The majority of UK flights continue to be on time and without disruption. However, some passengers have faced significant disruption, which has also occurred in the aviation sector across Europe and globally. The outcome for too many consumers has been unacceptable.

I have made it clear to the sector that they need to operate services properly and according to schedule or provide swift, appropriate compensation.

I have already announced a one-off amnesty on airport slot rules, enabling airlines to plan ahead and avoid last-minute cancellations. I expect airlines to use this one-off amnesty now to ensure they are giving consumers certainty by offering schedules they can deliver.

By the end of the slot handback period, I expect airlines to be offering services they are confident of delivering, and I will continue to seek reassurances from them that this is the case.

We have been extensively engaging with industry at ministerial and official level since the beginning of the year. As part of this engagement the Aviation Minister established a weekly Strategic Risk Group. This brings together CEOs from airports, airlines and ground handlers to work through the issues ahead of the summer.

Today (30 June 2022), I am setting out all of the 22 measures the government is currently taking to support the aviation industry, including:

• to help recruit and train staff
• ensure the delivery of a realistic summer schedule
• minimise disruption
• support passengers when delays and cancellations are unavoidable.

The government recognises that these issues are primarily for industry to solve, but this series of targeted measures will support their efforts.

There have been calls for a seasonal worker scheme to allow EU workers to fill vacant roles in our aviation sector. But the government is clear that more immigration is not an obvious solution.

The aviation sector’s issues are not confined to the UK. Disruption is happening across the EU and in the USA due to staff shortages, and the government is committed to building a robust and dependable domestic aviation industry, launching the Aviation Skills Retention Platform to help develop and hold onto UK workers.

Similar schemes in other sectors experiencing shortages, such as the HGV sector, have not been widely used and have not significantly contributed towards a solution. Building a resilient, well-paid British workforce will prove a far more effective, sustainable and long-term solution.

The government has taken action to support the industry, now the sector itself needs to take the appropriate steps to ensuring they deliver realistic summer schedules, work together as an ecosystem, and put the consumer first.

Thank you President.

I join others in thanking USG Rosemary DiCarlo for her briefing. We welcome the Secretary General’s thirteenth report on the implementation of resolution 2231 and thank the UN Secretariat for their continued professionalism and support.

Thanks also to Ambassador Byrne-Nason and His Excellency Olaf Skoog for their briefings and again to Ambassador Byrne-Nason for her, and her team’s work, as 2231 Facilitator.

It is important that we are clear: Iran’s nuclear programme has never been more advanced than it is today and Iran’s nuclear escalation is a threat to international peace and security.

Iran has continued to improve its enrichment capabilities through developing, installing and using new advanced centrifuges; it has continued its rapid accumulation of uranium enriched up to 20% and highly enriched uranium up to 60%; and has continued to curtail IAEA monitoring, most recently switching off twenty-seven monitoring cameras from 8 June. Iran has also been producing uranium metal, which provides weapons-applicable knowledge.

At the current enrichment rate, by the end of this year, Iran is likely to have enough enriched material to rapidly produce HEU at 90% enrichment for several nuclear devices. Iran also continues to develop ballistic missiles in a way that is inconsistent with Annex B of resolution 2231.

Iran’s nuclear escalation is undermining international peace and security and the global non-proliferation system and is in clear violation of resolution 2231.

President, there has been a deal on the table since March, following a year of intensive negotiations. At that point, there was a viable deal, which would return Iran to compliance with its commitments and the US to the deal – reversing Iran’s nuclear escalation and lifting US sanctions related to the JCPoA.

However, Iran is refusing to take the opportunity, while making demands beyond the scope of the JCPoA. Iran should urgently take this deal. There will not be a better one and if a deal is not struck then Iran’s nuclear escalation will cause the JCPoA to collapse. In that scenario, it will be incumbent on this Council to take decisive steps to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.

Six Commonwealth soldiers and a German soldier who all died during World War One were buried earlier today (Thursday 30 June 2022) in a joint ceremony with the Canadian authorities more than a century after their deaths. The service, which was the largest of its kind this year, was organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (MOD JCCC), also known as the ‘MOD War Detectives’, and was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) New Irish Farm cemetery in Ypres, Belgium.

The remains were previously recovered from two distinct sites close to one another near the village of St Julien during a planned archaeological dig. One set contained a casualty of the Newfoundland Regiment, a Royal Inniskilling Fusilier, a Hampshire soldier and an unknown soldier of an unknown regiment. The Canadian authorities have managed (through DNA) to name their soldier as Private John Lambert (Newfoundland Regiment) who died on 16 August 1917. Sadly, both the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the Royal Hampshire Regiment have too many casualties killed on 16 August 1917 for the JCCC to be able to attempt identification.

The second set contained the remains of three casualties: an unknown Royal Fusilier, an unknown soldier of unknown regiment and an unknown German soldier. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to establish their date of death.

Louise Dorr, MOD JCCC Caseworker said:

This has been a long and challenging investigation for us. It’s a matter of great sadness to me personally, that we haven’t been able to identify any of the British soldiers or the German casualty. Whoever they were, they were somebody’s son, brother, husband or father. It’s especially poignant that we are burying old enemies together. They all paid the ultimate price of war, and their sacrifice must never be forgotten.

The British bearer party was provided by the First Fusiliers whilst the musicians were from the Royal Irish Regiment. The firing party was provided by the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment. These three regiments are the modern-day equivalents of the Royal Fusiliers, the Royal Hampshire Regiment and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

Louise added:

The soldiers taking part in today’s service can see they walk in the footsteps of the giants who went before them.

The service was conducted jointly by the Reverend Gary Watt, Chaplain to the First Fusiliers and Father Shawn Daley of the Canadian Army.

The graves will now be marked by seven headstones provided by the CWGC.

Liz Woodfield, Director of External Relations at the CWGC, said:

Today these men have been buried at our cemetery alongside their comrades, with respect and dignity. We are honoured to be able to formally recognise Private John Lambert, and although it has not been possible to identify the other casualties, we pay tribute to the ultimate sacrifice they have made. We will ensure the graves of these brave soldiers are cared for with dedication, in perpetuity.

The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has launched the Seabed Mapping App as part of its Seabed Mapping Services, available via the ADMIRALTY Marine Data Portal.

The ADMIRALTY Marine Data Portal is the UKHO’s portal for wide-ranging data sets from seabed to surface. This includes bathymetry and seabed profiles, seabed geology and seabed samples and pipelines, cables and subsea infrastructure – gathered through close collaboration with expert providers, government organisation, hydrographic offices and other partners around the world. To enable marine environmental data sets to be more available and accessible for users, for more useful marine decision-making and to support safe, secure and thriving oceans.

Two years ago the UKHO launched a Beta version of the app, as part of an iterative approach, UKHO experts have been working closely with various user groups – academia, government and commercial companies – to gather their feedback and continually test and improve the service. The service supports the GEBCO Seabed 2030 project and the launch of upcoming UKHO-led projects in this space.

The UKHO is a member of the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN), a partnership of UK organisations committed to improving access to UK marine data. The new Seabed Mapping App, provides access to extensive UK bathymetry holdings held within our Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) accredited National Data Archive, and download bathymetry data which is freely available under the UKHO Bathymetry Data Licence (similar to an Open Government Licence or OGL).

Guided by feedback from different user groups, the new Seabed Mapping App includes improvements to the interface of the app and added new services, including a web map tile which provides context and helps users identify the data sets they want to download. By providing a visual backdrop and elevating the Digital Elevation Model of the seabed, this helps users to gain a better understanding of the available surveys.

To support a more seamless user journey the Seabed Mapping App has also seen the addition of new filtering tools following different criteria – such as the survey capturing date and data resolution – resulting in a much quicker narrowing down of users’ data set search and a more streamlined download. Additionally, we have conducted substantial work across our 6000 data sets of cleansing the data, standardising the content, improving the titles, abstracts, and the metadata content, supporting the rollout of the latest MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard. This metadata standard is a marine profile of the UK Government Standard GEMINI2 and complies with other international conventions such as INSPIRE and ISO19115. More information on this can be found on the MEDIN website.

The new Seabed Mapping Service has developed to become a fully fit for purpose, 21st century digital data archive, ensuring it fulfils user needs, and enables marine academia, public and private sector communities to access cleansed bathymetry data sets for decision-making affecting the marine environment.