Exports grew faster to Canada (up 12.7 per cent), India (31.8 per cent) and China (15.3 per cent) than to the EU (10 per cent).

Goods exports were up 10 per cent, driven by a demand for manufactured goods, while services exports rose 4.2 per cent due to strong global interest in the UK’s prestigious financial and travel services.

Non-EU countries remain the main destination for UK services (£167.4 billion), making up 60.4 per cent of all services exports.

The figures also reveal the trade deficit continuing to narrow over the last year by £7.7 billion to £23.1 billion.

Over the same period, the UK’s current account deficit also narrowed to £80.3 billion, down by £12.2 billion from twelve months earlier. This is the narrowest deficit as a percentage of GDP since 2012.

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox said:

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of UK businesses up and down the country, exports of goods and services rose to a record high of £620 billion. Demand for high quality British products remained strong from countries outside the EU including China, India and Canada and we are putting companies in position to benefit from growing global opportunities.

Far from the negative forecasts after the EU referendum, there is every reason to be optimistic. Our trade deficit narrowed and UK business is delivering for Britain and succeeding on the world stage. As an international economic department we are banging the drum for the growing demand for our goods and services.

The country also remains a strong destination for investment with nearly 76,000 new jobs created as a result of inward investment from foreign direct investment projects in 2017/18, more than the previous year.

Figures from the Department for International Trade published this week show 2,072 new projects recorded, creating 75,968 new jobs and safeguarding 15,063, amounting to nearly 1,500 new jobs per week across the country.

Through GREAT.gov.uk, the department gives UK businesses access to millions of pounds’ worth of potential overseas business. It also puts firms in touch with global buyers and since its launch it has promoted 17,500 export opportunities, and helped around 3.6 million users either begin or grow their exporting journeys (from November 2016 – May 2018).

Research from Barclays Corporate Banking found that 64 per cent of consumers in India, 57 per cent in China, and 48 per cent in the UAE were prepared to pay more for goods made in the UK, because they perceive the quality as higher. [Brand Britain – Export opportunities for UK businesses, February 2018]

Working to promote the UK as a great trading nation, DIT has set up 14 trade working groups covering 21 countries to scope our future trade deals and strengthen commercial ties with key trading partners.

Background:

Following World Refugee Day on 20 June, and with the monsoon season just beginning, the UK is calling on the international community to step up support for the refugees and their host communities. The UK is leading the way with £129 million of aid already given.

With the gender aspects of the humanitarian crisis often overlooked, Joanna Roper will visit women’s safe spaces in the refugee camp at Cox’s Bazar and meet refugees, humanitarian workers, and civil society leaders to understand the needs of women and girls caught up in the crisis.

Minister Field and Joanna Roper will also meet senior ministers to discuss the crisis as well as girls’ and womens’ education in Bangladesh more widely.

Ahead of the visit, Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, the Rt Hon Mark Field MP said:

Bangladesh is dealing with a major humanitarian crisis not of its making and it is vital the international community works with Bangladesh to step up support for the refugees and their host communities, especially during this monsoon season.

We are incredibly grateful to Bangladesh and to Prime Minister Hasina for welcoming over one million Rohingya refugees and I am looking forward to seeing how UK aid is helping improve their lives.

UK Special Envoy for Gender Equality, Joanna Roper, said:

The UK is determined to be a world leader in advocating for gender equality internationally and it is all too often women and girls who are the greatest victims in a humanitarian crisis like this – whether as a result of sexual violence, or loss of access to education, and they must not be ignored.

The detection was made on 26 June when officers stopped a man who had arrived on a flight from South Africa. When the man was questioned and searched, 19 bird eggs were found concealed within a body belt, as well as two newly-hatched vultures.

Border Force specialist officers identified that the eggs were protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Although the exact species are yet to be identified, the eggs are known to be from South African birds of prey including vultures, eagles, hawks and kites.

Officers ensured that both the eggs and the live chicks were kept warm and quickly transported to the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre, managed by the City of London Corporation. City Corporation staff ensured that the chicks were cared for and the unhatched eggs were incubated. The live chicks and the eggs have since been moved to a specialist facility.

Following the incident, a 56-year-old Irish national was arrested and the investigation passed to the National Crime Agency (NCA). He has since been bailed pending further enquiries.

Grant Miller, head of the national Border Force CITES team at Heathrow, said:

My officers are experts in their field and will seize anything that contravenes CITES regulations. In this case, by preventing the smuggling attempt they have also ensured that the birds and eggs received the immediate care and attention that they needed.

The frontline work of my team, alongside close working with enforcement partners such as the NCA and National Wildlife Crime Unit, is key to tackling the international illegal wildlife trade which does so much environmental damage and threatens the survival of endangered animals and plants.

The importation of endangered species into the UK is strictly controlled by CITES, which is an international agreement covering more than 35,000 species of animals and plants. The Heathrow-based Border Force CITES team are specialist officers who work across the UK and who are recognised as world leaders in their field.

Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to smuggling and trafficking of any kind should call the UK hotline on: (0)800 59 5000.

Highly radioactive ‘liquor’ has been taken out of one of the oldest parts of the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo for the first time.

The material has been inside the waste store for many decades.

It was created when water was used to cover the waste so it could not ignite.

New networks of heavily shielded pipes have been built to help get take the material out of the building.

Teams from Sellafield Ltd and supply chain companies recently transferred the first batch.

Chris Halliwell, of Sellafield Ltd, said:

This has been one of our biggest technical and engineering challenges to date.

The first transfer worked just as planned.

The team can now press on with meticulously making each transfer, reducing the hazard posed by our biggest current risk.

The clean-up of the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo is one of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) highest priority programmes.

Duncan Thompson, head of Sellafield programme for the NDA, said:

The clean-up of the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo is one of our highest priority programmes.

It is a highly complex task involving the removal of many different types of waste.

I’m delighted to see the progress being made in removing radioactive liquor.

This work will make Sellafield and the UK a safer place.

The building contains 22 vertical compartments that store waste from the UK’s first generation of nuclear power stations.

It was constructed without plans for how the waste would eventually be taken out.

The building is no longer suitable for long-term storage of nuclear waste.

As a result, innovative solutions are being deployed to retrieve waste from what is effectively a locked vault.

Work to ‘scoop’ solid waste out of the store, using the first of three 350-tonne mobile emptying machines, is scheduled to start next year.

They will be locked into position above each compartment and the waste pulled out through an opening. It will then be transferred to new buildings at Sellafield for treatment and interim storage, pending final disposal at the UK’s Geological Disposal Facility.

The silo will then be fully decommissioned and demolished.