In accepting the appointment, to which he was elected for a three year period, Noel said:

I am delighted to be elected to lead this prestigious and important body. Hallmarking verifies the integrity of some of the most precious items we possess, both on a personal and a monetary level. Without the ability to these trust these precious items are what they say they are our jewellery industry would be badly undermined. All that glisters is indeed not gold.

Noel’s key challenges will be to ensure the integrity and portability of UK hallmarks following Brexit, to ensure that consumers understand the value of hallmarks, supporting and protecting the UK’s jewellery industry through the Council’s advice to government, and to maintain the excellent worldwide reputation of the UK’s four Assay Offices in Birmingham, Edinburgh, London and Sheffield.

Noel Hunter is a former Director of Warwickshire County Council, was a former Warden of the Birmingham Assay Office. a Vice President of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and also chairs the Myton Hospices, a Midlands based charity.

Noel’s predecessor who led the Council for the last six years is Christopher Jewitt, who continues with a number of public duties as well as being a Director of Footprint Tools, Sheffield. In his opening address to the Council, Noel paid tribute to Christopher’s prodigious and tireless work on behalf of the Council.

During his visit to New York for UN General Assembly week the UK Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, hosted an event to launch the Principles for Global Action on tackling the stigma of Sexual Violence.

Lord Ahmad and UN Under Secretary General and Special Representative on Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten were joined by the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Presidential Adviser on Sexual Violence and Child Recruitment, Madame Jeanine Mabunda and Co-Founder of the Survivors Speak OUT network, Mr Kolbassia Haoussou.

A practical guide designed to raise awareness among policy makers of the challenges, issues and sensitivities of stigma from a survivor’s perspective. The event brought together Member States, NGO’s, academia and experts to see the launch of the Principles for Global Action.

With contributions from over 120 experts, 13 UN Agencies, NATO, the EU Commission, civil society, academia and the governments of Australia, Canada, France and the US the Principles document is truly a global document, it is owned by the International Community.

You can read the Principles for Global Action online and view the reports from the in-country workshops that took place in 2017.

You can also watch the event as it happened on UN Web TV

Opportunity. It’s a word you hear a lot in America. And it’s something I heard time and time again last week during New York Climate Week.

Climate Week represented the first major gathering of international climate leaders since the US announced its deeply regrettable decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. But it’s clear the momentum that produced that historic accord is unchanged – the global, unstoppable shift to a low carbon economy is transcending the actions of any one country and that brings with it a huge amount of opportunity for Britain.

Recent analysis from PwC shows that the UK is decarbonising faster than any other G20 nation. Since 1990, we have grown our economy by two-thirds, while cutting emissions by more than a third. We should be proud of this progress; however the government knows that there is much more to do.

This is why the Prime Minister’s confirmation last week of our plans to end dirty coal generation by 2025 is so important. It’s an unambiguous commitment to a low carbon future that sends a clear message to clean energy investors around the world: the UK is open for business.

Decarbonisation is going to take more than government policy. We will need to find ways to deploy the public and private capital to finance this revolution – the International Energy Agency estimates that more than $13 trillion will be needed between now and 2030 just to finance the clean energy countries will need to meet their Paris agreements. It’s here the UK has a competitive advantage and a chance to build on one of our greatest strengths – that we are the greatest finance capital in the world.

So we’ve got all the basics we need to lead the way on green finance but how do we make the most of this opportunity? On government’s part we must ensure that the UK remains the financial services centre of the world and the global hub of financial innovation. And we must do everything we can to accelerate the growth of green finance by drawing on the expertise of the City.

That’s why I’ve been working with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay to establish a Green Finance Taskforce that brings together leading figures from the finance sector, chaired by Sir Roger Gifford, who also chairs the City of London’s Green Finance Initiative. This will meet for the first time tomorrow (Tuesday 26 September).

We will also be working with the Green Finance Initiative and British Standards Institute to develop a new set of voluntary green and sustainable finance management standards, alongside the industry.

And we’re endorsing, officially, recommendations from the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures which encourage all listed companies to align climate-related risk management and financial governance.

I launched the plans last week alongside Theodore Roosevelt IV – the great grandson of the former President and Managing Director for Barclays Capital Corporation – and Michael Bloomberg who chaired the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. It is clear from the enthusiastic response that we are tapping into something the world needs to make the low carbon transition and can build on our thriving financial sector which already has $7 trillion of assets under management and employs more than 2 million people.

It is increasingly clear that if we meet our decarbonisation challenges but also look to build on our positions of strength in finance – or offshore wind or electric vehicles – we can export our expertise, generate jobs and improve productivity right across the country. And that means that while the low carbon challenge is a steep one, the opportunity is far greater.

Tourism Minister John Glen will co- chair his first meeting with the Tourism Industry Council on 27 September.