Written Statements

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

Thursday 15 May 2025

National Investigation Service: Transition of Services to the Insolvency Service

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Gareth Thomas)]

Under the previous Government, a contract was entered into with Thurrock council’s national investigation service in 2020, to investigate covid-19 bounce back loan fraud. After scrutinising the recovery rates and performance of this contract, the Department for Business and Trade has decided not to renew it, and the Insolvency Service will now take over the remaining casework, due to its strong track record in handling covid-19 financial support scheme abuse allegations. To ensure a smooth transition and protect ongoing cases, NATIS’s contract will continue on a rolling monthly basis until all cases are transferred or concluded. Some NATIS staff may also move to the Insolvency Service to maintain continuity and minimise disruption.

This Government are committed to recouping public money lost in pandemic-related fraud, while also taking steps to provide value for money for UK taxpayers. The Insolvency Service has a proven track record in handling complex fraud and financial misconduct investigations. Its work has resulted in director disqualifications, bankruptcy restrictions, criminal convictions, and significant recoveries related to covid-19 financial support scheme abuse allegations since 2020-21. As such, it is well placed to ensure the remaining work is completed effectively and efficiently, delivering good outcomes for taxpayers.

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Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)]

Today, the Government have laid the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System Sandbox) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/583). This legislation establishes the legal framework for the private intermittent securities and capital exchange system—a new type of stock market, which will facilitate the trading of private company shares on an intermittent basis.

At spring statement 2025, the Government published a technical note detailing the tax implications in relation to employees trading their shares on PISCES^[1]. This stated that new enterprise management incentives and company share option plan contracts could be exercised on PISCES, provided that a PISCES trading event was a specified event and that other conditions were met. The Government also said that we were considering the case for legislating to allow existing EMI and CSOP contracts to be exercised on PISCES.

I can now confirm that the Government will legislate in the next Finance Bill to allow employers, with their employee’s permission, to amend existing EMI and CSOP contracts to include a PISCES trading event as an exercisable event, without losing the tax advantages the schemes offer. This will allow employees with contracts amended in line with the legislation to exercise their options on PISCES and retain the tax advantages. The legislation will have retrospective effect, and in the interim HMRC will be able to use collection and management powers to not collect tax on exercise. This means that this change will benefit the first PISCES trading events expected later this year. Further information on how we will legislate to allow contracts to be amended to include PISCES whilst retaining the tax advantages will be published by the end of July.

This announcement is alongside the legislation establishing the PISCES legal framework and the Budget 2024 announcement of an exemption from stamp duty and stamp duty reserve tax for PISCES transactions. Together, these are important milestones in delivering the Government’s plan to go further and faster to drive economic growth through the plan for change, by supporting private companies to scale and grow by providing a stepping stone to public markets and supporting our world- leading capital markets.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-implications-for-companies-and-employees-in-relation-to-employees-trading-their-shares-on-pisces/technical-note-tax-implications-for-companies-and-employees-in-relation-to-employees-trading-their-shares-on-pisces

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Media Mergers Legislation

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy)]

This Government are committed to a pluralistic media landscape, where citizens are able to access information from a range of sources in order to form opinions. The public’s ability to access a wide range of news, views and information about the world in which we live is central to the health of our democracy.

I am therefore today publishing two separate but related consultation responses concerning important reforms to the media merger regimes to reflect the changing ways in which people are consuming news and which will secure the DCMS Secretary of State’s powers to safeguard plural and thriving British press and broadcasting sectors.

Exceptions to the FSI regime

The purchase of UK news organisations by foreign states runs the risk of eroding trust in the press and in other news media organisations. It is essential that foreign states are not able to control or influence UK news publications and that we have strong measures in place in order to protect UK news publications from undue influence by foreign states.

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act 2024 amended the Enterprise Act 2002 to create a new foreign state influence regime for UK newspapers and periodical news magazines. As permitted by the Act, the Government now intend to introduce a number of exceptions to the regime via regulations, which are intended to offset potential negative impacts on inward investment into this sector without undermining the core principles of the FSI regime.

The previous Government launched a consultation on targeted and specific exceptions to the regime, which closed on 9 July 2024. We have carefully considered the consultation responses received, including those made by newspaper groups affected by the new regime. In setting out our response to the issues raised during the consultation, we have balanced the need to ensure strong measures are in place, while acknowledging the legitimate concerns raised by respondents. In response to stakeholder feedback, we have decided to set the threshold for state owned investors’ investment to 15% of shares or voting rights in a newspaper or news magazine. This will simplify the regime and provide more flexibility for newspaper groups seeking investment from SOIs where control or influence over the policy of the newspaper is less likely to be a risk.

Our policy intention is to ensure that state owned investment vehicles, where they do invest, could not have influence over the business of a UK newspaper. We want to ensure that the measures brought in through secondary legislation are proportionate, and support routes for legitimate investment and growth while safe- guarding UK newspapers from foreign state influence.

The draft statutory instrument making changes to the FSI regime has been laid in Parliament today.

Extending media merger regimes to include online news and other news media

The Enterprise Act 2002 contains provisions that allow the Secretary of State to intervene in mergers involving print newspaper enterprises and broadcasting enterprises which raise public interest considerations specified in the Act. Grounds for intervention are assessed against these public interest considerations.

DCMS ran a technical consultation between 6 November 2024 and 13 January 2025, on proposals to expand the scope of the media mergers regime from print newspapers and broadcasters to encompass online news platforms and periodical news magazines, and to extend the application of the media public interest considerations. These proposals followed advice from Ofcom as part of its 2021 statement on the future of media plurality.

Having taken into account views from industry, Parliament, and the public, the Government have chosen to move forward with the policy and the drafting of the definitions as outlined in the original consultation. We consider that our changes balance the need to protect the public interest in a digital age with our responsibility to support a competitive and sustainable media environment. The statutory instruments making changes to extend the media merger regime to online news and other news media will be laid in Parliament shortly.

The exceptions to the FSI regime will apply with retrospective effect from 13 March 2024, to align with the date on which the wider regime came into effect.

The amendments to the definition of newspaper for the FSI regime will also apply retrospectively with effect from today’s date. This will mean that the Secretary of State must intervene in any merger involving an online news enterprise, which completes on or after the date of this announcement, or any anticipated merger which is in progress or in contemplation on or after this date, if she has reasonable grounds to suspect a foreign state has, or may acquire, control or influence over the policy of a UK newspaper enterprise.

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Youth Funding: 2025-26

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy)]

This Government recognise the transformative role that youth services play in young people’s lives. We know that being part of supportive communities and having access to youth provision can improve a young person’s wellbeing, health and personal development.

On 12 November I announced the winding-down of the National Citizen Service programme and closure of the NCS Trust, and I committed to a co-production of a new national youth strategy. The strategy will allow us to put young people back in charge of their own destiny and provide them with meaningful choices and chances. It will better co-ordinate youth services and move away from one-size-fits-all approaches from central Government, bringing power back to young people and their communities and rebuilding a thriving and sustainable sector. I would like to thank the NCS Trust, including the Youth Advisory Board, for their engagement and commitment to delivering an orderly winding-down of activity, and sharing their learnings to feed into the new national youth strategy.

The new national youth strategy will help deliver on our national missions— spreading opportunities, improving growth, making our streets safer and taking pressure off health services. Since November we have conducted significant engagement activity, reaching young people across the country, to better understand their needs and priorities. This included a national survey, which collected over 14,000 responses, several face-to-face and online focus groups, regional roundtables as well as innovative hacks. We will publish in the coming weeks an interim report, “Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Nation”, which will present those insights.

I previously committed to set out my Department’s 2025-26 funding for youth programmes—an investment of over £145 million—to provide stability to the youth sector and ensure that young people can continue to access opportunities as we transition to the new national youth strategy.

The package of funding for 2025-26 includes:

Over £28 million to increase access to more and better enriching activities, to ensure that young people can continue to access opportunities no matter where they are from. Through these programmes, we will continue to support the fantastic organisations that engage with young people day in, day out.

£7.5 million to increase access to uniformed youth organisations, in areas of unmet demand, to provide young people the chance to access activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.

£12 million to boost open-access provision providing youth organisations funding to deliver more youth work and activities across England where young people may be at risk of becoming involved in antisocial behaviour. Working in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund, we are exploring matched funding options to leverage additional investment.

£4.7 million to increase access to outdoor learning, to help young people foster positive relationships with movement and physical activity and develop their socio-emotional and life skills.

£1.5 million to the Duke of Edinburgh’s award to increase access to the scheme for special educational schools; alternative provision and pupil referral units; and mainstream schools in areas of high deprivation.

Over £2.4 million to give young people a voice on the issues that matter most to them through the UK Youth Parliament; and to improve local places through a new approach to our youth social action funding, working in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund and the #iwill movement.

Over £3 million to increase sector and workforce capacity to ensure we are recruiting and training the youth workers who are a lifeline for young people.

£8.2 million to improve local youth offers—local authorities play a key part in delivering youth services, reflected in their statutory duty to provide sufficient leisure-time activities and facilities in line with local needs. We know that some areas have faced challenges in meeting this duty, yet they are key to enabling young people to unlock their potential.

£8 million for the local youth transformation pilot, which will support local authorities to build back capability to improve their youth offers and empower young people in every community.

£200,000 peer review programme, to provide local authorities the opportunity to access expert review of their youth offer as part of a model of sector-led improvement.

Over £107 million to further invest in ensuring safe, welcoming, fit-for-purpose youth centres:

£79.4 million (£59.3 million capital and £20.1 million revenue) of re-profiled youth investment fund phase 2 to ensure the successful delivery of projects scheduled for completion in 2025-26. This includes the pipeline of 25 modern methods of construction projects.

£27.8 million (£26 million capital and £1.8 million revenue) for better youth spaces, funding small-scale capital projects, including equipment, small refurbishments and other capital projects, bringing fast-paced benefits to youth organisations and the young people they work with. Support will be targeted in priority areas, with further details to be announced in the summer.

I look forward to the publication of both “Today’s Youth, Tomorrow’s Nation” and the national youth strategy, and I thank every young person, organisation and colleagues across Government for their input to date. Young people’s needs have never been more complex, but together we will drive the transition to a future in which young people have choices and chances and local communities are empowered to support a generation to succeed.

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NHS Very Senior Managers Pay Framework

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

I am pleased to announce today the publication of the NHS very senior managers (VSM) pay framework.

This Government’s 10-year plan to reform the NHS will focus on three big shifts; from analogue to digital, hospital to community, and sickness to prevention. To do this, this Government believe that providers and integrated care boards (ICBs) should be given greater freedom and flexibility to meet the needs of their patients and communities. We want to move to a system where freedom is the norm and central grip is the exception to challenge poor performance.

First-class leadership will be essential in achieving this and we will need to recruit and retain the very best to realise our ambitions. Accordingly, it is vital that we ensure the way we reward our very senior managers (VSMs) reflects the challenges they face and the responsibilities they carry while ensuring that we act where performance falls below our expectations.

This new pay framework will support the changes that we need to see in the NHS through the Government’s plan for change, so we can deliver on the public’s priorities to cut waiting lists for patients and drive-up standards across the NHS. It will bring together arrangements for trusts and ICBs, further driving consistency in the approach to pay across NHS organisations. In doing so, it removes the differentiation between different types of trusts and introduces pay benchmarks that account for organisational size and turnover more appropriately.

We need our very best managers to work in the most challenged NHS organisations to make the necessary improvements and turn them around. The new pay framework enables employers to apply a temporary increase to pay as a means of encouraging top talent to come and work in poorly performing organisations.

Across all ICBs and providers, employers will be able to reward the highest performing leaders with a bonus of up to 10% where they have demonstrated exceptional performance in, for example, cutting waiting times, managing finances or improving services for patients.

However, as the Secretary of State has made clear, there will be no more reward for failure in the NHS. Going forward, those very senior managers who are leading the poorest performing organisations will have their annual pay award withheld, with an exemption for those who have been newly appointed to turn things around.

The new pay framework will use the segmentation derived from the NHS performance assessment framework (NPAF). The NPAF segments providers and ICBs ranging from segment 1 to 5 with 1 being the best performing, based on their performance against published metrics. From this year those VSMs in organisations in segment 5, the lowest performing, will not be eligible for pay uplifts unless an exemption applies.

By introducing a greater focus on performance, this new framework will ensure that pay is closely aligned with the delivery of outcomes and will incentivise improvements where these are needed most.

This Government want to see trusts and ICBs deliver more efficiency, ensuring patients get more for taxpayers’ money being invested. NHS organisations will be accountable to the public on very senior managers’ salaries, as we will be requiring them to explain their pay decisions in annual accounts and also submit an annual pay report to NHS England. The new framework will drive consistency of pay and ensure greater transparency.

The new VSM framework is part of a broader package of reforms to ensure we support and invest in NHS managers. This includes our commitments to introduce professional standards for, and regulating, NHS managers, and establishing a college of executive and clinical leadership to help train and develop excellent NHS leaders.

We are determined to get the NHS back on its feet, and this framework aims to boost the efficiency and productivity of providers and ICBs so that they can focus on delivering the care that people need. I look forward to seeing the leadership of the NHS rise to the challenge, as we take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history and make it fit for the future.

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2025 UEFA Women’s European Championship: Extending Licensing Hours

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing and Crime Prevention (Dame Diana Johnson)]

The Government consulted on, and will be proceeding with, the proposal to make a contingent licensing hours order under section 172 of the Licensing Act 2003, after the majority of respondents to the consultation were in favour of the relaxation. This order will relax licensing hours in England and Wales for the 2025 UEFA women’s European championship, subject to any of the competing home nation teams (England and Wales) reaching the semi-final(s) or final of the tournament.

The order will apply to premises already licensed until 11pm for the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises in England and Wales. The order will extend the licensing hours for such premises from 11 pm to 1 am the following day on the days of the semi-final(s) (22 and/or 23 July) and final (27 July) of the tournament should the criteria of the contingent order be met.

The Government consider the semi-finals and final of the tournament to be an occasion of exceptional national significance and an extension to licensing hours will enable communities to come together at their local licensed premises to support any of the home nation teams if they reach the later stages of the tournament and celebrate any subsequent success. This will also provide support to the hospitality sector by enabling businesses to extend their trading hours if they so wish.

The results of the consultation will be published on gov.uk and a copy will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The Government are grateful to everyone who responded to the consultation. The order will be laid in Parliament in due course and an economic note will be published alongside it on legislation.gov.uk.

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Local Government Pension Scheme: Member Benefits Reform

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution (Jim McMahon)]

The local government pension scheme in England and Wales gives 7 million dedicated public servants security in their later years. The majority of its members are women on low-paid roles and often working part-time, with average pensions in retirement of £5,000 a year. These members are at the frontline of public service, working to deliver for the public in our councils, schools, charities, police and fire authorities, and more. This Government are committed to making work pay and ensuring that those who keep our country running are properly rewarded in retirement. That is why we have today launched a consultation that would benefit around 15,000 members, and enhance the benefits open to the women who make up almost three quarters of members, by making maternity leave up to one year automatically pensionable. These proposals all align with the overall aim of ensuring the scheme continues to deliver for members, employers and taxpayers, and invests in their communities.

The Government are proposing the changes to member benefits alongside the significant reforms to investment and pooling, which are also vital. Those reforms aim to improve the long-term sustainability of the local government pension scheme, ensuring that pension promises stretching into the next century are fully funded. The Government propose to do that by strengthening asset pooling in the scheme, improving scheme governance and driving investment in local growth—all those measures ensure that the scheme, in delivering for its members, also delivers for communities.

The members of the local government pension scheme deserve a scheme that rewards their hard work and commitment to public service, and the consultation touches on a wide range of areas of the scheme. There are four proposals I would like to highlight to the House.

First, the proposals would end historical discrimination in the scheme, ensuring that when survivor benefits are calculated when a member dies, there is no discrimination on the basis of the sex of their partner. This would be backdated, correcting the historical underpayment of benefits.

Secondly, the proposals would ensure that there is a better understanding of why individuals opt out of making pension payments. The Government want a secure old age for everyone and, although automatic enrolment in the scheme has increased participation, too many people still opt out and lose the vital benefits the local government pension scheme offers in retirement. This would lay the groundwork for future support of those who feel they cannot afford their pension payments.

Thirdly, the proposals would close loopholes in current rules relating to pension forfeiture, strengthening the framework ensuring that pensions can be removed for serious offences by public servants.

Finally, and most significantly, the proposals would make concrete progress in addressing the gender pension gap. We know that there is still much to understand about the gender pension gap, but it is not fair that, across the scheme, women will on average end their working lives with less generous pension benefits than men. These proposals would see the Government make gender pension gap data reporting statutory and make the last 13 weeks of maternity and shared parental leave automatically pensionable. This would make a real difference in the pension accruals of a significant proportion of the women in the local government pension scheme, and better support them in retirement. The 13-week proposal would be the first time that a public service pension scheme makes this step towards closing the gender pension gap. It reflects that many local government pension scheme members are women in comparatively lower-paid roles, and that the overall package available to the workforce, including pension entitlement, is vital to recruitment and retention of key roles in local public services.

Although these proposals carry costs, those costs are relatively small in the context of overall local government pension scheme liabilities and are significantly outweighed by the difference the proposals will make for members. Further, the Government are mindful that, with the current scheme valuation period, now is the right time for funds and their actuaries to factor these costs into their calculations of future employer contribution rates.

The proposals in the consultation have been tested with stakeholders and address their feedback on how to make the local government pension scheme an exemplar scheme for the public sector and beyond. I want to thank the Local Government Association, the scheme advisory board, local government pension scheme funds and others for their continued support of the Government in our role as steward of the local government pension scheme, and I emphasise the Government’s commitment to the local government pension scheme being locally run.

This first consultation on member benefits in the local government pension scheme will be followed by another consultation this year, on further issues of fairness, equality, integrity and efficacy in the scheme.

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Electoral Integrity Programme: 2024 UK Parliamentary General Election Evaluation Report

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rushanara Ali)]

The Elections Act 2022 made a number of significant changes to the way elections are run in this country, and it is important that we understand fully the impact of these changes. To meet its commitments on evaluation, the previous Government appointed external and independent evaluators IFF Research to evaluate the implementation of the Act in the first standalone local election and the first general election following implementation.

In line with statutory obligations, a third and final evaluation of the voter identification measures will be conducted following the next UK parliamentary general election.

Today, I am pleased to share IFF Research’s “Electoral Integrity Programme Evaluation: Year 2” report. This independent evaluation has used data gathered at polling stations, supplemented by public opinion survey results, data from the Electoral Commission and from surveys with electoral administrators, as well as qualitative research findings to provide a rich picture of how the Elections Act measures were delivered and their impact on both electors and electoral administrators. I welcome IFF Research’s rigorous reflections and recommendations and thank them for their work.

Whilst it is reassuring that the overall findings in the report align with those of the Electoral Commission—namely, that the 2024 polls were well-run—I recognise the challenging circumstances under which these elections were delivered. These included multiple polls in quick succession, the implementation of several complex reforms and constituency boundary changes.

The entire electoral community demonstrated exceptional resilience and professionalism in rising to these challenges, as indeed they always do. It is encouraging, therefore, to see many of IFF’s findings highlighting the extensive preparation undertaken by elections teams in advance of the polls. I extend my sincere gratitude to returning officers and their teams for their continued dedication as well as to every volunteer who gave their time to support our precious democratic process.

I recognise that there are some recommendations in the report which are in areas where Government do not have a direct role, such as around the delivery and execution of public awareness campaigns. We will continue to support the work of the Electoral Commission, the electoral sector and their representative bodies, and other partners to understand and address the gaps to ensure the delivery of meaningful and sustainable change.

This Government are committed to strengthening our democracy and encouraging full participation in our elections and we will be publishing our strategy for elections later this year, setting out the Government’s approach to elections and electoral reform for this Parliament. Several of the recommendations made by IFF will be considered within this strategy document.

The associated documents will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

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UK’s Future Exhaustion of Intellectual Property Rights Regime Consultation: Government Response

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Feryal Clark)]

Our parallel importation laws, which regulate the common practice of importing genuine physical goods that are first sold in other countries into the UK for resale, play an important role in many sectors of the UK’s economy. These laws are governed by the UK’s choice of an exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime—or what is commonly referred to as an IP exhaustion regime.

An exhaustion regime determines the geographical scope of foreign territory in which an importer must seek the permission of the IP rights holders (e.g. a trademark, patent, design or copyright owner) to parallel import a good that is protected by their IP rights into the UK for resale.

Businesses have been waiting for clarity on what the UK’s parallel importation laws will be for too long and are rightly seeking certainty on this matter. I am therefore pleased to announce to the House that the Government have taken a clear decision on this matter. Today, we will publish the Government’s response to the 2021 consultation on the UK’s future exhaustion regime. It confirms that the UK will be maintaining its bespoke exhaustion regime—which we have called the UK+ regime—and sets out the extensive analysis and stakeholder engagement that underpins our decision. This provides the clarity that stakeholders across the UK have been calling for, helping to provide confidence to businesses, investors and consumers that the UK will continue our balanced IP framework.

As part of the Government’s response, we have set out how the UK+ regime reflects and supports the many different parts of our modern, IP-rich economy. This exhaustion regime ensures that our world-leading inventors and creators can invest their time and energy in developing new products and technologies, knowing that our parallel importation laws will help to support them to make a living from their IP assets. In turn, it will support competition in the marketplace and fair access to IP-protected goods.

No legislative changes or adjustment to businesses’ operations are required, as the UK will be maintaining its bespoke exhaustion regime.

If we are to unlock economic growth, we must incentivise innovation and creativity by providing long-term certainty and stability to all who interact with our world-leading IP framework. The UK+ regime achieves this goal by providing balanced, well-designed parallel importation laws.

A copy of the Government’s response to the 2021 consultation on the UK’s future exhaustion regime has been laid in both Houses.

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Benefit System: Fraud and Error

Thursday 15th May 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)]

The annual statistics for fraud and error in the benefit system for the financial year ending 2025, were published on Thursday 15 May 2024, at 9.30am.

Today's figures confirm the overall rate of overpayments is now 3.3% (£9.5 billion) for 2024-25, compared to 3.6% (£9.7 billion) in 2023-24. Overpayments due to fraud account for 2.2% compared to 2.7% last year while claimant error and official error are now at 0.7% and 0.4% respectively, compared to 0.6% and 0.3% last year.

This Government made a manifesto commitment that they will safeguard taxpayers’ money and not tolerate fraud or waste anywhere in public services. With welfare benefits paid to around 24 million people, the welfare system is a deliberate target for both organised crime groups and opportunistic individuals and it is vital that the Government continue to robustly tackle fraud to ensure support goes to those who need it most. We are taking further steps to minimise error, ensuring the right people are paid the right amount at the right time. The total rate of benefit expenditure underpaid in FYE 2025 was 0.4% (£1.2 billion), compared with 0.4% (£1.1 billion) in FYE 2024.

Through autumn Budget 2024 and spring statement 2025, the Department has committed to deliver £9.6 billion in scored savings out to 2029-30. This will be delivered through a suite of measures, including additional resourcing for the Verify Earnings and Pension Service which uses HMRC data to identify changes in claimants’ earnings and private pensions that may impact entitlement to carer’s allowance and pension credit, and new verification measures for capital and self-employed income and expenses across universal credit claims.

As part of this, the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery Bill), which moves to Second Reading in the House of Lords today, is estimated to deliver benefits of £1.5 billion over the next five years. It will safeguard public money by reducing public sector fraud and error and allowing the more effective recovery of moneys owed to the Government. The Bill will also help spot and stop errors earlier to avoid claimants’ getting into debt. The latest fraud and error in the benefit system statistics show overpayments at a staggering £9.5 billion in the last year, with capital remaining one of the top reasons for overpayments in UC and PC. This demonstrates the continued importance of the eligibility verification measure, which is a core part of the Bill.

Today we have also published our unfulfilled eligibility statistics, following last year’s reclassification from customer error underpayments. Unfulfilled eligibility measures how much a customer could have been eligible for had they told us their correct circumstances. The total unfulfilled eligibility rate in FYE 2025 was 1.3% (£3.7 billion) compared with 1.2% (£3.1 billion) in FYE 2024. The Department will report more on both overpayments and underpayments by way of its annual report and accounts, which are due to be published in July 2025.

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