The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has issued a comprehensive decision for the IFA2 (Interconnexion France-Angleterre) project under the TEN-E Regulations, after it attained all of the required statutory consents in UK consenting regime.

The IFA2 interconnector is a 1,000mw high voltage direct current (HVDC) link, which will run from Normandy in France to Hampshire in England. The project is being carried out by National Grid IFA2 Ltd and RTE.

MMO Senior Marine Licensing Manager Matthew Kinmond said:

This is the first comprehensive decision from the MMO under the TEN-E Regulations and the first in the UK for a cross-border and multiple consenting regime interconnector project. It represents a major milestone for the IFA2 project.

Dave Luetchford Head of IFA2 from National Grid said:

Enhancing Great Britain’s energy connection to France will bring a number of benefits, including increasing security of electricity supplies for both countries and providing opportunities for shared use of renewable energy.

Find out more about the IFA2 project

Find out more about TEN-E Regulations

A new law will ensure animal abusers are jailed for up to 5 years and animal sentience is reflected in domestic law, under plans published by the Environment Secretary today.

The Government has published a draft bill which would increase the maximum prison sentence for animal cruelty tenfold, from six months to five years, in England and Wales. The draft bill also sets out that the government “must have regard to the welfare needs of animals as sentient beings in formulating and implementing government policy”. Subject to consultation on the draft bill, the government will legislate to deliver both aims.

The plans underline the government’s commitment to raising animal welfare standards, ensuring there will be enhanced protections for animals as we leave the EU.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

As we leave the EU we will deliver a Green Brexit, not only maintaining but enhancing animal welfare standards.

Animals are sentient beings who feel pain and suffering, so we are writing that principle into law and ensuring that we protect their welfare.

Our plans will also increase sentences for those who commit the most heinous acts of animal cruelty to five years in jail.

We are a nation of animal lovers so we will make Brexit work not just for citizens but for the animals we love and cherish too.

The plans to increase maximum sentences follows a number of recent shocking cases where courts have said they would have handed down longer sentences had they been available, including a case last year when a man trained dogs to ruthlessly torture other animals, including trapping a fox and a terrier dog in a cage to brutally attack each other.

The move has been strongly welcomed by animal welfare groups and follows dedicated campaigning from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home’s Chief Executive Claire Horton said:

Battersea is greatly encouraged by the Government’s willingness to see sentences for the most shocking cases of animal cruelty increase from six months to five years and today’s Defra announcement takes a significant step in that direction.

Battersea is very much at the front line of animal welfare and it’s heart-breaking to see truly shocking cases of animal cruelty and neglect come through our doors, where dogs and cats have clearly had to endure so much suffering.

The current maximum cruelty sentence of six months in England and Wales is neither a punishment nor a deterrent but Battersea believes today’s publication of a draft Bill could help to achieve both.

The draft Bill is part of a wider programme of reform to cement the UK’s position as a global leader on animal welfare. Earlier in the year, we announced plans to make CCTV mandatory in all slaughterhouses and we have committed to taking steps to control the export of live farm animals for slaughter as we leave the EU.

1. Cases of extreme cruelty are rare – while on average about 1,150 people per year are convicted for animal cruelty, fewer than five of them receive the current maximum sentence. The change in law will ensure that offenders are properly punished in those rare but shocking cases.
2. Under the government’s plans, courts will retain the ability to hand out an unlimited fine and ban an offender from owning animals in the future, but crucially they will also have the ability to sentence the worst cases appropriately. The move will bring maximum sentences for animal cruelty in England into line with other countries such as Australia, Canada and the Republic of Ireland.
3. Some of the recent shocking cases in which courts commented they would have handed down longer prison sentences had the law allowed them include:

• A man who systematically abused and killed several puppies by beating, choking and stabbing them, sentenced to the maximum six months’ imprisonment and banned from owning animals.
• A man who kicked his girlfriend’s dog to death, given a custodial sentence of just over five months, fined £1,000 and banned from owning animals.
• A man who fed his dog aspirin and paracetamol to try to kill her, before beating her to death with a shovel, sentenced to four months in prison and banned from owning animals.

The National Data Guardian (NDG), today publishes the National Data Guardian for Health and Care 2017 report: Impact and Influence for patients and service users

The publication marks 3 years since Dame Fiona Caldicott was appointed as the first NDG, looks back over this first term of office and describes future priorities. It sets out a clear case for the independent advice and challenge the role provides to ensure that confidential data collected by the NHS and social care services is properly safeguarded and used appropriately to improve care. It also anticipates the NDG role being place on a statutory footing during this Parliament.

The report reinforces the fundamental requirement of building public trust for successful advancements in health and care based on data sharing. The 3 principles that have informed the NDG’s work since she was asked by the Secretary of State for Health to take up the role remain crucial:

1. To encourage sharing of information in the interests of providing care to individuals.
2. There should be no surprises to citizens and they should have choice about the use of their data.
3. There must be dialogue with the public, helping to increase their knowledge and choices about how data is used to improve health and care.

Dame Fiona said: “New technologies and ways of sharing data mean that we can now gain huge benefit from the sharing of health and care data, both in terms of individuals’ own care and the broader social good of advancing research and treatment. However, as NDG I have seen time and again that the most praiseworthy attempts at innovation falter if they lose public trust.

“Those entrusted with looking after and using patient data must demonstrate their right to be trusted by adopting the highest standards of data security and giving people a right to a genuine choice over how data is used. The public must be included in understanding and supporting innovation which relies on data generated by their use of health and care services.”

The lowest number of repossession sales in August 2017 was in the East of England.

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

The UK Property Transaction Statistics showed that the number of seasonally adjusted transactions on UK properties with a value of £40,000 or greater has increased by 9.2% in the year to October 2017. Between September 2017 and October 2017, property transactions increased by 1.7%.

The Bank of England’s Agents’ summary of business conditions reported that housing market demand has strengthened overall but with a divergence between the regions, as there are signs of excess supply in London and the South East but excess demand in the majority of other UK regions.

Looking more closely at regional levels of the UK, the largest annual growth was in the East Midlands at 7%, up from 6.3% in September 2017. It was followed by the South West, which showed annual growth of 6.7%. The slowest annual growth was in London at 2.1%, a fall from 2.9% in September 2017. This is the 11th consecutive month where the growth in London house prices has remained below the UK average. The second slowest annual growth was in the North East at 2.4%.

• £140 million of new funding to help the world’s poorest communities address the effects of climate change
• Expansion of UK and Canada-led Alliance to reduce international use of unabated coal
• UK to host international Zero Emission Vehicle Summit in Autumn 2018

The Prime Minister will attend the One Planet Summit in Paris today where she will announce a raft of new measures to tackle both the effects and causes of climate change.

The UK will provide a £140 million boost to poorer communities around the world which are disproportionately affected by climate change whether through deforestation or vulnerability to natural disasters and climate extremes. This will include an additional £30 million through DFID’s Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme.

This funding will help two million more of the world’s poorest people to cope with climate shocks, bringing the total to 7 million people supported with irrigation for better harvests, support in planting more resilient crops, improved forecasting and help to develop insurance schemes. And by helping to build resilience to extreme weather we will reduce the need for communities to call on emergency humanitarian support when disaster strikes, reducing dependence on aid.

The Prime Minister will also announce £15 million of additional support for reconstruction on the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, one of the regions that is most affected by extreme weather associated with climate change. This money will support reconstruction of the island’s water system which was destroyed by Hurricane Maria. UK funding will help rebuild the system to make it better able to withstand future extreme weather events.

To help other individual countries and territories in the Caribbean become more resilient the UK will give £8 million of additional funding for activities including better crisis and response operations on the islands; training and improvements to communications systems; casualty management training; and mapping of high risk areas.

Poor communities are also disproportionately affected by climate change through deforestation, with one billion people around the world reliant on forests for their livelihoods. That is why today the Prime Minister will commit a further £87 million through DFID’s Forest Governance, Markets and Climate (FGMC) Programme. This money will help local communities who depend on forests to accelerate efforts in the fight against illegal logging and support trade in legal timber.

In her remarks at the Summit the PM will underline how the UK is leading an international effort to meet the commitments made under the Paris Agreement. She is expected to set out how the UK and Canada-led Powering Past Coal Alliance is driving the international community and big business to phase out the use of unabated coal.

Since being launched at a UN climate change conference last month in Bonn nearly 30 countries and regions have signed up and today will see a number of additional partners join the alliance including Sweden, California and large businesses such as EDF and Unilever.

And the Prime Minister will demonstrate the UK’s commitment to putting clean growth at the heart of our Industrial Strategy by announcing that the UK will host a global Zero Emission Vehicle Summit next autumn, bringing together Ministers, industry leaders and sector representatives from around the world to further the development of the low emission and electric car market. The Summit will cement the UK’s position as a world leader in the low emission and electric vehicle industry and build on the government’s manifesto commitment for almost all cars and vans to be zero emission by 2050.

Prime Minister Theresa May said:

Tackling climate change and mitigating its effects for the world’s poorest are among the most critical challenges that we face. That is why I am joining other world leaders in Paris today for the One Planet Summit and committing to stand firmly with those on the front line of extreme weather and rising sea levels.

And by redoubling our efforts to phase out coal, as well as build on our world leading electric car production, we are showing we can cut emissions in a way that supports economic growth.