Month: July 2018

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister held bilateral talks earlier today with the Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at Downing Street, covering mutual prosperity, defence and security cooperation, regional stability, and wider foreign policy issues.

They agreed that the trade and investment relationship between the UK and Qatar was already strong, welcoming the fact that half of Qatar’s 2017 £5 billion investment commitment had already been allocated to projects in the UK. They agreed a shared desire to see investment flows both ways continuing to grow, noting the significant commercial opportunities on offer for both countries across a wide range of sectors. The Prime Minister welcomed Qatar’s commitment to continue to invest not just in London but across the country.

They agreed the bilateral defence and security relationship was also strong and growing, noting the recent £6 billion Typhoon deal. They discussed how the UK could continue to support Qatar to deliver a safe and successful World Cup 2022, with the Prime Minister highlighting our particular expertise in this area. They agreed to intensify joint counter-terrorism work, recognising the importance of tackling the root causes of terrorism including the ideology that underpins it.

They discussed a range of regional security issues and the Prime Minister reiterated our strong desire to see Gulf Cooperation Council unity restored at the earliest possible opportunity, observing that Gulf security is our security.

They also discussed Russia, agreeing on the importance of continuing to approach Russia from a position of strength and unity. They noted the particular importance of the international community continuing to work together to stand firm against malign activity, and to protect the global rules and norms.

• The Global Disability Summit has resulted in 170 ambitious commitments from all over the world to take action on stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities
• The commitments follow the call to “move from rhetoric to action” from the International Development Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, in the build up to the Summit
• 301 organisations and governments have signed the Charter for Change – an action plan to implement the UN International Convention on Disability

The UK Government’s first ever Global Disability Summit has yielded ambitious commitments from a host of governments and other organisations to tackle discrimination and stigma against people with disabilities.

This comes after Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary, called on other governments and donors before the summit to follow the UK’s lead and “stand alongside people with disabilities in their country, commit to ending stigma, and fully value the contribution they can make to the success of their nations”.

Among the most significant pledges made were commitments to pass transformative new laws to protect the rights of people with disabilities, as well as assurances to help those affected by humanitarian crises. There were also commitments to help people with disabilities to access vital technology and work with the private sector around the world to reduce their prices.

• Nine national governments have committed to passing or formulating new or revised laws to give people with disabilities greater rights in the countries in which they live
• 18 governments and other organisations have committed to new action plans on disability inclusion
• 33 governments and other organisations have pledged to specifically support more people with disabilities affected by humanitarian crises – this includes the Australian government who will give $17m to support disability inclusive action in response to the Syria crisis
• Nine organisations and governments, including USAID, The World Health Organisation and UNICEF, have, along with the UK, joined the Global Partnership on assistive technology, aimed at transforming access to, and the affordability of, life changing devices and basic technology, like wheelchairs and glasses

Seven UN agencies attended the Summit, and they committed to change the way they include people with disabilities into their work.

For example:

• UNICEF will help an additional 30 million children with disabilities gain a high quality education by 2030 through programmes in more than 140 countries; and 18 governments have committed to improve the way children with disabilities learn and invest in teacher training
• by 2021, 80% of UN Women’s country programmes will include a focus on women and girls with disabilities
• this year, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women will spend $3m on 9 programmes which will reach 8,000 women and girls

And crucially, nine African governments have committed to creating safety nets to ensure that people with disabilities are not forgotten about in their societies. 19 governments, businesses and other organisations have also pledged to develop the skills of people with disabilities and help them access decent work.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

It is fantastic to see such ambitious commitments made from countries and organisations from around the world at today’s Global Disability Summit.

But, if we are going to help people with disabilities to fulfil their true potential, today cannot just be about words – it has to be about action.

That’s why we need to hold ourselves and our partners to account and make sure these commitments produce genuinely transformative results for people with disabilities worldwide.

Notes to editors

You can see a full list of the commitments made at the Summit here.

For images and videos of the stories of people with disabilities around the world go to this link. If used, please credit DFID.

Less than two weeks after the Government confirmed its comprehensive plans for the UK’s future relationship with the EU, it has published a further White Paper explaining how the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement will be put into law.

The EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill – formerly known as the Withdrawal Agreement and Implementation Bill – will legislate for the major elements of the Withdrawal Agreement we reach with the EU, including issues such as the agreement on citizens’ rights, the financial settlement and the details of a time-limited implementation period.

The precise details of the Bill will be subject to the ongoing negotiations with the EU but today’s White Paper provides yet more legal certainty as we prepare to leave the EU in March next year.

It confirms that the Bill will:

• be the primary means by which the rights of EU citizens will be implemented and protected in UK law;
• amend some parts of the EU (Withdrawal) Act to ensure that our statute book functions correctly during the time-limited implementation period; and
• create a financial authority to manage the specific payments to be made under the financial settlement, with appropriate Parliamentary oversight.

With UK and EU negotiators continuing to work through outstanding parts of the Withdrawal Agreement, including on Northern Ireland and other separation issues, more detail on how they will be legislated for will be provided in due course.

The Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, Dominic Raab said:

“This White Paper on the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill explains the pragmatic approach we are taking to legislating for our Withdrawal Agreement, including the time-limited implementation period that we agreed with the EU in March.

“It also provides further certainty at home and in the negotiations that the UK is getting on with the job of delivering a smooth and orderly Brexit while giving Parliamentarians an opportunity to consider the detail of the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill before it is introduced.

“We look forward to working with MPs and peers on this crucial piece of legislation which will give effect to our exit Treaty in law.”

The Bill was announced in November last year, but this is the first time that the Government has presented detail on how key parts of the Withdrawal Agreement will be made reality in UK law.

It follows the EU (Withdrawal) Act which received Royal Assent on 26 June 2018 and will ensure that our statute book functions when we leave, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations.

More councils are being invited to apply for powers to retain the growth in their business rates, under new pilots announced today (24 July 2018) by Secretary of State for Communities, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP.

The pilots will see councils rewarded for supporting local firms and local jobs and ensure they benefit directly from the proceeds of economic growth.

From April 2019, selected pilot areas will be able to retain 75% of the growth in income raised through business rates, incentivising councils to encourage growth in business and on the high street in their areas and allowing money to stay in communities and be spent on local priorities – including more funding to support frontline services.

This follows the success of previous waves of business rates retention pilots, launched in a wide range of areas across country in 2017 and 2018.

The current 50% business rates retention scheme is yielding strong results and in 2018 to 2019 it is estimated that local authorities will keep around £2.4 billion in business rates growth.

Findings from the new round of pilots will help the government understand how local authorities can smoothly transition into the proposed system in 2020.

Secretary of State for Communities, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, said:

I’m pleased to respond to calls from local government and provide further opportunities for councils to control more of the money they raise locally.

I want to encourage councils to work together, with the aim of sharing their business rates income, so they can make better decisions that benefit their wider areas.

Continuing the pilot programme for the second time allows us to look at how the system will work from 2020.

Proposals will need to show how local authorities would ‘pool’ their business rates and work collaboratively to promote financial sustainability, growth or a combination of these.

Alongside the pilots, the government will continue to work with local authorities, the Local Government Association, and others on reform options that give local authorities more control over the money they raise and are sustainable in the long term.

Financial settlement technical consultation

The Secretary of State also today launched the annual technical consultation on the local government finance settlement and is calling for submissions from stakeholders by 18 September 2018.

The technical consultation reiterates this government’s intention for the 2019 to 2020 settlement to confirm the final year of the 2016 to 2017 multi-year settlement, and to implement Council Tax referendum principles as announced last year.

The multi-year settlement offered local authorities greater certainty over elements of their funding across the spending period and was accepted by 97% of local authorities.

The government proposes to allocate funding in 2019 to 2020 in accordance with the agreed methodology announced by the Secretary of State in 2016 to 2017, which ensures that local councils delivering similar services receive a similar percentage change in settlement core funding for those services.

Finally, ministers have noted the strength of feeling in local government around the issue of ‘negative Revenue Support Grant’ and this technical consultation sets out the governments preferred approach to resolving the issue in 2019 to 2020.

Further information

The deadline for proposals is 18 September 2018 – see details of the consultation.

It is expected that successful applications will be announced before or alongside the publication of the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement. After the announcement, the department will support successful authorities in preparing for implementation. Pilot local authorities will retain 75% of the growth in their business rates income in the year of the pilot (2019 to 2020), meaning that an additional 25% of the central government share (usually 50% of the growth) will stay in the local area.

The pilot programme will not affect funding to other, non-pilot, local authorities. There is already a system of redistributing funding between councils to ensure that areas with lower business rates income do not lose out.

The preferred method for resolving the issue of ‘negative RSG’ recognises the commitment made by the government during the implementation of the business rate retention scheme in 2013 to 2014, that authorities’ retained business rates baselines, which are used to determine their tariff and top-ups, would be fixed in real terms until the system was reset. This commitment was made so that local authorities would benefit directly from supporting local business growth and the government does not wish to undermine this incentive.

Whilst the number of new pilots has not been confirmed, it is possible that the pilot programme may be smaller than in 2018 to 2019, reflecting the proximity of the proposed reforms in 2020.

Under the plans for the new system, some existing grants to local government would be funded through retained business rates. Based on the current 2019 to 2020 value of these grants, this will be equivalent to 75% business rates retention, up from the current 50% retained by the local government sector as a whole. The actual value of these grants, and so the level of business rates retention that can be achieved, will be determined in the Spending Review.

Devolution deal areas with ongoing pilots will continue to pilot 100% business rates retention in 2019 to 2020, reflecting the government’s ambitions to introduce a national system of 100% business rates retention in the long-term.

The department will continue to have separate discussions with London authorities about the currently ongoing London pilot.