Today (Wednesday 23 January) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox MP will begin a series of high-level meeting with trade ministers from across the world.

Over the next two days, Dr Fox will be meeting with trade ministers from South Korea, Hong Kong, Canada, Colombia and Israel among others, as the Government works to ensure continuity of trade for UK businesses trading with nations covered by existing EU trade agreements. This drive to get deals over the line in the run-up to Brexit follows significant progress made in finalising continuity trade agreements with Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland over the past few weeks.

In addition to trade talks, the International Trade Secretary will unveil Free Trade is GREAT branding, meet with top investors to attract further capital to the UK and host a round table with global CEOs in a demonstration of the UK’s commitment to the global rules-based system.

Dr Fox’s arrival in Davos comes as Deloitte launch a new report confirming the UK’s position as Europe’s leading destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) – attracting more FDI in the three years between 2015 and 2017 ($140.356bn) than Germany ($50.074bn) and France ($43.999bn) combined. Deloitte also ranked London as the world’s top city for investment, with more FDI coming to the capital than any other city in the world.

The trend set out in the Deloitte report is reaffirmed by new figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) showing foreign investment flows grew by more than £16bn between 2017 and 2018 (up 20% from £78.4bn to £94.7bn).

International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox MP said:

Davos is the perfect opportunity to show the world that Britain is open for business: outward looking, open to ideas and confident on the world stage. That’s why this week I will be meeting with my counterparts in key countries as we look to finalise continuity trade agreements to ensure our exporters do not face disruption as we prepare to leave to the EU.

The figures from Deloitte and UNCTAD are clear – investors trust in the fundamental strength of the UK’s economy because of our workforce, innovation, transparent regulatory system and efficient tax regime. We are a nation on the rise and, with my international economic department already working on our independent trade policy after Brexit, we will be able to place the UK firmly at the heart of the world’s fastest growing regions.

The week will also see telecoms provider BT confirm that it has been granted new domestic licenses to operate in China following significant dialogue between DIT and the Chinese government. This is a significant milestone for the company as it expands its operations in one of the world’s fastest-growing markets.

Teachers should not have to email outside of office hours and should instead embrace innovative technology such as AI to help to reduce their workload, the Education Secretary said in a speech today (Wednesday, 23 January).

Addressing more than 800 of the world’s leading tech companies and start-ups, as well as school representatives and international education ministers, at the Bett Show in London, Mr Hinds told teachers and school leaders to make smarter use of technology, both inside and outside of the classroom, to make sure that it does not add to teachers’ responsibilities.

The Education Secretary said that while education technology has the power to transform education, its growth in the classroom has created both opportunities and challenges.

He cited the example of email and the impact it has had on working lives.

Mr Hinds said:

More than half of teachers’ time is spent on non-teaching tasks, including planning, marking and admin, and that workload is one of the most common reasons for teachers leaving the profession.

Education is one of the few sectors where technology has been associated with an increase in workload rather than the reverse. And let’s think why.

Back when I was at school there was an annual parents evening and a report at the end of the year. May be a letter home if there was a school trip. That report still happens and so does the parents evening, but email has revolutionised parent, teacher communication. Email hasn’t replaced much; mostly it has just added.

I’m sure none of us now could imagine a life without email, but do we ever stop to think how much of our day is actually spent reading or replying to them?

In many or perhaps all occupations, email takes up a lot time. MPs have seen a step change in correspondence and contact through email. For many teachers the situation is even more intense, with a huge volume of emails from parents and their senior leadership team that they need to respond to outside of lesson time.

Many schools are already reviewing their school practices to reduce workload – and to those who haven’t already, I encourage them to look at what they can do to shift away from an email culture in, and into, school to free teachers up to spend more time in the classroom.

A shift away from the email culture, so often prevalent in schools, has been implemented successfully in St Edward’s secondary school in Dorset, which developed a communications policy and a clear email protocol after its head teacher realised that staff were spending far too much time sifting through and replying to unnecessary emails.

The school took steps to ban emails to an ‘all staff’ distribution list and started a short weekly bulletin – a simple solution which reduced email traffic considerably. The senior leadership team also set out expectations for when email should and shouldn’t be used, and how long staff should have to respond.

This example was included in the Workload Reduction Toolkit, a series of online resources released last year by the Department for Education to help school leaders take action to remove burdensome responsibilities, which has been viewed more than 192,000 times and downloaded more than 84,000 times since its release in July 2018.

Damian Hinds also cited Bolton College, which is using an artificial intelligence to reduce the hours teachers spend on administrative tasks:

At Bolton College, for instance, they have used IBM Watson, an artificial intelligence programme, to build a virtual clerk they call ‘Ada’.

Ada helps deliver personalised learning and assessment for 14,000 students [and] queries about attendance or curriculum content.

It has saved Bolton’s staff hours and hours of time they would have spent on admin either at college or in their own spare time.

This is showing tech at its most transformative and enabling.

Alongside these examples, the Department is supporting proposals in Ofsted’s new inspection framework that focus on reducing teacher workload, including considering staff workload as part of the leadership and management judgment, looking unfavourably on schools that implement burdensome data practices and refusing to look at internal assessment data.

In his speech, Mr Hinds outlined his plans to launch an EdTech strategy later this year to harness the power of technology in schools, strengthening the training teachers receive, reducing their workload, and unleashing young people’s potential – backed by a £10 million fund to support innovative uses of tech in schools and colleges across England.

This will build on the support provided through the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy for innovative, high-tech firms to start, scale and grow.

This investment will be supported by a group of schools and colleges selected to aid the development, piloting and evaluation of innovative technology – and the Education Secretary will use the speech to call on the education sector to work together to make the most of the benefits that technology offers.

The UK Government has issued guidance to businesses that use chemicals on the actions they should take now to minimise any disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

If the UK leaves the EU on 29 March without a deal, UK businesses that manufacture or import chemicals from the EU will have to register those chemicals to a new UK regulatory system. UK REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) will replace EU REACH and will require businesses to demonstrate how a chemical can be safely used with minimal risk to human health or the environment.

The chemicals sector is the UK’s second biggest manufacturing industry and UK businesses currently hold over 12,000 registrations with REACH. A ‘no deal’ would mean that a range of other key sectors would also be required to register any imported chemicals they use on UK REACH. This would include the motor manufacturing, cosmetics, construction and cleaning products industries.

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said:

Delivering a negotiated deal with the EU remains the Government’s top priority, but it is the job of a responsible Government to ensure we are prepared for all scenarios, including no deal.

It is not just chemicals producers that could be affected by this change so I encourage all businesses that use chemicals to read the guidance on the HSE website and check whether they need to take action.

Under the new requirements, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal:

• UK businesses that manufacture a chemical (those currently registered to EU REACH) will need to validate their existing registration with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) within 60 days of the UK leaving the EU.
• UK businesses that import a chemical substance from the EU will need to setup a new registration with HSE within 180 days of UK leaving the EU.
• UK businesses that export chemicals to the EU will need to have an EU REACH registration in place once the UK leaves the EU.

In addition, more technical information will need to be submitted by businesses to HSE within two years of EU Exit. The requirements are part of the Government’s commitment to maintain environmental standards after we leave the EU. In order to register on UK REACH in a no deal scenario, businesses need to take the following action:

• Identify the chemical and quantity that they use;
• Understand how to register that chemical by reading the EU Exit guidance; and
• Prepare the information for that registration.

Businesses that may be affected should read the latest guidance on requirements for using chemicals after the UK leaves the EU here

Further guidance

• Reaching a deal with the European Union remains the Government’s top priority however, the Government must prepare for every eventuality, including a no deal scenario.
• REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals):
• REACH applies to all chemical substances; not only those used in industrial processes but also in our day-to-day lives, for example in cleaning products, paints as well as in articles such as clothes, furniture and electrical appliances.
• REACH places the burden of proof on companies. To comply with the regulation, companies must identify and manage the risks linked to the substances they manufacture and market and demonstrate how the substance can be safely used. If the risks cannot be managed, authorities can restrict the use of substances.
• Further information on the principles of REACH can be found here
• There are a number of other chemical regulations that will be impacted if the UK leaves the EU without a deal including for biocides, pesticides and classifying, labelling and packaging of chemicals. Further information can found here
• The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would act as the lead UK Agency, from the day the UK leaves the EU, building on its existing capacity and capability.

Coastal heritage sites around the Great British Coast will be saved as 23 projects are to receive a share of almost £1 million from the Coastal Revival Fund.

The projects, from Blackpool to the Isle of Wight, have today (23 January 2019) been awarded up to £50,000 each to help restore local community assets and landmarks to their former glory.

These include Banksy’s Pinwheel in Weston-super-Mare, a community project in a derelict smugglers’ inn in Cornwall, and the preservation of Blackpool’s 3 historic piers.

The Coastal Revival Fund provides grants to coastal heritage sites to fund repairs, restoration and bring economic growth to coastal communities. It also supports large scale projects which are important to local communities but have not yet reached their full economic potential or are facing neglect.

Coastal Communities Minister Jake Berry MP, said:

I’m proud to support these 23 magnificent projects from Ryde to Runcorn with investment from the government’s Coastal Revival Fund. Putting heritage at the heart of our coastal towns is an important way of attracting visitors and boosting our local economies.

We’re determined to save these historic landmarks for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations while delivering on our promise to invest over a quarter of a billion pounds into the Great British Coast by 2020.

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said:

Our seaside towns are rich with unique historic buildings and places, from the grand Lytham Hall to the Victorian public pleasure grounds of Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

We’re delighted that this further round of funding will help secure the future of these 2 important sites on our Heritage at Risk Register so that they can be used and enjoyed by generations to come.

Successful coastal projects include:

Banksy@Pinwheel Corner Project

A total of £50,000 from the Coastal Revival Fund has been awarded to North Somerset council to refurbish and provide a permanent home for Banksy’s Pinwheel in Weston-super-Mare’s Italian Gardens in the town centre. The exhibit, which was donated by the graffiti artist following the globally successful ‘Dismaland’ exhibition in 2015, is set to provide a focal point to link the seafront and the town centre.

Ice-cream and Science in the Bay

A total of £30,000 has been awarded to a feasibility project in Sandown on the Isle of Wight, which would revitalise the country’s first Henry Cotton-designed 1930s public golf course and further work at a former ice-cream factory which has been repurposed as a hub for environmental science.

Great Yarmouth Rows Project

A total of £50,000 has been awarded to a project to revive, enhance and celebrate the Rows – a medieval street pattern made up of 150 narrow alleyways confined within the town wall of Great Yarmouth.

Lytham Hall and Historic Parkland (Phase II) Project

A total of £42,500 has been awarded to a restoration project for the exterior of the Georgian Grade I Lytham Hall, an ‘at-risk’ building on the Fylde coast. The project is set to create a sustainable heritage attraction of regional significance vested in community ownership; and to release the potential to play a major part in the life and economy of Lytham and the Fylde coast.

Saltburn Valleys Conservation

A total of £40,000 will see the production of a Conservation Management Plan for the ‘at risk’ Saltburn Valleys to gain a better understanding of the heritage significance of the site and to identify management policies and actions that will ensure the sustainable future for this historical landscape. Saltburn is a key Victorian tourist town in the heart of Redcar and Cleveland. On the Yorkshire coast and with the North York Moors National Park on the doorstep, Saltburn is the jewel in the tourism crown for the Redcar and Cleveland Borough.

The Old Ship Inn – back from the ashes

A total of £50,000 has been awarded for a long-term project to fully rebuild the derelict Old Ship Inn, in Cornwall which was completely destroyed by fire in 2013. The Grade II pub which was once a key central point in the Cornish smuggling trade, and is said to have been visited by Admiral Lord Nelson, is one of the oldest buildings in Cawsand village and an iconic location at the heart of the community. The project will create permanent, local jobs; provide low-cost rented housing; and create a major new community space.

Further information

Download the full details of all 23 projects.

This funding builds on the 25 coastal projects awarded a share of nearly £1 million through the Coastal Revival Fund in November 2018 including Withernsea Pier Towers and the iconic Rock Gardens of Ramsgate.

The renovations to these much-loved venues, and the jobs and opportunity they create, are part of the wider government work to rebalance the economy and help all areas of the country thrive.

Through the Coastal Communities Fund over £180 million has been invested across the UK in the last 5 years, protecting or creating over 18,000 UK jobs and £363 million in new visitor spend. Analysis has shown that the money is well spent, with every £1 invested having the potential to create an up to £8 boost to our coastal economies.

The Coastal Revival Fund was introduced in 2015-16 to help coastal areas bring at risk heritage and community assets back into economic use.

Each project was able to bid for up to £50,000 of funding to help identify a new role for iconic buildings and structures in need of restoration.

A partnership building on the UK’s heritage and excellence in regulation will ensure the UK is at the forefront of the next regulation revolution – creating an environment which fosters and supports entrepreneurship and the innovative industries of the future from flying taxis to digital lawyers – was announced yesterday by the Business Secretary Greg Clark.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the Business Secretary confirmed the UK would establish a new partnership with the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, based in San Francisco, to develop future regulation which benefits business and consumers.

New technology is rapidly changing and creating entirely new industries, products and ways of serving customers with digital platforms improving the quality, speed, and price of a range of services from shopping and parking to streaming entertainment and travel. But alongside these economic opportunities come a range of ethical, legal and consumer protection issues which will require an active and agile response from regulators.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

The speed of technological innovation across the globe is faster than ever. New technology is not only revolutionising existing products and services, it is creating whole new industries and business models. The UK is recognised across the world for its regulatory environment which achieves both the protection of consumers whilst maintaining an openness to innovation – a framework which has been exported across the world.

Our regulators have a fundamental role in ensuring the success of future industries and innovations through active and agile governance whilst ensuring the protection of consumers.

The government sees active and agile regulators as key to creating the business environment in which the industries of the future can grow, as part of our modern Industrial Strategy. This new international collaboration will ensure the UK leads the way in guaranteeing the UK and global regulatory system keeps pace with the speed of change.

The United Kingdom is the first country to partner with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution on this project, building on its existing collaboration with the Centre on artificial intelligence.

The partnership work will focus on areas of innovation which align with the UK’s Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges, such as:

• AI and Machine learning
• Autonomous and Urban Mobility
• Drones and Tomorrow’s Airspace
• Precision medicine

The move reflects the government’s commitment to ensuring that UK regulators are agile and ready for and to foster the industries of the future. In October 2018 the OECD reported the UK as a world leader, recognising the supportive and exceptional performance of the UK’s regulatory system in its annual Regulatory Policy Outlook.

The UK has been pioneering an agile approach to regulation, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introducing a ‘regulatory sandbox’ in 2016, allowing innovative businesses to work with the regulator to test products with consumers without having to meet all the usual requirements for compliance. This allows innovators to benefit from better market testing and consumers to benefit from new products which have better safeguards built-in from the beginning.

The Business Secretary has been leading efforts in the government, through a Ministerial Working Group on regulation, to transform the UK’s regulatory system towards this agile approach. This involves continuously identifying new opportunities and driving regulatory reform; making regulations technology neutral and framing our laws around the goals we want to achieve; and creating more space for experimentation with a greater emphasis on testing and trialling new innovations.

Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning at the World Economic Forum said:

I am delighted that BEIS will be joining the work of the Forum around agile governance of 4IR technologies. I look forward to working with them on the AI Team’s ‘Reimagining the regulator‘ project, where their work on regulatory models will be very valuable.

In October 2018 the Business Secretary awarded £10 million to 15 projects through the government’s Regulators’ Pioneer Fund to help unlock the potential of emerging technologies, from robolawyers to flying taxis. To support innovations to come to market, regulators as diverse as the UK Space Agency and the Care Quality Commission launched new initiatives to boost engagement with innovators in their sectors.

The government’s Modernising Consumer Markets green paper set out how regulators should ensure that consumers are not being unfairly penalised by suppliers who hold information on their behaviour as well as looking at how their own data can be made more accessible to consumers and making it easier for people to switch to better value services.