Leaving the EU with a deal remains the government’s top priority. This has not changed.

However, a responsible government must plan for every eventuality, including a no deal scenario.

In December, Cabinet agreed to proceed with the government’s next phase of no deal planning. This means we are setting in motion our remaining no deal plans.

Both the EU and the UK have been clear that they are committed to maintaining air services in any scenario. Aviation links are a key priority for the Department for Transport. The UK has the third largest aviation network in the world, and the biggest in Europe. Air travel is vital for both the UK and the EU in connecting people and businesses, facilitating tourism and trade. The UK and EU have a mutual interest in maintaining well-functioning aviation markets.

The government has made preparations to deliver continuity of air services between the UK and the EU in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement. We set out in our technical notices in September 2018 that the UK would take a pragmatic approach to any no deal scenario, and provide EU airlines with permission to operate. We expected EU countries to reciprocate and provide permissions to UK airlines.

Following this, the European Commission proposed a regulation to ensure air connectivity in the event that the UK leaves without a withdrawal agreement. A final version of the draft regulation has been provisionally agreed by the EU. This is expected to be confirmed by the Council and the European Parliament shortly.

The provisionally agreed EU regulation is intended to apply after the UK leaves the EU, and would entitle UK airlines to continue operating air services from the UK to the EU until March 2020.

Accordingly, I am today publishing a policy statement to set out how the UK intends to provide the necessary permissions to member state airlines in order for them to operate to the UK. We have made all decisions in relation to how the UK will reciprocate based on 3 key principles.

First, we want to provide certainty and reassurance to industry and consumers.

Second, we want to minimise the potential for disruption.

Finally, we want to maintain a level playing field for UK industry, ahead of future negotiations.

Full details on how the UK will reciprocate are set out in the policy statement. In short, for the 12 month duration of the EU regulation, the UK intends to reciprocate the rights provided in the EU’s regulation, and grant EU air carriers a level of access to the UK at least equivalent to the rights that would be granted to UK airlines under the regulation. This includes traffic rights, ownership and control, leasing of aircraft, cooperative marketing arrangements and fair competition.

As an exceptional measure to ensure the continuity of regional services and to minimise disruption, we will for a short period go further and allow member state airlines to operate wholly within the UK for the IATA summer season 2019, which ends on 27 October 2019, ensuring continued regional connectivity and providing time for EU businesses to adjust to new arrangements. We will also allow code sharing on existing services to continue.

While continuing to plan for all eventualities, we also believe that it is right to underline the fact that the UK is taking a positive and pragmatic approach. Overall, we continue to believe that liberal, reciprocal market access is in the best interest of the EU countries and the UK, and we will move swiftly to propose negotiations on this basis in the event that the UK leaves without a withdrawal agreement.

The company is committed to helping improve the nation’s air quality, and aims to ensure 95% of its motorways and major A roads are within 20 miles of a charge point.

As part of this commitment the company has awarded a contract worth a total £2.8 million, which will see more than 50 electric vehicle charging points being installed across the country within the next nine months.

Highways England’s Mark Collins, Environmental Designated Fund (Carbon) Portfolio Manager and Project Lead, said:

To help improve air quality and reduce carbon emissions we’re introducing more electric charging points, at locations near to the network, for example at nearby town centres. This shows that we are looking ahead to meet the future demand for this facility.

This contract is about supporting drivers of electric vehicles using our network. It will give them additional charging facilities just off England’s motorways and major A roads to help them make longer journeys and reduce the anxiety of potentially running out of power. We look forward to the benefits this will provide drivers on our roads.

Roads Minister Jesse Norman MP said:

The Government wants the UK to be the best place in the world to own an electric vehicle, leading the way to a zero emission future.

Installing extra vehicle charging points along or nearby our motorways and main roads will help more businesses and people to make longer, cleaner and greener journeys in their electric vehicles.

The contract has been awarded to BP Chargemaster to carry out work in the north of the country and Swarco UK Ltd in the south.

It includes initial installation and commissioning of facilities followed by ongoing operation and maintenance for the seven-year period of the contract.

David Martell, Chief Executive of BP Chargemaster, said:

Access to convenient, fast and reliable charging points across the UK will help enable the mass adoption of electric vehicles. We have been focused on creating such infrastructure over the past 10 years and are very proud to be working with Highways England to expand the provision of rapid charging points so that an even greater number of drivers can make the switch to electric.

Justin Meyer, General Manager at SWARCO eVolt, added:

We are delighted to have been selected by Highways England for this project to expand the national network of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, it is testament to the range and reliability of our systems and our strong support network across the UK.

The work being carried out under this contract is in addition to electric charging points being installed as part of Highways England’s collaboration with local authorities during this road investment period (2015 to 2021).

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

The agreement with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) covers radioactive waste management, decommissioning and environmental restoration.

NDA Strategy Director Adrian Simper and AECL President Richard Sextion added their signatures to the document at an event, attended by NDA Chief Executive David Peattie, during the 45th Waste Management conference in Phoenix, US.

Almost 2,500 visitors from 25 countries took part in this year’s annual conference , which saw a strong presence from UK suppliers.

David joined representatives from Sweden and Switzerland on a panel discussion focused on a range decommissioning issues, while Adrian gave an overview of the progress at Sellafield, now an NDA subsidiary, and expectations for the future .

Adrian also took part in a session on Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi and the UK’s involvement with the clean-up. In particular, he highlighted UKs technology that is being deployed at the damaged plant.

NDA also met with American counterparts to discuss areas of common interest in a follow-up to the UK visit by Anne White, Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management at the Department of Environment. These areas included sludge retrieval for which there was a special session held at the conference with contribution from the US and UK.

AECL, DOE and NDA also held a joint meeting to discuss areas of mutual interest including in-situ decommissioning, near-surface disposal and ageing infrastructure management.

David Peattie, Anne White and Richard Sexton agreed it would be beneficial for the 3 organisations to work collaboratively in these areas , focusing initially on in-situ decommissioning.

• Industry to invest £250 million including new Offshore Wind Growth Partnership to develop the UK supply chain as global exports are set to increase fivefold to £2.6 billion by 2030
• a third of British electricity set to be produced by offshore wind power by 2030
• part of the government’s ambition to make the UK a global leader in renewables with more investment potential than any other country in the world as part of the modern Industrial Strategy

Clean, green offshore wind is set to power more than 30% of British electricity by 2030, Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry announced today (7 March 2018) with the launch of the new joint government-industry Offshore Wind Sector Deal.

This deal will mean for the first time in UK history there will be more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels, with 70% of British electricity predicted to be from low carbon sources by 2030 and over £40 billion of infrastructure investment in the UK.

This is the tenth Sector Deal from the modern Industrial Strategy signed by Business Secretary Greg Clark. It is backed by UK renewables companies and marks a revolution in the offshore wind industry, which 20 years ago was only in its infancy. It could see the number of jobs triple to 27,000 by 2030.

The deal will also:

• increase the sector target for the amount of UK content in homegrown offshore wind projects to 60%, making sure that the £557 million pledged by the government in July 2018 for further clean power auctions over the next ten years will directly benefit local communities from Wick to the Isle of Wight

• spearhead a new £250 million Offshore Wind Growth Partnership to make sure UK companies in areas like the North East, East Anglia, Humber and the Solent and continue to be competitive and are leaders internationally in the next generation of offshore wind innovations in areas such as robotics, advanced manufacturing, new materials, floating wind and larger turbines

• boost global exports to areas like Europe, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States fivefold to £2.6 billion per year by 2030 through partnership between the Department of Trade and industry to support smaller supply chain companies to export for the first time

• reduce the cost of projects in the 2020s and overall system costs, so projects commissioning in 2030 will cost consumers less as we move towards a subsidy free world

• see Crown Estate & Crown Estate Scotland release new seabed land from 2019 for new offshore wind developments

• UK government alongside the deal will provide over £4 million pounds for British business to share expertise globally and open new markets for UK industry through a technical assistance programme to help countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines skip dirty coal power and develop their own offshore wind projects

Claire Perry, Energy & Clean Growth Minister said:

This new Sector Deal will drive a surge in the clean, green offshore wind revolution that is powering homes and businesses across the UK, bringing investment into coastal communities and ensuring we maintain our position as global leaders in this growing sector.

By 2030 a third of our electricity will come from offshore wind, generating thousands of high-quality jobs across the UK, a strong UK supply chain and a fivefold increase in exports. This is our modern Industrial Strategy in action.

The Co-Chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council and Ørsted UK Country Manager for Offshore, Benj Sykes, said:

Now that we’ve sealed this transformative deal with our partners in government, as a key part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy, offshore wind is set to take its place at the heart of our low-carbon, affordable and reliable electricity system of the future.

This relentlessly innovative sector is revitalising parts of the country which have never seen opportunities like this for years, especially coastal communities from Wick in the northern Scotland to the Isle of Wight, and from Barrow-in-Furness to the Humber. Companies are burgeoning in clusters, creating new centres of excellence in this clean growth boom. The Sector Deal will ensure that even more of these companies win work not only on here, but around the world in a global offshore wind market set to be worth £30 billion a year by 2030.

Keith Anderson, ScottishPower Chief Executive, said:

ScottishPower is proof that offshore wind works, we’ve worked tirelessly to bring down costs and, having transitioned to 100% renewable energy, will be building more windfarms to help the UK shift to a clearer electric economy. Two of our offshore windfarms in the East Anglia will replace all of the old thermal generation we’ve sold and we are ready to invest more by actively pursuing future offshore projects both north and south of the border.

We have a fantastic supply chain already in place in the UK, from businesses in and around East Anglia to across England, across Scotland as well as Northern Ireland. The Sector Deal will attract even more businesses in the UK to join the offshore wind supply chain and we are excited to see the transformative impact this will have on our projects.

In addition, the deal will:

• challenge the sector to more than double the number of women entering the industry to at least 33% by 2030, with the ambition of reaching 40% – up from 16% today
• create an Offshore Energy Passport, recognised outside of the UK, will be developed for offshore wind workers to transfer their skills and expertise to other offshore renewable and oil and gas industries – allowing employees to work seamlessly across different offshore sectors
• see further work with further education institutions to develop a sector-wide curriculum to deliver a skilled and diverse workforce across the country and facilitate skills transfer within the industry
• prompt new targets for increasing the number of apprentices in the sector later this year

The cost of new offshore wind contracts has already outstripped projections and fallen by over 50% over the last two years, and today’s further investment will boost this trajectory, with offshore wind projects expected to be cheaper to build than fossil fuel plants by 2020. The Deal will see UK continuing as the largest European market for offshore wind, with 30GW of clean wind power being built by 2030 – the UK making up a fifth of global wind capacity.

The UK is already home to the world’s largest offshore wind farm, Walney Extension off the Cumbrian Coast, and construction is well underway on projects nearly double the size. Around 7,200 jobs have been created in this growing industry over the last 20 years, with a welcome surge in opportunities in everything from sea bedrock testing to expert blade production.

The Deal will look to seize on the opportunities presented by the UK’s 7,000 miles of coastline, as the industry continues to be a coastal catalyst for many of the UK’s former fishing villages and ports. Increased exports and strengthened supply chain networks will secure economic security for towns and cities across the UK.

The government has already invested in growing the offshore wind sector by:

• confirming that clean electricity auctions will be held in 2019 and every two years from then into the 2020s, signalling support worth up to £557 million for industry
• supporting Local Enterprise Partnerships such as the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership to invest in skills and business support to maximise opportunities in the offshore wind sector
• supporting local communities to create new regional clusters and build on their science and innovation strengths with the £115 million Strength in Places Fund to develop stronger local networks

Notes to Editors:

1. The UK’s technical assistance programme will allow British business to share expertise globally and open new markets for UK industry. The $5 million program is being initiated thanks to a $20 million grant to the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management and Assistance Program (ESMAP) from the UK, to help low- and middle-income countries implement environmentally sustainable energy solutions and transition away from fossil fuels.
2. Between 2015 and 2017 the price of offshore wind projects securing a contract for difference halved.
3. Today’s Deal represents a huge opportunity for the UK industry to benefit from this worldwide shift. The world market for offshore wind is predicted to grow by 17% each year up to 2030, from 22GW in 2018 to 154GW installed by 2030.
4. This Sector Deal is the tenth sector deal established under the modern Industrial Strategy with sector deals already established with the Life Sciences, Automotive, Construction and Nuclear sectors.
5. This Sector Deal follows 9 other partnerships between the government and industry on sector-specific issues can create significant opportunities to boost productivity, employment, innovation and skills.
6. The Industrial Strategy, Clean Growth Grand Challenge maximises the advantages for UK industry from the global shift to clean growth – by supporting UK businesses to lead the world in the development, manufacture and use of low carbon technologies, systems and services that cost less than high carbon alternatives.
7. The Contracts for Difference allocation round for less established technologies such as offshore wind will open by May 2019. The government will hold another allocation round in 2021 and auctions around every 2 years. Depending on the price achieved, these auctions will deliver between 1 to 2 gigawatts of offshore wind each year in the 2020s. The government will look at ways to manage the auctions to ensure smooth delivery of low carbon generation.
8. Offshore wind projects expected to be cheaper to build than fossil fuel plants by 2020. The International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA) says all renewable energy technologies should be competitive on price with fossil fuels by 2020. (Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2017).
9. The offshore wind industry has predicted 27,000 jobs by 2030.
10. Electricity produced from low carbon sources includes renewable energy such as offshore and onshore wind, solar, biomass and low carbon electricity produced from Nuclear Power.

Key themes of the deal:

This Sector Deal is built on the foundations of the Industrial Strategy – Ideas, People, Infrastructure, Business Environment and Places, and supports the vision to upgrade the UK’s infrastructure, creating better, high-paying jobs in communities right across the UK.

A new taskforce has been set up by Education Secretary Damian Hinds to support students to deal with the challenges that starting university can include to preserve their mental health.

On University Mental Health Day (7 March), Mr Hinds announced that the new taskforce will look at how students moving from sixth-form or college to university can be better supported in their crucial first year, building on the work already underway across the sector to improve support for student mental health.

It follows work by the Department for Education to identify four key areas of risk that can affect the mental health of people going to university. These are:

• Independent living – including things like managing finances, having realistic expectations of student life, as well as alcohol and drugs misuse.
• Independent learning – helping students to engage with their course, cope with their workload and develop their own learning style and skills.
• Healthy relationships – supporting students with the skills to make positive friendships and engage with diverse groups of people. Other risks can include abusive partners, relationship breakdowns and conflict with others.
• Wellbeing – including loneliness and vulnerability to isolation, social media pressures and ‘perfectionism’. Students may also not know how to access support for their wellbeing.

Members of the new taskforce – which will be known as the Education Transitions Network – will include leading sector groups such as UCAS, the National Union of Students, Student Minds, Universities UK, the Association of Colleges and the Office for Students.

The group will develop measures to help people make a smooth transition into higher education and help students maintain good mental health.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

Going to university should be a positive, life-changing experience. Understandably for many young people, the idea of leaving home and starting to live independently can be exciting but also daunting.

Juggling challenges like independent studying or managing finances can be hard enough, but with the added element being in a new place, surrounded by new people it can for some be overwhelming. We need to make sure students have the support they need to thrive at university and help these really be the best days of their life.

I’m delighted to have the expertise of the sector backing this vision and joining this taskforce. Our universities are world-leading in so many areas and I want them to be the best for mental health support too. Pinpointing these key areas which can affect student mental health is essential to the progress we must make to ensure every student can flourish in higher education.

Research shows that when people face a number of these challenges in student life at the same time it can be stressful and can lead to poor mental health.

The four areas all have the potential to be challenging for young people as they go through substantial change in their lives. The group may look at other areas which can affect student mental health as part of future work, such as challenges students face when moving from education to the world of work.

The Education Transitions Network, includes the Association of Colleges and Sixth Form Colleges Association to ensure schools and colleges play a vital role in preparing students for the new difficulties they can face when they start university.

Rosie Tressler, CEO of Student Minds, said:

We often hear from students and in our research that times of transition can significantly impact student wellbeing throughout their university experience. We therefore welcome the work of the Education Transitions Network, in enabling further collaborations in this space.

On University Mental Health Day, and all year round, we need to ensure that student mental health is a strategic priority at our Universities and for health providers. Together, we can use our voices to improve the futures of millions of people.

Professor Steve West, Vice-Chancellor of UWE Bristol, said:

Universities welcome the Secretary of State’s focus on student mental health. It is very much aligned with our core mission to enable students and staff to thrive by ensuring that mental health and wellbeing is a core part of all universities’ activities. Universities UK continues to play a leading role in setting out an ambitious vision for the sector and in convening a whole-system response to achieve change.

Across the UK, we are seeing an increase in the number of young adults disclosing mental illness and this is reflected at universities. So we welcome and will play an active role, alongside schools and colleges, in the government’s work on helping young people make the transition into higher education.

Universities, colleges and schools all see mental health as a priority but we cannot address these challenges alone. We are committed to working in close partnership with the NHS, locally and nationally, to improve services for students. It is essential that any future funding regime does not undermine this work to support students and staff to realise their potential.

The network will firstly look at ‘what works’ to help students handle the challenges of moving into higher education and spread good practice from examples of initiatives, such as the University of Huddersfield’s award-winning Flying Start inductions and the University of Portsmouth’s Welcome Ambassadors project, Student Minds’ Transitions and Know Before You Go, as well as measures developed through the Office for Students’ Challenge Competition projects.

Universities Minister Chris Skidmore met with students and staff at Kings College London yesterday to discuss the challenges students can face when they transition to university. This included charities, sector bodies and health experts joining a discussion about how universities can work better with the NHS to improve mental health support for students.

The ambition to create a network was first announced last year by former Universities Minister Sam Gyimah as part of a range of measures to improve student mental health support, including the development of a University Mental Health Charter, led by Student Minds, which will reward institutions that deliver improved student mental health outcomes.

In December, the Education Secretary wrote to the chair of an expert panel convened by Universities UK (UUK) to urge that it did all in its power to help higher education institutions do more to reach out to students’ emergency contacts when it is clear this is in the best interests of a student’s health.

Following this, Universities UK is currently leading a task group to explore how students’ families and friends can be better involved in mental health support and care while ensuring the confidentiality rights of students are fully respected.