The Prime Minister has approved the appointment of Sir Antony Edwards-Stuart as the new Deputy Chair of the Security Vetting Appeals Panel, with effect from 1 April 2018. He will replace Sir Stephen Silber who is retiring from the Panel after several years of service.

Sir Antony Edwards-Stuart was called to the Bar (G) in 1976, took Silk in 1991 and elected a Bencher in 2009. He was appointed an Assistant Recorder in 1991, a Recorder in 1997, a Deputy High Court Judge in 2003 and a Judge of the High Court (Queen’s Bench) in 2009. He was appointed a Judge by Request of the Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals and Immigration and Asylum Chambers) in 2011. He was appointed a Legal Member of the Special Immigration and Appeals Commission and a Judge in Charge, Technology and Construction Court, in 2013. Sir Antony retired from the High Court in November 2016 and has, since, taken up appointments as party appointed arbitrator or chairman in several international arbitrations.

Good evening, everyone. It is a pleasure to welcome you at our Residence. The presence of so many leading figures from Argentina’s political, economic, social and cultural life reflects the enormous progress achieved in bilateral relations lately.

We would like to give special thanks to all the companies who are with us tonight as sponsors, making this celebration possible. This is a very important day for us. It is the day when we celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s birthday. And it is the equivalent of our National Day.

By the way, in just over three weeks the Royal family will celebrate the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. So those of you who are interested may go to into one of the rooms where you can have your photo taken with Windsor Castle in the background, to feel like you are part of the Royal Wedding in some way.

This past year has been very busy for us. In some of the screens at the Residence, you will be able to see the wide variety of projects, activities and visits that have kept us busy over these past few months.

But rather than go over the figures in our relationship, the events, the agreements we have signed, I would like to focus on three stories. Three stories that bring us together. Three success stories. Three stories with individual names and human faces, because this is what, ultimately, relations between countries are all about.

And if we talk about the things that Argentine and British people have in common, the first thing that comes to mind is our love for football. In only two months, the Argentine and English will take part in the World Cup, together with other 30 nations.

Driven by the football fever that is already gripping us all, we have included in this celebration two of best players in the Premier League – Argentina’s Kun Agüero and England’s Harry Kane. You will have the opportunity to have your photo taken next to them as if you were wearing the shirt of two World Cup winning squads: England 66 and Argentina 86.

But, as I was saying, the important thing is to give these stories a human face, and that is why we are lucky to have Jorge Burruchaga with us tonight, a World Cup winner in 1986. As you know, he was not only a part of the winning team in Mexico, but also the man who scored the last goal in the World Cup, as we can see in the video.
That was pretty good, Jorge, pretty good. The best thing is that, as we can clearly see, you played the ball with your foot, with no help from the hand of God…

As well as our love for football, Jorge and I have other things in common. He has a daughter living in London, so he has a particular interest in visiting my country. And he started his career as a footballer in Arsenal, a team that shares the name with “my” Arsenal, the Holloway club.

Today Jorge is the manager of the Argentine football squad, and that is why we would like him to have the England shirt as a gift from the British Embassy.

Of course, during this World Cup I am going to be cheering for my team, hoping that they perform as well as in 1966. However, if they don’t, you will see me rooting for Messi and Argentina. But please don’t ask me to chant “el que no salta es un inglés” (he who doesn’t jump is an Englishman), because I won´t. So we wish Jorge and his team the best of luck. Let us give them a big round of applause.

The second story I wanted to tell you has to do with the world of business, technology, innovation and particularly, with the fascinating world of entrepreneurs.

This is the story of a group of Argentine friends who started researching on artificial intelligence at university, designed a project, which in the beginning was merely an academic project, and soon realised that it contained the seed of something bigger.

Tonight Nicolás, Adrián, Juan Pablo, Alexis, Alejandra and Federico are here with us. They are the founders of Eye Capital, the company that created an innovative technology, a sort of robot who makes automated decisions to operate in stock markets around the world. All six of them formed a multi-disciplinary team that managed to combine research, academia, technology and business acumen.

Only six years after taking that first step at university, combining coffee with experimental algorithms, they set up a company with an international expansion plan, which was legally incorporated in the UK a month ago. They decided to take the leap because they know that London is the Fintech capital of the world and that they will be able to find partners, customers, investors and resources to provide a global platform to this idea that came up as part of an academic project at an Argentine university.

This may be one of the most notable stories, but it is certainly not the only one. More and more companies, yes, Argentine companies, both large and small, are seeing the benefits of investing in the UK. After gathering information, they realise that it is much easier and accessible than they thought. We look forward to seeing many more projects like Eye Capital in the future.

The third story is the most profound and moving one, the one that gave rise to the touching images we saw exactly a month ago. Ninety families were finally able to see the place where their loved ones lie at Darwin’s Argentine Cemetery.

A historic agreement signed towards the end of 2016 between the governments of Argentina and the UK and the Red Cross enabled the process of identification through DNA. The Red Cross put together a very professional team that included the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team and other organisations and, with the support of the Human Rights Department headed by Claudio Avruj, they worked for several months last year to achieve the results that the families had long been waiting for. Finally, in March this year, we were able to carry out the visit the families had dreamed about for so long.

It was a very moving visit, which required six weeks of intensive planning. I would like to highlight in particular the role played by two people who, through a very thorough logistic job, made sure that the families were taken to the Cemetery with the respect and care they deserved.

They were our Defence Attaché, Group Captain Robin Smith, and Roberto Curilovic, who works for Corporación América, the business group that, thanks to Mr Eurnekian’s generosity, made the families’ trip possible.
It was highly motivating to see a Royal Air Force officer like Robin and a former Argentine Air Force pilot and veteran of the 1982 conflict like Roberto working shoulder to shoulder.

All of this shows that when goodwill exists, when we put humanitarian values ahead of individual interests, great things are achieved.

To conclude, I would like to show you a photo that summarises this spirit, the idea of giving priority to our sense of humanity, which is in the nature of Argentines and Britons alike.

The photo was taken in March during a ceremony held at the Argentine Embassy in London to present the Two Roses for Peace, an excellent initiative by Juan Carlos Pallarols. The two people embracing each other are María Fernanda Araujo, Head of the Families Commission, and Geoffrey Cardozo, the British Army Colonel whose mission it was to bury the Argentine soldiers.

The image cannot lie. María Fernanda is embracing the man who gave her brother a decent burial. Gratitude, compassion, genuine empathy between two human beings.

I propose that when we raise our glasses in a few minutes, we toast these sentiments too.

We are now going to listen to the national anthems of Argentina and the UK, played by the Argentine Air Force Band whom we thank for being here tonight. After the anthems, we will offer a toast to the Heads of State and the people of our two countries. On this occasion, I have chosen to toast the Argentine President and people with a glass of Malbec and the Queen with a genuine single malt scotch.

Toast to the President and the people of Argentina

Toast to Her Majesty the Queen

Thank you very much. Enjoy the party!

A new mission to Mars involving UK science will be the first to study the heart of the Red Planet and measure ‘Marsquakes’ from its surface.

The NASA InSight mission, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is due to launch from California aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 12.05pm (BST) today (Saturday 5 May).

The InSight Lander will use cutting-edge instruments to delve beneath the surface and investigate the interior of Mars to improve our understanding of how such planets formed. It will also study tectonic activity and meteorite impacts, both of which could provide valuable knowledge about these events on Earth.

The UK Space Agency has invested £4 million in one of the key instruments onboard; the short period Seismometer (SEIS-SP). This will be on the surface of Mars to measure seismic waves from Marsquakes. Scientists expect to detect anywhere between a dozen and a hundred of these tremors up to 6.0 on the Richter scale over the course of two years.

Sam Gyimah, Science Minister, said:

The UK is playing an important role in this exciting mission to unlock the deepest secrets of our nearest neighbour in the solar system. An instrument that started life in a London university laboratory will end it on the surface of Mars detecting quakes and meteor strikes for the first time.

It’s a great example of the importance of international collaboration and our work with the space sector as part of our Industrial Strategy, to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of pioneering science and exploration.

Prof Tom Pike from Imperial College London is leading a team with Dr Simon Calcutt from Oxford University and support from STFC RAL Space, to the work on SEIS-SP.

Prof Tom Pike said:

It’s been enormously challenging to put together such a small sensor with the performance we need to detect Marsquakes. We’ve had the support of the UK Space Agency, and their considerable patience. Now we finally get to see our microseismometers leave the launch pad, next stop Mars.

The spacecraft is due to arrive on the surface of Mars on 26 November. The mission will conduct six science investigations on and below the surface of Mars to uncover the evolutionary history that shaped all of the rocky planets in the inner solar system.

The UK instrument will work together with seismometers from France, as well as major contributions from Switzerland, Germany and the US. Other instruments on board include RISE, a precision radio tracking of the lander that can determine the direction and motion of the rotation of Mars and the HP3 (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe) which will study heat flow by embedding a temperature sensor under the surface of Mars.

The UK space sector is playing a leading role in efforts to explore the solar system with additional collaborative projects including the ExoMars mission which will search for evidence of life on Mars using a rover on the surface and a spacecraft in orbit above it. The rover is designed and built in Britain by Airbus for launch in 2020 and the spacecraft recently returned the first photos from its new orbit showing an ice-filled, Martian crater.

The UK Space Agency, University of Leicester and Airbus are also involved in a mission to the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury, called BepiColombo, which is due to launch later this year.

The InSight launch will be streamed live by NASA

A team of analytic specialists from Dstl are providing vital analysis to support military commanders in Europe’s largest military exercise, Exercise Joint Warrior. Lead by the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD), Exercise Joint Warrior is a multi-national military training exercise which takes place in the UK, predominately in the north-west of Scotland and on Salisbury Plain.

Dstl’s guidance is crucial for military leaders to understand the risks and benefits of the decisions they make when planning tactical activities and maneuvers during conflict.

Thousands of military personnel take part in the exercise from across the UK services, as well as those from NATO and other allied countries. It involves 38 naval vessels, 68 aircraft and a large number ground units. Operations include airborne assaults, amphibious landing and training in counter-insurgency, counter-piracy and interstate warfare.

Among the team of analysts from Dstl is Richard Hoyes, he said:

Seeing your hard work and analysis influence a commander’s decisions is great; though, clearly there is a serious edge to all of the work involved; it is also good fun. At the start of the exercise I was in an airfield with hundreds of paratroopers who were prepping to deploy as per a real conflict. There were a lot of helicopters and fast jets; it all makes for a very meaningful and realistic experience.

The team is among more than 30 members of Dstl staff who are trained and ready to deploy anywhere in the world in support of military operations and exercises; all at a moment’s notice.

Richard added:

On this joint operation, the Army, RAF and Navy work together as a team. You can gain great insight into a breadth of capabilities due to the fascinating mix of cultures with the likes of Danish, Lithuanian and Latvians among the nationalities working alongside UK personnel. This is the second exercise of this type that I have done and I have already developed working relations with other nations. It shows how seamlessly these nations can integrate together and fight side by side.

Dstl also has a 24-hour, 365-day ‘reachback’ capability, which provides rapid access to the breadth and depth of Dstl’s capabilities in support of military operations, not just with analysis but could include anything from computer modelling and highly detailed scientific advice to a review of previous research studies for similar issues.

For more information contact the Dstl press office on 01980 956845 or at press@dstl.gov.uk

The VMD is carrying out a survey on the disposal of controlled drugs. Our aim is to understand the extent of the problem vets face when getting controlled drugs witnessed for disposal.

At present vets must destroy schedule 2 controlled drugs in the presence of and directed by any of the following:

• an inspector appointed under the Veterinary Medicines Regulations
• a vet, independent of the practice where the destruction takes place
• a person legally authorised to witness the destruction of CD such as a Police CD Liaison Officer (CDLO)

We note that there is a shortage of Police CDLOs, alongside inspectors not being in the area and no independent vets within close proximity, therefore have commissioned this survey.

By answering the survey, you will help the VMD establish the extent of this problem around the UK and inform any future possible policy development.

The survey is open until 6 June 2018, is voluntary and open to all UK registered vets. It should not take any longer than 15 minutes to complete. Please note no personal data is being collected, however all data will be treated in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Published data will be anonymised and aggregated.

The VMD legislation team is responsible for conducting this survey and can be contacted on 01932 338316 or controlleddrugssurvey@vmd.defra.gsi.gov.uk

The VMD would like to thank you for taking the time to complete this survey, further guidence on controlled drugs is available.