Dan Aldridge

All large and medium-sized companies are already required to report on their material risks within their annual strategic report, including on cyber risk where this is a material risk. Recognising the important strategic role that boards of directors play in risk management, the Government intends to launch a Cyber Governance Code of Practice, and cyber governance training, to support boards in governing cyber risks and building cyber resilience. We will bring forward the draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill shortly, with which we intend to provide the audit and governance regulator with important new powers and objectives relating to the audit and reporting duties of directors.

Product safety law requires that all consumer products placed on the UK market must be safe. The Office for Product Safety and Standards, in my Department, has a programme of work focused on making sure online platforms, including Meta, are aware of their responsibilities for preventing the supply of unsafe products to UK consumers, and requires them to remove unsafe or non-compliant products made available on their sites.

The Online Safety Act creates new duties on online services to tackle illegal content and activity. The strongest duties are to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation (CSEA) and to stop child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from being shared. The illegal content duties have been in effect from 17 March. Ofcom is the regulator for the regime and has set out steps providers can take including strong automated content moderation and takedown measures. Ofcom will continue to develop their codes iteratively, including additional measures to detect, prevent and remove CSAM.

AI generated content is regulated by the Online Safety Act where it is shared on an in-scope user-to-user or search service and constitutes illegal content or content which is harmful to children. This includes mis- and dis- information where it is assessed to present material harm to a significant number of children. Providers of pornographic content must also prevent children from accessing that content.

Chatbots with functionalities that bring them into scope of the Online Safety Act will be required to comply with the relevant duties including preventing children from encountering harmful content – whether that is real or synthetic.

Cyber security is a priority for the government. We are taking action to protect businesses, citizens and essential services against cyber threats. Last year the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said AI will almost certainly increase the volume and heighten the impact of cyber attacks over the next two years, however the impact on the cyber threat would be uneven. The full report is at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/impact-of-ai-on-cyber-threat .

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will require regulated organisations to adopt cyber security measures which protect against a wide range of cyber threats, including AI-enabled threats. Further details on the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will be published in due course.

Cyber attacks cost the UK economy billions of pounds per year, resulting in serious disruption for businesses and individuals, and disruption to supply chains and public services. Cyber attacks harm confidence and investment in UK technology, while intellectual property can be stolen which has cost billions of pounds to develop. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cyber-security-breaches-survey] sets out further details on the impact of cyber threats and we will publish further research on this in due course.

Cyber security is a priority for the government. We are taking action to protect businesses, citizens and essential services against cyber threats. Last year the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said AI will almost certainly increase the volume and heighten the impact of cyber attacks over the next two years, however the impact on the cyber threat would be uneven. The full report is at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/impact-of-ai-on-cyber-threat .

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will require regulated organisations to adopt cyber security measures which protect against a wide range of cyber threats, including AI-enabled threats. Further details on the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will be published in due course.

Cyber attacks cost the UK economy billions of pounds per year, resulting in serious disruption for businesses and individuals, and disruption to supply chains and public services. Cyber attacks harm confidence and investment in UK technology, while intellectual property can be stolen which has cost billions of pounds to develop. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cyber-security-breaches-survey] sets out further details on the impact of cyber threats and we will publish further research on this in due course.

Cyber security is a priority for the government. We are taking action to protect businesses, citizens and essential services against cyber threats. Last year the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said AI will almost certainly increase the volume and heighten the impact of cyber attacks over the next two years, however the impact on the cyber threat would be uneven. The full report is at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/report/impact-of-ai-on-cyber-threat .

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will require regulated organisations to adopt cyber security measures which protect against a wide range of cyber threats, including AI-enabled threats. Further details on the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will be published in due course.

Cyber attacks cost the UK economy billions of pounds per year, resulting in serious disruption for businesses and individuals, and disruption to supply chains and public services. Cyber attacks harm confidence and investment in UK technology, while intellectual property can be stolen which has cost billions of pounds to develop. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cyber-security-breaches-survey] sets out further details on the impact of cyber threats and we will publish further research on this in due course.

The department is committed to supporting high quality apprenticeship training provision which supports employers and learners gain the skills they need for long-term success.

It is for training providers to choose how best to deliver apprenticeship training in order to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out in the apprenticeship standard, in consultation with the learner and employer. The department encourages providers to explore how they can use the latest technologies to enhance their offers.

The department will continue to work with experts to consider and respond to the implications of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.

The department is committed to supporting high quality apprenticeship training provision which supports employers and learners gain the skills they need for long-term success.

It is for training providers to choose how best to deliver apprenticeship training in order to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out in the apprenticeship standard, in consultation with the learner and employer. The department encourages providers to explore how they can use the latest technologies to enhance their offers.

The department will continue to work with experts to consider and respond to the implications of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.

The department is building the evidence base for how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is best used in education and learning from the experience and expertise of the sector. As part of this work departmental officials have sought views and experiences from practitioners and training providers across all stages of education as well as the education technology sector and AI experts.

Departmental officials have also regularly met with representative bodies, such as the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), who represent training providers. On 1 February 2024, departmental officials met representative bodies at the AELP AI conference, to discuss AI related work programs.

In November 2023, the department published the response to the call for evidence on generative AI in education to understand more about sector views and early use of generative AI tools across schools, further education and higher education. The response is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education-call-for-evidence. In January 2024, the department published a report outlining educator and expert views on generative AI, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-ai-in-education-educator-and-expert-views.

The department is also a member of the cross-government AI working group and we are collaborating with peers across government to share thinking and expertise as we develop future policy.

There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.

Although there is no obligation to report all collisions with animals on roads,Rule 286 of The Highway Code advises drivers to report any collisions involving an animal to the police, and if possible, they should make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals and advise them of the situation.

Since June 2024, all cats in England over 20 weeks of age must be microchipped and registered on a compliant database, unless exempt or free-living. This will make it easier for National Highways and local authorities to reunite cats with their keepers.

(a) Reduce waiting times on Department's helplines

DWP reviews forecasted telephony demand and plans resourcing accordingly to keep wait times down. Wait time performance is frequently reviewed and where DWP’s telephony is delivered by an outsourced provider we use the Key Performance Indicator of percentage of calls answered. All DWP customer telephone lines are Freephone numbers.

The Department is investing in a new capability that aims to better route customers to the right offer at the right time. This will help to reduce waiting times by supporting customers to utilise digital alternatives where appropriate and enables telephony agents to speak to our customers that really need to speak to someone. If a customer indicates they may be at risk of physical or mental harm e.g. suicide, terminal illness, homelessness, and clinical mental health, they will be routed to a telephony agent in as short a journey as possible.

The Department offers a wide range of reasonable adjustments for customers, including production of communications in a range of alternative formats. We are currently testing further digital solutions for British Sign Language interpreter connectivity within our jobcentre environment.

(b) Prevent calls from being cut off after long waiting periods

Regarding disconnections, while mobile phone contracts may disconnect after a certain time period, we do not intentionally cut off customers after long wait times. We do not have anything configured in our Contact Centre platform to automatically cut customers off after any time threshold, or period of waiting.

We do, however, inform customers when they are in a queue and we know their call won't be answered before the line closes, and request that they call back.

The Department is regularly in contact with claimants who are vulnerable. Many, particularly those with severe heath conditions and disabilities, already have support in place from third parties (friends, relatives or appointees for example). However, for those who don’t, DWP provide a range of information and services to support customers through the application process.

Applications for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are normally registered by telephone. To support hearing and speech impaired applicants, DWP uses the Video Relay Service to communicate in real time through a British Sign Language interpreter over a video connection. DWP also uses Relay UK, previously known as Next Generation Text, to correspond through typed messages via a BT agent.

DWP offers a claims completion service over the telephone to help PIP applicants without support from another source.

For the most vulnerable customers, support – including help with form completion – is offered through the Visiting Service:https://www.gov.uk/support-visit-benefit-claim

DWP has also produced a series of videos to support understanding of and navigation through each part of application and assessment: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/personal-independence-payment-customer-journey-films

It is mandatory for alcohol labels to state the product’s strength, namely alcohol by volume, and whether the product contains any of the 14 main allergens. There is also voluntary guidance on communicating the UK Chief Medical Officers' low risk drinking guidelines. There are no current plans to change mandatory labelling requirements on alcoholic products.

A National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded study on alcohol calorie labelling is underway to assess the impact of alcohol calorie labelling on product selection, purchasing, and consumption, which will report in 2026.

The Government uses the tax system to support a variety of objectives including our legally binding climate targets, including the transition to electric vehicles (EVs).

At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced changes to the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) first year rates from 1 April 2025, to introduce higher rates for hybrid and petrol/diesel vehicles for 2025-26, and freeze the rate for zero emission vehicles until 2029-30.

The Budget also announced new company car tax rates for 2028-29 and 2029-30, which gradually increase the rates for both petrol/diesel and electric vehicles whilst restricting incentives for hybrid vehicles, which research has shown are over three times more polluting than previously thought.

Cars are treated according to their emissions under the capital allowances system; and company cars made available for private use are also taxed according to their CO2 emissions under the benefit in kind regime.

From April 2025 this includes some pick-up trucks such as double cab pick-ups and extended cab pick-ups. These vehicles will be charged a higher rate for the benefit in kind, and be eligible for lower capital allowances reflecting their generally higher emissions.