Thank you Ambassador Funered, and to Her Excellency Foreign Minister Linde, His Excellency Minister Kulhánek, and Secretary General Schmid for your opening remarks. It is a privilege to be here in Prague and I welcome our continued discussion on these important topics, looking forward to making progress towards agreeing Ministerial Council deliverables for commitment later this year.

Over the course of the year the Forum has highlighted the challenges women face compared to men in fulfilling their economic potential – legally restricted from having the same choice of jobs; less likely than men to participate in the labour market; and limited access to finance and business support.

Women have also been at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. Scientists, healthcare workers and carers have been working tirelessly to keep people safe; and teachers have done a tremendous job in adapting quickly and skilfully to ensure that our children continue to be educated. But the effects of the pandemic have disproportionately affected women and girls, worsening many of the challenges they already faced.

We therefore welcome the opportunity to discuss how we may take the opportunity to recover from the pandemic in a more inclusive way. The backsliding we have seen on gender equality during the pandemic is a cause for great concern. We must now look ahead to a recovery which benefits, and indeed is driven by, women and girls around the world.

This sustainable economic development cannot be achieved unless due attention is also paid to the environment that surrounds it. As we look to the future, we must ensure that inclusion is placed front and centre in our efforts to tackle climate change. In November we will host an inclusive COP26 that will advance gender-responsive climate action and finance. We will amplify the voices of women and girls, including those that are most marginalised, ensuring that their expertise and experiences as decision-makers, advocates and leaders is acknowledged and acted upon.

Here, I am looking forward to what I hope will be a practical discussion on how we can advance this agenda though policy. In our experience, tools like gender budgeting initiatives and data disaggregates can improve women’s empowerment by focusing on the key economic and social matters that are often overlooked or obscured in conventional policy analysis and decision making. I look forward to hearing others’ experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also forced all of us to rely more than ever on our digital devices for every aspect of our lives, and the increasingly-important cyber and digital sectors’ workforces are not diverse. In the UK, only 15 per cent of the cyber sector workforce is female, as is only 28 per cent of the wider digital sector. Improving diversity and inclusion is therefore a crucial element to the cyber and digital sectors’ ability to address the skills gap and ensure that the digital transformation is accessible and provides equal opportunities for all.

Finally, education facilitates the success of girls and should encourage them to dream bigger than the generations who have come before. This is where we sow the seeds for women leaders and decision-makers.

Equal access to education and training is one way that we may be able to tackle injustices like the gender pay gap, key to building economies that work for everyone and ensuring the equitable future of work.

In the UK, it is encouraging that the national gender pay gap is at a record low. However, to close the gap entirely we are requiring large employers across all sectors to publish the differences between what they pay their male and female staff in salaries and bonuses. Transparency is key to addressing the gender gap because it exposes the barriers women face in the workplace and motivates employers to take action, which will help to accelerate change.

Madam Ambassador,

If our collective societies’ prosperity is to be maximised, and therefore act as effectively as possible against the threat of instability and conflict, it is right that we focus our attention on these important topics. Beyond the gains for economic growth, gender equality can reduce poverty and foster a more equitable distribution of income – all elements that can prevent conflict.

Once again, we welcome and thank the Swedish chairpersonship for making this topic the focus of this year’s Economic and Environmental Forum, and pledge our constructive support as we seek to strengthen our common efforts on this issue.

Thank you.

Illustrious award winners and sport stars will be able to live and work in the UK more easily under new simplified Immigration Rules announced by the government.

New Immigration Rules laid today (Friday 10 September), will create the new fast-track International Sportsperson route, which will make it more straightforward for professional athletes across sports to work in the country.

While continuing to offer an option for anyone wishing to come to the UK for 12 months or less, the new route, which opens next month, brings together and replaces the current Tier 2 and Tier 5 paths, providing a dedicated and simplified visa for sportspeople and their sponsors.

The government has also added more illustrious prizes to the Global Talent Visa, making it simpler for more of the world’s most gifted minds to come to the country.

Individuals at the pinnacle of their career and who have won prestigious awards from the world of arts, science, engineering, medicine and more will now be able to use their prowess to take advantage of the Global Talent Visa. This includes winners of the Booker Prize, Academy Awards, BAFTA and the Wolf Prize,

Under this path, applicants who hold a qualifying prize will be able to fast-track the endorsement application and instead make a single visa application.

Today’s immigration changes are part of the UK’s points-based immigration system to attract the brightest and best to the country, delivering on the government’s New Plan for Immigration.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

We want to attract the world’s greatest minds at the crowning point of their careers, so the UK remains number one on the global leader board in sports, the arts, science, film and technology sectors.

Through our points-based system we focus on talent and skills, not where someone comes from, and the immigration changes we’re making today demonstrate this, making it much easier for the brightest and best to live and work in the UK.

Immigration Minister Kevin Foster said:

The UK is a proud home to some of the world’s most talented stars and the changes we’ve made will make it even easier for people at the top of their game to come and work in the UK.

Our immigration rule changes put our words into action, delivering on the government’s ambition to attract the brightest and best talent to the UK and ensure we build back better.

A spokesperson for the Football Association said:

The FA welcomes the Home Office changes to simplify the rules required for a visa application for an International Sportsperson. Ensuring a faster system after obtaining a Governing Body Endorsement from The FA will allow for the world’s best footballers to enter the country more easily.

Among the 73 prestigious awards added to the Global Talent Visa include:

• science, engineering, humanities and medicine: Benjamin Franklin Medal, Faraday Medal, L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, various Wolf Prize categories

• arts and culture: the Booker Prize, various Queen Elizabeth Competition categories, International Dublin Literary Award

• film and television: best supporting actor and actress across the Academy Awards, BAFTA and Golden Globes

The government’s Immigration Rule changes announced today follow last month’s Sponsorship Roadmap which demonstrates how the immigration system will continue to ease administrative processes for British organisations sponsoring workers from abroad.

A £3.8-million contract to trial an advanced base defence system has been awarded to the American company Anduril Industries through Strategic Command’s jHub.

The system uses an advanced operating system, which is assisted by AI, and a network of sensors to autonomously detect, classify, and track potential threats.

It uses a combination of sentry towers, ground sensors and drone technology to alert personnel of any intrusion on the ground or in the air and then presents options for personnel to respond. The system has the capacity to add different sensors and autonomously offers options to respond, depending on the threat.

The contract was awarded as a part of Programme TALOS, a MOD programme focused on accelerating a defence-wide approach to integrated command and control (C2). The system has been offered through a new subscription model, meaning the software and hardware will be updated with the latest technology whilst also being maintained for operational use.

This approach ensures that defence is equipped with the latest cutting-edge technology whilst also allowing the jHub to work with the company to trial and deploy new technology as it is developed. It forms part of the jHub’s work towards a Sustainable Tech Adoption Model (STAM), which is looking into different ways of working with industry to procure new capabilities.

Programme TALOS previously experimented with counter ground intrusion towers at the UK’s overseas base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, to see whether the systems could be integrated into the existing C2 network. This next step allows the UK to continue to develop advanced, multi-domain, integrated force protection technology.

General Sir Patrick Sanders, Commander of UK Strategic Command, said:

This state-of-the-art technology will give our serving men and women help by identifying and assessing external threats in nanoseconds. The artificial intelligence at the heart of this system has great potential to protect our people and sites. It’s another success for our innovation team at jHub, working closely with Anduril to help create a bespoke system, from idea to implementation at pace, to meet the specific requirements of our Armed Forces.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick today (10 September 2021) officially unveiled the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) second headquarters in Wolverhampton – the first of its kind outside of London.

The headquarters will, for the first time, have a regular ministerial presence outside of the capital. The historic milestone demonstrates the government’s commitment to levelling up all areas of the country; MHCLG plays a key role in supporting communities to unlock their full economic potential, and the new office, based in the i9 building in the heart of Wolverhampton, will help create jobs throughout the West Midlands.

Recruitment is happening at pace in Wolverhampton and across the wider region for a range of roles and levels, from entry grade to senior civil servants.

With a mixture of new recruits and staff choosing to relocate to the new office, the department plans to have between 150 and 250 people based here by April next year, with preparations under way to welcome staff to the new headquarters.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said:

I am thrilled that our second headquarters in the i9 building in Wolverhampton has now been officially unveiled and we look forward to welcoming staff to the office, and working here myself along with our other ministers.

We are levelling up all across the country, and our headquarters in the heart of Wolverhampton will bring hundreds of exciting jobs to the city and drive growth across the region.

The new headquarters will provide an opportunity to bring people with different experiences and ideas into the Civil Service and provide improved employment opportunities for those in Wolverhampton and across the West Midlands.

Local voices are vital to influence the creation and delivery of government policy; by moving hundreds of roles out of Westminster we are providing a unique opportunity to develop and expand the UK Civil Service by bringing decision making into the regions we serve.

Monthly UK statistics on cattle, sheep and pig slaughter and meat production.