Thousands more Ukrainians will be welcomed to the UK as the Government continues its support for Ukraine in their fight against the Russian invasion.

The Prime Minister this morning (March 1) announced an expansion to our Ukrainian Humanitarian Route, which will increase the number of people from Ukraine who are eligible to come to the UK to be reunited with their families.

As well as immediate family members, British nationals and people of any nationality settled in the UK will now be supported to bring parents, grandparents, adult children and siblings to the UK.

Normal requirements for salary or language tests will be waived. Essential security checks will take place, given the malign action being taken by the Russian state to infiltrate Ukraine but the Home Office will continue to accelerate these checks and process applications as quickly as possible.

People in the region who are eligible under this route are encouraged to call the helpline on 0300 3032785 and to go to a Visa Application Centre in a neighbouring country to enrol biometrics once they have submitted an application.

The Prime Minister also announced plans for a new scheme for Ukrainians with no ties to the UK to come here. An uncapped sponsored humanitarian visa route will allow sponsors, such as communities, private sponsors or local authorities, to bring people to the UK. They will be able to work and the sponsor would provide housing and integration support.

The Government will work closely with international partners and neighbouring countries on the scheme to ensure that displaced Ukrainians forced to flee their homes are supported to apply. We will ensure that those who want to sponsor an individual or family can volunteer and be matched quickly with Ukrainians in need, working closely with the devolved administrations and local authorities across the country.

This is the latest in a package of humanitarian support to help Ukrainian people and is being brought forward following extensive discussion with Ukrainian leaders and other countries in the region.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

Putin’s war on Ukraine is monstrous and unjustified and the Government will stand with the people of Ukraine, both at home and abroad.

I have been talking to our friends in Ukraine and in the region to ensure the humanitarian support we offer is in the best interests of Ukrainian people.

Our Ukrainian Humanitarian Route will allow families to be reunited in the UK and our bespoke sponsor route will give safety to Ukrainians who have sadly been forced to flee their homes.

This agile response to the despicable Russian invasion is living proof of our New Plan for Immigration – doing what is fair and right to support people in genuine need.

While the Visa Application Centre in Kyiv has had to close in response to the conflict, the Home Office has surged capacity to other countries including Hungary, Poland and Moldova. A new pop-up Visa Application Centre in Rzeszow, Poland, has also been opened.

The staggered steps the UK has taken is in response to the evolving threat situation. Further changes will be made if needed, following discussions with Ukrainian leaders to ensure that support meets their needs.

It forms part of the wider effort to support Ukraine in the face of the Russia invasion. The UK continues to back Ukraine with defensive weapons and economic support as well as £220 million in humanitarian aid.

The announcement is the latest in a series of measures:

• Last week the Home Secretary confirmed that Ukrainians who are on work, study or visit visas in the UK will have their visas temporarily extended or be able to switch to different visa routes or for those on seasonal work visas to have their leave temporarily extended.
• We have waived fees, fast-tracked visas and allowed entry to others who did not meet the requirements.
• The Home Office established 24/7 bespoke helplines to support people through the Ukrainian Humanitarian Route
• The Home Secretary has also shut down the Tier 1 investor visa route, to ensure people who have profited from dirty money cannot gain access to the UK, and visas of people we do not want to be in the country are being cancelled.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

• The new changes will allow extended family members of British nationals and people settled in the UK to come. This will include parents, grandparents, adult children and siblings from Ukraine, as well as immediate family members.
• Extended family members will also be able to bring their immediate family with them. For example, a sibling of a settled person will be able to come to the UK with their spouse and child.
• Immediate family members are defined as;
  • a spouse or civil partner
  • an unmarried partner (you must have been living together in a relationship for at least 2 years)
  • your parent if you are under the age of 18
  • your child under the age of 18
  • an adult relative you provide care for who lives with you due to a medical condition
• Anyone who thinks they may be eligible for this concession to call 0300 3032785.
• Further details on the community sponsorship route are being worked up at pace and will be communicated in due course, including how people and organisations in the UK can apply to be sponsors.
• The Home Secretary’s statement to Parliament is available here: Home Secretary statement on humanitarian support for Ukrainians

Thank you very much for that warm introduction – and for inviting me to speak at the launch of this important report, estimating the size of the impact investing market in the UK.

It is a pleasure to be here in this wonderful venue, and to see so many of you here in person.

Toynbee Hall is a trailblazing example of social activism at work, helping people who are experiencing disadvantage and hardship. This remarkable institution has a long and proud history of helping others out of poverty in the East End of London and it is a very visible example of the kind of impact all of us in this room are trying to create.

But not every community in this country is lucky enough to have a Toynbee Hall, and societal problems go much further than that.

Economic prosperity, job opportunities and strong social fabric are not spread equally across all parts of the country. This means that many communities suffer from poor connectivity, low levels of community engagement and a lack of community spaces and infrastructure.

Levelling up seeks to address these problems, but it is an ambitious agenda. The challenges we face are of a scale not seen for a long time and the Government can’t tackle them alone.

Large-scale investment is needed to provide safe and affordable housing, training opportunities for young people and fast broadband to power our growing needs for connectivity.

Investment is also needed for issues close to my heart, such as access to sports facilities, creative opportunities, heritage sites and services delivered by civil society.

When I talk about the tremendous amount of resources needed, I don’t just mean money. I am talking about the expertise, skills, and innovative thinking that is needed to create a society that we all want to live in.

That means all of us – government, civil society and the private sector – have a role to play. As our world changes, so do the attitudes of people, businesses and investors. More and more, they are looking for ways to be part of the solution to challenges such as inequality, poverty and climate change.

Increasingly the question is being asked ‘’how can we work together on this?’’. I firmly believe that the defining challenges of our time must be addressed through people, communities and sectors working together.

At its heart, impact investing is all about partnerships. It gives investors a way to build thriving communities by supporting businesses and projects delivering real impact. It also shows that delivering this social value does not mean forgoing profit.

The UK is home to many innovative, dynamic social businesses and I believe you will be hearing from two of them later this morning.

Lighthouse Children’s Homes is a charity which has used investment to power its ambition for equality of opportunity for children in care.

And The Good Club is an innovative start-up which has benefitted from investment to achieve their mission of reducing food waste. They are making zero-waste, sustainable groceries simple and accessible for people around the country.

These are just two examples we are lucky enough to have in the room today, but there are many other businesses which offer investors the chance to deliver impact alongside financial returns. Impact investing is a win-win for everyone.

That’s why the government has worked with the private sector over the past two decades to nurture this market. In 2008 we set up the Dormant Assets scheme, which has so far released over £800 million towards good causes.

In 2012, we set up Big Society Capital as the UK’s social investment wholesaler, to get money moving. We set up the Access Foundation, to make sure affordable finance is there for organisations that need it most. We pioneered the world’s first Social Impact Bond. We kickstarted the community finance sector and set up the first tax relief for social investment.

In 2019, DCMS supported the set up of the Impact Investing Institute. The reason was simple – it had become clear that there was more to do. The amount of money aspiring to make the world a better place was quickly growing. What was once a niche idea, was now moving into the mainstream.

And just this month, our expanded Dormant Assets Bill received Royal Assent, helping to unlock even more funding to be distributed to good causes over the years to come.

There was – and still is – more to do to enable this money to have the greatest impact possible. The commitment of the UK Government has moved the dial on creating what is now a world-leading market.

Moment in time and role of this report launch

Now is the moment in time to capitalise on this success. We have built the market infrastructure. We have investors who have a genuine desire to be a part of the solution. And we have local investment opportunities which can deliver profit with purpose.

This report demonstrates that now is the time for the market to take a leading role in creating a country that we all want to live in.

The report which the Impact Investing Institute is launching today shows that impact investing has the power, scale and momentum to deliver on this and more. The findings are profound.

The amount of money invested with impact has grown significantly. Investors plan to increase their commitment to delivering social impact, and they expect others to do the same.

I believe it is important that investors feel able to play an active role in contributing to pressing challenges of our time, such as addressing regional inequalities. This report shows the extent to which they are already doing that. I think there is more room to grow.

The social value that impact investing creates can be seen all around us. Some of us might have come across it this morning on the way to this event. It could be through buying a coffee from a socially conscious outlet. Others might experience it through the renewable energy used to power their homes. Or it could be through the dedicated health and social care services many of us have relied on over the past two years.

Impact investing can act as a powerful catalyst for change, by investing in projects in our communities which have a clear and visible impact for people and for our planet.

I was delighted to take on ministerial responsibility for civil society and for championing impact investing and I am grateful for the work many of you do to keep this important market growing and evolving.

I would like to give particular thanks to Sarah Gordon and the rest of the Institute team, as well as delivery partners Ernst & Young (EY), for producing this landmark study. I hope you will find it as inspiring as I have.

• Regulations requiring COVID-19 vaccination to work in Care Quality Commission registered care homes to be lifted from 15 March
• Legal requirement for health and social care staff to be double jabbed from 1 April to be removed
• Health and Social Care Secretary reminds the minority of unvaccinated health and care workers of their professional responsibility to be vaccinated

Regulations making COVID-19 vaccination a condition of deployment in health and social care will be revoked on Tuesday 15 March, the Health and Social Care Secretary has confirmed today (Tuesday 1 March).

Following a public consultation, where 90% of responses supported the removal of the legal requirement for health and social care staff to be double jabbed, the government is revoking the regulations.

In January, the government confirmed its intention to revoke vaccination as a condition of deployment, subject to consultation.

When the original decision was taken to introduce COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of deployment, Delta was the dominant variant. This has since been replaced by Omicron which is less severe, with the percentage of those requiring emergency care or hospital admission approximately half that of the Delta variant.

Thanks to our hugely successful vaccination programme, the immunity built up in the population and our new antiviral and therapeutics tools, we are now in the strong position of learning to live with COVID-19. The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows that five to nine weeks after getting a booster, you are at least 85% less likely to end up in hospital than if you are unvaccinated.

With the population better protected and lower levels of hospitalisations and mortality, it was right to revisit the balance of risks and benefits that had guided the government’s original decisions to introduce vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and social care. The number of restrictions, rules and regulations are now being reduced – including this requirement.

While the vast majority of NHS, social care and other healthcare staff have been double jabbed, the government is clear those working in health and social care who remain unvaccinated still have a professional responsibility to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and Get Boosted Now.

The government’s priority is to ensure the most vulnerable to COVID-19 remain protected through vaccinations, antivirals and therapeutics.

The government is continuing to work closely with Royal Colleges and professional regulators to strengthen guidance and consult on updating the Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections in relation to COVID-19 requirements for CQC registered providers of health and social care in England.

The lifting of these regulations and the easing of restrictions as we learn to live with COVID-19 will help us to continue to chart a course back to normality.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Thank you very much, thank you kindly for your welcome great to see you and great to be here again in Tapa, this very important mission.

NATO is perhaps unique in the history of defence alliances because it has stood for over 70 years, not for aggression but for peace and stability.

During those years the alliance has been tested many times – in the Cold War, in the Balkans, in Afghanistan.

This matters because the world has become a more dangerous and a more contested place.

A few short days ago we first stood witness to scenes we hoped we would never see again on the continent of Europe.

A sovereign democratic people fighting for their lives against a foe who wishes to subjugate them by force.

As we realised the terrible extent of President Putin’s ambitions.

The world has been rightly united in praise for the valour and bravery of the Ukrainian people, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

And I expect, like colleagues here, I have had the privilege of speaking to President Zelenskyy virtually every day since the Russian invasion and have heard first-hand his sheer determination that the freedom his people have experienced must not be snatched away.

And, indeed, it is clearer day by day from the way the Ukrainians are responding, President Putin has made a disastrous miscalculation.

His troops have not been welcomed into Ukraine, as he prophesied, and instead the Ukrainians have mounted an astonishing and tenacious resistance.

We as the international community have a responsibility to do everything we can to help the Ukrainians in their efforts.

And that is why the UK has trained 22,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and why we have provided further defensive military support to Ukraine.

And we have a responsibility to all Ukrainians, that is why the UK has provided £140 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine and to the region.

It’s why we have deployed both humanitarian experts and hundreds of military logistics experts to Ukraine’s neighbours to help them shelter those seeking sanctuary on their shores.

And it’s why we have announced the first phase of a bespoke humanitarian route for the people of Ukraine to come to the UK.

It is also why, alongside allies across the world, the UK has swiftly executed the biggest package of sanctions ever imposed against a G20 nation.

And we’ve seen organisations from banks to oil companies, to football leagues, to singing competitions make it clear that Putin and his regime must be isolated from the international community for his actions.

As we support the people of Ukraine, we must also shore up our shared resilience – both to protect our people and our values.

These are nothing more than defensive measures – which have been the essence of the NATO for more than 70 years.

I want to be crystal clear finally on that point. We will not fight Russian forces in Ukraine, and our reinforcements – like these reinforcements here in Tapa – are firmly within the borders of NATO members and they are profoundly the right thing to do.