It’s a great pleasure to be here today with so many representatives from across the Commonwealth and business to celebrate the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit.

The first ever Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was back in 1971 in Singapore.

But 1971 was an important year for another reason too.

That year, computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, working at MIT, sent the first ever email.

Now, this message itself wasn’t particularly earth-shattering, just a series of letters that Tomlinson sent from his computer to the neighbouring one. All the same, it marked a historic moment in the evolution of communication.

Fast forward to now and it is estimated that globally we send a staggering 269 billion emails a day.

The internet is now an integral part of all our lives.

I expect that even since I started talking, some of you have glanced at your phones.

The growth of access to the internet is phenomenal.

It’s estimated that 48% of the population used the internet last year.

71% of the world’s 15 to 24 year olds are now online.

And the internet has revolutionised how we do business too.

Today, a business in India can sell goods to someone in Barbados over the internet and can receive payment in seconds.

A farmer in Kenya can crowdsource a loan from people across continents to pay for new farming equipment.

The internet is now the backbone of our banks, our power grids, our schools, universities and governments.

But we know that while the internet has brought many obvious advantages, it’s also brought new threats.

Threats that continue to grow in scale, sophistication and severity.

And cybercrime costs billions.

In the UK, nearly 7 in 10 large businesses have experienced cybercrime with an average cost of £20,000 per business. Some breaches leave companies on their knees.

And then of course, there’s the broader cyber threat.

Hostile state activity in cyberspace is the most alarming expression of that threat.

Over the last year we’ve seen a significant increase in the scale and severity of malicious cyber activity globally.

We know that there are several established, capable states seeking to exploit computer and communications networks in contravention of their obligations under international law.

Consultations conducted in partnership with the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation show that members are concerned about the scale and complexity of cyber attacks from hostile states, groups and individuals who use cyber tools to commit crimes, to project power, to intimidate their adversaries, and to influence and manipulate societies in a manner which makes definitive attribution difficult.

But we have started to call this sort of activity out.

For instance, in 2017, countries across the Commonwealth were hit by the Wannacry ransomware attack, with cases reported in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and Australia among others.

Wannacry was one of the most significant cyber attacks to hit the UK in terms of scale and disruption. It disrupted over a third of NHS Trusts in England and thousands of operations were cancelled, putting lives at risk.

But in partnership with others, we publicly attributed the Wannacry attack to North Korean actors known as the Lazarus Group.

And in February, again in partnership, we called out the Russian military for the destructive NotPetya cyber attack of June 2017.

And on Monday, our National Cyber Security Centre partnered with the US Department for Homeland Security and the FBI and issued, for the first time, a joint technical alert about malicious cyber activity carried out by the Russian government. I know that some Commonwealth partners have supported that statement and it marks an important step in our fight back against state-sponsored aggression in cyberspace.

Together, we need to continue to call out this sort of destructive behaviour.

And when it comes to cyber security, working together really is the best approach.

I know that Australia and New Zealand are doing great work supporting our Pacific Commonwealth Partners with cyber security and that Ghana is sharing expertise with others in Africa. Our very own National Cyber Security Centre and National Crime Agency work globally and with our Commonwealth partners to address cybersecurity and cybercrime.

They’ve supported the Central Bureau of Investigation of India to provide training on reverse engineering and analysis of malware.

We worked with the Kenyan Police and provided expertise for their first high profile cybercrime investigation which resulted in a successful prosecution.

And we want to continue to build on projects such as the Commonwealth Cyber Crime initiative with Barbados, Botswana and Grenada amongst others. We must continue to work together to address the shared cyber threats and opportunities.

That is why the Commonwealth Cyber Declaration, which foreign ministers and leaders will be considering this week, is such a powerful demonstration of common resolve to address our collective cyber security.

As the world’s largest inter-governmental commitment on cyber security co-operation, it sets out our agreed principles and ambitions, and agreement to work more closely together to enhance our collective ability to tackle threats and foster stability in a free, open, inclusive and secure cyberspace.

And earlier today, the UK Prime Minister announced a £5.5 million UK programme supporting cyber security in the Commonwealth to support the implementation the Commonwealth Cyber Declaration by 2020.

This will bring the UK’s total programme of support for Commonwealth partners to nearly £15 million over the next 3 years to help improve cyber security capabilities.

So there’s important work ahead.

And whether you’re here today representing a government, a business or just yourself, one thing should be very clear. And that is that we need to get our cyber security right.

From understanding where the gaps are in our national cyber security, to ensuring that law enforcement agencies have the skills and expertise to investigate cybercrime and provide victims with support. We need to increase public awareness of what good cyber security looks like and what the basic changes – like strong passwords – can make to this.

As today’s panellists will I’m sure make clear, cyber security is a shared endeavour. Governments, businesses and individuals must all play their part.

And we also need to ensure that the pipeline of talent going into the technology sector is capable, expert and diverse. As Jeremy Flemming, Head of GCHQ, noted last week, we continue to “need to seek out diversity of talent, to recruit and retain the best minds”. And we are. We’re throwing our support behind initiatives from the private sector in the UK, like the Tech Talent Charter – a commitment to improve female representation in the tech sector – to demonstrate this.

And I encourage all of you to consider, and share how your businesses and governments are meeting this challenge.

Because diversifying the way we think about security helps combat the diversity of threats.

I want to conclude today by saying this.

Ray Tomlinson was inspired by the promise of the internet to send that first email.

Every day, businesses across the Commonwealth are growing and thriving because of it.

And while there are threats that we all now recognise, I believe that by working together we can make sure that the promise of the internet is realised while the threats are combated.

Thank you.

I stand before you as the son of a Royal Air Force officer who just saw the end of the Second World War and as the grandson of an army corporal from Scotland who fought in the First.

Respect and admiration for those who have lived and died for their country rests deep in my soul. It is therefore a profound personal honour to be here today to represent the former Entente Powers as we remember the service, sacrifice and suffering of those on both sides of the seismic military encounter which took place here over a century ago.

War exaggerates the natural qualities of its combatants: it turns the bad into monsters and the brave into heroes. And there were many heroes amongst the hundreds of thousands who died fighting on the beaches, in the gullies, and in the pine woods of this beautiful peninsula.

For the school child of today, Gallipoli – like Passchendale – is the image they hold of what war was like a hundred years ago. May they also learn of the remarkable moments of decency within the many months of misery, such as when Turkish and Australian soldiers in May 1915 at Anzac Cove suspended hostilities in order to allow both sides, with dignity, to bury their dead.

As a Turkish Captain said of it: ‘At this spectacle, even the most gentle must feel savage; and the most savage must weep.’

Today we salute those from Turkey, from Australia, from New Zealand, from other Commonwealth countries, and from the Entente Powers, who died or were injured during the lengthy sufferings of the campaign.

The pain and losses endured here were a source of grief, but also of pride and inspiration for the young and new nations that have since emerged from the sand, the mud and the ashes of the First World War.

The good that has arisen out of the foulness of conflict teaches us that it is the duty of all of us here today to learn from the past and look to the future.

That vision was no better expressed than by the words of Kamal Ataturk who called on all people to aim for ‘peace at home, and peace in the world.’

It is a fitting legacy of what happened here at Çanakkale that, despite such ferocious battles, the historic bitter enmity that used to exist has so widely been replaced by binding friendships and steadfast alliances.

It is a remarkable testament to the value of reconciliation that a century after Turkey and Great Britain were on opposite sides, we now stand shoulder to shoulder as NATO allies and trusted friends.

Whereas my grandfather then could have found himself standing here looking at a Turkish soldier as an enemy, I can stand here now as a British minister looking at all of you as friends.

Together, we all must honour those who fought in the past, and we must strive together for a better world in which there is less need to fight in the future.

Let us be a common voice for adherence to the international rule of law, and to treaties and binding conventions. Where we see what is right, let us prove robust in defending it: where we see what is wrong, let us prove steadfast in correcting it.

After the hideous experience of gas in the trenches a century ago all nations resolved to rid the world of chemical weapons. Let us, a hundred years on, renew and uphold that wisdom.

I pay a heartfelt tribute to all the nations represented here today. May we all turn enmity into empathy; and wounds into bonds.

May this ceremony mark remembrance and reconciliation, each to the full.

May we all respectfully embrace the memory of the fallen, and the future of the living.

On behalf of the Entente Powers I salute the memory of Gallipoli Çanakkale, and look to our future together.

Further information

I’m delighted to be here at this day to celebrate the changemakers.

I came here on the Tube. I was unable to get past Parliament Square, because a statue was being unveiled to Millicent Fawcett, herself a great changemaker.

And I have the pleasure of meeting and working with changemakers every single day. In the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport we think of ourselves as the department of the future.

Changemakers in the world of culture, and of course digital transformation, are having a phenomenal impact. And this is a pace of change that the world has never seen before.

I like to think of it this way.

The pace of change that we are living through now is in fact the slowest pace of change that we will experience for the rest of our lifetimes.

So as new technologies, like artificial intelligence and others, get exponentially faster, these changes will only accelerate.

But the flipside of this is that the impact on our lives is getting greater and greater.

And I just wanted to address the impact this has from the point of view of somebody in Government.

I came to Government having started life in the tech sector, and understanding the impact of these changes on businesses.

Governments have an opportunity now to create an environment that supports businesses – and tech businesses in particular – and create appropriate norms and rules for the online world.

This balance between the two is critical in a way that it wasn’t even a few years ago.

Making sure that the ethics, the norms and the rules are in place, to ensure the positive development of technology for mankind, whilst also supporting mission critical innovation.

And today I want to go into three areas where I think that our focus needs to be laserlike to make this happen, and to give changemakers the help that they need.

Firstly, the right business environment. Secondly, the right talent. And thirdly, the right ethics. And I think we need all three if we’re going to get it right.

Business environment

First, governments around the world need to set the conditions not just for a thriving digital economy but also one that generates positive social change.

Now, I am a deep believer that business is a force for good in the world. Successful businesses are those which solve other people’s problems, and in fact solve other people’s problems so well that they’re paid to do so. Ensuring that we have a positive business environment is critical.

And I think increasingly more and more businesses – in the UK and beyond – are thinking deeply about their social purpose and integrating that into their core strategy.

We have seen an acceleration in recent years of digital social enterprises doing brilliant work.

Take one example, Zinc VC – it’s an incubator, building new companies to solve the developed world’s toughest social issues, like mental health and loneliness, through the application of new technology.

There are new companies connecting volunteers with people in their area who aren’t always able to cook for themselves, commercial financial platforms that help people to become debt free, and apps that allow tuition and healthcare to be given to people in remote areas of the world.

This Tech for Good sector is a critical part of the development of new technology in a way that is both commercially and socially good – and it is growing fast.

Government clearly has a role here.

Big Society Capital, the world’s first wholesale social investor fund was set up five years ago by the Government. And it has already committed a billion to social sector organisations.

We are continuing to look at how we can expand this throughout the economy.

And what I find interesting is, having been a minister now for five years, starting in the Business Department, is that the conversation around the inclusive economy, and the need to rise to major social challenges, is now higher on the agenda than it ever has been. And I think that the UK is leading the world.

But it isn’t just about the businesses that are explicitly about solving social problems as well, but also about making sure that we’re at the cutting edge of the development of new technologies, including clean growth, and Artificial Intelligence.

In these areas we face a grand challenge, to make sure that Britain is leading the world and making sure that the development of new technologies happens here.

That allows us to have influence over the unlocking of this technology.

And that brings me to talent and ethics.

Talent

If we want to create the right business environment, we’ve got to get the talent right too.

Because technology and automation will have a radical impact on the workplace. There is no point in trying to hold back the tide.

We understand the big debate around the impact of technology but I think that there is a growing consensus on this.

The challenge we have is to ensure that we embrace the new jobs that are created by that technology, and that we give people the skills they need; and crucially support those who need to retrain.

And here I think that Britain, in many ways, leads the world.

From making coding in the curriculum compulsory at school age, through to supporting a more flexible labour market and to expanding digital training for adults, we have a far-reaching programme to support people whose jobs are being disrupted by technology.

And part of this is the need to embed these digital skills far and wide.

It is, in a way, easy, especially here in the centre of London, to focus on the need for high-end tech skills, and of course this is mission critical.

But we need to have a full-spectrum approach to getting the talent that we need, to make sure that everybody can participate, and, right up at the top, that we can continue to be the most advanced nation in the world.

And part of doing that is making sure that our tech industry itself is more representative of the country as a whole.

To address this, we are working with industry to support the Tech Talent Charter.

There is a lack of gender diversity in our tech industry. That brings with it two problems.

The first is that if you’re only fishing in half the pond you’re only going catch half the fish, and the shortage of digital skills that our country needs means that we need to expand the net and fish in the whole pond.

But the second reason that this is important is that I have never seen a decision made where the quality of decision making hasn’t been improved by diversity of thought in the room.

So both to improve the diversity of thought and the quality of decisions, and to ensure that we can fulfill the challenge of filling the skills gap, we need to ensure that we get better diversity in this industry.

Over two hundred companies, from international giants like Microsoft and BT, right through to start-ups, have signed up for this, as have Government departments too.

This means filling digital, data and technology roles across the economy, and indeed across Government, so we can be more reflective of the country we serve.

We can’t be a truly digital nation until we have a skilled, hi-tech workforce that makes use of all of the available talent.

Ethics

And that brings me onto the third and the final principle that I wanted to touch on. And that’s the importance of answering the deep and searching ethical questions posed by new technology.

Let’s take AI as an example. It presents some incredible opportunities. The faster and more accurate diagnosis of illnesses, smarter energy use to protect the planet and technology to detect terrorist videos as soon as they are uploaded and before they are viewed.

But while the digital revolution promises these vast benefits, it also raises challenging questions.

Is it right, for example, for companies to predict our sexuality and ethnicity and tailor their services as a result?

Is it right to have an algorithm to dictate who should be saved in a car crash?

And what do we do if coding starts to reflect and replicate the unconscious biases that exist in society today?

These are not questions that we can write off as philosophical puzzles. They are now real policy questions, being discussed in Parliament and in courtrooms in years to come.

We’ve recently embarked on a world first, setting up a Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. This is an independent advisory body with a bold and ambitious remit to look far and wide to identify the measures we need to make sure we have ethical and innovative use of data and to make sure that AI flourishes.

Critically, it will advise on what we need to do in law and on our statute book.

But the frameworks and the standards that it will produce on a non-statutory basis will be just as important.

And getting the ethics right around AI is mission critical to its success because it soon will be an integral part of the way we live and work and study. So it is vital that we get this right.

Conclusion

So the message I want to leave you with today is this.

Whenever people try to hold back the changemakers they will lose, and this is especially true when it comes to technology.

Whether it’s the Luddites smashing up the early textile machinery, or the horse and cart drivers who protested the Victorian railways or those who rallied against commercial TV in the UK, history tells us that we can’t fight new technology, but we can shape it.

So I’m on the side of the disruptors. There isn’t a single business model out there that can’t be improved over time through the transforming power of technology.

Because the marketplace of ideas is the best thing for customers.

It means a race to the top in how we make services better and products easier, faster and more efficient. And ultimately benefit our fellow man. And it creates wider benefits for society as a whole.

So blessed are the changemakers.

And it is the role of governments across the world to give them what they need to succeed. And that’s what we plan to do.

The following products, all intended for administration to dogs were seized as they were either unauthorised or had passed their expiry date:

• 1 x box of 30 Biheldon tablets
• 3 x bottles (opened) of Loxicom 1.5ml
• 1 x syringe (opened) of Canikur Pro
• 1 x bottle (opened) of Ciloxan 5ml
• 1 x pack (empty) of Canaural 25ml

This is an offence under Regulation 8 (Administration of the product) and Regulation 25 (Importation of an unauthorised veterinary medicinal product) of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.

Introduction

Good evening everyone; Assalamu Alaikum.

It’s a real pleasure to be here again at the Muslim News Awards for Excellence surrounded by friends, parliamentary colleagues from all political parties and leaders from across our Muslim community.

We are all here to celebrate the fantastic achievements of this wonderfully rich and diverse community we have here in our country.

For that is what I want to briefly touch on with you here this evening: that word, community, and why the strength and vibrancy of strong communities is so important to us all.

I hope I’ll be forgiven if I quote The Holy Quran, which teaches: “O mankind! We have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.”

I made a speech earlier this year in Wales, and I talked about the value of our United Kingdom. My argument then and my argument again tonight is that there is no contradiction between one’s loyalty to one’s country, and loyalty to one’s community as well.

People across the country derive a sense of who we are from a variety of different sources. From family and community; town and village; political persuasion and of course, religious faith.

It is precisely the plurality of these sources, and of those bonds, which come together to form a whole that is greater than the mere sum of its parts. And a country that is truly united and stronger, confident in itself and its purpose in the world.

You can be British, but also English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jew. Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cornwall, Brummie, Cockney.

None of those loyalties make us feel less loyal to the country. Less entitled to stand up and take our place in the mainstream of our society in the United Kingdom.

There really is no community which demonstrates more pride, enthusiasm and pure inspiration, than that of British Muslims across our country – many of whom are gathered here in this room tonight.

In the words of the Prime Minister, for whom the value of community is appreciated more than many people, your influence as community reaches every sphere of our society – from sport; charity, the arts and youth work; to business and enterprise. There are British Muslims who really are the role models, the thinkers, the visionaries. Everywhere I look around this country, British Muslim men and women are leading the way in whatever field they choose.

Sir Mo Farah, with yet another record yesterday, is one of the finest sportsmen the United Kingdom has ever produced.

Or in the media, Mishal Husein, who regularly relishes the opportunity to skewer myself and other government colleagues in the early hours of the morning on Radio Four.

Or you look at politics, and my colleague Nusrat Ghani, the first female Muslim minister to speak at the dispatch box in the House of Commons, alongside my Cabinet colleague Sajid Javid, the first British Muslim and the first British Asian to hold the office of Secretary of State.

And of course yourself Ahmed Versi, the editor of the largest and oldest Muslim newspaper in Britain. I haven’t read the write-up of this speech, but I do hope you say nicer things than what I tend to have dished out on a daily basis back in House of Commons!

Quite simply, British Muslims include some of the brightest lights that make up the constellation of brilliance that is our diverse United Kingdom.

And it’s why it is right that we come together tonight to recognise the achievements of the whole British Muslim community. Those achievements are something of which we should all be proud, wherever we come from in society, and can celebrate with enthusiasm, pleasure and sheer gratitude.

Divisions and disparities

But it is also why we must never cease our mission to strengthen our communities further – and bring people closer together

One of the events I most enjoyed in my own constituency last summer was when my local mosque in Aylesbury decided to celebrate the end of summer by holding an Eid fete. Bringing together the British tradition of a summer fete, with the Muslim festival of Eid.

The doors of the mosque and the arms of the community were thrown open to everybody in Aylesbury. I remember going to the mosque and standing next to the head of the local police, the command of the local RAF station, and the Mayor, to hear the Imam talk about the faith, and the head of the mosque committee describing the local community there.

But it’s also true that while Britain is a proudly multi-ethnic and diverse country, we cannot pretend that divisions and disparities do not still exist within our society; that examples of prejudice and injustice are still too common in everyday life; and that for too long, if we are honest with ourselves, governments of all political colours have not acted sufficiently to correct them.

Nearly two years ago, the Prime Minister set out a mission on the steps of Downing Street to build a country that works for everyone. No simple task, nobody said it would be easy, or that it would happen overnight.

But part of creating that fairer country we all want to see involves working harder and faster to break down those barriers that still hold people back from achieving their true potential, and that objective is something I believe politicians of all political parties in this country believe in too.

That is why one of the Prime Minister’s first acts upon entering Downing Street was to commission an unprecedented Race Disparity Audit of the whole public sector, the first of its kind in the world.

What that is doing is shining an unsparing light on the disparities faced by many people from different ethnic groups using public services in Britain – from health to education; employment to criminal justice.

Now of course, British Muslims belong to many different ethnic backgrounds – and those of you here tonight are a direct testament to the success stories which come out of the British Muslim community.

But what these figures in that audit show is that too many people are still left behind in this country – and that is something we cannot and will not let continue.

Prejudice and injustice

But while it is our mission to tackle these social policy challenges into the future – we know there are also more serious and very direct threats that face the Muslim community in the here and now.

Frankly, when I read letters or emails that encourage people in this country to participate in ‘Punish a Muslim’ day, and when I hear directly from British Muslims – people who are British citizens, who are paying taxes, who are working, who are active participants in our society – they tell me about the fear which that sort of comment and incitement causes to them and their family, I feel a mixture of outrage and disgust.

And when I see reports, particularly on social media, of regular incidents of anti-Muslim hate crime in our society, it gets me angry.

And when I hear and see, and again it’s often online commentary where this is seen, divisive, xenophobic and racist language in political argument, whether it comes from comes from the far left or the far right – I am not only utterly appalled but determined that we must work together among our different traditions of religion and ethnicity, and redouble efforts to overcome and defeat the forces of hatred and intolerance.

My message and this government’s message is clear: that kind of bigotry and intolerance has no place in the United Kingdom, and we will stamp it out wherever we find it.

And when I read other letters calling for people to take part in ‘Love a Muslim’ day in response to the bigotry, I am reassured that, no matter how long the struggle, the values of solidarity and unity will always prevail.

When I see those who commit hate crimes rightly punished, I am confident that our zero-tolerance attitude – whether from government or boarder society – is the correct one.

And when I hear racism in our politics condemned – from all sides of the democratic tradition – I have more faith than ever that, as my late colleague the Labour MP Jo Cox put it, what unites us is far greater than what divides us.

For it is the actions of those who call out and refuse to tolerate bigotry wherever they find it – and the actions of those who believe in the eternal principles of kindness, charity and compassion – that is what fills me with optimism.

Actions like those of Mohammed Mahmoud, the young imam, who ran towards and protected a man who had just driven his car into a group of worshippers outside Finsbury Park mosque in north London, nearly one year ago.

In his words he wanted to make sure the driver, Darren Osborne “answered for his crime” and sure enough, in February this year, that man Darren Osborne was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

That is justice. That is tolerance. That is the United Kingdom today at its best.

Inspirational Leaders

Mohammed Mahmoud is a true leading light in the British Muslim community, as are all gathered here this evening.

A strong country needs strong and vibrant communities, and those communities need leaders who inspire those around them.

And those here tonight, especially those we are celebrating and honouring are an inspiration and an example to us all.

Congratulations to all of those winning awards; thank you for everything you have done for this country; and please continue all your work to make this a better, fairer, more tolerant country still. One in which we can all feel we can live in peace and pride.

Thank you very much.