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Public affairs and policy engagement

Octopus is investing in the people, ideas and industries that will change the world. We strongly believe there is no trade-off between ‘doing good’ and ‘making money’. Indeed, we believe that companies that understand what it means to make the world a better place, will deliver better financial returns for their investors over the coming decades.  

We passionately believe in making the UK the best place in the world to set up, scale up and list a company. Our policy engagement work is supporting UK businesses to unlock investment into solutions tackling humanity’s greatest challenges. We are revitalising our healthcare system, empowering people and communities, and building a sustainable planet to accelerate the journey to net-zero.

Learn how Octopus works with governments

Watch this short video to hear Justine Duggan and Jessica Franks discuss why governments like offering support for investors who are willing to take additional risk with their money, and what the outlook is for the sector.

Get in touch

Justine Duggan, Head of Public Affairs 

Contact: [email protected] 

Justine started her career straight out of school working at the Mirror Group Newspapers and has worked at various national newspaper titles before embarking on a career in public affairs. She made the jump to public affairs working for the Rt Hon Brandon Lewis MP. After 7 years in Parliament, she went to work at iNHouse Communications working with clients such as Sky, Diageo and NHBC before taking on the role at Octopus Group.

She has been a councillor, is currently a school governor and sits on the advisory council of Thames 21.

Consultations

Over the last year we have fed into the following consultations and inquiries: 

Jan 2021HMT Budget representation
March 2021Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy – call for evidence: Enabling a high renewable, net zero electricity system 
May 2021Treasury Select Committee Inquiry into jobs, growth and productivity after coronavirus
June 2021Department of Health and Social Care’s call for evidence on the Women’s Health Strategy
Oct 2021Autumn Budget and Spending Review
Jan 2022Department of Work and Pensions consultation: enabling investment in productive finance
Jan 2022Department for International Trade’s GCC consultation
Nov 2022Department for Work and Pensions consultation: Broadening the investment opportunities of defined contribution pensions schemes
Jan 2022Spring Statement
Feb 2022Work and Pensions Committee consultation: Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life
June 2022Treasury Select Committee consultation into Venture Capital Market
Aug 2022Labour’s Start up Scale up Review
Jan 2023Spring Statement