Written Statements

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Written Statements

Wednesday 18 March 2026

Free Trade Agreement: Turkey

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Written Statements

[The Minister for Trade (Chris Bryant)]

The fourth round of negotiations on an enhanced free trade agreement with Turkey took place in London during the week commencing 23 February 2026.

Negotiations were productive, with positive progress being made in a number of areas:

Trade in services

Constructive discussions took place across a range of technical areas, including investment, digital trade, telecommunications, cross-border trade in services, the movement of business persons, and legal services. Both sides continued to engage productively, building on progress made in previous rounds.

Trade in goods

Detailed discussions took place across trade in goods, customs and trade facilitation, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Negotiators continued to discuss proposals and relevant data with a view to unlocking commercially meaningful opportunities for UK exporters. On customs and trade facilitation, discussions focused on strengthening co-operation between customs authorities to support predictable, transparent and efficient border procedures. On sanitary and phytosanitary measures, both sides continued exchanges on practical co-operation to facilitate safe trade in agrifood products while maintaining and upholding the UK’s high standards.

Additional areas

Substantial progress was made across a number of additional chapters, including intellectual property, Government procurement, anti-corruption, labour, environment, state-owned enterprises and dispute settlement. Both sides continued constructive engagement on regulatory and institutional provisions to support the effective implementation of any future agreement.

Economic growth is our first mission in Government, and FTAs have an important role to play in achieving this. A stronger trade relationship with Turkey will support jobs and prosperity in the UK, with trade between the two totalling £28.3 billion in the 12 months ending in September 2025, representing an increase of 5.8% from the previous 12 months:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/697a37dc3c71d838df6bd406/turkey-trade-and-investment-factsheet-2026-02-02.pdf

The UK will only ever sign a trade agreement that aligns with the UK’s national interests, upholding our high standards across a range of sectors.

The fifth round of negotiations is expected to take place before the summer. Ministers will update Parliament on the progress of discussions with Turkey as negotiations continue.

[HCWS1415]

Credit Union Common Bond Reform

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Written Statements

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Lucy Rigby)]

Credit unions play a vital role in promoting financial inclusion and providing affordable financial services to communities across the country. However, the current common bond framework in Great Britain presents barriers to sustainable growth, expansion and merger activity in the sector. The Government are committed to addressing these barriers while preserving the community-focused ethos that makes credit unions distinctive.

In November 2025, as part of the financial inclusion strategy¹, the Government confirmed their intention to bring forward a package of growth-focused reforms to the common bond in Great Britain. This followed a call for evidence on the common bond, launched by the Chancellor at Mansion House in 2024, as part of the Government’s commitment to double the size of the mutuals sector.

The Government are today announcing the following changes that seek to remove barriers to the growth of the credit union sector in Great Britain. When parliamentary time allows, the Government will legislate to:

Increase the potential membership cap on the locality bond from 3 million to 10 million. This will significantly expand the potential size of locality-based credit unions, which make up 79% of the sector, and reduce uncertainty regarding mergers;

Allow credit unions to permit students to join locality-based credit unions, in addition to those who reside or work in the geographical area;

Allow credit unions to admit members’ relatives into a credit union regardless of whether they live in the same household as the qualifying member, as well as individuals who live in the same household as the qualifying member. This will better reflect modern family dynamics and broaden the membership base; and

Allow credit unions to retain members of occupation and employer bonds as fully qualifying members upon retirement, including allowing retirees to join a credit union after retirement has begun. This will also apply to locality bonds where members are eligible based on employment within the locality.

These reforms will help credit unions grow sustainably so that more people across the UK can access affordable, community-based financial services.

This announcement complements broader work to support credit unions, including the Prudential Regulation Authority’s policy statement on credit union service organisations², the £30 million credit union transformation fund for England announced as part of the financial inclusion strategy and led by Fair4AllFinance, and the FCA and PRA’s planned review of the regulatory framework for credit unions, as set out in the mutuals landscape report published on 5 December 2025.³

These reforms also form part of the Government’s work on our manifesto commitment to double the size of the co-operative and mutuals sector, in partnership with the sector.

The full call for evidence response describing these reforms in detail is published on gov.uk:

https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/credit-union-common-bond-reform

¹https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6909ed8db04a520c5051843f/Financial_Inclusion_Report.pdf



² https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/prudential-regulation/publication/2026/february/credit-union-service-organisations-policy-statement

³https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/prudential-regulation/publication/2025/december/mutuals-landscape-report-2025.pdf

[HCWS1418]

Land Use Framework for England

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Reynolds)]

I am today laying before Parliament this Government’s first land use framework for England, setting out a vision for how we can best use land.

Land is a fundamental natural asset, the foundation of our lives. The resilience of our homes, businesses, communities and nature itself relies on good land management. We want to make more effective use of land so that we can build the homes needed to tackle the housing crisis, generate home-grown clean power, safeguard our food security and restore nature at scale.

Last year we ran a national conversation on land use, seeking views on the various pressures on land and the need for a strategic approach to minimise trade-offs between these important goals and to deliver a resilient future. We received over 1,200 unique responses to the online consultation, from organisations and individuals, and gathered feedback through events and focus groups covering all parts of society. Today we also share a report summarising the key messages we heard, and the framework incorporates the Government’s response.

The land use framework shows how we can effectively manage multiple, and sometimes competing, demands for land, to make land multi-functional, and how we can adapt to the challenge of a changing climate and a growing population. It fulfils the Government’s commitment to set out a long-term and strategic approach to how England will use its finite land to support a prosperous and sustainable future.

The Government’s new framework provides decision makers with a single, shared vision on how we can play to the strengths of our diverse landscapes and enable multifunctional and resilient land use. It is not about telling anyone what to do; it is about providing the principles, data analysis and policy commitments to enable a more strategic approach that manages trade-offs and optimises benefits. By putting cutting-edge data in the hands of those making decisions on the ground, the land use framework will help to speed up house building and infrastructure delivery, support farm business diversification and profitability, and accelerate environmental improvement.

The land use framework sets out how we will:

Unlock development and accelerate growth by streamlining spatial planning and aligning local and national priorities. This will reduce uncertainty in planning decisions and clarify local contributions to national targets, helping to lower costs of development and mobilise investment in nature-based solutions that protect homes, businesses and infrastructure from the impacts of climate change. We will release the data and digital tools required to locate housing and infrastructure in the most appropriate places so that we can accelerate the building of new homes and clean energy infrastructure, while also safeguarding food production and restoring nature.

Support farmers and food security by maintaining overall food production in England. We are safeguarding food production on the most productive farmland, and developing sector growth plans to help improve productivity, profitability and resilience to ensure long-term food security. We will ensure that our agricultural land classification system remains fit for purpose to inform planning decisions. Simplified systems for making payments and digitised land data submissions will make it easier for farmers to make decisions, and there will be new or more targeted funds to support land use change activity.

Protect the environment and adapt to climate change by taking a more strategic approach that ensures there is enough land available to meet our targets in the environmental improvement plan and carbon budget growth and delivery plan. We will design farming policy to support climate mitigation and resilience and transition some financial incentives to focus on where they will make the greatest impact.

Make land digital by putting advanced data in the hands of those making decisions. This will speed up housing and infra- structure development, support farm business resilience, and boost environmental improvement. We will provide access to the tools and mapping systems that decision makers need to make confident, long-term choices, providing transparency and certainty to drive innovative public-private investment.

This is the purpose of the first land use framework for England: to provide a blueprint for smarter land- based decision making. We will work in partnership with farmers, landowners, local government and decision makers, as well as technology providers and academics, to deliver this framework.

Publishing the framework is just the first step. It is not a static document, and we will publish updated analysis on gov.uk, as well as progress on policy and implementation. Over the next year we will establish a land use unit to put the framework into action, producing the evidence, data and tools, and setting out national spatial priorities for relevant Government outcomes.

[HCWS1417]

Copyright and AI

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Liz Kendall)]

Today I am publishing a report and impact assessment on copyright and AI which will also be laid in Parliament. This fulfils the commitment under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and sets out our proposed next steps on copyright and AI.

Our creative industries are the best in the world, and part of what makes us proud to be British. They are one of our greatest exports, connect us to one another, and help us to shape and define our national story. They are at the heart of our industrial strategy, as one of the eight sectors that we believe offer the greatest potential for growth and good jobs in every part of the UK. They contribute £146 billion to the economy, are growing at two and a half times the rate of the rest of the economy, and support 7% of all UK jobs. They are a world-leading national asset that offers us potential not just now but well into the future. We want to see them continue to flourish and lead the world.

Artificial intelligence is the technological revolution of our times. It is a key national strength and crucial to our future prosperity. We have the third biggest AI sector in the world, and it is growing 23 times faster than the rest of the economy. We are rapidly moving to a more sophisticated world of agents and AI being embodied in the physical world, such as in robotics. This technology is too important for the UK to be overly dependent on a small number of firms based in other countries. The UK must be an AI maker, not an AI taker.

The UK has always led in science, creativity and innovation. We reject any suggestion that we must choose between our creative industries and the UK’s AI sector. Both are central to the Government’s industrial strategy and vital to the UK’s future prosperity.

Our approach to copyright will be driven by our shared principles and values. This means protecting the UK’s position as a creative powerhouse while unlocking the extraordinary potential of AI-driven innovation to grow the economy and improve British lives.

Our commitments

We believe that people should be paid fairly for the work that they do. It should not be that only the big and powerful can assert their rights. We also believe that championing innovation is critical to new discoveries, creating growth, driving social mobility, and allowing new talent and ideas to break through.

Today, we are making three commitments:

We will do what is right for the whole British economy. This includes both our creative industries and the UK AI sector.

We will help creatives control how their work is used. This sits at the heart of our ambition for creatives—including independent and smaller creative organisations—to be paid fairly.

We will unlock the extraordinary potential of AI-driven innovation to grow the economy, and secure sovereign capability for the UK.

The way forward

At the end of 2024, the Government published a consultation on copyright and AI. At that stage, the Government’s preferred way forward was to enable AI developers to train on copyright works, but to give rightsholders the ability to opt-out of this regime. This was overwhelmingly rejected by the vast majority of the creative industries.

We have listened. We have engaged extensively with creatives, AI firms, industry bodies, unions, academics and AI adopters, and that engagement has shaped our approach. This is why we can confirm today that the Government no longer have a preferred option.

We are not the only Government facing this challenge. The United States, the European Union, Australia, India and many other Governments are trying to find a way through. As the recent Lords Communications and Digital Committee report on AI, copyright and the creative industries recognised, it will take time to get this right. We will do so in a way that is in line with our own interests and values.

Our work programme

We have identified four areas where we will focus the next phase of this work.

Digital Replicas. Digital replicas can be a powerful tool, including for the creative industries. However, when someone’s likeness is replicated without their permission, it can be harmful. We will launch a consultation in the summer to seek views on how we address these harms, while protecting legitimate innovation.

Labelling AI-generated content. It can be helpful to consumers to understand whether content has been made using AI. It may also help protect against disinformation and harmful deepfakes. We will establish a taskforce to put forward proposals for Government on best practice for labelling AI-generated content, with an interim report to be published in autumn.

Creator control and transparency. We will publish a review of the mechanisms available for creators to control their works online. This will include standards, technical solutions and best practice on input transparency. This review will inform where there are gaps and whether there is an appropriate role for Government in addressing them.

Independent creatives. We will launch a working group on independent and smaller creative organisations to explore whether there is a role for Government to support their ability to license their content.

In addition, the UK Government are committed to establishing a creative content exchange, as set out in our creative industries sector plan. The intention is for the CCE to be a trusted marketplace for digitised cultural and creative assets. The CCE is supported by funding from UK Research and Innovation and is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. A pilot phase has been launched with an early adopter cohort of public institutions.

Making the UK the best place to build and adopt AI

Finally, we are committed to ensuring the UK remains one of the best places in the world to build and adopt innovative AI. That is why, yesterday, the Chancellor set out the Government’s commitment to the UK’s AI sector, including:

In April, we will launch the new sovereign AI unit, backed by £500 million to build new UK AI businesses.

We are backing workers who want to move firms by placing limits on the use of non-compete clauses, which stifle innovation and dynamism.

We have reformed the mandate of the British Business Bank and put £5 billion behind scale-ups.

We are running a new advanced market commitment, pledging to procure up to £100 million of new computing hardware produced by UK firms.

We are putting £1 billion into publicly owned supercomputers, which our researchers—whether in academia or in SMEs—can use for free for AI work. That is a leg up to some of our brightest and best who want to use these tools.

The Chancellor will convene top CEOs this summer for an AI adoption summit, bringing together leading tech firms with companies ready to adopt and scale AI to grow their businesses.

Working together

We are determined to make progress on these issues for the benefit of the whole economy. We will continue to work closely with parliamentarians and all stakeholders throughout this process. We are committed to finding regular opportunities to benefit from the experience and insight of MPs and Lords.

Together, this work will shape our country for decades to come. By taking time to get this right, we can make Britain the best place in the world for art, literature, music and film-making, and be the go-to country for safe, responsible AI—the kind that lifts our economy and brings opportunity to millions. We are determined to create a future that we are proud to say reflects the best of us. A confident, ambitious nation, full of optimism for what lies ahead.

We will arrange opportunities to discuss these issues further with both MPs and Lords in the coming weeks and months.

[HCWS1416]