The Prime Minister received a call of congratulation from the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern.

The leaders discussed their shared commitment to an ambitious free trade agreement between the UK and New Zealand at the earliest opportunity.

Prime Minister Johnson and Prime Minister Ardern also discussed other issues of shared importance, including climate change and maintaining momentum in tackling terrorist use of the internet.

Prime Minister Johnson also updated Prime Minister Ardern on developments in the UK’s exit from the European Union. He confirmed that we want to leave the EU with a deal but we are committed to leaving on 31 October whatever the circumstances.

Seeking views on the draft National Policy Statement for Water Resources Infrastructure.

The work, which begins immediately, will focus on whether violent and sexual offenders are serving sentences that truly reflect the severity of their crimes.

It will consider whether changes in legislation are needed to lock criminals up for longer – by not letting them out automatically part-way through a sentence. It will also look at how to break the cycle of repeat offending.

It forms part of a government overhaul of the criminal justice system to further protect the public – by cracking down on crime, raising prison standards, rehabilitating offenders and cutting the vicious cycle of re-offending.

The government review team will report back directly to the Prime Minister with recommendations this autumn.

Specifically, the review will look at:

• Sentencing for the most serious violent and sexual offenders;
• The rules governing when and how these offenders are released; and
• Sentencing of the most prolific offenders.

Today (12 August 2019) also sees a further £85 million awarded to the Crown Prosecution Service to build capacity and manage caseloads over the next 2 years.

Justice Secretary, Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC MP, said:

Too often the public and victims feel that violent and sexual offenders are being released early and without a proper deterrent to stop their offending.

We must ensure that there is confidence in the system, which is why my department will undertake an urgent review of how and when these offenders are released – to better protect the public and end the cycle of reoffending.

This work is a priority for the Government and will report back to the Prime Minister with recommendations to ensure punishments properly reflect the severity of their crimes.

In addition, today the Prime Minister and Justice Secretary are meeting leaders from the police, probation and prison sectors to discuss how to cut crime and improve the criminal justice system.

It comes as an extra £2.5 billion investment has been announced to create 10,000 extra prison places, starting with the new Full Sutton prison.

This follows announcements to recruit 20,000 new police officers over the next three years and the Home Secretary’s confirmation that all 43 police forces in England and Wales can use enhanced stop and search powers.

The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) is partnering with Zenzic (formally Meridian Mobility) and Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Together we will invest up to £2 million in a maximum of 5 projects to support the development of a connected and autonomous vehicle cyber-security testing facility.

Your feasibility proposal must fulfil 3 requirements:

• find ways to measure cyber-physical resilience and maintain cyber security for vehicles, roadside infrastructure, supporting services and so on
• provide input specifications for one or more new cyber test facilities
• explore opportunities to develop new cyber related services

Eligibility

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business, of any size
• carry out its project work in the UK
• claim grant funding
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

Key information

• you can receive grant funding of up to £400,000 for your total eligible project costs
• any academic institutions or public sector organisations in your consortium can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs
• the competition opens for applications on 12 August 2019
• the closing date is midday on 25 September 2019

Definitions of the terms used by the Natural Capital Committee (NCC) in its advice.