Last year saw over 3,000 illegitimate premises raided and nearly 1,000 arrests, and I have provided £30 million of additional funding over the next three years to go even further. As a result, thousands more businesses will be raided, hundreds of people will be arrested and millions in cash will be seized as part of a permanent national crackdown.

As I confirmed to the House during Defence Oral Questions on 16 March 2026, we have received the final Army safety investigation report, and work is ongoing to agree next steps. The department continues to engage with General Dynamics on the report and next steps, as we have since Exercise TITAN STORM. I will update the House after Easter recess to outline next steps.

On 19 February, the Secretary of State and the First Minister of Wales announced a £50 million Welsh defence growth deal, making Wales a launchpad for the next generation of autonomous technology. Thousands of skilled workers in Wales will be involved in the design, testing and manufacture of these innovative technologies. This proves yet again that defence is an engine for growth in Wales and shows the power of two Labour Governments working together to deliver in the interests of Wales.

The increased defence budget will help both grow our economy and our thriving defence sector in Wales.

I was pleased to welcome the Defence Secretary to Cardiff Castle with the First Minister to sign our landmark £50m Wales Defence Growth Deal.

Focused on autonomous defence technology, the deal will help make defence an engine for growth, boosting innovation, SME support and high-skilled jobs in Wales.

After the damage wrought by successive Conservative Governments, we have successfully reset relations with the devolved Governments. Thanks to the hard work of Eluned Morgan, Anas Sarwar and our brilliant Welsh and Scottish Labour MPs, we have provided the largest uplifts to their budgets since devolution began.

I met and made clear to Ofcom’s chief executive that keeping children safe online is my top priority.

Since taking post I’ve already strengthened the Online Safety Act: to make encouraging self-harm and cyber-flashing priority offences, so services must proactively remove this abhorrent content.

And today I can announce we will amend the Crime and Policing Bill to ensure AI models cannot produce child sexual abuse material, and address vulnerabilities where they can.

I will not hesitate to go further where evidence shows it’s needed.

Parents should be able to have confidence that children and young people are safe as they benefit from the opportunities that being online offers.

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides businesses tariff and quota free access to the EU market, provided that these goods meet ‘Rules of Origin’ requirements.

UK businesses must comply with customs procedures when exporting food. These procedures include Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) border controls as well as technical regulations, standards and conformity assessments. For some food businesses, there may be costs associated with compliance to these procedures. Before the UK left the EU, assessments were made of these costs reflecting a variety of potential trading arrangements with the EU. Work is ongoing to assess these costs now the new trading arrangements under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement are being implemented.

I discuss the strengths and benefits of the Union with colleagues on a regular basis.

This Government is committed to protecting the Union and promoting the strengths that have made it the most successful political and economic union the world has ever seen.

This information is not publicly available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

In January, I appointed an expert group to provide technical advice on the inquiry’s recommendations on compensation. The Government will provide an update on next steps regarding those recommendations as soon as possible following the publication of the final report on 20 May.

The response to the correspondence in question was sent to the hon. Member on 23 April 2024. The delay was due to an administrative oversight, for which I apologise. (Please note that the correct reference is MC2024/04269 rather than 04369 which we had previously advised.)

In March 2023, I appointed Helen Tomlinson as the Government’s first menopause employment champion. We are working across Government and with employers to increase awareness and develop policies to support women experiencing the impact of menopause at work. We recently launched new guidance on the Help to Grow portal to empower businesses to educate their organisation about menopause.

The Ministry of Justice responded to the letter on 14 March 2024. The Ministry of Justice takes the handling of correspondence very seriously and in this instance, due to an administrative error, there was a delay in responding. As outlined in our response, we apologise for the delay in responding.

My Department continues to help small and medium-sized enterprises to grow overseas and export to the world, especially this year—the year of the SME. Businesses can access a digital self-serve offer and a wide network of support, including trade advisers, export champions, the UK Export Academy, our international markets network and UK Export Finance. Last year, UK Export Finance provided £6.5 billion to exporters of all sizes, with SMEs comprising a record 84% of those supported directly with a product.

I wrote to the hon. Member on 1 March about the constituent’s eligibility for the Warm Home Discount scheme.

Veterans’ employment is at an all-time high, with 87% of those leaving service finding employment within six months. We have recently launched the employers’ guide to hiring veterans, showcasing best practice on how employers can benefit from veterans’ skills and qualifications. I regularly champion veterans’ employment to Cabinet colleagues, as employing veterans is one of the best decisions that businesses can make.