Day: June 21, 2018

Today’s annual meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers demonstrates that the UK and Poland are delivering on their commitment to develop our partnership to be even stronger and even more strategic.

We took the opportunity of this meeting to celebrate the hundred years of Polish regained independence and a bilateral relationship that has vastly expanded over a century. During that time the UK and Poland have worked and fought side-by-side for freedom in Europe and the world. We remember the heroism of British and Polish soldiers, sailors and pilots throughout the Second World War and subsequent conflicts. Our countries have a strong trading relationship and deep cultural links through the thriving Polish community in the UK. We are active partners in international fora like the UN, OSCE, EU and NATO, and our troops serve together on the ground in Poland as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence. Today we have discussed concrete ideas for how we can further enhance our strategic foreign, defence and security partnership.

As the hosts of the previous two NATO Summits, we share a deep commitment to the Alliance, and to a successful Summit in Brussels. NATO continues to adapt to the evolving security environment, having made good progress since 2014 in rebuilding and strengthening its Deterrence & Defence posture and Projecting Stability. The 2018 Summit is an important landmark in providing a modern, prepared and unified NATO. It will be an opportunity to review the progress made since Wales and Warsaw, demonstrate Allies’ unity, and agree the remaining steps ahead of NATO’s 70th anniversary in 2019. Ensuring the effectiveness of NATO’s deterrence and defence, including in the Eastern flank, is of vital importance for both countries. Our partnership in the area of security and defence continues to serve that purpose. Against this background, Poland and the UK stand for a timely and successful adaptation of the NATO Command Structure.

Both the UK and Poland are committed to meeting the NATO target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence, and 20% of that on major equipment capabilities. We recognise the importance of increased defence spending across the Alliance. We also fully support NATO’s open door policy and the 2018 Summit offers an opportunity to recognise the progress made by aspirants, particularly as this year marks the 10th anniversary of decisions made at the Bucharest Summit. We recognize that Euro-Atlantic integration remains an important driving force of reforms in Georgia and Ukraine.

In order to build our collective capability to tackle hostile activity and hybrid threats, the UK and Poland will draw on the complementary experiences of NATO, EU and likeminded partners, ensuring a consistency in approach across multilateral fora to all forms of threats. We commit to strengthen resilience to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear-related risks (CBRN), through practical cooperation including sharing information and lessons learnt. By coordinating the attribution of hostile activity in cyberspace and pushing for all available diplomatic tools to be used in response to cyber-attacks, we will raise the cost of malicious cyber activities. We will also explore new areas of innovation, and seek to harness the commercial cybersecurity opportunities they afford, by facilitating an exchange of ideas and expertise between British and Polish businesses.

Our two countries will enhance our strategic communications and develop strategies to reinforce our democracies, strengthen our societies’ resilience, and uphold freedom of expression and a free and independent media in the face of the disinformation threat. We will further continue to initiate joint actions aimed at supporting independent media in Eastern Partnership countries so as to build resilience to Russian disinformation and build plurality and balance across media landscapes. The UK and Poland will work together to tackle hybrid threats through NATO to improve crisis management, identify the tools available to hostile actors, and enhance resilience among NATO Allies and partners. The NATO-Ukraine Platform on Countering Hybrid Warfare can play an important role, and the UK and Poland will work to strengthen this instrument.

We remain committed to continuing our efforts aimed at stabilising the EU neighbourhood and handling various challenges on the Eastern and Southern flanks. The heightened risk from Russia and the bold pattern of its behaviour, designed to undermine the rules-based international order, concerns us greatly. We have worked hand-in-hand to shape Europe’s response to Russian aggression against Ukraine and hostile action. Russia’s hostility has seen it operating in more agile and asymmetric ways, be it the use of a nerve agent on the streets of Salisbury or cyber-attacks such as NotPetya in Ukraine. We agreed that the best response is to maintain pressure on Russia, including through sanctions, until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented and Russia abides by agreed international norms and standards.

Our discussions also focused on the dire situation in Syria, and we agreed to continue to champion urgent humanitarian access through the UN Security Council. We call on all parties to engage fully in the UN process in Geneva towards a credible political solution. We deplore the repeated use of chemical weapons by the regime and will use the special session of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention later this month to reinforce global norms and work towards a new attribution mechanism for chemical weapons incidents. We also discussed Iran and, whilst remaining concerned about Iran’s ballistic missile programme and regional behaviour, we shared a desire to maintain both the JCPoA and Transatlantic unity. The UK and Poland continue to be close partners in the Council on numerous issues, and plan to host a joint event in New York later this year.

We reaffirm our shared commitment to the security, stability, prosperity and sovereignty of all six countries in the Western Balkans. The UK and Poland will continue our close cooperation in preparation for the 2018 and 2019 Berlin Process summits. In particular, we will explore joint projects and activities on priority themes, which include countering corruption, and resilience against disinformation and the malign activity of external actors. Foreign Ministers will make a joint visit to the region between our Summits. This will ensure continuity between the British and Polish Berlin Process summits as well as a lasting, positive impact in the Western Balkans region.

Alongside our foreign and security policy collaboration, we also agreed to deepen our bilateral defence cooperation. In December 2017 we signed a defence treaty that will elevate our bilateral cooperation in the areas of information exchange, collective defence, intelligence and technologies, military exercises and investment planning. In the past year we have also made steps in the development of bilateral capability collaboration projects. The Defence Capability and Industrial Dialogue has been supported by Ministerial and senior official engagement, and we will continue to discuss opportunities for both British and Polish companies.

We have signed the Plan for Bilateral Defence Cooperation for the year 2018, and continue to deliver these commitments; working together across a full range of activities, including in such thematic areas as enhanced interoperability of forces, promoting defence industries’ collaboration as well as bilateral visits and exchanges.

The UK and Poland continue to respond jointly to shared threats and hostile state activity. This includes leading discussions in multilateral organisations such as the Northern Group. This year, we both participate in two large scale exercises, SABER STRIKE and ANAKONDA 18 demonstrating the strength of our military cooperation and enduring commitment to Euro-Atlantic security. We are determined to participate in exercises aimed at restoring NATO’s ability to conduct large combat operations, including in the Eastern flank.

Sellafield Ltd is proud to employ hundreds of female engineers, all contributing to the site’s mission.

While they started their careers over 30 years apart, mother and daughter duo Eleanor and Georgina can find a lot to agree on when it comes to being a female engineer.

Eleanor is part of the site’s project delivery team and Georgina works in the Highly Active Liquor Evaporation and Storage plant team.

Despite the family links, Georgina laughs when asked whether it was her mother who inspired her to pursue a career in engineering.

Honestly, not really! If you asked me at 15 whether I wanted to be an engineer like Mum then I would have said no.

Her interest in engineering was sparked by the Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) programme carried out by Sellafield Ltd at her secondry school.

It was actually the engineering education scheme I got involved in at 16.
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It was a mechanical engineering programme that I really enjoyed and from there I started looking into different types of engineering and ended up doing a chemical process engineering degree at Newcastle University.

It was Sellafield that initially got me interested through their STEM programmes and then, when I was about 18, I went back to Mum for advice. When I was looking at what to do at university and what courses might be useful for a career she was really helpful.

By contrast, there were few programmes to encourage females into engineering when Eleanor began her career in 1981. She said:

When I first joined engineering I was the only female mechanical apprentice.

Going into engineering was quite daunting, I had come from an all girls’ school. There was no engineering at school, it was just needlework and cookery, but I really enjoyed pulling motorbikes, car engines and bicycles to bits from about 15. I really felt like I wanted to go into something like that.

Walking into an apprenticeship where there were 96 males and one other female was quite daunting. When I started university seven years later there were only two other girls and they both dropped out.

By contrast, Georgina’s course was around 20 per cent female, also with female lecturers – something which was unheard of when her mum was studying.

And both agree one of the vital things for encouraging more girls into the sector is to have positive role models, encouragement and education at school.

Georgina said:

For me, it’s got to be done at 16.

I am so grateful for getting the input from really, really good teachers – all of them female really – and Sellafield with their STEM work, which really changed my perception of what engineering was.

For Eleanor, it is important there are independent professional role models that youngsters can look to for inspiration. She said:

It’s very difficult for parents to directly tell their children what to do.

You need young people to be influenced by adults who have the right relationship.

I was an active member of the STEM programme and now I mentor young engineers in the company. I didn’t want to tell my children what to do, but I introduced them to things. I have helped lots of other females through STEM and mentoring and it’s almost like giving back for what other people did for Georgina.

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley MP has extended the appointments of eleven members of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

Joseph McVey, William Gamble, Reverend Lesley Carroll, William McKee, David Rose, Tom Hartley, Hazel Francey and Judith Gillespie have been extended until 31 May 2018 and Geraldine McGahey, Deborah Donnelly and Robin Mullan have been extended until 28 February 2020.

Notes to Editors:

The extensions will allow the introduction of a more staggered approach to future appointments and improve business continuity.

Biographies of Appointees

Biographies can be found here

Terms of Appointment

The positions are part-time.

The position of Commissioner attracts an annual remuneration of £5,000 and the Deputy Chief Commissioner receives an annual remuneration of £10,000.

These positions are non-pensionable.

Political Activity

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity in defined categories within the last five years to be made public.

Lesley Carroll declared that she stood for election as an Ulster Unionist candidate at the 2016 Assembly elections. Tom Hartley has undertaken activities on behalf of Sinn Fein, including representing the party on the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition.

The Government also announces that over 340,000 children were in a 30 hour place in the first year of the policy.

Foster parents will have access to the Government’s flagship 30 hours free childcare offer for three-and-four-year-olds from September, giving them the same rights as other working families in England.

The extension marks a significant step forward in improving the support available for foster families who work, allowing them to take up the additional 15 hours of free childcare already available to other working parents since September 2017.

Today (21 June) the Department for Education has also published data showing over 340,000 children aged three and four years old benefitted from a 30 hours place in its first year, giving thousands of families access to high-quality, affordable childcare. Parents benefiting from the 30 hours free childcare offer can save up to £5,000 per year on their childcare costs, and some parents have been able to increase their work hours or work more flexibly – helping to put more money back in families’ pockets and balancing work and home lives.

Minister for Children and Families, Nadhim Zahawi said:

We know childcare is one of the biggest issues affecting working parents of all kinds, which is why I am pleased that 340,000 people have benefitted from 30 hours of free childcare. Foster parents do an incredible job caring for children whose young lives have been disrupted in difficult and often traumatic ways, bringing them back into a supportive family unit and providing a more settled home life.

We want to make sure foster parents have the option of being able to work on top of their caring responsibilities, where it works for them and the children they care for. For many, this could make the difference between being able to foster or not, so it’s absolutely right that we support them with this challenging but rewarding role.

The 30 hours free childcare offer is backed by the government’s record investment of around £6 billion per year in childcare, which includes an extra £1 billion per year by 2020 to deliver the free entitlements.

Kevin Williams, Chief Executive of The Fostering Network said:

We warmly welcome this announcement which has rectified the initial exclusion of fostered children from this policy, and are pleased that the Department for Education listened to our calls for change.

The 15 extra hours will not be appropriate for all fostered children, but some foster carers, particularly family and friends carers and those offering long-term fostering, will need or want to combine fostering with work outside of the home, and this change will enable them to be able to do so. This is particularly good news for the recruitment of foster carers and is consistent with the message from Government that fostering can be combined with other work.

The move widens the range of childcare support already available from the Government, which parents who are not eligible for 30 hours may be able to access. This includes the universal offer of 15 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds, 15 free hours for the most disadvantaged two-year-olds, and Tax-Free Childcare, which can cut childcare costs by up to £2,000 per year for each child under 12 years old.