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Tag: Press Release

  • PRESS RELEASE : Report by the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo – UK response [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Report by the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo – UK response [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 9 May 2024.

    Ambassador Holland welcomes the Report by the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, and the work of the Mission over the last six months across the three pillars of its mandate.

    Firstly, I would like to welcome Ambassador Davenport back to the Permanent Council for the final time as Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your expert leadership of the Mission over the last three (plus) years, during such a pivotal time for the Western Balkans region. Thank you, as always, for the written report on the activities of the Mission over the last six months, and the comprehensive presentation this morning.

    Madam Chair, the United Kingdom shares the assessment in the Report of the concerning lack of progress towards Kosovo-Serbia normalisation, which continues to have negative implications for stability in the Western Balkans.

    While the UK welcomes the progress in December on the energy roadmap and licence plates, many fundamental issues remain unresolved. We encourage both sides to engage constructively in the EU-facilitated Dialogue and to deliver on their respective obligations, including on establishing an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities.

    The UK will continue to encourage Kosovo to ensure that non-majority communities can play a full and equal role in the country’s future. In this respect, we urge Kosovo and Serbia to continue to work with the EU Special Representative to agree technical solutions to the implementation of the new regulation on foreign currencies.

    We are also clear that Kosovo Serbs should be free to exercise their democratic rights and further integrate into Kosovan society. The recent boycott of the mayoral recall votes in the four northern municipalities is a step away from securing the representative democracy that the local population deserves, and we encourage Kosovo Serbs to return to institutions and serve their communities.

    The UK reiterates the importance of ensuring justice and accountability for all acts of violence. We call on Serbia to cooperate fully with efforts to hold to account those responsible for the shocking attacks in Banjska last September, and on NATO KFOR troops last May. We also urge Serbia to take action to tackle cross-border arms smuggling.

    In this context, the UK commends the work of the OSCE Mission during the last six months across the three core pillars of its mandate. In particular, we highly appreciate the Mission’s continued prioritisation of monitoring and early warning functions in light of the fragile security situation in northern Kosovo.

    We value the Mission’s ongoing support to government institutions on human rights and inter-community relations, including recent support to delivery of the Kosovo government’s Strategy for the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Communities. We also welcome the Mission’s continued work to strengthen institutional cooperation in tackling domestic and gender-based violence.

    Madam Chair, the United Kingdom will remain a long-standing and strong supporter of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state. We remain committed to supporting an inclusive, diverse and multi-ethnic democracy in Kosovo, and its full participation in the international system.

    I would like to end by again thanking you, Ambassador Davenport, for your leadership of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo – both during this reporting period, and throughout the last three years. I commend your team’s expertise, engagement and hard work, and I wish you well in your future endeavours.

    Thank you, Madam Chair.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Government to fund 180 local projects to boost water quality [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Government to fund 180 local projects to boost water quality [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 9 May 2024.

    £11.5m extra funding announced to boost tree planting, habitat restoration and flood management across England through the Water Environment Improvement Fund.

    • Millions of pounds of extra funding to boost tree planting, habitat restoration and flood management
    • Expanded fund to help plant thousands of trees and improve the quality of rivers up and down the country
    • 180 projects set to benefit, including in York, Lincolnshire and North Devon

    Local projects across England will be able to clean up lakes and rivers, protect communities from flooding and plant thousands of trees, thanks to £11.5 million of government support.

    The funding, which includes money from the Nature for Climate Fund, will also unlock up to an extra £11.5 million from organisations including the National Lottery, local rivers and wildlife trusts or from private investment, bringing the total possible investment to £23 million.

    This uplift will be allocated to local catchment partnerships through the Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF) supporting 180 local projects across England. Projects to be funded this year include:

    • The Limestone Becks River Restoration project in Lincolnshire, which will provide improved habitats for wildlife from water voles to invertebrates;
    • Phase II of The York Urban Becks project, which aims to create a more natural river course and support local habitats; and
    • The Woods for Devon project, creating woodlands to improve water quality, support wildlife, and carbon capture.

    Overall, the additional funding is expected to lead to an additional 300km of English rivers being protected and improved. It will also support the creation and restoration of around 160 hectares of inland and coastal waters.

    Catchment partnerships take a collaborative approach to improving river quality and enhancing biodiversity at a catchment level, using local knowledge and expertise.

    They bring together government, local authorities, landowners, local eNGOs, regulators, farmers, academia, local businesses and water companies.

    Delivered by the Environment Agency, the Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF) was established in 2016 and funds projects that deliver on the government commitments set out in the Plan for Water to ensure clean and plentiful water for the future.

    Water Minister Robbie Moore MP said:

    These local catchment partnerships do excellent work and I am pleased that we are able to give this additional funding to help deliver projects where rivers need it most.

    It builds on recent measures to clean up our rivers including consulting on a ban on water company bonuses, launching a new Water Restoration Fund to reinvest water company fines and penalties back into the water environment, and a fourfold increase in Environment Agency inspections.

    Chair of the Environment Agency Alan Lovell said:

    We welcome this uplift in funding for local projects across the country which will help us work collaboratively with a range of organisations and stakeholders to achieve our ambitions for the water environment.

    It builds on the steps we are taking to improve water quality and protect the environment, including expanding our specialised workforce and increase water company inspections this year, along with our powers to levy uncapped penalties on those who pollute our waterways.

    CEO of The Rivers Trust Mark Lloyd said:

    Increased funding is a very important ingredient in the recipe for successfully restoring our rivers to good health and so this is welcome news.

    We are increasingly seeing the private and philanthropic sectors getting involved to match this kind of funding which enables this government support to go even further, enabling us to have a greater positive impact in more places.

    In recent years, the Fund has supported a number of projects across the country. In 2021-22, £888,000 was given to the Developing the Natural Aire project in Yorkshire to install fish passes. It resulted in 50km of habitat being reconnected, 8,410 trees being planted and delivered 220 volunteer days and 123 community events.

    The £11.5 million funding uplift is in addition to the existing £3 million the Environment Agency has already been allocated for this financial year for local project to improve water quality.

    Today’s announcement follows recent measures delivered to improve the water environment, including:

    • A new £11m Water Restoration Fund to reinvest water company fines and penalties back into the water environment.
    • Requiring companies to monitor 100% of storm overflows in England – providing a complete picture of when and where sewage spills happen.
    • Removing the cap on civil penalties for water companies and broadening their scope so swifter action can be taken against those who pollute our waterways.
    • Requiring the largest infrastructure programme in water company history – £60 billion over 25 years – to revamp ageing assets and reduce the number of sewage spills by hundreds of thousands every year.
    • Increasing protections for coastal and estuarine waters by expanding the Storm Overflow Discharge Reduction Plan, prioritising bathing waters, sites of special scientific interest and shellfish waters.
    • A targeted plan to better preserve and protect the River Wye, including £35m in funding.
    • Speeding up the process of building key water supply infrastructure, including more reservoirs and water transfer schemes.
  • PRESS RELEASE : International law must be “fit for the challenges of 21st century” [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : International law must be “fit for the challenges of 21st century” [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 9 May 2024.

    International law must remain in lockstep with the changing 21st century world and the needs of citizens or face irrelevance the Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk, will stress to the G7’s justice leaders today (9 May 2024).

    • Lord Chancellor will warn that international law must be “a living instrument”, and “not suspended in time”
    • he will also outline the government’s lawful approach to combating illegal migration
    • it comes as Justice Ministers attend G7 forum to discuss increasing issues relating to law and justice

    At the G7 Justice Ministers’ Meeting in Venice, the Lord Chancellor will acknowledge the unique value the forum brings in tackling the issues of law and justice currently facing the international system.

    Speaking at the meeting, the Lord Chancellor is expected to say:

    The international rules-based order, and so many of the legal frameworks we rely on for our peace and prosperity, emerged out of the ashes of World War II –- a completely different world from the one we live in today. Our nations are now grappling with new, thorny issues, from how to respond to mass migration as millions march across the world to the spectre of climate change, and the advent of new technologies, like AI, with all the opportunities and risks they bring.

    If the law is to be respected by our citizens, it must deliver for them. Its frameworks must be capable of responding to 21st century problems. To be irrelevant is to be ignored, or still worse held in contempt – which risks damaging our freedom, safety and security.

    The Lord Chancellor is expected to discuss the UK government’s priorities on illegal migration and demonstrate the UK’s action as proportionate and necessary:

    The Rule of Law isn’t just about ensuring all are equal before the law – important though that is. It also means ensuring that those who don’t abide by the law aren’t materially advantaged by doing so. Illegality must have consequences.

    The UK is not alone in facing these pressures – all of us are. Tackling smuggling gangs requires coordinated sustained international cooperation, including targeted upstream intervention.

    He will conclude by outlining how the rule of law must help countries to protect their borders and will describe the law as a “living instrument” which must be up to date and tailored to reality:

    There will be some who take the view that the law should be no impediment to tackling irregular migration. But it is important for all of us here to be the voice that says “no”. We must uphold the rule of law, but it can also help us to protect our borders if we approach it in the right way.

    The law is a living instrument, not suspended in time. It must underpin our citizens’ rights and freedoms, and to do that, it must also be up to date, and tailored to reality.

    As a group of nations, it’s right that we should consider together the direction of travel for international law, to reinvigorate the rules-based order, so that it is fit to respond to the challenges of the 21st century.

    The remarks come as the Lord Chancellor attends the G7 in Venice over the 9 and 10 May. Whilst there, he will meet with his counterparts to discuss key issues facing the world – including continued support for Ukraine, and how to best tackle illegal migration and drug trafficking.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Reforms piloted to link pay to results in the Civil Service [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Reforms piloted to link pay to results in the Civil Service [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Cabinet Office on 9 May 2024.

    New measures to improve performance and ensure the civil service can recruit and retain the best talent were announced this morning by Minister for the Cabinet Office, John Glen at the Reform Think Tank Annual Conference at the BT Tower in London.

    New measures to improve performance and ensure the civil service can recruit and retain the best talent were announced this morning by Minister for the Cabinet Office, John Glen at the Reform Think Tank Annual Conference at the BT Tower in London.

    In the second of a series of speeches on Civil Service reform, the Minister set his focus on performance management, attracting the best from the private sector and ensuring that Civil Servants are backed to deliver for the British public.

    Plans to encourage and reward those that deliver high quality public services were unveiled with a new pilot to test milestone based pay – where certain Senior Civil Service (SCS) staff would be rewarded for delivery of pre-agreed milestones for projects they manage.

    The plans will ensure that pay and reward is more closely aligned to how staff are performing and delivering for the public.

    This new approach would also support recruitment in priority areas – making reward packages more attractive to potential new hires, without increasing basic salaries to ensure public resources are spent carefully.

    It also aims to encourage SCS staff to remain in post for the whole of the project, helping to tackle Whitehall churn at the senior level, and ensuring that there is full accountability for a project’s long term results.

    The new system is being delivered at pace and pilots will begin in the Summer.

    The Government has set out its plan to deliver on people’s priorities, and today’s announcement will deliver on these.

    Minister for the Cabinet Office John Glen said:

    To build a world-class Civil Service that truly delivers for the public, we must start with the people.

    We need to recruit the brightest minds, ensure they have the tools and skills to succeed, and take swift action when performance falls below expected standards.

    The measures I’ve set out today will help to meet today’s productivity challenge head on, building a resilient and high performing Civil Service that is fit for the future.

    The Minister also announced a review of the external-by-default recruitment policy for SCS roles, which ensures that all senior roles are open to external applicants unless there is a genuine reason not to do so – enhancing competition.

    The Civil Service Commission will monitor data on SCS recruitment, to ensure the policy is being implemented and that any exceptions are properly justified and do not undermine efforts to bring external expertise into senior leadership roles.

    Building on plans unveiled in his speech in January to tackle poor performance, the Minister announced that work to improve the performance management system for SCS staff is well underway and will conclude in June.

    Work has also begun to gather data and insight across departments on the current performance management situation across the Civil Service, with a view to looking at what works, and crucially where changes are needed.

    Today’s announcement builds on measures set out by the Chancellor to increase Government efficiency by capping Civil Service headcount and reducing staffing numbers to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the next spending review.

    This will enable the government to channel resources where they are most needed, for example increasing defence spending and sending vital aid to Ukraine.

    Additional measures and updates announced today include:

    • Part of the SCS Strategy, a new pathway will be delivered to recruit external technical specialists at a senior level to the Civil Service. Those recruited under the pathway will not have all the same responsibilities that come with a traditional SCS level role, including line management responsibilities. This is designed to ensure their focus remains on driving innovation and transformation.
    • Work to automate recruitment processes has shown promising results, with over 2400 working hours saved since some pre-employment processes were automated, and more identified to be automated in the next 12 months.
  • PRESS RELEASE : Russia must end the unlawful detention of our OSCE colleagues in Ukraine: UK statement to OSCE [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Russia must end the unlawful detention of our OSCE colleagues in Ukraine: UK statement to OSCE [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 9 May 2024.

    Ambassador Holland calls on Russia to release members of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission who have been unlawfully detained in Ukraine for more than two years.

    Thank you, Madam Chair. It is with regret that we feel compelled, once again, to raise the cases of Vadym Golda, Maxim Petrov, and Dmytro Shabanov. All three are members of the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM) and have been unlawfully deprived of their liberty for more than two years by the Russian Federation and its proxies in Ukraine.

    The SMM was established in 2014 through a decision of this body. Its mandate was agreed by all participating States, including Russia. For eight years the SMM, through its monitoring and reporting, acted as the eyes and ears of the international community, giving us much needed insight on the security situation in Ukraine.

    In the years leading to Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion, independent and objective reporting of the SMM – which was provided equally to all participating States – was of significant value. It observed that an overwhelming majority of ceasefire violations took place in non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine. It observed advanced weaponry in these areas, weaponry that we know could only have been supplied by Russia. And it observed no unusual military build-up on the Ukrainian government-controlled side of the Line of Contact, demonstrating that Russia’s claims of a Ukrainian threat to the Donbas region were a fabricated pretext for Russia’s aggression.

    So, you can see why Russia feared the impartial and fact-based reporting of the SMM.  The truth was an inconvenience.

    So, over several years, Russia picked away at the ability of the SMM to operate; critically undermining the Mission’s freedom of movement and levelling unjustified criticisms.  Ultimately Russia was able to close down the SMM by blocking consensus on the extension of their mandate in the same way that it had closed down the Border Observation Mission.

    Madam Chair, my government has previously put on record our sincere gratitude to the brave women and men of the SMM in Ukraine. They performed their OSCE-mandated roles with integrity and professionalism. They did so despite the risks to their safety, a risk underlined by the tragic loss of our two late colleagues:  Joseph Stone and Marina Fenina.  We should all be proud of them.

    What none of us imagined was that our colleagues faced the risk of unlawful detention by the very people who asked them to do this difficult and dangerous job. Russia signed the SMM mandate, contributed to its operating costs and then betrayed their – and our – colleagues. It is truly shocking. The suffering that they and their loved ones are enduring remains a constant concern to us.

    Russia’s actions fit a pattern, one that was set out very clearly in the report by the latest Moscow Mechanism expert mission. This found that: Russia had detained thousands of Ukrainian civilians, cutting them off from access to, or communication with, their loved ones; detainees were often subjected to torture and other ill treatment; and, the Russian authorities were restricting access to lawyers and denying fair trials.

    As the expert mission noted “The continued detention of staff members of the OSCE SMM is incompatible with OSCE commitments”.

    Madam Chair, we continue to call on Russia to end its unlawful detention of our colleagues and all Ukrainian citizens it has illegally detained. Thank you.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Secretary of State visits Air Ambulance NI operational base [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Secretary of State visits Air Ambulance NI operational base [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Department of Northern Ireland on 9 May 2024.

    The visit highlighted the crucial work the Air Ambulance carry out and how the UK Government can continue to support the charity.

    The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, has visited the Air Ambulance site in Lisburn to show the UK Government’s continuing support to this vital service.

    Along with touring the base, the Secretary of State met some of the HEMs crew members and was able to hear how the service has impacted the lives of local people and the generosity that keeps the charity going.

    The Air Ambulance works in partnership with Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) to provide the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for the region.

    The Secretary of State also heard how on average, every single day in Northern Ireland, two individuals find themselves in critical need of Air Ambulance Northern Ireland.

    Secretary of State Chis Heaton-Harris said:

    It has been a real privilege to visit the Air Ambulance site today and hear about the amazing work that is ongoing to help people all across Northern Ireland.

    Over 4,000 people have benefited from this service since it started in 2017, and that is thanks to the generosity and kindness of those who fundraise and donate.

    As the prime minister said during his trip here a few months ago, Northern Ireland faces a brighter future and today’s visit highlights the vital work that can be done when people work together.

    Ian Crowe, Joint Vice-Chair of Air Ambulance Northern Ireland

    Together with our Partners Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, we are delighted to welcome the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to our operational base.

    It is only with continued support of our donors that we can continue to be there for every patient that needs the service.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Change of His Majesty’s Ambassador to Paraguay – Ms Danielle Dunne [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Change of His Majesty’s Ambassador to Paraguay – Ms Danielle Dunne [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 9 May 2024.

    Ms Danielle Dunne has been appointed His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay in succession to Mr Ramin Navai who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment.  Ms Dunne will take up her appointment during January 2025.

    CURRICULUM VITAE

    Full name:  Danielle Dunne

    Date Role
    2021 to present Abuja, Head of Counter-Terrorism Network West Africa & Sahel
    2017 to 2021 FCDO (formerly Department for International Development), Head of Evaluation Unit
    2016 to 2017 DFID, Senior Evaluation Adviser
    2015 to 2016 DFID, Evaluation Adviser on Methods
    2013 to 2015 DFID, Evaluation Adviser for Afghanistan and Pakistan
    2012 to 2013 Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism, Senior Researcher Officer
    2009 to 2012 National Policing Improvement Agency, Research Officer
    2005 to 2009 Queen Mary’s University, Research Associate
  • PRESS RELEASE : Prime Minister to call on university leaders to protect Jewish students [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Prime Minister to call on university leaders to protect Jewish students [May 2024]

    The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 9 May 2024.

    Vice Chancellors from some of the country’s leading universities will join forces with the government today (9 May) to discuss actions to address the rise in antisemitic abuse on campus and disruption to students’ learning.

    • Vice Chancellors from some of the country’s leading universities will meet in No10 on Thursday to discuss efforts to tackle antisemitism on campus.
    • £500,000 funding boost for the University Jewish Chaplaincy Service to provide welfare services to Jewish students.
    • Meeting comes amidst violent protests on campuses in the USA and escalating antisemitic abuse towards Jewish students in the UK.

    Vice Chancellors from some of the country’s leading universities will join forces with the government today (9 May) to discuss actions to address the rise in antisemitic abuse on campus and disruption to students’ learning.

    The Prime Minister, Education Secretary, Communities Secretary and Security Minister will call on university leaders to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitic abuse is adopted on all campuses.

    The government has made clear that debate and the open exchange of views in universities is essential, but that this can never tip over into hate speech, harassment or incitement of violence.

    The meeting will also help to inform upcoming government guidance on combatting antisemitism on campus. Meanwhile, the Office for Students (OfS) has committed to publishing the response to its consultation on a new condition of registration, which could give OfS the power to impose sanctions where there is clear evidence that universities are failing to take sufficient or appropriate action to tackle harassment, including antisemitic abuse.

    In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced £7 million of extra support to tackle antisemitic abuse in educational settings. £500,000 of this will be dedicated to supporting the work of the University Jewish Chaplaincy, boosting support for Jewish students on campus.

    The University Jewish Chaplaincy helps students deal with incidents of antisemitism and intimidation and currently supports over 8,500 students at over 100 universities in 13 regions.

    Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said:

    Universities should be places of rigorous debate but also bastions of tolerance and respect for every member of their community.

    A vocal minority on our campuses are disrupting the lives and studies of their fellow students and, in some cases, propagating outright harassment and antisemitic abuse. That has to stop.

    Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said:

    I have made it absolutely clear that universities must crack down on antisemitism and ensure that protests do not unduly disrupt university life.

    I am looking welcoming vice chancellors to No10 today to make sure together we have clear steps in place to protect Jewish students on campus.

    The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) have criticised the “toxic environment” faced by Jewish students across the country. According to the Communities Security Trust, there was an increase of 203% in university-related antisemitic incidents between 2022 and 2023.

    Ministers will make clear that universities must take immediate disciplinary action if any student is found to be inciting racial hatred or violence – and contact the police where they believe a criminal act has been committed.

    The Education Secretary wrote to Vice Chancellors on Sunday setting out government expectations in respect of the support being provided to Jewish students.

    Representatives from the Union of Jewish Students will also attend the roundtable to share their experiences and perspective.

    The PM and Education Secretary will invite Vice Chancellors to share best practice and lessons learned and seek views on how government can continue to support them in this area.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Simpler bin collections for England to boost recycling [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Simpler bin collections for England to boost recycling [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 9 May 2024.

    New approach puts an end to confusing recycling and excessive bins.

    A new, common-sense approach to recycling will make bin day simpler and boost recycling rates for the nation, Recycling Minister Robbie Moore announced today (9 May).

    New simpler recycling collections will see the same materials collected from homes, workplaces and schools, ending the confusing patchwork of different approaches across England.

    Today the government has set out how the drive to better and simpler recycling will work, listening to councils who want to avoid streets cluttered with bins while doing what is best for the local community. Councils will be allowed to collect plastic, metal, glass, paper and card in one bin in all circumstances. Similarly, food and garden waste will also be allowed to be co-collected.

    This will reduce confusion over what items can be recycled, as people will no longer have to check what their specific council will accept for recycling. It will also reduce complexity for councils and other waste collectors, ensuring they retain the flexibility to collect recyclable waste in the most appropriate way for their local areas.

    Additionally, the Government is supporting more frequent and comprehensive bin collections. A minimum backstop means councils will be expected to collect black bin waste at least fortnightly, alongside weekly food waste collections. This will stop the trend – seen outside England – towards three-weekly or four-weekly bin collections. Councils are also being actively encouraged to make collections even more frequent, to prevent smelly waste from building up outside homes.

    Together, these new proposals will ensure regular and simpler bin collections from people’s homes across England – making recycling simpler for everyone.

    Recycling Minister Robbie Moore said:

    We all want to do our bit to increase recycling and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill – but a patchwork of different bin collections across England means it can be hard to know what your council will accept.

    Our plans for Simpler Recycling will end that confusion: ensuring that the same set of materials will be collected regardless of where you live.

    Paul Vanston, CEO of the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN), said:

    Householders can take this government announcement as a pledge that, wherever we live across the nation, our local councils will all speedily implement recycling collections of the full range of materials that will match on-pack recycling labels citizens rely on for guidance.

    Those paying the very substantial costs for councils’ local packaging recycling services – especially citizens, brands and retailers – can rightly set high benchmarks of great customer service, superb packaging recycling performance and demonstrable value-for-money being achieved everywhere.

    The plans will apply to all homes in England, including flats. Similar measures will apply to non-household municipal premises, including businesses, hospitals, schools and universities.

    As well as these developments, the list of premises in scope of these requirements has been expanded. Places of worship, penal institutes, charity shops, hostels and public meeting places will all come under the scope of the Simpler Recycling regulations.

    This update builds on wider efforts to increase recycling and reduce waste. New restrictions on single-use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers came into force on 1 October 2023 in order to reduce plastic pollution and keep streets clean. We are also moving forward with the implementation of our Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers and our Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for packaging to boost recycling and clamp down on plastic pollution and litter.

    At the beginning of 2024 we confirmed that disposable vapes will be banned in the UK to protect children’s health and tackle the environmental impact of these items.

    We have already introduced a ban on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, restrictions on the supply of single-use plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds, and our world-leading Plastic Packaging Tax.

    Meanwhile, our single-use plastic carrier bag charge has successfully cut sales by over 97% in the main supermarkets.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Government ensures long-term certainty for food labour needs [May 2024]

    PRESS RELEASE : Government ensures long-term certainty for food labour needs [May 2024]

    The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 9 May 2024.

    The government has set out plans to make the UK food supply chain most cutting-edge in the world.

    The government is tackling labour shortages in the food supply chain, funding technology to reduce the reliance on migrant labour and providing certainty and clarity for farms and other food businesses across the UK.

    In its response to John Shropshire’s Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain, the government will implement a series of new measures to support the industry. These include:

    • extending the seasonal worker visa route for five years until 2029 to give businesses time to plan effectively;
    • up to £50 million of further funding for new technology to support fully automated packhouses and more support to follow to bring robotic crop pickers on a par with human pickers in three to five years;
    • creating a comprehensive strategy to enhance skills provision and attract domestic workers.

    Recognising the need for farmers and growers to have time to invest in automation and move away from a reliance on migrant labour, the seasonal worker visa route has been extended for five years from 2025 to 2029 to address this immediate need. 43,000 visas will be available to the horticulture sector in 2025, with another 2,000 visas for poultry. Further detail of the number of visas available for 2026 to 2029 will be set out later this year.

    The government has ramped up its support for the use of automation in the sector to reduce the reliance on migrant workers whilst introducing measures to promote British workers into agriculture.

    This will start with immediate work to fully automate a group of major packhouses in 12 to 18 months, which will improve understanding of the government support needed to make fully automated packhouses universally viable. Information learned from this will help inform our planned £50 million package of packhouse automation funding, with further details to be announced later this year to cover 2024-25 and 2025-26.

    The government will also work with technology companies to accelerate the development of robotic crop harvesters – aiming to bring prototypes on a par with human pickers in three to five years. This will help make the UK food supply chain the most cutting-edge in the world.

    The announcement comes after the Prime Minister announced the largest ever round of farming grants at the NFU Conference earlier this year – with a total of £427 million on offer to farmers, doubling the investment in productivity schemes.

    It comes ahead of the second annual Farm to Fork Summit, which will be hosted by the Prime Minister in Downing Street on 14 May, bringing together representatives across the UK food supply chain to drive forward work to ensure British farming has the support and backing it needs to thrive for generations to come.

    Environment Secretary Steve Barclay said:

    We have a world-class food and drink sector, and the measures announced today will strengthen this by boosting funding for the cutting-edge technology that will reduce reliance on migrant labour in the long term.

    Businesses do best when they can plan effectively for the future, which is why we’ve extended the seasonal worker visa route until 2029 to give farmers and growers the certainty they need to thrive.

    The government will also work to improve the attractiveness of the sector for domestic workers, delivering regional recruitment strategies to support jobseekers into roles in food and farming, and building greater collaboration between government, industry and education providers. This includes:

    • Collaborating with the Food and Drink Sector Council’s Sector Attractiveness Project Group to improve awareness of the diverse range of opportunities and career paths across the UK food chain.
    • Provided seed funding to establish the Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH), a new industry body that will support professional career development.
    • Working with the Department for Work and Pensions to deliver regional recruitment strategies that utilise its Jobcentre Plus network to give jobseekers the skills and knowledge they need to enter roles across the food and farming sector.