Baroness Bray of Coln

The Government is undertaking an extensive programme of engagement around implementation of the Employment Rights Act and the broader Plan to Make Work Pay. The Government has committed to delivering employment rights changes in partnership with businesses, trade unions, public sector employers, and civil society.

The reforms are being delivered in phases so that employees and employers have time to plan and prepare.

We will continue working alongside Acas to provide support and guidance to help businesses to get ready, and will continue to consult with businesses, trade unions and civil society to make sure we get the detail right.

This steel trade measure has been carefully designed to take account of UK industry needs, and to ensure continued supply of necessary imports to meet these aims.

An Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the relevant legislation was published on 30 June, setting out the expected impacts of this measure on different types of businesses.

We have engaged with steel producers and downstream industries and will continue to do so as the measure is implemented. We will continue to monitor the measure and review it after 12 months.

The Government is taking action to help employers manage employment costs while supporting growth. Employers can benefit from National Insurance Contributions reliefs for under-21s and apprentices under 25, meaning they pay no employer NICs on eligible earnings up to £50,270. These reliefs are estimated to be worth around £2.5 billion in 2025/26. We are supporting SMEs by providing a £4.3 billion business rates support package and committing to lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses We will continue to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

In May 2025, the UK and US announced the General Terms for the Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD), which will protect thousands of jobs, support key British industries and help drive economic growth.

We have implemented reciprocal duty-free quotas for beef, and the US has implemented a 100,000-unit annual quota for automobiles, reducing tariffs to 10%. On 24 July 2026, the US implemented the removal of tariffs on UK whisky and medical technology.

Discussions on the EPD continue.

Tackling affordability is this government’s number one priority.

As recently announced by the new Prime Minister and Chancellor, the government will conduct a tax cut to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills from October 1, in time to impact the next Ofgem price cap. Cutting VAT on electricity bills is expected to take around £45 off the yearly Ofgem price cap in October. This immediate action applies and is funded for this financial year.

This is on top of the £150 removed from bills at the last Budget – a decision which is now factored into bills for the years to come.

In addition, around 6 million families are benefitting from the expansion of the £150 Warm Home Discount.

Any further action, including on funding for longer-term measures, will be taken at the Budget.

The clean energy transition represents one of the UK’s largest opportunities for economic growth and high-quality job creation this decade. In October 2025, we published the Clean Energy Jobs Plan, which highlights that the UK’s clean energy workforce could double by 2030, supporting up to 860,000 high quality jobs across every nation and region.

Progress has already been made on commitments in the Plan. In April, we announced five Clean Energy Technical Excellence Colleges delivering training for clean energy jobs in Liverpool, the Tees Valley, Somerset, London and Colchester. The Plan also includes the expansion of the Energy Skills Passport, up to £20 million of funding to support the North Sea transition, and a new North Sea Jobs Service offering end-to-end career support for oil and gas workers.