PM Theresa May joins world leaders and internet companies for a Summit on tackling terrorist use of the internet.

The Prime Minister will today (Wednesday) join world leaders and internet companies for a Summit in Paris on tackling terrorist use of the internet.

The Online Extremism Summit was prompted by the Christchurch mosque attacks in March, which killed 51 people and was livestreamed on Facebook.

The Summit will focus international efforts to stop social media being used to organise and promote terrorism, with attendees expected to sign up to a joint pledge, called the “Christchurch Call To Action”, to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

Speaking ahead of the event Prime Minister Theresa May said:

The sickening attacks on Muslim worshippers in Christchurch shocked the world. That 1.5 million copies of the video had to be removed by Facebook – and could still be found on Youtube for as long as eight hours after it was first posted – is a stark reminder that we need to do more both to remove this content, and stop it going online in the first place.

While we have seen significant progress on this issue since the terror attacks on the UK in 2017, the livestreaming of these attacks exposed gaps in our response and the need to keep pace with rapidly changing technological developments.

My message to governments and internet companies in Paris will be that we must work together and harness our combined technical abilities to stop any sharing of hateful content of this kind.

The event will be co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Also expected to attend are Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Twitter Chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook Head of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg.

In her intervention at the Summit the Prime Minister is expected to raise concerns about the growing threat posed by the Far Right, and call for greater progress to develop technical solutions and better collaboration between online platforms.

She will also call for countries to take forward a shared, international approach to regulation, and follow the lead set by the UK’s pioneering Online Harms White Paper, which would create a legal duty of care on internet companies for the first time.

On the need for international action the Prime Minister is expected to say:

I want the internet to be a safe place for all our citizens.

That’s why we announced plans for new legislation in the UK – creating a legal duty of care on internet companies to keep users safe from harm. This will be backed up an independent regulator with the power to enforce its decisions.

We are the first country to put forward such a comprehensive approach, but it isn’t enough for us to act alone.

The internet is global and online threats have no borders. Companies should be held to consistent international standards, so their customers enjoy the same level of protection wherever they live.

The event has been convened as new analysis from the Home Office can reveal a white nationalist and neo-Nazi discussion forum – which is not being named for operational reasons – has seen more than 12 million posts in response to almost one million individual threads, and amassed more than 800,000 visits in just one month, with 10 per cent appearing to originate from the UK.

UK Government analysis has also highlighted how a variety of different platforms and a wide range of anti-establishment themes are being used to lure in a broader audience, and expose them to Far Right material, further underlining the need for enhanced co-operation to keep pace with emerging threats and deal with extremist content before it reaches illegal terrorist thresholds.

On the need to tackle the changing use of the internet by the Far Right, the Prime Minister is expected to tell the Summit:

In 2017 – in the wake of five appalling attacks in the UK – I called for a much greater co-ordinated global response to fight back against Daesh propaganda online.

Many of the companies here today responded – and, in part thanks to the action you took, last year Daesh propaganda was at its lowest levels online since 2015.

That shows us what is possible. Our work here must continue in order to keep pace with the threat. But we also need to confront the rise of the Far Right online.

The Prime Minister’s involvement in the Summit is the latest example of UK leadership on this issue. Previous UK-led action includes encouraging the establishment of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, led by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft, which was created in the aftermath of the Westminster terror attack, and the development of new technology to automatically detect Daesh video propaganda.

In September 2017, the Prime Minister joined President Macron and then Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in convening the first ever UN Summit of government and industry to move further and faster in reducing the time it takes to remove terrorist content online, and to increase significantly their efforts to stop it being uploaded in the first place.

Last month the Government also published its Online Harms White Paper, unveiling tough new measures to ensure the UK is the safest place in the world to be online. In the first online safety laws of their kind, which the UK urges other countries to follow, social media companies and tech firms will be legally required to protect their users and face tough punishment if they do not comply.

Finally, on the ability to find technical solutions the Prime Minister is expected to say:

All of us here recognise the tremendous potential of technology as a force for good in the world. I profoundly believe in the internet as a place for creativity and new ideas.

We have seen what can be achieved when we work together. Collectively, we have the knowledge and expertise to find solutions. Let us be ambitious and steadfast in our determination to ensure that this technology, which can do so much good, isn’t weaponised by those who wish to inflict pain and suffering.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

“The Prime Minister welcomed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon for a wide-ranging discussion on security issues.

“She began by congratulating the Secretary General on the extension of his appointment to 2022 and on a successful start to NATO’s 70th anniversary year.

“The Prime Minister and Secretary General Stoltenberg discussed the NATO Leaders’ Summit in December in London. They agreed that the Summit would be an opportunity to celebrate NATO’s strength and look ahead to the next 70 years of the Alliance.

“On the future of NATO, the Prime Minister and Secretary General Stoltenberg spoke about the importance of all Allies investing in our shared security in order to adapt to 21st Century threats and protect our people. They both welcomed the progress that has been made on Allies’ spending commitments in recent years but agreed it was important to maintain momentum and encourage all Allies to increase their contributions.

“They discussed some of the security challenges facing the Alliance, including continuing Russian aggression and cyber threats from China. The Prime Minister welcomed NATO’s focus on these areas and offered to share further UK expertise with NATO on them.

“Both the Prime Minister and Secretary General Stoltenberg noted NATO’s important role in combatting terrorism, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Secretary General thanked the UK for its contribution to training, capacity building and other counter-terrorism programmes in the region. They both agreed on the importance of achieving a sustainable peace deal in Afghanistan that prioritises human rights.

“Finally, the Secretary General paid tribute to the UK’s ongoing commitment to NATO and the contribution made by all those involved in delivering 50 years of the UK’s Continuous At Sea Deterrent.”

Thank you very much.

It has been a successful and exciting few days for our DCMS sectors.

Last week, four English football teams qualified for European finals, the first time ever that all the finalists have come from the same country.

And this report shows that our digital economy is leading the way in Europe too.

We are fourth in the world for scaleup investment after only the USA, China and India.

Thirty five per cent of Europe and Israel’s tech unicorns have been created in the UK.

And last year, total venture capital investment in UK tech topped six billion pounds, more than any other European country.

This report is a worthwhile reminder of how far we have come. And it makes a number of interesting recommendations which we will study with interest.

There is still work to do if we want to stay on top.

So today I wanted to talk briefly about what change we need to see if we are to keep this momentum going in the years ahead.

Encouraging investment

First, we need to encourage investment.

Today’s report tells a compelling story in this area. Investment for UK high-growth digital tech firms grew 61 per cent between 2017 and 2018 – driven in large part by our ambitious tech scaleups.

And in the growing fintech sector, we were ranked number one in the world for scaleup investment.

Despite this positive outlook, there are some firms that can find it challenging to raise capital, particularly within the tech for good sector.

If we want mission-driven tech businesses to have a positive impact on society, then we need to help them flourish and scale up, through giving them the right support and funding.

So we have announced that we are backing the UK’s leading dedicated supporter of social tech – the Social Tech Trust – to set up a new investment fund.

This fund will provide ventures with the access to capital that they need at the right time, so that we can boost our already thriving tech for good sector, which was valued at 2.3 billion pounds last year.

The aim is to raise up to 30 million pounds for this investment fund, to help ventures focused in three key areas of social transformation: health, wealth, and communities.

This is part of a package of support, including a fund of one million pounds to drive social tech innovation in civil society, to help develop solutions to tackle social isolation and bring communities together.

We also need to encourage innovation friendly regulation, especially for start-ups, which already face so many challenges in their formative years.

Modern businesses require modern regulation – and the UK is leading the way in embracing change.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s Green Tech Fintech Challenge is a good example.

It supports a number of firms, including many of our dynamic start-ups, in developing products and services to help our transition towards a greener economy.

The challenge provides guidance and live market testing, which can be essential in helping a product overcome the hurdles faced by businesses.

I want our regulators to carry out their essential roles – preventing harm, and providing certainty to businesses and trust to citizens – whilst supporting the innovation that has helped us deliver these exceptional results.

Skills and talent

My second point is about having the best possible tech talent here in the UK.

The report shows the UK is the number one destination for tech talent, employing five per cent of all tech scaleup employees globally.

Success requires an immigration system that welcomes the world’s top tech talent.

Like our Tech Nation Visa, which enables the brightest and best to come and work in the UK’s digital technology sector.

And our Entrepreneur and Graduate Entrepreneur visas, which have recently been revived in response to feedback from the tech sector.

As we leave the EU, we need a future immigration system based around bringing skilled people to the UK. I know this is a priority for you and I will continue to – reflect your needs at the Cabinet table and beyond.

It is also pleasing to see that cyber, AI, and Cleantech are all featuring in the top ten sectors for employment in high-growth tech firms.

This shows that the newest and most exciting technologies are being developed right here in the UK. But we need to make sure everyone feels the benefits.

Digital technology is continuing to transform the nature of work and the skills that are valued by employers.

And the best way to futureproof our economy in a time of unprecedented change is to promote digital skills. And I know that this is a view shared by employers too.

From making coding in the curriculum compulsory at school age, through to supporting a more flexible labour market and expanding digital training for adults, we have a far-reaching programme to support digital skills.

Our Digital Skills Partnerships have made huge strides to improve digital capability right across the country.

And our AI Sector Deal included a focus on skills and talent, by developing new industry funded AI Masters programmes, cutting-edge PhD places and creating a globally respected fellowship scheme.

This work is so important.

Because we cannot become a truly digital nation until we have a skilled, digital workforce that makes use of all the available talent.

Regional tech economy

Finally, I want to talk about the importance of our regional digital economies.

It is easy as we gather here in the heart of the capital to focus our attention on London.

There is no doubt that London is one of the world’s great hubs for technology and commerce. And we don’t want to change that.

London-based companies receive billions of tech investment every year, almost twice as much as their European counterparts.

But we have a crucial opportunity to use technology to drive regional economies and help deliver prosperity right across the country.

I have been pleased to see that the report illustrates that over the last 12 years, we have seen a much greater distribution of investment all across the UK, rather than just in the capital.

It shows that although 36 per cent of tech investment is now in London, the East of England has seen a massive 206 per cent increase in capital investment over the past twelve years.

This means that many of our towns and cities have thriving tech ecosystems and are creating fast-growing businesses that are competing successfully with European capitals.

Sixty UK unicorns have now been created outside of London.

And in terms of unicorns, Manchester is neck and neck with Amsterdam, while Oxford and Cambridge combined are outperforming Berlin and Paris.

Last year, Tech City UK and Tech North evolved into Tech Nation.

This wasn’t just a rebranding but reflects the Government’s commitment to supporting tech pioneers wherever they are based.

And Tech Nation’s Enterprise Engagement Managers, who work alongside key digital partners in their host region, are a key part of our vision for future success.

This means rolling out the best physical infrastructure all across the UK, for example through unlocking the potential of full fibre and 5G.

And also through making sure we unlock the potential of our rural digital economies, through TechNation and also by using all the other levers that we have as a Government.

Conclusion

After this speech, I am taking the Eurostar to the VivaTech summit in Paris. So I am very grateful to you for hosting this event at Kings’ Cross…

That summit brings together leaders from the tech sector, civil society and Government to discuss how to get the best from new technologies.

And I will be taking this report with me.

What better way to show that we remain an innovative and outward looking nation, open to new ideas, investment and talent from all across the world.

This report tells a story of innovation and ingenuity.

And our challenge now is to write the next chapter.

Thank you very much.

Dear State Prosecutor Šoškić, Honoured Judges and Prosecutors, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,

It is my pleasure to be with you here today.

The British Government is deeply committed to fighting corruption, both at home and abroad. To that end, we have convened the International Anticorruption Summit in 2016, which brought together countries, businesses and the civil society to strengthen efforts to expose corruption wherever it is found; to pursue and punish those who perpetrate, facilitate or are complicit in it; to support communities that have suffered from it; and to ensure it does not occur in our government institutions, businesses and communities.

Since 2010, the UK has arguably done more than any country in the world to fight corruption. We have a strong legislative framework through the Bribery Act and now the 2017 Criminal Finances Act. The Act gave law enforcement agencies additional powers to identify and recover corrupt and criminal funds. The Act also introduced unexplained wealth orders, which can be used to compel individuals to explain the sources of their wealth. The first such orders have been issued relating to assets of £22 million by December 2018.

We are the first G20 country to establish a public register of domestic company beneficial ownership. And we are the first G7 country to undergo an IMF fiscal transparency evaluation. In 2017 the OECD review of the UK’s anti-bribery regime welcomed the UK’s “strong anti-corruption drive” concluding that the UK had made significant progress in fighting foreign bribery. Transparency International has stated that the UK is one of only four countries worldwide that actively enforces foreign bribery legislation. It also ranks the UK in the top ten least corrupt countries in the world.

In the Western Balkans, ensuring compliance with and implementation of key standards and reforms required in the areas of rule of law, good governance, and human rights remains a pressing issue. This was recognised in the EU Enlargement Strategy for the Western Balkans, launched in February 2018, which indicated that a concrete and sustained track record in tackling corruption is a key benchmark for Western Balkan countries wishing to join the EU.

In the context of fight against corruption and organised crime, strong and independent institutions are instrumental to the prevention of corruption; and to conducting more effective investigations and prosecutions, leading to final court rulings that are fully enforced. Simultaneously, using dissuasive sanctions such as confiscation of assets, plays a key role in tackling corruption.

During the Western Balkans Summit in London in July 2018, the Prime Ministers and Ministers of Interior of the region reconfirmed their commitment to make the fight against corruption a top priority, building on an focus on tackling corruption in the Berlin Process, which began under the Western Balkans Summit in Trieste in 2017, and which will continue to the Poznan Summit in July 2019. Leaders recognised that national security threats were transnational and increasing in complexity, and reaffirmed their commitment to deepening regional cooperation and enhancing the collective response.

Today’s conference helps turn the intent of regional co-operation into reality, by further strengthening expertise amongst prosecutors and judges in the field of asset recovery, facilitating the exchange of good practices in this respect in the South East Europe, and strengthening the capacity of judicial training institutes to provide training at national level, with a focus on international and European legal standards and the European Court of Human Rights case-law in the field of asset recovery in order to support the implementation of the asset recovery measures in practice. Today’s conference is the first in the series of three such events.

And so I am delighted that the AIRE Centre and the Regional Anticorruption Initiative are using this conference to present a report which assesses the implementation of asset seizure and confiscation measures across the Western Balkans. This report confirms the findings of the EU progress reports, stating that that the biggest obstacle to effectively tackling corruption in the region is the lack of proper implementation of existing legal frameworks, including international obligations.

The report notes that final conviction rates remain low, particularly in high-level corruption cases, and powers to impose harsher penalties and to order asset recovery are not being used proactively. There is a need to further develop the effectiveness of asset confiscation and recovery systems in the region, based on international and European standards and minimum rules on the freezing assets with a view to possible subsequent confiscation.

Given that this region has broadly similar legal systems and encounters similar challenges, I am confident that a regional approach is beneficial, including exchanges of expertise, discussions of common challenges and opportunities to exchange best practice. This will help devise joint strategies, where feasible, to strengthen institutional capacity in each of the countries, and will foster links between those institutions that are central to fighting cross border criminal activities. Crime knows of no borders, so institutional cooperation between countries of the region in this area should be equally close.

The participation of Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Croatia in this project can only further strengthen and enrich this cooperation. And in particular I would note the support that Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia have given and continue to give Montenegro and the Western Balkans as part of the recent, current and future EU Presidencies.

Allow me to conclude by saying that the United Kingdom supports your efforts, that we offer to share our experience in fighting corruption, and that we remain committed to working with our partners in the Western Balkans and supporting these important reform processes.

I wish you all a successful meeting.

As the sun shone down on the Ilford Park Polish Home in Devon, residents made their way from the church service remembering those who bravely fought and lost their lives during the Battle of Monte Cassino. The memorial service marked the 75th anniversary of a battle that saw an estimated 48,000 Polish soldiers fighting as part of the Allied assault during the final stages between 17 January and 18 May 1944 on Italian soil during World War II.

The service, organised by the MOD’s Veterans UK, part of Defence Business Services, and The Royal British Legion, was held on Tuesday 14 May 2019 and was conducted by Father Jarek Kucharczyk in the Ilford Park Church situated within the home.

Veterans UK continues to deliver 24 hour care on behalf of the MOD and are honoured to help commemorate such a pivotal battle for the residents living at their home.

Three Polish residents who fought in the battle, Mr Zenon Slomka (96), Mr Waclaw Domagala (95) and Mr Jan Grzesik (93), attended the service alongside other Polish residents and their families.

Mr Zenon Slomka said:

It is important that we remember all those who lost their lives in the battle and throughout the war.

It was an excellent service.

Six standard bearers were part of the service proceedings whilst a bugler played the Last Post. Attended dignitaries included Deputy Lieutenant Robin Barlow, Lieutenant Colonel Andy Pierce, Councillor Ken Purchase, Mayor of Newton Abbot and local and county chairmen of the Royal British Legion. Colonel Norbert Czerbniak, Deputy Defence, Military, Naval and Air Attaché from the Embassy of Poland, also attended.

Clare Thomas, Manager at Ilford Park Polish Home and who is responsible for its day-to-day running, said:

We are privileged to have three veterans who live here who are decorated with the Medal of Monte Cassino and three widows as well. It is right and proper that we have a service to commemorate the 75th anniversary.

For those who were unable to return to their homeland, this small part of Devon, fondly known as ‘Little Poland’, provides a sanctuary and is the nearest that this special group of people will get to going home.

With victory secured by the Allies on 18 May 1944, the Battle of Monte Cassino, one of the toughest and bloodiest battles of World War II, takes a special place in Polish history. In April 1944, the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy numbered around 48,000 soldiers and was part of the British 8th Army.

Winning key German defensive positions and breaking the Hitler Line opened the way to Rome, which was taken over by the U.S. 5th Army on 4 June. The 2nd Polish Corps paid a very high price for its victory: 923 dead, 2,931 injured and 345 missing in action (of whom 251 were found). Considering the many battles fought around Cassino and including all the missing, wounded and captured, the battle lasting half a year claimed 200,000 casualties on both sides.

Ilford Park Polish Home provides residential and nursing care to former members of the Polish Forces under British command in World War II, and who were displaced from Poland following the war, or their spouses. The Home meets a wartime UK government promise made by Winston Churchill. It is the responsibility of the MOD’s Veterans UK to continue the promise of the former Prime Minister.

Rob Rowntree MBE, MOD’s Veterans UK said:

Veterans UK works hard to deliver services for all our veterans and we are proud of our efforts here in Devon to deliver Winston Churchill’s war time promise to the Polish people.

I’m pleased that today’s service has given our Polish residents the opportunity to celebrate their unique identity whilst also commemorating all those who gave their lives in this most pivotal and hard-fought battle of World War II.

Since it was opened in December 1992, the premises currently provides a home for 98 residents in the 81 bed residential care wing, the 14 bed nursing home and three independent bungalows. It is subject to unscheduled routine inspections and meets the standards required by the Care Quality Commission.