Johanna Baxter

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) will fundamentally reform Companies House, enabling it to play a greater role in tackling economic crime.

The first of these reforms came into force in March 2024 and included new powers to query, challenge and remove inaccurate information, stronger checks on company names, stricter address requirements and greater information sharing powers. These reforms were backed by £63 million of investment and increased fees to fund greater investigation and enforcement capabilities.

Further reforms under the ECCTA, including the introduction of Identity Verification later this year, are in the process of being implemented.

In line with our Safer Streets Mission, the Online Safety Act brings much needed protections to the online world by protecting children from harmful and age-inappropriate content, tackling violence against women and girls, and taking down criminal activity. The new laws apply to search services and all companies that allow users to share and post content online or interact with each other, even if the companies providing them are outside the UK.

The Nature for Climate Fund was established in 2020 as a five-year programme aimed at tackling climate change and boosting biodiversity and it is due to finish in March 2025.

This Government is committed to protecting and restoring nature, trees and peat, which are important to our plans to reduce emissions. We have pledged up to £400 million for tree planting and peatland restoration over the current (2024-25) and next (2025-26) financial year. The detail of how this funding is allocated for 2025-26 is now being finalised through internal business planning, and we will be able to share more once this has concluded.

We have pledged up to £400 million in capital spend for tree planting and peatland restoration over the current (2024-25) and next (2025-26) financial year. This includes funding of the Nature for Climate Fund for 2024-25. The detail of how this funding is allocated for 2025-26 is now being finalised through internal business planning, and we will be able to share more once this has concluded.

The Government recently announced its support for the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, a Private Members’ Bill sponsored by Dr Danny Chambers MP. The measures in the Bill will extend to cats and kittens, and close loopholes exploited by unscrupulous pet traders.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) continues to optimise its performance in delivering efficient and predictable services which meet stakeholders’ expectations, for the benefit of patients and public health and the Life Sciences. The Agency has been working in close collaboration with health system partners and industry to ensure that robust, appropriate and prompt decisions are made. In March 2024, the MHRA published new guidance in how medicines will be assessed to improve the robustness and rapid decisions, which it can be seen, has a significantly positive effect.

The Agency has an ongoing system for review of licencing pathways and has recently launch the consultation for Personalised Immunotherapies for Cancer which can be used to drive discussion forward as to how to enable fast patient benefit of new and novel technologies.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) continues to work collaboratively across Government and with key stakeholders to ensure it has optimal systems and processes to support the delivery of impactful and timely research for patient and public benefit. For example, the NIHR has recently launched a new single awards management system for the NIHR underpinned by optimised processes which will streamline operations, enable data sharing and reduce duplicate information requests.

The Home Office works across Government to tackle the Serious Organised Crime threat linked to Russia including Russia-linked illicit finance in the UK.

This was recently demonstrated through the NCA’s Operation DESTABILISE which exposed and disrupted Russian money laundering networks supporting serious and organised crime.

In addition to our domestic efforts, we work with like-minded international partners to build capacity in key law enforcement institutions and the judiciary to help tackle, and enhance resilience against, Russia-linked organised crime groups.

The Taskforce has reflected on last year’s elections and is now taking forward a programme of work to ensure lessons are learned.

This includes work to tackle the unacceptable instances of harassment and intimidation of our elected representatives that we saw during the General Election.

This vital work is ongoing, and I will update the House in due course.

Integrating uncrewed systems with our crewed platforms is a critical part of ensuring the Royal Navy can effectively respond to competition, crisis and conflict in the future. Delivering uncrewed systems will feature heavily in the design specifications of the Multi-Role Support Ships – the next generation of amphibious ships to support the Commando forces. The Ministry of Defence is collaborating with industry to assess the merits of uncrewed systems with trials and spiral development, while learning operational lessons from Ukraine.

NATO made a long-term commitment to Ukraine and has been clear that Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. The Prime Minister has reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to Ukraine’s irreversible path to NATO membership, as agreed by all Allies at the Washington Summit.

That is a process that will take time, and for now our priority is to make sure Ukraine is in the strongest possible position on the battlefield and in any potential negotiations to come.

We are working with Ukraine and international partners to secure commercial shipping and shipping routes in the Black Sea, including Ukraine's maritime corridor. The 100 Year Partnership will help with this endeavour through the provision of training and equipment to Ukraine, to prevent and deter Russian attacks.

The 100 Partnership Declaration has made clear that freedom of navigation for commercial shipping in the Black Sea and beyond must be upheld and the UK will continue to do all it can to help Ukraine through the strengthening of its maritime forces.

The UK co-leads the maritime capability coalition with Norway and this work supports Ukraine’s maritime capabilities now and in the future.

Protector training has now transferred to the UK having completed four aircrew basic qualification courses in the United States. Further, four Protector Air Vehicles have now been delivered to RAF Waddington, where they are being maintained by 31 Squadron engineers. The required Test and Evaluation activity and UK training is underway, ahead of the planned platform in-service declaration later in 2025.

From a broader perspective, the UK is leading the MQ-9 International Cooperation Support Partnership which now has seven participant members (UK, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain) and five observer nations (Greece, Lithuania, Norway, Qatar, Sweden), with an expectation of further growth. The UK is working closely with the NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force to scope options to provide Protector in support of operations in the Northern Atlantic and Arctic regions. Opportunities for NATO investment in RAF Waddington to support growth are also progressing.

As part of the Government's Major Project Portfolio, details on the Clyde Infrastructure programme are routinely released as part of this Government's annual transparency return to Parliament.

The consultation to introduce Employment Tribunal fees was published under the last Government and no decisions have yet been made on the proposal.