Aug112017

News story: Professor Duncan Wingham appointed as Executive Chair Designate of the Natural Environment Research Council

HM Government

Professor Wingham has been appointed Executive Chair Designate of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) following nearly six years as Chief Executive of the council, Science Minister Jo Johnson announced today.

Professor Wingham’s current term heading up NERC has been extended from 31 December 2017 through to 31 December 2020. He will continue as Chief Executive until the end of March 2018 and, upon the creation of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on 1 April, will become NERC’s Executive Chair.

Executive Chairs will be crucial to the ambition for UKRI to be a world-leading research and innovation organisation. They will lead each of the 9 councils that will be part of UKRI, and the role will combine the responsibilities of the current Chair and Chief Executive of each council.

Announcing the appointment, Science Minister Jo Johnson said:

Professor Wingham’s wealth of knowledge and experience in academia and science, and his pivotal role in setting up the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, makes him well-placed to take on the role of Executive Chair and continue being a key part of our global leadership in the environmental sciences.

Working in close coordination with research communities across the UK, the UKRI Executive Chairs, along with the Government’s additional £4.7bn for research and development, will ensure that we continue to punch above our weight in global science.

Sir Mark Walport, UKRI Chief Executive Designate said:

I am very pleased that Duncan will continue to provide excellent leadership of NERC as its first Executive Chair. As part of UK Research and Innovation’s Executive Committee, Duncan will play a critical role in championing and increasing the impact of Environmental Science research through UK Research and Innovation, thus helping to ensure that UK Research and Innovation is the world’s leading research and innovation public funding agency.

I look forward to continuing to work with Duncan to make sure that the UK maintains its world-leading position in the Environmental Sciences and maximising the contribution it makes to the UK’s research and innovation landscape.

Professor Duncan Wingham, Chief Executive and Executive Chair Designate of NERC said:

I am delighted to be appointed as the first Executive Chair to lead NERC in its new position within UKRI. Environmental science is central to achieving prosperity in harmony with the environment, both here in the UK and globally across the world. NERC has a proud tradition of contributing to that aim.

UKRI provides us with new opportunities to thread environmental science into solutions to the greatest societal and business challenges we face. I look forward to working with all our colleagues within UKRI and across the research community to achieve that.

  1. NERC is the UK’s main agency for funding and managing research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. It coordinates some of the world’s most exciting research projects, tackling major issues such as climate change, environmental influences on human health, the genetic make-up of life on earth, and much more. NERC is a non-departmental public body, which receives funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Working internationally, NERC has bases in the most hostile parts of the planet. They run a fleet of research ships and aircraft and invest in satellite technology to monitor gradual environmental change on a global scale. NERC provides knowledge, forewarning and solutions to the key global environmental challenges facing society.

  2. Operating across the whole of the UK and with a combined budget of more than £6 billion, UK Research and Innovation will bring together the seven Research Councils, Innovate UK and a new organisation, Research England. UK Research and Innovation will ensure that the UK maintains its world leadership in research and innovation, by creating a system that “best environment for research and innovation to flourish. It will come into existence on 1 April 2018.

  3. Professor Wingham received a BSc from the University of Leeds in 1979, and a PhD from the University of Bath in 1984, both in physics. He joined University College London in 1986, where he held lecturing posts at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory and the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. He was appointed as a Chair in the Department of Space and Climate Physics in 1996, and was Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at UCL from 2005 to 2010. He was founder and Director of the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) from 2000 to 2005, which among other things discovered the widespread mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its origin in accelerated ocean melting. He was instigator and Project Scientist of the Esa CryoSat-1 and CryoSat-2 satellite missions. He was first appointed as NERC Chief Executive in 2012.

Aug112017

Slaughterhouse CCTV is welcome but long overdue – Keith Taylor MEP

Green Party

11 August 2017

Responding to the news that the Government is launching a consultation on its plans to introduce mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses across England [1], Keith Taylor MEP, Green Party animals spokesperson, said:

“Greens have been calling for mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses for decades, our membership of the EU has never prevented the introduction of this measure. Today’s announcement is welcome a step, but long, long overdue.

“The devil is in the detail, of which there is little at the moment. To help prevent the cruellest and most pitiless treatment of UK farm animals, as a minimum, the Government needs to ensure cameras are placed in any area of a slaughterhouse where animals are handled, held and killed. The footage must also be held for a reasonable length of time and made available for independent viewing and monitoring. At the same time, urgent steps are needed to improve and monitor on farm welfare standards too.

“Ultimately, though, it’s worth remembering that no amount of legislation or regulation can ever make the slaughter business cruelty-free.”

Notes:

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40895049

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Aug112017

Labour calls on Government to make taking of “upskirt” photos illegal

Labour

Richard
Burgon MP, Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary, has written to David Lidington MP, the
Justice Secretary, to call on the Government to make the taking of “upskirt”
photographs a sexual offence in law.

In the
letter, Burgon echoes Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Dame Vera
Baird’s call for this necessary change and urges the Government to close the
current gap in the law that exists.

Full text
of the letter from Richard Burgon MP to David Lidington MP

Dear
Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor,

I am writing
in support of the campaign, started by Gina Martin, to make disgraceful,
invasive “upskirting” photographs a sexual offence in law.

The scope for
people to take “upskirting” photographs has clearly increased with developments
in mobile phone technology since the enactment of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
At present, there is a gap in the law that has allowed – and is continuing to
allow – people who have taken such photographs in public places to escape
prosecution.  This needs to be changed. Northumbria Police and Crime
Commissioner Dame Vera Baird has also made the case for this necessary change.

I believe
that in the country there is strong support for Gina Martin’s campaign for this
necessary change in the law.

The law must
be changed so that women are protected, offenders are punished and potential
offenders are deterred.

Given the
very welcome public interest in – and support for – this campaign, I have made
this letter public, and hope that you will publicly respond very soon with an
announcement of plans to change the law so that the taking of “upskirting”
photographs is a sexual offence in law.

Yours
sincerely

Richard
Burgon MP

Shadow
Secretary of State for Justice & Shadow Lord Chancellor

Aug112017

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei achieve one tenth of China’s GDP

East Asia

In the first half of this year, the GDP of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region totaled 3,819.86 billion yuan (about US$572.58 billion), accounting for 10 percent nationwide, according to data released by Beijing municipal authority of statistics.

Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei Province each achieved regional GDP of 1,240.68 billion yuan, 938.69 billion yuan, and 1,640.49 billion yuan respectively, increasing by 6.8 percent, 6.9 percent and 6.8 percent year-on-year respectively.

The region’s overall growth was driven by the growth of its high-tech industries. The added value created by high-tech industries at or above the designated scale (annual turnover reaching 20 million yuan) in Beijing rose by 11.6 percent year-on-year and contributed to 48.5 percent of the industry’s growth.

The added value of strategic emerging industries above the designated scale in Tianjin grew by 8.2 percent on a yearly basis, and that of high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 12.9 percent, driving industrial growth by 1.6 percentage points.

In Hebei Province, the modern service industry has gained momentum and the value added in service industry accounted for 41.7 percent of regional GDP. Meanwhile, the year-on-year growth of added value created in equipment manufacturing industry stood at 15.6 percent, which contributed to 77 percent of the above-scale industrial growth.

At the same time, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has seen vigorous activities in innovation. Data shows that the gross revenue of high-tech enterprises above certain scale in Beijing’s Zhongguancun demonstration area jumped 16.7 percent in the first half of this year, of which the advanced manufacturing and environmental protection technology sector registered a revenue growth of over 20 percent.

Tianjin is home to 94,000 science and technology-based enterprises with 7,568 ones newly registered this year. Investment made in science and technology services and information services in Hebei Province each increased by 39.6 percent and 20.9 percent year-on-year.