Max Wilkinson

This Government has set out an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade and we are determined to deliver on that ambition.

We will keep all legislation under review as we develop our approach to tackle sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls. We currently have no plans to change the law but will consider licensing regulations to make sure that they are protecting the vulnerable and tackling sexual crime, as well as public nuisance.

As has been the policy of successive governments, the government does not comment on matters relating to the intelligence agencies.

The 2025 Spending Review confirmed £244 million investment supporting the relocation of roles out of Whitehall to complete the development of new hubs in the regions.

Cheltenham will continue to be a vibrant Civil Service location and home to one of GCHQs strategic hubs. The Government Property Agency continues to work closely with departments based in Cheltenham.

The 2025 Spending Review confirmed £244 million investment supporting the relocation of roles out of Whitehall to complete the development of new hubs in the regions.

Cheltenham will continue to be a vibrant Civil Service location and home to one of GCHQs strategic hubs. The Government Property Agency continues to work closely with departments based in Cheltenham.

This Government is taking major steps to give SMEs greater access to public contracts - including the publication of the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which sets out a mission-led procurement regime focused on driving economic growth that supports Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSEs), giving them greater opportunities to win public contracts by instructing contracting authorities to maximise their spend with these organisations. To support implementation of the NPPS in central government, we have announced new rules requiring all government departments and their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs from 1 April 2025, and from 1 April 2026 for VCSEs, and publish progress annually.

We will be consulting on more reforms including a requirement for large contracting authorities to publish their three-year targets for small business and social enterprise spend and report on this annually - as well as the exclusion of suppliers from contracts worth more than £5million if they don’t complete prompt payments of invoices.

In the Spring Statement, the Chancellor also announced measures to reform our procurement system to give small businesses across the UK better access to Ministry of Defence contracts.

The Prime Minister announced a single national security strategy will be published ahead of the NATO Summit in June. This will bring together the national security related reviews underway. As part of creating this strategy, the drafters will consult with relevant Departments and Agencies, including intelligence services.

Details of the Department for Business and Trade’s ministerial meetings can be found at Gov.uk.

Earlier this year, the government consulted on the resale of live events tickets to seek views on a range of proposals aimed at improving fairness for consumers – including a price cap that would restrict the price at which tickets could lawfully be resold.

In the consultation document, we set out our assessment of the beneficial role of the secondary ticketing market and ongoing issues relating to how it currently operates.

We are currently reviewing all the evidence that we received in response to the consultation and we intend to publish the government response later this summer.

The SME Finance Charter was an awareness-raising initiative introduced in 2019 and updated in 2022 following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The British Business Bank's Nations and Regions Investment Funds provide debt and equity finance to businesses outside London. They are designed to support business growth in local communities by crowding in additional private investment for areas that have historically been underserved. The success of these funds to date was recognised at Spending Review with funding confirmed to allow for expansion.

The Industrial Strategy will focus on eight growth-driving sectors. Digital and Technologies has been identified as one of those eight sectors, the UK being the third country in the world to have a tech sector valued at over $1trillion. Within those growth sectors, the Government will prioritise sub-sectors that meet our objectives and where there is evidence that policy can address barriers to growth.

The Industrial Strategy Green Paper identified eight growth-driving sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Creative Industries, Defence, Digital and Technologies, Financial Services, Life Sciences and Professional and Business Services. All sectors will benefit from wider policy reform through the Industrial Strategy’s cross-cutting policies alongside the broader Growth Mission. This will help create the pro-business environment for all businesses to invest and employ, and consumers to spend with confidence.

Government launched a licensing taskforce to reduce red tape and barriers that too often hold businesses back and we intend to introduce permanently lower business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a rateable value less than £500,000.

Additionally, we’ve announced a £1.5 million Hospitality Support Scheme to co-fund projects that align with Department for Business and Trade and Hospitality Sector Council Priorities, this will include helping those furthest from the jobs market into work and improving business productivity.

To support local authorities to implement the Warm Homes: Local Grant, the Government is funding a free Technical Assistance Facility called the Retrofit Information, Support and Expertise: ‘RISE’. RISE provides technical support for local authorities from when they request funding to beginning to upgrade homes, as well as access to experts, training and guidance to enhance their capability to deliver the scheme. All local authorities in England can access support through this facility. In addition, Government has procured a delivery partner to provide ongoing support to local authorities throughout the delivery period, with each project assigned a Delivery Support Manager to provide project delivery expertise.

Retrofit, Information, Support, and Expertise (RISE) is a free support service funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which provides training, guidance and support to help social housing providers, local authorities and their supply chains across England plan and deliver successful domestic retrofit programmes. For specific queries relating to support received or available to specific organisations, organisations are encouraged to engage with the RISE team directly at info@riseretrofit.org.uk . If organisations would like to speak to the department about the RISE service, you are welcome to contact DESNZ at: TAF mailbox. tafteam@energysecurity.gov.uk

Cheltenham Borough Council participates in the Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH:LG) as part of a consortium led by Stroud District Council. Stroud District Council is expected to receive the initial payment of WH:LG funding shortly, subject to the Council completing any administrative actions requested.

As the consortium lead, Stroud District Council will be responsible for managing any distribution of funding to consortium members, including Cheltenham Borough Council.

Retrofit, Information, Support, and Expertise (RISE) is a free support service funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which provides training, guidance and support to help housing providers and their supply chains across England, to plan and deliver successful domestic retrofit programmes. For specific queries relating to support received or available to supply chain organisations, including in specific regions. organisations are encouraged to engage with the RISE team directly at info@riseretrofit.org.uk . If organisations would like to speak to the department about the RISE service, you are welcome to contact DESNZ at: TAF mailbox. tafteam@energysecurity.gov.uk

The Government has not made a specific assessment of the capacity of skilled workers in Gloucestershire to implement the Warm Homes: Local Grant.

Prior to beginning to upgrade homes, and drawing down the funding allocated for this, all local authorities participating in the scheme are required to demonstrate they have procured sufficient capacity to deliver the funding. Local authorities concerned that there is insufficient capacity in their area to deliver their project are encouraged to contact their assigned Delivery Support Manager for the scheme.

The Online Safety Act now requires in-scope platforms to implement effective measures to prevent illegal fraudulent user-generated content and activity. Ofcom has launched an enforcement programme to monitor compliance with the illegal content duties and a consultation to strengthen codes of practice, including proposals for automated tools to detect illegal content, including fraud. Additionally, the largest user-to-user and search services (Category 1 and 2A) must tackle paid-for fraudulent ads once the relevant codes are in force.

The Government is required to review the effectiveness of the online safety framework, two to five years after key provisions have come into force.

The Government has committed to establishing stakeholder working groups to inform the development of policy on copyright and AI.

In line with debates in Parliament on the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the Secretaries of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are convening the first meeting of these stakeholder working groups on 16th July. The Government will publish details and a list of working group members in due course.

Having travelled westbound from London to Wales and back again on a weekly basis for twenty four years I know how poor the signal is. That is why I am delighted that DfT have secured funding to introduce low-earth-orbit satellite connectivity on all mainline trains, significantly improving both the availability and internet data connection speeds for Wi-Fi connected passengers.

Ofcom, the independent telecoms regulator, is responsible for reporting on the coverage of mobile networks in the UK. In 2019, Ofcom published data on mobile signal strength along UK railways based on measurement equipment installed on ‘yellow trains’. The Department for Transport and Network Rail are currently repeating this coverage measurement exercise. Ofcom continue to explore the feasibility of reporting on coverage on trains in the most relevant way.

The Government’s consultation on copyright and AI received over 11,500 responses. Our priority now is to review these thoroughly to help inform its approach to copyright and AI, and a response will be published when this work has been completed.

Meanwhile, the Government will continue to engage extensively as it considers next steps.

We agreed with much of the Leaders’ Declaration and continue to work closely with our international partners. The UK worked hard to agree text in the Leaders’ Declaration that reflected our commitment to balance opportunity with security when it comes to AI, but unfortunately we were not able to reach agreement on all parts of the declaration. It is important to note that the UK worked closely with the French team throughout and signed other agreements at the Summit on sustainability, cybersecurity and the impact of AI on the workforce.

We remain a very close partner to France on all aspects of AI, and an active and eager participant in all future AI Summits which were started at Bletchley Park in November 2023.

The UK is also continuing to take an active role in international AI discussions – including working bilaterally and through fora such as the G7, G20, OECD-Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), the United Nations and Council of Europe.

The new foreign state intervention (FSI) regime, set out in the Entreprise Act 2002, seeks to preserve the freedom of the press. It applies to all foreign powers that may seek to acquire control or influence a UK newspaper or news periodical and will be applied case by case based on the facts presented.

Our assessment on the potential impact of foreign states investing in UK Newspapers can be found in my Written Statement Ministerial of 15 May 2025 - Official Report Vol 767 Col 17WS.

The new foreign state intervention (FSI) regime, set out in the Entreprise Act 2002, seeks to preserve the freedom of the press. It applies to all foreign powers that may seek to acquire control or influence a UK newspaper or news periodical and will be applied case by case based on the facts presented.

Our assessment on the potential impact of foreign states investing in UK Newspapers can be found in my Written Statement Ministerial of 15 May 2025 - Official Report Vol 767 Col 17WS.

The government’s Industrial Strategy identifies eight growth-driving sectors with the greatest growth potential over the next decade including the Creative Industries, with more detail in the Creative Industries Sector Plan.

As part of this, we have said it is important to ensure that the copyright regime values and protects human creativity, can be trusted and unlocks new opportunities for innovation. The government has committed to set out a detailed economic impact assessment on all options under consideration following its consultation on Copyright and AI.

This Government fully recognises the importance of youth services to help young people live safe and healthy lives, and we are committed to giving all young people the chance to reach their full potential. The funding commitments within the National Youth Strategy will depend on departmental business planning processes, now underway following the recent spending review. The detail and scale of the funding commitments included in the strategy will also be shaped by engagement with young people and the youth sector.The Government will publish the strategy this autumn.

The Government is determined to ensure that everyone has access to quality sport and physical activity opportunities.

On 20 June, my Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, committed £400 million to continued investment in local sport facilities on 20 June, following the recent Spending Review. We will work closely with sporting bodies - including the Lawn Tennis Association - and local leaders to establish what each community needs and then set out further plans.

The Park Tennis Court Programme was a joint investment between the UK Government and LTA that started in 2022 and concluded in 2024.