Video of Rishi Sunak’s first year achievements fact checked

To mark the one-year anniversary of the day he became Prime Minister, a video posted on Rishi Sunak’s social media accounts on 25 October listed a number of highlights from his time in office.

Before the list of highlights begins, the video says: “One week in politics is a long time. So how about 52? We achieved a lot as a country in that time.”

However the wording of the video at later points leaves it a little unclear which are being listed as achievements, and which are ongoing policy priorities. 

Among the policies or laws listed in the video which have been “achieved” or introduced over the past year are the AUKUS submarine deal, reforms to alcohol duty and legislation including the Retained EU Law Act, the Public Order Act and the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act.

However some other things mentioned are ongoing policies which haven’t yet been implemented, while a few refer to longer-term commitments which got underway before Mr Sunak became Prime Minister. 

The video also lists the “five priorities” Mr Sunak outlined at the start of 2023, and a number of broader ongoing objectives.

While we’ve not been able to fact check the entire list, we’ve taken a closer look here at some of the highlights mentioned.

‘1 million new homes’ 

The video refers to “1 million new homes”, but this isn’t a target which has been reached yet, and it doesn’t only refer to homes built in the period Mr Sunak has been Prime Minister.

In its 2019 election manifesto, the Conservative party pledged to “build at least a million more homes … over the next Parliament”—that is, before the next general election, which will happen in January 2025 at the latest. (Housing is a devolved matter, and this target relates to new homes in England, for which the UK government has responsibility.) 

Earlier this year, the government said it would meet this manifesto commitment. The government includes property conversions, as well as new builds, within this commitment, so it’s possible the measure of “net additional dwellings” could be used to track the number of homes created during the course of this parliament, though we haven’t seen the government explicitly say it will use this specific measure.

Net additional dwellings data is reported by financial year, so it is hard to say how many of the 2019/20 figure of 242,700 new dwellings in England were created between mid-December 2019 and April 2020, after the new parliament began. There were 211,870 and 232,820 new dwellings added to England’s housing stock in 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively, a total of 444,690. 

Adding the figure for the whole of 2019/20 means that 687,390 new dwellings were created between the start of the 2019/20 financial year and April 2022, suggesting that at least 312,610 more homes would need to be created between April 2022 and the election in order for the government to meet its one million homes target. 

‘20,000 new police officers’

The video also references “20,000 new police officers”. This is not the number of new police officers recruited over Mr Sunak’s first year as Prime Minister.

It refers instead to a pledge made by the Conservative government in 2019, shortly after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, to recruit 20,000 additional police officers in England and Wales in the next three years.

In April this year the government announced that it had reached this target. Finalised figures show that there were an additional 21,133 police officers (headcount) as of 31 March 2023 compared to the government’s baseline figure for the target, of which 20,947 were recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme.

We wrote in detail back in April about the context behind the government achieving its target.

‘Delivering 12 UK freeports’

One of the highlights listed is “delivering 12 UK freeports”. There are currently 12 freeport locations in the UK, but not all are fully operational, and some were announced prior to Mr Sunak entering Downing Street.

Freeports are areas (sea or airports and their surrounding areas) within the UK that have different tax and customs rules compared to the rest of the country, designed to encourage economic activity.

The first eight of these freeports were announced in 2021 by Mr Sunak while he was Chancellor. A further two freeport locations in Scotland were announced in January 2023, with two more in Wales announced in March.

Of these freeports, three became fully operational in December 2022, with a further two becoming fully operational in January 2023, and two in March.

Five freeports—Humber, and the four announced in Wales and Scotland earlier this year—are yet to become fully operational.

New policy announcements 

A number of the highlights listed in the video refer to policies or plans recently announced by the government which have not yet come into effect, including references to “XL Bullies Banned”, “New A-Levels” and a “Smoke-free generation”.

The government has said it “will” ban American XL Bully dogs by adding them to the list of banned dogs included in the Dangerous Dogs Act by the end of the year, but this has not yet happened. This week, environment secretary Thérèse Coffey said the government is “pretty close to being able to proceed with the legislation and the guidance that would go alongside that”. 

Earlier this month, Mr Sunak announced his plan to overhaul the existing structure of A-levels, but this change is not expected to come into place for at least another decade. The government is due to begin a consultation “this autumn” and has said that pupils beginning primary school this year “are expected to be the first cohort to take the new qualification”. 

The government has said it will be “bringing forward legislation” so children 14 years old and under will never legally be able to purchase “tobacco products”, but the proposal is currently under consultation and legislation has not been introduced.

The video also lists “Making life mean life”. Plans to extend the use of whole-life orders for some crimes have also been announced this year, but legislation has not been formally introduced.

We approached Downing Street for comment, and will update this article if we get a response.

Image courtesy of Number 10.