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Scientific advisers from across the Commonwealth will establish a knowledge exchange network to look at some of the global challenges we face such as climate change, food security and the state of the oceans.

The group was established following the inaugural meeting of chief scientific advisers and equivalents from across the Commonwealth chaired by Dr Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser and Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. The meeting was held at the Royal Society.

The science leaders met to discuss the role of science and technology in achieving a more secure, sustainable and prosperous future. They discussed how science and technology can benefit Commonwealth countries, both individually and collectively, focusing on 2 main areas:

• preparing for and responding to emergencies; and
• meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dr Patrick Vallance said:

This is an important start to a new Commonwealth science collaboration. The Commonwealth represents a great opportunity for international collaboration, sharing data and science expertise to solve universal challenges such as climate change, food security, the state of the oceans, supporting private sector innovation and managing the impacts of disruptive technologies. These are challenges for which no country can plausibly claim to have all the answers.

Sir Peter Gluckman said

Science, technology and innovation are primary drivers of progress. The Commonwealth presents an obvious forum in which they can and should serve that purpose. Much can be achieved through identifying key knowledge gaps, synthesising and sharing evidence, and by strengthening the link between available evidence and policy.

Science Minister Sam Gyimah said:

Climate change, pollution, food security, healthcare, and clean energy are just some of the world’s biggest challenges. These issues affect everyone and the impact is already being felt, even here in the UK. While the government’s ambitious Industrial Strategy and Grand Challenges are already addressing these global challenges, collaboration is essential to provide effective results.

Across the Commonwealth, the brightest and best talent are conducting incredible research that has the potential to change our world forever. It is essential that we come together and share our expertise and knowledge to speed up the development of innovative solutions, saving our planet and improving everyone’s lives.

The network will foster greater cooperation between Commonwealth science academies and other science advice mechanisms. Specifically, it will seek to:

• promote information exchange covering scientific and technology-based solutions to the SDGs as they affect Commonwealth countries
• enhance cooperation on science related to risk management and emergency response
• develop a strategy for integrating locally-derived data across the Commonwealth to understand and stimulate innovative solutions to such issues as coastal erosion, water quality and food waste
• explore approaches to data governance
• promote beneficial collaboration using major science infrastructure where it can support research around the SDGs
• consider what further mechanisms might strengthen the role of science and innovation in the Commonwealth

A report summarising the projects, their impact and the key lessons learnt will be presented to leaders at the Commonwealth summit in 2020.

Notes to editors

1. The Commonwealth forms a significant part of the global scientific community. It is home to 12% of the world’s researchers and accounts for around 10% of global research and development expenditure.
2. The Government Office for Science advises the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet on all matters related to science and technology ensuring that government policies and decisions are informed by the best scientific evidence and strategic long-term thinking.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister called President Xi of China earlier today.

They agreed the Prime Minister’s visit to China in January had been a great success, reinvigorating our commitment to a “Golden Era” of UK-China relations and a deeper strategic partnership.

They discussed the appalling chemical weapons attack in Douma. The Prime Minister explained our strikes had been proportionate, legal and responsible, and aimed at alleviating humanitarian suffering by degrading the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons capability and deterring their willingness to use them in the future.

The Prime Minister set out that Russia’s blocking of diplomatic action underlined the importance of the international community working together to re-establish an independent mechanism that attributes responsibility to the perpetrators of attacks such as the one in Douma.

The Prime Minister noted that the use of a nerve agent against Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury was a grave attack on the sovereign territory of the UK, and the first use of nerve agents on European soil since the Second World War. They agreed that the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, for any purposes was unacceptable.

The Prime Minister reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to free and fair trade, open markets and upholding and strengthening the multilateral global trading regime.

The leaders welcomed progress on deepening the UK-China trade relationship. They agreed that the UK and China would continue to work together to identify how best we can cooperate on the Belt and Road initiative across the region and ensure it meets international standards.

The Prime Minister also noted the need to recognise and respect the international law of the sea, in the context of adherence to the wider rules-based international system.

UK Government Minister Lord Bourne will visit the Royal Mint’s headquarters in Llantrisant today (19 April) as part of ongoing engagement with the HM Treasury-owned coin production company.

The Royal Mint in Llantrisant was opened in 1968 and now employs more than 850 staff across its 35 acre site. The current Chief Executive and Deputy Master, Anne Jessopp, was appointed earlier this year and is the first woman to hold the role in the Mint’s 1,100 year history.

The Mint’s core function is the production of the UK’s coins, blanks (the metal discs minted into coins) and official medals. The company aims to provide financial return to the UK Government via its commercial operations, and has produced coins and medals for around 60 countries outside the UK.

Lord Bourne will reaffirm the UK Government’s continued backing of the world’s leading export mint by supporting the development of its overseas operations and new business ventures.

The mint currently holds a 15 per cent global market share and allows customers to trade bullion (gold, silver, and platinum) in the form of coins and bars, and store it in its own secure storage facility (The Vault). The site in Llantrisant is also home to The Royal Mint Experience, which opened in 2016.

UK Government Minister Lord Bourne said:

The Royal Mint is a crucial asset that adds real value to the makeup of South Wales’ economy; employing hundreds of staff, attracting thousands of visitors to its tourist attraction each year and putting Wales on the map via its extensive overseas operations.

As Britain prepares to leave the European Union, there has never been a better time to explore new opportunities for trade and export further afield. The UK Government will fully support all Welsh businesses who are eager to seek out new markets overseas.

Anne Jessopp, CEO of The Royal Mint, said:

I am pleased to host Lord Bourne to look at how The Royal Mint can work with Government and other partners to identify new business opportunities in the UK and beyond.

The Royal Mint is an established British brand. As the market for some of our traditional products changes, we are building on our reputation for trust and authenticity to move into new and exciting areas of business. Our focus is on innovation and partnership across a portfolio of products, ensuring that The Royal Mint remains a sustainable and relevant business for the 21st century.

Exports from Wales rose by 12.3% to £16.4 billion in the latest year on year figures, and Wales is home to nearly 4,000 exporters with an average value per exporter of more than £4.2million.

The UK Government has developed the Wales Export Guide – a document that sets out the full range of support available to Welsh businesses from the UK Government and contains inspiring stories of companies based in Wales that are successfully exporting.

You can download a copy of the guide here.

ENDS

The Charity Commission has provided an update on the work of its safeguarding taskforce, established in February after the public spotlight on Oxfam and subsequent increased serious reporting.

The purpose of the interim taskforce is to help the Commission manage and respond to the increase in reports of serious safeguarding incidents by charities, and to undertake a review of historic serious incident and whistleblowing reports on safeguarding issues.

New reports of serious safeguarding incidents

• 532 new reports of serious incidents on safeguarding received in February and March 2018, compared to 1,210 throughout 2016-17
• 440 new cases opened relating to safeguarding concerns
• 219 incident reports from 33 charities funded by the Department for International Development, of these reports 127 are historic

The Commission has seen a marked increase in reports of serious safeguarding incidents from charities since February; these relate both to historic and more recent incidents. In February and March 2018, the Commission received 532 serious incident reports on safeguarding incidents, compared to 176 during the equivalent period in 2017.

The reports cover a wide spectrum, and some relate to risks of harm that a charity has identified, rather than to incidents of harm – for example internal audits showing that safeguarding procedures were not followed in certain situations.

The Commission has opened 440 cases relating to safeguarding concerns raised in serious incident reports from charities, or complaints and whistleblowing reports. These are being prioritised according to risk.

Among the new reports are those from 179 charities to which the Secretary of State for International Development wrote in February to seek reassurances that all appropriate incidents had been reported to the Commission. As at 9 April 2018, of the 179 charities Dfid issued the assurance request letter to, 33 charities had submitted incident reports. Of those 33 charities, 24 submitted reports which related to historic incidents. The 33 charities in total have now reported 219 incidents. Of these 219, 127 are historic incidents.

Review of historic reports of serious safeguarding incidents

• 5,501 reports received between 1 April 2014 and 20 February 2018 under review
• over half of reports (3,300) have been reviewed so far

The taskforce has been undertaking a ‘deep dive’ of its records of serious incident reports on safeguarding matters to identify any gaps in full and frank disclosure by charities, and to establish whether appropriate follow-up actions were taken by charities, including whether incidents were reported to other primary regulators or agencies.

This requires the team to analyse a total of 5,501 reports of serious incidents reported to the Commission between 1 April 2014 and 20 February 2018. Over half of those reports (around 3,300) have now been re-analysed by the team; most of the incidents analysed to date relate to those reported in bulk by a small number of large charities.

Of these incidents, just over 2,000 involved allegations of potential criminal behaviour; the Commission’s analysis has identified that only one of those incidents was not reported to the authorities at the time. The Commission has ensured that this incident has now been reported to the police.

Analysis so far has not identified any cases where the Commission has serious and urgent concerns that require it to take immediate action, or where it has had to engage with the authorities about any ongoing risk or criminality.
The review of historic reports continues; once the work has concluded, the Commission will publish a report setting out the key findings and lessons for charities.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. The Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales.
2. We opened a statutory inquiry into Oxfam in February and has published the scope of the inquiry.
3. We have a vital, but specific, regulatory role on safeguarding. We are focused on the conduct of trustees and the steps they take to protect beneficiaries and others who come into contact with their charity.
4. Our remit requires us to work effectively with other UK specialist authorities. The Commission is not an inspectorate or agency, similar to CQC or Ofsted. We are not a criminal prosecuting authority, nor an arm of the police, which means we should not be expected to gather information for or report on charities’ behalf to the police or other regulators or agencies.
5. Safeguarding has been a priority regulatory risk issue for the Commission since 2010. We have increased and intensified our regulatory interventions on safeguarding, including on a number of high profile cases, and our joint work with DFID.
6. Regardless of our specific remit and role, the number of incidents we are dealing with is increasing, and demand on our services in almost every area is growing. With fewer than 300 permanent staff, dealing with 100,000 contact requests a year, regulating 950,000 trustee roles and 168,000 registered charities, we are limited in the proactive engagement we can have with individual charities and trustees.

More young people will have the chance to benefit from life-changing scholarships allowing them to study at universities across the Commonwealth, thanks to a £5 million boost from the Department for Education.

The Education Secretary has announced the additional investment ahead of an event aimed at helping improve the quality of girls’ education across the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth Foreign Secretaries will attend the launch of the Girls’ Education Campaign to encourage a step-change in the quality of girls’ education globally, as part of this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London and Windsor. It is the largest summit of its kind in UK history and a truly global event with young people at its centre.

This investment follows the Education Secretary’s appearance at the Youth Forum earlier this week where HRH Prince Harry, in his first speech as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador, announced the £13.4 million fund was being renamed the “Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships” in honour of HM The Queen.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

For young people across the Commonwealth, sharing in this partnership presents a unique opportunity to learn about other cultures. It also gives us the chance to share learning from our respective education systems and to draw inspiration from across the globe, so that every child gets the education they deserve.

This investment builds on this celebrated relationship by offering even more young people around the world the opportunity to further their education at a Commonwealth university abroad.

Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships will provide life-changing experiences for young leaders with the energy and talent to make a difference in their home countries and beyond. The scheme will offer study opportunities not previously available and widen collaboration across the Commonwealth.

The UK’s £5 million contribution to the fund, which will increase the total to £13.4 million, will mean that an additional 150 students can benefit from a Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarship by 2025. While the fund is open to recipients from all Commonwealth countries, the new £5 million contribution announced today will be targeted at students from countries that are eligible for overseas development assistance (ODA) and who are looking to further their studies at leading universities in low and middle income countries.

The first Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholars will begin their studies in 2019, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Commonwealth and the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan.

The Government has announced the end to the sale of plastic straws, drink stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds at the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit.

The Prime Minister will also call on all other Commonwealth countries to join in the fight against plastic pollution.

Subject to the consultation, which the Environment Secretary will launch later this year, the Government is prepared to ban the sale of these items in England under plans to protect our rivers and seas and meet our 25 Year Environment Plan ambition to eliminate avoidable plastic waste. This forms part of the wider government waste strategy – including the government’s current call for evidence on how we can use the tax system to address single use plastics waste.

In order to eliminate these items from use the Government will work with industry to develop alternatives and ensure there is sufficient time to adapt. It will also propose excluding plastic straws for medical reasons.

Single-use plastic items such as straws, stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds have a significant impact on our environment, both on land and in our seas and rivers when they are either littered or discarded incorrectly after use – with a recent study showing 8.5 billion plastic straws are thrown away each year in the UK.

The announcement comes as the Prime Minister has urged all Commonwealth countries to sign-up to the newly-formed Commonwealth Clean Oceans Alliance and take action, be this by a ban on microbeads, a commitment to cutting down on single use plastic bags, or other steps to eliminate avoidable plastic waste.

To drive this forward the UK government has committed a £61.4 million package of funding to boost global research and help countries across the Commonwealth stop plastic waste from entering the oceans in the first place.

Prime Minister Theresa May said:

Plastic waste is one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world, which is why protecting the marine environment is central to our agenda at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The UK government is a world leader on this issue, and the British public have shown passion and energy embracing our plastic bag charge and microbead ban, and today we have put forward ambitious plans to further reduce plastic waste from straws, stirrers and cotton buds.

Alongside our domestic action, this week we are rallying Commonwealth countries to join us in the fight against marine plastics, with £61.4million funding for global research and to improve waste management in developing countries.

The Commonwealth is a unique organisation, with a huge diversity of wildlife, environments and coastlines. Together we can effect real change so that future generations can enjoy a natural environment that is healthier than we currently find it.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

Single-use plastics are a scourge on our seas and lethal to our precious environment and wildlife so it is vital we act now. We have already banned harmful microbeads and cut plastic bag use, and now we want to take action on straws, stirrers and cotton buds to help protect our marine life.

We’ve already seen a number of retailers, bars and restaurants stepping up to the plate and cutting plastic use, however it’s only through government, businesses and the public working together that we will protect our environment for the next generation – we all have a role to play in turning the tide on plastic.

There are over 150 million tonnes of plastic in the world’s oceans and every year one million birds and over 100,000 sea mammals die from eating and getting tangled in plastic waste.

Today’s announcement is the latest move in the government crackdown on plastic, following the plastic microbeads ban hailed as one of the world’s strongest bans, the 5p plastic bag charge – which has led to 9 billion fewer bags distributed, and last month’s pledge to introduce a deposit return scheme, or DRS, for single use drinks containers, including bottles and cans.

It sits alongside the 25 Year Environment Plan commitment to eliminate avoidable plastic waste. The Treasury has also launched a call for evidence on how charges and changes to the tax system could be used to reduce single use plastics.