Since I became Chancellor, the UK economy has grown by 2.1%—the fastest growth among European G7 economies in that period, demonstrating that this Government’s economic plan is the right one. Growth is the only way to deliver sustainable rises in living standards, and, after falling by 2.3% in the previous Parliament, living standards—real household disposable income per capita—have grown by 1.1% so far this Parliament. We have increased our resilience to global shocks by building stronger public finances and bringing down borrowing—which is less than the G7 average this year—while bringing in an additional £120 billion in public investment through changes to our fiscal rules.

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s fiscal risks and sustainability report 2026, which was laid today, confirms the need to boost growth and maintain sustainable public finances. This demonstrates the importance of this Government’s decisions to reduce the deficit, unlock a step change in public investment, and strengthen the tax base by announcing electric vehicle excise duty, in order to support a stronger fiscal position.

The FRS is an important part of the Government’s fiscal risk management framework. The report fulfils the OBR’s duty under the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011 to assess and report on the sustainability of the public finances and the key risks facing them.

This year’s FRS provides a detailed assessment of the risks to long-term fiscal sustainability. Since the start of this Parliament, the Government have taken the necessary decisions to put the public finances on a sustainable path while continuing to support economic growth. The Government are bringing down borrowing. Borrowing in 2025-26 was over £23 billion lower than in 2024-25, and the OBR forecast it will continue falling in every year. This strategy is underpinned by robust fiscal rules, which were designed to unlock a step change in public investment while keeping debt on a sustainable path, alongside multi-year spending plans and wider reforms to the fiscal framework that strengthen credibility and transparency.

The Government have taken the decisions needed for long-term security and sustainability. For example, at Budget 2025, the Government strengthened the tax base by introducing eVED to respond to the long-term decline in fuel duty receipts. The Government have also published the defence investment plan, backed by £298 billion of investment over the next four years, to strengthen national security, support long-term resilience and invest in the capabilities needed for the future.

The FRS highlights the importance of productivity growth to fiscal sustainability. Tackling historical under-investment is critical to boosting productivity, and the Government are protecting the increase of more than £120 billion in departmental capital spending over the Parliament. Decisions taken across this Parliament will raise output in the medium and longer term, as the OBR estimates that the combined supply-side effects of policy announced across the Parliament will raise the level of GDP by over 0.6% after 10 years.

[HCWS195]

The Government have today published our formal response to the consultation on proposals to establish a Child Protection Authority in England. This marks an important step in strengthening how we as a country protect our children.

The child protection system

Keeping children safe underpins this Government’s ambitions for opportunity, stronger communities and improved life chances. That means the way we work, and those who work within it, must be clear in their purpose, confident in their practice and effective in what they achieve.

Yet evidence from reviews, inquiries and frontline experience shows that this is not always the case. Too often, opportunities to prevent harm are missed; and too often, when concerns are raised, action does not follow quickly or effectively enough. As a result, there remains a gap between what we know works and what is consistently put into practice.

Many dedicated people work tirelessly to protect children every day. Yet gaps remain between what we know works and what happens in practice. These gaps can leave children and young people without the protection or support that they need, when they need it most.

What we heard

We consulted on the creation of a CPA following a key recommendation from the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. We received responses from practitioners, organisations, experts, and victims and survivors. Their insights have been central in shaping our approach.

A clear message came through: there is strong support for a national body that can bring greater clarity and direction, join up learning and turn it into action and help ensure that good practice is applied consistently.

At the same time, respondents were clear that any new body must make a positive difference to frontline work. It should build on what already works well, avoid duplication, and stay closely connected to the real experiences of children, families and professionals.

Many respondents, particularly victims and survivors, spoke powerfully about missed opportunities to act and the lasting impact this can have. Their voices underline the importance of not only learning from harm, but acting on that learning. Addressing this requires a stronger and more coherent approach at national level, alongside practical support for those working directly with children and families.

The Child Protection Authority

The CPA will provide national leadership to improve how child protection works in practice. It will bring together data, evidence, professional expertise and lived experience to spot risks earlier, support better decision making and help agencies work together more effectively.

A key role of the CPA will be to make sure that learning leads to real change. This includes making it easier for those working with children to access clear guidance and practical support, and ensuring that lessons from reviews and cases are followed through.

The CPA will provide national leadership and oversight of the child protection system. It will ensure that evidence and insight are used more effectively and that learning translates into meaningful change.

It will bring together data, evidence, practitioner expertise and the voices of children, families and survivors to strengthen how the system identifies and responds to significant harm. By doing so, it will support earlier intervention, clearer accountability and more effective multi-agency working.

The CPA will play a central role in:

identifying emerging risks and patterns of harm earlier, enabling earlier and more co-ordinated responses;

building a clearer national picture by bringing together information from different agencies;

promoting and embedding good practice so that learning is consistently applied; and

supporting the implementation of recommendations, ensuring that where improvement is needed, action follows.

It will also strengthen accountability across the system, working closely with inspectorates, regulators and Government Departments. We are exploring options to legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to equip the CPA with appropriate powers to act where serious or persistent failings leave children unprotected.

Crucially, the CPA will reflect the multi-agency nature of child protection. It will bring together expertise from all agencies that have a role in protecting children and across all settings where children could be harmed. Above all, the CPA will place the experiences and voices of children, families and survivors at the centre of its work.

Reform programme

The establishment of the CPA sits within a broader programme of reform to strengthen child protection.

Through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, we are improving how the system works in practice, including through strengthened multi-agency arrangements and improved information sharing. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 introduces a mandatory duty to report child sexual abuse, while wider cross-Government work, including action to tackle violence against women and girls and new duties of candour for public authorities, is helping to create a more transparent, accountable and effective system.

Together, these reforms reflect a determination to ensure that the system is better connected, more responsive, and more able to prevent harm as well as respond to it.

The CPA will play a critical role alongside wider reforms, supporting more joined-up working between services and helping to ensure that learning leads to better outcomes for children.

Next steps

The Government are committed to establishing the Child Protection Authority and are exploring options to legislate when parliamentary time allows. In the meantime, we will continue to develop the CPA’s functions and capabilities, building on the existing work of the child safeguarding practice review panel. I would like to thank the panel’s members and chair for their work to date.

This marks an important milestone on the journey towards establishing this new body. We will continue to work closely with partners across the system, and with children, families and survivors, as we move towards implementation.

Our goal is clear: a child protection system that is expert and decisive, better connected, more responsive, and focused on delivering meaningful change; that supports those working to protect children, learns from experience, and acts promptly where improvement is needed; and, above all, that ensures children are protected and supported to achieve and thrive.

[HCWS194]

This Government are committed to ensuring the safe, reliable and effective operation of our critical national infrastructure and our national health service.

Under the Medical Devices Regulations 2002, NHS England is currently the legal manufacturer for software medical devices that underpin essential national services, including systems supporting urgent and emergency care such as NHS 111 and 999. These tools play a vital role in delivering care to patients and supporting the day-to-day functioning of our health system.

Following the planned abolition of NHS England, responsibility for these software medical devices would be transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care. These services will continue to be available to users without disruption.

As the legal manufacturer, NHS England currently undertakes responsibility for ensuring these devices meet required standards of safety and performance.

Following the transfer, the Department of Health and Social Care will continue to fulfil these responsibilities, maintaining the same focus on assurance, patient safety and regulatory compliance.

I am hereby confirming that the Department will ensure compliance of these devices with the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021 and the Medical Devices Regulations 2002.

This approach reflects the Government’s commitment to upholding robust standards while ensuring continuity of these critical services.

Appropriate governance arrangements will be put in place with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to support independence and accountability in the ongoing oversight of these devices.

[HCWS193]

Today the Government published their response to Isabelle Trowler’s independent review into the safeguarding of children in youth custody.

No child should ever come to harm, least of all while within our care. That is why safeguarding children within the youth custodial estate, as well as those being cared for by the state more broadly, must be an absolute priority for all of us in Government.

In November 2025, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman published a report into the historical abuse at Medomsley detention centre. There had been shocking and systematic abuse of young men and boys held there, by the very staff who were meant to protect them, between 1961 and 1987. The PPO’s report examined what was known by authorities and identified serious, missed opportunities to act. We must ensure that the failings of the past are never repeated.

While the youth custodial estate has changed significantly in recent years, with fewer children in custody and more held in therapeutic environments such as secure children’s homes and secure training centres, those who remain often present multiple complex needs. Despite clear progress, there remains troubling evidence that safeguarding issues persist.

In the light of this and the findings of the PPO’s report, I commissioned Isabelle Trowler, the chief social worker for children and families to undertake a rapid review of current safeguarding arrangements in youth custody.

I am extremely grateful to Isabelle for undertaking this comprehensive review, and to the whole panel of experts for all their contributions.

The review makes 34 wide-ranging recommendations for the Ministry of Justice and the Youth Custody Service, as well as other partners across Government. It concludes that safeguarding responses within the youth custodial estates are generally robust, but highlights notable failings and areas where more must be done to ensure children’s safety while they are within our care.

Importantly, the report addresses the management of allegations against staff and highlights how important independence and specialist expertise are within decision making that relates to child safeguarding. The recommendations also focus on the role of other key partners within the system, including local authorities, and on strengthening counter-corruption measures. Other important functions within the system are also addressed, such as reinforcing the importance of timely and regular vetting and Disclosure and Barring Service checks. I welcome all of Isabelle Trowler’s recommendations and support the direction they set both within the youth custodial estate and across Government.

We are committed to working closely with our partners across Government to consider how best to deliver these for the whole system. I thank my colleagues across Government for all the work that has been undertaken on these recommendations so far.

The YCS’s capacity and capability is crucial in delivering many of these reforms. That is why we have already begun implementing key changes within the youth custodial estate. We are bolstering expertise within the YCS to ensure there is specialist child protection proficiency, and are establishing a new safeguarding oversight board to provide dedicated scrutiny of risks, allegations and decision making. We have also improved the management of allegations against staff by ensuring that all abuse of trust cases are routinely referred to local authority designated officers and that safeguarding specialists are directly involved in counter-corruption investigations.

As the review makes clear, staff in the secure estate do one of the most demanding jobs in public service. It is our responsibility to ensure that our staff have the support and skills to keep children safe and deliver effective rehabilitation. We are redesigning initial training for frontline youth justice workers and strengthening recruitment to ensure the right people are better equipped in the right roles.

We will be taking forward the Trowler review recommendation for a proactive safeguarding inquiry and will reform the complaints system to allow trusted adults to raise concerns on behalf of children. Ensuring that processes are accessible, particularly for those with additional needs, is also crucial within this work. This will all ensure that children’s voices are heard and acted on.

The Trowler review highlights the importance of a whole-system approach to safeguarding. The youth justice system has a strong history of effective partnership working at a community level. We will further enhance cross-Government governance structures and ways of working, bringing together justice, children’s services and health partners.

The recommended reforms represent significant change to how we support and safeguard children across Government. Some of these measures will take time to implement and will need careful consideration to ensure they are practical and sustainable for the whole system.

Many of these recommendations will be taken forward as part of the forthcoming youth custody transformation plan, which will set out our longer-term vision for a safer and more effective youth custodial system.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the men who survived the horrific abuse at Medomsley, which was the catalyst for this review. While we cannot change the abuse that occurred, I would like to use this opportunity to reiterate the Government’s apology.

On our own behalf and that of past Governments, we are truly sorry for what you endured and for how long it was allowed to continue. Without your courage in coming forward and sharing your experiences, the full extent of the abuse may never have come to light. Hearing directly about the profound and lifelong impact that this has had has only reinforced to me the importance of this work and the imperative of strengthening safeguarding for children in custody today.

I will deposit a copy of “A Rapid Review of Safeguarding in Youth Custody” in the Library of the House. The Government response has been laid before Parliament.

[HCWS192]

I wish to inform the House that the report of the Robert Hamill inquiry, originally chaired by Sir Edwin Jowitt and now by Sir John Evans, will be published shortly after the summer recess, subject to parliamentary timetabling.

As I set out in my statement of 10 December 2025, the original inquiry chair, Sir Edwin Jowitt, advised the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the right hon. Owen Paterson MP, on 25 February 2011, that the inquiry panel had fulfilled its terms of reference. However, following announcement by the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland in December 2010 of criminal charges against three individuals for perverting the course of justice, it was agreed that the inquiry report would not be submitted to the Secretary of State or published until the conclusion of these legal proceedings.

Following the conclusion of criminal proceedings in June 2024, a new chair, Sir John Evans, was appointed on 7 October 2024 due to Sir Edwin unfortunately being unable to continue in the role. Since then, steps have been taken to enable the publication of the report, and Sir John has now confirmed that the report is ready to be published.

As the person responsible for the publication of the inquiry’s report, I have a duty, as a public authority under the Human Rights Act, to act in a way that is compatible with the European convention on human rights.

On 28 February 2011, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the right hon. Owen Paterson MP set out that a checking process had been undertaken to meet obligations in relation to article 2 of the ECHR and national security. While I have not yet seen the report, given the significant passage of time since the last checking process was concluded, I have decided to make arrangements for a new one. I can confirm that this has now been completed, and I have received advice that there is nothing in the report which, if published, could breach article 2 of the ECHR by putting the lives or safety of individuals at risk, or would put national security at risk. I am therefore satisfied that the report can be published in full.

Given the time needed for the panel to finalise the text and to print the report, it will not be feasible to publish the report before the summer recess. My officials have therefore requested that the inquiry team retain custody of the report over the recess.

As with the publication of the Bloody Sunday, Billy Wright and Rosemary Nelson inquiry reports, I intend to consider giving advance sight to those who were designated as core participants by the inquiry, along with their legal representatives.

[HCWS197]

I wish to provide the House with an update on the implementation of the Automated Vehicles Act 2024.

Today I have published the Government’s response to the “Protecting marketing terms” consultation and laid the Automated Vehicles (Marketing Restrictions) Regulations 2026 statutory instrument.

The purpose of the “Protecting marketing terms” consultation was to identify the words, expressions, symbols or marks that should only be used to describe authorised or listed automated vehicles. These regulations will help prevent end users in Great Britain from being misled into thinking that vehicles that are not authorised automated vehicles can safely and lawfully drive themselves.

Misleading marketing of automated vehicles is dangerous: it can mislead drivers into thinking that they do not need to pay attention to the road. As more manufacturers offer high-end driver assistance systems, misleading marketing risks worsening road safety and could undermine trust and successful adoption of self-driving vehicle technology.

The AV Act sets out an authorisation process to determine whether a vehicle can drive itself safely and legally without being controlled or monitored by a human. This process would be undermined if businesses are able to claim that their vehicles are self-driving without getting the vehicles authorised, which may lead to confusion about vehicle capabilities and driver responsibilities.

Consultation outcome

The consultation demonstrated broad support for protecting certain marketing terms so that they may only be used legally to describe vehicles authorised or listed as able to safely drive themselves. This measure is intended to:

safeguard the integrity of the authorisation and listing process;

ensure public safety; and

build public trust in self-driving technology.

Protected terms and scope

The following terms will be reserved for authorised or listed vehicles:

Automated

Automated driving

Autonomous

Autonomous driving

Drive autonomously

Drive itself

Driverless

Self-driving

This protection will extend to different parts of speech and other grammatical forms of these terms. Additionally, the words “automated” and “autonomous” will be protected only when used to describe a vehicle as a whole or a vehicle’s overall driving capability, while remaining permissible for specific parts or features—for example, automated windscreen wipers or autonomous emergency braking.

Other terms and enforcement

Although consultees suggested additional terms such as “robotaxi” and “AI driver”, these will be regulated under the general confusion offence in section 79.

The Government recognise that, as the technology is deployed, there may be other terms in future that could give a misleading impression that a vehicle is able to drive itself. This is why the protected terms offence under section 78 operates alongside the confusion offence under section 79. Marketing communications likely to confuse end users into thinking that an unauthorised vehicle is capable of driving itself, including through the use of terms that are not protected, will be enforced through section 79. The Government will keep this under review, with the possibility of protecting further terms in future.

The AV Act places a duty on the Secretary of State to enforce the marketing offences. In practice, enforcement is expected to be carried out by the Department’s agencies through civil powers under schedule 5 to the AV Act. Where a breach of the marketing offences results in criminal prosecution and conviction, the Act sets the maximum penalty as a two-year prison term, a fine or both.

Next steps

Some respondents raised an interest in further guidance on part 4 of the AV Act—misleading marketing—and the Government will consider developing supporting materials. A wider programme of education, research and review is also under consideration.

A copy of this publication will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and published on www.gov.uk .

[HCWS196]

The Government have today launched a Call for Evidence on the modernisation and reform of carer’s allowance. This is available on www.gov.uk and accessible format versions will be available on request.

Modernising for the future

Carer’s allowance was introduced in 1976 and has not kept pace with changes in how people balance work and caring responsibilities. Many carers want the flexibility to combine some paid work with their caring responsibilities.

We have taken steps to improve the system, including increasing the carer’s allowance earnings limit to align with 16 hours at the national living wage, improving guidance for staff and customers, and strengthening processes to identify and prevent overpayments earlier.

We recognise, though, that there is more to do, and are therefore considering how the benefit can be modernised for the future, including through reforms such as an earnings taper and automating the calculation of earnings where possible using data collected by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Building the evidence base

This call for evidence is an important next step in that process. We are seeking views and evidence to better understand how carer’s allowance can:

support carers to balance paid work and caring responsibilities;

ensure the system is clear and easy to understand;

maintain fairness and value for money for taxpayers.

Evidence gathered through this exercise will inform future policy development. We are particularly interested in views on the current earnings rules, including on the earnings limit and whether a more predictable approach to how earnings are averaged would better support carers.

We will consider the wider fiscal impacts of reforms and the need to ensure that support is targeted effectively.

We want to hear from carers, representative organisations and others with relevant experience to shape our understanding and inform next steps.

[HCWS190]

Later today I will lay before this House the Office for Nuclear Regulation strategy 2026. This document will also be published on the ONR website.

I can confirm, in accordance with paragraph 25(3) of schedule 7 to the Energy Act 2013, that there have been no exclusions to the published documents on the grounds of national security.

[HCWS191]