Volunteers in policing who have deployed drones to search for missing people, raised awareness about the risks of carrying a knife, and helped to shut down a hotel being used for child sexual exploitation (CSE) have been honoured at an awards ceremony in London today (Tuesday 16 October).

The Lord Ferrers Awards – which is in its 25th year – celebrates the contributions of Police Support Volunteers, Special Constables, Volunteer Police Cadets, and volunteers supporting the work of Police and Crime Commissioners.

Police forces in England and Wales and members of the public submitted over 700 nominations this year, the highest number ever received in the awards’ quarter-century history. A total of 53 exceptional candidates were shortlisted.

Winners received awards across ten categories at the ceremony at Millbank Tower, attended by the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service Nick Hurd.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

All police volunteers are true heroes – giving up their own time to support their communities and help keep the country safe.

This year’s inspirational finalists should be truly proud of their achievements and I want to thank them for their contribution to policing.

Minister for Policing and the Fire Service Nick Hurd said:

Each year, I am amazed by the innovation, dedication and selflessness shown by the nominees for the Lord Ferrers Awards.

Volunteers in policing bring a wide range of experience, skills and outlooks. This is crucial to ensuring that we have a police force that is trusted and valued by the British public.

Other categories acknowledge employers who have gone above and beyond to support their staff to volunteer in their local force and recognise volunteers who have used innovative methods to solve problems in policing.

Former BBC News presenter Sir Martyn Lewis hosted the event, which was sponsored by Police Mutual.

The winners are:

Ferrers Special Constabulary – Individual Award

Joint winner: Abaid Hussain, South Yorkshire Police

Special Constable Abaid Hussain stepped in to drive forward the ‘Rotherham Town Centre Street Drinking and Begging Plan’. He engineered a series of response options targeting key repeat offenders. He was prolific in enforcing Public Space Protection, demonstrating considerable courage by seizing alcohol, making arrests and challenging problem sellers of alcohol. His intervention has led to a significant reduction in street drinking and begging incidents.

Joint winner: Neil Healey, Nottinghamshire Police

Special Sergeant Neil Healey has been a key part of the Child Sexual Exploitation disruption team. He has demonstrated a significant sense of public duty and a passion for tackling CSE by visiting hotspots, issuing Child Abduction Warning Notices, targeting perpetrators and safeguarding victims. His recent success includes enforcing a Civil Closure Order which led to the shut down a hotel used for abuse.

Special Constabulary – Team Award: The Tameside Special Constables, Greater Manchester Police

This team of Special Constables volunteered to be part of Operation Labyrinth, tackling Child Sexual Exploitation cases. They have had many successes, including helping to finalise a crucial investigation and safeguarding a victim at risk of being groomed further. Due to these successes, and the commitment demonstrated by the team, they have now taken over the delivery of Operation Labyrinth on a full-time basis.

Police Support Volunteer – Individual Award: Sally Mack, Norfolk Constabulary

Sally Mack joined Norfolk Constabulary as a Family Liaison Support Volunteer three years ago. Through her work, Sally identified a gap in support provision for witnesses to fatal road collisions, and the bereaved. She has put together a network of agencies which she can call to provide specialised or ongoing support. Her initiative has a huge impact on those who have been referred as it allows them to ‘restart’ their lives.

Staffed by volunteers aged 14 to 25, the Basingstoke Community Court gives victims of low level crimes a voice and allows offenders to reflect on the harm they have caused to victims. This initiative aims to avoid and reduce recidivism. Since going live in June 2016, the Court has heard over 100 cases and seen positive results. The Court would not have achieved these without the contributions made by the volunteers.

Volunteer Police Cadet – Individual Award: Alicja Sadkiewicz, South Wales Police

Alicja Sadkiewicz is passionate about her Polish heritage. As part of the Holocaust Memorial Trust initiative five challenges, she translated and told the story of a Polish survivor of the Holocaust to pupils of her former primary school. She also took part in a march and service to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.

Volunteer Police Cadet – Team Award: Trafford Volunteer Police Cadets, Greater Manchester Police

This over 130-strong team performed a range of initiatives to tackle issues that are affecting their local communities, including:

• knife crime – they wrote and produced a video to raise awareness of the dangers of knife crime, which has been shared widely on social media

• fly tipping – they mobilised a large group of cadets to perform a litter-pick in an affected area

• anti-social behaviour – having learnt about an elderly couple’s house and garden being a target for anti-social behaviour and criminal damage, the cadets decided to work together to improve the appearance of the house’s frontage and front garden. As a result, the couple felt less intimidated and the anti-social incidents became less frequent

Employer Supported Policing Award: Global Coach Tours, Derbyshire Constabulary

Global Coach Tours, a small family travel company, allow their employees to take five days a month in paid Employer Supported Policing (ESP) leave to support the police. This is far greater than the commitment that they were asked to provide. Their contribution equates to 25% of ESP hours in the force area.

ASCO Leadership Award: Nathan Selby, Merseyside Police

Noticing a high number of failed applicants at the Special Constables interview, Nathan Selby took the initiative to improve the recruitment and induction processes. He instigated a monthly event for applicants, explaining the interview process and the competencies. As a result, the pass rate has substantially improved, which has also indirectly increased in the number of BME Special Constables. Nathan also set up a Professional Development Unit with induction sessions to ensure that new officers receive consistent and adequate support.

Technical Innovation Award: The Unmanned Aerial Support Group, Wiltshire Police

There are 5 such teams in operation in the UK, but the team in Wiltshire is unique; it is the only one that is led by special constables. They use drones to support various operational policing activities including incidents involving missing people, air crashes and crowd disorder. This team of four provides 24/7 on-call cover. In addition to the police, this team also provides support to Fire and Hazardous Area Response Team (HART).

OPCC Volunteer Individual/Team Award: Victim Support West Yorkshire

The Victim Support West Yorkshire volunteers provided emotional and practical support to 90 victims and their families, suffering from physical injuries and mental trauma from the Manchester Arena attack in 2017. Volunteers also supported victims at the anniversary event held in Manchester.

The Coal Authority outlined how this legacy is now playing its part in the drive for green energy, clean growth and sustainability.

A number of initiatives are now helping to save costs, generate income and support sustainable energy as part of the government’s Clean Growth Strategy.

Lisa Pinney MBE, Chief Executive, Coal Authority, said:

We’re delighted to support Green GB Week and committed to working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to promote the government’s Clean Growth Strategy and Heat Networks Investment Project.

We’re committed to changing our mind set from one focused on dealing with the problems of Britain’s mining legacy to one that focuses on the opportunities of our mining heritage.

To fully realise these opportunities we’re thinking differently, working with others and being bold in our approach.

Low carbon energy and water supply resilience

Work is already underway to make the most of these opportunities for the nation. In a surprising role reversal, abandoned coal mines are now being considered as a potential new low carbon heat source.

Exciting developments such as ground based solar installations and power efficiencies on former colliery sites are also saving the Coal Authority £0.7 million this year alone.

Water from mine water treatment schemes, and water stored in abandoned mines, could play an important role in balancing water supplies for consumption or the environment in future: mines themselves could play a role in storing water during flood conditions.

Innovations in mine water treatment

New uses for by-products from coal mine water treatment are also among the ‘green’ innovations developed by the Coal Authority.

Ochre used to be classed as waste but has been developed as a pigment for the fine arts market. It can also be used to remediate contaminated land.

Iron removed from mine water during the treatment process is also being used to remove phosphorus as part of the sewage treatment process. This helps to improve water quality and support river ecology.

Claire Perry, Minister for Energy and Clean Growth, said:

The UK has led the world in cutting emissions whilst growing our economy – with clean growth driving incredible innovation and creating hundreds of thousands of high quality jobs.

Ten years on from the Climate Change Act, the first ever Green GB week is a time to build on our successes and explain the huge opportunities for business and young people of a cleaner economy.

I’m delighted to see how many more businesses and organisations such as the Coal Authority are seizing this multi-billion pound opportunity to energize their communities to tackle the very serious threat of climate change.

Discover more

Coal mines may no longer be the feature of Britain’s landscape that they once were, but their legacy is now revealing new opportunities for our generation to explore.

The Coal Authority will publish its latest Sustainability Report soon, which highlights its sustainability performance in 2017-18, during which time it:

• recycled over 3,700 tonnes of reedbed waste, reducing the environment impacts associated with landfill
• increased its portfolio of solar arrays, taking its renewable generating capacity to 712 kW
• reduced its carbon footprint, as part of its efficiencies programme
• won a prestigious edie Sustainability Leaders Award 2018, for its work in finding new ways to reuse waste products, and was shortlisted for Sustainable Business of the year

Find out more about the Coal Authority

Good afternoon everyone. It’s great to see so many people, from so many different places, all gathered here today.

It may be strange to open a speech about the future by looking to the past. But I’d like to begin by asking you to cast your minds back in time to January 1882.

A time when horse-drawn Hackney Carriages clattered across cobbled streets, the tube was in its infancy, and lamplighters went around at dusk, illuminating the city streets with gas flames.

And now, imagine the excitement you’d feel when you heard the news: The world’s first coal-fired power station was up and running in London.

The Edison Electric Light Station was named for its designer, Thomas Edison – one of the great innovators of the nineteenth century, who invented the phonograph, improved the telephone, and commercialised the incandescent bulb.

And while the Light Station lit fewer than 1000 bulbs, and closed a few short years later, it had changed the landscape, and in 1889 the first central power station was opened in Deptford.

While we may debate whether it was Edison, or Swan, or someone else who designed the lightbulb first I think we can all agree that this profound shift – over just seven years – was triggered by an innovator; a person with an idea, the means to test it, and the ambition to see it through.

Since then, we’ve become acutely conscious of the damage that has been done by inefficient and polluting products, whether they’re old lightbulbs, coal-fired power stations, or the cars which replaced those horse-drawn carriages.

So now, as Edison did, we need to improve on what came before.

If we want to see another major shift like the one he brought about – but this time a shift towards the clean technologies of the future – then we need more innovators like Edison.

We need you.

And we need you to be able to do what Edison did: have an idea, create a product, and share it with the world. This is where government can come in – we can make sure that you’re able to do these things.

Take the example of YASA Motors. This year they opened a new production factory in Oxfordshire, which is supporting 150 high-skilled jobs and aiming to produce 100,000 units by the year’s end.

But the company started with just one man: Tim Woolmer, a graduate from the University of Oxford, one of our fantastic universities, if I may say, represented in the room today.

In 2009, Tim’s DPhil research gave him an idea for a new type of motor, capable of significant carbon emission reductions and, with the help of the university, YASA Motors was founded as a university spinout.

This sort of thing will only become more frequent, because back in January of this year we pledged more than 180 million pounds from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to fund science and engineering research.

Next, Tim needed to test out his ideas in the real world, and scale up, and Innovate UK – now part of UK Research and Innovation – were there to lend a hand, helping YASA to develop their Y750 motor.

Now YASA are an international company, and they’re ready to innovate again, with an Advanced Propulsion Centre grant helping them to develop their next products alongside a host of others, including Hofer Powertrain UK and the Warwick Manufacturing Centre.

And they could benefit further still – for example, from the BEIS Energy Innovation Programme, committing more than 500 million pounds to help accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies and processes.

All part of our commitment to spending 2.4 percent of GDP on R&D in the next three years.
Of course, when I speak of international companies, it’s with a keen awareness of the international nature of research too. Edison, after all, is one of America’s greatest historical figures, but he chose to build his first power station in London.

The UK may be home to some of the brightest minds in the world, but it doesn’t have a monopoly on great ideas. Nor is climate change a solely British concern. So we’re working with friends around the world to ensure that innovative approaches can flourish in every corner of the globe.

Back at the start of the year, my colleague the Energy Minister, Claire Perry, launched the UK-South Korea Bilateral Collaboration on Smart Energy Innovation.

Central to this was a competition, where UK companies and teams would partner with companies and organisations in South Korea to develop and demonstrate innovative, low-carbon technologies and approaches, including demand-side response, vehicle-to-grid technologies, flexibility markets, system integration and energy storage systems.

My department committed up to three million pounds to the competition, and our counterparts in South Korea offered roughly the same to the South Korean groups involved, and today I am pleased to announce the winners of that funding:

• Doosan Babcock Ltd, who have developed a novel energy storage approach based on liquifying air;
• GridDuck, who are looking at smarter ways to charge and discharge electric vehicles; and Electron, for their work to develop a trading platform in South Korea to incentivize the flexible use of energy.

Not only will these developments help in the global fight against climate change, they’ll also mean more business for the winners and, we hope, new trade and investment opportunities between our two nations.

The same is true in on the other side of the world, where we are embarking on a new collaboration.

Today, I’m pleased to launch the Power Forward Challenge, which we’re taking on alongside the Canadian Government. We’ll be bringing together innovators from both countries to demonstrate our shared ability to aggregate and manage distributed generation, energy storage and flexible loads in future energy systems so that we can learn to respond to greater demand, complexity and volatility that our future energy grid will face.

Soon you’ll be hearing from Janice Charette, the Canadian High Commissioner to the UK, and, by video, from Amarjeet Sohi, the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources so I’ll leave it to them to say more about this.

These two projects show the high demand that there is for our expertise all around the world. And with the stakes so high, and the potential rewards so big, we are keen to show that expertise.

Today, alongside the Department for International Trade, we’re launching a brochure which highlights the impressive breadth and depth of the capability which British companies offer, allowing potential partners from around the world to see where they might be able to complement UK expertise and experience, bringing together the brightest and best from around the world to work in partnership with UK firms.

In all this collaboration, others nations are designing their own products and services to make the world that bit greener. This is great news. But, of course, I want to see the people of this country prospering – which means that I want us to stay ahead of the pack.

That’s why we’re continuing to invest in our fantastic entrepreneurs.

Today, we are publishing the winners of the latest phase of our Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. Our funding to date totals around 60 million pounds and has supported over 130 projects.

Lastly, with clarity and simplicity in mind, today we launch a data visualisation tool which will show the different clean energy projects funded by our innovation funding programmes.

It will also allow users to see which projects are in the same technology area, or which ones are based locally to them so that potential collaborators, investors and developers can easily identify opportunities to add value.

All of this work will support innovations in the clean tech of tomorrow, helping our world and helping our people.

When Thomas Edison set out his vision for a coal power station all those years ago, that was what he wanted to do. In many ways, he did.

Now it’s your turn to take that vision forward. In this Green GB Week, it’s time to put pen to paper. It’s your turn to take that idea you’ve always kept at the back of your head and start bringing it into the real world.

100 years from now, it could be your name that people associate with invention, and your innovations which shape the world.

Thank you.

The UK Government officially opened its Canary Wharf Hub today as part of its long-term Civil Service transformation to reduce fragmented government office buildings from 800 to 200, by 2030.

Moving departments into the new Canary Wharf hub will result in £24 million of savings per year. Furthermore, the average cost per sq/m in the Canary Wharf building is £700, compared to £950 for Whitehall buildings.

The Government Property Agency is expected to deliver £3.6 billion worth of savings over 20 years. Of which, £2.5 billion will be delivered by the Hubs Programme. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the largest occupier of the Government Hub, with 2,000 of its people benefiting from the flexible, collaborative work environment.

Oliver Dowden, Minister for Implementation, said:

It’s great to see public and private sector staff rubbing shoulders here in Canary Wharf. This hub is one of 14 across the country already announced which will use cutting-edge design and innovative technology to deliver smarter public services that reduce vacant space across the government estate.

The government has saved £300m per year in running costs, through the disposal of over a thousand properties since 2014. By the end of this Parliament, we will have established a network of around 20 multi-agency government hubs across the UK that utilise efficient smarter working practices and are accessible to the communities they serve.

The Canary Wharf building had previously been used by Barclays PLC and was selected as a Government Hub due to its excellent transport links, which will be further enhanced by the opening of Crossrail in the future.

Steven Boyd, HMRC’s Estates Director, said:

I am pleased that HMRC is delivering Phase 1 of the Government Hubs Programme, including being commissioned to deliver the Canary Wharf Hub with Government Property Agency. More than 2,000 of our London-based people are already benefitting from the facilities the hub has to offer; including modern, flexible workspaces with great IT and excellent transport links. Bringing our teams from across London together in Canary Wharf is already showing the benefits of collaboration and modern ways of working.

Through smarter property management, and the uptake of modern, more efficient working practices, vacant space has been reduced across the government estate by 73% since 2014.

This forms part of the Government Estate Strategy, published earlier this year, which seeks to provide a government estate that works for everyone. It aims to drive growth and opportunity by moving government jobs to centres of excellence in areas across the UK with particular strengths and skills, to house the Civil Service in modern, flexible workspaces. This will open up the workplace to a more diverse Civil Service that better reflects the people it serves and the places where they live.

Note to editors

• For more information please contact the Cabinet Office Press Office on: 0207 276 7545.

• The hubs programme is part of the government’s broader SmarterGov campaign, launched to drive innovation, savings and public service improvement across government and wider public sector.

New Welsh language numbers have been launched in Wales in line with the launch of Courts & Tribunals Service Centres opening in January.

For our English speakers, phone calls will go through to one of our new Courts and Tribunals Service Centres, the first two of which are due to open in January 2019 in Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham. These will handle the administrative processes of courts and tribunals and will be the first port of call for the public wanting information on their cases – enabling calls, emails and queries to be answered much more quickly and accurately. Welsh language speakers can continue to speak to our team in Welsh on the service lines below which are now open:

Welsh language service	Contact number
Social Security and Child Support Appeals	03003035170
Divorce	03003035171
Single Justice Service Centre (including DVLA and TV Licensing enquiries)	03003035172
Jury service	03003035173
Civil Money Claims	03003035174
Fines/Fixed Penalty	03003035175
Employment Tribunal Appeals	03003035176
Video Hearings	03003035177
Assisted Digital	03003035179
Probate	03003030654
Magistrates Court (all Welsh courts other than Caernarfon Magistrates’ Court)	03003035178

You can find out more about our new services on our projects and services page.

Calls to the new service line numbers will be answered by our teams at the Welsh Language Unit at Caernarfon Justice Centre. These new Welsh language service lines are part of the £1 billion that is being invested in transforming the courts and tribunals service, making the justice system simpler to access, convenient to use and more efficient to run; utilising technology to bring the processes of justice into the 21st century.

This new service has been set up in accordance with our Welsh Language Scheme, which we published in May this year.

To find out more about our reform programme and other projects currently underway you can read our reform programme page on GOV.UK.

Published 16 October 2018