Fabian Hamilton

The Better Business Act campaign seeks changes to Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to provide for company directors to deliver benefits to shareholders, society and the environment. Section 172 already enables companies to amend their articles of association to provide for this purpose, or any other corporate purpose. Section 172 also requires directors to have regard to a range of interests, including those of employees and the community and the environment. Large companies must report each year on how this has informed their directors’ decision-making. Therefore, the Government has no plans currently to amend Section 172.

The Department for Business and Trade is aware of the case between the Unitary Agrarian Court and Fresnillo PLC. This is a domestic legal matter for Mexico.

The Government regards the UK-Colombia Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) as playing an important role in the investment relationship between our two countries. The stock of total investment between the UK and Colombia was £6.8 billion in 2023. The BIT contains legally binding investment protection commitments which ensure UK and Colombian investors are treated in line with the rule of law, and are protected against unfair, arbitrary or discriminatory treatment, and expropriation without adequate compensation.

I am responsible for manufacturing as Minister for Industry.

Ofcom is responsible for allocating and authorising radio spectrum in the United Kingdom. As part of its ongoing work, Ofcom has undertaken preparatory steps to explore the potential need for spectrum to support private communications networks in the energy sector. This included publishing a Call for Input (CFI) to help identify suitable spectrum bands, should such a solution be required in the UK.

In assessing the options, Ofcom considered international spectrum harmonisation efforts as well as approaches taken by other national administrations. A brief evaluation of each identified spectrum band was also provided within the CFI.

Ofcom is responsible for the management of spectrum in the UK, including allocating spectrum. Officials are working with those in in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and with regulators to help establish the evidence base for the future telecommunications requirements of the energy, water and transport sectors.

Green finance can play a key role in helping achieve our home decarbonisation ambitions. Through the Warm Homes Plan, the Department is exploring the role private financing can play in supporting homeowners to meet the upfront costs of installing domestic renewables and fabric energy efficiency improvements. As part of that work, Government is assessing the role novel finance models, including Property Linked Finance and Heat-as-a-Service, can play in addressing homeowner needs. Further details on the Warm Homes Plan, including future financing support for households, will be confirmed in due course.

As set out in the Founding Statement, Great British Energy will support Local and Combined Authorities and Community Energy Groups to develop up to 8GW of cleaner power by 2030 through small and medium‑scale renewable energy projects. Community-owned low carbon and renewable energy schemes are already in the scope of the Great British Energy Bill, however, as Great British Energy will be operationally independent, it will be for the company to decide the activities it engages in. Such decisions will be determined in due course and influenced by available opportunities, as well as the strategic priorities that government sets out.

Copying protected material in the UK infringes copyright unless it is licensed, or a copyright exception applies. There are mechanisms for redress in cases of infringement.

The Government’s consultation on copyright and AI closed on 25 February. This sought views on giving authors and other creators greater control over use of their material to train AI models, supporting their ability to be remunerated, and requiring AI developers to be more transparent about the works used in AI training.

The Government’s priority now is to review all responses to the consultation. The Government will set out its proposals in due course.

Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope user-to-user and search services must assess for risks of illegal content and harm to children. Ofcom is the independent regulator for this regime. It sets out what steps small low-risk providers need to take to fulfil their duties following their risk assessment. When implementing these duties, Ofcom is legally required to ensure burdens on providers are proportionate to their risk factors, size, and capacity. Ofcom recently launched an online digital toolkit, aimed at helping smaller services with compliance (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/ofcom-launches-digital-safety-toolkit-for-online-services/).

The Government has committed to partnering with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the requirements for phasing out of animal testing, and supporting the uptake and development of approaches that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs).

We are currently engaging with partners from sectors with interests in animal science and on a cross Government level as to how we will take this commitment forward, including the publishing of a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods. We expect to publish this strategy later this year.

The Government supports open science because it drives innovation and collaboration by enabling researchers, innovators and policymakers to access and use the latest science and evidence. UKRI Open Access policy ensures that findings from research funded by the public through UKRI can be freely accessed. The policy supports around 45,000 research articles a year, being made OA immediately. In 2022 over 85% of all articles arising from UKRI funded research were open access.

UKRI Open Access Awards support over 150 universities, research institutes and PSREs in meeting the requirements of the UKRI open access policy. These awards cover article publishing charges (APCs) under certain value for money terms and supports open publishing agreements where there is no article fee. The grants also support improvements to digital research infrastructures, repository management and guidance for researchers.

Jisc is an independent nonprofit company that supports universities with the transition to open access. It does this through negotiating a range of transitional open access agreements and institutional access to journal publications. These agreements enable UK research output to be published open access in accordance with UK funder policies.

Jisc will negotiate new agreements with publishers on behalf of the sector in 2025. This will focus on pace of change to open access models, the financial sustainability of agreements, and equity to enable a wider audience to benefit including researchers, small specialist institutions and public health organisations.

The government recognises the importance of the UK’s copyright regime to the economic success of the creative industries, one of eight growth-driving sectors as identified in our Industrial Strategy. We are committed to supporting rights holders by ensuring they retain control over and receive fair payment for their work, especially as technology advances to include AI. We are actively working with stakeholders to ensure copyright protections remain robust and fit for purpose.

On the impact of AI, our next step is a 10-week consultation, published on Tuesday 17 December and closing 25 February, to engage AI and creative industries stakeholders widely on the impact of AI on the copyright regime.

Consultation responses will inform our approach to the design and delivery of a solution to the current dispute over the use of copyrighted material in AI training. Our aim is to clarify the copyright framework for AI – delivering certainty through a copyright regime that provides creators with real control, transparency, and helps them licence their content, while supporting AI developers' access to high-quality material.

Following the consultation we will continue to develop our policy approach in partnership with creative industries, media and AI stakeholders - supporting our brilliant artists and the creative industries to work together with the AI sector to harness the opportunities this technology provides.

The Government recognises concerns about overseas interference in our higher education sector, including those related to overseas funding. The Government works with the Office for Students, and other stakeholders to ensure that overseas funding does not interfere with academic freedom.

The overall budget for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will be £50 million in the 2025/26 financial year, which has not been reduced from in the 2024/25 financial year. The changes made to the criteria for the ASGSF will enable the budget to be utilised by more children and families. This will ensure that each child can still access a significant package of support required for individual children and help to prevent breakdown of adoptive placements. Children who have previously been supported by the ASGSF can continue to access the fund under the new arrangements. The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children.

The department is committed to ensuring value for money and continuously evaluates contracts. Regular reviews are conducted to assess effectiveness. The ASGSF management contract has undergone open re-procurement during its term of operation. The department assess all its tenders on their merits, with the sourcing strategy for this service following Green Book guidance. We will also be reviewing the most effective and efficient way of managing the fund in future years.

The overall budget for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will be £50 million in the 2025/26 financial year, which has not been reduced from in the 2024/25 financial year. The changes made to the criteria for the ASGSF will enable the budget to be utilised by more children and families. This will ensure that each child can still access a significant package of support required for individual children and help to prevent breakdown of adoptive placements. Children who have previously been supported by the ASGSF can continue to access the fund under the new arrangements. The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children.

The department is committed to ensuring value for money and continuously evaluates contracts. Regular reviews are conducted to assess effectiveness. The ASGSF management contract has undergone open re-procurement during its term of operation. The department assess all its tenders on their merits, with the sourcing strategy for this service following Green Book guidance. We will also be reviewing the most effective and efficient way of managing the fund in future years.

The overall budget for the adoption and special guardianship support fund (ASGSF) will be £50 million in the 2025/26 financial year, which has not been reduced from in the 2024/25 financial year. The changes made to the criteria for the ASGSF will enable the budget to be utilised by more children and families. This will ensure that each child can still access a significant package of support required for individual children and help to prevent breakdown of adoptive placements. Children who have previously been supported by the ASGSF can continue to access the fund under the new arrangements. The department always considers the impact of decisions on vulnerable children.

The department is committed to ensuring value for money and continuously evaluates contracts. Regular reviews are conducted to assess effectiveness. The ASGSF management contract has undergone open re-procurement during its term of operation. The department assess all its tenders on their merits, with the sourcing strategy for this service following Green Book guidance. We will also be reviewing the most effective and efficient way of managing the fund in future years.

End of key stage 1 national curriculum tests and teacher assessments have been non-statutory since the 2023/24 academic year.

Following the 2017 consultation on primary assessment, a decision was made by the previous administration to make these assessments optional to reduce the overall number of tests children have to take in primary school and move the baseline for primary school progress measures from key stage 1 to reception. The Standards and Testing Agency continues to develop test papers for schools to use on an optional basis as part of their ongoing assessment of pupils.

The phonics screening check is the only statutory assessment administered to pupils in key stage 1. This is a short, light-touch assessment which assesses pupils’ ability to decode and read words using phonics.

In respect of future assessment policy and associated arrangements, the government has established an independent curriculum and assessment review, covering key stages 1 to 5, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE, an expert in education policy. The national curriculum assessments administered to primary pupils are in scope of this review, which will look at whether the current assessment system can be improved.

Supporting our expert education workforce is critical to this government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity for children and young people at every stage.

Improving the wellbeing of staff in the education sector, including teachers, is key to this. The department is working in partnership with the sector, and mental health experts, to make commitments to improve staff mental health and wellbeing and boost retention.

These commitments include the creation of the education staff wellbeing charter which sets out shared commitments to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff in schools and colleges. The charter can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/education-staff-wellbeing-charter.

The charter can be used to inform a whole school or college approach to wellbeing or to develop a staff wellbeing strategy. So far, over 3,900 schools and colleges have signed up to it. In January 2024, the department published a progress report on its commitments in the charter, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-staff-wellbeing-and-teacher-retention.

The department is funding mental health and wellbeing support for school and college leaders, which includes professional supervision and counselling for those who need it. More than 2,000 leaders have benefitted from the support so far. Support continues to be available and can be accessed by visiting the Education Support website, which can be found at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/.

The department has made available a range of resources to help schools address teacher workload issues, prioritise staff wellbeing and support schools to introduce flexible working practices. For example, the department’s improve workload and wellbeing for school staff service, which was developed alongside school leaders, includes a workload reduction toolkit to support schools to identify opportunities to cut excessive workload. More information about this service can be found here: https://improve-workload-and-wellbeing-for-school-staff.education.gov.uk/.

The department also recently clarified that planning, preparation and assessment time can be done from home. The department has also removed the requirement for performance related pay and bureaucracy that went with it and has abolished one-word Ofsted judgements to deliver a system which provides better information for parents and is proportionate for staff.

Fair pay is key to ensuring teaching is an attractive and respected profession, which is why this government has accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendation of a 5.5% pay award for teachers and leaders in maintained schools from September 2024. This will be fully funded at a national level.

School support staff play a vital role in all our schools. They are crucial to ensuring we give children the best possible life chances and the department wants to ensure they are paid fairly for the work they do. This is why the department set out its plans to reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB) through the Employment Rights Bill, which was introduced on 10 October. Establishing the SSSNB will help ensure that schools can recruit and retain the staff needed to deliver high-quality, inclusive education.

Additionally, to boost recruitment and retention of teachers, the department has agreed to double the targeted retention incentive from 2024/25, which will give eligible early career teachers in key science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and in all colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually, on top of their normal pay.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only, with the potential for relevant policy to extend and apply to Wales.

While the Government has no immediate plan to introduce a close season for hares in England, the policy remains under consideration as part of the Government’s plans to introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation.

The Government committed to banning the import of hunting trophies in its Manifesto. We intend to deliver on this and are currently considering the most effective way to do so.

Protecting and, where necessary, recovering our fish stocks is a priority for this Government, because fish is food and food security is national security. It is also committed to restoring and protecting nature at sea as well as on land. The Government is making progress delivering Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) which set out how to maintain or restore fish stocks to sustainable levels. The sixth Defra-led FMP was published on 10 October, with consultations launched on a further five draft FMPs too.

Through fisheries negotiations with our international partners, our objective is to set Total Allowable Catches in line with the best available scientific advice to ensure that stocks are managed over the long term within sustainable limits. We are also introducing other fisheries management reforms domestically, including, for example, the introduction of Remote Electronic Monitoring, and action to reduce incidental bycatch in our fisheries.

The government is committed to delivering better bus services that meet passengers’ needs, including in rural areas, and has set out ambitious plans to reform bus services, including through the Bus Services (No.2) Bill and investing over £1 billion to support and improve bus services. The majority of bus services operate on a commercial basis, and decisions about the management and design of their bus fleet are for bus operators to make, including whether to install cycle racks.

The government recognises that bus services are part of a wider transport ecosystem, and it is vital to view them in the context of an integrated transport network designed with passengers as the priority. We have announced plans to develop an Integrated National Transport Strategy to set the long-term vision for transport in England. This will focus on how transport should be designed, built and operated to better serve the people who use it and ensure that the transport network is complementary, including the interaction between different modes of travel.

No assessment has been made using current economic assumptions and methodological practices.

However, the department has previously produced a poverty impact assessment using OBR economic assumptions from 30th October 2024 on an outdated version of the model. Using this methodology, the department has estimated the poverty impact of uprating the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) to the 30th percentile of rents in a Local Authority compared to freezing it. Uprating the LHA has been estimated to decrease the number of individuals in relative poverty after housing costs by 50,000 (0.1%) individuals in 25/26 and 100,000 (0.1%) individuals in 28/29 compared to freezing it.

Estimates have been rounded to the nearest 50,000 and are on a UK basis. The poverty impacts are independent of the underlying trends in poverty so they are not an estimate of the total change in poverty over time.

Since this version of the model, the move to UC acceleration announced at Autumn Budget has been incorporated into the model and the economic assumptions have been updated to OBR's Spring Statement 2025 Round 2 assumptions.

The causes of homelessness are multi-faceted and often complex, they interact dynamically making it difficult to isolate the relative importance of individual factors. Therefore, no assessment has been made on this basis for the impact on homelessness.

At last year’s Autumn Budget, the Secretary of State’s decision to maintain Local Housing Allowance (LHA) at current levels for 2025/26 was taken after a range of factors were considered, including rental data, the impacts of LHA rates, the fact that rates were increased in April 2024, and the wider fiscal context. The April 2024 one-year LHA increase cost an additional £1.2bn in 2024/25, and approximately £7bn over 5 years.

Any future decisions on LHA policy will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing, and the fiscal context.

For those who need further support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available from local authorities. DHPs can be paid to those entitled to Housing Benefit or Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs.

Recruitment and deployment of additional resources is taking place to enable the Carer’s Allowance (CA) unit to meet the consistent increased demand, which should reduce the clearance times for new claims to CA.

DWP has reviewed its communications to ensure the increase in the CA earnings threshold from 7 April 2025 is clearly visible. These include:

• Advice on GOV.UK,
• Annual benefit uprating notification letters. These are issued to customers over a 7-week period from the beginning of March, and include the new weekly rate of CA and the new earnings limit,
• Use of our advocates’ platform, such as Carers UK,
• Clerical claim form supporting notes,
• Upskilling our telephony agents who deal with inbound customer enquiries,
• Focussed media coverage on the CA threshold increase - press releases, Facebook etc.

DWP offers employment support for eligible older people through the network of Jobcentres across the UK.

The White Paper published on 26 November focuses on support for people who are
economically inactive, people who are looking for work or want to progress, and people who are at risk of economic inactivity despite having a desire to stay in work. This includes and goes beyond people who are claiming benefits. The new national jobs and careers service will be instrumental in achieving this objective. This service will be available for anyone, including older people, who wants to look for work, wants help to increase their earnings, or who wants help to change their career or re-train. The service will be tailored to local needs.

We are committing to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop the reforms set out in our Pathways to Work Green Paper. These we will bring together groups of people for specific work areas, collaborating with civil servants to provide discussion,
challenge, and recommendations. Each group will have a different mix of people including older people.

The department also engages with employers to ensure their recruitment practises attract and support the retention of older people and encouraging employers to sign the Age-Friendly
employer pledge.

No estimate has yet been made.

As announced in the Green Paper, we will build towards a guarantee of personalised employment, health and skills support for anyone on out of work benefits with a work-limiting health condition or disability who wants it. Catalysed by an additional £1 billion a year by 2029/2030, this will improve returns to work and prevent economic inactivity, as part of rebalancing spending towards work over welfare.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

As stated in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook, OBR plan to work with the Treasury and DWP to further scrutinise both the direct and indirect effects of these welfare and employment support policies ahead of their next forecast, alongside the effects of any further measures from the Green Paper that have been sufficiently developed.

The social security system will always be there for those who can’t work. As part of making changes to the payment rates in Universal Credit, we will ensure that those with the most severe, lifelong conditions who will never be able to work have their incomes protected.

Twinned with this, as we set out in the Pathways to Work, our ambition is to guarantee personalised employment support to anyone claiming out of work benefits (UC and contributory) with a health condition or disability who wants to work but is currently outside the labour market. We propose that this guarantee will have a particular focus on early support, by offering everyone who claims out of work benefits and has a work-limiting health condition or disability, or who has recently been in receipt of PIP, with a support conversation. The support conversation will help identify the best next steps, including a range of personalised and more intensive support for anyone who wants it. We want our offer to be flexible, personalised and built on the evidence.

Everyone who has been diagnosed with diabetes is eligible for a free National Health Service eye test, as there is a higher prevalence of some eye conditions amongst people with diabetes. In addition, due to the risk of diabetic retinopathy, all people with diabetes, aged 12 years old and over, are offered Diabetic Eye Screening free of charge. It is offered every one or two years, depending on the level of risk. Those with sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy are offered more frequent surveillance.

As part of the necessary changes to support the National Health Service to recover, NHS England has indicated that integrated care boards (ICBs) should reduce in size. The Government is supportive of NHS England’s decision and will work with NHS England to make the necessary choices that are needed to get the NHS back on its feet. We expect ICBs to continue to deliver their responsibilities including the planning and delivery of health and care services.

Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to ensure that the expected hundreds of millions of pounds savings made will be reinvested in frontline services to deliver better care for patients.

Further detail on the future of ICBs was provided in a letter issued to all ICBs and NHS trusts and foundation trusts on 1 April 2025. This letter is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/

There are no current plans to introduce such nationally commissioned services. We are committed to delivering high quality care and support for every person with dementia, and central to this is the provision of personalised care and support planning for post diagnostic support.

Provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). It is the expectation that ICBs commission services based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines. It is the responsibility of ICBs to work within their geographical area to offer services that meet the needs of their population.

Local authorities are required to provide or arrange services that meet the social care needs of the local population under the Care Act 2014.

The Government is committed to giving patients greater choice and control over their care and throughout their elective care pathway, including those referred to ophthalmology services.

Patients have an existing legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment, when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. Currently, less than a quarter of patients recall being offered a choice of provider. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the work needed to empower patients with greater choice and control, in order to make informed choices. This includes improving the information available to patients to support their decisions, such as improved waiting time information.

We also published a Partnership Agreement between the National Health Service and the independent sector, which sets out the support needed to drive patient choice, which can include choosing provision from independent providers.

NHS England is following standard procedure in its consultation on the NHS Payment Scheme. NHS England consults on changes to the payment scheme every year, as they are required to by law. While the legal requirement is just for NHS England to consult commissioners and providers, they do accept responses from other interested parties and members of the general public.