The UK’s world-leading manufacturing industries will be boosted thanks to £211 million in new government funding for battery research and innovation, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg confirmed today (Friday 21 October).

The record funding uplift will be delivered through the Faraday Battery Challenge, which began in 2017 and supports world-class scientific technology development and manufacturing scale-up capability for batteries in the UK. It will help to seize on opportunities for private investment and economic growth in industries where powerful, fast charging batteries will be essential – such as domestic energy storage and electric vehicles.

The funding, from last year’s settlement, will be delivered between 2022 and 2025 by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) with support from the Faraday Institution, Innovate UK and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC).

It will help the sector deliver 100,000 jobs in battery gigafactories and the battery supply chain by 2040. Supporting the scale-up of these technologies and unlocking further private investment supports the sustainable growth of the economy, which will boost tax revenues and put public services on a more secure footing for the longer term, helping improve life for people across the UK.

Speaking on a visit to the £130 million UKBIC, which is the UK’s centre of excellence in battery manufacturing, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said:

Safe and powerful batteries are central to our plans to grow the industries of the future. From our world leading renewables industry, to our growing electric vehicle sector, secure supplies of batteries are key to delivering jobs and prosperity.

The Faraday Battery Challenge has brought the UK’s greatest minds and best facilities together to develop the innovations that will help us achieve this goal. The work it has done since 2017 has laid the groundwork for our future economic success and I am pleased to confirm this work will continue, supported by record funding.

The Faraday Battery Challenge combines:

• research and capability development to reduce battery weight and cost, increase energy and power, and ensure reliability and recyclability;
• collaborative business-led innovation in the UK battery sector, development of the wider network and skills needed to manufacture batteries through Innovate UK; and
• manufacturing scale-up & skills development at the UKBIC the national battery manufacturing development facility.

The Challenge has supported over 140 organisations working across the UK, attracting over £400 million in further private sector investment. It has enabled the Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent battery research body, to unite 500 researchers across more than 25 universities to improve current and develop future battery technologies.

Faraday Battery Challenge Director Tony Harper said:

This new funding allows us to strengthen the foundation we’ve created by consolidating and building on the UK’s position to become a battery science superpower. We now have an opportunity to ensure that our national industrialisation infrastructure remains world leading in this fast-evolving critical net zero technology.

With the support of the Challenge, the £130 million UKBIC in Coventry opened three years ahead of its nearest European competition. The Centre provides the link between battery research and successful mass production. So far UKBIC has supported over 140 UK battery developers, working on more than 80 research and innovation projects, to successfully scale their products to market.

Felicity Buchan, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said:

The battery industry will play a pivotal role in the growth of our future economy. That’s why it’s so important that we are making this record investment in cutting-edge research, supporting businesses to become more innovative and productive, and creating high-skill, high-wage jobs across the UK.

UKBIC Managing Director Jeff Pratt said:

I am delighted with this announcement which demonstrates the government’s sustained commitment to supporting the development of advanced battery technologies across the UK. Since the Faraday Battery Challenge was launched in 2017, we have seen rapid change in the battery industry as it develops increased capacity across Europe; and this will continue over the coming decade.

For UKBIC, this additional funding will ensure that we retain our leading-edge manufacturing capability for the UK and can continue to support our industry in the next few years as novel chemistries and formats scale towards volume production.

UKRI Chief Executive Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser said:

Advanced battery technology will play a central role in our lives and the economy, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, creating new jobs and opening up new opportunities.

The Faraday Battery Challenge is at the forefront of the clean technology revolution, catalysing collaboration and innovation that will benefit society.

This exciting work and the further investment announced today underlines the ways in which research and innovation can help to create a sustainable future while driving economic growth.

Along with the Challenge, the UK government is helping to deliver a world leading electric vehicle industry for the UK through the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF). Through the ATF the UK has secured major investments in battery production, including Envision AESC expanding their existing plant in Sunderland.

A further £4 million is also being announced through UKRI’s Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge to support skills, talent and training across Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) manufacturing and supply chains. PEMD components are the parts that make things ‘go’, from cars to hairdryers, underpinning a wide range of high-value industries.

Faraday Battery Challenge

The Faraday Battery Challenge has been backed by £541 million since 2017. It is delivered by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation. It is making the UK a science superpower for batteries by supporting the UK’s world-class battery facilities and growing innovative businesses that are developing the battery supply chain for our future prosperity. Its aim is to build a high-tech, high-value, high-skill battery industry in the UK.

Projects previously backed by the Challenge include:

Cornish Lithium

Backing for Cornish Lithium Ltd, in the first of four pilot plants that will extract lithium from geothermal waters near Redruth. The firm also intends to recover lithium-laden mica deposits from old China clay pits in the county. Cornwall could produce a third of the UK’s lithium requirement for electric vehicle (EV) batteries within five years.

Nexeon

Backing for Nexon Ltd’s SUNRISE project, which looks to triple the energy density of Lithium-ion batteries, by using silicon-based anodes instead of conventional graphite ones. Nexeon is already supplying a number of Tier 1 global battery manufacturers and OEMs. Its latest investment funding round saw the firm secure $200 million to mass produce tens of thousands of metric tonnes annually of its silicon-based anode materials for use in rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries.

About the Faraday Institution

The Faraday Institution is the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research, skills development, market analysis, and early-stage commercialisation. Bringing together expertise from universities and industry, the Faraday Institution endeavours to make the UK the go-to place for the research and development of new electrical storage technologies for both the automotive and wider relevant sectors.

The Faraday Institution is funded by the Faraday Battery Challenge at UK Research and Innovation. Headquartered at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, the Faraday Institution is a registered charity with an independent board of trustees.

About the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC)

The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) was opened in July 2021. The national battery manufacturing development facility provides the missing link between battery technology, which has proved promising at laboratory or prototype scale, and successful mass production.

Based in Coventry, UKBIC welcomes manufacturers, entrepreneurs, researchers and educators, and can be accessed by any organisation with existing or new battery technology – if that technology brings green jobs and prosperity to the UK.

In addition to funding from the Faraday Battery Challenge through UK Research and Innovation, UKBIC is part-funded through the West Midlands Combined Authority. The facility was delivered through a consortium of Coventry City Council, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and WMG, at the University of Warwick, following a competition in 2018 led by the Advanced Propulsion Centre with support from Innovate UK.

Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge

Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) technologies are what make things ‘go’. They are found in a wide range of places from cars, to solar panels, to mobile phones and in hairdryers. High-tech, high-value industries rely on them and a workforce skilled in their design and creation.

The Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge supports projects that that build awareness of PEMD and fill gaps in the UK’s workforce talent and training capabilities.

El Reino Unido anuncia que a partir del 9 de noviembre de 2022, nacionales de Colombia no necesitarán una visa de visitante para viajar al Reino Unido por un periodo de hasta seis meses.

En un procedimiento ante el Parlamento Británico el día martes 18 de octubre, la decisión de eliminar las visas de visitante fue aprobada, tras un proceso extenso y riguroso de evaluación por parte de diferentes instituciones del gobierno británico.

Con este anuncio, el Reino Unido se vuelve más accesible a colombianos que quieran descubrir y disfrutar su rica cultura, su larga historia y su hermoso paisaje. Y más allá que el turismo, con este cambio, el país abrirá sus puertas a nuevas oportunidades de negocio en diversos sectores.

George Hodgson, Embajador Británico en Colombia comentó:

Nos alegra poder compartir el Reino Unido con aún más colombianos. Sin duda, la eliminación de visas de visitante – proceso en el que hemos venido trabajando desde hace mucho tiempo – marca un gran paso en nuestra relación UKCOL. Esperamos ver muy pronto un incremento en el número de visitantes colombianos en el Reino Unido.

Respecto a la decisión, la Cancillería afirmó que:

El Reino Unido es uno de los principales socios de Colombia, como lo evidencian su apoyo irrestricto a la implementación del Acuerdo de Paz de 2016 y sus significativas contribuciones a la protección del medio ambiente, en particular la Amazonia.

Al igual que Colombia, dos otros países en la región, Perú y Guyana, se beneficiarán del mismo cambio al regimen de visas de visitante.

Nacionales de Colombia quienes hayan solicitado una visa de visitante y aún no hayan suministrado datos biométricos (es decir, sus huellas dactilares) pueden desde ya retirar su solicitud y aplicar para recibir un reembolso de la tarifa de la visa a través de www.gov.uk/cancel-visa.

Es importante resaltar que los requisitos para trabajar, estudiar y establecerse en el Reino Unido se mantienen.

Thank you Mr Chair, Distinguished colleagues,

I would like to start by thanking Under-Secretary-General Fleming and the Department of Global Communications for their engagement with Member States, through reports submitted to the Committee on Information, as well as regular updates and exchanges on the work of the Department.

The United Kingdom welcomes the Department’s work to improve the UN’s strategic communications, news, media and outreach activity as well as its leadership and innovation in response to the complex communications challenges that face us.

The Department has continued to expand its reach through innovative partnerships and has been successful at mobilising wide and diverse audiences. These efforts are necessary to meet the growing demand around the world for accurate, impartial and comprehensive information on the most pressing global issues, such as Covid-19, the Climate Crisis, or Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

On these topics and others, people are looking at the UN now more than ever as a source of trusted information and we have to acknowledge that part of the reason why is that disinformation, propaganda and lies are out there in the world like never before. An infodemic carried on vectors of digital technologies and media.

We also need to be frank that this infodemic has a source and it is important that we focus our attention on “information manipulation, including disinformation, by states” and we recognise, this year in particular, the disinformation dimension of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Since launching its invasion in February, the Kremlin’s propaganda machine has been in overdrive. The Russian government has lied to the world, lied to Ukrainians, lied to its own people and lied to itself. President Putin wants truth to be a casualty of this war, but we will continue to tell the truth about Russia’s aggression, including the strong evidence of war crimes that we are seeing committed in Ukraine.

The UN must do the same, guided by the language in resolutions adopted overwhelmingly by the General Assembly and the Secretary-General’s clear statements about Russia’s violations of the UN Charter and its aggression. The entire UN system must be consistent in how it describes this war.

Because this offensive against truth has global consequences. Russia’s disinformation about its invasion of Ukraine threatens to undermine public trust in the media and also confidence in public and international institutions, including the UN.

This really matters because if they succeed, then we will all fail. It is our responsibility as Member States to unequivocally condemn disinformation, especially when it provokes or encourages threats to peace or acts of aggression.

The ideals enshrined in the UN Charter cannot be realised in a world in which truth is obscured by State propaganda and muzzled media freedoms.

Together through our work in this Committee and in partnership with the UN, we can challenge disinformation and protect the space for impartial and accurate reporting of the threats and challenges that the UN was founded to address.

I might not have been a defence minister for very long, but having been a soldier in the Army Intelligence Corps and an Army wife, I know how important decent accommodation is.

It’s not just about making sure the shower works, the roof doesn’t leak, and the kitchen is mould-free, as important as those things are.

It’s about having somewhere that you can look forward to returning to, somewhere you, your partner and your family can call home. In other words, somewhere that doesn’t make you want to ditch the military life in favour of a less exciting but more predictable civilian one.

Your home should incentivise you to pursue a long, rewarding military career, alongside your family. Home is where the heart is – as cliché as it sounds – so we shouldn’t be surprised if people don’t want to live in below par accommodation.

Thankfully the Defence Secretary, who (to be honest, quite a while ago) lived in these barracks, is determined to get this right. So we talked to service personnel and families. We listened to what they had to say and today I am delighted to launch Defence’s new Accommodation Strategy.

Our plan focuses on three areas:

Firstly, it’s about raising the bar: setting a new minimum standard for Single Living Accommodation across the entire Defence estate.

As a bare minimum we will ensure every room is quiet, secure, dry, well ventilated and heated with access to hot water on demand. That is a minimum. And there’ll be a proactive approach to ongoing maintenance, regularly checking to make sure things don’t go wrong in the first place, with regular upgrades.

I know things have moved on since I was a military wife, so we’ll also be ensuring stronger Wi-Fi connections for all. Which is great news for those who want to video call home or stream online.

And in the coming months and years, we’ll keep talking to our personnel, and their families, to understand how their needs change, and what more can be done.

Secondly, our plan is about fairness.

In the past, subsidised accommodation was divvied-up according to rank. From now on we’re going to ensure it is allocated primarily based on need.

The question we’ll be asking is not how many stripes or pips they have, or how many people they command, but do they have a family? How old are their children? Do they have any special requirements?

Service families’ accommodation will be allocated on individual requirements, not rank. We’re also going to make sure our strategy better reflects the reality of today’s society. That means giving personnel in long-term relationships the same access to accommodation as their married colleagues.

Finally, this plan is about value for money.

We’re dealing with the rising cost of living, and a war in Europe, so we’ve got to get smarter about getting more for our money. This means reducing the current stock in places where beds are continually unused and going empty. It means making our homes more sustainable by increasing their energy efficiency, through better insulation and modern heating systems. And it means future-proofing renovated accommodation with things like electric car charging ports.

It’s no coincidence that we chose these barracks to launch our new Accommodation Strategy today. When Queen Victoria visited, it was in such a state of disrepair, she ordered a complete renovation.

Now we’re ensuring that in today’s Armed Forces, wherever our people live, they will have a place they are proud to call home. Ensuring they are incentivised to do their job to the best of their abilities.

After all, we expect our brave men and women to protect our backs; and the least we can do is show them that we have theirs.

Thank you, President. Let me thank the Deputy Secretary General and all our briefers today for your testimony, your advocacy and your leadership.

As we mark the anniversary of Resolution 1325, the UK is proud to be a leading champion of the Women Peace and Security agenda in the UN and around the world. And yet the stark reality presented by our briefers speaks for itself. Despite our collective efforts of 22 years, we all need to do more to deliver on the promise of 1325. Today I’d like to highlight three of our priorities.

First it is clear that we need to strengthen the global response to conflict-related sexual violence. A 20% increase in sexual violence against children and a 41% increase in the abduction of girls as reported in the Secretary General’s 2022 report on children in armed conflict cannot be ignored.

That is why the UK will host an International Conference on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict on 28-29 November. We will gather countries together to galvanise the response to CRSV, and we will launch a political declaration to send a strong message that we will support survivors, help prevent future violence, and hold perpetrators to account. We urge member states to endorse this declaration, and make a national commitment outlining practical steps they will take to prevent and respond to CRSV, for example implementing the Murad Code.

Second, we continue to support women’s participation in peace efforts. Women are integral to building lasting peace and security, and their full, equal and meaningful participation in peace processes is the cornerstone of our approach to WPS. But progress here has been too slow as we’ve heard today.

There has been no significant increase in women’s participation in peace processes since 2000, despite all the rhetoric. So the UK’s fifth WPS National Action Plan will focus on concrete and practical ways to reflect the contribution women make to peace in a changed strategic environment, from Afghanistan to Ukraine, from climate security to cyber threats.

Third, President, we need to create an enabling environment for women to participate. A major barrier to women’s engagement in political life is the rising risk of reprisals. The Secretary-General’s latest WPS report highlights that since 2018,  over a third of the women briefers to  the Security Council have faced reprisals. This is simply not acceptable. The UK is committed to protecting women human rights defenders and briefers who courageously speak in this chamber. In partnership with OHCHR, we developed Guidance for Member States to mitigate reprisals against civil society briefers.

President, Women’s place at the peace table is not only their right, it is essential to building and sustaining peace and security. Every absence will be our collective loss.

Thank you.