Baroness McIntosh of Pickering

The UK Government uses a Lead Government Department model for the oversight of Critical National Infrastructure security and resilience policy. Each Lead Government Department is responsible for routinely undertaking risk assessments for their sector, including assessing Critical National Infrastructure risks within the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment.

The National Risk Register is the external version of the National Security Risk Assessment. It was most recently updated in January. All risks in the National Risk Register, including those related to Critical National Infrastructure, are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity. A number of risks will be subject to reassessment over the next few months. An updated risk will be subsequently published to reflect these changes.

Policy interventions, to address Critical National Infrastructure risks, are sector specific and led by the relevant Lead Government Department.

The primary focus of the Emergency Planning College (EPC) is to build resilience through training and exercising. It helps organisations to build capabilities to manage emergency and crises situations. All learning material is regularly reviewed to ensure alignment with the latest government direction, policy and legislation. The EPC does not have a role in assessing risks to Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) but uses the National Risk Register (NRR) in the development of its training materials and courses.The NRR is the external version of the government’s internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment. All risks in the NRR, including those related to CNI, are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity.

The UK Resilience Academy (UKRA) will be established in April 2025 to ensure that all those who work on resilience have the capability, knowledge and skills they need to play their part in making resilience a ‘whole of society’ endeavour.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

The Baroness McIntosh of Pickering

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

11 March 2025

Dear Lady McIntosh of Pickering,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what are the trade data on (1) exports, and (2) imports, with (a) the United States of America, (b) the EU, and (c) European countries including those outside of the EU, in each of the last three years (HL5557).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish UK trade data at country level in our UK total trade, all countries release[1] which is published on a quarterly basis. These data are available up to Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2024. The latest full year of data available is 2023.

Data on UK trade with the United States, the European Union and Europe can be found in Tables 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Please note that all data are in current prices and, as such, include the effect of inflation.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: UK total trade, trade in goods and trade in services with the United States, exports and imports, 2021-2023[2].

£ billion, current prices

Source: Office for National Statistics

Table 2: UK total trade, trade in goods and trade in services with the European Union, exports and imports, 2021-20232.

£ billion, current prices

Source: Office for National Statistics

Table 3: UK total trade, trade in goods and trade in services with Europe, exports and imports, 2021-20232,[3].

£ billion, current prices

Source: Office for National Statistics

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/datasets/uktotaltradeallcountriesseasonallyadjusted

[2]Data may not sum due to rounding.

[3]These data include all countries in Europe as set out in Appendix 5 of the Balance of Payments (BoP) Vademecum: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/39118/18471074/vademecum-balance-payment-november-2023-january-2024.pdf. This total includes European Union countries.

Under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement there are 19 Specialised Committees. These are co-chaired by a UK and EU senior official, and have met 67 times since 2021. The Specialised Committees report into the Partnership Council, which is the ministerial body set up by the TCA. It has met three times since 2021 and is currently chaired by Minster for the Cabinet Office Nick Thomas-Symonds and Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič. Further information is provided on GOV.UK.

The Government's Statutory Review of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) 2022-2025 was published on 14 April 2026. The role of GCA is to regulate the relationship between the largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers by enforcing compliance with the Groceries Supply Code of Practice.

On 7 April 2026 the Government announced that responsibility for the GCA would move from the Department for Business and Trade to the Department for Food and Rural Affairs from 01 July 2026. This will reinforce fairness across the UK's grocery supply chain, streamline oversight of the supply chain and strengthen links to the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator (ASCA).

The Government recognises the vital importance of the hospitality sector, particularly in rural and coastal areas, in providing employment opportunities for young people and supporting local economies. We have put in place a range of measures to ease cost pressures on the sector, including permanently lowering the business rates multiplier for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties, alongside a £4.3 billion business rates support package to protect ratepayers from increases following the revaluation.

Building on this, From April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget and then bills will be frozen in real terms for a further two years. The pub and hotel sector has also raised concerns about valuation, which the government agrees need to be addressed. We are therefore launching a review into how they are valued for business rates.

To go even further, we are more than doubling the Hospitality Support Fund, providing £10 million over three years to help local hospitality businesses diversify, improve productivity, and support people into jobs.

We are also investing significantly in young people's skills and opportunities. This includes £820 million for the Youth Guarantee and £725 million through the Growth and Skills Levy, ensuring young people have the support they need to earn or learn. We will support 50,000 young people into apprenticeships in England by fully funding apprenticeship training costs for all eligible 16-24year-olds, expanding foundation apprenticeships to hospitality, and extending the Destination Hospitality Sector-based Work Academy Programme pilot, launched in partnership with UKHospitality.

Post Offices play an important role in communities across the country, and particularly in rural areas where some branches act as a community hub. We are listening carefully to stakeholders to ensure the whole network, including these important rural branches, is sustainable.

The Government-set Access Criteria ensures that however the network changes, services remain within local reach of all citizens. Government's minimum access criteria for Post Offices mean that 99% of the UK population must be within three miles of their nearest post office outlet and 90% must be within one mile of their nearest post office outlet.

The report on the last statutory review of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), which was published in July 2023 concluded that a decision by the GCA to launch an investigation should be based upon some evidence or intelligence of non-compliance. The government will conduct the next statutory review of the GCA next year and all interested parties will have an opportunity to contribute their views.

‘Fair Dealings’ Regulations under the Agriculture Act 2020, including those which have already been introduced to cover the UK dairy sector, will be enforced by the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator.

The Government believes that the accelerated rollout of clean energy generation is compatible with protection of the natural environment.

All energy proposals are subject to a rigorous planning process, in which the views and interests of local communities are considered. This includes any impact on biodiversity, the environment, and fire risk.

Project developers typically must complete an Environmental Statement (ES) as part of any application. The ES requires developers to consider all potential impacts throughout a project’s life from pre-development to construction, operation, and decommissioning.

The Energy Independence Bill was included in the Kings’ Speech on 13 May.

The Bill will contain measures which will deliver our manifesto commitment not to issue new licences to explore new fields, including new licences that could be used for fracking for shale gas in England.

There is an effective moratorium on fracking for shale gas (“associated hydraulic fracturing” as defined by the Petroleum Act 1998) in England, which will continue to apply to existing licences. Similar restrictions are in place across other parts of the UK.

We announced in the Autumn Budget that we would cut the cost of living, and as a result, the price cap fell by 7% / £117 to £1,641 per year for an average dual fuel customer paying by Direct Debit.

This action follows the decision to expand the Warm Home Discount this winter, which will see around six million households receive an additional £150 off their energy bills.

We are confident that we have multiple and sufficient sources of supply.

Oil and gas are traded on international markets, therefore greater domestic production of oil and gas would not take a penny off bills.

The North Sea is a highly mature basin. Production is naturally declining and has been for the last 25 years. We no longer have the reserves available to support domestic energy demand.

The only route to energy sovereignty and energy security for Britain is our mission for clean, homegrown power that we control.

It is the responsibility of fire and rescue services to determine an appropriate firefighting strategy in the event of a battery thermal runaway event. The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has published guidance for local fire and rescue services on grid-scale batteries, to enable effective operational pre-planning.

Government has confidence in the NFCC and local fire and rescue services being best placed to make these assessments.

The copper landline network, also known as the Public Switched Telephone Network, is a privately-owned network and the decision to upgrade it has been taken by the telecoms industry. The industry’s decision to upgrade the PSTN is due to necessity, as the network is increasingly unreliable and prone to failure. In 2024, Ofcom (the independent telecoms regulator) recorded a 45% increase in PSTN resilience incidents. The PSTN is not being retained anywhere.

In the event of a power cut caused by extreme weather events, telecoms companies have a regulatory obligation to ensure that customers have access to emergency services for a minimum of one hour, for example by providing them with battery back-ups that power telephones during a power outage. In practice, many are offering solutions which exceed these minimum standards.

Superfast broadband (>=30Mbps) is now available to 98% of UK premises, with Project Gigabit delivering gigabit-capable broadband (>=1000 Mbps) to those not included in suppliers' commercial plans.

Over 86% of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, according to the independent website Thinkbroadband.com. Our goal is that at least 99% of UK premises will be able to access gigabit coverage by 2030.

Some rural and remote premises will remain too expensive to build a gigabit-capable connection to. The government is considering what policy measures may be required to help provide them with ultrafast (>=100Mbps) connections.

This is a very important issue which the government has been closely engaged with since it took office. It is important to note that landlines are not being withdrawn, but their underlying technology is being moved from Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

The switchover is an industry led programme. The Government is determined to ensure that any and all risks of the industry-led migration from PSTN to VoIP are mitigated. Communication providers and network operators signed voluntary charters in December 2023 and March 2024, ensuring their commitment to protect vulnerable consumers during the PSTN migration. On 18 November 2024, the major communication providers agreed to adhere to further safeguards set out in the non-voluntary migrations checklist before restarting non-voluntary migration of customers from PSTN to VoIP.

The cyber attack on the British Library caused multiple capabilities to be destroyed simultaneously which has required a rebuild of its entire technology infrastructure, a process of considerable complexity.

Significant steps to recover have already been taken, including restoring on-site access to the entire print collection, and restoring access to electronic Legal Deposit material via the National Libraries of Wales and Scotland, the Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

However, a range of online systems and services continue to be disrupted for users, both on-site and via the web. The Library is committed to urgently restoring these, safely and securely, and has apologised for the ongoing impact on its users. It expects to take further significant steps toward full online access over the coming months, however this does remain a complex process. Regular updates are provided via the British Library website and further details will be communicated with users as soon as these are confirmed.

Co-productions are integral to the success of the UK film industry, not only providing varied sources of funding and broadening audience reach, but allowing filmmakers to collaborate creatively with diverse partners from across the globe.Our film sector has strong ties with partners across Europe and a rich history of co-production both under the Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-production and through unofficial collaborations.

To further stimulate international exposure of the UK film industry the government has committed an additional £7 million for the UK Global Screen Fund for 2025/26. In addition to offering support for business development and distribution of UK films internationally, this fund offers specific support to promote international co-productions.

We are committed to working closely with the Gambling Commission to ensure that illegal gambling, in all its forms, is addressed. The Gambling Commission assesses information gathered from multiple sources and works closely with partner agencies to prevent access to illegal websites by consumers in Great Britain, regardless of where the website itself is based.

In the past year, the Commission has significantly increased its disruption activity and has a renewed focus on finding innovative ways to tackle the illegal market. The Crime and Policing Bill, introduced in Parliament on 25 February 2025, will also grant the Gambling Commission with new powers to more quickly and effectively take down illegal gambling websites.

The government is committed to ensuring that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill delivers for all children, including those living in rural areas.

The Bill includes measures designed to be delivered flexibly by local authorities, regional bodies and schools, enabling them to respond to local contexts. For example, provisions in the Bill to reform the children’s social care placement market include Regional Care Cooperatives which will assist local authorities by analysing the future accommodation needs for looked-after children across the region. This will support improved planning across geographic areas. We are also legislating on a package of measures which will help ensure that decisions on school place planning and admissions support the needs of communities, including rural communities.

The department is keen to learn what will support providers in rural areas to implement measures in the Bill. That is why schools in rural areas are included in the early adopter scheme for breakfast clubs. Home educating families and out-of-school education providers in rural areas will also have the opportunity to engage when we consult on the implementation of the children not in school measures.

Having the opportunity to study a modern foreign language should be part of the broad and rich education that every child in this country deserves.

Languages provide an insight into other cultures and can open the door to travel and employment opportunities. They also broaden pupils’ horizons, helping them flourish in new environments.

The government is committed to providing enriching opportunities for students and young people to experience other countries and cultures, including through school trips and exchanges. We also recognise the difficulties that schools have faced in recent years when it comes to organising visits. The UK has agreed measures with France which make school trip travel between the UK and France easier.

The Turing Scheme is the UK government’s global programme for students to study and work abroad. Students can develop new skills, including language skills, gain international experience and boost their employability. The scheme has been helping tens of thousands of UK students to study and work abroad for four years and we have recently announced that the scheme will be running for a fifth year.

The UK has a bilateral student exchange programme with Germany, the UK German Connection (UKGC), which provides opportunities for children, young people, and a limited number of language teachers in the UK and Germany to engage in a range of activities, including seminars, exchanges, visits and study courses. UKGC seeks to support current German learners in the UK and encourage more to learn the language.

The department also has a long-standing Language Assistants Programme, delivered by the British Council, to improve modern foreign language skills through direct interaction with native speakers from around the world. This includes arranging placements in the UK for non-UK residents to assist with teaching French, Spanish, Mandarin, German and Italian (as Modern Language Assistants). In the 2024/25 academic year, there are 700 Modern Language Assistants allocated to UK schools.

The Government has already published a new national procurement policy statement which sets expectations for government contracts to favour products certified to high environmental standards that British producers are well-placed to meet.

Data collection on the extent to which public sector settings are serving food from local sustainable sources is currently underway. We expect the work to be completed by Summer 2027.

Defra is considering the policy options available to deliver further on its ambitions for public sector food, including potentially updating the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services.

We do not currently have access to sufficient data on the proportion of UK-produced food that is purchased across the public sector to produce reliable sector-specific estimates. However, we are carrying out further research to improve the quality, coverage, and understanding of this data and expect to conclude in summer 2027. The findings will inform future policy development, including how we might improve data collection and monitoring arrangements for public sector food procurement, increasing transparency and supporting opportunities for British farmers to benefit from public sector contracts.

The Roadmap provides clear direction towards a future for farming, underpinned by four priorities: profitability, productivity, sustainability and resilience.

It sets out a practical vision for the years ahead: most farms adopting nature-friendly methods that support long-term, profitable food production and develop resilience to global shocks. And it sets out government’s role in backing farmers to grow, invest and compete in order to produce food for domestic and international tables.

This includes investing the record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. It also includes other government action, including ensuring markets work fairly and ensuring farmers have access to private finance.

This Government has allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament.

Defra is winding down subsidy payments that do not provide returns on investment. It is targeting public money where it delivers most value, the foundations of long-term food security: healthy soils, clean water, thriving ecosystems.

There are now 50,000 farm businesses and half of all farmed land now managed under Defra schemes, with more money being spent through these schemes than at any point.

Defra has reformed the Sustainable Farming Incentive to ensure more farmers can access funding. The first application window, for small farms and also farms without existing Environmental Land Management revenue agreements, opened on 30 June.

The Land Use Framework (LUF) included a review of the demand for productive farmland from clean energy schemes and makes clear that land use change should be focussed away from our most productive farmland to prioritise resilient food production.

The key decision-making principles in the LUF are already reflected in the National Planning Policy Framework, which supports the effective use of land. Defra is also working with the National Energy System Operator and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to ensure that energy infrastructure needs are balanced with other national priorities such as food production and based on the same land use data.