The government has announced new financial penalties for water companies who commit environmental offences.
Under changes being considered by the government, water companies could face quicker penalties of up to £500,000. 
The Environment Agency says it currently struggles to impose financial penalties for frequent, minor and moderate offending, like licence or permit breaches, because it needs the same high legal standard of proof used in criminal courts. This means penalties are too expensive and time consuming to pursue for less serious offences.

The technology secretary had announced a new blueprint for AI regulation in a bid to improve public services.
The government plans to slash bureaucracy and ramp up the safe adoption of AI to unlock its full potential.

The government has announced a tech boost of £20 million each for Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Glasgow City Region. The increase brings the total for each region to £50 million.
The science and technology secretary made the announcement ahead of Tuesday's Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham.
Local leaders will be able to access the £50 million to fund innovations in science and technology in their local areas. This could be new medicines, AI that can spot illnesses sooner or cheaper fuels.

Welsh government funding for fuel vouchers is helping to keep families warm across the country.
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice Jane Hutt met with the Fuel Bank Foundation to see how Welsh Government funding is helping households.
Since 2022, the Welsh Government has invested over £6.9 million in the Foundation, with another £600,000 committed for 2025 to 2026.

In the last six months, more than 131,000 potholes across 266 miles of road in Wales have been fixed or prevented.
The local government borrowing initiative has enabled local councils to fix or prevent around 107,000 potholes across 216 miles of local roads in Wales.
Meanwhile, around 24,000 potholes have been fixed or prevented on more than 50 miles of road on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) thanks to Welsh Government funding.
To date 480 local resurfacing schemes and 20 trunk road resurfacing schemes have been completed across the country since April.

The government has announced an £80 million package for support to help get people back into work.
The money will go towards nine inactivity trailblazers, targeted at areas of the country with the highest levels of economic inactivity, enabling local leaders to give those furthest from employment the tools to get into work.
Inactivity trailblazers empower local areas to design tailored solutions that tackle the root causes of economic inactivity, not just treating the symptoms. This could include poor mental health, low skills, and barriers like social isolation.

The government’s AI tool Consult is helping to speed up analysis of responses to a government-commissioned review of the water sector. 
Consult was able to sort over 50,000 responses into key themes in around 2 hours and cost around £240.
Policy experts were then able to use their time to focus on using themes and categorised responses to inform recommendations for their independent report, rather than sorting tens of thousands of individual responses.

The government has announced plans to work with the judiciary to cut the amount of time it takes for a judicial review to move through the court system for nationally critical infrastructure projects by around half a year.
Currently, judicial reviews can take over a year to resolve. Of the 34 infrastructure projects that faced judicial reviews since 2008, four were upheld.

The government has approved Tillbridge Solar Farm in Lincolnshire.
According to the developer, the project could support 1,250 jobs and power hundreds of thousands of British homes.
This is the 17th nationally significant clean energy project approved by the government since July 2024.
Energy Minister Michael Shanks said: "Families across Lincolnshire and the rest of the country have seen their energy bills go through the roof as a result of our exposure to volatile gas prices.

MI5’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) has published new guidance on countering espionage and interference, to help protect the UK’s democratic institutions from foreign interference and espionage threats.
The new guidance sets out state backed actors and their proxies attempt to manipulate, discredit or secretly gather information on political figures at all levels. This can be done through subtle and deceptive means.