Stuart is a GMC-registered physician who trained in General Medicine and General Practice. He spent many years working in senior leadership roles at Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Norgine, Takeda and UCB.

He founded Vermilion Life Sciences, which aims to improve patient access to medicines by reducing development times and costs of new medicines.

Stuart is a:

• board trustee of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
• professional member of the board of the Human Tissue Authority

He has also worked as an external ‘champion’ for the Office for Life Sciences’ Accelerated Access Review.

This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office Code of Governance for Public Appointments. It has been made on merit and political activity played no part in the decision process. During the appointments process, Stuart has not declared any political activity.

The post is for up to 2 days a week and has a salary of £52,540 a year.

Stuart said:

I am honoured and excited to have been selected as the Chair of ACCEA. I aim to rapidly learn about the operation of the scheme and how it both rewards and incentivises the highest quality research, care and outcomes that provide important benefits for patients and public health.

I look forward to meeting my new colleagues and learning from them, as we work together to investigate how to maximise the positive impact of the Awards.

We are pleased to announce that Alpa Parmar and Beverley Thompson-Brown have been appointed by the Lord Chancellor in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice as non-judicial members of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales for a period of 3 years.

Alpa Parmar is a Socio-Legal Scholar of Criminal Justice at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford who specialises in the intersections of race and criminal justice. She has conducted a range of empirical research projects and published on minority ethnic groups and their experiences of the criminal justice process. Alpa was a member of the advisory group for the Restorative Justice Council’s project on the experiences of BAME groups and she served as an academic expert on the Lammy Review. She holds a doctorate from Cambridge University and was previously British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Kings College, London.

Beverley Thompson-Brown has spent over 30 years working in the criminal justice sector initially as a probation officer in London. She was Director for Race, Prisons and Resettlement Services at NACRO for 10 years and is currently an Independent consultant having recently worked on a Lammy-related project for HMPPS. She works across the UK, Australia, USA & Canada on Equality, Diversity & Inclusion strategies. Prior to this, she was a Senior Civil Servant at HMPS and was awarded an OBE for services to Race Equality in 2000. Furthermore, she has been the Chief Executive of Northampton Probation Service.

The Sentencing Council for England and Wales was set up by part four of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to promote greater transparency and consistency in sentencing, whilst maintaining the independence of the judiciary.

The appointments process have been conducted in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments Code of Practice on Ministerial public appointments to public bodies.

Alpa and Beverley have declared no political activity or conflict of interest.

We are pleased to announce that Gabriella Bettiga has been appointed by the Lord Chancellor in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice to be a member of the Tribunal Procedure Committee (TPC) for 3 years. This post is unpaid.

Gabriella Bettiga is a practising immigration and asylum consultant solicitor and accredited at Level 3 Advanced Caseworker. She is a member of the Special Control Review Panel and Chairs the Independent Funding Adjudicator and Independent Cost Assessors at the Legal Aid Agency. Gabriella has researched for SOAS University of London in the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law. She is the author for an online newspaper and lecturers regularly on human rights, immigration, asylum and public law.

The Tribunal Procedure Committee (TPC) was established on 19 May 2008 under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (TCEA). Its purpose is to make rules governing the practice and procedure for the First-tier and Upper Tribunals.

The appointments process has been conducted in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments Code of Practice on Ministerial public appointments to public bodies.

Gabriella has declared no political activity or conflict of interest.

UK Aid Match brings charities, the public and UK government together to collectively change the lives of some of the world’s poorest people. It also gives the British public an opportunity to engage with international development issues and have a say in how UK aid is spent.

The Department for International Development welcomes proposals for the latest £20 million round of UK Aid Match from charities working on the following issues: disability, health, women’s empowerment, youth employment, prosperity, modern slavery, girls’ education, plus oceans and plastics.

This will be the first time the public will be able to double their donations to charities tackling the scourge of plastics waste in the world’s oceans.

Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary, said:

This is a very exciting step for UK Aid Match as, for the first time, we are asking for proposals to tackle the huge problem of ocean plastics. This is a clear sign of the British public’s passion and energy to fight against global plastic waste.

I’m looking forward to seeing the innovative solutions, which charities will bring to this global issue. I am sure the UK public will continue to show their incredibly generous support for the UK Aid Match scheme.

In the last five years, UK Aid Match has supported 42 charities and run projects in 22 countries, which have benefitted more than 19million of the world’s poorest people. The government has matched every public donation made to these charities pound for, helping them go further in changing and saving lives.

One of the many charities which have had their donations matched by the UK government funding is Action Against Hunger. Through UK Aid Match funding, they were able to raise £2million for their most recent appeal #HealthyMumsHealthyKids.

Action Against Hunger will use this money to support mums-to-be and children in Senegal where one in five children are stunted and 30% of all child deaths are due to malnutrition. This programme will ensure young people, pregnant women and children get the right food they need to avoid a lifetime of damaging effects from poor nutrition.

Executive Director of Action Against Hunger, Jean-Michel Grand, said in support of Aid Match:

We were thrilled public donations to our #HealthyMumsHealthyKids appeal were matched by the UK Government last year. Our generous donors were encouraged by the government’s pledge to double every pound they gave to improve the health of mothers and children in Senegal. The Aid Match scheme is a fantastic way for people who believe in a world free from hunger to double the impact they make on the lives of malnourished children around the world.

To find out more and enter UK Aid Match please visit: www.ukaidmatch.org Each charity appeal must run for up to three months and raise up to a maximum of £2million, subject to a due diligence assessment.

Notes to editors

UK Aid Match brings charities, the British public and the UK government together to collectively change the lives of some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

It is designed to provide opportunities for the UK public to engage with international development issues and have a say in how UK aid is spent, whilst boosting the impact of the very best civil society projects to reach the poorest people in developing countries.

For every £1 donated to a UK Aid Match charity appeal, the government will also contribute £1 of UK aid, to help these projects go further in changing and saving lives. UK Aid Match is funded from the international development budget, for donations made by individuals living in the UK.

The first phase of UK Aid Match, launched between 2013 and 2016, funded 59 appeals. An estimated 3.6 million people in the UK donated to match-funded appeals. A total of £120m went to 42 charities, operating in 22 countries and running projects including health, education and water, sanitation and hygiene which are expected to benefit 19 million people.

Round 1 of the second phase of UK Aid Match will match 25 appeals running between September 2017 and June 2018. An estimated £30 million will be matched.

The latest UK Aid Match funding round (Phase 2 Round 2) will be launched on 17 April 2018. It will open for applications on 30 April 2018 with a deadline for concept notes by 25 May 2018.

From 12 February 2018 the Fund Manager for UK Aid Match has been MannionDaniels, working in consortium with Oxford Policy Management (OPM), Education Development Trust (EDT), Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), and the Social Change Agency (SCA).

For more information on the fund, or to make an application, please visit the UK Aid Match website

A week-long event took place along a stretch of coastline at St Athan, Wales, with a selection of drones being used in four different search and rescue scenarios to explore how they could be used to help save lives in the future.

The scenarios being tested this week are a shoreline search for a casualty, an offshore search for multiple casualties in the sea, a mud rescue and a communications blackspot where a drone is required to relay information between rescue teams and a casualty on a cliff.

These scenarios will evaluate the potential impact of using drones – also referred to as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) – on operations. Particular attention will be paid to how drones can work together with existing search and rescue teams and assets, with RNLI lifeboats and an HM coastguard search and rescue helicopter featuring in this week’s rescue scenarios, to enhance lifesaving capability and reduce risk to rescue teams.

Hannah Nobbs, from the RNLI’s innovation team, said: ‘The aim of this event is to provide realistic scenarios and an authentic operating environment to explore the use of drones in multi-agency operations. We hope this will allow us to understand the benefits and limitations of their use in search and rescue activity.

‘This week-long test event is the culmination of around two years of work, where we’ve explored the use of drones in collaboration with key search and rescue partners and industry experts.

‘The RNLI has a proud history of embracing new technology – from cork lifejackets in the 1800s to the design and build of our waterjet-propelled Shannon class lifeboat. So it’s very exciting for us to now explore the potential use of drones in search and rescue activity, in partnership with the maritime & coastguard agency.’

Phil Hanson, aviation technical assurance manager at the MCA, said: ‘The MCA is always ready to embrace working with new technology – especially if that technology could enhance search and rescue efficiency, save more lives and reduce risk to our personnel.

‘There is significant evidence emerging from our overseas counterparts and more locally from UK mountain rescue teams indicating that drones can play a crucial role in emergency response. With this in mind, we welcome the opportunity to take part in these emerging trials to test the viability of drone technology with other rescue resources.

‘It’s too early to comment on how we will move forward from the trials but one thing we all agree on is that drones cannot replace helicopters, coastguard rescue teams or lifeboats. However, it is entirely possible that they could be an additional tool to use in search and rescue.’

There are six different industry partners supporting the event, with these organisations supplying and operating the drones during the exercises. Participating industry partners include Lockheed Martin UK, Scisys and the university of Bath.

A variety of drones are being used in the scenarios, including rotary platforms that offer stability for electro-optic and thermal sensor payloads, a tethered drone and fixed wing platforms that are runway or catapult launched. The test ran from Monday 23 April to Friday 27 April.

Footage of the trial