![PRESS RELEASE : Ministerial Appointments [31 August 2023]](https://www.ukpol.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/downingstreet-150x122.png)
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 31 August 2023.
The King has been pleased to approve the following appointments.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 29 August 2023.
The Prime Minister welcomed his Highness the Crown Prince of Kuwait, Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, to Downing Street today.
He welcomed the historic and strong friendship between the UK and Kuwait, which has endured for 125 years. As we mark the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Kuwait Investment Office in London, the leaders witnessed the signing of a new UK-Kuwait Investment Partnership which will drive significant new investment into UK industries and support Kuwait’s changing economy.
The Prime Minister noted opportunities to diversify Kuwaiti investments in the UK, driving growth in both countries in new sectors, from life sciences to technology.
The leaders also discussed work to deepen our longstanding cooperation on defence, including in cyber security. The Prime Minister welcomed Kuwait’s constructive role in upholding regional security and the Crown Prince’s support for diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 26 August 2023.
Society’s most depraved killers will face life behind bars with no chance of being released, under tough plans announced by the Prime Minister.
Making sure that life means life, judges will be required to hand down mandatory whole life orders to the monsters who commit the most horrific types of murder.
In the latest move to protect the public from the most dangerous offenders, this will place a legal expectation on judges to hand down whole life orders, except in extremely limited circumstances.
By putting this on a legal footing, judges will have greater confidence to hand out whole life orders without a risk of challenge in the Courts of Appeal.
This will mean the depraved killers who carry out vile crimes will be in no doubt that they will be in prison for the rest of their lives.
For the first time, whole life orders will also be the default sentence for any sexually motivated murders. This could have been applied in the recent tragic cases of Zara Aleena and Sabina Nessa, putting their horrific killers in prison for their whole lives.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said:
I have shared the public’s horror at the cruelty of crimes we have seen recently. People rightly expect that in the most serious cases, there should be a guarantee that life will mean life. They expect honesty in sentencing.
By bringing in mandatory whole life orders for the heinous criminals who commit the most horrific types of murder, we will make sure they never walk free.
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Alex Chalk KC, said:
A whole life order will now be the expectation for murderers where the killing involves sexual or sadistic conduct.
This important law change will ensure that the worst of the worst can now expect to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Today’s announcement builds on the Government’s work to cut crime and build stronger communities, with violent crime down by 46 percent since 2010 and neighbourhood crime by 51 percent.
Since 2019, over 20,000 new police officers have been recruited and 100,000 knives taken off our streets. The Government has also launched a new Anti-Social Behaviour Plan to clamp down on crimes that can terrorise communities for good.
The Government is also making sure the worst offenders face the toughest possible punishment for their crimes.
Serious violent and sexual offenders now serve at least two-thirds of their sentence behind bars, ending halfway release, and the average custodial sentence length is longer across the board meaning that criminals are spending more time in prison.
The Government has also ended the automatic early release of terrorists through the Terrorist Offenders Act 2020 and introduced a 14-year minimum jail term for the most dangerous terrorist offenders through the Counter Terrorism and Sentencing Act 2021.
The Government is also committed to looking at changing the law to make sure that people who commit the most horrific crimes face their victims in court and hear first-hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones.
The Government will legislate for the changes announced today in due course.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 24 August 2023.
The King has approved the nomination of The Venerable Neil Warwick, Archdeacon of Bristol, for appointment to the Suffragan See of Swindon, in the Diocese of Bristol, in succession to The Right Reverend Dr Lee Rayfield, following his retirement.
Neil was educated at Nottingham University and trained for ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He served his title at St Lawrence, Towcester, in the Diocese of Peterborough, and was ordained Priest in 2006. Neil was appointed Vicar of Earley St Nicolas, in the Diocese of Oxford, in 2009.
In 2019, Neil took up his current role as Archdeacon of Bristol, in the Diocese of Bristol.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 17 August 2023.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, His Highness Mohammed bin Salman, earlier today.
He welcomed the opportunity to speak to the Crown Prince and looked forward to personally deepening the long-standing ties between the UK and Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom continues to go through a period of profound social and economic transformation under Vision 2030.
The leaders discussed their commitment to further develop our trade and investment relationship, including by collaborating in new cutting-edge industries, and to strengthen our close cooperation on defence and security. The Prime Minister reiterated the UK’s long-standing commitment to support Saudi Arabia’s security and regional stability.
He also highlighted Saudi Arabia’s constructive and positive leadership on Ukraine following the recent talks in Jeddah, and the leaders agreed on the importance of allies working together to end the bloodshed in Ukraine and support a just and lasting peace. The Prime Minister welcomed progress on the conflict in Yemen, where the UK will continue to back efforts to extend the ceasefire and alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
The Prime Minister and Crown Prince said they would continue working closely together to progress UK-Saudi cooperation and looked forward to meeting in person at the earliest opportunity.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 17 August 2023.
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Simon Robinson, Residentiary Canon and Interim Dean at Truro Cathedral, for appointment as Dean of Truro, in succession to The Very Reverend Roger Bush, following his retirement.
Simon was educated at Warwick University and trained for ministry on the Southern Theological Education Training Scheme. He served his title in the Parish of Freshford, Limpley Stoke and Hinton Charterhouse in the Diocese of Bath and Wells and was ordained priest in 2013. Simon was appointed Vicar of the Parish of Minehead in 2015. In October 2022, Simon took up his current role as Interim Dean and Canon Missioner at Truro Cathedral.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 6 August 2023.
Partnership with social media companies to clamp down on people smugglers’ operations online.
A voluntary partnership between social media companies and government will accelerate action to tackle people smuggling content online, such as criminals sharing information about illegal Channel crossings, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced today [Sunday 6th August].
It comes as new figures show the government continues to make progress on the Prime Minister’s plan to stop the boats: crossings remain down on last year, the legacy asylum backlog has been reduced by a third since December 2022, and enforced returns of people with no right to be in the UK are at their highest level since 2019.
While figures from the NCA show that over 90% of online content linked to people smuggling is taken down when social media companies are notified, the partnership between tech firms and government will drive forward efforts to clamp down on the tactics being used by criminal gangs who use the internet to lure people into paying for crossings.
This content can include discount offers for groups of people, free spaces for children, offers of false documents and false claims of safe passage – targeting vulnerable people for profit and putting people’s lives at risk through dangerous and illegal journeys.
To stop the boats, we have to tackle the business model of vile people smugglers at source.
That means clamping down on their attempts to lure people into making these illegal crossings and profit from putting lives at risk.
This new commitment from tech firms will see us redouble our efforts to fight back against these criminals, working together to shut down their vile trade.
Heartless people smugglers are using social media to promote their despicable services and charge people thousands of pounds to make the illegal journey into the UK in unsafe boats.
They must not succeed.
This strengthened collaboration between the National Crime Agency, government and social media companies will ensure content promoting dangerous and illegal Channel crossings doesn’t see the light of day.
The partnership will build on the close working already in place between government and social media companies, and includes a range of commitments to explore increased collaboration.
Under this initiative, social media companies will look to increase cooperation with the National Crime Agency to find and remove criminal content and step up the sharing of best practice both across the industry and with law enforcement.
The voluntary partnership also includes a commitment to explore ways to step up efforts to redirect people away from this content when they come across it online. This approach is already widely being used successfully by platforms, for example around harmful content promoting extremism or eating disorders, where people are presented with alternative messages to displace, rebut or undermine the damaging content they searched for – diverting them away from harmful messaging and misinformation.
Alongside the partnership, the government will also set up a new centre led by the National Crime Agency and Home Office to increase the capacity and capability of law enforcement to identify this content on social media platforms.
Known as the ‘Online Capability Centre’, backed by £11m funding, its work will focus on undermining and disrupting the business model of organised crime groups responsible for illegal crossings and using the internet to facilitate these journeys by intensifying efforts to combat their online activity.
The centre will be staffed by highly trained technical specialists alongside law enforcement officers and will work by building a clearer picture of the scale of illegal immigration material online. They will work with internet companies to identify more of this material, notifying platforms so they can take the appropriate action. The centre will also focus on developing and building a bank of intelligence around the criminal networks who are promoting people smuggling services online, which will help improve law enforcement’s ability to identify content and in turn help drive investigations.
To harness the potential of new technology such as AI to clamp down on criminals’ content, government will also hold a ‘hackathon’ event with industry experts in order to develop innovative new tools which will better detect people smugglers’ publicly available content online, to help social media companies take it down more quickly.
Government will also intensify the existing work taking place with social media companies ahead of the Online Safety Bill coming into effect.
Once in force, under the Bill social media companies will be required to make sure their systems and processes are designed to prevent people coming into contact with illegal content created by people smugglers, minimise how long this content is available online and remove it as soon as possible once they become aware of it.
Alongside this, the Bill also requires major platforms to publish annual transparency reports setting out what they’re doing to tackle online harms. This could include information around how content around illegal migration is spread across platforms, how frequently it is uploaded, and what systems and processes companies have in place to deal with this kind of content.
The partnership confirmed today also builds on the work of the “Social Media Action Plan”, a voluntary agreement between the Home Office, National Crime Agency and five major social media platforms in 2021 to increase understanding of how organised criminals used their platforms to promote illegal services.
To date, this cooperation has seen more than 4,700 posts, pages or accounts have been removed or suspended as a result, increasing disruption of organised crime groups’ activity, and today’s partnership will drive further progress.
Stopping the boats is one of the Prime Minister’s top five priorities and the government is fully focused on delivering his whole system plan to tackling illegal migration. This includes:
Working with international partners to tackle this global challenge is another key strand of efforts to stop the boats, and since taking office the PM has secured new agreements with allies, including strengthened partnerships with France and Albania which will see 40% more patrols on French beaches, and have resulted in a 90% drop in Albanian small boat arrivals in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period last year.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 4 August 2023.
The King has approved The Reverend Canon Peter Moger, Priest in Charge of St Peter, Stornoway and St Moluag, Eoropaidh, in the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles, be appointed to a Residentiary Canonry of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Oxford.
The King has approved The Reverend Canon Peter Moger, Priest in Charge of St Peter, Stornoway and St Moluag, Eoropaidh, in the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles, be appointed to a Residentiary Canonry of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Oxford, in succession to the Very Reverend Richard Peers, following his appointment as Dean of Llandaff Cathedral.
Peter was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and St John’s College, Durham whilst training for ministry at Cranmer Hall, Durham. He served his title at Whitby, in the Diocese of York, and was ordained Priest in 1994. Peter was appointed Precentor, Sacrist and Minor Canon at Ely Cathedral in 1995 and Vicar of St Mary the Virgin, Godmanchester, in the Diocese of Ely, in 2001.
In 2005 he joined the Archbishop’s Council as National Worship Development Officer, a position he held until 2010 when he was appointed Residentiary Canon and Precentor at York Minster.
In 2019 Peter took on his current role as Priest in Charge at St Peter, Stornoway, and St Moluag, Eoropaidh, in the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 2 August 2023.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz this morning.
Following on from last month’s NATO Summit in Vilnius, the leaders stressed the importance of upholding European security. The Prime Minister expressed his hope that the UK and Germany can continue the extensive work we do together to this end.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor Scholz discussed the concerning situation in Niger. The UK and Germany have both condemned the recent attempts to undermine democracy, peace and stability in the country. The Prime Minister welcomed our shared efforts to uphold stability and protect our nationals in Niger.
The leaders looked forward to seeing one another in person at the G20 Summit in India next month.
The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 1 August 2023.
The King has been pleased to appoint Mr Andrew Try, DL, as His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for the Royal County of Berkshire on the retirement of Mr James Puxley, CVO, on 23rd October 2023.
Andrew Try is the founder and Managing Director of ComXo, which provides virtual personal assistance and other workplace services to large enterprise clients in the City of London; his company employs 110 people in Datchet. A sixth-generation Windsorian, his voluntary work has focused on serving the locality, including as Trustee of the Windsor Festival, the Windsor Learning Partnership Multi-Academy Trust and the Prince Philip Trust Fund; member of the board of the Friends of St George’s Chapel; chair of the Royal Windsor Rose and Horticultural Society; and governor of Clewer Green Primary School and Papplewick School, Ascot.
Mr Try has two children and an adult stepson and lives in Windsor with their mother, Vicky.