Whilst there is no excuse for violence, the use of live ammunition is disproportionate, and only risks inflaming the situation.
This incident underlines the need for a constructive dialogue to address the legitimate concerns of the people of Hong Kong. We need to see restraint and a de-escalation from both protestors and the Hong Kong authorities.
Having attended many of these occasions, I am keenly aware of the imperative of being brief.
With that in mind and in the spirit of Mark Twain’s observation that ‘a good lawyer knows the law; but a clever one takes the judge to lunch’, I don’t intend to keep you too long from yours.
These are challenging and highly-charged times, but today allows for a brief pause for reflection on the year just past and a look ahead to the coming year.
As ever, you have discharged your duties with great diligence and dignity. The individual cases over which you preside at all levels are invariably complex and contentious in their own right and require immense intellect, impartiality and integrity.
I am in no doubt that the judiciary and all those who work in and support our legal sector lead the world in demonstrating those qualities.
Judges must be able to act without fear or favour in considering, as you rightly do, questions of law. I want to reaffirm my commitment to you, as Lord Chancellor, to defend your independence and uphold the rule of law.
I also want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to, and recognise the work of judges across the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, in Scotland and Northern Ireland and here in England and Wales. Collectively, they are a huge asset to this country as a whole.
Finally, in reflecting on the legal year, I’d like to thank Sir Brian Leveson who retired as President of the Queen’s Bench Division in July this year and welcome Dame Victoria Sharp.
And as we mark the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court this year, I want to thank Lady Hale, who is retiring as President in January, for her incisive and inspiring leadership and for her promotion of diversity. I look forward to welcoming Lord Reed in the new year.
With that, thank you all again, and please enjoy the lunch.
Moving house can be a stressful time, and there’s extra pressure when you have to pack your boxes and make sure your valuable items are packed, stored and transported safely to your new home, with no breakages. Now imagine doing all of those steps remotely, and with something which needs even more care.
The UK government has a requirement to pack, lift and transport sensitive hazardous materials from one location to another, for analysis. In this Market Exploration, we are looking for technology that can help do that remotely and your participation could be critical in supporting national security
To aid UK Government in scoping potential follow on activities, we are engaging the market in order to gain an understanding of whether this capability can be realised by:
This market exploration is not a commitment to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition. It is anticipated there will be a significant delay between this market exploration and any potential follow on activities to allow for a statement of requirements to be developed.
The UK Government has a requirement to protect UK citizens and infrastructure against the threat from explosives.
The hazards of highly sensitive explosives and the associated health and safety concerns mean that manual handling of significant masses is undesirable. Therefore, a remote handling and manipulation capability is essential for the UK to allow the required work with sensitive explosives to be safely undertaken. In this way, the UK Government can drive the improved characterisation of these explosives and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the development of and the improvement of security screening equipment, and develop the required training, evaluation and certification tests and standards.
The remote handling capability, referred to hereafter as ‘the solution’ is required to enable the safe transport and manipulation of explosives between various storage, test and disposal locations within an existing UK Government facility.
We are seeking a solution that can operate remotely and perform an array of complex tasks where precision and reliability are key. This solution could be met by one system, or it may be comprised of a number of individual systems to meet all requirements – a system of systems.
The solution must operate out of direct-sight of the operator but giving the operator a view of all processes in order for them to perform the remote control. The solution must lift, move and manipulate containers between various locations within a UK Government facility. It must be compatible with a variety of containers and weights, and be able to safely transfer explosives between various primary and secondary containers, as well as being able to lift and transfer containers to and from stands and equipment up to a height of 3m. Solutions must not cause appreciable stimuli to the explosive from impact, friction, temperature or electrostatic discharge.
The solution must be able to move and fit components to the outside of containers to enable blast trials or disposal. If required, the solution must be able to abort and make safe all processes, and be able to recover any explosive filled containers and return them to the storage or disposal location.
The solution must be able to move and manipulate masses of explosive of between 0.01-5 kg within a container/multiple containers of a total mass of 0.1-15kg.
It is anticipated that more than one system may be required to meet all requirements, and in your submission we ask that you outline which requirements your solution can/could deliver. You do not have to address all sub requirements to respond.
Below is a summary of each sub requirement; for more detailed information please see the ‘Remote Material Handling and Manipulation – Detailed Requirements’ .
Explosives must be transferred from one container (the container in which they have been manufactured) to another (the primary container). Liquid explosives can be poured, but solid explosives (powders and slurries) are likely to be more difficult to transfer; they will have a range of water contents and a range of viscosities, and some may stick or form lumps. Rotation of the container (to mix the explosive) and tamping of solids within the container (to create a range of densities) are required. Containers must be opened and sealed via different mechanisms and instrumentation must be able to be attached to the outside of containers.
Time is of the essence and transfer of material must be achieved before any changes to the material occur; timescales of less than 1 hour are required.
The primary containers are to be placed within a range of different secondary containers such as bags, suitcases and boxes. Whilst not essential, we are also interested in the ability to place primary containers within shoes, laptops, other electrical items/ domestic items and pipes, and onto mannequins. The solution must be able to close/seal the secondary container and reverse the process.
Solutions must be able to operate outside in most weather conditions (excluding extremes of weather), lift and transport containers on unperfected road surfaces over several hundreds of metres without line-of-sight between some locations and be able to travel up an incline (approximately a 7m rise over 100m). Containers must be able to be transferred between different locations and placed onto the ground or onto platforms/equipment at heights of up to 3m, and be placed with an accuracy of approximately 1cm. Solutions must be able to place containers within a storage unit, seal and lock the unit and perform this in reverse.
For this requirement the solution only needs to operate indoors, in an area 25 x 15m. The solution is required to provide a conveyor belt mechanism to pass primary/secondary containers through a number of X-ray scanners (and other detection equipment) in turn, repeating passes through the scanners in different orientations. The containers must be able to be centred on the belt and their orientation changed; they must be prevented from being scanned together, to become jammed inside scanners, or to fall from the belt.
After the containers have been scanned, they are to be transferred to a ‘loading station’. The secondary container is to be opened, the primary container removed and placed into another secondary container which is closed/sealed and returned to be conveyor belt to be scanned.
There must be a throughput of a minimum of 20 containers in a seven hour working day, and it is desirable to achieve 200 containers. If the scanner cannot be remotely controlled to start scanning, or if remote functionality is lost, the solution must be able to press a button/turn a key to start scanning.
The solution must be able to stop and make safe all remote operations at any point and be able to return any explosive filled containers to the storage or disposal location. It is also desirable that the solution is able to fix and restart any failed processes should it be safe to do so.
This is not a competition and therefore we are not asking for costed proposals at this stage. However, we have asked for your estimated cost range to inform future activities. This is a market exploration exercise and we do not commit to subsequently launch a formal DASA competition.
Responses to this market exploration must be submitted via the DASA submission service, for which you will be required to register.
There are four questions relating to your capability, where we are seeking to understand what and how much further development is required for a complete solution to all requirements, or whether a combination of separate solutions is required. The information you provide will assist in developing a statement of requirements for potential future activities. You will not be held to deliver to any of the timescales or cost estimates that you may give.
Submissions must be submitted by midday on 4 December 2019.
Please only provide details of one product/capability per form. If you have a number of potential solutions, then please submit multiple forms. If you have any questions, then please email accelerator@dstl.gov.uk with ‘Remote Material Handling and Manipulation’ in the subject line.
Information you provide to us in a Capability Submission, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in-confidence. By submitting a Capability Submission Form you are giving us permission to keep and use the information for our internal purposes, and to provide the information onwards, in-confidence, within UK Government. The Defence and Security Accelerator will not use or disclose the information for any other purpose, without first requesting permission to do so.
Following the recent £16 million investment to provide funding towards training and IT costs for businesses that complete customs declarations, HMRC has announced that it will provide a further £10 million in grants for customs agents and intermediaries to build capacity in managing customs declarations.
This additional wave of grants, which follows the £5 million made available from December 2018 and the £16 million made available in September 2019, has been developed to directly respond to industry feedback on what is needed to help build capacity ahead of, or after, Brexit on 31 October, alongside the additional training and IT support already available.
The further £10 million in grants is open to businesses based in, or with a branch in, the UK, that currently complete customs declarations for importers and exporters.
They are available to support costs of hiring staff, including £3,000 for recruitment costs, and up to £10,000 for salary costs, to help build business capacity.
Businesses that will benefit from the funding are encouraged to apply early, as applications will close once all the funding has been allocated, and by 31 January 2020 at the latest. Those that applied for the first and second wave may apply again as part of this new wave of grants.
PwC is administering the grants on behalf of HMRC as an accredited grant administrator. Businesses that want to apply for funding should not contact HMRC, but can apply online.