The ‘wrapped rib’ antenna is lighter, less complex and more cost-competitive than those currently available commercially. The antenna will be exclusively developed in the UK by Oxford Space Systems (OSS). It will make the UK the first European country with the capability of a flight-proven parabolic deployable antenna.

The lighter weight of the ‘wrapped-rib’ antenna means it can be transported to space more efficiently at less expense. This is critical in an industry where launch costs are high. The MOD funding will assist OSS to increase the antenna’s size and its performance to meet the needs of defence.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

I have been clear that we need to accelerate the development of new, innovative capabilities – especially those in the space domain. It is vital that we have homegrown affordable technologies like this pioneering deployable satellite antenna to maintain a commanding military advantage over our adversaries and competitors.

In collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the Defence Innovation Fund, this is the largest contract placed with a first-time supplier by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).

The new antenna will be used to meet the needs of fine-resolution Low Earth Orbit Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. SAR permits all weather Earth observation, irrespective of time of day or night. This provides unique advantages for both civil and defence applications. The technology will enable the UK to deploy a number of antennas in space, providing more accurate and frequent satellite images.

The technology consists of a specialist carbon-fibre composite and utilises origami engineering techniques to create a unique, compact, deployable antenna. This results in an antenna that is compact and light weight when folded for easy portability and deployability but can unfurl to several metres when in space, just like a large pop-up umbrella.

OSS Senior Commercial Strategist, Shefali Sharma said:

This contract represents a considerable stamp of endorsement by the UK Government for OSS on the global stage. The funding allows us to create high value employment in the space sector and grow our team of experts at our Harwell base. We can now focus on maturing the ‘wrapped rib’ antenna toward on-orbit demonstration. We view our antenna technology as a key enabler for the next-generation of communications and SAR services from orbit. The antenna is highly scalable and tunable and has been specifically designed for volume production, targeting smallsat constellations. As such, it’s suitable for a range of commercial opportunities not only here in the UK, but globally too. Our doors are open to international trade and we are excited about where future partnerships will take us.

Head of DASA, Lucy Mason said:

Our work with OSS ticks all DASA’s objectives, not only did we provide the initial stimulus to establish this partnership, but it will also open up opportunities for truly cross government collaboration, with the potential to meet the needs of both our defence and security customers. Additionally, the project will contribute to UK prosperity by creating jobs and increasing export opportunities. This is exactly why DASA exists.

The move is just the latest defence involvement in the space sector. The Defence Secretary has announced that he will launch a dedicated Defence Space Strategy, whilst the department is also supporting the UK Space Agency with work on a national alternative to the EU’s Galileo satellite system. The RAF was also involved in the launch and operation of the Carbonite-2 demonstrator satellite; now in orbit, the satellite offers sovereign, full-motion colour video from space for the RAF for the first time.

Last Sunday, I had the privilege to join mourners from around the world to pay my respects to 6 unknown victims of the Shoah – including a child.

It was an incredibly moving moment, not just for the Jewish community, but for our entire country.

These holy souls or Kedoshim, were “torn from home” – somewhere that should have been a place of safety, comfort and security.

They lived and died through one of the darkest chapters in human history, but rest today in the loving embrace of our Jewish community here in the UK.

As I reflected on this, I was reminded of my father-in-law, who escaped Nazi Germany and came to Britain with the help of the MI6 agent, Frank Foley, who’s actions also saved the lives of thousands of other Jews.

But as we honour the millions of victims of the Shoah today, we remember those families who weren’t so lucky.

Those who never made it home.

Those who were brutalised and murdered.

Those whose lives were cut short and whose loss provides a stark and powerful legacy to us all.

A legacy that demands we challenge hatred and bigotry wherever it exists.

A legacy that requires that we say “never again” we really mean it.

Sadly, this is a lesson that we are still learning.

40 years ago, the Khmer Rouge claimed the lives of one quarter of the population through mass murder and starvation.

25 years ago, almost one million Rwandans were murdered in 100 days.

And horror returned to our continent as we witnessed the murder of over 8,000 mostly Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

We still imagine that these barbarities belong in the history books.

And yet today – 74 years since the Nazi death camps were liberated – antisemitism is on the rise, here and abroad.

And Jewish communities are once again living in fear.

This troubles me deeply and must trouble us all.

I want to reassure our Jewish community that you are an intrinsic part of what makes Britain Great and the government will always stand by you to challenge bigotry and intolerance…

…and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that future generations never forget where hatred can lead, and that we will not walk by on the other side where it is present.

Our new National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre will help us do that – a permanent reminder at the heart of our democracy.

Because we all know: tolerance and reconciliation begins at home and that we all have our part to play to ensure home is truly a place of safety, security and of strength.

Teachers in England will receive more early career support, opportunities for flexible and part-time working, and a reduction in their workload – in a new strategy aimed at boosting the number of teachers in the profession and making sure talent stays in schools across the country.

Launching the government’s first-ever integrated strategy to recruit and retain more teachers in schools – developed alongside and welcomed today (28 January) by teachers, education unions and leading professional bodies – Education Secretary Damian Hinds has set out plans to attract and retain the next generation of inspirational teachers.

The strategy will deliver on the Education Secretary’s commitment to champion the profession and will build on the 30,000 classroom teachers the government aims to recruit each year, support the 450,000 teachers already working in schools in England, and boost outcomes for pupils by:

• Providing new teachers with the foundations for a successful career – by creating the Early Career Framework, the biggest teaching reform in a generation, backed by at least £130million a year in extra funding when fully rolled out. New teachers will receive a two-year package of training and support at the start of their career, including a reduced timetable to allow teachers to make the most of their training. Extra investment will also be pledged, through the £42million Teacher Development Premium, to roll-out the Early Career Framework
• Extra financial incentives to encourage talented teachers to stay in the classroom – Bursaries will be reformed to include retention-based payments for those who stay in the profession by staggering additional payments throughout the first years of their career.
• Simplifying the process of applying to become a teacher – introducing a new one-stop application system to make applications easier for would-be teachers and making it easier for more people to experience classroom teaching.
• Helping school leaders to reduce teachers’ workload – helping school leaders strip away unnecessary tasks such as data entry; simplifying the accountability system to clarify when a school may be subject to intervention or offered support; and working with Ofsted to ensure staff workload is considered as part of a school’s inspection judgement.
• Creating a more diverse range of options for career progression – helping schools to introduce flexible working practices through a new match-making service for teachers seeking a job-share and developing specialist qualifications and non-leadership career routes for teachers that want to stay in the classroom, with additional incentives to work in challenging schools.

The Education Secretary is calling on the profession to work with the Department for Education to deliver the plan and help meet the “shared challenge” of recruitment and retention.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

When I took this job a year ago, I made championing teachers my number one priority. Over the past year I have worked with Ofsted and the unions to bear down on workload. I think teachers work too many hours – aggravated by unnecessary tasks like excessive marking and data entry, spending more than half their time on non-teaching tasks.

But those who choose to become teachers chose to do so to inspire young people, support their development and set them up for a bright future – not stay late in the office filling in a spreadsheet.

This ambitious strategy commits to supporting teachers – particularly those at the start of their career – to focus on what actually matters, the pupils in their classrooms. In a competitive graduate labour market we must continue to ensure that teaching is an attractive profession so we can train and retain the next generation of inspirational teachers. Working with teachers, school leaders, trusts and unions, this strategy will help to support teachers to do what they do best – teach.

The priorities in the strategy have been defined with leading education unions, who have co-signed a commitment to help teachers and school leaders implement the strategy so that it has maximum impact in schools. To deliver on these priorities, and build on the 34,500 trainees that joined the profession in 2018, the strategy also commits to:

• support proposals in Ofsted’s new inspection framework, including to focus on reducing teacher workload;
• introduce a new Ofsted hotline for head teachers to directly report any breaches of its commitments around the information schools do not need to provide to inspectors, including internal assessment data;
• launch a new ‘Discover Teaching’ initiative to give more people an opportunity to discover the joys of teaching;
• Challenge Education Technology (EdTech) providers to see how innovative timetabling solutions can help support part-time and flexible working patterns;
• Call on head teachers and school leaders to embrace flexible working in their schools;
• launch a new, digital ‘match-making’ service for teachers looking for a job-share partner – helping more people join or return to the profession; and
• invest £10 million to create regional centres of excellence to facilitate sharing of best practice on classroom and behaviour management.

The leaders of teaching unions and professional bodies have today welcomed the plans.

Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

Teachers are the lifeblood of our schools but far too many currently leave the profession too early in their careers, and we simply must do more to put the joy back into teaching.

The Early Career Framework has the potential to be a game-changer. By providing teachers with support and development during the first few years of their career and helping them to flourish in the classroom, it can help to raise the status of teaching to where it deserves to be: as a life-enhancing vocation.

Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said:

Teaching is a hugely rewarding career, but the first few years can often be challenging. The Early Career Framework has the potential to transform the reality of teaching in England. Delivered well, this programme of mentoring and support will help new teachers to build their confidence and hone their skills, providing the foundations for a successful career in teaching, and creating the school leaders of the future.

This Strategy will also see positive changes to the accountability system, removing the floor and coasting standards and making requires improvement the single trigger for an offer of support. This will free school leaders to concentrate on what matters most, and that’s delivering for pupils.

Amanda Spielman, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, said:

We wholeheartedly support the government’s Recruitment and Retention Strategy, and want to play our part by ensuring teaching is a career people want to join and stay in. Our new inspection framework supports this aim, and we believe it will reduce teacher workload. Ultimately, this will mean teachers can focus their energy on giving pupils a good curriculum that is well taught.

Russell Hobby, CEO of Teach First commented:

We all expect to be able to juggle work and life. Teachers are no different. It can be challenging for schools to balance flexible working around the school timetable. But with the right support it’s achievable and we’re pleased to see the Department for Education supporting schools on this area. An important step in continuing to attract the best and the brightest to teach.

The Early Career Framework could be transformational in setting strong foundations as teachers develop in their careers. Teaching can be as challenging as it is rewarding and our experience shows that two years of quality, structured, development can enable people to flourish into highly effective teachers and leaders. It’s right that this investment is focused on schools in challenging circumstances where the greatest difference can be made to young lives.

Professor Dame Alison Peacock, Chief Executive of the Chartered College of Teaching, said:

The Chartered College has worked closely to support the development of the Early Career Framework and believe that it is rooted firmly both in the evidence of what works, but more importantly in the evidence of what is needed.

Early Career teachers deserve the sort of support that new entrants to comparable professions enjoy, and the ECF and the extended induction period create the potential for a transformation of the early career experience for new teachers. This will in turn improve teacher retention and the quality of teaching that children and young people enjoy, and start teachers on the journey of career-long professional learning they deserve.

Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation said:

The Early Career Framework reforms present an enormous opportunity to support teachers to access and apply the best available evidence at an essential point in their careers. By evaluating the roll-out of the programme, we will learn key lessons to ensure that every new teacher in England gets the support they need and deserve. The Education Endowment Foundation has played – and will continue to play – a key role in ensuring the ECF draws on the best available evidence.

Leora Cruddas, CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts said:

The Early Career Framework is perhaps the most important education policy since 2010. It offers an evidence-informed way of strengthening early career retention, development and ultimately the quality of the teachers in the education system in England.

Today’s announcements follow the Education Secretary’s commitment made last year with the teaching unions and Ofsted to strip away unnecessary workload for teachers – where he made clear that neither the government nor Ofsted require teachers to spend time filling out templates for individual lesson plans, or “triple marking” every piece of work.

It also follows the £508 million teachers’ pay grant , and forms part of a drive led by the Education Secretary to trust the best school leaders to make decisions in their staff and pupils’ best interest.

The Department for Education has also today provided more information about the extra £400 million for schools announced in last year’s Budget. On average, primary schools will receive £10,000, while secondary schools will receive £50,000 to invest in improvements to buildings or facilities, including IT equipment.

Alongside this, the allocations that every council will receive for capital projects supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities have been published, from a £100 million investment announced in December. Part of the wider investment the government is making to raise education standards, this additional money will pay for more specialist places in mainstream schools, colleges and schools for children with special educational needs, or facilities like sensory rooms or equipment.

In the coming weeks the Department for Education will host a series of regional roadshows across the country to seek more views from teachers and school leaders on the strategy to identify how they can work together to deliver on its aims.

They will each jointly benefit from a total investment of at least £500,000 as part of the next round of the Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund (CSIIF).

The aim of the Fund is to boost not only the total number, but the diversity of those working in the UK’s cyber security industry. It will help organisations develop and sustain projects that identify, train and place untapped talent from a range of backgrounds into cyber security roles quickly.

Digital Minister Margot James said:

Our cyber security industry is thriving but to support this growing success we need a skilled and diverse workforce to match. These latest projects show that whatever your background, ethnicity or sex, there are opportunities to join the cyber security profession. We want to demonstrate that you can have a dynamic and exciting career in a sector that sits at the heart of our economy, and is a key part of our modern Industrial Strategy.

The projects receiving funding are:

• Crucial Academy: Diversity in Cyber Security

This initiative based in Brighton looks to retrain veterans in cyber security, in particular focusing on women, neurodiverse candidates and BAME individuals.

Neil Williams CEO of Crucial Group said:

We at Crucial Academy are incredibly grateful for the support that the CSIIF provides. As veterans ourselves, we understand how programmes like this are invaluable in aiding the transition into civilian life. This support will help facilitate our continued commitment to veterans, women, neurodiverse and the BAME communities.

• QA: Cyber Software Academy for Women

This project running in London, Bristol, and Manchester will train and place a cohort of women into cyber development job roles within industry. An additional cohort will also be trained in Birmingham as part of the West Midlands Combined Authority Skills Deal.

Lisa Harrington, Managing Director QA Learning said:

We are extremely excited to be awarded this crucial funding for our collaborative initiative with Women’s Tech Jobs, the QA Cyber Academy for Women. It will have an immediate impact on beginning to address the diversity issues within the cyber security sector, and be an inspirational beacon to inspire the next generation of female cyberists.

This Plymouth based initiative will scale up an already existing programme which identifies, trains, and places individuals, including neurodiverse candidates, those with special needs and those from disadvantaged backgrounds into a cyber security career.

Michael Dieroff, CEO of Bluescreen IT said:

BluescreenIT are extremely proud to be chosen as one of the lead organisations to deliver real social impact through our Hacked Cyber Hub initiative. The project aims to build a network of UK community Security Operations hubs across the UK, which will engage and service the local community and businesses with cost effective cyber security services. These hubs will increase the employment of IT professionals through Cyber and digital apprenticeships, reducing the growing skills gap across all sectors.

• Hacker House Ltd: Hands on Hacking, Training and Employer Portal

This project based online will develop a portal allowing for an increased number of people to be trained and then engage with employers.

CEO Jennifer Arcuri from Hacker House said:

Cyber skills play such a vital role in the development to the digital economy and its fantastic to see the UK government make it such a priority. The team of Hacker House are thrilled to be included in the funding of this grant as this allows us the opportunity to continue to develop content that trains and enable candidates to retain practical skills needed for roles within information security.

1. The CSIIF pilot was launched in February 2018 and was open to initiatives delivered in England. Seven initiatives were identified for funding from the National Cyber Security Programme – more detail can be found here.
2. This Fund is one of a range of initiatives designed in support of the National Cyber Security Strategy’s aim of developing a sustainable supply of home-grown cyber security talent in the UK.
3. The Fund is open to organisations such as training providers and charities, who can demonstrate their initiatives are not designed to fill internal vacancies, but rather service a range of employers.
4. The expanded CSIIF gave additional weighting to initiatives that demonstrate a commitment to placing more women into cyber security roles.

• Investigation by specialist prison service staff and police leads to seizure of almost £8,000
• Money suspected to be made from unlawful conduct in prison by a convicted murderer
• Unit is part of wider security drive to tackle organised crime and drugs which fuel violence in prisons

The Financial Investigations Unit froze the bank account of a convicted murderer at HMP Gartree containing almost £8,000 and, following an investigation, seized the assets. The prisoner was thought to be involved in unlawful activity within the prison.

This seizure is a first for the unit, which was created last year as part of a wider effort to disrupt the organised crime in prisons which fuels drug use and violence.

The unit is made up of specially-trained prison service analysts and police financial investigators who use intelligence to identify bank accounts used for illicit transactions. They have the power to freeze bank accounts and make arrests.

Justice Secretary David Gauke said:

Last year I announced a new specialist unit to seize the assets of prisoners who commit crime and fuel violence in jail, and I am pleased it has achieved its first success.

This unit forms an important part of our wider strategy to tackle organised crime and restore stability to prisons so that offenders have the chance to turn their lives around.

Organised criminals in prisons have been known to operate money laundering schemes to receive payment for illicit debts, often as a result of drug deals. Much of the activity takes place through single low-value transactions, making them difficult to find.

Bank accounts on the outside world, used by inmates to pay for drugs, are usually identified through paper notes found in cells which contain account details, or on phones seized from prisoners with instructions to make transfers. Such transactions, which amount to money laundering, are targeted by the unit.

In this case the unit identified a key bank account belonging to an offender, a convicted murderer, that had received a number of suspicious deposits.

The unit will continue to analyse intelligence and work quickly to act against offenders suspected of criminal activity.

It is part of a wider effort to restore stability to the prison estate, including an additional £70 million investment in safety, security and decency. This will ensure prisons can be places of rehabilitation where offenders can turn their backs on crime for good.

The investment includes £16 million to improve conditions and £6 million on new security measures, such as airport-style security, improved searching techniques, and phone-blocking technology. To help identify, disrupt and disable gangs, £1m went towards the roll-out of a new digital tool which assesses information from various law enforcement databases to create a central ‘risk rating’ for each prisoner.

In addition to this, £14 million is being invested each year to stop criminal gangs smuggling drugs into prisons.

This has come against a backdrop of rising prison officer numbers, with more than 4,300 additional officers recruited since October 2016 and staffing levels at their highest since 2012.

Notes to editors:

• A total sum of £7,938.99 was seized.
• The assets will be shared between the Home Office and Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) forces.
• The unit is based in Peterborough and has been operational since October. It consists of Intelligence Analysts within Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service and financial investigators from the ERSOU.
• ERSOU are the lead Regional Organised Crime Unit for the Eastern Region.
• Sanctions range from the closure of accounts, to freezing assets or other criminal sanctions such as Confiscation Orders and arrest.
• For investigative reasons we are not able to identify the prisoner or provide further details.