Children in state-funded primary schools across the United Kingdom will, from mid-May, begin to receive a free commemorative book to mark Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.

Designed as an official once-in-a-lifetime commemoration of the Platinum Jubilee and written in collaboration with royal experts and historians, the book will tell the story of a young girl, Isabella, visiting her Great Granny Joyce who tells her about the Queen and this year’s Jubilee.

In the story, Isabella sifts through Great Granny Joyce’s treasure box of souvenirs, which act as introductions to the contents of the book. These include recent and historical events across the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, inspirational people, landmark innovations and inventions, and a selection of the best art, design, and culture.

The book will also include famous quotes from the Queen, facts on the coronation ceremony, content on the lives of famous Commonwealth figures such as Nelson Mandela, notable kings and queens and a timeline of Queen Elizabeth’s life.

Children will be invited to personalise their individual copies of the illustrated reference book, by signing a ‘this book belongs to’ section at the beginning of the book. The page reads: ‘During [the Queen’s] reign, the world has changed in so many ways… [This book] will help you understand the amazing life and times of our Queen and the magic of the unique, unshakable bond she shares with the people she serves.’

The book will also help children understand how the four nations came together as one United Kingdom, including details such as Owain Glyndwr’s rebellion against the English in 1400 to take the title of ‘Prince of Wales’, on the journey to the Queen’s reign which continues to this day.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said:

Queen Elizabeth II is the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee and Her Majesty’s dignity, commitment and grace continues to inspire people all over the world.

Millions of children will soon receive their own commemorative Jubilee book, celebrating and showcasing the Queen’s incredible living legacy. I hope all our pupils are as excited as I am to read about Her Majesty’s amazing life and the people and events that have shaped history during the last 70 years.

On the request of the Scottish and Welsh Governments, schools in Scotland and Wales will be asked to opt-in to receive copies of the book, which will then be delivered in late September.

‘Brilliant bookmarks’ from the Reading Agency are to be distributed with every book, to support and encourage reading for pleasure amongst children at school and over the summer. The book is also featured within the National Literacy Trust’s Platinum Jubilee Royal Reading Challenge.

The book goes on private sale from 23 June.

Schools can expect to hear from the Department for Education (in England) or DK Books (in Northern Ireland) in the coming days about delivery details, and those in Scotland and Wales should already have had information on how to place their book orders.

The book was commissioned by the UK Government and is being published by DK Books. It has been designed for a reading age of nine to 10 years, but will be accessible to all primary school age children, for example if parents, carers or teachers read with them.

It forms part of the wider programme of events and activities planned for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, including a concert, street parties, and an extra bank holiday for the Jubilee weekend itself from Thursday 2 to Sunday 5 June 2022.

A search for Britain’s noisiest streets has been launched by the Department for Transport (DfT) with 4 areas across England and Wales set to trial new phase 2 technology to help stop rowdy motorists revving their engines unnecessarily or using illegal exhausts.

Since the technology is in design phase, MPs are being invited to submit applications to trial new innovative noise cameras in their local area, helping to ensure communities can enjoy their public and residential spaces peacefully.

The technology, backed by £300,000, can automatically detect when vehicles are breaking legal noise requirements, helping provide police and local authorities with the tools and evidence to take action against drivers who flout noise laws. Police have existing powers, including the ability to issue fines, but currently have trouble gathering evidence.

The latest phase of noise trials builds on a 3-year programme to perfect the technology. Research shows noise pollution can have significant impacts on physical and mental health for local residents – with heart attacks, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and stress all linked to long-term contact with loud environments.

Excessive noise pollution can mean children struggle to get a good night’s sleep and hardworking people’s lives are made more stressful. In England alone, the annual social cost of urban road noise was estimated to be up to £10 billion a decade ago. This is the total economic cost of exposure to noise pollution, including lost productivity from sleep disturbance and health costs from heart attacks, strokes and dementia.

As set out in the government’s Levelling Up white paper, complaints about noise are highest among the most economically deprived areas, with those in more disadvantaged areas as much as 3 times as likely to suffer from noise nuisance.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

We want those in Britain’s noisiest streets, who are kept up at night by unbearable revving engines and noisy exhausts, to come forward with the help of volunteer areas to test and perfect the latest innovative technology.

For too long, rowdy drivers have been able to get away with disturbing our communities with illegal noisy vehicles. It’s time we clamp down on this nuisance, banish the boy racer and restore peace and quiet to local streets.

The technology being used in the trial can provide real-time reports that police can use as evidence and may result in more targeted and efficient enforcement methods to crack down on noisy motorists. By testing this tech in rural and urban areas, the public can help develop the new road technology.

The trial led by the Atkins-Jacobs Joint Venture is formed by the 2 professional services firms to provide technical consultancy including acoustics expertise, design, modelling and asset management.

This follows commitments made by the government to ensure that all parts of Britain have the same powers to deal with noise complaints, including providing them with effective tools for tackling incidents that constitute crime and antisocial behaviour and which can make life a misery for others.

Atkins-Jacobs Joint Venture Practice Director Andrew Pearce said:

This scheme is a critical development for people living in areas affected by antisocial driving. It demonstrates how we can use technology to take a highly targeted approach to solving these problems.

Testing different noise measurement technologies with a range of vehicles in this controlled environment means we can ensure tickets are only sent to drivers with illegal and antisocial cars or bikes.

Highway authorities will be able to automate noise enforcement and get on top of the problem without using up valuable police resources.

Existing legislation requires exhausts and silencers to be maintained in good working order and not altered so as to increase noise. Under the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Section 42) the potential penalty for non-compliance with these requirements is a £50 on-the-spot fine.

The announcement today (30 April 2022) follows preliminary testing of a prototype noise camera by DfT back in 2019, which showed the technology can identify individual vehicles in certain circumstances and assign noise levels to them.

Noise Abatement Society chief executive Gloria Elliott OBE said:

Excessively noisy vehicles cause unnecessary disturbance, stress and anxiety to many and, in some cases, physical pain. They disrupt the environment and people’s peaceful enjoyment of their homes and public places.

Communities across the UK are increasingly suffering from this entirely avoidable blight. The Noise Abatement Society applauds rigorous, evidence-based solutions to address this issue and protect the public.

Thank you Chair, Excellencies,

The United Kingdom is immensely grateful to you, Mr Chair, to our co-facilitators, El Salvador and the Netherlands, to UNFPA and DESA for their technical expertise, and to our fellow Member States for helping us reach this point. The adoption of this resolution by consensus, for the second year in a row, demonstrates our collective will to take action to protect women, adolescents, girls, and marginalised communities, and signifies the continued importance of this Commission.

We know that sustained and inclusive economic growth can only be realised when all women, adolescents and girls have their full human rights respected, protected and fulfilled, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights. The human rights of women, adolescents and girls in all their diversity include the right to have control over, and to decide freely on all matters related to their sexuality.

We welcome the commitments in the resolution to:

• Inclusive and equitable quality education for girls;

• To ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights;

• To increased and sustained investment in measures to empower women, girls, and youth and to provide an enabling environment for the full realisation of their human rights;

• To ensure gender-responsive implementation of climate action;

• To prevent and eliminate sexual and gender based violence;

• And to scale up efforts to accelerate the transition of women from informal to formal employment, including access to decent work, equal pay for equal work and social protection policies.

Importantly, the resolution reaffirms the critical role that UNFPA has in supporting member states to deliver upon the commitments made in this resolution and to ensure the full and effective implementation of the ICPD and the outcomes of it reviews.

We are, however, disappointed that a more ambitious outcome couldn’t be reached. We regret that the text does not contain a stronger focus on the impact of economic exclusion on those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. We also sincerely regret that vital references to sexual rights and essential components such as comprehensive sexuality education are missing from the text.

It is, as we know, vitally important that we are able to achieve a consensus outcome. But we also need to be able to progress and ensure the commitments made in this resolution are reflective of the realities on the ground. The UK looks forward to reconvening next year as we discuss ‘Population, education and sustainable development’.

Thank you again Mr, Chair.

Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished delegates,

It is my honour to address you today on the behalf of the Security Council.

As set out in the UN Charter, over 75 years ago, the United Nations was established ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’. Our purpose is to ‘take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace.’

The prevention of violent conflict, peacebuilding and sustaining peace are central to these objectives and our work. But, as the Security Council and the General Assembly both recognised in 2016, effective peacebuilding must involve the entire UN system.

In his January 2022 report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, the Secretary-General highlighted that ‘the falling trend of fatalities from armed conflict since the 2014 peak, was reversed in 2020.’

Last year, UN humanitarian appeals reached a record $39 billion. Peacekeeping cost $6 billion. The World Bank estimates that the economic impact of violent conflict is $13.6 trillion a year and that conflict drives 80% of humanitarian needs.

Peacebuilding is the most cost-effective approach to protecting development gains to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Yet, peacebuilding remains under-financed.

The Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund is uniquely positioned to support the achievement of the founding principles of the UN. It can act as a catalyst, along with ongoing bilateral efforts, for comprehensive peacebuilding programming in specific contexts that are not adequately served by other funding sources, including in transition settings.

In the twin resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council concluding the 2020 review of the United Nations peacebuilding architecture, Member States noted that peacebuilding financing remains a critical challenge, and decided to convene this High-Level Meeting.

Some progress has been made to resource peacebuilding more effectively, but more is needed to strengthen concerted UN peacebuilding assistance. Here, support to nationally-owned approaches to conflict prevention remains vital.

Peacebuilding requires a broad set of financing instruments and a variety of channels and sources, while adhering to appropriate norms of accountability and transparency.

The Secretary-General has encouraged Member States to explore several means of financing peacebuilding activities, including through public-private partnerships. He has also encouraged strengthened partnerships, including with regional and sub-regional organisations, International Financial Institutions, and civil society.

I recognise the essential role of the Peacebuilding Commission and the Peacebuilding Support Office, as critical parts of how the UN can more effectively support peacebuilding. I welcome the most recent letter of the PBC encouraging us to ensure adequate, predictable and sustained financing for comprehensive and inclusive approaches to peacebuilding and sustaining peace.

The General Assembly may consider a range of options in this High-Level Meeting to address the resource challenges in peacebuilding, and I encourage an action-oriented outcome in this regard.

Thank you.