Lord Taylor of Warwick

The first mission of this Government is to drive economic growth. As part of delivering that mission, the Government will publish a trade strategy, aligned with our industrial strategy, to support jobs and communities in every part of the UK. Free Trade Agreements have a critical role to play in delivering this.

The Government has set out its intention to deliver trade negotiations with key trading partners including the GCC and India. Our trade programme, which is driven by engagement with businesses and stakeholders, will play to the UK’s strengths, boost trade, and strengthen our ties with our international partners.

Total UK imports from Germany amounted to £89 billion in the 12 months to March 2024, a 6% increase in current prices (compared to the previous 12 months). The largest increase was for machinery and transport equipment up £5bn (13%), in particular cars up £4bn (22%) and aircraft up £1bn (153%).

This Government is committed to resetting our relationship with our European partners. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has already met his German counterpart, Vice Chancellor Habeck, and discussed how we can grow trade further with Germany to support sustainable growth for our businesses, workers and consumers.

Through the Plan to Make Work Pay we will deliver a new deal for working people. A number of these measures already have strong support from businesses, and we will consult with them as we put these plans into practice to ensure they are as effective as possible. We also expect that stronger employment practices could aid recruitment and retention, and ultimately save business costs.

The Department for Business and Trade wants to reset our relationship with the EU and deepen ties with our European neighbours.

The Department will work to improve the UK's trade and investment relationship by tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade.

The Department will seek to negotiate a veterinary agreement to prevent unnecessary border checks, to help touring artists, and to secure mutual recognition for professional qualifications to open up priority markets for service exporters.

The Secretary of State has already held positive discussions with his European Commission counterpart Valdis Dombrovskis and has met with German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck to discuss UK-German shared trade interests.

The Government has established The Mission Control for Clean Power, led by climate expert Chris Stark, which will work alongside GB Energy, a new publicly owned company, to accelerate the transition to clean power.

The Government will collaborate with the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) to address supply chain constraints within the offshore wind industry. Industry published their Industrial Growth Plan in April which sets out opportunities to grow the offshore wind supply chain.

Furthermore, the Government is preparing to launch the first phase of the British Jobs Bonus for renewables as part of Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 7.

The Government maximises the benefits of its ESA membership through active participation in ESA boards and committees; and a range of initiatives to boost competitiveness and opportunities for UK industry, including the UKSA-ESA Industrial Policy Task Force.

This has secured over €60M of additional contracts for the sector since 2022; plus the ESA Business Incubation Centre's €3.4M investment which supports small and medium enterprises; and free bid-writing workshops.

The Government will establish binding regulations on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI systems. This highly targeted legislation will ensure the UK is prepared for this fast-moving technology. The legislation will support growth and innovation by ending current regulatory uncertainty for AI developers, strengthening public trust and boosting business confidence.

The Government recognises that grassroots sports clubs are at the beating heart of communities up and down the country. High-quality, inclusive facilities help clubs to get more people active and by backing these clubs, the Government will support more people to get onto the pitch wherever they live.

To mark the achievements of our senior men’s and women’s football teams, and inspire the next generation as we look ahead to hosting UEFA EURO 2028 across the UK and Ireland, we have set out plans to strengthen our support for grassroots clubs. This includes continuing the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme this year, and a commitment to work with the sector to develop a funding package that will support these plans.

We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our arm’s-length body, Sport England – which annually invests over £250 million of National Lottery and Government money. Sport England’s newly established Movement Fund offers crowdfunding pledges, grants and resources to improve physical activity opportunities for the people and communities who need it the most.

Skills England will identify current and future skills gaps and put in place plans to address those gaps, bringing together central and local government, businesses, training providers and unions to meet the skills needs of the next decade across all regions.

Skills England will:

• Develop a single picture of national and local skills needs. It will work with industry, the Migration Advisory Committee, unions and the Industrial Strategy Council to build and maintain a comprehensive assessment of current and future skills needs. This will also inform the department’s policy priorities. We are establishing Skills England in shadow form within the department, and it is already taking on its important role in identifying skills gaps and talking to the key organisations that will need to work together to fill them.

• Identify the priority areas for skills training, including the training for which the Growth and Skills Levy will be accessible. This includes engaging with stakeholders on, and maintaining a list of, levy-eligible training to ensure that the mix of government-funded training available to learners and employers aligns with skills needs.

• Ensure that the national and regional skills systems are meeting skills needs and are aligned, including using local and regional data to produce a robust evidence base.

Having a close relationship with the key organisations needed to bring coherence to the skills system will enable Skills England to identify and address challenges efficiently and effectively.

The Government’s concern has been to ensure that the infrastructure required to facilitate trade are in place, while respecting the discretion of port operators and other stakeholders to make decisions on a commercial basis about the use of their infrastructure and facilities.

We recognise that ports are in the best position to determine how to utilise facilities which meet the standards required for checks to be undertaken. Where any port has more capacity for checks than required under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), they are free to put their facilities to alternative use, provided they retain sufficient capacity to conduct the volume of checks required under the BTOM.

One of the reasons for not introducing the checks on EU imports in July 2023 was so that we could introduce a simplified, risk-based and data-driven regime of checks on goods that applies equally to EU and ‘rest of the world’ goods. Facilities for checks and controls can therefore be used flexibly for any imported goods, regardless of origin.

The BTOM sets outs out a risk-based, proportionate regime of controls which assesses the inherent biosecurity or public health risk presented by an import, together with the prevalence of relevant pests and diseases and our confidence in the exporting country’s production standards and health controls.

This assessment allows us to set controls at the most appropriate level and focus on the areas of highest risk to the UK. The goods posing the highest biosecurity risk are being prioritised as we build up to full check rates and high levels of compliance.

Lead is a naturally occurring contaminant that is present in soil, water and the atmosphere including as a result of past human activities and can be present in food. Whilst there is no safe level of lead, maximum levels for certain foods including cereals and meat are in place which are set based on the ‘as low as reasonably achievable’ (ALARA) principle.

Food business operators are responsible for ensuring that they comply with the established maximum levels. Lead is included in the national monitoring plan for products of animal origin and where noncompliance is found this will be followed up by the relevant local authority for enforcement purposes.

The Food Standards Agency has previously worked with farming groups and industry on best practice advice for farmers on preventing lead poisoning of livestock which includes practical suggestions to reduce animals’ intake of soil that may contain lead which is particularly important in those areas of the country with naturally high levels of lead in the soil.

Lead exposure from food is under constant review to ensure that advice and other measures in place remain protective for all consumers.

Under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, each local authority has a duty to inspect its area to identify and require remediation of contaminated land. A risk-based approach is used to define contaminated land, with regulators required to intervene in cases where the contamination is deemed to present an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.

Additionally, the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) Programme set up in 2011 between Defra, the Environment Agency and the Coal Authority, investigates and tackles the legacy of historic water pollution from abandoned metal mines in England and to develop schemes to clean up rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines.

The WAMM programme shows Defra is taking metal mine pollution seriously and our legal target under the 2021 Environment Act: to halve the length of rivers polluted by target metals from abandoned metal mines by 2038, against a baseline of around 1,500km (approximately 930 miles), is proportionate to the documented evidence of the problem of which we are aware.

The Government recognises that people face important decisions about how to use their pension savings and ensures everyone has access to free, impartial pension guidance through the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS). MaPS’ MoneyHelper brand provides support on all areas of UK pensions to the public regardless of age. The service offers a range of pension guidance through articles and support from pension specialists, via written enquiries, webchat and a telephone helpline.

The Department for Work and Pension’s digital Midlife MOT is a review for workers in their 40s, 50s and 60s that helps them take stock of their finances, skills and health, enabling them to get access to the best possible guidance. This includes helping people to understand planning for later life, including their workplace pension and State Pension options.

MaPS also offers more targeted support as people progress towards retirement. Pension Wise, a service delivered through MoneyHelper, can help anyone over 50 understand their options for accessing their Defined Contribution pension pots. After entering retirement, ongoing guidance is available through the MoneyHelper website, webchat and telephone helpline.

Pension schemes also have a responsibility under the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013 to provide information on the options available to members when they decide to access their pensions.

Furthermore, the Government signalled its intent, through the Pension Schemes Bill announced in the King’s Speech, to place duties on all trustees of occupational pension schemes to tailor the retirement products they offer in order to support people when accessing their pensions. This will ensure pots are accessed in the right way to support people in retirement and keep money invested for longer.

The Department recognises the transformative potential of using artificial intelligence (AI) tools in health and care. In May 2024, more than 1.66 million patients were on a waiting list for a diagnostic test in England alone. AI has the potential to reduce this waiting list by ensuring that patients waiting for critical tests for diseases like cancer get faster diagnoses. Earlier diagnosis will, as a result, support better patient outcomes.

For example, in stroke care, a leading cause of death and disability in the United Kingdom, AI tools that are now in place in every stroke unit in England can halve the time it takes some patients to receive treatment. Early results also indicate that using these tools may triple the number of stroke patients achieving functional independence following a thrombectomy, considerably improving patient outcomes.

We are committed to transforming diagnostic services, including through AI tools, and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and CT scanners.

The Government is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses. The Financial Conduct Authority is the regulator responsible for access to cash further to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, with powers to seek to ensure the reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities for individuals and businesses, including free withdrawal services for individuals.

The FCA published its final rules on access to cash on 24 July. Under its rules, designated firms will be required to undertake assessments of a community’s cash needs following the closure of a service or a community request, and to put in a new service if necessary. These rules come into force on 18 September.

The Government also recognises the importance of banking services to communities and high streets and has committed to work closely with the banks to roll out 350 banking hubs over the next five years.

A key outcome of the government’s clean energy mission will be greater energy security and independence. The government recognises that oil and gas production in the North Sea will continue to play a role in our energy mix for decades to come. The government will achieve a phased and responsible transition by taking a proportionate approach that ensures the oil and gas sector continues to play a role whilst contributing more towards our clean energy transition.

The average 2-year fixed rate mortgage rose from 2 per cent to 6.2 percent between Q1 2022 and Q1 2024, adding £300 to typical monthly payments.

This government will deliver economic stability with tough spending rules so we can grow our economy and keep taxes, inflation and mortgages as low as possible.

This Government will also help to turn the dream of owning a home into a reality by fixing the planning system and building 1.5 million more homes, as well as helping buyers who are struggling to save with Freedom to Buy.

The government recognises the importance of ensuring payment methods, including digital wallets, offer a high level of security and privacy to consumers.

Between them, the independent Payment Systems Regulator and Financial Conduct Authority are responsible for ensuring payments systems and financial markets are working well for consumers.

These regulators have jointly published a Call for Information to better understand the impacts of the increasing popularity of digital wallets on consumers and businesses, including in relation to security and privacy. This Call for Information is open for responses until 13 September.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) produces its forecasts independently from the Government.

The OBR is required by primary legislation to publish an annual assessment of the accuracy of its forecasts. All previous Forecast Evaluation Reports are available on the OBR’s website.

The Government is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.

This Government has an ongoing programme of work to monitor and evaluate the impact of migration, including the impact of the package of net migration reforms implemented in Spring 2024. Statistics, research and analysis published by the Home Office on migration can be found here: Migration analysis at the Home Office - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Economic and fiscal forecasts are made by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

With a joined-up approach across government to reform the points-based immigration system, we will ensure that migration to address skills shortages triggers a plan to upskill workers and improve working conditions in the UK.

The Government has proposed a number of changes to national planning policy, including policy on five-year housing land supply, as part of the consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework launched on 30 July 2024. Responses to the consultation will be accepted until 24 September 2024.

The government is yet to announce any changes to the regulations requiring nutrient neutrality. Whilst we are committed to finding a solution that unlocks the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality, this will be without weakening environmental protections and we will only act in legislation where we can confirm to Parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes.

We will work with nature conservation organisations, other stakeholders, and the development sector to determine the best way forward and will provide further updates in due course.

The affordability challenges facing prospective first-time buyers mean that too many people are now locked out of homeownership.

The sharp increase in interest rates after the September 2022 Budget created significant challenges for the housing market. In 2023 there were 235,000 first-time buyers, compared to 334,000 in 2021, a fall of nearly 30%.

In addition to increasing the supply of homes of all tenures, the Government has committed to introducing a permanent, comprehensive mortgage guarantee scheme and to giving first-time buyers the first chance to buy homes.

Unlike the previous Government’s End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, the change to the Standard Determinate Sentence release point has an eight week implementation period. This give probation and other agencies enough time to properly prepare release plans for offenders and ensure they are less likely to reoffend.

Ahead of implementation of the change to the Standard Determinate Sentence release point in September, we are working closely with the Department of Work and Pensions to ensure that prisons and Jobcentres are prepared to support temporarily higher volumes of prisoners approaching release as they transition into the community.

We will collectively ensure that relevant staff in prisons and Jobcentres will have the right data on prisoners who are being released, when and from which prisons. We will provide guidance and regular communications to those staff so they are aware of what actions to take.

This will ensure that prisoners are supported to prepare for release and supported in the community through the provision of bank accounts and ID, referrals to work programmes on release, arranging employment pre-release, and timely access to benefits where appropriate.

This work supports our aim to break the cycle of reoffending, and ensuring those who leave prison are supported as they transition into the community, helping to turn lives around and cut crime.