Delivering in Government: your weekly round up of good news Labour stories

It was a busy week for the Labour government.

While the prime minister was working the phones with international counterparts over the developing situation in Iran, individual departments were getting on with fixing the country’s underlying problems.

Here are the seven most exciting breakthroughs and announcements this week that you can use, whether you’re on the doorstep, sparring on social media, or debating in the pub.

1. Thousands more dentists a year

Labour is unlocking thousands of overseas-trained dentists who are fully qualified but currently unable to practise in the UK because of limited exam capacity.

Places on the Licence in Dental Surgery exam are being expanded nearly tenfold. The General Dental Council is also massively expanding its Overseas Registration Exam. Together, that means up to 2,400 extra dentists could join the register annually from 2028, many of them already living in Britain and waiting to help.

Dental school places are also expanding for the first time in nearly two decades, with 50 extra training spots a year from 2027, targeted at so-called dental deserts where patients struggle most to get appointments.

2. Scrapping hereditary peers

The Hereditary Peers Bill passed through the House of Lords, completing a reform Labour first attempted a quarter of a century ago.

Up to 92 peers who held their seats by virtue of birth will leave at the end of the current parliamentary session, expected in May.

This is the biggest reform to Parliament in a generation, and the first step in a wider overhaul that will also introduce minimum participation requirements and retirement ages for peers.

3. Lower water bills for 300,000 households

Labour is overhauling WaterSure, the scheme that caps water bills for low-income households who use large amounts of water.

Changes include:

• Including people on disability benefits, bringing in 53,000 additional households.
• Adjusting the way bills caps are calculated, so most existing recipients will save up to £100 more a year on top of the £325 average they already save.
• Capping bills at the one-person average for single-person households.
• Scrapping the requirement for applicants to pay for a doctor’s note to prove eligibility.

4. A vocational alternative to A levels

Labour is creating a new qualification called V Levels, sitting alongside A levels and T levels, to give young people a clearer vocational route after GCSEs.

The first V Levels – in digital, education and early years, and finance and accounting – will launch in 2027. Each one is equivalent to an A level and is designed around real jobs and the skills employers actually need. Students will be able to mix V Levels with A levels, tailoring their studies rather than being forced into one track.

5 Family courts will put children’s safety first

Labour is repealing the presumption of parental involvement from the Children Act 1989, ending a rule that required family courts to assume that contact with both parents is in a child’s best interest.

In practice, that presumption has been used to keep abusive parents in children’s lives even when it puts children at risk. Campaigners have linked it to child deaths. Removing it means courts will instead consider each case on its own terms, with the child’s safety as the starting point.

6. Free legal advice for rape victims

Labour is launching a new national Independent Legal Advisor service to give rape victims specialist legal support throughout the entire criminal justice process, backed by £6 million over two years.

Advisors will help victims understand their rights and challenge unnecessary requests from police or courts for counselling records, medical history, or mobile phone data – information that can feel deeply invasive and deter people from pursuing justice. The service will launch later this year.

7. Tackling the fraud epidemic

Labour has launched a new unit to disrupt overseas criminal fraud operations that target Brits.

The new strategy includes powers to take down scam operations abroad, working with international partners to hit the criminal networks at source.

It comes as part of a £250 million investment to tackle fraud, which is the UK’s most common crime, affecting millions of people every year.

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