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Parents are being urged to ensure their children receive vaccinations at the recommended time after new figures showed that uptake in England remains below the World Health Organization target. The UK Health Security Agency said vaccination levels among children reaching primary school age appear to be stabilising following a decade of gradual decline.

Among five-year-olds, 83.8 per cent had received two doses of the MMR vaccine in 2025/26, compared with 83.7 per cent during the previous year. Coverage for the six-in-one vaccine stood at 92.9 per cent, while uptake of the four-in-one preschool booster increased from 81.3 per cent to 81.9 per cent. None of the vaccinations measured currently meets the WHO target of 95 per cent.

UKHSA warned that uptake among children measured at one and two years old had fallen again for every vaccine. Vaccinations are available free through the NHS, with catch-up appointments offered by GP practices and school programmes. Dr Mary Ramsay, UKHSA’s Director of Immunisation, said parents whose children had missed vaccinations should contact their GP practice, adding that it was not too late to catch up with most childhood vaccines

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The Government plans to give the Bank of England a new responsibility to support innovation in payment systems and emerging forms of digital money. The secondary objective will require the Bank to encourage technological development while retaining financial stability as its primary consideration.

The reforms will extend the Bank’s existing innovation responsibilities to systemic payment systems, including those using digital settlement assets such as stablecoins. The Government said developments including tokenisation and distributed ledger technology could transform financial markets, but stressed that the Bank would not be required to support innovations which threatened financial stability.

The Bank will report annually to Parliament on its progress against the new objective. Ministers expect to introduce the change through amendments to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which is due to be debated in the House of Lords on 7 and 9 September. City Minister Lucy Rigby said the measure would help the UK remain a global leader in financial services.

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Members of the House of Lords are preparing to debate legislation which would impose a legal duty of candour on public servants and public authorities. The Public Office (Accountability) Bill, widely known as the Hillsborough Law, will receive its second reading on Tuesday 1 September.

The proposed law is intended to prevent public bodies and officials from concealing information or failing to cooperate honestly following disasters and state related deaths. It would also provide legal aid for victims and their families, addressing concerns about the disparity between publicly funded representation for state organisations and the resources available to bereaved relatives.

Justice minister Lord Lemos will introduce the debate and respond for the Government. Other scheduled speakers include former Prime Minister Baroness May, former Home Secretaries Lord Blunkett and Lord Howard and Lord Arbuthnot, who campaigned on behalf of subpostmasters affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal. The second reading will allow members to debate the bill’s principles before detailed amendments are considered at later stages.

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Frasers Group founder Mike Ashley has described the Government’s plans to reform business rates as “delusional”, arguing that the proposals could place further pressure on larger retailers. In a letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Ashley accused the Government of relying upon media announcements instead of addressing the costs affecting businesses and employment.

The Prime Minister has announced that pubs, clubs and live music venues in England will receive a 20 per cent reduction in business rates from April. The Government intends to fund the measure partly by reviewing reliefs for businesses it believes do not contribute positively to local communities and by increasing enforcement against online marketplaces that fail to meet their tax obligations.

Burnham has also suggested raising business rates on large warehouses used by online retailers while reducing the burden on high street businesses. Ashley said increasing taxes on larger retailers to support pubs and clubs was the wrong approach. Downing Street defended the plans, saying the Government wanted to build an economy which supported British businesses and made essential costs more affordable.

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Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will abstain when MPs vote on assisted dying legislation, explaining that he does not want his position to influence the parliamentary debate. The bill is expected to return to the House of Commons on 11 September, with MPs being given a free vote rather than being instructed by their political parties.

Burnham said the Government would remain neutral and implement whichever decision Parliament reached. He has also told ministers that they should avoid using their positions or media appearances to influence the outcome. The Prime Minister has previously argued that shortcomings in palliative care and social care must be addressed as part of the debate over assisted dying.

The legislation was initially introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and approved by the Commons during the previous Parliament, but it did not complete all of its parliamentary stages before running out of time. A revised bill has subsequently been introduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards. MPs will again be permitted to vote according to their own judgement rather than along party lines.

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Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he believes Ireland will eventually be united, although he warned that any change would require a lengthy process based upon agreement. Brown made the comments while discussing the future of the United Kingdom and the constitutional differences between Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Brown, who remains a firm opponent of Scottish independence, argued that Scotland was geographically, economically, socially and culturally connected to the rest of the UK. Asked whether Northern Ireland’s geographical relationship with the Republic made unification more likely, he said that Ireland would be united in the long term but stressed that people would have to come together and agree upon the process.

The former Labour leader was Chancellor when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998 and Prime Minister when policing and justice powers were devolved to Northern Ireland in 2010. Elsewhere in the interview, Brown supported a gradual transition away from North Sea oil and gas, arguing that existing infrastructure and skills should be retained to support wind power, hydrogen and carbon capture.

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The Government has rejected a Green Party proposal to pause the construction of most large artificial intelligence data centres, warning that the move would damage investment, employment and national security. Green Party leader Zack Polanski called for a moratorium on major developments, arguing that data centres consume substantial quantities of energy and water while placing pressure on communities and the environment.

Polanski criticised the decision to classify data centres as critical national infrastructure, saying the Government was putting the interests of technology companies ahead of water security and its climate commitments. Electricity consumption by data centres is currently estimated at around 2.5 per cent of the UK’s supply, with forecasts suggesting that demand could increase fourfold by 2030.

The Government said stopping construction would send investment and jobs overseas while leaving Britain dependent on other countries to process sensitive health and defence information. A spokesperson added that critical infrastructure status does not give data centres priority access to water or electricity and said developers would be expected to use water responsibly, prioritise clean energy and invest in local communities.

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An estimated 981,000 people aged between 16 and 24 were not in education, employment or training in the UK between April and June 2026. The Office for National Statistics said the total had increased by 30,000 compared with the same period in 2025, although it was 30,000 lower than during the first three months of 2026.

Young people classified as not in education, employment or training represented 13% of the relevant age group, up by 0.2 percentage points over the year. Of the total, approximately 393,000 were unemployed and actively seeking work, while 588,000 were economically inactive. The ONS advised caution when interpreting short term changes because the estimates come from the Labour Force Survey and can be affected by sampling variability.

The British Chambers of Commerce described the figures as a reminder of the scale of the challenge facing the UK. It welcomed the Government’s Jobs Guarantee but argued that higher employer National Insurance contributions, increases in the National Living Wage and the Employment Rights Act had made recruiting young people more difficult. The organisation called for the forthcoming report led by Alan Milburn to recognise both the contribution businesses could make and the financial pressures facing employers.