Bradley Thomas

The Table Office has 16 members of staff. There are no plans to review staffing levels at the moment.

The Bona Vacantia Division (“the Division”) of the Government Legal Department acts on behalf of the Treasury Solicitor (the Crown’s Nominee) to administer bona vacantia estates.

The Division currently has two unclaimed bona vacantia estates in the Bromsgrove constituency, neither of which involve the deceased owning property.

Current Bona Vacantia unclaimed estates are listed on the Division’s Unclaimed Estates List, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unclaimed-estates-listhttps://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unclaimed-estates-list.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has responsibility for housing and planning policy in Cabinet.

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 6th February is attached.

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 6th February is attached.

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 5th February is attached.

Public relations activity is a subset of communication spend. As such, this data is not held. The Government Communication Service encourages the prioritisation of low and no cost public relations activities wherever possible.

It is recommended that all external communications support should be procured through approved government frameworks, with strict controls in place to ensure cost-effectiveness.

China is the world’s second largest economy and predicted to be the largest driver of global growth from 2021 to 2035. Identifying opportunities to build secure and resilient growth through a mature, stable, and balanced relationship with China is in our national interest.

National security and growth are not opposed – they are mutually reinforcing. The UK must engage with international partners, including China, on trade and investment to grow our economy, while ensuring we uphold our security and values by challenging China on areas where we disagree.

DBT’s Trade Policy, Implementation and Negotiations (TPIN) Group operates a flexible resourcing model to maximise efficiency across priorities. In January 2025, DBT had 675 staff working in TPIN.

The US is the UK’s largest single country trading partner, with trade worth around £300 billion in the year to September 2024.

The Government supports entrepreneurs, including those in Bromsgrove, through Start-up Loans via the British Business Bank and through programmes such as Growth Hubs in England and Help to Grow: Management across the UK. We will publish our Small Business Strategy later this year, which will signal a clear overarching ambition to promote entrepreneurship and articulate a new vision for business support, built around the new Business Growth Service. The strategy will enable scale-ups and other small businesses to grow, empowering entrepreneurs to innovate, export, and create new jobs.

Our Industrial Strategy is unreservedly pro-business, engaging on complex issues that are barriers to investment, like skills, recruitment of international talent, data, R&D, technology adoption, access to finance, competition, regulation, energy prices, grid connections, infrastructure, and planning – all through the lens of promoting investment.

The UK-US trading relationship is already worth around £300 billion, supporting over a million jobs and representing 17% of total UK trade. This government's priority is economic growth and increasing trade with international partners is a major part of that. The Prime Minister had a warm call with President Trump on 26 January where they discussed trade and the economy and agreed to meet soon for further discussions.

The UK-US trading relationship is already worth around £300 billion, supporting over a million jobs and representing 17% of total UK trade. This government's priority is economic growth and increasing trade with international partners is a major part of that. The Prime Minister had a warm call with President Trump on 26 January where they discussed trade and the economy and agreed to meet soon for further discussions.

The National Emergency Plan for Downstream Gas and Electricity sets out the arrangements for the safe and effective management of downstream gas or electricity disruption. The National Emergency Plan for Downstream Gas and Electricity was last updated in July 2023 and is expected to be updated again this year.

The designation of sites, systems and assets that make up the UK energy sector as Critical National Infrastructure is based on the extent that the loss, damage or disruption of that infrastructure has a major detrimental impact on the availability, integrity or delivery of the essential services of the UK energy system. This approach to identifying Critical National Infrastructure means that we assess all infrastructure, regardless of its ownership.

The Government is committed to ensuring a fair and affordable transition to Net Zero while considering the impact of policy costs on all energy consumers. Consumer energy bills are a vital tool to leverage private sector investment to support our critical goals to decarbonise the energy market whilst contributing to economic growth. Policy costs, or levies, fund essential schemes that have delivered significant benefits, including increasing renewable generation capacity and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The Renewables Obligation and the Feed-in Tariffs schemes are now closed to new applications but have brought forward the successful renewable electricity sector that we see today in the UK.

The Department keeps the aggregate impact of these policies under review.

As set out in the Integrated Review Refresh, a positive trading relationship benefits both the UK and China, and we continue to recognise the importance of trade and investment from China where it is safe, reciprocal and mutually beneficial.

The Government works closely with industry to maintain a detailed picture of foreign involvement in critical national infrastructure. Foreign involvement in critical national infrastructure undergoes the highest levels of scrutiny, with the government and industry working alongside each other to monitor and mitigate the security risks in the energy sector and its supply chain.

The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is working across Whitehall and with energy owners, operators, and regulators to ensure that interconnectors are proportionately protected against hazards and malicious threats. Great Britain has a highly resilient and diverse energy network, and we are confident that the gas and electricity system operators have the tools they need to effectively balance supply and demand in a wide range of scenarios. This includes ensuring robust plans are in place to mitigate the impacts of a gas or electricity disruption as far as possible, in the event that they occur.

DSIT is implementing the Online Safety Act to protect children and adults online. The Act’s duties apply to services that allow users to post content online or to interact with each other. Protections for freedom of expression are built in throughout the framework. Services must have ‘particular regard’ to the impact on users’ rights to freedom of expression when implementing policies under the Act.

Ofcom, as the independent Regulator, must act in a way that is compatible with the European Convention of Human Rights, including in relation to freedom of expression when developing codes of practice and making enforcement decisions.

The Government takes fraud seriously. DSIT works closely with Ofcom, who have a duty to ensure UK numbers are not misused including by requiring telecoms operators to block spoofing calls from abroad imitating UK landline numbers in order to help protect consumers from scam calls.

DSIT is also working closely with the Home Office, who lead on fraud policy, and other government departments to tackle telecoms fraud. Together, we are working with industry to develop a second Telecoms Fraud Charter, going further in identifying, preventing and disrupting telecoms fraud.

We will continue to work with industry and government departments to ensure that as threats evolve so too does the response.

DSIT’s closing R&D budget for 2023-24 was £12,300m. This reflects the position post-Machinery of Government changes, comprising elements of the R&D budgets of DSIT’s predecessor departments.

DSIT’s R&D budget for 2024-25, updated at Autumn Budget 2024 is £12,500m*.

* Rounded to nearest £100m

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport jointly published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024, seeking views on several topics relating to the interaction between copyright and AI.

The Government has published a summary assessment of options alongside the consultation which aims to provide context on the range and scale of impacts the Government is considering in these policies.

The Government welcomes further information and evidence on impacts, including the economic impact of AI on the creative industries, to help shape its thinking.

The consultation closes on 25 February.

In November 2024, DSIT announced a feasibility study to further understand the impact of smartphones and social media on children.

The study will review existing evidence and assess which research methods will be most effective in determining the causal effect of social media and smartphones on children’s developmental outcomes. The study will conclude in May 2025.