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.

The science, innovation and business community came together this week at London’s Royal Institution and Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum to launch the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT).

GOTT, which forms part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has been established to unlock the value of public sector knowledge assets, estimated to be worth over £106 billion, delivering economic, social and financial outcomes for the UK economy and taxpayers.

Science and Investment Security Minister Nusrat Ghani said:

The UK is an exceptional research, knowledge and innovation base, cementing its position as a genuine global science superpower.

However, British discoveries are too often brought to market elsewhere, taking the expertise and financial benefits from UK research to foreign economies.

This is why the work of excellent new Government Office for Technology Transfer, launching today, will be so important. I look forward to seeing this new office work to commercialise the UK’s outstanding home-grown knowledge assets to benefit our country’s economy, society, and position as an Innovation Nation.

GOTT CEO Dr Alison Campbell said:

I’m delighted to be able to mark the launch of the Government Office for Technology Transfer – as a dedicated team with a cross-government remit, it’s a first of its kind.

Our purpose is to raise awareness across government of the value of intangible knowledge assets and to provide practical advice and support to enable such opportunities to be properly exploited.

There is a wealth of knowledge, resources and intellectual property across the portfolio of government investments that has the power to drive innovation across business and the public sector. There are already many exciting examples of how these are contributing to the British economy. We want to enhance the scale and pace of knowledge asset development across the public sector.

Headquartered in Salford, GOTT hosted the second of its 2 launch events on Thursday at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum, where BEIS Non-Executive Board Member, Vikas Shah, joined Alison Campbell to welcome invitees from the innovation ecosystem in the North, as well as showcasing the city as a centre for government innovation.

About the Government Office for Tech Transfer

GOTT, which is led by Dr Alison Campbell, sits within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and has a cross-government mandate to supercharge the identification, development and exploitation of public sector knowledge assets and to encourage the public sector to be more innovative and entrepreneurial in how it manages its own assets.

Knowledge assets include know-how, data, brands, business processes, expert resources and technology. Technology transfer is about sharing these assets with other organisations to stimulate innovation and the development of new products, processes and services and the creation of new commercial ventures.

GOTT has already begun to work with the public sector on innovations such as a cheaper higher intensity Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) light source to purify water and the use of graphene biosensors to detect different health conditions and diseases using biomarkers in the human body.

Through providing both funding and expertise, GOTT will support projects such as these across government. It will also work with organisations that have a mature technology transfer capability to identify areas of synergy and best practice.

Follow GOTT on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The UK is today (October 20) implementing new sanctions on Iranian individuals and business responsible for supplying Russia with kamikaze drones used to bombard Ukraine.

Russia is using the drones to attack both civilian targets and critical infrastructure in Kyiv and across Ukraine, with the intention of cutting off Ukrainian people from energy, heating, and water.

By supplying these drones Iran is actively warmongering, profiting off Russia’s abhorrent attacks on Ukrainian citizens, and adding to the suffering of the people and the destruction of critical infrastructure. Both Russia and Iran are violating a UN Security Council Resolution that controls the transfer of these weapons from Iran.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said:

Iran’s support for Putin’s brutal and illegal war against Ukraine is deplorable. Today we are sanctioning those who have supplied the drones used by Russia to target Ukrainian civilians. This is clear evidence of Iran’s destabilising role in global security.

These cowardly drone strikes are an act of desperation. By enabling these strikes, these individuals and a manufacturer have caused the people of Ukraine untold suffering. We will ensure that they are held to account for their actions.

Today’s sanctions target the individuals and business personally responsible for providing the drones that have been used in these barbaric strikes. They are:

• Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri – the Chairman of the armed forces General Staff who has overseen the army branches supplying Russia with drones. Bagheri is subject to an asset freeze and travel ban
• Brigadier General Seyed Hojjatollah Qureishi – the key Iranian negotiator in the deal that has provided Russia with the Iranian produced drones. Qureishi is subject to an asset freeze and travel ban
• Brigadier General Saeed Aghajani – the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian armed forces, Aerospace Force UAV Command – the IRGC are reported to have been in the temporarily controlled territories of Ukraine advising Russian forces on how to use the drones. Aghajani is subject to an asset freeze and travel ban.
• Shahed Aviation Industries – the Iranian manufacturer of the Shahed drones which have been used by Russia during its illegal invasion of Ukraine. Shahed Aviation Industries is subject to an asset freeze.

Procuring these weapons shows Russia is turning to countries such as Iran out of desperation in order to continue fighting their illegal war.

Open-source evidence has shown Russia’s own defence company and drone producer Kronshtadt struggle to maintain production since they were sanctioned (24 March 2022), with fridges and dishwashers being cannibalised in order to create military equipment, and Soviet-era tanks have also been sent to the front line as they strain to maintain their military equipment.

Background

The UK has previously designated close to 300 Iranian individuals and entities for their role in weapons proliferation, human rights abuses, and terrorism. These include those involved in Iran’s drone programme, including Iran’s Ministry of Defence Armed Forces Logistics and the Iran Aviation Industries Organisation and its subsidiaries including Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Company and Qods Aviation Industry and individuals including Amir Hajizadeh, the IRGC Aerospace Force Commander.

Iran has one of the largest and most diverse drone and missile arsenals in the Middle East and continues to increase the sophistication, range and accuracy of its weapons systems. It also has a long-standing track record of proliferating drones, missiles and missile technology, including to non-state actors. The missiles and drones are under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iran’s and Russia’s action violates UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which provides that the transfer from, or to, Iran of specified items require prior approval from the Security Council.

In response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the UK and our international partners have implemented the most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy. The UK has sanctioned over 1,200 individuals and 120 entities since the start of the invasion as well as introducing unprecedented trade measures.

Asset freeze

An asset freeze prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person. UK financial sanctions apply to all persons within the territory and territorial sea of the UK and to all UK persons, wherever they are in the world. It also prevents funds or economic resources being provided to or for the benefit of the designated person.

Travel ban

A travel ban means that the designated person must be refused leave to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom, providing the individual is an excluded person under section 8B of the Immigration Act 1971.

Transport sanctions

Recently introduced powers make it a criminal offence for any Russian aircraft to fly or land in the UK and give the government powers to remove aircraft belonging to designated Russian individuals and entities from the UK aircraft register, even if the sanctioned individual is not on board. Russian ships are also banned from UK ports.