Written Statements

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

Monday 30 June 2025

UK Steel Safeguard

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Jonathan Reynolds)]

On 28 February 2025, the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority initiated a review of the steel safeguard measure. The review assessed whether exemptions afforded to developing countries should be updated to reflect recent trade flows and whether the allocation of the tariff-free quotas across all 14 product categories were appropriate to ensure the overall effectiveness of the measure.

During the review, the TRA considered evidence from both domestic and international industry and organisations. After careful consideration of the facts, it recommended to me on 9 June 2025 that developing country exemptions should be updated and that certain changes should be made to the allocation of the tariff-rate quotas.

I have considered the evidence contained within the recommendation made by the TRA and wider matters in the public interest, including the UK’s obligations under the relevant World Trade Organisation agreement. As a result of these deliberations, I have decided to reject the TRA’s recommendation and take a different decision. The reason is to ensure the overall effectiveness of the UK’s steel safeguard measure for domestic producers while balancing the need for security of supply for the UK market.

I have decided to:

Increase the overall volume of each category’s tariff-rate quota by 0.1% from 1 July 2025.

Apply a 15% cap in the residual quota of category four and a 20% cap in the residual quotas of categories seven and 13 to ensure that UK imports from exporting countries are more closely aligned with traditional trade flows, effective from 1 July 2025.

I have also decided to amend the allocation of the tariff-rate quotas as below, in line with the TRA’s recommendation:

Prevent any unused quarterly quotas from being made available in the following quarter.

Prevent WTO members with a country-specific quota from being able to access the residual quota in the final quarter.

Update developing country exemptions based on UK import data for the period 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024 and in line with the WTO agreement on safeguards.

This Government are unapologetic in our support for the steel sector. It is fundamental to Britain’s industrial strength, our security and our identity as a primary global power. We will not allow UK interests to suffer. Through these measures we are supporting not only our producers but also the thousands of families that depend on them and the supply chains reliant on high-quality UK-made steel.

We are determined to reverse the years of decline and neglect in the steel industry, caused in a large part by global excess capacity and market distortions. We will continue to take effective action, and we will publish our “Steel Strategy” later in the year. The strategy will bring everything together to set an ambitious vision for the sector and a more competitive business landscape.

The decision on the steel safeguard will come into effect from 1 July 2025. The Government will publish a public notice on 30 June 2025 to give effect to these decisions to enter into force on 1 July.

[HCWS752]

UK Automotive Sector: DRIVE35

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (Sarah Jones)]

As part of their industrial strategy, the Government have announced a new £2 billion programme to unlock investment in our automotive industry, DRIVE35—driving research and investment in vehicle electrification.

Building on the successes of the automotive transformation fund and Advanced Propulsion Centre R&D programmes, this programme will support the latest research and development, accelerate commercial scale-up, and unlock capital investment in zero emission vehicles, batteries and the wider supply chain. It will ensure continuity in Government support while transitioning to a new funding offer for investors that is much simpler, clearer and faster. The new programme will work alongside the national wealth fund, as part of a comprehensive offer to attract strategic investments.

DRIVE35 will provide long-term certainty to investors, with capital funding over five years and R&D funding for 10 years, to 2035. This long-term commitment is a vote of confidence in the sector, supporting its transformation to unlock growth and enable competitiveness.

We will release further detail in the coming weeks, and will continue to engage with industry as we take forward our plans.

As with all financial assistance, Government will disburse DRIVE35 funding via specific spending powers. As part of the requirements for capital spending under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982, the Government are today tabling a parliamentary motion seeking authorisation to disburse up to £1 billion of DRIVE35’s total £2 billion via section 8. The motion is as follows and will be debated in due course:

“That this House authorises the Secretary of State to undertake, during the period beginning with the date of approval of this motion and ending on 31 July 2030, to pay, by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982, grants to businesses as part of His Majesty’s Government’s project to support zero-emission vehicle manufacturing in the UK and the UK’s automotive supply chain, including to support the creation of jobs, private investment into the UK, the development of the automotive industry and emission reductions, up to an overall limit of £1 billion, and to pay during or after that period the grants that are undertaken to be paid.”

[HCWS751]

UK-Taiwan Enhanced Trade Partnership

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security (Mr Douglas Alexander)]

I am pleased to announce that the three pillars under the UK-Taiwan enhanced trade partnership, on investment, digital trade, and energy and net zero, were signed on 30 June. The signing took place between the UK representative at the British Office Taipei, Ruth Bradley-Jones, and the Taipei representative to the UK, Vincent Chin-Hsiang Yao. I witnessed this signing alongside Executive Yuan Minister without Portfolio Yang Jen-ni during my trip to Taipei where I also co-chaired the 27th UK-Taiwan trade talks.

The ETP pillars are non-legally binding arrangements which will create frameworks to further enhance trade, investment and economic co-operation between the UK and Taiwan. They build on commitments made under the existing UK-Taiwan ETP signed on 14 November 2023. The ETP pillars will support the unofficial relationship between the UK and Taiwan, delivering benefits to both economies. Their content has been informed by engagement with UK businesses, to ensure that they will deliver tangible results over time, supporting the already strong, long-standing trade relationship between the UK and Taiwan which was worth £9.3 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2024.

The No. 1 priority of this Government is economic growth. “The UK’s Trade Strategy”, launched on 26 June, sets out our approach to maximise trade opportunities to support the UK’s growth mission. Utilising flexible trading arrangements and partnerships, like this ETP, demonstrates this Government’s agile and targeted approach to trade policy, which will be key in driving UK growth.

The digital trade, investment and energy and net zero pillars are available on www.gov.uk.

[HCWS750]

Steel Trade Measures: Call for Evidence

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Industry (Sarah Jones)]

Steel is essential for a modern and secure economy underpinning many sectors, from construction to advanced manufacturing. The UK steel industry provides high-quality jobs in local economies—circa 40,000 jobs across the country and circa 61,000 jobs in the upstream supply chain in 2024—and plays a vital role in infrastructure, manufacturing and defence supply chains, which are critical for economic growth. However, the UK steel industry faces a challenging global trading landscape due to significant steel overcapacity. This overcapacity introduces unfairly cheap imports into the market, artificially lowering prices, reducing profitability, and hindering investment.

The UK Government have taken steps to protect our steel industry from unfair trading practices through the use of trade remedies. This includes a safeguard measure on certain product categories of steel due to expire on 30 June 2026. Initially applied in 2018 by the EU on behalf of the EU28, the measure was transitioned to the UK’s independent trading system after leaving the EU.

It is within this context that we are launching a call for evidence on steel trade measures, inviting stakeholders across the steel supply chain, including manufacturers, distributors, and end-users of steel products, to provide input, as well as other industries that may be indirectly affected by tariff policy changes. The evidence gathered will support the development of future trade policy options for imported steel products, following the expiry of the steel safeguard. Our goal is to ensure a balanced approach that considers the needs of all interested parties.

The call for evidence will be open for six weeks and will be available at https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/steel-trade-measures We encourage all interested stakeholders to respond. The objectives of this call for evidence have been designed to align with the UK’s trade strategy and industrial strategy, the resilience of steel supply chains, and other wider priorities within the steel strategy.

Background

The UK steel industry faces a challenging global trading landscape due to significant steel overcapacity. The OECD estimates the gap between global steel production capacity and demand—“excess capacity”—was 551 million metric tonnes in 2023. Research from the OECD has shown the global steel excess capacity is expected to continue to worsen beyond 2026. Compounding this problem is trade deflection resulting from other countries’ responses to steel excess capacity and increased geopolitical trade tensions between major trading partners.

This overcapacity artificially and unfairly lowers prices, reducing profitability and hindering investments in modern and lower-carbon technologies. In this global context, increased dependency on steel imports then impacts the security and resilience of UK supply chains and exposes the UK to the risk of price fluctuations and disruption. The UK Government have taken steps to protect our steel industry from unfair trading practices through the use of trade remedies. This includes 15 anti-dumping and two anti-subsidy measures on imports from seven individual countries, and a global safeguard measure on steel imports. This safeguard is set to expire in June 2026 in line with World Trade Organisation rules.

The Government recognise the importance of the UK steel industry and the need to ensure the security and resilience of the UK’s steel supply chains and to explore long-term protection beyond the expiry of the steel safeguard. It is within this context that we propose to gather stakeholder views on evidence that will inform future trade policy options on imported steel products.

[HCWS753]

Armed Forces Covenant: New Legal Duty

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Veterans and People (Al Carns)]

As we mark Armed Forces Week, we celebrate the brave personnel that keep us safe every day and the families who sacrifice so much to support them. We also celebrate all that service life offers: the unique opportunities for skill development, social mobility and the highest apprenticeship numbers in the UK. While the rewards of service are extensive, it is also important to pause to reflect on the deep sacrifices made by our service personnel, veterans, the bereaved and their families—individuals who put country before self, who defend our freedoms with quiet courage and unwavering resolve.

This Government are proud to announce an important step forward in honouring that service. We are delivering on our commitment to put the covenant fully into law. This new armed forces covenant legal duty will apply to all Government Departments and devolved Governments in a broad range of policy areas affecting the armed forces community. This law will make sure that respect for our armed forces community is not just spoken but woven into the very fabric of our policy and service delivery decisions.

We have consulted with over 150 organisations, heard from communities across every region of our United Kingdom and taken into account the findings of the House of Commons Defence Committee’s inquiry into the armed forces covenant. And we understand that fairness must not depend on geography or circumstance. That is why we have chosen a bold, inclusive approach—embedding these principles into law so that wherever you live, whatever you have given in service, that service will be honoured.

This duty will expand from three policy areas at a local level to 14 broad and vital policy areas across central Government once legislation is enacted. These are as follows:

Housing

Education

Healthcare

Social care

Childcare

Employment and service in the armed forces

Personal taxation

Welfare benefits

Criminal justice

Immigration

Citizenship

Pensions

Service-related compensation

Transport

This Government remain steadfast in our commitment not only to those who wear the uniform, but to the families who support them, and the loved ones who carry on after their loss. By placing the covenant at the heart of Government decision-making, and through the introduction of VALOUR, we are building a system that will deliver on the promise we have made. It is our ambition to include these statutory changes in the next Armed Forces Bill, which is required every five years in order for us to continue to have armed forces.

Let us be clear: the new covenant legal duty is more than a policy shift—it is a moral commitment. It is about renewing the nation’s contract with those who serve. And it is about building a future where no one in our armed forces community is left behind.

[HCWS747]

Nuclear Test Veteran Records Exercise and the Merlin Database

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Veterans and People (Al Carns)]

Between 1952 and 1967, around 22,000 armed forces personnel, as well as scientists and civilians, took part in the UK’s nuclear testing programme in Australia and the Pacific to develop our nuclear deterrent. This nation is deeply grateful for their contribution to the UK’s security.

This Government have reset the relationship with veterans and organisations who represent them so that we can understand their positions and keep them updated on our work. In response to concerns raised with me about some nuclear test veterans’ medical records, I commissioned Ministry of Defence officials to look comprehensively at what information the Department holds.

Today, I want to provide an update on the scope of this exercise. The records exercise is looking at three areas: the policy of blood and urine testing between 1952 and 1967; what information was captured about the blood and urine testing; and if the records did exist, determining what happened to them. The files in scope of the exercise are those in the Ministry of Defence’s archives, as well as the Ministry of Defence’s records now publicly available at the National Archives. If, during the course of this exercise, it is deemed appropriate to alter the scope, we will notify this House.

I understand that many are eager for an update on progress. I want to assure them that this work is being prioritised, and the team have reviewed over 43,000 files, including files from the Merlin database. However, given the vast scale and complexity of the work involved, we are not in a position to confirm when this exercise will conclude. Our focus has been to first review all surviving policy records and instructions related to blood and urine testing, as well as policies relating to the retention of these records. We have started with the policy files to ensure there is an understanding of the policy procedures and instructions given at the time, and officials have been thoroughly identifying and analysing these. Doing this first helps us understand whether policies and instructions were followed, as we then begin the process of looking at nuclear test veterans’ service records. I will update the House when the Ministry of Defence is in a position to share the findings of this exercise.

I will also take this opportunity to provide an update on the release of the Merlin database, which contains over 28,000 records relating to historic technical and scientific documentation on the UK’s nuclear testing programme. The contents of the Merlin database will be transferred to the National Archives as formal public records under the Public Records Act. Records will be held in perpetuity and made available via the public facing online catalogue at TNA called “Discovery”. As the records are digital they will be free to download and there will be no limit on the number that can be downloaded. The records within the database will fall into three broad categories: those that do not hold sensitive data, which will be provided to TNA unredacted; those that are not classified but need to have sensitive personal data redacted under general data protection regulations prior to transfer; and those that will have the necessary GDPR and national security redactions undertaken prior to transfer. The first tranche of records are expected to be transferred to TNA later this summer, once the advisory council on national records and archives has been briefed on the publication.

[HCWS748]

Solar Road Map

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Michael Shanks)]

I am tabling this statement to inform Members of the publication of the solar road map.

The Government are committed to delivering a clean, affordable and secure energy system by 2030, and accelerating progress towards net zero. Solar is a mature and cheap source of power, which will play a crucial role in decarbonising our electricity and ensuring that Britain is insulated from volatile global gas prices.

Making Britain a clean energy superpower is one of the Government’s five missions. The clean power action plan, published in December, set a target for 45 to 47 GW of solar power by 2030. This mission is about driving economic growth as well as clean power. By 2030, up to 35,000 UK jobs could be supported by the solar sector, up from around 17,000 today. The Government will work closely with industry to ramp up generation capacity. Today’s publication fires the starting pistol on five years of rapid deployment.

The solar road map— https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/solar-roadmap —begins with a statistical analysis of likely deployment scenarios. It projects that the clean power action plan ambition of 45 to 47 GW is achievable, but that significant action will be required to facilitate the necessary deployment. It estimates that ground mount solar alone could power around 9 million homes. It estimates that—even in these ambitious scenarios—solar would occupy up to only 0.4% of total UK land.

The following chapters deal with salient issues for the solar sector. The first of these is on rooftop solar. It sets out actions which will enable Government and industry to unleash a rooftop revolution. This includes information on the role of Great British Energy, the warm homes plan, the future homes and buildings standards, a call for evidence about solar car parks, and tackling contractual and financial barriers to rooftop solar installations.

The electricity networks chapter addresses the lengthy and complicated process of securing a grid connection for solar. It highlights the impact of the Government’s radical connections reforms and Ofgem’s end-to-end review of connections. It also includes a range of actions to remove barriers for new-build and domestic solar, and to standardise service levels across the sector.

The supply chain and innovation chapter focuses on making the solar supply chain resilient, diverse, and sustainable. It provides details of legislation and guidance to ensure businesses take action against modern slavery in the supply chain. It also explains our support for engagement with supply chain standards, such as the solar stewardship initiative. The chapter also details how the Government intend to encourage the development and commercialisation of innovative solar technologies.

The skills chapter sets out the action required to increase the number of solar jobs in the UK. These include recommendations on improving understanding of current training opportunities, launching regional careers fairs, and clarifying the routes to competency for solar installers.

The planning and support schemes chapter deals with actions to remove other barriers, including planning reform; reform of financial support mechanisms; and support for floating solar. The final chapter, on working together to deliver our ambition, identifies the different stakeholders who will contribute to delivering 45 to 47 GW of solar power. It discusses the Government’s proposals to make it mandatory for developers to provide community benefit funds for the local areas hosting new infrastructure.

Finally, today we also announce that a Solar Council will be established to monitor delivery of the Roadmap’s actions, and to provide a forum for industry representatives to engage directly with Ministers. Scaling up solar power will be critical to the success of the Government’s clean energy mission. We hope that today’s publication gives a boost to industry as they help us reduce our dependence on volatile fossil fuels and improve our energy security.

[HCWS754]

Preventing Ill Health

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

Today I am updating the House on some of the steps the Government will take to prevent and delay the onset of ill health, thereby restoring the means for people to lead a healthy life in places where it has become most difficult, and in turn reducing pressure on the NHS.

Healthy food standards

Obesity is one of the leading causes of ill health, costing the NHS £11.4 billion per year. Obesity rates have doubled in the last 30 years, and one in five children now leave primary school with obesity. In the 2023-24 school year, the prevalence of obesity was more than twice as high among children living in the most deprived areas as among children living in the least deprived areas. We will only tackle this successfully by taking a whole-of-society approach in which Government partners with industry to drive innovation and give people the power to make healthy choices.

We are announcing plans to work with the food industry to combat rising childhood obesity. Under new proposals, all large food businesses will be mandated to report against standardised metrics on healthier food sales by the end of this Parliament. This will set full transparency and accountability around the food that businesses are selling and encourage healthier products. Publishing this data annually will also support business investors to invest in healthier companies, by seeing which are performing well, encouraging further reformulation and development of new healthy foods.

Using that reporting, we will set new mandatory targets to increase the healthiness of sales in all communities, and will work with the Food Strategy Advisory Board on how to sequence the introduction of this policy. We want to use smarter regulation that makes the most of industry’s innovation and experience. Businesses will have the freedom to decide how they achieve the target—through improving products, introducing new healthier products, or changing loyalty schemes to make healthier products more available, and available to all. Public health experts believe small improvements to the average meal to reduce daily calorie intake by just 40-50 kcals could lead to 340,000 fewer children and two million fewer adults living with obesity.

We will engage with industry closely as we develop and consult on these proposals. We intend to work with all the devolved nations to ensure regulatory alignment for food businesses, and to achieve the maximum reduction of obesity we can across the UK.

NHS weight management services

We will be asking the NHS to do more to support our approach to prevention. To support people already living with obesity, we will double the number of patients referred to the NHS digital weight management programme, offering help proven to deliver results to 125,000 more people every year. Additionally, pioneering relationships with the biggest pharmaceutical companies will be brokered to expand access to weight loss services and treatments across the NHS, ensuring fairer access to weight loss drugs for those who cannot afford private prescriptions.

Vaccines

Vaccinations are, after access to clean water, the most effective public health intervention in the world for saving lives and promoting good health. However, uptake, particularly for children, has been in gradual decline for over a decade. Improving uptake will protect our children from infectious disease, reduce the burden on the NHS, and help consign some diseases to history, such as cervical cancer. To improve access to vaccinations, we are enhancing access to general practices for vaccinations, testing models to deliver vaccinations to some families through health visits, and expanding the role of community pharmacy, including offering catch-up vaccinations to protect against human papillomavirus.

We are expanding the NHS app, so that everyone knows what vaccinations they have had, what they need, and where to get them, at a time and location that meets their needs. Patients will be able to book jabs on the NHS app. Parents will be able to access a new vaccination hub on the NHS app, on behalf of their child, during 2026-27. Finally, we will launch the world’s first gonorrhoea immunisation programme to protect at-risk adults and help prevent the rise of antimicrobial resistance.

Health store app marketplace

We will build a health store app marketplace. We want to empower people to manage their own health and care, putting the ability to treat, manage and prevent conditions into the hands of our population. Successful adoption of digital health technologies across a range of clinical areas including mental health, cardiovascular health and musculoskeletal conditions may lead to improved patient outcomes, reduced waiting times and improved economic activity, by supporting people to stay in or return to work.

The health store will ensure that the products with the best evidence reach the hands of patients, irrespective of where you live across the country. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will play a crucial role in evaluating technologies, guaranteeing clinical effectiveness for patients and cost-effectiveness for the NHS. We will explore central funding for those technologies with an effective evidence base, as determined by NICE, making the NHS an attractive market that centrally supports innovation.

NHS points scheme

We are announcing a new NHS points scheme, which will be developed to reward people for taking positive actions to improve their health. Based on loyalty schemes popular with supermarkets, coffee shops and mobile banking apps, people could receive gift vouchers or discounts at their favourite high-street stores by simply upping their step count or making healthier food choices. We will shortly launch a market engagement process to start the conversation with business about what behaviours could be incentivised.

Musculoskeletal conditions

To further improve how patients in England engage with the NHS, and where it is clinically appropriate for them to do so, patients will be able bypass GPs to directly access specialist treatment using the NHS app, including treatment for MSK, mental health talking therapies, podiatry and audiology services. This will help deliver faster treatment for patients, while enabling GPs to focus on more complex cases by reducing pressure on them.

Tobacco

In addition to the measures set out, the Government are determined to put an end to the harms of tobacco. Smoking is still the biggest killer—it claims around 80,000 lives a year, causes one in four of all cancer deaths in England and kills up to two thirds of its long-term users. Our landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill will help deliver our ambition for a smoke-free UK. It will create a smoke-free generation, gradually ending the sale of tobacco products across the country and breaking the cycle of addiction and disadvantage. The Bill will also strengthen the existing ban on smoking in public places. And while we know vapes are less harmful than smoking and can be an effective quit aid for smokers, we are doing more to protect children from the risks of harm and addiction. The Bill will stop vapes from being deliberately branded, promoted, and advertised to children to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.

The full set of prevention measures, which will further set out how we deliver healthier, more prosperous lives for all, and help reduce health inequalities, build a stronger labour market and lower NHS demand, will be set out shortly in the Government’s 10-year health plan for England.

[HCWS756]

Building Safety Regulator

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

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

Today I am updating Parliament on changes to the Building Safety Regulator.

The Government’s response to the Grenfell inquiry set out our commitment to take forward the recommendation for a “single construction regulator” for the building system, to tackle fragmentation and incoherence in the regulatory system.

As a sign of our commitment to move at pace on implementing the inquiry’s recommendations, we are taking the initial steps towards a single construction regulator by supporting the BSR to move into a new phase of operations. We will publish a prospectus for reform in the autumn setting out further details on the single regulator.

Since its establishment, the BSR has overseen a fundamental change in the built environment, taking significant risk out of the system and ensuring residents are at the heart of house building. It is an important and non-negotiable part of the built environment system as we deliver 1.5 million new homes and increase the pace of remediation of unsafe buildings. I am grateful to the Health and Safety Executive for the invaluable leadership and experience it has brought to the establishment and early operations of the BSR. This was the biggest change to the building safety regime in decades, and its expertise provides the foundations for future reforms this Government will bring forward.

Everyone deserves a safe home—and the opportunity to access one. That is why we need a regulatory system that is not only robust, but also clear, consistent, and easy to navigate. Regulatory certainty and efficiency are essential to unlocking the investment needed to build the homes this country urgently needs.

The reforms introduced to date to ensure building safety are crucial, but this Government recognise the operational challenges the BSR and the wider sector are facing in their implementation.

That is why, together with industry, we have been working urgently to address operational challenges so that the BSR works effectively, enabling the safe homes this country needs to be built, and a system that balances proportionate regulation without compromising safety outcomes.

Today, my Department will announce that:

We are investing in strengthened and dedicated leadership in the BSR to lead the transition of its operations out of HSE in the future and to provide a dedicated focus to its operations. Andy Roe has been appointed as non-executive chair of a shadow board of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, pending its establishment as an executive agency to take on the functions of the BSR from the HSE. This is part of initial steps towards creating a single construction regulator. Andy Roe brings a wealth of experience to the role following a career of organisational transformation, industry experience, and strong relationships with the sector and has played an integral role within the building safety regime since its inception. We will also introduce a new chief executive officer to lead the BSR, Charlie Pugsley.

The BSR is implementing a new fast-track process. This will bring building inspector and engineer capacity directly into the BSR to enable a rapid acceleration to the processing of existing newbuild cases and remediation decisions. Alongside this, we are working hard to partner with industry to deliver results—and will shortly support the publication of industry guidance to improve the quality of applications—and so reduce processing times. To ensure transparency, the BSR will publish key performance related information quarterly, in the coming weeks. These changes will see no compromise in the standards expected of design and construction.

We are bolstering long-term investment in the capacity of the BSR and building capacity within industry. The BSR will recruit more than 100 members of staff by the end of the year to enhance operations.

These changes position the BSR for the coming years, demonstrating the commitment of Government to invest in safety and residents.

[HCWS749]

Welfare Reform

Monday 30th June 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Liz Kendall)]

The Government have committed to making two changes to strengthen the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill: implementing the new eligibility requirements for PIP from November 2026 for new claims only, and adjusting universal credit rates to make sure all existing recipients of the universal credit health element—and any new claimant meeting the severe conditions criteria and those who qualify under special rules for end of life—have the combined rate of their universal credit standard allowance and universal credit health element protected in real terms.

Today, we have circulated policy explainers for the amendments that the Government will table ahead of Committee Stage to enact the proposed change to PIP and UC, demonstrating our commitment to strengthening the Bill.

These explainers have been circulated alongside a full draft of the amendment to the PIP clauses. This letter has been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses for reference. We will formally table the amendments to both UC and PIP following the Bill’s Second Reading.

We have also published the revised poverty impacts, “Spring statement social security changes—updated impact on poverty levels in Great Britain” based on the two changes we are making to strengthen the Bill. No one who is already receiving an award of universal credit or PIP will be pushed in to poverty as a result of the direct impact of the measures in this Bill.

We continue our wider drive to tackle the scar of poverty—including by extending free school meals, expanding the warm home discount to an extra 2.7 million households next winter, and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families through our fair repayment rate on Universal Credit deductions.

We committed in the Green Paper to introduce the “right to try”, and I am pleased to announce that we have deposited in the House Library draft regulations alongside this Bill that establish in law the principle that work, in and of itself, will not lead to a reassessment. This will apply to all universal credit, new-style employment and support allowance and PIP customers. This is just the first step. As set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we will also work with disabled people and stakeholders to explore ways to further strengthen this right to try guarantee.

Through measures within the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, we are giving people who are already on PIP the certainty they need, while increasingly targeting funding at those who need it most, to make sure the system is sustainable to support generations to come.

In addition to bringing forward amendments to the Bill we will also commit to spending an additional £300 million in the next three years on our investment in Pathways to Work, health and skills support.

At the spring statement in March, we announced Pathways to Work funding of:

£200 million for 26-27

£300 million for 27-28

£400 million for 28-29

£1 billion in 29-30

This investment in Pathways to Work support towards employment will now increase to:

£200 million in 2026-27

£400 million in 2027-28—up from £300 million

£600 million in 2028-29—up from £400 million

£1 billion in 29-30

This is on top of funding and support we are now mobilising through Connect to Work, WorkWell, local inactivity trailblazers and 1,000 new Pathways to Work advisers to support disabled people. This already amounts to the biggest employment support package for disabled people and people with health conditions in more than a generation. The extra money we are announcing today means that we will be able to go further and faster on our new planned investment in work, health and skills support offers, building on and learning from successes such as the Connect to Work programme, which is being rolled out over 2025 to provide disabled people and people with health conditions with one-to-one support at the point when they feel ready to work.

Alongside taking action to get welfare spending on a sustainable footing, so that help can be there for people who need it now and into the future, we are committed to a holistic programme of reform to make sure that PIP is fair and fit for the future. The PIP assessment review, which the Minister for Social Security and Disability is leading, is a significant part of this work.

In the Green Paper, we set out our intention to review the PIP assessment and make it fit for the future. We committed to bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process of preparing for the review. I announced to the House on Monday 21 May that this process had started and, since then, the Minister for Social Security and Disability (Sir Stephen Timms), who will lead the review, has listened to a wide range of views, including holding roundtables with disability charities.

Today, I am pleased to announce we are publishing the terms of reference for the PIP assessment review and we will engage widely and at pace to design the process for its work. Because of our commitment to co-produce, the precise timeline for the review will be determined over the summer, based on the design work with stakeholders to ensure the review can fulfil its aims. I expect it to conclude by autumn 2026.

Attachments can be viewed online at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2025-06-30/HCWS755/

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