UK’s export credit agency asks the public for its views on proposed changes.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) has today launched a month-long consultation into its foreign content policy. During the consultation, the UK’s export credit agency will ask the public for its views on proposed changes, which are designed to recognise the full contribution of the UK supply chain in the transactions UKEF supports.

The proposed changes will enable UKEF to provide the most appropriate support for UK exporters and suppliers, ensuring that the UK remains competitive and enabling global buyers to purchase more easily from the UK.

The consultation was announced in the Spring Statement and follows the publication of the Export Strategy in 2018. The strategy underlines the government’s commitment to providing comprehensive and flexible support to help UK exporters take full advantage of international demand for the UK’s world-class goods and services.

Louis Taylor, chief executive, UKEF said:

UK Export Finance is committed to helping UK exporters succeed in overseas markets with the right support. By consulting on the support we provide, we are ensuring we can adapt in line with the world’s changing economy and the changing needs of the UK’s exporters, ultimately ensuring the UK meets its trading potential.

UK Export Finance is the UK’s export credit agency and a government department, working alongside the Department for International Trade as an integral part of its strategy and operations.

Our mission is to ensure that no viable UK export should fail for want of finance or insurance from the private market. We provide finance and insurance to help exporters win, fulfil and ensure they get paid for export contracts.

Sectors in which UKEF has supported exports include: aerospace, healthcare, infrastructure, telecommunications and transport.

UKEF has a national regional network of 24 export finance managers supporting export businesses.

Our range of products includes:

• Bond insurance policy
• Bond support scheme
• Buyer & supplier credit financing facility
• Direct lending facility
• Export insurance policy
• Export refinancing facility
• Export working capital scheme
• Letter of credit guarantee scheme

Our country cover positions outline our current cover policy and risk appetite for each country.

This is the moment a giant ‘superspan’ gantry was installed across a stretch of the M6 as part of a major upgrade to ease congestion.

The structure is nearly 131ft (40m) in length and weighs around 46 tonnes. It was lowered into place by a specialist crane weighing 200 tonnes.

The new gantry spans the width of the M6 and was installed at the weekend near Corley Services between junctions 3 (Coventry / Nuneaton) and 4 (Coleshill).

It will house the technology responsible for providing safety information to motorists as well as advising drivers of changes in variable speed limits to help traffic flow more smoothly.

Highways England captured timelapse footage of the painstaking work that took place overnight while the road was at its quietest.

Motorway Gantry 1 M6 2-4

Highways England Assistant Project Manager, David Croser-Drake, said:

We planned this work meticulously to ensure that we could get the M6 open on Sunday morning as quickly and as safely as possible.

This is a really exciting milestone in this major upgrade of a busy stretch of the M6 and once completed will ease congestion and provide smoother journeys for those using it.

Once finished, the new-look stretch of the M6 will feature:

• three controlled motorway lanes, retaining the hard shoulder from junctions 3a to 4 where the motorway will tie into the existing controlled motorway 
• a four-lane smart motorway between junctions 2 to 3a with a hard shoulder next to the current ‘climbing lane’ travelling eastbound 
• installation of new electronic information signs and signals, radar detection and CCTV cameras – these will be used to vary speed limits which allow management of traffic flow and incidents 
• nine emergency areas to use in place of the hard shoulder 
• an improved central reserve barrier made of concrete to improve safety 
• two new noise barriers at Potter’s Green and Goodyers End and low noise surfacing on the road

Elsewhere, Highways England has completed a £265 million project to add extra lanes and new technology to a 19-mile stretch of the motorway between Crewe and Knutsford – the most significant change since the M6 first opened in Cheshire in 1963.

A fourth lane has been introduced in each direction and a total of 258 electronic signs, 104 traffic sensors and 70 CCTV cameras will help tackle congestion and improve journey times for around 120,000 drivers every day.

The upgrade is the first of four smart motorway schemes to be finished that will increase the M6’s capacity by a third on 60 miles of the motorway between Coventry and Wigan.

And there’s also good news for motorists in North Tyneside with more than 80,000 drivers a day are experiencing safer and smoother journeys thanks to the opening of the North East’s first ever triple decker junction.

The £75 million Highways England Coast Road scheme has been opened on time and traffic is now able to use the new section of road. This means that drivers will no longer have to negotiate the roundabout and can continue straight on along the A19.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

• Percentage of businesses experiencing cyber breaches or attacks drops from 43% to 32%.
• New laws to strengthen data protection have had a positive impact on cyber security.
• Businesses and charities urged to train more people to help manage cyber risks.

New statistics from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have shown a reduction in the percentage of businesses suffering a cyber breach or attack in the last year.

The 2019 Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows that 32% of businesses identified a cyber security attack in the last 12 months – down from 43% the previous year.

The reduction is partly due to the introduction of tough new data laws under the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). 30% of businesses and 36% of charities have made changes to their cyber security policies and processes as a result of GDPR coming into force in May 2018.

However, of those businesses that did suffer attacks, the typical median number of breaches has risen from 4 in 2018 to 6 in 2019. Therefore, businesses and charities suffering cyber attacks and breaches appear to be experiencing more attacks than in previous years.

Where a breach has resulted in a loss of data or assets, the average cost of a cyber attack on a business has gone up by more than £1,000 since 2018 to £4,180. Business leaders are now being urged to do more to protect themselves against cybercrime.

The most common breaches or attacks were phishing emails, followed by instances of others impersonating their organisation online, viruses or other malware including ransomware.

Digital Minister Margot James said:

Following the introduction of new data protection laws in the UK it’s encouraging to see that business and charity leaders are taking cyber security more seriously than ever before. However, with less than three in ten of those companies having trained staff to deal with cyber threats, there’s still a long way to go to make sure that organisations are better protected.

We know that tackling cyber threats is not always at the top of business and charities list of things to do, but with the rising costs of attacks, it’s not something organisations can choose to ignore any longer.

Through the CyberFirst programme, the Government is working with industry and education to improve cyber security and get more young people interested in taking up a career in cyber. The Cyber Discovery initiative has already encouraged 46,000 14 to 18 year olds to get on a path towards the cyber security profession, over 1,800 students have attended free CyberFirst courses and nearly 12,000 girls have taken part in the CyberFirst Girls competition. The Government’s initial Cyber Skills Strategy, published in December, will be followed by a full strategy later this year.

Business and charity leaders are being encouraged to download the free small business guide and free small charity guide to help make sure that they don’t fall victim to cyber attacks. This is available through the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Clare Gardiner, Director of Engagement at the NCSC, said:

We are committed to making the UK the safest place to live and do business online, and welcome the significant reduction in the number of businesses experiencing cyber breaches.

However, the cyber security landscape remains complex and continues to evolve, and organisations need to continue to be vigilant.

The NCSC has a range of products and services to assist businesses, charities and other organisations to protect themselves from cyber attacks, and to deal with attacks when they occur. These include the Board Toolkit providing advice to Board level leaders, and guides aimed at small businesses and small charities.

The threat of cyber attacks remains very real and widespread in the UK. The figures published today also show that 48% of businesses and 39% of charities who were breached or attacked, identified at least one breach or attack every month.

Cyber security is becoming more of a priority issue, especially for charities. Those charities who treated cyber security as a high priority has gone up to 75% in 2019, compared with just 53% the year before, and is now at the same level as businesses.

Small businesses and charities are being urged to take up tailored advice from the National Cyber Security Centre. All businesses should consider adopting the Ten Steps to Cyber Security, which provides a comprehensive approach to managing cyber risks. Implementation of the 10 Steps will help organisations reduce the likelihood and cost of a cyber attack or cyber related data breach.

Organisations can also raise their basic defences by enrolling on the Cyber Essentials initiative and following the regularly updated technical guidance on Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership available on the NCSC website.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

The annual Cyber Security Breaches survey is part of the Government’s National Cyber Security Strategy, which is investing £1.9 billion over five years to make the UK the safest place to live and work online.

The survey builds on the ongoing programme of Government action on cyber security, which has recently included the publication of the NCSC “Board Toolkit”, the publication of the Cyber Health Check for FTSE350 companies, a series of Ministerial roundtables with leading UK companies, and the Cyber Aware campaign for small businesses and the public.

Businesses and charities can protect themselves online using the practical guidance offered by the National Cyber Security Centre, such as the Cyber Security Guide for Small Businesses and the Cyber Security Guide for Small Charities.

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2019 was carried out for DCMS by Ipsos MORI, in partnership with the Institute for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth.

The survey methodology consists of a random probability telephone survey of 1,566 UK businesses (excluding agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses) and 514 UK registered charities undertaken from 10 October 2018 to 20 December 2018. The data have been weighted to be statistically representative of these two populations. In addition, a total of 52 in-depth interviews with survey participants, were undertaken during January and February 2019, to gain further qualitative insights.

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey is an Official Statistic and has been produced to the standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.