The Coal Authority will be talking about Britain’s coal mining legacy and managing the environmental impacts of historical mining within the local planning process at a half-day event hosted by Glasgow City Council on Wednesday, 4 September 2019,

There will be a presentation by Melanie Lindsley and Deb Roberts from our Planning Development Team, before a question and answer session and an opportunity to view local coal abandonment plans and photographs from our archive.

If you are a planning officer with any council on the Scottish coalfield and would like to book a place at the seminar, which is CPD accredited, contact: planningconsultation@coal.gov.uk

Melanie Lindsley said the seminar, the latest in a series, will be a great opportunity to engage with local authority partners in Scotland and added:

The Coal Authority deals with more than 180 Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in England, Scotland and Wales and we provide more than 9,000 consultation responses each year.

We began proactive engagement with LPAs last year to discuss and review the process, to better understand the issues planners face in the former coalfields and consider how we can improve our consultation processes.

LPAs are able to access our Development High Risk Area and Surface Coal Resource data sets and we provide them with guidance, which we update every two years.

However, it is always good to speak to planning colleagues in person and these events are an excellent way of doing this and have been very well received.

Event details:

Venue: Glasgow City Council, Exchange House, 231 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1RX.

Time: Wednesday, 4 September 2019, 2.30pm to 4.30pm.

Book your place: planningconsultation@coal.gov.uk

Entrepreneurs play an important role in driving economic growth and innovation. Whether they’re establishing a new service or inventing a product, entrepreneurs can change the lives of people across the world with their creations.

Today (21 August) is World Entrepreneurs’ Day, a global event that raises awareness of entrepreneurs and the work they do.

Our register holds data for more than 4.2 million companies. The number of young directors aged 16-24 has grown by 35% over the last 5 years, from 87,477 in 2014 to 117,810 as of July this year.

As an organisation firmly committed to supporting the government’s Industrial Strategy, we want to play our part to make sure the UK remains the best place to do business in the future.

That’s why we’re launching our #GetBizzy campaign in partnership with the Great British Entrepreneurship Awards. Our aim is to help inspire the country’s next generation of entrepreneurs and make sure 16-24 year olds are aware of who we are, what we do and how our tools and resources can help them take their business ideas to the next level.

Our chief executive and the Registrar of Companies in England and Wales, Louise Smyth, said:

As an organisation, we aim to support the government’s Industrial Strategy by driving confidence in the UK economy.

It’s incredibly important, therefore, to recognise both the work of young entrepreneurs and the positive contribution they are making to the UK’s business environment.

Our blog has a range of information about company services and the information we hold on the register. Over the coming months, our #GetBizzy campaign will feature guest blog posts from organisations across the UK who support young entrepreneurs. We’ll also share the stories of start-ups and established businesses set up by young entrepreneurs.

So if you’re a young entrepreneur looking to grow your business, or perhaps you have your business idea but don’t know where to start, it’s time for you to #GetBizzy and make the most of our tools and resources.

The ‘PanCam’ apparatus is the scientific ‘eyes’ of the rover, which will give scientists a view of the Martian terrain and geological features so that they can drive the rover named after the British scientist Rosalind Franklin who co-discovered the structure of DNA.

The rover will be able to observe Martian atmospheric phenomena like its fierce dust storms that cover the entire planet lasting for many months. and water in the atmosphere.

The UK is taking a leading role in the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ExoMars mission to examine the geological environment on Mars, which is 140 million miles on average away from Earth, and search for evidence of environments that may have once, and perhaps could still support life.

Jo Johnson, Science Minister said:

The UK is determined to play a leading role in the new space age, with our innovative companies and world-class universities exploring the Solar System and bringing the benefits of scientific discoveries back to Earth.

The supremely complex Rosalind Franklin Mars rover is a testament to the strength of the UK space industry, our scientific experts, commitment to the European Space Agency and our support for international collaborations in research.

With funding and support from the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency (ESA), PanCam was developed in Britain by scientists from UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), working with the University of Aberystwyth and dozens of other experts across the UK in partnership with colleagues in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and scientists from 9 nations.

Professor Andrew Coates, PanCam Principal Investigator from the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, said:

PanCam is the most sophisticated scientific camera system ever to be sent to the surface of Mars and is part of a mission that has the best chance yet of discovering life beyond Earth.

Our wide angle cameras will do more than is possible with human eyes by identifying water-rich minerals and studying water and dust in the atmosphere. They also will map the rover’s surrounding in 3D, the High Resolution Camera will add rock texture and detail, and can watch for hazards underneath the rover.

Our engineering team has dedicated more than fifteen years to delivering PanCam, and it’s thrilling to see all their hard work now being added to this amazing rover. We proposed the instrument in 2003, merged competing teams, designed, built, tested and calibrated the instrument with a fantastic UK and international team. Now we are ready to go. Next stop Mars.

The camera system was fitted to the rover at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, which is building Rosalind Franklin.

UK scientists from the University of Leicester and Teledyne e2v are also working on the rover’s Raman Spectrometer, a powerful tool for the identification and characterisation of Martian minerals. The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council is providing some of the electronics, including the data processing board.

ExoMars – Moving on Mars

Colin Paynter, Managing Director of Airbus Defence and Space UK said:

ExoMars is Europe’s latest flagship space mission and Airbus is at the heart of it.

Today’s installation in Stevenage of the powerful PanCam which will not only provide 3D images of the Martian landscape but also data on the atmosphere is a major milestone as we move forward to the rover being ready to fly in July 2020.

The UK Space Agency is the second largest European contributor to the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars mission, having invested €287 million in the mission and £14 million on the instruments. This, in addition to successful negotiations with ESA, secured key mission contracts for the UK space sector.

Later this month Rosalind Franklin will begin its long journey to Mars – leaving the UK for testing in Toulouse before launching to the red planet next summer (2020).

The UK is a leading member of ESA. In June the UK led Comet Interceptor mission, proposed and led by UCL researchers, was selected by ESA. This mission will send a spacecraft to chase down, observe and study a comet which has never previously encountered the inner Solar System giving us vital information about the conditions of the early Solar System and understand its formation.

The Government’s modern Industrial Strategy is backing businesses to succeed by increasing investment in science, because countries that invest in ideas create more opportunities for business. The ambition is for the UK be the world’s most innovative economy – and the development of the ExoMars rover for the UK is a part of this ambition.

The controls restrict the movement of all spruce material, including trees and wood with bark, isolated bark and wood chip with bark that originated within 50km of the larger eight-toothed European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) outbreak site. This 50km area is known as the demarcated area. View the Ips typographus notice map

Ahead of a wider introduction of timber plant passporting in December 2019, the system is being piloted in South East England as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of Ips typographus.

Additional controls mean that spruce material must be accompanied by a plant passport if it is to be moved, and destined for a Forestry Commission authorised processor or end user. This applies to the movement of material both within and out of the demarcated area. Any movement of this material will be subject to inspection by Forestry Commission Plant Health Inspectors before dispatch. Any material known to be infested cannot be moved with a plant passport, and can only be moved under strict controls defined by a Statutory Plant Health Notice.

Processors or end users can now apply for authorisation to receive and process spruce material from the demarcated zone, providing it has been inspected and is deemed to not be infested. You can access the application form and Q&A document, which contains more information on these controls, on GOV.UK.

Introducing plant passports for timber movement within Great Britain will enable the UK to retain its recognition by the European Union as a Protected Zone for conifer bark beetles and other known and emerging pests, protecting the UK’s commercial and conservation interests in forests and woodlands, and enabling the forestry sector to maintain high standards of biosecurity.

Timber that is bark-free can be moved without the requirement of a plant passport. The controls will remain in place until further notice, but will be kept under review.

Summary

At a time when sexual health services across the country are struggling to cope, Umbrella Sexual Health is managing increasing demand whilst overseeing year-on-year improvements in public health outcomes, for a significantly lower cost than before Umbrella Sexual Health was introduced.

A central component of the service in Birmingham is the work being undertaken by pharmacy partners. A formally contracted network of 174 community pharmacies provides easy access to a wide range of sexual health and contraception services and is proving increasingly popular with service users.

Background

In 2014, Birmingham City Council tendered for a prime provider model to deliver sexual health services. At the time, it was a fragmented system that was largely hospital-based, with a focus on treatment rather than prevention. It failed to meet the needs of priority groups, and public health outcomes benchmarked poorly against the rest of the country.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust (UHBFT) provided a plan to move services away from hospitals and into the community:

• reducing stigma
• expanding prevention and self-care
• creating access for groups that were previously excluded

The work with pharmacists was a core element of the Umbrella model, providing community-based services to increase access, whilst reducing pressure on the clinics.

Over the last 4 years, the number of pharmacies in the Umbrella network has increased and the service provision now stands at around 5,000 Umbrella activities, which are delivered by pharmacists every month.

What was involved

Setting up the service was a logistical challenge. Pharmacies were selected on a Ward basis, with the number of required pharmacies identified using demographic and infection risk indicators, including levels of deprivation, ethnic make-up and current prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Pharmacies could bid to provide either Tier 1 (T1) or Tier 2 (T2) services. T1 is a relatively basic level of service, whilst T2 is more innovative, implementing a more comprehensive level of service provision.

Tier 1 includes:

• emergency hormonal contraception (EHC)
• chlamydia screening (with EHC)
• STI kit “click and collect” service
• condoms

Tier 2 includes:

• emergency hormonal contraception (EHC)
• chlamydia screening (with EHC)
• STI kit “click and collect” service
• condoms
• oral contraception – start up
• oral contraception – continuation
• injectable contraception (Sayana Press)
• STI kit initiation
• chlamydia treatment
• hepatitis B vaccination (2nd/3rd dose)

In the initial tender round, a total of 98 pharmacies were awarded contracts, with 13 of them commissioned to provide T2 services. This has now grown to 174 pharmacies in total with 61 T2 providers.

At the outset of the service, the level of engagement was low, with almost all of the activity being generated by the distribution of emergency hormonal contraception and condoms. However, with a concerted effort to build relationships between Umbrella and the pharmacy providers, along with significant support from the Local Pharmacy Committee (LPC), the profile of activity has changed, with T1 activity starting to level off and T2 service provision increasing significantly.

The success of the Umbrella pharmacy service is due in part to investment in the brand and associated promotional work to raise awareness amongst the public. The service also has a dedicated training programme, to ensure consistency and quality in service provision.

The service has seen consistent and increasingly rapid growth.

Working well

The growth in the pharmacy service provision is a clear illustration of how popular it is with service users, especially young people, who like the anonymity and convenience of attending a pharmacy, rather than a clinic.

There is an increasingly strong and collaborative relationship between the Trust, the LPC and pharmacists. Regular communication helps to identify what can be done to keep growing and improving the service and the success of Umbrella is now being examined, both by other sexual health services and by health providers on a wider basis, exploring how primary, secondary and tertiary care can support one another.

Next steps

Public acceptance of the service has now reached a level which allows us to take the next key strategic step. Umbrella will be ‘upgrading’ all T1 pharmacies to T2 to ensure that there is a consistent service in all pharmacies.

Once this has been implemented, Umbrella will reserve clinic attendance for service users who have more complex needs. Anyone who can be seen in a community setting will be directed to a pharmacy or GP provider. This should reduce pressure on clinic-based services whilst enabling Umbrella to maintain an accessible and high-quality service.

For further information, email Natalie.Slayman-Broom@uhb.nhs.uk.