Home Secretary Sajid Javid has today (28 January 2019) set out provisions for EU citizens coming to the UK after EU exit in the event of a no deal.

If Britain leaves the EU without agreeing a deal, the government will seek to end free movement as soon as possible and has introduced an Immigration Bill to achieve this. For a transitional period only, EEA citizens and their family members, including Swiss citizens, will still be able to come to the UK for visits, work or study and they will be able to enter the UK as they do now.

However, to stay longer than 3 months they will need to apply for permission and receive European Temporary Leave to Remain, which is valid for a further 3 years.

EU citizens wishing to stay for longer than 3 years will need to make a further application under the new skills-based future immigration system, which will begin from 2021.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

If we leave the EU without a deal we will continue to deliver on the referendum result and end free movement once and for all – giving us full control of our borders for the first time in decades.

However, we need to take a practical approach and minimise disruption to ensure the UK stays open for business. That is why we will introduce time-limited transitional arrangements and grant EU citizens coming after March 29 temporary leave.

Let me be clear. This policy does not apply to those here before exit day, whose rights to live and work will be protected by the EU Settlement Scheme. We want them to stay and value them hugely.

The information set out today also confirms that if there is no deal:

• EU citizens arriving in the UK who wish to stay longer than 3 months and apply for European Temporary Leave to Remain will be subject to identity, criminality and security checks before being granted permission to stay for three years
• non-EU family members who wish to accompany an EU citizen under these arrangements will need to apply in advance for a family permit
• EU citizens will be able to enter and leave the UK as they do now, using e-gates when travelling on a biometric passport
• the initial 3 months’ leave to enter for EU citizens will be free of charge but applications for European Temporary Leave to Remain will be paid for. Fees will be set out at a later date
• Irish citizens will not need to apply for European Temporary Leave to Remain and will continue to have the right to enter and live in the UK under the Common Travel Area

The Home Secretary has set out plans for a new single skills-based immigration system which will operate from 2021. It will enable employers to attract the skills they need from around the world, while ensuring net migration is reduced to sustainable levels.

Local authorities across England will receive a share of £56.5 million to help support their preparations for Brexit, ministers announced today (28 January 2019).

The Treasury announced in December that MHCLG would receive £35 million to prepare for Brexit. MHCLG has now added an extra £21.5 million funding using finance from its 2018 to 2019 budget.

Councils will receive £20 million this financial year (2018 to 2019) and £20 million in 2019 to 2020 to spend on planning and strengthening their resources.

A further £10 million will be available in the next financial year (2019 to 2020). This funding is intended to help local authorities with specific costs which may arise following Brexit.

£1.5 million will be allocated in 2018 to 2019 only to local authorities facing immediate impacts from local ports, with the decision on the allocation and distribution of that funding to be announced shortly.

A further £5 million will be split by teams in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, local authorities, and Local Resilience Forums for specific purposes such as strengthening preparations and supporting communities.

The funding will help councils to adapt to the changes caused by Brexit, ensuring their local authority is prepared ahead of 29 March, whilst also protecting vital local services.

Councils will decide how to allocate their funding. It is expected that money will be spent on resources like recruiting extra staff to ensure councils have the capacity to provide timely and accurate information to residents who have questions on how Brexit will affect them.

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, said:

Local authorities have a critical role to play in making a success of Brexit in their areas.

I’m determined to ensure councils have the resources they need, which is why I’m releasing £56.5 million of extra finance to help them to deliver essential services and keep residents well-informed.

I will continue to work closely with local leaders to ensure they are prepared to respond to any Brexit scenario.

This funding will not be the only resource councils receive from central government to fund Brexit costs. The government has been clear that departments will assess and, if appropriate, fund any potential new requirements of councils as part of EU Exit work they are undertaking.

The Secretary of State will also continue to engage with the sector through the EU Exit Local Government Delivery Board and regular communications with stakeholders across the sector.

This announcement applies to local authorities in England.

As a share of the £40 million allocated to local authorities across the financial years 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020, all unitary councils will receive £210,000 and combine authorities will receive £182,000. County councils will receive £175,000 each and all district councils will receive £35,000.

The EU Exit Local Government Delivery Board, chaired by the Communities Secretary, has been set-up so council leaders can talk to ministers about domestic Brexit preparations. The Board has met 4 times including on 24 January 2019 and is now meeting monthly.

The government is in regular contact with councils about Brexit preparedness and is working closely with organisations like the Local Government Association to share information.

The Secretary of State’s Written Ministerial Statement has been published.

Good afternoon

It was a pleasure to accept the Bio Industry Association’s invitation to attend your conference and to help launch the BIA’s financial report, which emphasises the strong position in which we begin 2019.

The UK life sciences sector attracted an extraordinary £2.2bn investment in the past year…

…as with inward investment more broadly, this places us behind only the US and China in the world league tables.

This country has long been the home of discovery.

The academy where the likes of Crick, Darwin and Dorothy Hodgkin brought light into the darkest corners of human understanding.

The lab where the first vaccines and beta blockers were developed.

And the foundation for leading companies like AstraZeneca, GSK and Shire.

Our extraordinary innovators and entrepreneurs continue to make Britain a world-leading force.

Whether it’s potential new treatments for Alzheimer’s or fresh approaches to cell therapy.

We’re home to four of the top ten medical sciences faculties in the world and some of the world’s largest research institutes.

17 of the 24 best research universities in the country are outside of the ‘Golden Triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge.

And the brilliant minds are cited in publications more frequently than any other except the USA.

We are leading the world in new fields such as genomics and artificial intelligence.

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In the weeks ahead, we in Government, Parliament and individuals will, I hope, take critical decisions, to provide businesses with greater certainty and begin to chart the course ahead for our economy and country. But our success will not be defined by those decisions, but by our ability to support and harness the energy and entrepreneurship of sectors like yours. No one could attend a conference such as this or read your association’s report and not be optimistic about the future of the country.

In 2016 there were over 660,000 UK start-ups, while in 2018 £1.8bn in venture funding and public listings was raised for British tech firms.

Our country has the highest number of Biotech start-ups in Europe

And has seen the success of many incredible businesses including the hugely impressive University College London spin-out Autolus…

that has recently raised over £120m on the American stock-market to support its potentially life-changing research developing T-cell cancer therapies….

….the world-leading second-generation gene sequencing firm, Solexa, that began over a pint between Cambridge University researchers…

And Purolite, who opened their new advanced bioprocessing factory in South Wales last October to fulfil rising global demand.

Great ideas, developed in the UK and brought to life by British entrepreneurs, sometimes struggle to access the finance and talent they need to make it big.

Part of the solution is to deepen the relationship between British universities and business.

One of our Government’s key responsibilities is to facilitate the flow of capital, skills and knowledge between research institutions and the economy.

Without picking winners, or exerting too much control, the role of Government should be to help reconnect British universities with the market.

In some places this is already happening…

You need only look at the growth of major new companies out of biotech hubs around the Universities of Bristol to see the potential for such partnerships.

The growth of Ziylo Ltd., a company that targets new treatments for diabetes, out of the university to a firm now valued at more than £640 million is a great example of this.

Areas like the Science parks at Oxford and Cambridge are incredible market places for the best research to meet the businesses that fund hypotheses into reality.

But, we must do more…

In the coming months, the Treasury will announce a new competition that will encourage Universities across the country to reach out to local entrepreneurs…

We will offer incentives for the creation of a new generation of university enterprise zones that will open up great research to forward-looking British businesses…

Our infrastructure investment plan for the Oxford Cambridge Arc, will provide fast East-West road and rail connections between these two hubs of technical research.

And this will facilitate the faster movement of ideas, people and capital across an increasingly interlinked community of tech businesses and clusters.

The £20 million invested in this project in last year’s Budget alone, stands for the creation of an ecosystem of exchange that will empower entrepreneurs to harness the skills of both institutions- and the communities that lie between.

Through better links between our universities and stronger ties between academics and the market, we will build an environment for the tech industry that can rival, or even surpass, those of Boston Massachusetts and Silicon Valley in the United States.

We will shortly announce a business champion for this initiative, who will work with me and the government to elevate the opportunity and attract global investment.

I also want universities and charities to consider how they manage intellectual property, ensuring a free flow of ideas and productive interaction with entrepreneurs and businesses to ensure it is used to the greatest effect.

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We need to give British and international entrepreneurs who chose to do business here the finance and tax incentives to take risks and build businesses here.

It is for this reason that we have established the British Business Bank to provide a new £2.5 billion programme of long term investments in high growth potential companies led by ambitious new leaders.

UK biotech companies raised more than £1.5bn of investment in the first eight months of 2018, surpassing the £1.2bn total in 2017

but I know that we can do much more.

We have pledged to remove regulatory barriers to investment in the industry and other illiquid assets by UK-based pension funds- to unlock some of the £1tn that may be managed by our defined contribution schemes.

Our consultations with the Financial Conduct Authorities will seek to streamline the flow of capital from the City of London to innovative tech business. The onus is on pension trustees and managers to be part of the future and I suspect they will need to be, as millennial investors, saving through auto-enrolment will demand their pensions are invested in part at least in innovative industries. And technology will transform transparency so those investors can check at the touch of an App on their smart phone where their money is invested.

Last December’s Industrial Strategy Second Sector Deal for the Life Sciences sketched a path towards a much faster flow of private sector money into research.

And laid down further plans to secure a global lead in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases.   The Deal sets out a further £1.2bn of new investment from industry, including a major £1bn commitment from UCB to invest in one of their two global R&D hubs in the UK.

It also includes a commitment to sequence 1 million whole genomes in the UK within the next 5 years – a world first that will truly make the UK the home of genomic healthcare.

And enable the development of tools to speed up the accurate detection and diagnosis of disease.

This Government aims to see public and private R&D investment reach 2.4 percent of GDP by 2027 We have strong equity markets and a maturing VC industry, but we recognised there is more to do, not just to maintain our competitive position in Europe, but to challenge the US.

Fewer UK firms receive follow-on funding than their US counterparts, and those that do receive less. Over the past 15 years, UK firms were half as likely to float as firms in the US or Europe.

And only one quoted UK incorporated firm in the Life Sciences industry has grown beyond a £5 billion market capitalisation since 1999.

In response, we have launched a plan to unlock over £20 billion of funding to finance growth in innovative firms. We are setting up a new investment fund within the British Business Bank with a £2.5 billion government investment.

Underneath all this, we are creating an environment that encourages further investment…

By keeping corporation tax low, and extending tax reliefs for knowledge intensive firms.

Since coming to office in 2010 we have introduced the Patent Box, extended R&D tax credits, maintained SEIS, EIS and Entrepreneurs Relief as well as reducing Corporation Tax to 19% and now we have legislated to reduce it to 17%.

Together these incentives for innovation and enterprise are world class and we intend to keep it that way.

Maintaining that competitive tax and regulatory position will be more important than ever as we leave the European Union.

Since the outcome of the referendum I have believed, that Brexit must be taken as an opportunity…

Our departure from the European Union may in time offer the opportunity to draft a regulatory environment that more closely matches the demands of twenty-first century technology. We can be faster and smarter at regulating new industries than our European partners.

Where European legislation has at times proved cautious or even hostile to research that investigates GM crops, AI development, and automation- I hope Britain can build a renewed system that understands risk and innovation. While the British Business Bank’s commitment of up to £200 million of additional investment in UK venture capital and growth finance in 2019-20 will tie over businesses in the short term, we will shortly be opening a review of longer term options to finance infrastructure and new technologies as we leave the EIB and EIF. Once again, I believe there are opportunities to deliver a comparable offer, faster and more tailored to the needs of the UK market.

And a new immigration system that will not discriminate against talent from all over the world will bring new ideas to growth industries.

Your industry requires access to highly skilled, highly motivated people from Europe and for beyond. We want our country to be open to the best and the brightest from all over the world.

NHS

My colleague the Health Minister Matt Hancock is passionate about the benefit this new technology could bring to the NHS.

He wants us to think of the world’s biggest health institution not as a barrier to innovation.

But as a leader in it.

The £20 billion we committed at the last budget to the NHS can be mobilised to reward the uptake of technology and innovation by those that need it most.

In the NHS, we have one of the greatest databases for research,

one of the strongest fields for life sciences innovation,

and one of the most obvious beneficiaries of improved technology.

The faster we can integrate biotech businesses with this service,

the greater the benefits of new technology will be felt by all.

Let me conclude on that point while we discuss new companies, technology, and investment…

…the greatest beneficiaries of all of this change will be the public.

Like almost no other, your industry is special because its benefits so clearly feed back to the communities it arises in.

Your innovations literally save lives.

And I know, that with the right incentives, Britain has a lot to gain.

Two men have been fined hundreds of pounds for fishing illegally at a County Durham pond.

In separate incidents Lee Watson, 33, of East Street in Grange Villa, Chester-le-Street, and David Bilverstone, 25, of Northlands, Chester-le-Street, were both charged with fishing without a licence and failing to give their addresses to an Environment Agency officer.

Both had their cases proved in absence at Hull Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 22 January. They were both ordered to pay £697.47 in fines and costs.

Environment Agency Fisheries Enforcement Officers were on patrol at Ouston Springs Pond, Chester-le-Street, checking the rod licences of anglers on 9 August 2018 as part of routine patrols. The two men were not at the pond together.

Buy a fishing licence

The Environment Agency is reminding anglers of the importance of having a fishing licence. David Shears, Senior Fisheries Enforcement Officer for the Environment Agency in the North East, said:

The majority of anglers fish legally and buy a rod licence. Those that don’t are cheating their fellow anglers and endangering the future of the sport.

In addition, those that flout the law risk a criminal conviction, a fine, and could lose their fishing equipment. It’s just not worth it.

The Environment Agency carries out enforcement work all year round and is supported by partners including the police and Angling Trust. Fisheries enforcement work is intelligence-led, targeting known hot-spots and where illegal fishing is reported.

All income from rod licence sales is used to fund Environment Agency work to protect and improve fish stocks and fisheries, including improving habitats for fish and facilities for anglers, tackling illegal fishing and working with partners to encourage people to give fishing a go.

Published 28 January 2019