News story: RAF Capability Innovation Day

This event is now fully booked – thank you for your interest.

On behalf of the RAF, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) would like to invite members of Defence, industry and academia to attend an Air Command Innovation day taking place at High Wycombe on 28 February 2019.

The RAF will be informing delegates on the context of the future air environment capability and encouraging attendees to share ideas to help improve future operating and capability outcomes.

Senior Air personnel will be in attendance, with an opportunity for delegates to ask questions in an open forum. Workshops will be taking place in the afternoon, focusing on tackling specific Defence challenges within multi-domain operations.

Attendees will also be given the opportunity to inform the 2019 RAF Wargame (EAGLE WARRIOR 19) on next generation, novel and innovative ideas, concepts and capabilities which have the potential to change the way the RAF operates.

The RAF is particularly interested in engaging with organisations who have not worked with Defence before.

If you would like to attend this event, please register your interest here.

Please note, registration does not guarantee you a place. A confirmation email will be sent to you from the Defence and Security Accelerator confirming your attendance.

Registration for this event will close at midday, Monday 18 February 2019.

Published 7 February 2019
Last updated 15 February 2019 + show all updates

15 February 2019 Announcement that event is now full.
7 February 2019 First published.

Press release: Welsh Secretary provides platform to discuss West Wales Parkway

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns will meet Assembly Members, local councillors and members of the Swansea Business Forum today to formally open discussions on UK Government plans for a ‘West Wales Parkway’ railway station at the former Felindre steelworks site north of Swansea.

The idea of a new parkway-style station serving west Wales was in the Top 20 requests made by rail users during a recent consultation on the future of the Great Western franchise.

Now an independent study carried out by one of the UK’s leading transport experts has concluded that a new station would deliver major journey time savings for passengers travelling from west Wales to Cardiff of up to a quarter of an hour each way, by cutting the need to travel through the centre of Swansea.

The report by Professor Stuart Cole, Emeritus Professor of Transport at the University of South Wales indicates that the station would reduce congestion on the M4 and major roads by encouraging more commuters to travel by rail. The station would also provide improved connectivity in and out of Swansea and between communities across south west Wales including Llanelli, Ammanford and Gorseinon while protecting existing services to Swansea and Neath.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said:

A new station for this region will be west Wales’ ticket to greater opportunity, through faster journey times and greater connectivity with other modes of public transport which will provide an attractive offer to investors and save commuters time on their journeys.

The Swansea Bay City Region is important to both the Welsh and UK economy and it’s by working together with the Welsh Government and local partners that we can maximise its potential. I look forward to hearing the views of those local business and authority leaders to hear how we can best deliver on their ambitious plans for the future.

ENDS

Published 7 February 2019

Government response: Government response to updated energy price cap level

“As Ofgem has said, these increases reflect the sharp rise in gas and electricity costs. The cap is designed to ensure energy companies offer good value to their customers and continue to thrive as an efficient business.

“We were clear when we introduced the cap that prices can go up but also down. The key thing is that as a result of the cap, 11 million households on standard variable tariffs will be £75 to £100 better off and energy suppliers will no longer be able to rip off customers on poor value tariffs.”

“With over 60 companies and more than 200 tariffs to choose from, consumers can always shop around for a cheaper deal and make big savings by switching.”

Published 7 February 2019

News story: 2019 Clinical Excellence Awards round opens

The Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (ACCEA) is now accepting applications to the 2019 national Clinical Excellence Awards competition.

Consultants and academic GPs working for the NHS in England and Wales can apply for new national awards and for renewals due in 2019.

Current award holders will need to submit a renewal application if:

they received their current award in the 2015 round
their award was last renewed in 2014 (awarded in 2010, 2005, 2000)

In some cases, award holders will be renewing out of the usual cycle. Awards are reviewed earlier if there is a change in job or a significant change in job plan.

Applicants should read the 2019 application guidance before starting an application on our online application system.

Published 7 February 2019

News story: Passenger views sought on bid to extend pay-as-you-go on rail network

Rail Minister launches consultation on possible roll out of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) to more rail stations.
PAYG, along with smartcards and barcode options, can make passenger journeys faster and more convenient.
Aim is to build on ‘smart ticketing’ alternatives to paper tickets that already cover almost all of the network.

The views of the travelling public will be at the heart of the government’s renewed drive to make ‘smart ticketing’ on the rail network the norm rather than the exception, Rail Minister Andrew Jones announced today (7 February 2019).

Launched today, a 12-week public consultation will seek views from passengers and other rail stakeholders on the potential to make PAYG – swiping in and out at the ticket barrier with a bank or smart card – accepted more widely.

With smart cards and barcodes already providing an alternative to existing paper tickets across almost all the UK rail network, the government’s ambition is to drive this even further forward by seeking the public’s views on how to roll out PAYG to more stations.

Feedback from the consultation of passengers in the south east will not only inform any roll-out of the technology in the region, but will also be used when considering how to implement PAYG more widely across other urban or commuter areas in the future.

Rail Minister Andrew Jones said:

We want to make rail journeys simpler and easier for passengers. Smart ticketing is the modern answer – offering simpler fares, fairer deals and less confusion for passengers.

This consultation is about finding out what works for people, and we want to know how pay-as-you-go could make life easier for passengers who make hundreds of millions of journeys each year.

We have already invested £80 milion in smart ticketing nationally and this has helped to speed up smartcard roll-out so that smart tickets are available across almost all the network.

Dependent on the outcome of the consultation, by 2020, the government’s ambition is to see PAYG rolled out across more regional and urban commuter areas, delivering the kind of system that already exists in London.

As part of this, the Department for Transport (DfT) is requiring new rail franchisees to introduce PAYG in commuter areas and is already supporting Transport for the North’s ambitious plans to roll it out across public transport in the north.