Public Service Reform: Test, Learn and Grow Programme
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The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Georgia Gould)
I am pleased to announce an update on the next stages of the Cabinet Office test, learn and grow programme, and how it will work with local places across England.
The £100 million programme is a flagship part of the Government’s reform programme and aims to model and scale a missions approach by bringing policymakers closer to the frontline. The next phase of the test, learn and grow programme will bring cross-Government teams together with those that use and deliver public services and experience the day-to-day barriers when processes are not working, in order to reform services together. New solutions will be built from the ground up, moving rapidly to learn and adapt based on what works. The accelerators will identify blockers and barriers to delivering people-focused, preventive public services, and work to make change in Government to quickly scale learning.
This test and learn approach, outlined by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in December, will help to tackle our biggest national challenges and make better policy with and for communities to deliver on our plan for change. The programme has already had impact through its work in four locations on family hub services and temporary accommodation.
Today we are announcing the 10 places in England that we will work with as part of the next wave of projects on the ground. In each case, we will test out new approaches to a specific public service challenge, bringing local and central teams together with common purpose on the frontline. In mayoral strategic authority areas, we will work with both MSAs and the relevant local authority creating a partnership approach across all layers of Government to deliver for people.
Challenges the teams will look at will include increasing the uptake of Best Start family hubs to support parents and young children, establishing neighbourhood health services, better supporting children with special needs, getting more people into work, rolling out breakfast clubs, and tackling violence against women and girls. The 10 places are:
Barnsley metropolitan borough council
Wakefield council
Manchester city council
Liverpool city council
Sandwell metropolitan borough council
Northumberland county council
Essex county council
Plymouth city council
Nottingham city council
We are working with the GLA and London councils to agree London borough involvement
Our approach to the programme has been designed in partnership with local government, and I look forward to continuing to work with a wide range of partners to ensure that the learnings and benefits of the programme are shared widely across the sector. The programme will build a coalition around test, learn and grow, and public service reform, bringing in external expertise and tech specialists, and partnering with public service innovators. We will work closely with other key initiatives and players, and continue to work in the open.
I look forward to engaging with hon. Members and local government leaders to make this a truly collaborative programme between local communities and the centre of Government. I am grateful for the ongoing support and collaboration of the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, and countless colleagues across central Government and local government who have helped to shape, design and challenge the programme so far, and who I hope will continue to lend their passion and energy.
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Tax Exemptions: Grenfell Support Scheme and Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme
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The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)
The Government will legislate to ensure that payments made under the Grenfell Support (Restorative Justice) programme are exempt from income tax. This legislation will apply retrospectively from 5 June 2024, when payments from the scheme started.
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will exercise its collection and management discretion and will not collect income tax that may have been due on any payments made from 5 June 2024 to the date the legislation takes effect.
Exempting these payments from income tax means that tax credits claimants who received a payment up to 5 April 2025 should not have seen a reduction in their tax credits award. While no tax credits awards would have been reduced automatically, claimants who reported this payment to HMRC as part of their income for tax credits purposes can contact HMRC to determine whether their tax credits award was correct. HMRC is exploring options to proactively contact those tax credit customers who have received any payments under the Grenfell Support (Restorative Justice) programme.
The Government will also legislate to exempt compensation payments in the expanded Horizon convictions redress scheme. This was expanded on 3 June 2025 to include postmasters with convictions overturned by a court, postmasters who were prosecuted for alleged offences committed while the Horizon system was in use but did not face criminal convictions, and postmasters who received a caution, or in Scotland received an alternative to prosecution or a purported alternative to prosecution from the Post Office, for an alleged offence involving the Horizon system.
The Government are committed to maintaining the tax treatment of the Horizon convictions redress scheme. Therefore, the Government will legislate to formalise the tax exemption and ensure that no income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax or inheritance tax will be payable for redress received under this scheme.
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Media Mergers: Legislation
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stephanie Peacock)
As the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport set out in her written statement on 15 May:
“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”—[Official Report, 15 May 2025; Vol. 767, c. 16WS.]—
while ensuring that foreign states are not able to own, control or influence the policy of UK newspapers or news periodicals. The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025 will permit foreign state-owned investors to hold up to 15% of shares and voting rights in a UK newspaper enterprise, as long as they are passive investors with no rights or ability to appoint directors or other company officers or to exercise direct or indirect influence over the newspaper’s policies. The changes balance the need to protect our press from foreign state influence with the need to allow newspaper groups the flexibility to attract inward investment from a broad range of sources that do not present a risk to their editorial and operational independence.
We have noted the concerns raised across Parliament that the regulations do not fully deal with the risk of multiple state-owned investors acting on behalf of different states, each being able to hold up to 15%. Although remote, this scenario is not entirely theoretical. Concern was also raised regarding the Government’s ability to review all relevant cases.
On 18 June, I gave a commitment in Parliament to address these concerns, so today we have published for consultation a further set of draft regulations to amend the Enterprise Act 2002. The consultation will launch today and will be open for eight weeks until 18 September. Following this consultation, the Government will lay, in draft, a second statutory instrument to make the necessary changes to the legislation later in the autumn.
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Relationships, Sex and Health Education: Guidance
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The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)
I am pleased to share the publication of updated statutory guidance for schools on the teaching of relationships education, relationships and sex education and health education.
We have comprehensively updated the RSHE guidance to address the most challenging issues facing young people today, to make it fit for the digital age, and to equip teachers to support young people to build healthy, respectful relationships in an increasingly complex online world. The new guidance will come into force formally from September 2026. Schools can use it in the meantime to shape their RSHE lessons.
In updating this guidance, we have looked closely at all of the responses to last year’s consultation, which are reflected in the consultation response published alongside the new guidance. We have also spoken in detail to experts and to young people, and this guidance reflects their wisdom.
This updated guidance provides a practical framework that enables schools to teach RSHE in a way which puts children’s wellbeing and safeguarding at its heart. The guidance is clear about the importance of ensuring that all lessons are age appropriate. It is clear that parents should be consulted on the content of the RSHE curriculum and have a right to know what their children are being taught, while ensuring that teachers are able to teach about topics preventively, or to respond swiftly when a risk presents itself earlier than anticipated.
The guidance includes significant new content to ensure that RSHE plays its full role in the prevention of violence against women and girls, as part of our Government mission to halve VAWG.
This includes a focus on building healthy relationships skills from the start of primary. It includes an emphasis on opening conversations with young people about positive masculinity and femininity, and ensuring that nobody is stigmatised in these conversations. The guidance is clear that teaching about sexual ethics must go beyond teaching about consent, so that young people understand how to act with kindness and respect in all of their relationships.
The guidance includes new content on teaching about suicide prevention. It is clear that schools should have a plan for addressing suicide prevention safely with secondary school pupils, including ensuring that staff have the knowledge and skills to do so.
The section on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teaching content is also clear up front about the difference in rights based on sex and gender reassignment, to reflect the Supreme Court ruling on the interpretation of the Equality Act in the For Women Scotland case. The guidance is also clear about the need to avoid language and activities which repeat or enforce gender stereotypes, which is in line with the conclusions of the Cass review of 2024.
As these matters are devolved, the Department for Education will implement these proposals in England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different policies in place and my Department will continue to engage with each of the devolved Administrations to encourage a joined-up approach on this matter.
This guidance should help our young people to live healthy lives, build strong, respectful relationships and play their part as active citizens in our society.
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Fusion Energy National Policy
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Kerry McCarthy)
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is today publishing the Government’s response to the consultation on the scope of the fusion energy national policy statement—EN-8. This progresses the Government’s plan to develop a fusion NPS that will streamline the planning process and help break down the barriers to clean power projects of the future.
Fusion supports the Government’s plan for change, industrial strategy and two of the Government’s five missions:
Making the UK a clean energy superpower by developing technology for fusion, other clean energy technologies and adjacent sectors, and accelerating to net zero in the longer term through zero-carbon, abundant, safe, baseload energy; and
Kickstarting economic growth through innovation, highly skilled jobs and tech transfer.
The UK has a genuine global strategic advantage in fusion and is recognised as a world leader in the most promising fusion energy technologies. With countries around the world increasing support and investment into fusion, the UK’s expertise and global standing cannot be allowed to atrophy.
That is why the UK Government have backed fusion research and development and commercialisation, making a record investment in R&D for fusion energy, investing over £2.5 billion over five years. This includes progressing the spherical tokamak for energy production programme, the world-leading fusion plant in Nottinghamshire, creating thousands of new jobs and with the potential to unlock limitless clean power.
The UK’s STEP programme aims to develop and build a prototype fusion powerplant in the UK by 2040. Private fusion companies in the UK and overseas are also quickly developing demonstrator fusion facilities. To deliver these facilities, sites for fusion energy facilities will need to be identified and construction started this decade.
Recognising this need, the Government are taking a proactive stance, backing the industry by establishing a stable regulatory and planning environment that supports and encourages its development. The UK was the first country in the world to legislate for fusion regulation, confirming that fusion would not be regulated under the same framework as nuclear fission due to its lower hazard potential. By differentiating from fission regulation and breaking down a needless barrier to clean power projects of the future, this new approach has led to increased interest from international companies siting in the UK and has strengthened the UK’s position as a world leader in fusion.
A fusion-specific NPS is essential for providing clarity to developers and streamlining the planning process for fusion. Not only does this ensure certainty for developers to bring forward their fusion designs and align fusion with other complex energy generating technologies, but, crucially, it will support local and national planning inspectors with guidance when assessing potential developments.
The consultation on the scope of EN-8 was undertaken between 7 May 2024 and 17 July 2024 and began the process towards designation of this NPS, seeking views from stakeholders on broad policy proposals. In response to the feedback of consultees, the Government have taken the following decisions:
The Government will continue the development of EN-8—the Government recognise the differences in technology between fusion and other technologies already covered by other NPSs, meaning that a fusion-specific NPS is the only option for properly considering the planning implications of this technology.
Technology inclusive—all fusion technologies, with the exception to fusion-fission hybrids, will be in scope of EN-8.
EN-8 will take a developer-led approach, underpinned by robust strategic criteria to ensure that suitable sites are selected, with the utmost consideration for environmental and local impacts. This approach would allow siting in more communities across the UK, subject to local support.
Output agnostic—amend the Planning Act 2008 so that all fusion energy facilities generating at least 50 MW in England are incorporated into the national significant infrastructure project, independent of thermal or electrical output.
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Covid-19 Vaccination
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to protecting people most vulnerable to covid-19 through vaccination as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the covid-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025 and spring 2026. On 26 June 2025, the Government decided, in line with JCVI advice, that a covid-19 vaccine should be offered in autumn 2025 to those in the population most vulnerable to serious outcomes from covid-19 and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination.
Vaccination will be offered in England in autumn 2025 to:
adults aged 75 years and over;
residents in a care home for older adults;
individuals aged six months and over who are immuno-suppressed, as defined in tables 3 and 4 of the covid-19 chapter of the UK Health Security Agency green book on immunisation against infectious disease.
The Government will respond in due course to the JCVI’s advice for spring 2026.
The vaccines that will be supplied for the autumn 2025 programme are the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA (Comirnaty) vaccines.
Notification of liabilities
I am now updating the House on the liabilities HMG has taken on in relation to further vaccine deployment via this statement and accompanying departmental minute laid in Parliament containing a description of the liability undertaken.
As part of the contractual arrangements with covid-19 vaccine producers for vaccines pre-procured as part of HMG’s pandemic emergency response the provision of an indemnity was required to enter into supply agreements. The agreement to provide indemnity increases the contingent liability of the covid-19 vaccination programme, with deployment of further doses of vaccines purchased as part of the emergency response.
The adult Pfizer BioNTech mRNA (Comirnaty) doses to be used in autumn 2025 are the only remaining doses of covid-19 vaccines purchased as part of the emergency response. This will therefore be the last increase in the overall contingent liability arising from an additional deployment of covid-19 vaccines.
I will update the House as appropriate if any future decisions further impact the contingent liability of the covid-19 vaccination programme.
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Less Healthy Food and Drink: Advertising Restrictions Consultation
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)
As part of our ambition to tackle the childhood obesity crisis and raise the healthiest generation of children ever, this Government made a manifesto commitment to implement advertising restrictions for less healthy food or drink on TV and online.
My statement on 22 May informed the House of the Government’s revised approach to implementing the restrictions in response to stakeholder concerns with the Advertising Standards Authority’s draft implementation guidance. Having secured agreement from broadcasters and advertisers to voluntarily comply with the restrictions from 1 October 2025, I laid a statutory instrument on 3 June to change the coming into effect date of the restrictions to 5 January 2026.
The next step is to bring forward regulations that will provide the explicit exemption for brand advertising. We have worked closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and I am pleased to update the House that today we are launching a consultation on the draft regulations. We are seeking stakeholder views on the draft text to ensure that it provides the clarity that the regulators and stakeholders have asked for and is fit for purpose in delivering the Government’s policy intentions to restrict advertising for less healthy food or drink products. The consultation will only seek feedback on the drafting of the brand advertising exemption and will not revisit any other aspects of the policy that are already confirmed and set out in law. The consultation will be published on gov.uk shortly and be open until 6 August 2025.
The brand advertising exemption will provide legal clarification on the existing policy intention, as it was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the legislation in 2021-2022, that brand advertising that does not identify a specific less healthy food or drink product is out of scope of the restrictions. It is not a change of policy. Setting this out in legislation will enable the regulators to deliver clear implementation guidance and mean that businesses can prepare advertising campaigns with confidence.
These actions demonstrate our commitment and progress to implementing this important policy for children’s health. I will update the House once the consultation process has concluded.
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Independent Review of Physician Associates and Anaesthesia Associates
(2 days, 7 hours ago)
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The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)
In November 2024, I asked Professor Gillian Leng CBE to undertake an independent review of physician associates and anaesthesia associates in England, and to set out recommendations to ensure the safety of the roles and their contributions to multidisciplinary healthcare teams.
Today I want to update the House on next steps following the publication of the review.
Professor Leng sets out 18 recommendations that will give much-needed clarity, certainty and confidence to staff and patients. The Government are accepting these recommendations in full.
The overarching recommendations include: renaming the role of “physician associate” to “physician assistant” and “anaesthesia associate” to “physician assistant in anaesthesia” to reflect their position as a supportive, complementary member of the medical team; providing ongoing opportunities for training and career development; making it easier for others to identify these roles; establishing permanent faculties to provide professional leadership and set clear professional standards; greater clarity in the differences between the regulatory requirements of doctors and assistant roles; training in line management and leadership for doctors, with additional time allocated; redesigning models of multidisciplinary working; and improvements in safety reporting.
For physician assistants specifically, Professor Leng has recommended that their initial practice is clearly defined in line with job descriptions; they do not see undifferentiated patients (except within clear national clinical protocols); that newly qualified physician assistants should gain at least two years’ experience in secondary care, to enhance clinical skills, prior to taking a role in primary care or a mental health trust; and that they should form part of a clear team structure and have a named supervisor.
For physician assistants in anaesthesia, the review recommends full compliance with the existing Royal College of Anaesthetists scope of practice; that any further expansion of the role should be taken forward in conjunction with the Royal College of Anaesthetists; and that there should be an ongoing national audit of safety outcomes in anaesthesia, to gain assurance around the safety of the physician assistants in anaesthesia role.
Implementing the recommendations will require organisations to work together and take action. Some actions will be implemented immediately, while others will require wider input, with benefits being fully realised over time. I have asked NHS England to move with immediate effect to implement those recommendations which most directly affect patient safety, including moving to the use of physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia titles and ensuring that physician assistants do not see undifferentiated patients, except within clearly defined national clinical protocols.
The NHS is its people, and physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia can play a vital role in the delivery of the shifts set out in the 10-year health plan for England. The findings in this report demonstrate that, when integrated appropriately, physician assistants can improve access, enhance capacity, and provide continuity of care, while physician assistants in anaesthesia can help expand theatre capacity and flexibility in anaesthesia services.
However, the review is clear that change is needed. It sets out the fundamental issues that need to be tackled to effectively and consistently embed change into the NHS workforce. These recommendations provide a practical way forward on title, ongoing development and practice that we can all have confidence in.
I would like to express my immense gratitude to Professor Leng and her team for their effort and dedication in carrying out this considered, complex and comprehensive review. I also want to extend my thanks to all those who have engaged constructively with the review, including those resident doctors who have respectfully raised concerns, and physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia who make valuable contributions across the NHS and have been subject to intense scrutiny.
We will consider Professor Leng’s findings and recommendation in detail in conjunction with the 10-year health plan. The lessons learned in the review will be embedded into the upcoming workforce plan to improve how we effect change in the NHS, and ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated in the future. We will work with key partners, including NHS England in advance of publishing a fuller response, setting out a clear implementation plan to make the required changes in due course.
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Identification of Victims of Modern Slavery: Call for Evidence
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jess Phillips)
The national referral mechanism is the framework used in the UK to formally identify and support victims of modern slavery and human trafficking, in line with the UK’s legal obligations. Effective identification of victims of modern slavery in the UK is critical for ensuring that victims can be protected and provided with appropriate assistance and support towards their recovery from exploitation.
The Government are taking steps to improve this identification system, such as by recruiting new staff to reduce lengthy decision-making times, which has reduced the backlog to half the size it was at its peak. The Government have also updated the form used by first responders to refer potential victims of modern slavery into the NRM to make it easier to upload information and to include more trauma-informed language.
While progress has been made, the Government recognise the need to do more by designing an effective identification system that is fit for the future. That is why I am pleased to announce that the Government today are publishing a public call for evidence on identification of victims of modern slavery.
This was something that I committed to on 27 March 2025 in a House of Commons debate marking the 10th anniversary of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
The call for evidence focuses on definitions of a victim of modern slavery, identification and decision-making processes, and future-proofing the modern slavery system. A key aim is to strengthen the system, both now and for the future, ensuring that it effectively serves victims of modern slavery and is resilient to future changes.
The call for evidence on identification of victims of modern slavery— https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/identification-of-victims-of-modern-slavery —will run for a 12-week period and provides a valuable opportunity for the public and a wide range of groups with experience of the NRM to have their say, including victims and survivors of modern slavery, NGOs, police, local authorities and researchers.
A copy of the call for evidence will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on gov.uk.
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Prevent Programme: Lessons
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The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Yvette Cooper)
Following the horrific attack in Southport in July 2024, I announced that a new, dedicated permanent oversight function for Prevent would be created. This would provide continual independent scrutiny of Prevent legislation, policy, and delivery, to assess Prevent’s effectiveness and to ensure proper standards are met.
Lord Anderson KC was appointed as interim Prevent commissioner to provide that independent scrutiny. He was tasked specifically with scrutinising the Southport attack and the murder of Sir David Amess, examining whether Prevent had failed to intervene effectively in those two cases. Lord Anderson was also asked to consider the improvements that have been made since the perpetrators were referred to Prevent, and to identify areas for further reform. Today he has published his findings, and a copy of the report will be placed in the Library in both Houses. The report will also be available on gov.uk.
I would like to express my gratitude to Lord Anderson and his team for the progress they have made in a short space of time. The report clearly highlights the failings of Prevent in both the Southport case and that of Sir David Amess, while also recognising the energy and urgency that has been shown in making changes to strengthen Prevent.
Lord Anderson’s findings
On the tragic murder of Sir David Amess, Lord Anderson has upheld the conclusions of the Prevent learning review—PLR—that was published on 12 February 2025. He explains that once the case was adopted into Channel in 2014, several failures took place, including poor communication with the intervention provider and the lack of a six-month review.
With regards to the perpetrator of the Southport attack, Lord Anderson agreed with the findings of the PLR that was published on 5 February 2025. The first referral should have been passed to the local authority Channel co-ordinator for information gathering—the process in place at the time. He comments that
“it is hard to see how the test of ‘reasonable grounds to believe that there are no Prevent concerns’ could have been satisfied on the known facts of the case”.
Lord Anderson also agreed with the PLR finding that there were sufficient concerns to warrant progression to Channel.
Lord Anderson concludes that in both cases their schools referred the individuals to Prevent
“for the best of reasons—but Prevent failed to provide what might have helped them. Whether different decisions might have spared their victims will never be known: both attacks came years later, and many imponderables intervened. But wrong decisions were taken; more should have been done; and from these failures, lessons must continue to be learned”.
Lord Anderson also outlined the importance of having a prevention programme like Prevent in place for tackling radicalisation. While Prevent cannot stop every attack, we must continue to drive reform where it is found lacking.
Lord Anderson made a series of recommendations on how Prevent can be further strengthened or areas that require further exploration. These include:
Prevent should remain open to individuals falling within the existing category of “fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks”. Alongside this, consistent efforts should be made to improve the quality of referrals and encourage those that are appropriate, including by providing clear and consistent messaging to potential referrers and to Prevent practitioners.
A task force should be established to lead exploratory work into the possibility of formally connecting Prevent to a broader safeguarding and violence prevention system.
Compliance with respective agency mandates to share information should be more closely monitored by their regulators and inspectorates. Consideration should be given to introducing a duty to co-operate with speed and candour in reviews after adverse incidents.
Public transparency about the structures and systems of Prevent should be the default position. The Home Office and CT Policing should adopt a proactive approach to the release of such information and be ready to publicise the successes of Prevent.
All feasible and rights-compliant avenues should be explored as a matter of priority to enable evidence of online activity to be more effectively used:
to gauge risk factors, assess risk, identify clusters and escalation and activate and manage responses;
to assist in the identification of potential subjects for Prevent; and
to evaluate and address the risk factors attaching to individuals referred to Prevent.
The Government welcome the findings of this rigorous review and will immediately act on its findings. We will:
Clarify Prevent thresholds in guidance and training to ensure that frontline public sector workers subject to the Prevent duty understand that those “fascinated with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks” should be referred to Prevent. We will complete this work by the end of September.
Improve transparency and information sharing, including by upskilling and training Prevent practitioners, frontline workers, and civil society organisations. We will complete this work before the end of the year.
We will take steps to strengthen our approach to tackling online radicalisation, through work with tech companies, like-minded international partners, and considering new approaches to identifying and supporting susceptible people online. This includes developing new capabilities to better equip Prevent to manage online radicalisation risks.
Continue exploratory work on how Prevent connects into wider safeguarding and violence prevention pathways to ensure no one can fall between the cracks.
While we must look immediately at how Prevent works alongside wider safeguarding mechanisms to stop further missed opportunities, we also look forward to the outcome of the first phase of the Southport public inquiry, led by Sir Adrian Fulford, which will publish its findings later this year. Where Lord Anderson’s review has identified the need to explore broader and long-term reforms to safeguarding and violence prevention, we will consider this alongside the inquiry’s recommendations. The inquiry will comprehensively examine all aspects of the events that led to the Southport attack, and identify where further changes should be made.
Alongside the work we will take forward in response to this report, swift progress has already been made on the reforms to strengthen Prevent that I announced in December 2024:
Prevent has launched new guidance which is designed to ensure that repeat referrals to Prevent get the multi-agency consideration they require;
The end-to-end review of Prevent thresholds has concluded. Its recommendations will strengthen our approach to the assessment and management of Prevent referrals. It will ensure that clear and unambiguous policy, guidance, and training is in place, so that Prevent can offer the right interventions to the right people. It includes specific action to improve our approach on Islamist extremism and for those individuals who are being radicalised into extreme violence;
The first stage of the strategic policy review into how Prevent manages people with mental ill health or who are neurodivergent has also concluded. Action is under way to implement those findings;
Pilots are now running across the country to ensure that where people do not meet Prevent thresholds, they receive the support they need from wider services; and
From 1 August, we will pilot new practical mentoring interventions for people at risk of radicalisation in Channel, to enable Channel panels to better support individuals without a clear ideology.
Prevent training is being rolled out at pace to educate frontline professionals about the ideologies, such as Islamist extremism, that drive terrorism.
In addition, to enable the vital independent oversight of Prevent to continue while a recruitment process is under way for the permanent commissioner, I am delighted that Lord Anderson has agreed to extend his tenure as interim commissioner until the end of the year.
My Department remains steadfast in its commitment to keeping the public safe and safeguarding people at risk of radicalisation.
The victims, their families and those who survived the Southport attack but continue to live with the physical and emotional pain, and Sir David Amess’s family remain in our hearts and prayers.
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