Following the findings of poliovirus in sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, which covers parts of North and East London, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) working with the Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are now expanding the surveillance to a range of areas outside of the capital.

This is on a precautionary basis to determine whether the virus is spreading to other areas. To date, sewage sampling has been conducted in London and Glasgow, and no polio virus has been detected in Glasgow.

The additional sites where the sampling will be rolled out are Sewage Treatment Works covering parts of Birmingham, Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford, Brighton and Hove, City of Bristol, Bury, Castle Point, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, North Tyneside, Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, Nottingham, Preston, Salford, Sheffield and Watford.

These areas have been chosen on the basis of an assessment of risk, which takes into consideration a number of factors. This includes demographics – population groups living in the area with links to countries overseas where wild poliovirus is still found or where live oral polio vaccine is still used; areas with low polio vaccination coverage; areas with pockets of under-vaccinated communities; and areas adjacent to the locations in London where poliovirus has been detected.

The sewage sampling strategy will continue to be reviewed and adapted as new evidence emerges. Nationally the overall risk of paralytic polio is considered low because most people are protected from this by vaccination.

Dr Vanessa Saliba, Consultant Epidemiologist at UKHSA, said:

No cases of polio have been reported and for the majority of the population, who are fully vaccinated, the risk is low.

We are now expanding the sewage sampling nationally to areas that are at highest risk of new poliovirus importations and areas most likely to see spread of poliovirus from London. We are in touch with public health colleagues in these areas and will work closely with local areas as the need arises.

In the meantime it is vital parents across the country check their children are fully vaccinated for their age. Following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), all children aged 1 to 9 years in London need to have a dose of polio vaccine now – whether it’s an extra booster dose or just to catch up. It will ensure a high level of protection from paralysis. This may also help stop the virus spreading further.

• Export bar is to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the flag
• Sledge flags like this were used on voyages by British explorers and they continued to be used in the Antarctic in the early 20th century
• This flag is one of the earliest known still in existence and dates to the early 1850s

A rare sledge flag owned by British Naval Officer Captain Henry Kellett, who was involved in two major arctic expeditions, is at risk of leaving the UK unless a buyer can be found.

Captain Henry Kellett, a proud Irishman, was a famous arctic explorer involved in expeditions charting the Northwest Passage – the sea route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean – which had become a focus for British science, trade and geographical exploration.

During the search for Sir John Franklin’s lost 1845 expedition, Captain Kellett’s voyages helped map out the northern extremes of North America for Britain. The sledge flag, one of the earliest known in existence, helps to tell the story of British obsession in the 19th century with arctic exploration and serves as an important reminder of the tragedy of Franklin’s failed voyage.

Sledge flags were unique to British polar explorers and helped to forge an identity among officers and crew for each sledge sent from the ship.

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:

This flag serves as a reminder of Britain’s rich maritime history, helping to tell the story of early British sailors and their travels in search of new places. Its cultural and historical significance should be a driving force to keep it in the country. I hope a buyer comes forward for this treasure soon.

The Minister’s decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The Committee agreed that this is a fascinating example of a sledge flag and that the unique design of this flag, along with its importance within the context of British history, is of outstanding significance.

The Chairman of the RCEWA, Sir Hayden Phillips, said:

The stories that surround this Sledge Flag make it come alive. Captain Kellett commanded HMS Resolute, one of many ships which, over at least three centuries, had sought to fulfil a British maritime obsession – finding the North West Passage. The flag and the ship were also linked to the constant late 19th century search for Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition. Like his ships, crushed by the ice, Resolute had to be abandoned but was recovered and restored by the US Government and presented to Queen Victoria. She then ordered the crafting from its oak timbers an ornate desk which She presented to the President of the United States. This Sledge Flag, of unique design, is redolent with our history and should live here.

The Committee made its recommendation on the grounds that the departure of the sledge flag from the UK would be a misfortune owing to its close connection with British history and national life.

The decision on the export licence application for the flag will be deferred for a period ending on 1 st December inclusive. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 Business Days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the flag at the recommended price of £120,000 (plus VAT of £24,000 which can be reclaimed by an eligible institution).

The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for three months. Offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price through the private treaty sale arrangements, where appropriate, may also be considered by the minister. Such purchases frequently offer substantial financial benefit to a public institution wishing to acquire the item.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the sledge flag should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.
2. Details of the sledge flag are as follows: The object is a silk sledging flag belonging to the polar explorer Captain Henry Kellett (1806-1875) made circa late 1851 to early 1852. The flag measures 595 by 885mm, within a frame of 710 by 995mm. The maker is unknown.
3. Provenance: By continuous descent through the Kellett family.
4. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by the Arts Council (ACE), which advises the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.
5. Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. They have set out in their strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 they want England to be a country in which everyone’s creativity is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. ACE invest public money from the Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. They are also one of the bodies responsible for administering the Government’s unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund.

• Export bar is to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the manuscript
• The manuscript was part of a gift from the Archbishop and was intended to impress the Queen

A manuscript which formed part of a gift from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker to Elizabeth I is at risk of leaving the country unless a buyer can be found.

The historically rich manuscript is made up of nine roundels and forms a fragment of a gift to Queen Elizabeth I in the early 1550s. The roundels were likely folded and integrated into a now-lost gold salt cellar.

The use of shell gold around the miniatures suggests that the manuscript was gifted with the intention of impressing the Queen.

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:

Archbishop Parker is a figure of great historical and theological consequence, and this beautiful manuscript is a significant example of Elizabethan gift exchange. I hope a buyer comes forward for this piece so it can be used to learn more about both the Archbishop and Queen Elizabeth I.

The Minister’s decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The Committee agreed that the manuscript had enormous research value, specifically regarding Archbishop Matthew Parker’s relationship to Queen Elizabeth I and material gift culture. The literary allusions on the roundels further suggested Matthew Parker’s engagement with classical humanist culture that was not typically associated with the clergy and would lead to illuminating further study.

Committee Member Peter Barber said:

These evocative, obscurely-worded and miraculously preserved roundels take us back to power politics and culture at the heart of Elizabeth I’s court. They are a tangible record of a vital and dangerous moment in our religious and political history when the delicately-crafted Anglican Settlement seemed to be in danger, but their wording still has to be fully interpreted and understood.

While Tudor gift lists and sometimes the gifts themselves survive, such intrinsic – but cryptic – evidence for the mentality behind the gift -giving is perhaps unique. I fervently hope the roundels will remain in this country where outstanding collections and libraries – not least that of Archbishop Parker himself – would enable their plentiful remaining mysteries to be investigated and explained with a thoroughness that would simply not be possible elsewhere in the world.

The Committee made its recommendation on the grounds that the departure of the manuscript from the UK would be a misfortune owing to its outstanding significance to the study of Matthew Parker and gift-giving culture in the Elizabethan period.

The decision on the export licence application for the manuscript will be deferred for a period ending on 1 December 2022. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 business days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the manuscript at the recommended price of £9,450 (plus VAT of £390 which can be reclaimed by an eligible institution).

The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an option agreement and will last for three months. Offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price through the private treaty sale arrangements, where appropriate, may also be considered by the minister. Such purchases frequently offer substantial financial benefit to a public institution wishing to acquire the item.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the manuscript should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.

2. Details of the manuscript are as follows: Nine conjoined roundels. Two roundels depict agate jewels showing St George and the Dragon within the Garter and a cameo of Queen Elizabeth I respectively. A Latin inscription records Archbishop Matthew Parker’s gift of the agate to Elizabeth. Seven roundels contain longer texts in Latin and French on the properties of agate. Manuscript on parchment, 1573, 127 x 127 mm. Fair condition.

3. Provenance: Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504-1575); by whom gifted to Elizabeth I (1533-1603); possibly acquired John Sharp, Archbishop of York (1645-1714); thence by family descent, certainly to Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1807-1886); thence by family descent to the present owners.

4. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by the Arts Council (ACE), which advises the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.

5. Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. They have set out in their strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 they want England to be a country in which everyone’s creativity is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. ACE invest public money from the Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the Arts Council developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90% coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. They are also one of the bodies responsible for administering the Government’s unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund.

Dr Fiona Butcher

Reappointed for a four-year term from 3 September 2022 until 2 September 2026.

Dr Fiona Butcher is the General Counsel and Company Secretary of Trinity College London, an international awarding organisation and educational charity. Before moving in-house, she worked in the fields of EU and competition law, regulation and compliance at a magic circle firm and at three regulators, including as the Legal Director of Ofwat. She holds law degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Dr Butcher has a keen interest in art history and holds a PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she specialised in Modern British Art and wrote her doctorate on British landscape painting in the early Cold War period. In addition, she has worked in the Interpretation Department at Tate Britain and contributed to various art publications.

Dr Helen Czerski

Reappointed for a four-year term from 3 September 2022 until 2 September 2026.

Dr Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.

She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. She has worked on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic.

Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for ten years, covering the physics of the natural world and the physics of everyday life in BBC2 landmark documentaries and a range of BBC4. She is a frequent voice on the radio, on podcasts and also live stage performances.

Helen writes regularly about science, and her first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.

Remuneration and Governance Code

Trustees of Royal Museums Greenwich are not remunerated. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Dr Fiona Butcher and Dr Helen Czerski have not declared any significant political activity.

Neil Grant

Reappointed as Trustee from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2026.

Neil Grant studied archaeology at the University of Reading before training as a Chartered Accountant. Since then he worked in industry for a number of years before becoming Head of Corporate Finance and

Performance for English Heritage and then its successor organisation, Historic England. Neil has written a number of books for Osprey Publishing, focusing on small arms development and military history. He also regularly contributes articles to Tracklink, the magazine of the Tank Museum. He is currently the Chair of the Ordnance Society, an academic group dedicated to the study of historic artillery, and visits coordinator for Friends of the Tank Museum.

He is particularly interested in mediaeval horsemanship and sword fighting techniques, both of which he has written about and demonstrated at living history events. He is also interested in the use of technology to improve and deepen the museum experience.

Paul Kirkman

Reappointed as Trustee from 28 September 2022 to 27 September 2026.

Paul Kirkman is a consultant to cultural and heritage organisations with 30 years top-level experience in public policy and cultural sector leadership. Paul was Director of the National Railway Museum in York from 2012 to 2017, where he returned the world-famous Flying Scotsman to operation and established a partnership with the City Council for a £700m brownfield development of land around the museum. From 2005-2012 Paul had a range of senior roles at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, including leading on the 2010 Spending Reviews and responsibility for policy and funding for the National Museums and Arts Council England. He was Head of Policy of Planning at the Natural History Museum between 1999 and 2001, at the launch of its Darwin Centre development. He had three spells at HM Treasury and was Private Secretary to the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, working for Howard Davies and Adair Turner in the period in the run up to the 1997 election. Paul originally studied Philosophy at Edinburgh University, has an MA in Art History from Goldsmith’s College and was a fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme.

Jonathan Sands

Reappointed as Trustee from 28 September 2022 to 27 September 2026.

Jonathan is the Chairman of creative brand agency, ‘Born Ugly’ and formally the majority shareholder of global brand design agency Elmwood. His work has taken him all over the world from New Zealand to North America and throughout Asia and Mainland Europe advising some of the biggest brands on the planet. His businesses have won more Design Effectiveness Awards than any other alongside awards for ‘Best Company To Work For’ by The Sunday Times and The Yorkshire Post and various individual awards for business leadership. He is a former council member of both the RSA and the Design Council where he served for ten years and a former Chairman of the Design Business Association.

Jonathan has also been a ‘Visiting Professor of Innovation’ at Huddersfield University where he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science in 2002. In 2011 he was awarded an OBE in HRH The Queen’s New Year Honours list for his services to the creative industries.

Beyond the creative industries Jonathan is also Non Executive Chairman of the digital veterinary business Vet Ai which uses artificial intelligence to diagnose pet illness through the Joii APP and finally he is a trustee of the Royal Armouries where he Chairs their commercial arm RATE.

Remuneration and Governance Code

Trustees of the Royal Armouries are not remunerated. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Neil Grant, Paul Kirkman and Jonathan Sands have declared no activity.