Lord Beamish

Details of the meetings held by Ministers of the Department for Business and Trade and its predecessor the Department for International trade are available on transparency pages of gov.uk and are released as part of the Government’s transparency agenda.

Department for Business and Trade officials have met with Fujitsu three times since the General Election to discuss Fujitsu’s contribution to the cost of the Horizon scandal.

The Government welcomes the fact that Fujitsu has acknowledged their moral obligation to make a contribution to the cost of redress. Once Sir Wyn Williams has delivered his report following the conclusion of the statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, the Department will consider his findings and take appropriate action.

Post Office have a contract with Fujitsu until March 2025 for the Horizon IT system, and are in negotiations with Fujitsu regarding an extension to that contract. Officials at the Department have met with Fujitsu to discuss the importance of a contract extension, which would allow continuity of service in post office branches while Post Office develops a replacement to the Horizon system.

The Government welcomes the fact that Fujitsu has acknowledged their moral obligation to make a contribution to the cost of redress. At the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry the UK head of Fujitsu stated that he is willing and ready to engage with Government on the size of the contribution. Once the statutory Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry has reviewed all the evidence and the Chair, Sir Wyn Williams, has delivered his report, the Department will consider his findings and take appropriate action.

The Government recognises that Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications present major opportunities for the UK. International regulations governing LEO satellites directly impact our strategic communications capabilities and the resilience of critical national infrastructure.

Ofcom represents the UK at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and DSIT is working closely with departments and Ofcom to shape the UK’s position ahead of the 2027 ITU World Radio Conference, ensuring regulations reflect national policy objectives and strategic priorities.

As outlined in the Industrial Strategy, the Government aims to work with international partners to ensure evolving regulations continue to support UK strategic goals and the deployment of advanced connectivity technologies.

Ofcom represents the UK at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The Government works closely with Ofcom to ensure international satellite regulations align with UK technology and policy goals, and that strategic priorities are reflected in international negotiations.

In the proposed Statement of Strategic Priorities, the Government expects Ofcom to lead in shaping the international spectrum framework to support UK space services.

As reflected in the Space Regulatory Review, officials are working to embed national security and interest considerations proportionately across all licensable space activities, including space spectrum.

The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic vision for a stronger, more resilient nation. It recognises that resilience across all sectors, including telecoms, is vital to withstanding and recovering from an increasingly wide range of risks.

Low Earth-orbit satellite technology has an increasing role in telecoms resilience. For example, in instances where terrestrial networks might fail, Low Earth Orbit satellite connections can be rapidly deployed to provide broadband coverage.

No formal assessment has been made but the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) recently published its annual report for 2024-25 here. A copy is attached to this answer.

Since 2020, the JUWC has worked with over 130 partner organisations and led or attended over 300 multi-agency days of action resulting in over 170 associated arrests. In recent years, the JUWC has made significant progress aligning its approach to other criminal justice agencies to target organised crime groups. The work of the JUWC has received cross government support and the model is respected internationally.

We have increased the Environment Agency’s (EA) total budget for 2025-26, including the amount available to tackle waste crime. This will enable the EA to increase its frontline criminal enforcement resource in the JUWC and area environmental crime teams by 43 full time staff. This resource will be targeted at activities identified as waste crime priorities using enforcement activity data and criminal intelligence.

This data is not held centrally by the Government.  The cross-agency nature of Joint Unit for Waste Crime’s (JUWC) operations means that interventions and activities will be carried out for a range of different offences. Outcomes, including prosecutions, will be pursued by different agencies (including police) to different end-results.  Alongside operations that lead to arrests, a major focus of the JUWC's work is the prevention and disruption of waste crime through other methods.

The Government is committed to taking action to address concerns about the safety of the cosmetics sector and is exploring options for further regulation in this area. We will set out the details of our approach in due course.

The Government is committed to taking action to address concerns about the safety of the cosmetics sector and is exploring options for further regulation in this area. We will set out the details of our approach in due course.

The Department is working closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to tackle inappropriate advertising of overseas cosmetic surgeries in the United Kingdom. The ASA is taking enforcement activity against any company which contravenes UK advertising standards.

The Department does not have data on the overall costs to the National Health Service for treating complications from cosmetic procedures conducted overseas. We are exploring ways to improve our understanding of the scale of the cost to the NHS.

His Majesty's Ambassador to Tokyo has not held discussions with Fujitsu concerning the financial redress scheme related to the Post Office Horizon IT system. The scheme is led by the Department for Business and Trade and the Post Office. Department for Business and Trade officials have met with Fujitsu three times since the General Election to discuss their contribution to the cost of the Horizon scandal.

The Government has been clear that those responsible for the Horizon scandal must be held accountable. This will be determined by the public inquiry, which is ongoing.

Illegally salvaged artefacts from HMS Prince of Wales seized by Malaysian authorities are part of an ongoing Malaysian criminal investigation. The UK Ministry of Defence and the British High Commission continue to work closely with the relevant authorities in the region to afford these sites suitable protection. As investigations into the illegal salvage are still ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further until these investigations have concluded.

The Home Office has awarded two contracts with Fujitsu during the period in question, in both cases to renew existing services provided by the company where it was considered essential for law enforcement purposes to do so. Details of both contracts are published on Contract Finder:

Law Enforcement (LECN) Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) continuity

ES Hosting Hardware

The Norwegian Government’s announcement on 31 August 2025, that it had selected the UK as a strategic partner for their acquisition of Type 26 warships, will sustain around 4,000 jobs across the UK’s supply chain until well into the 2030s.

This is the largest ever UK warship export deal by value and it is expected to provide a £10 billion boost to the UK economy and support more than 400 British companies across all regions, including the north east of England. It is a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s defence industry and supply chains, which are supported by small and medium enterprises.

The Strategic Defence Review committed to build at least six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is currently developing a plan to deliver this commitment alongside our wider Defence Industrial Strategy, delivering long-term investment to boost UK growth and generating skilled UK jobs and export opportunities. The MOD is carefully considering arrangements for those factories including potential locations, and more detail will be set out in due course. It is currently considered to be premature to discuss specific proposals or sites until the necessary preparatory work has concluded.

The Strategic Defence Review committed to build at least six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is currently developing a plan to deliver this commitment alongside our wider Defence Industrial Strategy, delivering long-term investment to boost UK growth and generating skilled UK jobs and export opportunities. The MOD is carefully considering arrangements for those factories including potential locations, and more detail will be set out in due course. It is currently considered to be premature to discuss specific proposals or sites until the necessary preparatory work has concluded.

The UK Ministry of Defence has adopted the use of low-earth orbit satellite technologies to augment and supplement its sovereign military geostationary communications satellites in support of deployed operations and training exercises. There are significant benefits of low-earth orbit satellites as part of a hybrid approach, including ease of use, fast throughput and rapid deployment. These benefits need to be balanced against security, assurance and vulnerability considerations. Resilience of Defence satellite communications is achieved through a multi-orbit approach, of which low-Earth orbit satellites forms one element.

It is UK Government Policy to ensure our historic military shipwrecks are offered appropriate protection and management. In September 2024, Wessex Archaeology in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, completed a non-intrusive survey of the wreck site of HMS Victory 1744. The findings will enable the Ministry of Defence to continue protecting the site. The site of HMS Victory 1744 is one of a number that UK Government monitors.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions for a wide range of offences in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. However, it is not possible to separately identify prosecutions for landfill tax fraud as the data does not include a specific offence relating to it.