Policy paper

Coth Ministry Programme for Government 2026

Published 28 August 2026

1. Foreword from the Chief Minister

United Hampshire has spent ten years learning what people need from this community and what it takes to provide those things reliably.

The Hampshire Roleplay Community (HRC) built much of what came before: a strong identity, public services, development, welfare and safeguarding activity, education, policing, events and a culture of public service. Many of the ideas and services on which United Hampshire is now building began there. The change to the United Hampshire Realm is not a rejection of that history. It is the result of what that history taught us.

United Hampshire did not begin with a Cabinet, Civil Service, 100-day plan or a complete system of public institutions. It grew from a small Roblox group into a community in which people formed friendships, held responsibility, developed interests and expected increasingly capable services. Its platforms and activities were digital, but the relationships, responsibilities and experiences built through them were real.

The significance of that community was not confined to the platforms on which it operated. Historical records and testimony show people forming lasting friendships, gaining confidence through responsibility, discovering interests and, in some cases, describing Hampshire as an influence on real-life ambitions and career choices. The Government will not romanticise that history or claim that every person had the same experience, but it will recognise that digital participation can have real social consequences and therefore creates real responsibilities for those who exercise authority.

For much of HRC’s history, trust depended heavily on personal leadership: people knew the founder and senior figures, could approach them directly and often relied on their judgement to make the system fair. The country model does not discard the humanity behind that trust. It seeks to make fairness, continuity, explanation and accountability less dependent on access to any one individual, so that good treatment becomes a property of the institutions themselves.

That growth was accompanied by repeated attempts to improve the model itself. HRC created specialist welfare, complaints, events, scenario and citizenship functions, experimented with representative and political structures, and repeatedly changed how work was organised. The country model is therefore not a sudden rejection of the past or a claim that other communities are wrong. It is the Coth Ministry’s conclusion, drawn from United Hampshire’s own experience, that a community carrying substantial governmental, public-service and civic functions now needs institutions which are more durable, accountable and capable of surviving changes of personnel and platform.

The environment around United Hampshire has changed as well. Roblox, Discord, social media, algorithms and AI now create opportunities, constraints and risks which were not part of the environment in which the earliest Hampshire structures were designed. A model which once served a small group cannot be assumed to remain sufficient simply because it is familiar.

Experience also exposed limits which could not be solved simply by renaming teams or asking the same small number of people to do more. Important functions could be spread between organisations, attached to responsibilities that did not naturally belong together, dependent on individual availability or technical account ownership, or too narrowly defined to provide the complete service people reasonably expected from their name. People raised those problems with us over many years, and those of us responsible for leading HRC saw them first-hand.

The lesson is that recognising a public need is not enough. Essential functions need institutions capable of delivering them consistently, with clear responsibility, proper records, common standards, professional leadership and continuity when individual people change.

Where a major national institution is necessary to deliver one of these priorities, this Programme identifies it under the mission it serves. Institutions are means of delivering better outcomes, not ends in themselves; their detailed responsibilities and organisation belong elsewhere.

The Government will not centralise a decision merely because a national service can help deliver it. Devolved governments, local authorities, departments and individual public services will continue to decide matters within their own competence. But where specialist capability is scarce, common standards matter, systems must work together, continuity is essential and fragmentation would weaken accountability, it is right to maintain one dependable national public capability rather than require every institution to reproduce a smaller version of it.

Our task is to build a United Hampshire in which Government is only one part of a much wider public life. United Hampshire should support strong communities, independent organisations, public services, businesses, cultural and recreational activity, education, voluntary action and democratic participation alongside effective government. We will reopen sustainably, strengthen public protection and wellbeing, expand opportunity, build dependable national capability and create the conditions for a larger, more connected and more active society.

The country model asks more of Government, not less. Public authority must be explainable, accountable and open to the proper forms of challenge and scrutiny. The Government cannot demand public confidence in the new model; it must earn that confidence through fair decisions, reliable services, honest explanation and visible accountability.

This Programme for Government sets the Coth Ministry’s principal political commitments for United Hampshire. It is intended to remain a stable statement of direction: detailed departmental plans, service arrangements, implementation timetables and operational guidance belong in the publications responsible for them. The public should be able to see what the Government has committed to achieve and, over time, whether those commitments have been delivered.

We will judge success by outcomes, not by how many organisations, documents or announcements Government produces. The test is whether people can use services, obtain help, understand decisions, participate in public life and hold those responsible to account.

2. Our plan for change

The Coth Ministry has set six missions for change. They describe the improvements people should experience and the capabilities United Hampshire must build to sustain them.

The missions are supported by five foundations: functioning and accountable government; responsible public finances; the rule of law; security and resilience; and strong communities and capable institutions. These foundations apply across the programme and support the conditions in which the country can develop.

The Programme sets the Government’s political priorities and the outcomes against which its record should be judged.

2.1 A principle for national capability

Some essential capabilities work best as dependable national services rather than being recreated separately by every organisation. We will use a national model where shared standards, specialist expertise, continuity, resilience or the need for services to work together make that the better way to deliver for the country.

This does not mean centralising every decision or activity. Devolved institutions, local authorities, public services, community organisations and other bodies will continue to exercise their own responsibilities. National capability will be established only where there is a clear policy case for it, and external suppliers or platforms may still be used where they add value without making an essential public function wholly dependent on them.

3. Mission 1 — Restore public life and make participation work

3.1 Our objective

People should be able to enter or return to United Hampshire, understand how it now works and take part through services and activities that are genuinely available rather than merely existing on paper.

3.2 Why this matters

Regular shifts and organised activity continued through 1 January 2026. The immediate external trigger for the general suspension that followed was Roblox’s age-verification and age-based communication changes. Those changes affected the communication arrangements used for sessions, training and cross-age activity, including alternatives outside the old fixed-shift model, and remained a material operating constraint for several months.

The transition and reform programme were already under way before that suspension, and public activity had continued alongside them. They did not themselves require ordinary shifts, events or engagement activity to stop. The structural work did, however, shape the task after the Roblox changes because United Hampshire was already moving functions and responsibilities into a more durable model.

Once the platform changes forced the interruption, the Government chose not simply to recreate the old shift model unchanged. The response and subsequent reopening work have therefore proceeded alongside wider reform, while vacancies and limited organisational capacity have affected how quickly the new arrangements can be made operational. Those factors help explain the shape and pace of reopening; they are not the historical cause of the January suspension.

That position has changed materially. The institutional, legal and operational baseline is now substantially more complete, with defined departments, public bodies and teams and substantive legislation, policy, procedures, guidance, records and tools. The next stage is mobilisation: filling ministerial, Civil Service and service roles so those institutions can operate through the people responsible for them rather than exceptional reliance on the Chief Minister.

Reopening must therefore mean more than publishing pages or switching systems on. A service is open when the responsible organisation has the people, authority, procedures, records, safeguards and systems needed to provide it consistently.

3.3 What we will do

We will restore entry and re-entry routes, induction and public learning, organised activities, cultural and recreational opportunities and access to services in a controlled sequence. The National Recreation Service will provide a dependable national programme of organised sessions, activities, events and scenarios where a common service can widen participation and improve continuity, alongside activity organised independently by communities and other organisations. Clear service status information will show what is available, what is operating in a limited form and what is not yet open.

We will broaden participation beyond employment and public office. United Hampshire should offer cultural, recreational, educational, voluntary, democratic and community opportunities for people who want to belong and contribute without taking on a formal role.

We will replace dependence on one rigid timetable with activity designed around purpose, demand, safe delivery and realistic availability. Services and activities will be expected to demonstrate that they can continue after their first reopening event.

3.4 Our milestone

Public reopening will be considered established when the principal entry, information and participation routes can be used repeatedly through their proper responsible organisations, and a regular programme of public activity can operate without exceptional personal intervention.

4. Mission 2 — Build dependable national services and infrastructure

4.1 Our objective

United Hampshire should have the infrastructure, telecommunications and shared national capabilities required for public services, communities and national life to operate reliably, with clear ownership, common standards and long-term responsibility for maintenance and continuity.

4.2 Why this matters

HRC recognised many of these needs, but experience showed the limits of delivering essential capability through small departments, separate development teams, informal arrangements or systems dependent on particular individuals and external platforms.

The former Department for Development, Design and Maintenance performed useful development functions, but the infrastructure required by a functioning country is broader than a development team. Public buildings and places, operational assets, vehicles, equipment, technical systems and digital infrastructure all have a lifecycle: requirements must be understood, assets designed and built, tested and accepted, maintained, renewed and, where necessary, recovered or replaced.

Requiring every department, public service, devolved institution or local authority to maintain its own complete specialist production capability would duplicate scarce expertise, make common standards harder to maintain and weaken strategic oversight. At the same time, national delivery must not remove policy decisions from the institutions democratically or legally responsible for them.

4.3 What we will do

We will establish the National Infrastructure Service (NIS) as United Hampshire’s permanent public infrastructure delivery capability. NIS will bring specialist capacity together so that public bodies can commission the infrastructure they need without each having to reproduce a separate development, design and maintenance organisation. It will support the full lifecycle of infrastructure and maintain the records and institutional knowledge required for continuity.

The organisation responsible for a policy or public service will continue to own the need and specify its requirements. NIS will own the specialist delivery capability. This allows devolved governments, local authorities and public services to retain their proper responsibilities while drawing on a common national capability where separate provision would be wasteful, fragile or impractical.

We will establish the National Telecommunications Service (NTS) to put essential official and operational communications on a resilient national footing. United Hampshire will continue to use effective external platforms, but Government and public services must not depend entirely on one provider, feature or individual account for the ability to communicate. NTS will provide national capability for official telecommunications, operational communications, radio and equivalent services, communications between services and continuity arrangements.

We will apply the same principle to other shared national capabilities only where there is a positive case for doing so. Government will consider whether scale, scarce expertise, interoperability, continuity, common standards, accountability and resilience justify national provision. National capability will not be used as a reason to centralise policy decisions that properly belong elsewhere.

4.4 Our milestone

The essential infrastructure and telecommunications capabilities required by Government and priority public services will have identifiable national owners, common delivery standards, maintained records and continuity arrangements, with public service requirements capable of being commissioned and delivered without dependence on informal personal arrangements.

5. Mission 3 — Protect people and provide dependable wellbeing and care

5.1 Our objective

People should be able to obtain appropriate support when they are vulnerable, distressed, at risk or in need of care, and should be protected through services with clear professional boundaries, safeguarding arrangements and routes for escalation.

5.2 Why this matters

HRC recognised welfare, safeguarding and awareness as important responsibilities. The experience of providing those functions also showed that wellbeing, safeguarding and care are too important to sit within a small or loosely defined service with overlapping responsibilities. People need to know where to go, staff need clear boundaries and supervision, and sensitive information needs proper handling.

Public protection also requires distinct institutions to do distinct jobs. Policing is not safeguarding; safeguarding is not platform administration; immigration enforcement is not employment discipline. The fact that the same incident may engage several systems does not make them one function.

5.3 What we will do

We will put wellbeing and care on a permanent national footing through the National Wellbeing Service and National Care Service. These services will provide coherent national delivery rather than requiring separate welfare teams throughout public bodies. They will operate with clear professional boundaries, training, supervision, confidentiality, safeguarding and escalation arrangements.

United Hampshire services will not present themselves as substitutes for real-world healthcare, emergency services, social care or statutory safeguarding authorities. Staff will be trained to recognise when external help is required and to signpost or escalate appropriately.

We will maintain effective national policing and public protection through the National Police Service, with trained personnel, lawful powers, clear command and supervision, professional standards, complaints, inspection and dependable operational records.

We will respect the separate devolved responsibility for policing in England and Hampshire County. Any national support will operate only within its lawful remit and will not displace ordinary territorial responsibility.

We will strengthen immigration and border administration through clear, recorded and reviewable decision making and an effective Border Force. Entry, residence, identity and United Hampshire Citizenship will remain distinct from employment, public office and participation in community life.

5.4 Our milestone

People will have clear and usable routes to wellbeing, care, safeguarding, policing, immigration and public protection services, with the responsible organisation identifiable, sensitive information handled through proper systems and cases capable of being escalated or referred without collapsing distinct functions into one another.

6. Mission 4 — Expand opportunity to learn, work and contribute

6.1 Our objective

People should be able to learn, develop skills, find worthwhile work, build and join organisations, volunteer, create and participate in cultural and recreational activity, and contribute to local and national life. Government employment and public office are only part of that picture.

6.2 Why this matters

A successful country needs more than functioning public institutions. It needs people who can build careers, start and join organisations, develop skills, learn and teach, create cultural, recreational and media activity, volunteer, support their communities and take responsibility in many parts of national and local life. HRC concentrated much of its organised participation around the senior team, community services and public services. United Hampshire will develop a broader social and economic life in which public services, businesses, independent organisations, community and voluntary organisations, education, culture, recreation, media, civil society and local activity can all develop in their own right.

6.3 What we will do

We will provide induction and public education so that new and returning people can understand United Hampshire, their rights and responsibilities, and the opportunities available to them without requiring prior knowledge of its institutions.

We will strengthen education, skills and employment support so that people can move from initial interest into work, enterprise, public service, volunteering, community activity, culture, recreation or further learning according to their interests and abilities. Skills Havenstead will support skills needs, pathways and professional development within its remit. The National Employment Service will provide a clear Havenstead route for employment, employability, work access, role matching and referral to genuine opportunities, while employers and organisations remain responsible for their own recruitment and appointments.

We will support the growth of organisations across society. Businesses, community groups, voluntary and charitable organisations, cultural and recreational bodies, media, educational organisations and other parts of civil society should be able to form, develop and contribute to public life without being treated as extensions of Government.

We will make opportunity easier to discover. People should be able to see what work, education and skills, enterprise, volunteering, public service, cultural, recreational and local opportunities exist, understand what they involve and find a route that suits their interests, strengths and circumstances.

6.4 Our milestone

People will be able to move from learning and information into a growing range of worthwhile opportunities across employment, enterprise, education, public service, community organisations, volunteering, culture, recreation, media, local activity and wider civil society, with participation no longer concentrated around a small number of Government or public service roles.

7. Mission 5 — Make government accountable, lawful and financially responsible

7.1 Our objective

Government should be capable of taking decisions, controlling public resources, maintaining records and being held to account without depending on informal messages, personal memory or exceptional intervention.

7.2 Why this matters

The constitutional reforms of the Realm only matter if they work in practice. People should be able to identify who made an important public decision, the authority relied upon, the reasons for it and the route by which it can be challenged. Ministers need functioning departments. Civil servants need clear delegations and records. Public resources need consistent control. Courts and tribunals need to be capable of receiving and deciding cases independently.

7.3 What we will do

We will complete the ministerial and senior Civil Service capacity required for collective Cabinet government and reliable departmental administration. Decisions, delegations, appointments and official records will be maintained through proper Government systems so that responsibility can be handed over between office-holders.

The present mobilisation follows substantial completion of the institutional and operating baseline. Ministers and civil servants are being recruited into defined departments, public bodies and teams with settled functions and substantive law, policy, procedures, guidance, records and tools already available. Their role is to take ownership, exercise the responsibilities of office and carry forward implementation, improvement and ordinary administration. Recruitment is not being used to decide what the organisations are or how they should work.

We will make the rule of law usable. Departments and public bodies will improve decision notices, case records, complaints, reconsideration and referral routes. Courts and tribunals will remain independent and will have the administrative capability required for applications, case management, notice, representation and determination.

The 2025 Code of Conduct is no longer in force and will not be used as a substitute for current law, policy or procedure. Where a rule, safeguard or power is required, it must rest in the competent current source.

We will put public finances under consistent control across Government. The Lord Lieutenant’s Treasury will provide the permanent centre for public finance, spending control, resource allocation, accounting, commercial standards, counter-fraud and value for money. Departments will remain responsible for delivering their programmes, but public money and assets will be governed through common standards and visible authority.

Spending decisions will increasingly be aligned to this Programme. New programmes and major commitments should be able to identify the Programme priority they advance, the responsible owner, the resources required and the outcome against which delivery will be assessed.

Devolved public finances remain the responsibility of the relevant devolved institutions within their competence.

7.4 Our milestone

Government will be able to conduct ordinary Cabinet and departmental business with traceable decisions and delegations, public resources subject to consistent financial control, and significant public decisions capable of reaching the appropriate complaint, review, tribunal or court route without reliance on obsolete HRC structures.

8. Mission 6 — Renew democratic government and public life

8.1 Our objective

United Hampshire should move from exceptional transition arrangements to ordinary democratic government while developing a varied public life and strong civil society in which people can participate without needing to work for Government.

8.2 Why this matters

The long-term legitimacy of the Realm depends on institutions which can survive changes of office-holder and political leadership. Parliament must function as a legislature rather than an extension of Government. Elections must provide a credible route for authority to change hands. At the same time, public life must be broader than government administration: culture, recreation, education, voluntary activity, local participation and external relationships all contribute to a durable national community.

8.3 What we will do

We will support Parliament in developing the procedures, administration, records, scrutiny and publication arrangements needed to legislate and hold Ministers to account through its own constitutional authority.

We will prepare the electoral administration, public information, records and accessibility arrangements required for the first ordinary general election. Transition will not be extended merely because exceptional arrangements are familiar; democratic handover must become the normal route by which political authority is renewed.

We will support a broader public life through culture, recreation, heritage, events, libraries, education, volunteering, community organisations and public service media. The Havenstead Broadcasting Service will provide a national public service broadcasting institution able to inform, reflect and connect the community, support a shared national culture and widen access to trustworthy information. Public life will not be reduced to Government activity or one form of organised session.

We will strengthen local participation in Havenstead and respect Hampshire County Government’s devolved responsibility in England. Hampshire County Government will exercise the functions allocated to it through its own ministers, departments and administration, accountable through the Hampshire Chamber. The England Office will manage the central Government relationship with England and Hampshire without transferring devolved responsibilities to central Government.

We will maintain purposeful external relationships where they produce genuine cultural, community, institutional or public service benefit and ensure that those relationships have appropriate authority and records so that they survive changes of office-holder.

8.4 Our milestone

Parliament, electoral administration, devolved and local institutions and the wider programme of public and community life will be capable of operating through their ordinary responsibilities, with a future Government able to take office through the constitutional process and public life no longer dependent on transition arrangements for its continuity.

9. The foundations of change

9.1 Functioning and accountable government

The machinery of government is a means of delivery, not the Programme itself. Ministers will provide political leadership and remain accountable for their departments. The Civil Service will provide permanent, impartial administration. Departments will organise their work around the outcomes in this Programme and maintain the records, delegations and governance needed for reliable delivery and handover.

9.2 Responsible public finances

Every mission depends on disciplined use of resources. The Government will require major programmes and commitments to have clear authority, ownership, resource implications and a connection to the outcomes in this Programme. The Lord Lieutenant’s Treasury will maintain financial control across Government and value for money standards.

9.3 Rule of law and fair administration

Public powers must rest on law and be exercised through proper procedures. Important decisions should be recorded, reasons should be intelligible and the correct complaint, review, appeal or judicial route should be available. Independent institutions will remain independent of ministerial direction where their functions require it.

9.4 Security and resilience

Essential services must be able to continue when a particular person, account, platform or technical feature is unavailable. Government will strengthen ownership of critical records, systems, permissions and institutional knowledge and will maintain national capability where fragmentation would create unacceptable dependence or weak accountability.

9.5 Strong communities and capable institutions

A larger and more active United Hampshire depends on capable institutions across society. Government, public services, businesses, community organisations, voluntary bodies and other institutions should be able to develop people, preserve knowledge, plan for continuity and create worthwhile opportunities. Important organisations should not depend indefinitely on one individual holding all of the knowledge, access or responsibility needed to keep them operating.

10. How we will deliver the Programme

This Programme is the strategic baseline for the Coth Ministry. It sets the political outcomes the Government intends to achieve. Detailed responsibilities, structures, service arrangements and implementation material belong in the proper publications for those subjects.

Government policy, spending and major delivery programmes will be directed towards the relevant missions and foundations, while independent, devolved and local institutions will continue to exercise their own responsibilities.

Resource decisions will support the Programme alongside legal obligations, operational necessity and value for money.

Institutional reform will be pursued only where it is necessary to deliver a mission effectively. Where this Programme establishes or reforms a major national service, it explains the policy reason for doing so; detailed machinery belongs in the relevant organisational documents.

Public reporting will focus on whether the outcomes in this Programme are being achieved.

11. Delivery and accountability

The Government will be accountable for the commitments in this Programme through the Ministers and institutions responsible for them. Delivery will also depend on cooperation with devolved and local institutions, public services, businesses, independent organisations, communities and civil society where the mission requires it.

The Government will develop proportionate measures for each mission as reliable baselines become available. It will not invent numerical targets where there is no credible baseline merely to create the appearance of precision. Measures should show whether services are usable, capability is sustainable, public routes work and institutions can perform without exceptional intervention.

Ministers will be expected to explain progress, setbacks and any material change in priority. Public reporting should focus on whether people can see and use the improvements promised by the missions, rather than on the volume of internal activity undertaken to produce them.

The Coth Ministry began in exceptional circumstances. Its purpose is not to preserve exceptional government. Its purpose is to leave United Hampshire with stronger communities, wider economic and social opportunity, dependable public services, permanent national capability where it is needed and institutions capable of ordinary democratic government.

12. Related information

How United Hampshire works

Building a United Hampshire that works

List of Ministerial Responsibilities — Coth Ministry 2026