A total of £8 million funding is available to develop world-leading civil aerospace technologies in the UK.

The funding will be shared across 3 competitions. This latest competition is for collaborative feasibility studies. 2 competitions have already been run for expressions of interest for:

• fast-track collaborative research and development projects that could be exploited within 3 to 5 years
• longer collaborative research and development projects, taking 5 years or more for exploitation

A portfolio approach will be applied across the 3 opportunities, with funding split across a spread of themes, project durations and costs.

Innovate UK is working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) to fund and manage the programme.

Demonstrating the feasibility of new solutions

The competition is looking for high risk, high-impact projects that demonstrate visionary, revolutionary or disruptive ways of tackling the biggest aerospace challenges in the UK.

It is designed to support and speed up industry investment in supply chain companies.

Projects should focus on one of more of the following:

• concept designs for radical or unconventional medium and long-range aircraft
• concept designs for urban and regional air vehicles, vertical take-off and landing and short take-off and landing
• identifying and evaluating the requirements for a scalable, hybrid electric power demonstrator facility
• modelling high-temperature, superconducting electrical power machines
• establishing the environmental impact of novel air vehicles, including gaseous and particulate emissions
• integrating single crew or autonomous vehicles into controlled airspace

They should align with the UK aerospace technology strategy to maximise the UK’s share of the global commercial aircraft market.

Competition information

• the competition opens on 14 January 2019, and the deadline for applications is at midday on 27 February 2019
• a UK-based business of any size must lead the project, working with other businesses, research and public sector organisations or charities
• projects can range in size between £255,000 to £500,000 and last up to 12 months
• businesses could attract up to 50% of their project costs
• applicants will need to sign up to the ATI framework agreement

The online uptake follows the start of a £1bn investment from the government to bring new technology and modern ways of working to the justice system. This includes a new fully accessible online civil money claims service giving people the ability to make a claim online – with more than 39,000 claims made since its launch in March and satisfaction rates at 89% – and a new system for applying for divorce online, which has cut errors in application forms from 40% to less than 1%.

Public feedback is positive with 85% of people reporting they are happy with the new divorce service, 93% for probate and 89% for civil money claims.

The time taken to complete a divorce application has also reduced by more than half an hour on average.

Justice Minister, Lucy Frazer said:

These online services are already making a difference to people who use the justice system.

As we reach this milestone it’s encouraging to see people are reporting these services work well for them and are a better-fit around their busy lives.

The new services already delivered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service in 2018 include:

• Divorce Online – more than 23,000 applications have been made since it was launched in April 2018
• Civil Money Claims Online – more than 39,000 money claims have been made since its launch in March 2018, with the fastest claim being lodged and paid in under two hours
• Probate Online – more than 7,500 applications have been made since July 2018
• Submit Your Appeal Online – 3,300 online PIP appeals have been submitted since its launch in July 2018
• Online pleas – more than 1,400 online pleas have been made within the Single Justice Procedure for Transport for London fare evasion cases since its launch in April 2018

In addition, during 2018 more than 81,000 online pleas have been made for low-level motoring offences via the Make a Plea service first introduced in 2014.

Online services do not replace existing paper-based applications, but provide a quicker, easier route for many people. Each are undergoing further development that will see new functions added to improve public access and efficiency.

The Reform programme has also already delivered:

• A pilot of fully video hearings in tax tribunals to test the potential for roll-out where appropriate across the courts and tribunals system
• The national implementation of a new in-court system to record the results of cases digitally and instantly
• A pilot of a new digital system providing shared case information in criminal cases to the police, CPS, courts service and legal professionals.

Online court reform is an example of how digital transformation is making it quicker and easier for people to interact with government. By 2020, around 100 services will be available digitally.

This is one part of the SmarterGov campaign, which has been launched to drive innovation, savings and public service improvement across government and wider public sector.

Notes to editors:

• People can make a plea in Welsh using the online platform
• HMCTS is developing Welsh online language services and Welsh paper-based applications can continue to be used.

More than 150,000 people used online justice services in the past 12 months taking the total number to over 300,000 in the past four years.

The Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt will visit the headquarters of BT Singapore today (4 January) to officially open their new office and see how UK excellence in cyber security is helping businesses and local government secure their operations for the digital age.

While on the tour of the new office, which is home to around 300 staff, the Foreign Secretary will be shown the company’s new ‘Customer Experience Centre’ which provides an interactive experience showcasing global connectivity services, cloud migration as well as world class cyber security services.

The new BT office will be the hub for the British company to deliver its services across South East Asia, providing cyber security solutions and services to private and public sector organisations.

The clients in the region include, a number of Singapore government agencies, major banks and financial service providers, the Singapore Stock Exchange and leading local and global logistics and shipping operators.

Speaking ahead of the opening Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said:

Cyber security is essential to our national security in the 21st Century and British businesses are making a vital contribution against this global threat. The new BT office in Singapore will enable them to further strengthen their position as a leading player by providing expertise on cyber security solutions to countries and businesses across South East Asia.

James Hennah, Managing Director, BT in South East Asia said:

It is an honour to welcome the Foreign Secretary to open our regional headquarters in Singapore. The new office is home to almost 300 highly skilled staff, supporting our growing list of customers in the region with resilient connectivity, cloud services and world class security.

It builds on our established presence with both networking and cyber operations in the wider Asia Pacific region. Just over a year ago we opened a brand new Cyber Security R&D Centre in Sydney, tapping into local talent to help us alleviate the global cyber skills shortage.

The visit comes after the UK and Singapore signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on Cybersecurity Capacity Building at the Commonwealth Summit in 2018 where the two countries agreed to cooperate to deliver cybersecurity capacity building programmes to Commonwealth Member States for a two-year period.

The UK also committed to participate in Singapore’s ASEAN Cyber Capacity Programme (ACCP), originally launched in 2016. A British cyber security expert will shortly start working in the British High Commission in Singapore to support this initiative, which will involve training and sharing best practice with officials working on cyber security in other ASEAN countries.

During his visit to Singapore on 4 January, the Foreign Secretary will meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. He will also discuss with student journalists how to fulfil their role in an age of social media and disinformation.

Further information

Jeremy Hunt opens BT’s cyber security hub during three day visit to Asia.