Written questions by Obese-Jecty.

With reference to recommendation 47 of the Strategic Defence Review 2025, published on 8 July 2025, when Protector will be integrated with P-8 Poseidon.

The exploration of the Maritime capability for Protector is being considered as part of the Defence Investment Plan to take onboard the Review's vision and recommendations and turn them into a delivery plan. We will ensure that this Plan is affordable, considers infrastructure and people, alongside capabilities and maximises the benefits of defence spending to grow the UK economy.

With reference to page 53 of the Strategic Defence Review, published on 2 June 2025, how many meetings of the Defence Growth Board she has chaired in 2025 to date.

The Chancellor has chaired one meeting of the Defence Growth Board in 2025 to date. The Defence Industrial Strategy, published on 8 September 2025, details how this government is making Defence an engine for growth, and the Chancellor and Defence Secretary are working closely to turn the strategy into action.

With reference to page 41 of the National Security Strategy 2025, published in June 2025, CP 1338, in which cases does the UK plan to become a more activist state willing to intervene more deeply in the economy.

The Government will not hesitate to intervene, where necessary, to protect our national security interests, and we will use the Defence Industrial Strategy to make Defence an engine for growth, backing British jobs, British industry and British innovation.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what steps he is taking to enhance (a) AI leadership, (b) governance, (c) ethics, (d) data, (e) digital infrastructure and (f) commercial frameworks.

The Ministry of Justice’s AI Action Plan for Justice set out a series of bold, ambitious steps to promote the responsible use of AI tools across the department and the wider justice system. A Justice AI Unit headed up by a Chief AI Officer has been established. To embed ethics into our approach, we have developed a publicly accessible AI and Data Science Ethics Framework. This practical toolkit, created in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute, guides developers, policymakers, and decision-makers from inception through to deployment. We are also taking steps to improve the quality of our data to facilitate greater AI enablement. This includes linking offender data across systems through our BOLD and Data First programmes to improve public safety, rehabilitation, youth justice, prevention and victim services.The Ministry of Justice is working with existing suppliers to leverage their AI capabilities to support the delivery of services and will continue to explore the opportunities available in the supplier market that will support the delivery of the AI Action Plan. Through Procurement framework including Crown Commercial Services Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Spark DPS frameworks and leveraging the benefits of Memorandums of Understanding in place between HMG and supplier in the marketplace, the Ministry of Justice will develop AI capabilities for the future.

When access to the capabilities environment of the Tackling Organised Exploitation programme will be available to police forces.

As part of the response to the Casey Independent Audit of Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse the government has recently provided £426,000 of new funding to the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme (TOEX). The new funding will enable TOEX to extend access to its suite of cutting-edge investigative apps and digital tools, stored within its secure capabilities environment, to all Home Office police forces in England and Wales.In total, the Home Office is providing TOEX over £9 million this year to increase law enforcement’s capability to respond to organised exploitation, including by providing dedicated intelligence, analytical and technical expertise. This includes child sexual exploitation, alongside other organised exploitation crimes including modern slavery, organised immigration crimes, and criminal exploitation.The additional funding will allow for the expedited roll out of the TOEX Capabilities Environment, to ensure all police investigators in England and Wales have access to the full array of TOEX’s AI-enabled and time-saving tools.The TOEX programme contacted all forces in England and Wales to provide information on how they can access the TOEX tools following the Minister’s announcement is August. In addition to the 15 police forces which are already utilising TOEX tools, a further 12 forces are currently onboarding. TOEX are continuing to engage with further forces to support the expansion.

With reference to page 134 of his Department's Strategic Defence Review 2025, published on 2 June 2025, what progress he has made in identifying mutually beneficial partnerships (a) across Government and (b) with the private sector.

Work to identify any opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships across Government and with the private sector, will be brought forward as part of the Recapitalisation Plan which has a target completion date of February 2026.

How much capacity within the prison estate will be created via the deportation of foreign national offenders by 31 December 2025.

The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is a priority of this Government. Deporting FNOs as quickly as possible protects the public, reduces pressures on prison capacity and lessens the associated expense to the taxpayer.From 5 July 2024 to 4 July 2025 there were 2,632 Early Removal Scheme (ERS) removals from prison, which is a 10% increase compared to the 2,385 in the same period 12 months prior.And this Government is going further: on 23 September we changed the law to reduce the time that FNOs must serve in prison before removal to 30% of their prison sentence. In steady state we expect this change will free up approximately 500 additional prison spaces a year.Additionally, the Sentencing Bill currently before Parliament proposes to remove the minimum time to serve requirement altogether so that FNOs can be eligible for deportation immediately after they are sentenced.The timing of when prison place savings will be realised from deporting FNOs is dependent on the Home Office’s rate of removals which will continue to be monitored over the coming months.

With reference to page 46 of the National Security Strategy 2025, published in June 2025, CP 1338, what progress she has made on reducing the cost of finance for defence companies.

As set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy, a Defence Finance and Investment Strategy will be published by early next year, explicitly looking at how barriers to investment in defence can be removed while making the sector more attractive for private investment.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to page 12 of the National Security Strategy 2025, CP 1338, published on 24 June 2025, what recent progress he has made on building the national security agenda for (a) AI and (b) other frontier technologies.

I refer the hon. Member for Huntingdon to the answer of 15th September 2025 to Questions 72559 and 72560. (Q. National Security: Digital Technology)DSIT is supporting the implementation of the National Security Strategy by identifying, nurturing, and protecting the UK’s sovereign strengths in science, technology, and innovation, and by aligning objectives and metrics to achieve measurable results.The Government's response to the AI Opportunities Action Plan sets out a comprehensive programme of work to build national capacity and accelerate adoption. This includes our commitment to 20x public compute, establishing the sovereign AI unit backed by up to £500 million, and our investment into cutting edge research via the AI security institute. We have also committed to publishing an AI for Science strategy.DSIT has also committed to work with the Ministry of Defence to pull through innovative capabilities to mission at speed and foster a thriving and world-leading UK defence technology sector through collaboration in multiple areas e.g. on the creation of UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) and closer working on National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF) investment programmes.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the pledge to make the UK one of the world’s top three life sciences economies on phasing out animal testing in Huntingdon constituency.

The Government is committed to supporting alternatives to animals in science and will publish a strategy to support their development, validation and adoption, which will consider economic impacts including benefits.Building on the UK’s strengths as home to world leading research and pharmaceutical businesses, the strategy will support the UK to capitalise on the global non-animal technologies market, estimated to be worth $29.4 billion by 2030, and on the scientific and economic advantages of more human-relevant methods for product development and testing.No specific assessment on Huntingdon has been done.

What recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Future Cruise Anti-Ship Weapon programme on the level of military cooperation between the UK and France.

The Future Cruise Anti-Ship Weapon programme is a vital programme within the UK-French Lancaster House agreement. This programme develops a key collaboration on two next generation deep strike and anti-ship weapons that will offer increased opportunities for co-operation for both the Air and Naval Forces of France and UK, building upon the success of the joint UK Storm Shadow and France SCALP missiles currently in operational use.

What recent progress she has made in signing a new contract to (a) run, (b) maintenance and (c) support the Law Enforcement Cloud Platform.

The Law Enforcement Cloud Platform (LECP) is moving away from using an outside service provider and will start managing its own support through the in-house Shared Application Service (SAS) team.By the end of this financial year key roles will be taken over by civil servants and other Home Office Digital staff. During 2026, service management and security for LECP will be included in a unified support model, reducing reliance on external providers.

With reference to the National Infrastructure & Service Transformation Authority Annual Report 2024/25, published on 11 August 2025, for what reasons the senior responsible officer delivery confidence assessment in the Police National Database programme has changed from amber to red.

The Police National Database is a live intelligence-sharing service. It provides a national view of 6.3 billion searchable records, 19.9m images and information from 198 systems/databases. It is used by 49 UK police forces and 56 Law enforcement agencies, and around 1.3m searches are made each month.The change in confidence rating from amber to red was primarily related to delays to a platform upgrade and transition to the cloud.The Home Office is currently considering its options for future delivery of the Police National Database transformation programme and further information will be issued once a decision has been taken.

With reference to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, CP 1337, published on 23 June 2025, what progress he has made on extending smart data initiatives into relevant industrial strategy sectors.

The Industrial Strategy committed £36 million to advance Smart Data across the economy, including in growth-driving sectors. The Department for Business and Trade’s forthcoming Smart Data strategy will outline how this investment will be used to support scheme development in priority sectors. Work is progressing at pace - the Financial Conduct Authority has launched a Smart Data Accelerator for Open Finance; the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is developing proposals for an energy scheme; and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has undertaken a call for evidence on Smart Data in digital markets.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the implementation of the European Train Control System on the East Coast Mainline on the feasibility of a new station at Alconbury Weald.

1) There are no current plans to construct a new East Coast Main Line (ECML) station at Alconbury Weald. The Department recognises the importance of the ECML and is starting work with Network Rail and industry stakeholders on development of a long-term strategy of investment for the route. 2) The following progress has been made on the East Coast Digital Programme. In May 2025, the first phase of the scheme was complete with the removal of conventional lineside signals, and all services using digital signalling on the Northern City Line (NCL) between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. This is the first no signals commuter railway in the country, and first of any kind since the early Cambrian Line pilot in 2011. 100,000 services have now operated on NCL using digital signalling. The infrastructure between Welwyn and Hitchin has been upgraded for the first European Train Control System (ETCS) section on the ECML. In line with the approach taken on NCL, the Welwyn to Hitchin section will initially operate as an overlay (i.e. able to operate with both conventional and digital signalling) to facilitate driver conversion training. The work is being led by Network Rail who, subject to the necessary assurances and regulatory processes, anticipate being able to begin driver train using digital signalling through that section from summer 2026. 3) Work to implement the ETCS on the East Coast Mainline between Huntingdon and Kings Cross is scheduled to be completed in the early 2030s.

When work to implement the European Train Control System on the East Coast Mainline between Huntingdon and Kings Cross will be completed.

1) There are no current plans to construct a new East Coast Main Line (ECML) station at Alconbury Weald. The Department recognises the importance of the ECML and is starting work with Network Rail and industry stakeholders on development of a long-term strategy of investment for the route. 2) The following progress has been made on the East Coast Digital Programme. In May 2025, the first phase of the scheme was complete with the removal of conventional lineside signals, and all services using digital signalling on the Northern City Line (NCL) between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. This is the first no signals commuter railway in the country, and first of any kind since the early Cambrian Line pilot in 2011. 100,000 services have now operated on NCL using digital signalling. The infrastructure between Welwyn and Hitchin has been upgraded for the first European Train Control System (ETCS) section on the ECML. In line with the approach taken on NCL, the Welwyn to Hitchin section will initially operate as an overlay (i.e. able to operate with both conventional and digital signalling) to facilitate driver conversion training. The work is being led by Network Rail who, subject to the necessary assurances and regulatory processes, anticipate being able to begin driver train using digital signalling through that section from summer 2026. 3) Work to implement the ETCS on the East Coast Mainline between Huntingdon and Kings Cross is scheduled to be completed in the early 2030s.

With reference to page 120 of the Strategic Defence Review 2025, what the future structure of the Royal Navy’s Information Warfare Group will be.

The Royal Navy (RN) does not have a formally titled ‘Information Warfare Group’. Information Warfare (IW) is a specialisation within the Warfare profession, not a discrete unit or group. The Strategic Defence Review’s reference is therefore not to an established body, but to the Royal Navy’s IW specialisation and its ongoing transformation. The aim is to make IW more coherent, capable, and better able to deliver operational advantage and lethality to the maritime front line, without increasing workforce numbers or cost.

What progress he has made in delivering the Global Combat Ship programme.

The Ministry of Defence continues to work closely with BAE Systems (BAES) to ensure the Global Combat Ship (Type 26) programme remains on track to meet all user requirements and deliver world-class Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) frigates to replace the Type 23. Following the steel-cut ceremony for HMS Sheffield on 28 November 2024, five of the eight Type 26 frigates are now under construction on the Clyde. HMS Cardiff is structurally complete and has joined HMS Glasgow in the dry dock at Scotstoun for the outfitting phase. Unit and block assembly on HMS Belfast and HMS Birmingham continues. HMS Glasgow is forecast to achieve Initial Operating Capability in 2028, with construction of all eight frigates expected to be complete by the mid-2030s.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled IA action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made in linking offender data through (a) BOLD and (b) Data First programmes.

Using ‘Splink’ (Splink: MoJ’s open source library for probabilistic record linkage at scale - GOV.UK), the Department has made significant progress in linking offender data through both the BOLD and Data First programmes, as follows: Through BOLD: Data has been shared and linked across Government Departments and other agencies to produce 16 offender-related datasets linking cases and people across contact with the criminal courts, police, prisons, and probation services, drug treatment services, local authorities (in relation to homelessness) as well as assessments of offender risks and needs and child benefit. To date, these datasets have been used to address key critical evidence gaps in policy (leading to 8 offender-related analytical publications), and to develop new operational tools for frontline staff. Details on the BOLD programme and its outputs to date can be found at: Ministry of Justice: Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) - GOV.UK. More recently, BOLD have developed a software package, Laurium, which uses AI to extract structured insights from free-text data (like case notes), thereby extracting more value from linked datasets. Through Data First: The Ministry of Justice has linked and shared eight justice datasets, connecting cases and people across civil, family and criminal courts, prisons, and probation services, as well as assessments of offender risks and needs. These datasets are made available to accredited academic researchers via trusted research environments, facilitating powerful new research insights both within individual domains, where repeat service users can be identified for the first time, as well as on end-to-end cross justice system journeys. To date, this has resulted in over 50 academic projects. Details on Data First datasets and outputs to date can be found at: Ministry of Justice: Data First - GOV.UK.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made in establishing a (a) single and (b) secure identity for each individual within the criminal justice system.

We are continuing to explore the potential for a single, secure digital identity for each person interacting with the justice system. The Core Person Record service, which links existing data across courts, prisons and probation, is currently being piloted and represents an early step towards this ambition. Delivering a single, secure identity will form part of a wider programme of long-term transformation, supported by investment in data quality, interoperability and infrastructure across the justice system.