The Rt Hon David Lidington MP, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, has approved the appointment of Colin Byrne and Sarah Hamilton as Members of the Boundary Commission for England, both with effect from 1 July 2019 for a period of five years.

Colin Byrne worked for over 30 years in the Civil Service in a number of roles. These included Divisional Manager, Health and Safety Executive; Director, Town and Country Planning, Department of Communities and Local Government; and Director, Government Office for the South East. He was the Lead Assistant Commissioner for the South East of England in the 2018 Boundary Review. He was a Governor of the Guildford College Group for eight years and is currently a Trustee of Citizens Advice Guildford and a local specialist housing association.

Sarah Hamilton qualified as a solicitor in 1995 and practised as a professional legal advisor for over 20 years. Following her retirement as a solicitor in 2016, she was the Lead Assistant Commissioner for the East of England in the 2018 Boundary Review. Sarah Hamilton is currently a Non-Executive Director of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. She also acts as Deputy Chair of the General Pharmaceutical Council’s Fitness to Practise Committee, and Chair of the Fitness to Practise Committee, Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service.

Young entrepreneurs are being challenged to develop the apps and technology of the future – from measuring air pollution to helping everyone stay healthy as they get older.

Supported by almost £1 million of government investment, 11-to-16-year-old students across the country will compete to build prototypes. Entries to the competition need to seize the economic opportunities of becoming greener, healthy ageing, cleaning up transport and the artificial intelligence and data revolution – the 4 Grand Challenges identified in the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.

The extra-curricular Longitude Explorer Prize, run by NESTA Challenges, will start in September with first-round winners given the chance to work with expert mentors from industry. They will then be offered the chance to test their ideas in a Dragon’s Den-style pitch to experts with the chance to win cash prizes of up to £10,000 prize for their school.

Science and Innovation Minister Chris Skidmore said:

Becoming greener, ageing healthily, cleaning up our transport and how we use AI and big data, they are today’s grand challenges and opportunities that can put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future.

This new competition will not only help thousands of young people seize these opportunities but also become the next generation of digital entrepreneurs to stay at the global cutting edge of innovation – a key part of our modern Industrial Strategy.

Entries from the previous NESTA pilot scheme include:

• wearable technology allowing students to discreetly notify teachers when they’re experience a panic attack;
• a device connecting to mobile phones to measure air quality; and
• a badge for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which changes colour according to the wearer’s emotions.

The competition is open to 11-to-16-year-olds and encourages them to use using artificial intelligence (AI) and data, to address the government’s modern Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges:

• Future of Mobility
• Clean Growth
• AI and Data
• Ageing Society

The innovations need to be readily accessible for people around the country to help new technology and innovation can benefit all corners of the country and sections of society.

The competition will engage young people across the UK over the next academic year, increasing the number of young people with access to innovation programmes.

Young entrepreneurs are being challenged to develop the technology of the future – from measuring air pollution to helping everyone stay healthy as they get older.

The opening of the new flagship UK Government hub in Edinburgh moved a step closer today [13 June 2019] when the property developers Artisan Real Estate formally handed over the keys of the building to Scottish Secretary David Mundell.

The new Hub, located near Waverley Station in the heart of Edinburgh, is a seven story, 190,000 square feet, ultra-modern office space. It will bring together nearly 3,000 UK Government civil servants from a range of UK Government departments.

Due to open in Spring 2020, the Hub will improve the work of the UK Government in Scotland, helping them deliver better services for Scottish people. It will enable closer collaboration between departments, smarter working, and use of the latest technology. The Hub will incorporate a Cabinet Room, allowing the UK Government Cabinet to meet in a purpose built room, the first time such a facility has been available in Scotland.

Secretary of State for Scotland Mr Mundell said:

“I am delighted to receive the keys to the new UK Government Hub in Edinburgh. The formal handover of the building’s keys is an important milestone, demonstrating we are making real progress towards opening the flagship building in the heart of Edinburgh next year.

“The building will bring together some 3,000 UK Government civil servants, helping them deliver high quality services for people across Scotland. I very much look forward to inviting the Cabinet to meet in the building once it is open for business.

“The Edinburgh Hub is a great example of the UK Government’s extensive support for the capital’s economy – which we are also driving through the ambitious Edinburgh and South East Scotland Growth Deal.”

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is delivering the Edinburgh Hub on behalf of the UK Government, and will be based there when the first teams start to move in from April 2020.

HMRC has been at the cutting edge of delivering UK Government’s Hub strategy and is leading on delivering the future estate strategy for the UK Government, enabling closer working between UK Government departments.

Developers Artisan worked hand in hand with construction partners McAleer & Rushe and designers Allan Murray Architects to deliver the Hub ahead of time and on budget.

Mr Mundell was joined at the key handover by:

• Lord Keen, Advocate General for Scotland
• Neville Myers, Deputy Director, Government Property Agency
• Clive Wilding, Property Director, Artisan Real Estate (developer)
• Seamus McAleer, Founder & Chairman, McAleer and Rushe (construction company)
• Gillian McGregor, Director, Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland

Work is also underway on a first Glasgow Hub, with a second one to follow. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Hubs are a key part of the UK Government’s commitment to delivering excellent public services for people in Scotland, building a strong Civil Service outside London and leading the way in regional regeneration. Across the UK it is estimated that the UK Government Hubs programme will save more than £2 billion of public money over twenty years, relocating civil servants from existing, often fragmented office locations, to modern, cross-departmental workplaces.

Experimental quantum science is set to become a commercial reality through planned joint government and industry investment of over £350 million, taking projects from research stage to product testing.

Total investment through the National Quantum Technologies Programme will pass a major £1 billion investment milestone since its inception in 2014. The investment has secured the UK’s status as a world-leader in quantum science and technologies, keeping pace with the US and China.

The milestone comes as government confirms a £153 million funding boost through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. This has been more than matched by industry, with over £200 million of investment expected from the private sector.

Industry spending on quantum research and development through the fund will overtake government investment for the first time – showing business is confident in the commercial potential of the UK’s world-leading research. This milestone shows the UK is moving in the right direction towards our target in the modern Industrial Strategy to invest 2.4% of GDP in research and development by 2027.

Science Minister Chris Skidmore said:

This milestone shows that Quantum is no longer an experimental science for the UK. Investment by government and businesses is paying off, as we become one of the world’s leading nations for quantum science and technologies. Now industry is turning what was once a futuristic pipedream into life-changing products.

This is our modern Industrial Strategy in action – taking the most innovative ideas from our world-leading researchers and showing how they can be applied, from diagnosing diseases to detecting gas leaks.

Quantum technologies represent a new generation of high-performing devices. Quantum technologies could easily solve problems that would stump any existing supercomputer and tackle challenges that we can’t meet any other way. Examples include simulating molecules to transform drug discovery to treat diseases, using sensors to see round corners and through walls, and helping engineers detect scentless gas leaks invisible to human eyes.

UK Research and Innovation Chief Executive, Professor Sir Mark Walport, said:

The UK is a world leader in quantum technologies. The funding announced today builds on the great progress we have made and lays the foundations for a quantum technology industry here in the UK.

It will ensure that we remain at the forefront of this exciting and evolving field and that we realise its potential, from improved healthcare to more accurate and reliable navigation, that is fundamental to so many services.

In the coming months, a new programme board will be set up, alongside an expert advisory group to set the strategy for the next phase of the National Quantum Technologies Programme, looking at developing technologies and identifying market opportunities.

Industry leaders have formed an independent Quantum Technology Leadership Group to represent the needs of industry with government and look at the commercial activity and economic impact of quantum technologies. The group will be co-chaired by Dr Trevor Cross, group chief technology officer at Teledyne e2v and Dr Graeme Malcolm, CEO and co-founder at MSquared Lasers.

Today’s £1 billion funding milestone was part of a speech made by Science Minister Chris Skidmore during London Tech Week.

The speech on emerging technologies is the third in a series of speaking events from the minister on how the UK will reach its ambition to invest 2.4% of GDP on research and development by 2027.

Also in his speech today the Science Minister said he wants to ensure future investments in High Performance Computing deliver benefits across research and innovation, including tech start-ups and SMEs. The government will work with UKRI and Tech UK on UKRI’s e-infrastructure strategy to engage with tech-SMEs on how they can access high-performance computing for the benefit of their businesses.