Sarah Dyke

The Government is committed to protecting intellectual property rights and supporting UK businesses and consumers.

The Intellectual Property Office regularly engages with many of the major digital platform operators in the UK and overseas to discuss and develop the necessary measures to address infringements on online marketplaces. These discussions include ways to improve the existing platform processes for identifying and removing infringing content, collaboration with law enforcement, and how rights holders can make effective use of existing platform procedures. It also works with domestic and international partners to promote best practice in preventing online intellectual property infringement.

The Government is committed to protecting intellectual property rights and supporting UK businesses and consumers against online infringement. In the UK, enforcement action is led by Trading Standards and the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, which work with online marketplaces to remove counterfeit and infringing listings.

The Intellectual Property Office engages regularly with many of the major e-commerce platforms and rights holders, in the UK and internationally, to ensure effective policies and processes for identifying and removing infringing content are in place. It also works with international partners, including the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, to promote best practice.

Ofcom is responsible for assessing the 4G coverage improvements delivered by the Shared Rural Network. Its latest published figures show that 4G now reaches over 95% of UK landmass. This means that the Shared Rural Network met its overarching target a year ahead of schedule. The delivery of the programme was always due to continue until January 2027, at which point Ofcom will assess further coverage improvements from the publicly-funded parts of the programme.

It is shocking that the last government published no digital inclusion strategy for 10 years. This Government is determined to remedy that and I hope to be able to say more soon.

The latest published data shows that between April 2022 and March 2023, 90% of premises benefiting from publicly-subsidised broadband rollout, including Project Gigabit, were rural.

Almost £2 billion of contracts have been signed to connect over a million more premises with gigabit-capable broadband. These are premises that would otherwise not be reached by suppliers’ commercial rollout, and fall predominantly in rural areas.

Given the current fiscal climate, it is essential that Government support is targeted towards the areas where it can have the greatest impact, and where it is needed most. The new Places of Worship Renewal Fund (£92 million over four years) will provide grants from £10,000 to £1,000,000 to support urgent structural repairs, physical access improvements or the installation of new facilities to expand community use. Priority will be given to projects in areas of England with the highest levels of deprivation and need for investment.

The new Places of Worship Renewal Fund (PWRF) is a capital grant scheme. Where capital grants have been awarded, VAT on eligible works and costs will be rebated where it is not otherwise reclaimable.

The PWRF is open for Expressions of Interest, and further details, including the PWRF criteria and application guidance, are published on the dedicated Historic England webpage: https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/grants/what-we-fund/places-of-worship-renewal-fund/.

The issue of illegal gambling is a concern for this Government and we are committed to working closely with the Gambling Commission, the statutory regulator for gambling in Great Britain, to ensure that illegal gambling, in all its forms, is addressed. The Crime and Policing Bill, introduced in Parliament on 25 February 2025, will grant the Gambling Commission with new powers to more quickly and effectively take down illegal gambling websites.

Estimating the size of the illegal gambling market is difficult due to the changing nature of the sites and channels through which customers are able to access illegal activity. While research in this space is improving, further research is required to robustly estimate the extent of illegal gambling within Great Britain, who is engaging with it, and the impact that it is having on issues such as horseracing and tax revenues. This is a priority area of research for the Gambling Commission. We will continue to monitor the latest evidence in this area to improve our understanding of the illegal market.

The issue of illegal gambling is a concern for this Government and we are committed to working closely with the Gambling Commission, the statutory regulator for gambling in Great Britain, to ensure that illegal gambling, in all its forms, is addressed. The Crime and Policing Bill, introduced in Parliament on 25 February 2025, will grant the Gambling Commission with new powers to more quickly and effectively take down illegal gambling websites.

Estimating the size of the illegal gambling market is difficult due to the changing nature of the sites and channels through which customers are able to access illegal activity. While research in this space is improving, further research is required to robustly estimate the extent of illegal gambling within Great Britain, who is engaging with it, and the impact that it is having on issues such as horseracing and tax revenues. This is a priority area of research for the Gambling Commission. We will continue to monitor the latest evidence in this area to improve our understanding of the illegal market.

Gallantry awards, amongst them Victoria and George Crosses, honour exceptional acts of bravery and courage. The stories they tell form an important part of our national history. The Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, which houses a significant number of these medals, has been well-loved since its creation in 2010 and has been invaluable to the public’s understanding of these acts of heroism.

The Government recognises the importance of these medals and their significance to the recipients, their families and the wider public. The Imperial War Museum has delayed the original date of the Gallery closure until the end of September to allow visitors to see the collection of medals for as long as possible. Following the closure at the end of this month, the Imperial War Museum plans to redisplay their own collection of Victoria Cross and George Cross medals at their sites across the country, meaning public access to them will be maintained and new audiences will be able to engage with these stories.

Placements at special schools are usually made through education, health and care (EHC) plans. The department does not hold figures on whether a mainstream setting named on an EHC plan was the setting preferred by the parents of the child.

HM Treasury’s Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) provides a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the removal of the VAT exemption on private schools. The TIIN is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/applying-vat-to-private-school-fees#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.

It is a legislative requirement that milk is provided free of charge to children who meet the free school meal criteria.

We are extending free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This new entitlement will mean over 500,000 of the most disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals putting £500 back in families’ pockets.

We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multi-year spending review period to cover additional meal costs. This includes milk. This is on top of £1.5 billion we already spend annually supporting schools to deliver free school meals and milk.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education (HE) sector. These data are shared with the department and include a wide range of information on student courses.

In the 2023/24 academic year, across all levels and modes of study, there were 12,880 student enrolments in the subject area ‘Veterinary sciences’ across all UK HE providers. The following table presents numbers of HE students by subject area and sex for each academic year from 2019/20 to 2023/24: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb271/figure-13.

The government recognises the importance of ensuring that children and young people are taught about and understand sustainability and the circular economy, which is why this topic can already be covered across a range of subjects, including science and design and technology. The national curriculum in England provides a broad framework within which schools have the flexibility to develop the content of their own school curriculum.

The independent Curriculum and Assessment Review’s final report is due to be published this autumn, along with the government’s response. The Review is looking at where the evidence suggests that curriculum and qualifications content needs to be updated to reflect rapid social, environmental and technological change, including a greater focus on sustainability.

Statutory tuberculin skin testing (SICCT) and interferon-gamma blood testing (IFNy) of cattle herds will remain the foundation of bovine tuberculosis (TB) control and will continue to be required. The recently published co-designed bovine TB Control Strategy for England also proposes facilitating greater access to privately-funded ancillary bovine TB testing alongside this, to support earlier detection of infected cattle and disease management.

Government will now consider the recommendations in the new bovine TB strategy, including on testing.

Several modelling studies published by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) predict that badger vaccination will significantly reduce TB in badger populations, reducing onward risks to cattle. Further modelling work is ongoing to investigate this further.

The co-design steering group, in its recently published recommended bovine TB strategy, concludes that with most of the High-Risk Area having received at least four years of culling, a transition to vaccination should be beneficial to TB control, particularly when targeted to areas where it can have the greatest impact.

Multiple published studies indicate that badger vaccination is safe and can reduce TB infection and transmission in badgers. Vaccination is now being deployed across a number of large areas, including through a newly contracted Badger Vaccination Field Force. This expanded programme will provide further opportunities to assess and add to the body of evidence about the impact of vaccination on reducing TB incidence in cattle, where important evidence gaps remain.

There are currently no plans to issue further badger control licences. The government has committed to ending the badger cull by the end of this Parliament, and the 2025 culling season marked the final year of industry-led culling in England’s High Risk and Edge Areas.

The table below represents properties flooded in Environment Agency (EA) Operational Areas from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. This information has been collated by EA Area teams and is based on information received from the public, flood partners and EA staff during national flood events. All figures are estimates and are subject to change as information is collated and updated, and records may differ from previously reported totals. Further impacts can sometimes be reported through recovery work with communities.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government may hold further detail about properties flooded during this time from Lead Local Flood Authorities.