Cabinet began with the usual update on parliamentary business,
with key bills including Planning and Infrastructure, Crime and
Policing, Renters' Rights, and Employments Rights due to return
after Easter recess.
The Prime Minister updated Cabinet on the response to President
Trump's implementation of further tariffs last week and reflected
on his and the Chancellor's visit to Jaguar Land Rover yesterday
where he saw first-hand the impact that tariffs were having, and
underlined the government's resolve to protect our key industries
and support the wider economy. He reiterated that businesses have
been clear they want a calm and pragmatic response from the
government, continued dialogue with the US on an economic deal,
while making preparations for all of the options available in
response.
The Prime Minister said this new era for the global economy was
not a passing phase, and was why we must act to accelerate our
industrial policy to strengthen the UK as a place to invest, and
that the announcements yesterday to support electric vehicle
production and reduce the time it takes to deliver clinical
trials were examples of an active state delivering a more secure
economy. He also said that as an open, trading nation we must
engage with partners around the world to reduce trade barriers,
and updated on conversations he and the Chancellor had had over
recent days including with European countries, Canada, Australia,
Singapore and others, where there was consensus that we were in a
changing world and appetite to further discuss lowering trade
barriers.
The Business and Trade Secretary added that the business
community supported the government's calm response, updated on
his conversations with the trade remedies authority on monitoring
risks from changing trade flows, said it was right the government
was pursuing trade and investment deals, as the Chancellor would
continue progressing this week with India, and reiterated that
the UK would continue to be an open, stable investment
destination as we navigate through a changing world.
The Chancellor said the government would always respond in the
national interest to support British businesses and working
people, taking active decisions to build a more secure and
resilient economy. She said the UK would continue to pursue an
economic deal with the US, better trading relations with other
countries including India, the Gulf, and the EU, back key sectors
through the upcoming industrial strategy, and go further and
faster on delivering on our growth agenda including planning,
regulatory reform, AI, capital markets reform, and delivering
value for money in our public services.
The Prime Minister then turned to the transformation of the
public sector through better use of technology and AI. He
emphasised digital reform would be critical in transforming the
state, with every department required to step up to the
challenge. He said he had already seen examples in social care,
probation, planning, and the legal system where digitisation and
AI could transform productivity and free people up to deliver
better public services.
The Technology Secretary said that the government had identified
£45 billion of opportunities through the State of Digital Report,
with half of all transactions in government being analogue –
phone calls and paper based. He said DSIT was building a team of
1000 data engineers to go into departments to deliver this work,
including in HMRC and DWP where teams have already identified £1
billion of fraud from combining data sets. He reiterated the
government's target to see one in ten civil servants in jobs
relating to digital and data by 2030.
