Thank you Mr Chair,

I would like to thank Under Secretary-General Catherine Pollard for her presentation last week on the current financial situation of the United Nations.

The United Kingdom shares your concern about the severe liquidity problems that the United Nations continues to face for both its regular budget and peacekeeping operations. We cannot emphasise enough the importance of the United Nations having the right resources and tools needed to deliver effectively its mandates and programmes, in particular in support of the 2030 Agenda.

This Committee spends a lot of time every year carefully evaluating and agreeing the United Nations’ budgets. It is therefore incumbent on us all to follow through with that commitment and meet our financial obligations to the United Nations. We owe it to the Organisation and the people it serves. We call on all member states to pay their assessed contributions in full and in good time. Those member states with arrears, we encourage you to take steps to address these.

The financial situation this year looks comparatively better than this time last year. Although a modest improvement, this is nonetheless welcome. We hope to see this improve further.

The United Kingdom commends the Controller and the rest of the Organisation for their efforts to prioritise how the United Nations uses it resources to keep mandate and programme delivery on track. We would welcome an evaluation of the impact of these measures on mandate and programme delivery.

We welcome the Secretariat’s pledge to use the funds entrusted to it in a cost-effective manner. In this regard, we encourage the Secretariat to continue to prioritise and use its resources effectively, and where necessary agilely in response to new and emerging challenges and priorities.

We were pleased to hear that the measures that this Committee agreed in July last year for peacekeeping budgets have improved the overall liquidity of active peacekeeping operations and reduced the need for the Secretariat to resort to drawing on the money sitting in closed peacekeeping missions accounts. We are pleased also that these measures have enabled you to reimburse more promptly troop- and police contributing countries their contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations.

We regret that it was not possible last year to agree any measures to help address the issues faced with the regular budget. We encourage the Secretary-General to come back to us in the near future with new and innovative proposals for measures that could help alleviate the liquidity challenges faced by the Secretariat and address their underlying causes.

Finally Mr Chair,

Let me reassure you that the United Kingdom remains committed to supporting the financial health of the United Nations.

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s briefing where I’m joined by Angela McLean, the deputy chief scientific advisor.

I want to being by updating you on the latest data relating to the coronavirus outbreak.

*2,772,552 tests for coronavirus have now been carried out in the UK, including 89,784 tests carried out yesterday; *248,818 people have tested positive, that’s an increase of 2,412 cases since yesterday; *10,025 people are currently in hospital with the coronavirus in the UK, that’s down 17% from the 11,716 this time last week; *And sadly, of those who have tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 35,341 have now died. That’s an increase of 545 fatalities since yesterday.

And of course our thoughts are with the families of all of those who have lost their lives to this virus.

Before I turn to some of the work that Defra is doing to ensure that we are able to harvest this year’s farm harvest I want to remind people of the details of the next phase of our fight against the coronavirus.

Firstly on slide one, as you can see, in order to monitor our progress we are establishing a new COVID Alert Level System, with five levels, each relating to the level of threat posed by the virus.

The alert level will be based primarily on the R value and the number of coronavirus cases.

And in turn that alert level will determine the level of social distancing measures in place.

The lower the level the fewer the measures; the higher the level the stricter the measures.

Throughout the period of lockdown, which started on March 23rd, we were at Level 4.

Thanks to the hard work and sacrifices of the British people in this lockdown, we have helped to bring the R level down and we are now in a position to begin moving to Level 3, in careful steps.

Turning now to slide two, We have set out the first of three steps we will take to carefully modify the measures, gradually ease the lockdown, and begin to allow people to return to their way of life – but crucially do this while avoiding what would be a second peak that overwhelms the NHS.

After each step we will closely monitor the impact of that step on the R value and the number of infections, and all the available data, and we will only take the next step when we are satisfied that it is safe to do so.

So in step one, as the Prime Minister announced last week:

*Those who cannot work from home should now speak to their employer about going to work. *People can now spend time outdoors and exercise as often as they like.

Finally, turning to slide three, having taken the first step in carefully adjusting some of the measures and our advice to people on what to do, our clear advice is to stay alert, control the virus, and save lives.

And staying alert means:

*Staying at home as much as possible and working from home if this is possible. *Limiting contact with other people and where contact is made with other people, keeping your distance. *Washing your hands regularly and also staying at home and self-isolating if you or a household member show symptoms of the virus.

My final point today relates to the availability of labour this year for the farming harvest. Every year large numbers of people come from countries such as Romania and Bulgaria to take part in the harvest, harvesting crops such as strawberries, and salads and vegetables.

We estimate that probably only about a third of the people that would normally come are already here and small numbers may continue to travel. But one thing is clear and that is that this year we will need to rely on British workers to lend a hand to help bring that harvest home.

Over the last couple of months we have been working with industry on a plan to support and help people taking second jobs, particularly those who are furloughed, and we have launched a new ‘Pick for Britain’ website that enables people to go online, check (what job issues there are) what job availability there is and to marry up job opportunities from growers and employers with those people seeking a second job, particularly those that are furloughed.

We believe that those who are furloughed may be getting to the point that they want to lend a hand and play their part. They may be wanting to get out and they may be wanting to supplement their income with an additional job and if they do feel that way I would urge them to visit that website and to look at the opportunities that are there.

I will now turn to Angela McLean who will give you further updates on the coronavirus.

Thank you very much, Mr President. Thank you to Stephanie, as acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General, for your briefing. And we hope that we’ll be able to agree on a permanent successor for you before too long. And now I thank, through you, your staff and all that are working so hard to try to end the conflict in Libya, in what are not always the most promising circumstances and context.

Let me start by sharing the deep concern that you expressed, Stephanie, at the significant escalation in hostilities in Libya. I think you describe an unprecedented increase in direct fire in civilian areas, which is extremely concerning. The cost in civilian lives and the damage to civilian infrastructure is totally unacceptable. And attacks in civilian areas, particularly on healthcare facilities, show a complete disregard for international law and must cease. At a time when countries around the world are coming together in the face of a shared threat from COVID-19, it is unconscionable that health care facilities are among the civilian infrastructure targeted. I also want to reiterate our continuing concern, the deteriorating human rights humanitarian situation in Libya. Again, Stephanie highlighted a million people now in need of humanitarian assistance. And the Secretary-General in his report made clear the situation – including the death, injury and displacement of significant numbers of civilians – is not acceptable, that civilians, including migrants and refugees, remain at risk. The intentional cutting of electricity, fuel, water or food supplies is a potential violation of international humanitarian law.

We remain particularly concerned by further reports that external parties continue to provide material, equipment, mercenaries. All member states must abide by their international obligations, including UN Security Council resolutions. And we note in this regard further reports of activity by the Wagner Group in Libya. Wagner Group activities continue to exacerbate the conflict and prolong the suffering of the Libyan people. And I want to urge all Security Council members to abide by the resolutions of this Council, which they themselves have voted for.

We condemn the blockade of oil facilities, only harming the Libyan people, and today has led to a loss of over $4 billion. Efforts to illicitly import aviation fuel into Libya are also unacceptable, and all parties must uphold the integrity and unity of the National Oil Corporation.

But there will not be a military victory, not least because the foreign actors involved in this war won’t permit. So an inclusive political solution, as set out in the Berlin Conference, offers the best hope for the stability and future prosperity that the Libyan people need and deserve. And we call on the LNA to engage substantively with the UN drafted ceasefire document of 23rd February, as the GNA have recently done. The United Kingdom reaffirms its support for Libya’s internationally recognised and legitimate institutions as agreed in the 2015 Libyan Political Agreement and as recognised by this Council.

Mr President, the United Kingdom is consistent in its belief that if the warring parties and their backers have the interests of the Libyan people at heart, they would cease fighting, cease the attacks on civilians, cease private or unilateral initiatives, and instead get behind the United Nations and the inclusive political solution. It is the only hope and it is what the Libyan people need and deserve after these years of conflict.

Let me just ask a question, if I may, Stephanie. I wondered if you could say whether there has been any change in the public mood and in public support for, or public attitudes towards the conflict since the COVID-19 outbreak, and whether there are any signs, the calculations of any of the parties to the conflict are being affected by that public view.

Thank you very much.