Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on levels of illegal immigration.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

We are committed to the ECHR. But it must evolve to reflect modern challenges like mass migration and ability to protect the public. That is why we are working with international partners to modernise its application.

We will also tighten how Article 8 is applied at domestic level to prevent gaming of the system and ensure the public interest is given proper weight in immigration decisions.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many apprentices his Department recruited in each year since 2022.

Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip

The Ministry of Justice recruited the following number of new entrants directly into apprenticeship programmes in each year since 2022.

These figures relate to new joiners recruited via apprenticeship pathways and do not include existing employees who have undertaken apprenticeships as part of their development.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on the potential impact of upcoming changes to the subscription contracts regime on local and regional news publishers and their ability to adopt digital first and sustainable business models, as referenced in the recent Local Media Strategy.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government is committed to ensuring a healthy and plural local media for the benefit of communities and citizens across the UK. We have launched a Local Media Action Plan to help local newsrooms across the country innovate and adapt their business models for the online world, while incentivising and encouraging the production of high quality, trustworthy news.

Local media already has a strong propensity to innovate and many local publishers are shifting towards digital subscription models in an effort to secure their financial sustainability. This is an understandable response to the financial pressures faced by the industry and a reflection of the significant costs involved in provision of high quality journalism.

The purpose of the subscriptions regime set out in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act is to protect consumers from being trapped in unwanted subscriptions. Government has consulted on how the regime will be implemented, and I have engaged alongside the Minister for Employment Rights and Consumer Protection with representatives from the news media sector and other DCMS stakeholders on this consultation. More broadly, DCMS continues to work closely with the Department for Business and Trade to reflect on the issues raised during the consultation and a Government Response will be published in due course.

Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many apprentices his Department recruited in 2025, compared to i) 2022 ii) 2023 and iii) 2024.

Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)

The Scotland Office has not recruited any apprentices in the requested timeframe.

We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across the civil service to break down barriers to opportunity. The Scotland Office considers the use of apprenticeships for all relevant recruitment campaigns.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many apprentices his Department recruited in each year since 2022.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

The table below includes both existing Ministry of Defence (MOD) Civil Servants who commenced an apprenticeship, and those Civil Servants recruited to the MOD as apprentices. It does not include Armed Forces apprenticeships.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many apprentices her Department recruited in 2025, compared to i) 2022 ii) 2023 and iii) 2024.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department for Transport (central), excluding its executive agencies, recruited the following number of external apprentices:

• 2025: 3
• 2024: 8
• 2023: Data cannot be provided. Our recruitment system (Oleeo VX) retains only two years of data in line with our recruitment retention policy; therefore, we cannot supply accurate figures for 2023.
• 2022: Data cannot be provided for the same reason.

The figures reflect candidates at the ‘ready to hire’ stage, having completed pre‑employment checks and accepted formal offers via the Civil Service recruitment portal.

Source of data: These figures are sourced directly from the Department for Transport’s recruitment platform, Oleeo VX, which feeds applicant information into the Civil Service Jobs system.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Policy paper entitled Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan of 17 March 2026, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of a 14-day cooling-off period on the effectiveness of local and regional news publishers in adopting a digital-first and sustainable future.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The government is committed to ensuring a healthy and plural local media for the benefit of communities and citizens across the UK. We have launched a Local Media Action Plan to help local newsrooms across the country innovate and adapt their business models for the online world, while incentivising and encouraging the production of high quality, trustworthy news.

We have consulted on how the subscriptions regime will be implemented and Ministers and officials have engaged with representatives from the news media sector. We are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to reflect on the issues raised and a Government Response will be published in due course.

The impact assessment for the subscriptions chapter in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act can be found here: Subscription traps: annex 2 impact assessment. Together, the subscription measures are anticipated to provide £400m of consumer benefits per year and the estimated net direct cost to businesses is £171m per year.

Sector-specific analysis has not been conducted.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when his Department plans to engage with stakeholders on the implementation of the new subscription contracts regime.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

This government is committed to protecting consumers who enter subscription contracts. We have consulted on the implementation of the new subscriptions regime (Consultation on the implementation of the new subscription contracts regime - GOV.UK) which included meeting with interested stakeholders. After carefully analysing responses a full Government Response is to be published in due course.

We have engaged with consumer advocacy groups, enforcers and business representatives from across the economy and will continue to do so in advance of the regime’s commencement.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Dan Aldridge; Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Sarah

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Dan Aldridge; Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Sarah

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Dan Aldridge; Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Sarah

Submit Evidence (by 18 May 2026)

At a Joint Summit in May 2025, the UK and EU agreed to a Security and Defence Partnership, and published a “Common Understanding”, setting out shared commitments to deepen cooperation. Progress since that initial summit has been limited, with core areas for agreement still to conclude. 

Submit Evidence (by 18 May 2026)

The Business and Trade Committee is conducting its bi-annual stock take on the UK-US economic and trade agreements, building on its baseline report US Economic Prosperity Deal (HC 1306, 2024–26).