The DASA Real-World Incident Hackathon will take place on 26-27 November in Central London.

This hackathon will focus on improving the way we investigate incidents through the application of Multimedia Analysis and Artificial Intelligence.

Participants will be asked to process large amounts of real-world incident multimedia data and rapidly identify key information for on-site experts – people, places, events, in fact anything that may assist an investigations team.

We’re interested in how entities relate to each other, the event timeline and narrative, and near-term predictions. Data will mostly take the form of video which will be varied in quality, source, and format. Some will be live-streamed during the event.

This is a unique opportunity for participants to demonstrate their ability to extract useful information and insights from large multimedia data sources which would help teams to respond to incidents more quickly and effectively. We expect participants to exploit cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence techniques, including Machine Vision, to achieve the best results.

At the end of the second day a final prize presentation will take place.

To register for the event, please visit the Eventbrite page.

If you have any questions then please email accelerator@dstl.gov.uk with the title Real-World Incident hackathon in the subject line.

The Defence Logistics hackathon will be taking place on 29-30 November 2018 in Central London.

We are looking to bring together the best from academia, industry and government in the defence and security arena.

This hackathon will focus on accelerating Logistics Decision Support through exploiting Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) capabilities.

The intent of this hackathon is to demonstrate the ability to analyse and share structured and unstructured multi-source data; maintaining its classification and permission based access rules at machine speed. Data sets from the C130J Hercules platform will be provided to enable the development and testing of potential sharing solutions. The longer-term aim will be the development of predictive maintenance tools, and provides evidence based recommendations to optimise inventory checks and extend the life of components.

This event will require programmers and coders at the leading edge of current technology to develop an AI/ML capability that can be accessed, interrogated and translated to provide better informed and timely decision support across national and multinational domains.

This event will provide a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability to solve current Defence Logistic challenges, as well as the opportunity to network with senior decision makers and end users within this area. Following the event you will be invited to submit a fully costed proposal which could lead to securing funding to further develop your product.

To register for the event, please visit the Eventbrite page.

If you have any questions then please email accelerator@dstl.gov.uk with the title Defence Logistics hackathon in the subject line.

Our judiciary is recognised and respected both at home and around the world for its integrity and independence.

Every day, in courts and tribunals across the country, judges deliver justice without fear or favour and, in doing so, uphold the rule of law on which our society is founded.

Beyond their fundamental role, the quality and dependability of our judiciary is also critical to maintaining the UK’s thriving legal services sector, worth around £24 billion to our economy and attracting international business to the UK.

I believe that in order to continue to have a world-class judiciary, we need to be able to retain and recruit high-calibre and highly experienced judges.

With that in mind, and following recommendations made by the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) in their annual report, I am pleased today to announce a 2% pay increase for members of the judiciary for 2018/19 – the biggest pay rise for judges in nearly 10 years.

This is in line with the pay awards announced recently for other vital public servants – such as the police and doctors – and strikes the right balance between reward and affordability.

It has been reported that judges could be awarded significantly higher pay increases – some as high as 32%. This recommendation, along with many others, was made by the SSRB as part of a major review of judges pay, quite separate to the annual pay increase I am announcing today. No decisions have yet been made, but we are giving careful consideration to the recommendations put forward.

This major review, published in full today, has considered in depth the total reward package for judges – including the impact of recent pensions changes – and our ability to continue to recruit and retain the brilliant legal minds required to carry out this role.

This Government is acutely aware of the recruitment challenges we face at senior levels of the judiciary. That is precisely why my Department asked for this review to be carried out.

We are grateful for the work that has been undertaken and will give careful consideration to the issues that have been raised. I recognise the importance of ensuring the reward package for judges is sufficiently attractive to enable us to attract excellent candidates to judicial office.

I will make a further announcement when I am in position to set out in full the government’s response to the major review.