Category: News Story

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Agricultural technology businesses, researchers and farmers will be able to bid for a share of £20 million to develop robots and automated systems for crop production. The funding is intended to support technology capable of planting seeds, tending crops and harvesting produce, including tasks currently dependent on seasonal labour.

The competition forms part of the Farming Innovation Programme and will finance collaborative projects intended to move equipment towards commercial use. The Government cited work by Fieldwork Robotics on an automated raspberry picker as an example of technology being developed with public support to improve reliability and allow wider deployment.

The £20 million allocation is included within a wider £53 million increase in agricultural innovation funding and takes the amount available during the year to £123 million. Ministers said applications would be assessed on their potential to improve productivity, resilience and farm profitability while addressing labour shortages at busy periods of the agricultural calendar.

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The Council of the European Union has approved the restoration of temporary rules allowing online service providers voluntarily to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material. The earlier exemption from electronic communications privacy rules expired on 3 April, creating a gap while negotiations continued on a permanent legal framework.

The interim regulation permits providers to resume voluntary activity intended to identify offenders, support investigations and prevent the further distribution of abusive material. Amendments adopted by the European Parliament exclude number independent interpersonal communications that use, have used or will use end to end encryption from the scope of the temporary measure.

The restored arrangements will apply until 3 April 2028 and are expected to enter into force three days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Council and Parliament are continuing negotiations on longer term legislation, which is intended to establish a permanent framework for preventing and combating child sexual abuse online.

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Four men have been arrested during an Environment Agency investigation into large scale illegal waste dumping at Bolton House Road in Wigan. Police officers supporting the operation arrested men aged 41 and 35 from Wigan, a 24 year old from Leeds and a 59 year old from Liverpool on suspicion of environmental, fraud and money laundering offences.

The Bolton House Road site has generated complaints from nearby residents about smells and other disruption. A fire lasting a week led to nearby schools closing during the previous summer. The Environment Agency said the investigation was being led by its National Environmental Crime Unit and was intended to establish responsibility for the material deposited at the site.

The 24 year old was also arrested in connection with alleged waste dumping at Cave’s Inn Pits Site of Special Scientific Interest near Shawell in Leicestershire. The arrests form part of continuing inquiries and no charges have yet been announced. Agencies involved said evidence obtained during the operation would now be examined before decisions on further action were taken.

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Gatwick Airport can proceed with bringing its Northern Runway into regular use after the Court of Appeal dismissed a legal challenge to the expansion. The Government said the court had also refused permission for the campaign group involved to appeal, allowing work to continue towards the first flights from the extended runway in 2030.

The Department for Transport said the scheme could accommodate up to 100,000 additional flights and around 13 million more passengers each year. Gatwick estimates that the project will create 14,000 jobs and provide approximately £1 billion in additional annual economic benefits through the airport and its wider supply chain.

The expansion remains subject to conditions covering carbon emissions, air quality and noise. Ministers linked the decision to wider aviation investment, including £219 million intended to increase sustainable aviation fuel production and £43 million for hydrogen powered and electric flight projects. The airport currently serves more than 200 destinations.

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Manchester City Council has reported that 4,766 homes were completed in the city during the latest year, compared with 4,261 across the 32 London boroughs combined. A report to the council’s Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee said the total represented another record year under Manchester’s housing strategy and included 901 affordable homes.

Of the affordable homes completed, 439 were for social rent and 259 were built in the city centre. The council said 13,555 homes had been delivered since 2022, more than 7,800 were under construction and a further 20,000 had planning permission or were at another stage in the development pipeline.

Manchester’s strategy aims to deliver at least 36,000 homes by 2032, including 10,000 social, council and other genuinely affordable properties. The authority also reported that around 600 empty homes had been returned to use since 2024 and that the number of households on the housing register had fallen by about 2,000 during the previous six months.

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The Council of the European Union has adopted a further package of sanctions against Russia, targeting energy, banking, crypto services, shipping and military production. The measures include 218 new individual listings, comprising 48 people and 170 organisations, which the Council described as the largest batch of listings introduced by the EU in four years.

Asset freezes and restrictions have been imposed on 94 banks and major financial institutions, while transaction bans have been extended to another 33 Russian credit and financial institutions. The package also targets a bank in Kyrgyzstan, three other non Russian banks and 14 crypto service platforms based in several countries outside the European Union over alleged involvement in sanctions circumvention.

More than 40 vessels associated with Russia’s shadow fleet and several oil refineries in Russia and Belarus are included in the measures. The Council also listed more than 50 military industrial organisations, including bodies linked to the production of long range drones. The sanctions were adopted in response to Russia’s continuing war against Ukraine and will be implemented through the relevant EU regulations and decisions.

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Catalyst Care Limited and its two directors have been fined after admitting offences connected with the operation of three unregistered children’s homes in Kent. Ofsted said the case was its first successful criminal prosecution of an illegal children’s home provider, following an investigation into accommodation provided to nine children between October 2022 and April 2025.

The company, Davidson Lynch Shyllon and Miriam Ekathor pleaded guilty at Croydon Magistrates’ Court in March. They were sentenced on 4 August and received fines totalling £92,400, alongside victim surcharges of £2,960 and costs of £17,250. The two directors were also disqualified from carrying on, managing or holding a financial interest in a children’s home.

Ofsted said repeated warnings had been issued while the homes continued to operate and received more than £1.7 million from local authorities. Children’s homes in England must be registered so that staffing, safeguarding and living conditions can be inspected. Ofsted has also received new powers to impose financial penalties and is expanding the team responsible for investigating unregistered provision.

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Businesses bidding for major Government contracts will face new assessments of the jobs, training and community benefits they intend to provide. The Cabinet Office said the changes would apply across a central Government procurement market worth about £90 billion a year, with bidders judged on commitments including apprenticeships, work placements, skills development and support for people facing barriers to employment.

For contracts worth £5 million or more, the weighting attached to local and social benefits will increase from 10 per cent to 20 per cent. The Government said the revised system would place greater emphasis on employment opportunities for young people, care leavers, people with long term health conditions and those who are not in education, employment or training.

The threshold at which the requirements normally apply will rise to contracts worth more than £1 million, which ministers said would reduce burdens on smaller companies, social enterprises and voluntary organisations. Successful suppliers will also be expected to report annually against agreed performance measures, with the new arrangements due to take effect from 1 January 2027.

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Mel Barlow has been appointed as the new British High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam and will take up the post in September 2026. The appointment was announced by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on 3 August.

Barlow is currently His Majesty’s Ambassador in Vientiane, a position she has held since 2023. She previously served as Deputy Ambassador and Consul General in Kathmandu and as Deputy Head of the FCDO’s Consular Strategy and Network Department.

Her earlier diplomatic career has included roles covering trade policy, economic diplomacy and relations with countries across Asia. She joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2002 and has served in Tokyo and Seoul, as well as holding several positions within the department in London.

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A man who sexually assaulted a woman near and inside Euston station has been sentenced to two years in prison. Obinwa Obichukwu, 45, was convicted in January of two counts of sexual assault following an investigation by British Transport Police.

The court heard that Obichukwu approached the woman on Euston Road in August 2023, placed his arm around her and repeatedly attempted to persuade her to go to his home. He then prevented her from entering the station and assaulted her before following her towards the Underground ticket barriers and assaulting her again.

The victim escaped and reported the incident, allowing officers to identify Obichukwu through her account and CCTV evidence. Inner London Crown Court also imposed a ten-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and required him to remain on the sex offenders register for the same period.