Alex Ballinger

The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) will narrow its focus towards the UK’s top national security priorities, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 10 February 2026. This includes tackling five key threat areas (Russia; Iran & its proxies; threats emanating from the Asia Pacific region; Serious & Organised Crime; and Terrorism) and building UK sovereign capabilities in four other areas (Cyber & Tech, Biosecurity, Counter State & Hybrid Threats and Economic Security). ISF allocations to each of these areas were driven by an assessment of the UK’s most acute national security threats and programmes’ alignment with the ISF’s principles (agility, integration, high risk appetite and catalytic effect).

The ISF will also continue to deliver conflict and instability programming, where there is a direct link to UK national security. ISF teams are also expected to continue to mainstream gender throughout their work across the ISF’s priorities, including through projects which focus specifically on gender and social inclusion.

The Integrated Security Fund (ISF) will narrow its focus towards the UK’s top national security priorities, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 10 February 2026. This includes tackling five key threat areas (Russia; Iran & its proxies; threats emanating from the Asia Pacific region; Serious & Organised Crime; and Terrorism) and building UK sovereign capabilities in four other areas (Cyber & Tech, Biosecurity, Counter State & Hybrid Threats and Economic Security). ISF allocations to each of these areas were driven by an assessment of the UK’s most acute national security threats and programmes’ alignment with the ISF’s principles (agility, integration, high risk appetite and catalytic effect).

The ISF will also continue to deliver conflict and instability programming, where there is a direct link to UK national security. ISF teams are also expected to continue to mainstream gender throughout their work across the ISF’s priorities, including through projects which focus specifically on gender and social inclusion.

From 2026 to 2029, the Integrated Security Fund (ISF) will continue to deliver programmes through a range of delivery mechanisms, including contracting and prequalified partners where this provides the most effective and agile route to achieving national security outcomes. This includes via the ISF Commercial Framework Agreement, a commercial arrangement with organisations who have been pre-assessed on their capability, thematic expertise, resources and gender and conflict sensitivity.

The existing Commercial Framework is due for renewal in 2027 and arrangements for refreshing the framework will be considered in due course.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees is not normally shared publicly.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees is not normally shared publicly.

Enforcement powers exist for local authorities to act when fireworks are unsafe, sold illegally or misused. Local authorities and the police also have powers to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by the misuse of fireworks, including setting off outside permitted hours. It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers and there are no current plans to change them.

I have launched a public campaign for this year’s fireworks season. The campaign includes social media materials with information on current legislation and the penalties for illegal use, as well as the risks from the misuse of fireworks.

All businesses are required to comply with consumer law, which aims to protect consumers from poor conduct by traders. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods sold by traders must be as described, of a satisfactory quality, and fit for a particular purpose. Traders are required to carry out a service with reasonable care and skill, and where the timeframe is not specified in the contract, within a reasonable time.

DBT has strengthened consumer protections through the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

DBT also funds Business Companion, who publish free guidance for businesses on complying with consumer law.

DBT funds Citizens Advice to provide consumer advice in England and Wales. Citizens Advice run an annual Scams Awareness campaign on behalf of the Consumer Protection Partnership to raise awareness about scams: how to spot a scam, prevent becoming a victim and report scams.

The next campaign will run from 20 October-2 November. The Citizens Advice website has detailed advice on that how to report a scam to the Citizens Advice consumer service and additionally to Action Fraud. There is also advice to consumers about checking to see whether they can get their money back if they have been scammed.

The UK has a range of measures in place to promote RBC across the economy. In the Trade Strategy, the Government also launched a review into the UK's approach to responsible business conduct, focused on tackling human rights and labour abuses, modern slavery, and environmental harms in global supply chains.

The review will be a neutral, objective appraisal of policy, led by departmental officials. It will consider the effectiveness of the UK's current regime and alternative means of supporting responsible business practices. To complement the review, the FCDO is conducting a National Baseline Assessment (NBA) on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

In the Trade Strategy, the Government launched a review into the UK's approach to responsible business conduct, focused on tackling human rights and labour abuses, modern slavery, and environmental harms in global supply chains. Throughout the review, we will harness the insights and expertise of businesses and investors from across the economy, as well as trade unions, academia and civil society.

Stakeholders will also be given the opportunity to feed into the National Baseline Assessment on the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which will run in parallel and inform the review.

For Energy Intensive Industries overall, our Clean Power 2030 target is the key to long-term sustainable price reductions. From 2027, the new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by up to £40 per megawatt hour for over 7,000 electricity-intensive businesses in manufacturing sectors. Eligibility will be determined following consultation, which will open shortly, with a review point in 2030. The government is also increasing support through an uplift for our most energy-intensive industries eligible for the British Industry Supercharger, with an uplift of the Network Charging Compensation (NCC) scheme to 90% from 2026. The government will set out further details on its plans to decarbonise industry, in its Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan in October.

The origin and profile of biomass used by Drax is monitored by Ofgem. The Government requires that all biomass used by Drax be compliant with strict sustainability criteria. This requires that biomass must be legally and sustainably harvested and includes requirements around protecting biodiversity and maintaining forest productivity.

We have strengthened sustainability requirements in our recently announced deal with Drax. In the agreed low carbon dispatchable Contract for Difference, we will explicitly exclude material sourced from primary forests and old growth forests from receiving support payments. There will be substantial penalties on Drax if sustainability criteria are not met.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology invests approximately £200 million annually in cancer research via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spent £141.6 million in 2024/25 via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The Office for Life Science’s Cancer Healthcare Goal Programme has invested over £16 million to support development of early detection innovations, such as multi cancer detection tests. DHSC will be publishing a National Cancer Plan for England in the new year. This will set out the Government’s long-term strategy to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including prevention and early-detection R&D.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s Medical Research Council (MRC) delivers a substantial portfolio of researcher-led projects, building on long-standing partnerships, including with Wellcome and CRUK, to fund investments such as the Francis Crick Institute, where over 40 groups work on research directly relevant to cancer.

UKRI takes a strategic, long-term approach to investing in infrastructure that will underpin future discovery research, including a £29 million award to the University of Nottingham in 2022 to establish the UK’s most powerful MRI scanner, facilitating patient cancer studies. It also includes UK Biobank, which is enabling researchers to investigate the impact of lifestyle on cancer.

The MRC Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE), provides long term funding to tackle transformational research questions, and will enhance approaches to the prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, including cancer.

We consider a wide range of evidence when making policy and regulatory decisions. This includes consideration of Sheffield University’s recent report on World Cup advertising and its impact on gambling behaviour.

All operators advertising in the UK must comply with robust advertising codes. These codes are regularly reviewed and updated. In this context, those include a ban on gambling advertisements during pre-watershed live sports broadcasts lasting from 5 minutes before to 5 minutes after the event itself.

The Government recognises that exposure to gambling advertising is an important issue. We continue to consider a wide range of evidence in this space and will work closely with relevant stakeholders to further strengthen protections. This includes our recent announcement of an intention to consult on banning sports sponsorship by unlicensed gambling operators.

Financial penalties are one element of the Gambling Commission’s regulatory toolkit. Action taken by the Gambling Commission is based on the need to gain compliance from gambling operators with the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice at the earliest opportunity. If breaches occur, financial penalties may be imposed.

Since 2016/17, the Commission’s enforcement action has resulted in over £215 million in fines and regulatory settlements. As a result of the Commission’s compliance and enforcement work, in the last three years there have been fewer instances of extreme failings at gambling operators. However, the Commission continues to address any non-compliance through use of its enforcement powers and will continue to do so wherever necessary.

All operators advertising in the UK must comply with robust advertising codes, which are enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) independently of Government. These codes are regularly reviewed and updated and include a wide range of provisions designed to protect children and vulnerable adults from harm.

The Government does not currently have plans to ban gambling advertising. However, we recognise that children and young people’s exposure to gambling advertising is an important issue and we continue to work closely with the gambling industry to further strengthen protections.

We have welcomed the Premier League’s voluntary front of shirt ban on gambling advertisements from next season, which will reduce gambling exposure for children and young people. Additionally, we will redouble our efforts to work cross-government and with tech platforms to address illegal gambling advertising, which poses the most risk for children and young people.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has not had discussions on this matter with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

There are several ways that public health officials at local authorities contribute to the gambling licensing process. For example, as noted in the Gambling Commission’s Guidance to Licensing Authorities, public health teams can advise licensing authorities on their Licensing Statement of Policy for gambling, to help ensure it reflects current risks and knowledge. Public health teams can also contribute to the development of ‘local area profiles’. These can be used to identify higher-risk areas where gambling premises must implement mitigation measures to address risk, and the Gambling Commission and Local Government Association have encouraged licensing authorities to produce them.

We recognise some stakeholders have noted it is unclear whether the Gambling Act designates public health officials as a responsible authority in the licensing process. We will consider the best available evidence to inform any future decisions in this area.

We do not hold official data on the relationship between deprivation and participation in gambling at adult gaming centres.

As part of the Pride in Place Strategy, published on 25 September, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to introducing cumulative impact assessments (CIAs) for gambling licensing when parliamentary time allows. The introduction of CIAs, alongside the broad range of powers already available to local authorities, will enable local authorities across England to take data-driven decisions on premises licences, particularly areas identified as vulnerable to gambling-related harms. It will allow authorities to take account of a range of factors, including deprivation, when making licensing decisions. This will empower local authorities to better shape their streets and neighbourhoods.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high-quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change.

Funding made available in the dedicated schools grant for the early education childcare entitlements for children aged from 9 months up to school age, cannot be claimed by, or spent on, any type of childcare providers who provide childcare for related children.

This restriction for local authorities funding relatives is set out in the Childcare Act 2006. Section 18(4)(c) the 2006 Act specifically excludes care provided for a child by a parent or other relative and section 18(8)(c) of the 2006 Act states that a relative, in relation to a child, means “a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother or sister, whether of the full blood or half blood or by marriage or civil partnership”.

Successive governments have taken the view that people should not receive funding for looking after related children that they may already look after on an informal basis for free. This is on the basis that it would not be an effective use of public money. For this reason, the department has no plans to change this long-standing position at this time.

Keeping children safe from multiple forms of abuse and harm is the foundation of giving every child the best start in life, ensuring they can achieve and thrive as they grow up. In our Plan for Change, this government set out its ambition to ensure every child is kept safe, regardless of their background or where they live across the country.

The Children Act 1989 is the legislative framework for local authorities in terms of investigating child protection concerns (under section 47 of the Act) and providing support and services for children in need (under section 17 of the Act). The statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children' (2023) is clear that local authorities and their partners should publish a threshold document for support and services under section 17.

As a child-centred government, keeping children safe is a priority. The department has made £500 million available this year to support the national rollout of the Families First Partnership Programme. We envision a transformed system, where practitioners from social work, police, health, education and beyond work together to promote the wellbeing of children and keep them safe from harm. Through this end-to-end system reform, families will receive the help and support they need, at the earliest opportunity and more children will be protected at the right time.

Children and young people are taught about the importance of online safety and the risks associated with it as part of the statutory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum.

The statutory RSHE guidance sets out that that young people should be taught about the risks related to online gambling, including the accumulation of debt, how advertising and information is targeted at them and how to be a discerning consumer of information online. These subjects support young people to develop their ability to self-regulate, as well as providing strategies for doing so. Young people are also taught how to seek help and support if they have concerns.

The department is currently reviewing the statutory RSHE curriculum for primary and secondary pupils and is analysing consultation responses, talking to stakeholders and considering relevant evidence before setting out next steps, including whether any additional content is needed on the risks associated with online gambling.

Local government children’s services provide vital support and protection to society’s most vulnerable children. The department is grateful for the work that children’s social care workforces do every day.

In November, we published ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’ setting out our strategic vision to children’s social care reform. The department is confident these reforms will result in a more effective system that more people will want to work and stay in.

The department is directly supporting the recruitment and retention of child and family social workers, including training around 850 new social workers annually through our fast-track programmes and has also provided funding to support up to 461 new social work apprenticeship places. We are working with local authorities to improve working conditions through our ‘Support for social workers’ platform and are reviewing the National Workload Action Group’s report on reducing unnecessary workload.

On 20 March, we also launched a public consultation on new post-qualifying standards for child and family social workers and a new social work induction programme to strengthen early career support and improve retention.

On 30 September 2024, there were 34,300 full-time equivalent child and family social workers in post, which is the highest number since data collection began. This reflects the combined efforts of local authorities, and departmental investment, to improve recruitment and retention in children’s services.

Childminders are an important part of the early education sector. They provide flexible and affordable care which can be tailored to the specific needs of parents and children.

Primary legislation does not permit funding care that is provided by a relative under the early years entitlements. Successive governments have taken this same approach to avoid creating an incentive for adults to register to become childminders and being paid to look after related children that they are already looking after on an informal basis. For this reason, the department currently has no plans to change this long-standing position. A local authority can choose to fund a childminder providing childcare for a related child. However, this would have to be from local authority funds that are independent of the dedicated schools grant.

Although childminders cannot receive entitlements funding for related children, flexibilities within staff to child ratios can be used to allow childminders who are caring for related children to avoid limiting the income they can earn. This clarification, which aims to provide more flexibility and remove burdens for childminders while maintaining quality and safety standards, is part of our wider changes to the early years foundation stage.

Local councils are responsible for tackling fly-tipping in their area and have a range of enforcement powers to help them do so. These include fixed penalty notices of up to £1000, seizing and crushing of vehicles and prosecution action. We encourage councils to make good use of their enforcement powers and are taking steps to develop statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance to support councils to consistently, appropriately and effectively exercise these existing powers. We are also conducting a review of council powers to seize and crush vehicles of fly-tippers, to identify how we could help them make better use of this tool.

In our manifesto we committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up the mess that they have created. We will provide further details on this commitment in due course.

In the meantime, Defra continues to chair the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group through which we work with a wide range of stakeholders, such as local authorities and the Environment Agency, to share good practice on preventing fly-tipping. Various practical tools are available from their webpage which is available at: https://nftpg.com/

The Government is continuing to engage with animal welfare stakeholders, businesses, consumer groups and charities on the impacts of fireworks, to inform any future action.

The Government is continuing to engage with animal welfare stakeholders, businesses, consumer groups and charities on the impacts of fireworks, to inform any future action.

The Government is continuing to engage with animal welfare stakeholders, businesses, consumer groups and charities on the impacts of fireworks, to inform any future action.

A value for money assessment was made in the Simpler Recycling impact assessment available here: The Separation of Waste (England) Regulations 2025, published in December 2024. The effectiveness of weekly food waste recycling collections by local authorities will be made in the Resources and Waste Policy Programme Evaluation, which we expect to be published around 2029.

Rolling stock companies own and lease trains and carriages worth billions of pounds. It would not be responsible for the Government to take on the cost of renationalising all the rolling stock at the present time, as there are other urgent pressures on the public purse and we need to focus on wider rail reform.

We recognise the value that the private sector can bring, including funding improved trains and infrastructure. But we must secure much better value from the rolling stock market in future – which is why for the first time in over 30 years, the Government is developing a long-term rolling stock and infrastructure strategy. We expect to publish this strategy later in 2026.

There are currently no discussions underway about nationalising the M6 Toll. The M6 Toll sits outside of the Strategic Road Network managed by National Highways and is owned and operated by private entity Midland Expressway Ltd (MEL).

A 10-minute grace period became mandatory for all councils in England on 6 April 2015. It applies at local authority owned or operated car parks and at the end of paid-for and free on-street parking in England. The grace period only applies at the end of permitted paid-for or free parking to allow for accidental overstays beyond a driver's control. It does not apply at the start of a period of parking, nor in circumstances where the driver was not permitted to park (i.e. outside the hours of permitted operation of on-street parking).

A requirement for transparency on matters relating to civil parking enforcement is enshrined in the Secretary of State's statutory guidance for local authorities in England on civil enforcement of parking contraventions.

Active Travel England provides funding to The Bikeability Trust to deliver Bikeability cycle training to children in England (outside London). In addition, active travel revenue funding can be used by local authorities to deliver cycle training and engagement programmes outside of Bikeability.

On 19 November 2024, Active Travel England and the Department for Transport published guidance for local authorities in England on how to set up and manage a School Streets scheme. School Streets can improve the experiences of a school’s pupils, staff, visitors, and neighbours alike at peak school arrival and departure times.

In the joint statement (issued 2 July 2025) on walking, wheeling and cycling, the Mayors of England’s Combined Authorities committed to transforming the school run by delivering high-quality, safer routes in neighbourhoods nationwide.

We absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads and continue to tackle this through our THINK! campaign.

We are considering measures to address this problem and protect young drivers, as part of our upcoming strategy for road safety - the first in over a decade.