During the development of the National Security Strategy, the Cabinet Office engaged a broad spectrum of stakeholders, considered assessments and analytical products from think tanks, academics, industry experts and reports from the Intelligence and Security Committee and the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy.

It also brought together several strategies, reviews, and audits developed and being developed by the government. These reviews had their own method of engagement, including with civil society organisations and industry. This includes the Resilience Action Plan which a large number of stakeholders, including civil society organisations, were engaged with to support development and delivery.

To support the delivery of national security objectives, the government regularly engages with industry including the technology industry. For example, this week the Security Minister was in Glasgow at the 10th annual Cyber UK conference, attended by 2,500 cyber security leaders and technical professionals.

Our Modern Industrial Strategy is a 10-year plan backing our strengths and realising Britain’s potential. This strategy is an ongoing partnership between business, government, and workers, meeting the needs of business head on. This government has also published its Defence Industrial Strategy, which lays out our new approach, not just to defence procurement, but also how we engage with industry throughout the supply chain. The upcoming Defence Readiness Bill will improve how we work collectively with industry to improve the readiness of our defence sector.

As the Strategic Defence Review set out, a core role for Defence is the protection of the UK’s overseas territories, which includes maintaining a defensive military posture in the Falkland Islands. We review that posture regularly to ensure it reflects all relevant developments. I am confident that our current military presence in the region is appropriately scaled to ensure the security of the Islands.

Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGRs) will be important to Net Zero - balancing residual emissions from hard-to-abate sectors whilst providing economic opportunities. In August Government published details of the GGR Business Model and published the Carbon Capture and Storage HyNet Track-1 expansion Project Negotiation List, which includes two GGR projects. To support demand, Government published a response to the consultation on the integration of GGRs into the UK Emissions Trading Scheme and consulted on options to ensure integrity of the Voluntary Carbon and Nature Market. To ensure removals are measurable and verifiable, in July the British Standards Institution, commissioned by Government, published interim methodologies for Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage and Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage. The Government has also invested £100 million in research and innovation for GGRs, including the GGRs Innovation Programme.

The Home Office is strengthening action to tackle online radicalisation and protect young people from harm. The Independent Prevent Commissioner, Lord Anderson, recommended that we explore how evidence of online activity can be used to identify potential subjects for Prevent. To fulfil this, we will take steps to strengthen our approach to tackling online radicalisation through working with tech companies, like-minded international partners, and consider new approaches to identifying and supporting susceptible individuals online. This includes developing new capabilities to better equip Prevent to manage online radicalisation risks across all of our communities.

This renewed focus on online threats reflects the fact that the threat posed by radicalisation is not confined to a relatively small number of local authorities and is in fact increasingly diffuse. A local authority does not need to be high threat to be high risk. In response to this, we have evolved our Prevent local delivery model to ensure every local authority, including those in rural areas, has ready access to expertise, best practice, and support in tackling local radicalisation risks. Even while we continue to provide additional support and direct funding to those with the highest risk.

We recognise the specific needs of the horticulture sector, and Defra ministers and officials meet regularly with a variety of growers from across the sector, including representatives from the fruit-growing sector, to discuss a wide range of issues to help us understand how best to support the sector.

As part of the immediate reforms announced in January 2025, the Government has committed to setting new national standards for care technologies and to developing trusted guidance. This information will help people who draw on care, and their loved ones, to confidently buy effective, compatible products for their homes.

Furthermore, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are working together to ensure people in hard-to-reach communities who require care technology to live independently can access fast, reliable connectivity. This includes continued investment in Project Gigabit to expand gigabit-capable broadband, and the Shared Rural Network, which has already extended 4G coverage to 95% of the United Kingdom.

Previous support has been offered primarily in the form of grants. For example, the Farming Equipment & Technology Fund (FETF) has helped ensure technologies supporting both productivity and sustainability can be adopted by UK farmers. We are looking to explore alternative means to improve access to finance for both the development and adoption of new agri-technologies, including opportunities to collaborate with public finance institutions.

We are committed to supporting technological innovation on farm so all farming sectors can maximise their levels of productivity whilst increasing their sustainability and resilience.

As announced at the NFU Conference, the next window of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) will launch in Spring 2025. This will support uptake of innovative technology and equipment that is commercially available. The scheme will be open to farmers across England and a list of eligible equipment will be published within the scheme guidance ahead of its launch.

The Farming Innovation Programme funds research across a range of technologies in agriculture including precision agriculture. Almost £150 million has been committed to projects of which over £84 million has been committed to small businesses. From later in the year a further £63 million will be available in innovation grants under the Programme to support research and innovation, technology and equipment for farmers.

We are looking carefully at how to position further investment and support to enable the delivery of this Government's objectives as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.

The Farming Innovation Programme funds research across a range of technologies in agriculture including precision agriculture.

Almost £150 million has been committed to projects of which over £84 million has been committed to small businesses.

From 2025 / 2026 a further £63 million will be available in innovation grants under the Programme to support research and innovation, technology and equipment for farmers.

The Department is aware of the growing availability of ADAS Advanced Driver Assistance Services in new vehicles and the data and connectivity applications that support them. The Department has supported a number of research and development activities in recent years to develop the standards required for ‘vehicle to infrastructure’, (V2I) communications and services that will enable infrastructure-based safety systems, and continues to work with the automotive and highway authority sectors to ensure that the technology used in highway network management will support V2I services as they become available in new vehicles.

DSIT is accelerating innovation through initiatives like the Higher Education Innovation Funding, currently £280m a year, enabling universities across England to support innovative new businesses in their local areas. Additionally, through the £12.2m Digital Growth Grant, DSIT supports the Ecosystem Partnership Programme which awards funding to regional organisations delivering support in their local ecosystems. This grant also supports a cohort of AgriTech businesses as part of the Industry Bridge programme, connecting startups with corporate partners, delivered by Codebase.