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Twenty More Government Reforms the Media Hasn’t Been Telling You About

You probably won’t have read much about these announcements over the past few weeks

Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves Number 10 to go to Parliament for Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday. Photo: Karl Black / Alamy

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Almost everything you hear about the Government is filtered – perhaps understandably – through the framing of the British press. However, what is already clear after six months of Keir Starmer’s administration is that they don’t treat all governments equally. 

Whether it’s the relentless focus on Elon Musk’s latest warped priorities, complaints about taxes on the wealthy, or demands to bring back the death penalty, it’s clear that many of the things the Government is actually doing on a day to day basis are being drowned out.

So we’ve once again dug through all of the projects, policies, and plans announced by various different Government departments since 13 January, in search of important developments that most people probably haven’t heard about.

My usual caveat: This list is by no means conclusive, and it is up to you whether you think the news is either good or bad. Mostly, as you’d imagine, they are things the Government sees as positive developments.

However, they do offer a flavour of some of the things that we could, but aren’t talking about thanks to the priorities of the British press.

As a side note, you may like to measure yourself against the below scale of how many of these twenty announcements you have seen reported.

0-5: Regular Punter

6-10: Switched-On Observer

11-15: Buried-News Hound

16-20: Ultra Insider 

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Twenty Announcements from Keir Starmer’s Government You Might Have Missed

1. The Government has refused to authorise the use of the toxic pesticides known as neonicotinoids

On Thursday, the Government’s Minister for Water and Flooding denied applications for emergency authorisation to use a product containing a neonicotinoid to treat seeds for the 2025 sugar beet crop in England.

Joan Edwards, director of policy and public affairs at The Wildlife Trusts, says environmental campaigners are delighted.

“There is simply no place in modern sustainable agriculture for highly toxic pesticides that kill bees and poison soils and rivers. Neonicotinoids were originally banned in the UK in 2017 but were granted repeat authorisations for use, despite explicit guidance against their approval.”

Edwards added: “The focus must now be on a complete, sustainable transition away from a reliance on the use of neonicotinoids not just in agriculture, but also in pet flea treatments. This is a key source of chemical pollution in our waterways, with 10% of UK rivers found to contain toxic neonicotinoid chemicals.”

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2. The Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has welcomed a £35 million investment to expand the Port of Lowestoft to service the offshore wind sector.

No 10 says the new private investment will play a key role in supporting the Clean Power Action Plan 2030, “creating a highly competitive offer for the region and exemplifying the type of infrastructure needed for a sustainable energy future.” 

3. Miliband announced new Government-backed training programmes to “help workers benefit from thousands of new job opportunities in the clean power sector”.

Aberdeen, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire have been identified as key growth regions for clean energy and will receive around £1 million each to identify what skills support is needed to help deliver clean power by 2030.

4. The Environment Secretary Steve Reed announced the Government’s new ‘Nature Restoration Fund’.

Ministers say it will help deliver 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure projects, which official argue will help developers meet their environmental obligations more easily — “creating a ‘win-win’ situation for nature and the economy”. It is part of the Government’s package of planning reforms. 

5. The International Development Minister Annelise Dodds announced more than £7 million in Government funding to support Scottish demining charity the HALO Trust’s “life-saving work to clear deadly explosives” in Ukraine and Afghanistan

6. The Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle announced a blueprint for the “digital centre of government” to improve public services. 

It builds on the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, which the Government says will “transform the lives of working people” as the State of Digital Government report shows that the public sector is missing out on £45 billion each year in savings and efficiencies due to a lack of “digitisation”.  

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7. On Tuesday, the Minister for Prisons Lord (James) Timpson — of Timpson shoes and key-cutting fame — chaired the first meeting of the Women’s Justice Board where he outlined the Government’s plans to reduce the number of women in custody by using early intervention and “tackling the root causes of crime”.

The board brings together key experts to “generate ideas and set the direction for reform” to reduce the number of women in or at risk of facing the justice system. Timpson was brought into Government following his work hiring ex-prisoners in his stores. 

8. The Department for Business and Trade announced that from 6 April, thousands of families with babies in neonatal care will be entitled to additional paid time off as a day one right. 

It will apply to parents of babies up to 28 days old who are admitted into neonatal care and who have a continuous stay in hospital of seven full days or longer. 

The measures will allow eligible parents to take up to 12 weeks of leave (and, if eligible, pay) on top of any other leave they may be entitled to, including maternity and paternity leave.

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9. The Minister for Homelessness Rushanara Ali announced an extra £20 million investment for over 280 councils to help protect more rough sleepers from cold weather, tripling funding for this year.

This will be used by councils to help rough sleepers off the street and into safe accommodation with warm beds. Councils face an ongoing funding crisis due to the soaring costs of temporary accommodation. 

10. The Minister for Rail Lord Hendy announced that contactless ticketing will be rolled out to 47 more railway stations across the South East on 2 February so passengers are able to use a bank card or contactless to tap-in and tap-out in any train station.

Passengers will be guaranteed the best price available for the journeys they make on the day of travelling. 

11. The Ministry of Justice has announced a new digital Victims’ Code campaign, called ‘Understand Your Rights’. The campaign focuses on increasing awareness of the Victims’ Code, as research found just one in five victims were aware of their rights.

12. Today, the Ministry of Justice has launched a consultation on increasing legal aid fees for immigration and housing cases, following its announcement in December of the intention to look at increasing legal aid fees in these areas by £20 million a year. 

Ministers say it will help ensure vulnerable people in housing cases are able to get legal representation in disputes with landlords, and support lawyers who provide advice to victims of modern slavery and trafficking, and domestic abuse.

13. Last week, the Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds announced a £50 million investment deal secured between JATCO, Nissan and the UK Government to build a new manufacturing site in Sunderland. Government officials say it will create and support hundreds of jobs in the North East. 

“This is the latest in a series of job-boosting investments to deliver growth as part of our Plan for Change including £14 billion in AI investment, £12 billion in export deals to Iraq and £4 billion from Malaysian YTL creating 30,000 jobs,” a No 10 spokesperson said. 

14. Following letters to regulators sent by the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Business Secretary in December asking them to identify “pro-growth” proposals, ministers will begin engaging with them over the coming weeks on the proposals. 

The first of these sessions was convened by the Chancellor last Thursday. 

The idea of regulators — the watchdogs — coming up with proposals to deregulate their sectors has been criticised by groups such as Unchecked UK, which stands up for pro-worker and environmental protections. 

15. The Energy Secretary announced £410 million in funding for fusion energy programmes from 2025-26. The funding will support the development of nuclear fusion programmes which “could provide clean limitless energy for families and households once scaled up, delivering on our clean energy mission” No 10 says. 

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16. The Home Office announced legislation — now in force — which bans several synthetic drugs, as part of efforts to combat the “increasing drug threat and make our streets safer”. 

The Government’s new ban on synthetic opioids includes making nitazenes a Class A drug, to help prevent drug deaths.

The Government says it also wants to better equip policing, healthcare and the Border Force to deal with this “growing issue”. 

17. Bridget Phillipson has confirmed that a Labour-version of the last Government’s Education Freedom of Speech Act will go ahead.

It follows a review of the Act announced in the summer. The Education Secretary has set out a number of changes the Government is seeking to make “in order to deliver our commitment to free speech and academic freedom, while tackling the flaws in the previous Act”. 

Labour plans to revoke provisions in the previous version of the bill, which would have allowed legal action against universities by anyone claiming their free speech had been curtailed. Student unions will also be largely exempted from the new provisions. 

Some education unions want the bill scrapped, saying it’s unnecessary and a distraction from the higher education funding crisis. 

18. The Government’s Renters’ Rights Bill has returned to Parliament and completed its crucial report stage, where new changes to protect renters were set out. That includes a rule to cap advance rent payments at one month’s rent, and put an end to demands for large sums of cash upfront. 

19. New protections for leaseholders have been signed off by the Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook.

From February, leasehold property buyers in the UK can immediately apply to buy their freehold or extend their lease, scrapping the current two-year waiting period.

The changes bring into force parts of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. It affects both flats and houses held under leasehold arrangements. Other parts of the bill increase the standard lease extension term to 990 years for houses and flats (up from 50 years in houses and 90 years in flats), according to BuyAssociation. Developers are also now banned from selling new-build houses as leasehold.

20. At a summit last week on the role of the UK’s creative industries in driving economic growth, the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy gave a speech setting out her priorities for the sector, which will include announcing the fourth round of the Cultural Development Fund — an award of £16.2 million for projects designed to “regenerate communities, attract tourists and new businesses, and help to grow the economy”. 

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Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.

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