Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns will use a major awards ceremony tonight (19 October) to hail the nation’s business owners as “the great engines of growth for the future that we are building for Wales”.

Mr Cairns will address an audience of over 900 business leaders and entrepreneurs at the Wales Fast Growth 50 dinner at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. The awards ceremony celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and recognises the achievements of the most dynamic companies in the country.

Since its inception, it is estimated that the businesses featured on the annual lists have created 40,000 jobs and generated an estimated £22 billion for the Welsh economy. Previous winners have included aircraft and spares services firm Aerfin from Caerphilly – also recognised in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list in 2017 – and Wrexham based Village Bakery.

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns is expected to say:

Small businesses are the great engines of growth for the future that we are building for Wales.

Without you we wouldn’t have some of Britain’s biggest, best, most dynamic and most exciting companies proudly promoting the ‘Made in Wales’ stamp on their products and services all around the world.

Mr Cairns will tell the awards dinner that the UK Government is creating the right climate for businesses to grow through measures like the abolishing of the Severn tolls, the roll-out of high speed broadband and its ambition to deliver City and Growth Deals that cover every part of the country.

He will say:

There is no denying that combining dedicated, dynamic entrepreneurs with a pro-business, pro-growth government has really delivered results.

As we prepare to leave the EU, we must have the ambition to broaden our horizons, and take advantage of the opportunities that the new fast-growing markets around the globe present – and I want small businesses to lead the way in this.

So keep talking to us. Don’t stop telling us what more you think we can do to help your businesses succeed. Because that is what every single minister in the UK Government wants and is focussed upon.

You can read about the background to the Wales Fast Growth Awards by visiting Wales Online

Minister for Digital Margot James has today announced that the Contestable Fund which aims to halt the decline of UK produced children’s content and reverse the growing trend of airing repeats, will also include:

More support for programming in indigenous UK languages such as Welsh and Gaelic;
A multi-million pound boost for commercial radio; and
A special fund to help fledgling production companies develop and pitch their original ideas to make them a reality

In December 2017 plans for a pilot fund were announced and following further engagement with industry including broadcasters, producers and other interested parties the final elements of the initiative have been unveiled today.

Minister for Digital Margot James said:

Young people in the UK deserve high quality content that entertains, informs and reflects their experiences growing up across the country today.

The UK broadcasting and production sectors are world renowned, and a success story to be proud of. This innovative project is an instrumental part of our support for the UK’s vibrant media sector and will help it continue to go from strength to strength.

Production levels of new children’s content have declined over the past decade, with public service broadcasters spending roughly 40% less than they did in 2006. As a result a significant amount of children’s programming on children’s channels now consist of repeats.

In 2016, 98% of children’s content on commercial children’s channels and 91% on public service broadcasters were repeats. To directly combat this decline in content for younger people in the UK, £57 million will be invested in to a Young Audiences Content Fund, administered by the BFI. This will focus on funding a new influx of creative and distinctive content that represent UK children and teenagers today. Five per cent of the Young Audiences fund will support production companies develop their ideas.

Additional features of the £60 million Contestable Fund include a welcome boost to indigenous UK languages programming, with an aim to invest five per cent of the total fund on this.

Ben Roberts, Director of Lottery Film Fund, BFI said:

We’re excited to be working with Government to deliver the new Young Audiences Content Fund to help support UK companies to create exciting and distinctive new programmes for young people. It goes hand-in-hand with the BFI’s own mission to connect audiences with the widest possible range of content. We look forward to making the most of this new opportunity to back talent to create bold and original programming and expand the choices available for young people.

John McVay OBE, Chief Executive of PACT said:

Pact welcomes the contestable fund pilot and is pleased that the government has listened to industry feedback to help shape the fund. Pact championed the need for development funding and the focus on children’s content and is pleased this has been recognised. This will help bring new voices into the industry and people’s lives.

Also announced today as part of the Contestable Fund is a £3m Audio Content Fund which will encourage greater innovation and experimentation in the commercial radio sector.

Currently, examples of public service content (aside from national and local news) on commercial radio are rare due to commercial pressures. By removing the necessity for commercial stations and producers to seek as much sponsorship and advertising revenue, the fund will provide significant support to radio producers to try something different, particularly with new voices who do not have an established relationship with broadcasters and therefore access to funding.

Will Jackson, Managing Director of AudioUK, said:

We are delighted that the government accepted our case for an audio element to this fund. This will create many exciting new partnerships between commercial radio and audio producers, and increase the number of diverse new voices both on and off-air. The many production companies based around the UK will be keen to take this new opportunity to make high-quality public service radio content for a range of stations.

Siobhan Kenny, Chief Executive at Radiocentre, said:

“Commercial radio stations are always looking at new ways to serve their listeners, but sometimes the financial reality makes it difficult to do everything they would like. The Audio Content Fund has the potential to provide a significant boost in public service content for audiences, as well as a great opportunity for commercial radio broadcasters to broaden the range of output they provide.”

Further guidance, including how to apply to both of the funds, will be published by the fund administrators in the new year. The pilot will then be open for applications in April 2019.

Notes to Editors

• The Government has today outlined the final scope of the Contestable Fund in a policy paper.

• The BBC is now the dominant buyer and broadcaster of UK children’s content, accounting for 87% of all first-run UK originated children’s programming by public service broadcasters. Whilst the BBC already shows high quality content through CBBC and CBeebies, this fund aims to increase plurality and support new voices, ideas, and content on a broader range of channels and platforms.

• PACT is the trade association representing the commercial interests of UK independent television, film, digital, children’s and animation media companies.

• The Young Audiences Content Fund will be administered by the BFI. The Audio Content Fund will be administered by an independent not-for-profit organisation created by Radiocentre and AudioUK.

About the BFI

The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive by:

• Connecting audiences to the widest choice of UK and World cinema
• Preserving and restoring the most significant film collection in the world for today and future generations
• Championing emerging and world class filmmakers in the UK – investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work
• Promoting UK film and talent to the world
• Growing the next generation of film makers and audiences

The BFI is a Government arm’s-length body and distributor of Lottery funds for film. The BFI serves a public role which covers the cultural, creative and economic aspects of film in the UK. It delivers this role:

• As the UK-wide organisation for film, a charity core funded by Government
• By providing Lottery and Government funds for film across the UK
• By working with partners to advance the position of film in the UK

Founded in 1933, the BFI is a registered charity governed by Royal Charter. The BFI Board of Governors is chaired by Josh Berger CBE.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt today (Thursday 18 October) galvanised the support of more than 500 delegates from across the international aid community to commit to a “root to branch” change in the way the sector operates.

At the landmark International summit, Ms Mordaunt welcomed delegates from the United Nations, World Bank Group, international financial institutions, research organisations, survivors and NGOs who all agreed to sign up to tough global standards to stop sexual predators abusing vulnerable people around the world.

All the major international donors – covering 90 per cent of global aid – today committed to worldwide standards on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. These standards cover ethical behaviour, recruitment and complaints processes.

They will be backed up by stronger due diligence processes, better project monitoring, and tougher language in funding agreements.

Donors will also publish relevant information about allegations and confirmed cases and will be subject to regular independent review by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The commitments announced by different groups representing the sector focused on four key themes:

• preventing sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment from happening in the first place;

• pledging to listen to those who have been affected;

• removing and addressing barriers to reporting sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment; and

• learning more quickly in future, as new evidence and opportunities emerge.

The Department for International Development (DFID) has today committed £20 million in research funding to improve understanding of the risks people affected by conflict face, including those subjected to sexual exploitation.

The research will make a valuable contribution in helping to determine what can be done to avoid and mitigate the risks associated with exploitation and harm and what we all can do to effectively safeguard people who are trusting us to care for them.

After the summit, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

Let there be no doubt this international summit was not about gathering promises to tinker around the edges. This is about setting in place a fundamental rewrite, from root to branch, of the way the aid sector operates.

It is incredibly important that as we work to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector we put the voices of victims and survivors first. Which is why we dedicated the first half of the day to listening to their accounts and hearing from those on the frontline.

This is not the end of the process. There is still a huge amount of work to do but these commitments and the new tools we have outlined today send a message to perpetrators – your time is up, there is nowhere to hide.

The summit has also seen major commitments from the sector including:

• a new Disclosure of Misconduct Scheme which will prevent known perpetrators moving around undetected – at least 15 organisations have signed up to this so far, amounting to approximately 50,000 staff worldwide;
• the Disasters Emergency Committee announcing the launch of shared reporting hotlines for raising concerns in future emergencies, along with a review of how they respond to community feedback, including in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh; and
• all donors and other participants committing to having at least one named senior level champion accountable for work on safeguarding issues and to encourage annual discussions at board level.

DFID also announced a number of measures today.

• An Interpol pilot to improve background checks on staff who work in the aid sector and provide advice to employers on international vetting and identifying high-risk individuals. This will also lead to better information sharing across borders and help close the net on predators who are using the aid sector as a cover to abuse and exploit.
• Support for NGOs to test a new passport for aid workers to prove an individual’s identity, provide background information and vetting status.
• DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will be supporting the development of a statement of victims’ rights. This statement will allow people to understand their rights, and to have confidence that they can find help if those rights are threatened or violated.

ENDS

Following the attack at Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea, a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said:

We are deeply saddened by the attack at Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea, which killed and injured multiple people, many of whom were children.

The UK offers its sincere condolences and sympathy to the families and friends of those who were killed, and wishes a swift recovery to the injured.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

The Duke of Cambridge visited one of the hottest places in the Solar System today when he joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Culham Science Centre near Oxford to see a potentially world-changing energy project.

During Green GB Week, it was a particularly fitting time to view research into nuclear fusion – the power source of the Sun – and how it could be commercialised to provide huge amounts of low-carbon electricity.

The Duke heard about the five-year project to build a machine capable of creating artificial stars and stood yards away from the MAST Upgrade chamber where, in a few months’ time, temperatures of 50 million degrees C will be created – over three times hotter than the Sun.
He then ran a test of a ‘plasma’ – the hot gas that will form inside MAST Upgrade when it operates.

The UK Atomic Energy Authority runs the UK’s national fusion research lab at Culham, and its £50 million MAST Upgrade device will put Britain at the forefront of international research when it starts up in 2019. MAST Upgrade will explore whether smaller reactors – the so-called ‘spherical tokamak’ design – could make future fusion power cheaper. It will also trial a novel way to exhaust heat from the large fusion reactors that are expected to be on the grid by the middle of the century.

UKAEA’s CEO Professor Ian Chapman said:

It was a privilege to welcome The Duke of Cambridge to Culham as we prepare to start a major new fusion experiment.

The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last week reminded us how badly the world needs cleaner energy. We think fusion has a big role to play. The fuels are abundant around the globe, it doesn’t release greenhouse gases and it doesn’t produce long-lived radioactive waste like the nuclear fission power we have today. Building a star on Earth is very difficult – but the research is fascinating and knowing that we could change the world is a big motivation.

………..
Ends

For more information contact Nick Holloway, UKAEA Media Manager: nick.holloway@ukaea.uk / 01235 466232
 

Notes to Editors

UK Atomic Energy Authority

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) carries out fusion energy research on behalf of the Government at Culham Science Centre near Abingdon. It is also developing Culham as a location of hi-tech research and business, with around 40 tenant companies now on site.
UKAEA’s fusion lab Culham Centre for Fusion Energy oversees Britain’s fusion programme, headed by the MAST Upgrade (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) experiment. It also hosts the world’s largest fusion research facility, JET (Joint European Torus), which it operates for European scientists under a contract with the European Commission.
More information

Fusion energy research

Fusion research aims to copy the process which powers the Sun for a new large-scale source of clean energy here on Earth. When light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released. To do this, fuel is heated to extreme temperatures, hotter than the centre of the Sun, forming a plasma in which fusion reactions take place. A commercial power station will use the energy produced by fusion reactions to generate electricity.

Nuclear fusion has huge potential as a long-term energy source that is environmentally responsible (with no carbon emissions) and inherently safe, with abundant and widespread fuel resources (the raw materials are found in seawater and the Earth’s crust).
Researchers at Culham are developing a type of fusion reactor known as a ‘tokamak’ – a magnetic chamber in which plasma is heated and controlled. The research is focused on preparing for the international tokamak experiment ITER, now being built in southern France. ITER – due to start up in 2025 – is designed to show that fusion can work on the scale of a powerplant, and if successful should lead to electricity from fusion being on the grid by 2050.

Fusion research at Culham is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and by the European Union under the EURATOM treaty.

MAST Upgrade

MAST Upgrade is a £50 million fusion experiment launching at Culham in 2019.
It will explore technology for the first fusion power stations and take on one of the biggest challenges in fusion research: ‘plasma exhaust’, or how to exhaust excess heat from fusion reactors. This is a challenge that must be solved if fusion reactors are to be commercially viable. MAST Upgrade is the first experiment to trial an innovative exhaust system called the Super-X Divertor.

MAST Upgrade will also develop a promising design for smaller, cheaper fusion reactors – the spherical tokamak.
MAST Upgrade is mainly funded by the UK Government (Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) with additional contributions from EUROfusion, and from collaborators at UK universities and from the United States.

Green GB Week

Green GB Week is a week of activities between 15-19 October, bringing together businesses, groups and communities to promote the opportunities of clean growth and ot highlight actions for tackling climate change. More information