeguard taxpayers’ money and demonstrates that this Government will not tolerate fraud or waste in public services.
This Government are committed to full and thorough consultations to allow input from a broad range of perspectives, which will help to inform the final versions of the codes. Consequently, the consultations on these codes will take place over 12 weeks. This means that the code for each measure will be published ahead of the relevant measures commencing implementation.
During the passage of the Act, a statement was made during Committee in the House of Commons that the DWP codes would be laid in Parliament for a minimum of 40 sitting days prior to formal publication. Considering the extensive engagement that our officials had with stakeholders throughout the passage of the Act, which will continue through these consultations and beyond, we no longer believe that this is necessary.
In addition, we have made previous draft codes available on request to parliamentarians since 23 May 2025. This has provided ample opportunity for Members to review the draft codes, and Members will be able to consider these further during the consultation period. This approach will allow us to begin the important work of exercising these powers sooner to deliver the estimated benefits of £1.5 billion by 2029-30, as scored by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
The consultations will launch today, Monday 8 December 2025, and run until Friday 27 February 2026. These consultations can be found on www.gov.uk. The codes will be officially laid once the consultation, formal response and final versions are complete.
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Safeguarding: Department for Work and Pensions
(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Pat McFadden)
I wish to update the House on the actions my Department has taken following the conclusion of the safeguarding review, and consideration of consultation findings.
This fulfils a commitment made by the Department in response to the Work and Pensions Committee inquiry on safeguarding vulnerable adults in July 2025.
Safeguarding is a serious issue that demands transparency, accountability and collaboration across Government. I reaffirm my Department’s commitment to safeguarding and our responsibility to protect individuals from harm, abuse and neglect wherever we encounter it in the course of our work.
Actions taken since the Committee’s report
I thank the Committee for its thorough inquiry and for its recommendations, which have shaped next steps. Since the Committee’s report, we have:
assessed our safeguarding approach, defining safeguarding in line with key legislation including: Care Act 2014, Domestic Abuse Act 2021, Children Act 1989, and Human Rights Act 1998;
developed an approach built on three simple steps: Recognise, Respond and Report—a standard approach to safeguarding used by other organisations;
checked our approach against statutory standards, with support from an independent safeguarding expert;
listened to safeguarding professionals and the public through the “Pathways to Work” Green Paper consultation, and selected roundtables;
run a Department-wide safeguarding survey, as recommended by the Committee.
This assessment found some good practice, but also variation in awareness, skills and accountability. That is why we need a consistent, joined-up approach.
Delivering improvements
Safeguarding must be part of everything we do. As I stated to the Committee on 19 November, it should be systems based. Put simply, safeguarding should be a central part of how we deliver our services, making safeguarding everyone’s business.
Our multi-year strategy starts with strong leadership and clear accountability. We have an executive lead, a dedicated safeguarding team, and clear governance.
Year one—which starts now—will focus on raising staff awareness of safeguarding responsibilities, building capability through training, and strengthening relationships with local authorities, health services and voluntary organisations. Year one deliverables include:
continue rolling out level 1 safeguarding training for non-clinical roles;
continue mandatory level 3 safeguarding training for clinical teams;
set out and communicate safeguarding roles and responsibilities so everyone in DWP understands the role they play, explained through internal guidance and communications;
enhance our existing processes so colleagues can more consistently recognise, respond to and report safeguarding concerns;
strengthen escalation routes for colleagues with safeguarding concerns;
review and strengthen existing internal process review processes to enhance clinical learning;
ensure our clinical workforce are recruited in line with NHS standards which includes undertaking an enhanced security check every three years;
by the end of year one, publish a DWP safeguarding policy framework which will set out our comprehensive approach.
From year two, work will focus on how safeguarding is being built into how the Department operates and assess how well the initial steps are working.
Over years three to five, we will focus on continuous improvement. We will explore digital solutions to capture safeguarding activity and further embed a learning culture that ensures safeguarding remains integral to everything we do.
Statutory safeguarding duty
Our immediate priority is to make safeguarding everyone’s business, with clear steps to recognise, respond to and report concerns. The Department remains open to adopting a statutory duty to refer safeguarding concerns appropriately. Our priority is to ensure that our internal safeguarding approach is robust, consistent and fully integrated across the Department.
Safeguarding must be a system-wide endeavour. It requires transparency, accountability, and collaboration across Government and with partners.
We have a clear way forward. We have recognised the gaps, we have identified solutions, and we have begun to deliver.
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Support for Young People
(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Pat McFadden)
Today I am announcing the expansion of the Government’s youth guarantee and the next phase of the growth and skills levy.
This announcement is backed by more than £1.5 billion of investment over the next three years, funding £820 million for the youth guarantee to support young people to earn or learn, and an additional £725 million for the growth and skills levy.
Through the expanded youth guarantee, young people aged 16 to 24 across Great Britain are set to benefit from further support into employment and learning. This includes:
Support to find a job
For young people on universal credit who are looking for work, we are introducing a new youth guarantee gateway, which over the next three years will offer nearly 900,000 16 to 24-year-olds a dedicated session, followed by four weeks of additional intensive support with a work coach: This new support will identify specific work, training, or learning opportunities locally for each young person and ensure they are supported to take those up.
Further expanding youth hubs
This support could be delivered at a youth hub. We are establishing youth hubs in over 360 locations so that all young people—including those not on benefits—can access opportunities and wider support in every local area of Great Britain. Youth hubs will bring together partners from health, skills and the voluntary sector, working closely with mayors and local authorities to deliver joined-up, community-based support.
Creating 300,000 opportunities for workplace experience and training
We will create up to 150,000 additional work experience placements and up to 145,000 additional bespoke training opportunities designed in partnership with employers, known as sector-based work academy programmes—SWAPs. At the end of each SWAP, employers offer a guaranteed job interview to participants.
An ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships in England
We are fully funding apprenticeship training costs for all eligible 16 to 24-year-olds, by removing the need for non-levy paying employers to co-fund these learners. We are also expanding foundation apprenticeships into sectors such as hospitality and retail, where young people are traditionally recruited. We will make available £140 million to pilot new approaches to better connect young people aged 16 to 24—especially those who are not in education, employment or training—to local apprenticeship opportunities.
Guaranteeing jobs
For long-term unemployed 18 to 21-year-olds on universal credit, the jobs guarantee scheme will provide six months of paid employment. This will reach around 55,000 young people over the next three years. We know that young people need support quickly, and that is why we will begin delivery of the jobs guarantee in six areas from spring 2026 in: Birmingham & Solihull, the East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Hertfordshire & Essex, Central & East Scotland, and South-west & South-east Wales. We will deliver over 1,000 job starts in the first six months. This will be followed by the national roll-out of the jobs guarantee across Great Britain.
Preventing young people from becoming NEET
We are making it easier to identify young people who need support, by investing in better NEETs data sharing, further education attendance monitoring, and new “risk of NEET” data tools, giving local areas more accurate insights to target support where it is needed most. We are also investing in work experience opportunities for young people at particular risk of becoming NEET, focused on pupils in state-funded alternative provision settings—education provided outside mainstream or special schools for children who cannot attend a regular school, often due to exclusion, health needs or other circumstances.
This builds on measures announced in the post-16 education and skills White Paper earlier this autumn. To make sure that young people move smoothly from school into post-16 education or training, we are working with schools to improve support for transitions and piloting automatic enrolment at further education providers for those without a confirmed place. This will make it easier for young people to stay on in education and succeed later in life.
The youth guarantee is part of a new social contract with young people, with opportunity matched by responsibility. Young people who can work will be expected to engage with the support offered. If the support is declined without good reasons, existing benefit sanction rules will apply.
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