Alongside the leaders of France, Canada, Kenya, Niger and Jordan, the Prime Minister Theresa May asked delegates at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to join the commitment to ensuring all girls can access 12 years of quality education and learning by 2030.

Currently, 90% of primary school children in low-income countries are unable to read or write. This next generation has the potential, energy and ambition to lift themselves out of poverty and transform their countries, yet millions of children leave school without a basic education.

Prime Minister Theresa May said:

“By denying girls an education we deny them a voice, we deny them choice, we deny them their future.

“I am calling on everyone here to join our campaign (Girls Education Challenge). To commit to the individual, collective and governmental action that is needed to break down barriers to girls’ education.

“To increase girls’ access to schools and learning. And to ensure that every girl, in every corner of the world, can access the 12 years of education they need to unleash their potential, to embrace the opportunities before them, and to help change the world for the better.”

To tackle this crisis the Prime Minister announced nine new projects supported by UK aid that will specifically target the most vulnerable and marginalised girls.

These nine projects, which part of the second phase of the Department for International Development’s flagship Girls Education Challenge, will support more than 170,000 of the world’s most marginalised girls including up to 3,500 girls with disabilities.

The UK is a world leader on education. Over the last three years DFID has spent nearly £700 million a year on education on average through bilateral programmes. Over this time (since 2015) DFID supported 11.4 million children to gain a decent education, of which at least 5.6 million were girls.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt also announced further UK aid support to help tackle the global learning crisis and better target development support.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

“Girls have the power and potential to play a transformational role in their communities, societies, economies and political institutions. Yet over 130 million girls around the world are currently missing out on school.

“To tackle this crisis and reach the most marginalised girls, we need to fully understand the current global situation and identify who is being left behind. UK aid is focused on gathering the right data to help us find out what children are learning and the progress being made.

With a quality education girls can go on to get jobs and help lift their families out of poverty, helping countries move beyond aid dependence. This is a win for the UK and a win for the developing world.”

At the UNGA event, Ms Mordaunt announced UK aid support to improve education data and analysis. This will allow a better understanding of those who are in the greatest need, and help track collective progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

The data gathered through this programme will be crucial in identifying where and how to target UK aid and global support, as well as monitor the progress we are making towards the Education Goal.

This will lead to the development of policies and programmes which are better able to improve and monitor children’s learning, including marginalised groups such as girls and children with disabilities, which can be tracked and monitored effectively.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Ms Mordaunt announced a £7.8 million worth of UK aid support to improve education data and analysis helping the UK and partners to better understand who is in most need and track collective progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

• The projects (in Ghana, Somali, Nepal, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Malawi) announced by the UK Prime Minister will support up to 171,723 girls including 13,146 girls with disabilities.

• Over 130 million girls around the world are missing out on school. In conflict-affected countries girls are twice as likely as boys to be out of school. Girls have the power and potential to play a transformational role in their communities, societies, economies and political institutions. In conflict-affected countries girls are twice as likely as boys to be out of school.

• In order to tackle this crisis and achieve the education Sustainable Development Goals, we need to fully understand the current global situation and where the gaps are in existing learning levels. Currently, there is insufficient data to understand who is learning and what progress is being made.

• DFID’s flagship Girls’ Education Challenge focuses on getting girls into school and learning. The first phase (GEC I) directly provided quality education for over a million marginalised girls. It has also benefited many more girls and communities through 37 different projects in 18 countries across Africa and Asia, many operating in conflict and crisis.

• At the G7, the PM pledged an additional £187 million of UK Aid funding to the second phase of the GEC, to support 427,779 girls who we have already supported into school to continue their education through primary, secondary school and training – providing them with the opportunity to get twelve years of quality education. This announcement built on the announcement made at CHOGM in April, where the PM pledged £212 million to get almost one million girls in developing countries across the Commonwealth learning. This means that in total the UK is now supporting over 1.5 million girls around the world, through the second phase of the GEC programme.

• The UK recently committed £225 million to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) for the period 2018-2020, to keep 880,000 children in school each year for three years, train 170,000 teachers and build 2,400 new classrooms. The UK has also founded and contributed £30m to Education Cannot Wait, of funds for education in emergencies.

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You will need to submit your annual return for 2017 before you can do the return for 2018.

Thousands of charities have already filed their annual returns, but there are still many that haven’t.

If you haven’t filed your return, your charity runs the risk of trying to file nearer to the deadline, potentially without the correct information or the password needed to access the service.

Not filing on time means you will go into default and that information will be displayed to the public on the charity register.

The deadline for submitting your 2017 annual return is 31 October 2018, if your charity has a 12-month accounting period.

If you are submitting your annual return for the first time, or you are not sure what you need to include, read our guidance about how to prepare an annual return.

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We recognise that for some charities the new questions will create additional work. Certain questions will be optional this year to give you time to put the systems in place to collect the information easily, requiring less effort in future.

Why we are asking about salaries and benefits in charities

Our research into public trust and confidence in charities shows that the public is concerned about high levels of pay in charities.

Because of this we will be asking charities to provide more information about salaries to increase accountability.

In the annual return for 2018 we will ask for a breakdown of salaries across income bands, and the amount of total employee benefits for the highest paid member of staff.

But, in response to concerns raised during the consultation, we will not publish details of benefits given to the paid member of staff on the public register.

Why we are asking about overseas expenditure

We will build on the current annual return questions about charitable expenditure overseas, to establish how charities transfer and monitor funds sent overseas.

We are doing this because all money transfer processes bear risks, and it’s important that charities take appropriate steps to manage these.

We recognise that some charities will need to make changes to their record keeping to answer parts of this question. For this reason the questions about methods of transferring money outside the regulated banking system, and about monitoring controls and risk management, will be optional for the 2018 annual return.

These questions will be mandatory for the annual return 2019 onwards.

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To get a better understanding of the income sources from outside of the UK, we are introducing questions about the breakdown of sources of income from each country a charity receives funds from.

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Some charities will need to make changes to their financial systems to collect and sort the information more easily.

For this reason, we have made those parts of the question set relating to other private institutions outside the UK (other than charities, Non-Governmental Organisations and Non-Profit Organisations) and individual donors outside the UK optional to answer for the 2018 annual return.

These questions will be mandatory from 2019 onwards.

The Minister said:

This event was an excellent and welcome opportunity to deepen our already strong collaboration with Pacific Island partners. The UK is doubling our diplomatic presence in the Pacific through the opening of High Commissions in Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, underlining our deep commitment to the region.

With Pacific leaders today, I discussed work to strengthen climate resilience. This is an immediate priority for the Pacific, but is not just a Pacific issue – it is a global issue, which requires a global response. The UK is at the forefront of this, helping to secure a long-term sustainable future for the region. We talked about clean oceans, where the UK is a committed co-Chair – with Vanuatu – of the Commonwealth Clean Oceans Alliance.

We also discussed the UK’s determination to boost trade with the Pacific nations, in order to support the creation of sustainable economies, based not on aid or loans but on investment and exports.

Finally, I underlined our commitment to helping Pacific nations achieve their international objectives through successful engagement in multilateral fora, including the UN.

Work is under way on the first of five natural flood management schemes along rivers in Norfolk to help manage flood risk to local properties and improve habitats.

Natural flood management helps store flood water upstream and slows the flow of water along river channels, complementing the use of more traditional hard engineering downstream such as flood walls and embankments. Techniques such as tree-planting, restoring peatland, building leaky dams and reconnecting rivers to natural flood plains can all be used to reduce flood risk naturally.

The first two schemes under construction in Norfolk are on Camping Beck in the Bure Catchment at Buxton, and the River Yare at Marlingford.

The Buxton project is being carried out through a partnership between the Norfolk Rivers Internal Drainage Board, the Broadland Catchment Partnership and the Environment Agency. Works here involve storing flood flows upstream of Buxton village in an area that will enhance the environment through providing habitat, whilst helping to reduce flood risk downstream.

The Marlingford scheme is being carried out by a partnership involving Natural England, the Broadland Catchment Partnership and Environment Agency. A series of ‘flow deflectors’ and lengths of woody debris will be constructed in the channel of the River Yare to redirect flood water on to the flood plain, so it is stored upstream for longer and reduces the risk to communities downstream.

Sections of the riverbank will also be lowered at strategic locations for the same reason, and ‘scrapes’ will be dug in to the floodplain to increase water storage capacity. This will have the added benefit of providing habitat for wading birds such as lapwing, teal and snipe, plus invertebrates and other wildlife.

Similar techniques will be used at Ingworth on the River Bure, and Weybourne on the Spring Beck, with work due to begin soon.

A fifth scheme will be constructed at Worthing on the River Blackwater in partnership with the Norfolk Rivers Trust, with work taking place late Autumn.

The work is being carried out as part of a £15million Natural Flood Management programme, which was announced by Defra in 2017.

The Environment Agency’s Peta Denham, Area Flood Risk Manager for Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, said:

I’ve always had an interest in how we can work more with nature to reduce flood risk, so I’m really pleased to get the opportunity to work on these natural flood management schemes in Norfolk.

We’ll help manage flood risk to communities at the same time as improving habitats – so it’s a win-win situation. I’m really looking forward to working with partners and our Regional Flood & Coastal Committee on these exciting projects on the ground, which will leave a real legacy of multiple benefits for future generations.

Environment minister Thérèse Coffey said:

The start of work on the new natural flood management (NFM) schemes is excellent news for Norfolk. The county is just one of the areas across England benefitting from our £15m investment in NFM and in the record £2.6billion we are investing overall to better protect against flooding.

Once finished, the Norfolk schemes will provide additional support in reducing the flood risks to local land, homes and businesses. On top of this, they will also enhance and restore some of the county’s wildlife habitats and improve water quality in its rivers.

This is a great example of how the Environment Agency is working with partners to protect Norfolk’s communities from the damage caused by flooding.

Emily Swan, Natural England lead adviser in farming and conservation, said:

The scheme at Marlingford is an exciting opportunity for us all to work together to create a resilient landscape along the Yare river valley.

Local communities and wildlife will benefit from a package of measures put together which are aimed at reducing flood risk, improving the water quality of the river and enhancing and preserving a mosaic of important habitats for fish, wintering birds and wildflower rich floodplain meadows in the valley.

Neil Punchard, Broadland Catchment Partnership officer, said:

This partnership helps co-ordinate farmers and organisations in working together. This can cost-effectively provide multiple benefits including wetland wildlife habitat, improved water quality, and reduced flood risk for local communities

Matthew Philpot, Project Engineer for Broads & Norfolk Rivers IDB said:

The joint working on natural flood management projects has delivered important, tangible benefits for many local communities across our county.

The integration of staff, resource and ideas has opened up a number of projects, which have given significant efficiencies along with multiple benefits to wildlife, people and property.

Working with nature and thinking in new, progressive ways about drainage opportunities has been highly beneficial and will continue to provide positive outcomes for many years to come.

Notes to Editors:

• Natural flood management is an important part of the Environment Agency’s strategy in protecting communities from flood and coastal erosion risk.
• It can be a cost-effective and sustainable way to manage flood risk and coastal erosion alongside traditional engineering, while creating habitat for wildlife and helping regenerate rural and urban areas through tourism.
• Many flood and coastal schemes feature a mixture of hard and soft engineering and natural flood management.

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Under the well-established practices of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS), the Home Office is working closely with UNHCR, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to resettle the families.

The Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

White Helmets volunteers saved the lives of thousands of innocent civilians during the Syrian conflict and suffered terrible losses in the process.

I am therefore proud that the UK is resettling these brave individuals and their families and giving them the opportunity to rebuild their lives here.

The Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

The actions of the White Helmets demonstrate true modern day heroism. They are rightly respected for their courageous, life-saving work and have previously been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. We welcome the first White Helmets to be resettled in the UK.

These brave volunteers have rushed to pull people from the rubble when bombs have rained down on Syria and I’m proud that the UK has led the way in their evacuation and resettlement.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

The White Helmets who have risked their lives to rescue thousands of Syrian civilians are facing persecution from the Assad regime. We should be so proud of Britain’s role supporting their life-saving work and now providing them and their families with sanctuary and helping them rebuild their lives.

We are also exploring how we can learn from their valuable experience and expertise protecting civilians in need.

The White Helmets are a civil defence organisation that has saved over 115,000 lives and protected the Syrian people who are bearing the brunt of the conflict.

The UK has already resettled over 12,800 of the most vulnerable refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict, with the government on track to meet its commitment of resettling 20,000 by 2020.

Over £2.71 billion has been committed by the UK government since 2012 to meet the immediate needs of vulnerable people in Syria and of refugees in the region making it one of the largest donors. This is the largest ever response from the UK to a single humanitarian crisis.