DVLA staff today (Wednesday 5 December) handed over a cheque for £56,715 to Maggie’s Swansea after a year of staff fundraising for the local charity.

Counter Terrorism Policing’s biggest ever winter advertising campaign for Action Counters Terrorism (ACT) launched on 19 November 2018, asking business, industry and members of the public to put security on the top of their ‘must have’ lists this Christmas.

The campaign aims to encourage the public to remain vigilant, look out for suspicious behaviour and inform people on how to report their concerns, providing a ‘whole society’ approach where police, security staff, retail workers and the public come together to minimise the chance of attacks and mitigate the impact they can have.

Counter Terrorism Policing have provided a 60 second security checklist for retailers, businesses and employers, in particular for those who operate in crowded places, urging them to think about their reaction to any potential emergencies.

The checklist includes:

• how do you enter and exit the building in an emergency?
• how do you lock down quickly?
• where can you hide?
• have you briefed your staff?

During the campaign launch the National Coordinator for Protect and Prepare, Chief Superintendent Nick Aldworth, said:

As people are enjoying the festive season they will see a visible security presence with police patrols and additional security in crowded places.

Unpredictable deployments across the UK will also provide an additional layer of protection, with specially trained uniformed and plain clothes officers working to deter, detect and disrupt hostile reconnaissance and encourage the public and businesses to be their extra eyes and ears and report anything that doesn’t feel right.

The ongoing use of Project Servator tactics by the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) supports the objectives of the ACT festive campaign using community engagement, to encourage vigilance, as part of its unpredictable and highly visible deployments in and around the sites that it protects across the UK. Officers pop up at a range of locations including the busy public areas surrounding Defence HQ in Whitehall and the Naval Base in Portsmouth.

The MDP have, alongside other police forces and organisations, been promoting the ACT festive campaign on their social media channels, providing information on how to report suspicious activity online.

In addition, posters and graphics have been produced to support and promote Project Servator deployments throughout the coming weeks and these will also feature on police social media.

Chief Inspector Jeff Renton, Senior Police Officer at Whitehall and MDP’s Protect and Prepare Force representative, said:

The ACT Christmas campaign promotes key messages on the importance of remaining vigilant and trusting your instincts, for all staff and members of the public, during the busy festive period. Project Servator is one of the tactics that the MDP uses to keep its communities safe by deterring, detecting and disrupting a range of criminal activity, including terrorism, whilst providing a reassuring presence in and around the sites that it protects across the UK.

The ACT Christmas campaign and Project Servator festive publicity materials are an effective way of highlighting the messaging to the public and further promoting the ‘whole society’ approach of coming together to combat terrorism. As their respective straplines and hashtags summarise: Action Counters Terrorism, Communities Defeat Terrorism, Together We’ve Got It Covered.

If you see something suspicious report it online using the ACT secure online reporting form, tell one of our police officers or call 01371 854 444.

Please use 999 if an immediate response is required.

Find out more:

Highways England invites companies to join a £4.5bn alliance to improve motorway journeys and continue work to connect the country and deliver roads of the future.

The government company has launched the procurement process for its Smart Motorway Alliance. It needs six partners to join it for 10 years to develop a smarter network, creating extra capacity relieving congestion, for more traffic to use the country’s busiest motorways.

The infrastructure that goes into creating that capacity also forms the foundations for connected vehicles to use the motorways in the future.

The Alliance is the second part of the company’s ground-breaking Routes to Market procurement approach; earlier this month it announced the companies it will work with on £8.7bn worth of Regional Delivery Partnership deals.

Highways England’s Chief Executive, Jim O’Sullivan said:

We want a step change away from traditional thinking and more towards creating value. We want companies that can learn from their experiences, and work together to deliver ever improving efficiency and productivity.

Highways England has developed the model through engagement with the supply chain. The innovative and infrastructure leading approach will enable a step-change in performance and aid the delivery of a large number of schemes that will increase capacity and reduce congestion on motorways, whilst improving safety during the delivery of these schemes.

The company is seeking three on-site delivery partners, two digitally enabled design partners and one production management partner.

The six partners will work with Highways England to provide exemplar performance and achieve results that include:

• better safety, through better aligned and common working practices and reduced time on site
• more efficient delivery, through a programmatic approach that will drive standardisation, production and off-site assembly
• improved customer service with a reduction in time needed for works and minimising any disruptions for road users
• increased investment in skills and innovation from the supply chain, supported by a secure and long-term pipeline of work

The contract is outcome focused and partners will be collectively responsible and rewarded based upon delivering efficiencies. The Alliance puts integration and collaboration between Highways England and its supply chain at the heart of how Highways England’s smart motorway programme will work going forward.

The Contract Notice has been issued to the OJEU.

Accompanying procurement documents can be accessed via Bravo Solution, Highways England’s e-procurement portal. View the Smart Motorway Alliance descriptive document.

Interested potential partners from the supply chain can attending a briefing on Monday 10 December in central Birmingham.

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.

We have more over 75s than ever before, but for those born this year, 54% will live to be 100. In order for us all to live healthier lives for longer we need to diagnose disease earlier, making the most of new technology and new medicines.

Today, in a new deal between government and the life sciences sector, we have announced a major study to collect a range of data from 5 million healthy volunteers. This mammoth undertaking will be the biggest study of its kind, using artificial intelligence and other new technologies to diagnose diseases earlier.

We all know someone who we love who has suffered the effects of a devastating disease. If we can detect illnesses like cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease before symptoms present, we can open doors to transform treatment and save lives. I am honoured to be leading the Accelerating Detection of Disease project which will bring together doctors, industry experts and leading charities including Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and Alzheimer’s Research UK.

It is this kind of revolutionary work which will help people get the right treatment before they get ill, and it is my ambition that this will give more of us, more years of healthy life.

By working together, industry, charities, Government and the NHS can tackle major healthcare challenges. The second Life Sciences Sector Deal announced today demonstrates another major step forward for the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy in the UK. With 240,000 skilled jobs and a £70 billion contribution to the UK economy, the Life Sciences Sector is vibrant, successful and diverse. The new Life Sciences Sector Deal includes input from digital, medical and biological technology companies, diagnostics experts and pharmaceutical companies.

Not only that, but it includes significant inward investment from the sector – over £1.3 billion – and shows a continued commitment to UK expertise and facilities. I am also pleased to see the ongoing global engagement with the agenda I laid out in my Life Sciences Industrial Strategy last year to cultivate the best environment for research and development in the UK.

In years gone by, the idea of eliminating smallpox, managing HIV or curing Hepatitis C seemed impossible and yet we are living in an age where the risks associated with these diseases have been either eliminated or greatly reduced. The programme announced today will set us on the path to new medical breakthroughs, innovative treatments, and longer lives, cutting down suffering in the future. The UK’s world leading life sciences experts are going further than ever before to help us live healthier, for longer.