Five Youth Performance Partnerships will be created in England to give young people greater access to the performing arts, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Wright has announced.

The scheme will bring arts organisations and schools together to teach practical performance skills both on and off stage, including drama, dance, art, creative writing, lighting, sound and set design.

Primary and secondary schools will also be linked up with playwrights to give children the opportunity to perform new works by up and coming writers.

The Youth Performance Partnerships will be delivered by Arts Council England over three academic years and will reach 10,000 young people.

The Arts Council will select one partnership in the North, the Midlands, South West, South East and London, and prioritise places where not enough young people have the chance to take part in performance.

The Partnerships build on the success of Music Education Hubs which helps over 600,000 children a year access activities like playing an instrument, singing in a choir or joining a band.

HM Land Registry is partnering with software company Methods, who will utilise R3’s blockchain platform, Corda, for the second phase of HM Land Registry’s groundbreaking research and development project, Digital Street.

Methods will be supported by a team of global experts from R3, Blockchain Digital, and their wider partner network. The organisations will bring their blockchain expertise to HM Land Registry, enabling Digital Street to fully explore the potential benefits of the new technology.

Digital Street will work with the industry to understand how the innovative use of technology, such as blockchain, distributed ledgers and smart contracts, could revolutionise the land registration and property buy-sell process.

Graham Farrant, Chief Executive of HM Land Registry, said:

Our ambition to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, ease of use and an open approach to data requires HM Land Registry to be at the forefront of global innovation in land registration. By working with Methods on Digital Street we are taking another step toward that goal, as we explore how new technologies like blockchain can help us to develop a faster, simpler and cheaper land registration process.

Peter Rowlins, Chief Executive Officer of Methods, commented:

When we read the HM Land Registry requirement, we recognised that the unique features offered by Corda in terms of security, privacy, interoperability and the smart contract flow framework, originally designed for financial services, would be an excellent fit.

David Rutter, Chief Executive Officer of R3, commented:

We are pleased to see another innovative deployment of Corda in the public sector and look forward to working with the world’s most well-recognised land registry, HM Land Registry. Blockchain holds the potential to transform land registry services by improving speed, simplicity and efficiency. We will be working closely with HM Land Registry, Methods and our partners over the coming months to turn this potential into reality.

John Reynolds, Blockchain Digital’s Innovation & Delivery Director, commented:

Digital Street and blockchain has the potential to synchronise and optimise the way all participants in the property market interact, from solicitors to banks, from surveyors to estate agents. Over the coming months, and in support of HM Land Registry’s commitment to open data and open innovation, we will be announcing a programme of innovation and collaboration events that enable the property eco-system to join the Digital Street Community.

Digital Street

HM Land Registry’s ambition is to be at the forefront of innovation by exploring how land registration and conveyancing can be made easier and how technology and data could revolutionise the process.

Digital Street is HM Land Registry’s research and development project designed to make buying and selling property simpler, quicker and cheaper through the innovative use of technology. Now in its second year, the project is exploring the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts to bring greater transparency, speed, and trust to property transactions.

The project has already created a digital register for a small selection of properties, which is a first step towards establishing a register that is fully machine-readable and able to be updated instantly.

Methods was selected following a tender process which attracted 22 bids to support the Digital Street project team and develop greater in-house expertise.

HM Land Registry

HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £4 trillion, including around £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for more than 85% of the land mass of England and Wales.

HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

For further information about HM Land Registry visit gov.uk/land-registry.

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HM Land Registry Business Strategy

Digital Street is just one of many projects being developed by HM Land Registry as part of the organisation’s Business Strategy. The organisation is exploring a number of potential services to make the buying, renting, selling, financing, building and managing property easier.

The first digital mortgage was signed in April using HM Land Registry’s ‘Sign your mortgage deed’ service. The initial mortgages have signed by customers of Coventry Building Society and Enact Conveyancing, HM Land Registry is now actively expanding the number of lenders and conveyancers who are using the service.

The recently launched Local Land Charge Register brings data from 326 local authorities to a central database, removing the need for manual searches in overworked local offices and removing weeks of potential delays from each sale.

Homebuyers can use the ‘Find property information’ service to quickly find information about properties they are interested in at the start of the transaction, rather than waiting until an offer has been accepted.

Working in collaboration with key stakeholders from across the industry, including property technology (PropTech) specialists, data experts, conveyancers, property developers, mortgage lenders and others, over the coming years HM Land Registry will be exploring innovative uses of technology.

Methods

Methods is the leading digital transformation partner for the UK public sector. We bring innovation, bespoke development, and service management capability to align UK public services around citizens and safeguard them for future generations.

R3

R3 is an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem of more than 200 members and partners across multiple industries from both the private and public sectors to develop on Corda, its open-source blockchain platform, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of Corda for enterprise usage.

R3’s global team of over 180 professionals in 13 countries is supported by over 2,000 technology, financial, and legal experts drawn from its global member base. R3 is backed by investment of over $120 million from more than 45 firms.

The Corda platform is already being used in industries from financial services to healthcare, shipping, insurance and more. It records, manages and executes institutions’ financial agreements in perfect synchrony with their peers, creating a world of frictionless commerce.

Persistent Systems

Persistent Systems, a $470 million listed company, builds software that drives the business of our customers; enterprises and software product companies with software at the core of their digital transformation.

Blockchain Digital

Blockchain Digital is the leading business process innovation and service design consultancy, focused on the application of blockchain in the public sector and enterprise.

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Personnel from 6 nations will spend a fortnight being put through their paces at the York Army Medical Services Training Centre. They will work alongside each other in a simulated field hospital environment practicing realistic deployed hospital scenarios. The medical teams that deploy on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and other coalition operations are typically multinational teams; Exercise CJAS 18 provides an opportunity for these nations to work and train together to provide the highest standards of medical care when on operations.

Oberfeldwebel (Leading Field Usher) Schurman, a Radiographer from Germany said

So far I have been really impressed, we run similar exercises in Germany but not always to the same level of detail as I have received today.

Maj Olvetti, an Emergency Medicine Consultant from Estonia said

I am really looking forward to achieving a deeper level of integration, building on the experiences gained by my Estonian colleagues who deployed to Afghanistan with the UK in recent years.

The exercise that takes place from 22 September to 5 October 2018 will deliver a multinational field hospital supported by up to 400 medical personnel. Since 2014, UK and US medical personnel have been working closely together and this year the international participation has expanded to include up to sixty personnel not just from the United States but also from Canada, Germany, Norway and Estonia.

Personnel taking part from the UK include Reservists from 205 and 256 Field Hospitals with support from an Royal Air Force Medical Enhanced Response Team, a Critical Care in the Air Support Team, and an Aeromedical Support Unit from 612 and 4626 RAF Squadrons. Specialised clinical support to the exercise is being provided 34 Field Hospital, Headquarters Tactical Medical Wing and the Defence Medical Group to deliver induction training, department familiarisation, casualty managers and to conduct the exercise assessment.

The Defence Medical Services is committed to delivering UK led multinational health service support. The ability to deliver a multinational health solution is a critical enabler to the overall success of NATO and coalition operations.

The Government will set up a pilot scheme to reduce food waste, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced today.

The scheme will be supported by £15 million of additional funding which has been allocated to tackle food waste.

Currently around 43,000 tonnes of surplus food is redistributed from retailers and food manufacturers every year. It is estimated a further 100,000 tonnes of food – equating to 250 million meals a year – is edible and readily available but goes uneaten. Instead, this food is currently sent away for generating energy from waste, anaerobic digestion, or animal feed.

The pilot scheme will be developed over the coming months in collaboration with businesses and charities. The scheme will launch in 2019/20.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

Nobody wants to see good food go to waste. It harms our environment, it’s bad for business – and it’s morally indefensible.

Every year, around 100,000 tonnes of readily available and perfectly edible food is never eaten. This has got to change.

In the coming months we will work closely with business, charities and volunteers to deliver a new scheme to tackle this problem.

The scheme will specifically address surplus food from retail and manufacturing. This is just one part of the problem – food waste in the UK totals 10.2 million tonnes per year, of which 1.8 million tonnes comes from food manufacture, 1 million from the hospitality sector, and 260,000 from retail, with the remainder from households. Further action to cut food waste from all sources is being considered as part of Defra’s Resources and Waste Strategy, which will be published later this year.

Defra is commissioning work to improve the evidence base around food waste, including understanding why more surplus food is not being redistributed. This work will inform the design of the scheme, ensuring it drives down food waste in the most effective possible way.

Dr David Moon, Head of Business Collaboration at WRAP said:

Today’s announcement is a great boost for the many support networks around the country working hard to ensure good food feeds people, and is not wasted.

Between 2015 and 2017 surplus food redistributed from retailers, manufacturers and hospitality and food services businesses increased by 50%, with nearly £130 million worth of food saved from waste.

And there is the potential to increase this significantly, and to expand the range and type of foods with more fresh produce. Not only will this benefit people, it will also help reduce the huge environmental impact of food waste.

The new scheme follows the £500,000 Food Waste Reduction Fund announced in December last year to support the substantial reduction of food waste throughout England.

In July this year it was announced that funds have been awarded to eight charities across the country. The Food Waste Reduction Fund grants will help provide the essential resources needed to expand their important work, and will further inform development of the new scheme.

• In 2017, 205,000 tonnes of surplus food in the retail and food manufacturing sectors was wasted. Some of the surplus is difficult to minimise, costly in that it would need to be reworked or repackaged, and some surplus would not be edible. It is estimated by WRAP that 100,000 tonnes of this is both accessible and edible with the remaining being more difficult to redistribute.

• The pilot will run in 2019/20, drawing on £15 million additional funding the Treasury have allocated to Defra to tackle food waste. Any future funding would be subject to the Spending Review.