The new habitat will improve the area’s resilience to the changing climate and provide a richer environment for people and nature.

The 11-hectare intertidal habitat is part of a new flood defence scheme to manage the risk of flooding to properties and critical infrastructure in Calstock.  The overall cost of the project is £3.1 million.

The intertidal area was made following the breach last year of the old flood bank along the Tamar.  Environment Agency surveys showed the flood bank to be in poor structural condition.  As a result the Environment Agency has built several new embankments totalling over 600 metres, protecting local properties, the village preschool and village hall, and the wastewater treatment works from flooding.

Working at night during low tides last November, the old flood bank was breached, and water from the estuary allowed to flow into pools and creeks previously constructed as part of the habitat creation.

The new habitat area will help off-set some of the impacts of sea level rise and climate change and clean river water by trapping sediment.  An increase in biodiversity has already been seen, with birds and other wildlife attracted to the new intertidal habitat.

Jess Thomasson, Biodiversity Officer for the Environment Agency said:

As in many of our estuaries, climate change and rising sea levels in the Tamar are leading to coastal squeeze where essential habitat is prevented from adapting and moving towards land by a structure such as a wall or bank.

So, last year, after many years of careful planning, we started to create a series of interconnected creeks and the material won used to build the new flood banks. The breach in the redundant flood bank, allowing tidal water from the estuary to flow in and out of the creeks has enabled this new vital intertidal habitat to establish in front of the new flood banks.

The old flood bank is a popular footpath, and the Environment Agency has supported the Tamar Community Trust in getting a new footbridge to maintain access along the river. The footpath is due to open shortly, following completion of work to ensure the safety of users.

Andy Rogers, Local Project Lead for the Environment Agency, said:

We really appreciate the efforts that the local community, Tamar Community Trust and Calstock Parish Council have made in helping make the Calstock intertidal habitat and flood defence improvement scheme possible.

The Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) team has played a key role making sure the best outcome is delivered for the community, and we are thankful for the support of Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Cornwall Bird Watching Preservation Society and Calstock Footpath Society.

The scheme has also made the field next to the football pitch available to the Tamar Community Trust so it can be managed to the benefit of the local community.

Last year the Environment Agency was a key partner in a similar project with the National Trust to create a new 1.7-hectare intertidal habitat at Cotehele on the Tamar.

Rob Price, Tamar Catchment Coordinator at the Environment Agency, said:

The creation of new intertidal habitat on the Tamar at Cotehele and now this work at Calstock reinforces our aims to improve resilience to the changing climate and to provide a richer environment for people and nature.

It will provide an invaluable tool in the fight against climate change by locking in carbon and also help improve overall water quality.  This valuable work is an important part of an integrated programme of works to build the Tamar catchment’s resilience to a wide range of environmental pressures including those related to biodiversity and a changing climate.

The project is being funded by Flood Defence Grant in aid, Water Environment Investment Fund, and contributions from the Tamar Community Trust.

• It is clear that we are already seeing the impacts of climate change in the UK and around the world, which is why urgent action is needed to adapt the impacts of climate emergency at the same time as reducing emissions.
• We’re already seeing the impacts of the climate emergency in the UK.
• According to the Met Office 2020 was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eight sunniest on record for the UK. No other year has yielded observations that fall in the top-ten for all three of these variables for the UK.
• That included the wettest ever February, where most of the UK received more than twice the February long-term average rainfall, with 300% quite widely in the north and west, and over 400% in parts of the Pennines.
• Climate change is happening now. We’re seeing more extreme weather, with an increase in flooding, coastal erosion and landslips. The most recent climate change predictions confirm we will experience wetter winters and drier summers, with an increased likelihood of more intense rainfall leading to flooding.
• We’re working to better protect communities from this risk, with climate change projection built into the design of flood defences to ensure they are fit for the future.
• However the climate emergency means that we cannot always prevent or build our way out of an incident. That’s why we’re working to help households, businesses and communities be better prepared and more resilient to flooding and coastal change through our long term FCERM strategy, and making sure that people have access to the information they need to prepare, act, survive.

Over one million rail tickets will be slashed by up to 50% as the government and rail industry launch the first-of-its-kind Great British Rail Sale.

The public is encouraged to take advantage of this unprecedented sale, which sees for the first time multiple operators come together to offer nationwide savings.

Savings on offer for off-peak tickets include:

• York to Leeds: was £5.60, now £2.80
• London to Edinburgh: was £44, now £22
• London to Cardiff: was £47, now £25
• Wolverhampton to Liverpool: was £10.50, now £5.25
• Manchester to Newcastle: was £20.60, now £10.30
• Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads: was £25.30, now £12.60
• Portsmouth Harbour to Penzance was £45.70, now £22.00

Cutting the cost of rail travel will help ease some of the pressure on family finances at a time when inflation is rising around the world.

It will also encourage people to visit different places, connect with friends and loved ones, and get out and about around the country.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

For the first time ever, operators across the rail industry are coming together to help passengers facing rising costs of living by offering up to 50% off more than a million tickets on journeys across Britain.

There’s no better time to visit friends, family or just explore our great country, so book your tickets today.

Jacqueline Starr, CEO of the Rail Delivery Group, said:

We want everyone to be able to benefit from travelling by train because it’s more than just a journey, it’s a way to connect everyone to the people, places and things they love.

As part of the Great British Rail Sale customers will enjoy over one million discounted tickets, so they can explore some of the fantastic locations that are accessible by rail.

Tickets can be purchased online from participating retailers with the up to half-price rate applying to a huge range of off-peak tickets spreading the length and breadth of the country.

The government is listening to people’s concerns about rising costs, and is taking action worth more than £22 billion in 2022-23 alone – which includes support with the cost of energy bills and to help to ensure people keep more of their money. Offering half-price rail tickets is one of the ways the government is further supporting families with the cost of living.

Reforms to the rail sector through the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail mean that network-wide sales of tickets can occur more easily in the future.

As the official archive and publisher for the UK Government, The National Archives has long-standing experience in storing and publishing information securely. Under the Archive’s expertise, they will be preserved, managed and made widely accessible for years to come.

New court and tribunal decisions from the superior courts of record – The Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, and Upper Tribunals – will now be available on The National Archives Find Case Law site.

This free online service will be easy for anyone to use, from lawyers to members of the public. Records will be secure and easily searchable, even on mobile phones.

Justice Minister, James Cartlidge, said:

As we continue to build a justice system that works for all, the National Archive’s new service is a vital step towards better transparency. It will ensure court judgments are easily accessible to anyone who needs them.

Our first official Government record of judgments is a modern one-stop-shop that will benefit everyone, from lawyers and judges to academics, journalists and members of the public.

Dr Natalie Byrom, Director of Research at The Legal Education Foundation, said:

The launch of the new judgments service at The National Archives is a hugely significant step for open justice. For the first time, the retention and preservation of judgments from courts and tribunals in England and Wales is guaranteed under primary legislation, as is the right for the public to obtain access to these documents.

The investment in modernising the processes whereby judgments from courts and tribunals reach publication puts in place the infrastructure needed to build towards a complete record- something which is vital for research and policy.

We are excited and encouraged by the progress made to date and look forward to seeing how the service develops over coming weeks and months.

Judgments provide invaluable information for anyone who requires them for case preparation or research purposes.

Over the coming months and years, The National Archives will work with the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary to expand coverage of what is published and made accessible to the public, including judgments from the lower courts and tribunals.

Note to editors

• BAILII will continue to provide free access to English and Welsh judgments, and other jurisdictions including Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Commonwealth, alongside their other charitable endeavours.
• Under the Open Justice license any member of the public or organisation can continue to easily access judgments for free. More information on the Open Justice license
• To re-use judgments on a computer, a user must complete a free application to The National Archives. More information on the Transactional license and the application process.
• Scope of coverage will grow over time as The National Archives actively migrates and acquires legacy judgment and tribunal decisions. Judgments held on government websites will be relocated to widen the coverage of the service as far as possible.
• The British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) is a charity that has been contracted to publish Court and Tribunal judgments on behalf of the Lord Chancellor and have provided a valuable service. As this contract expires, The National Archives will assume the responsibility of judgments storage, preservation and publication. BAILII will receive future judgments from Case Law under licence.

• Online safety legislation protecting children will be debated in the Commons
• Comes as new plans to support vulnerable people and fight falsities online are launched
• Funding boost will help people’s critical thinking online through a new expert Media Literacy Taskforce alongside proposals to pay for training for teachers and library workers

Parliamentarians will debate the government’s groundbreaking Online Safety Bill which requires social media platforms, search engines and other apps and websites allowing people to post content to improve the way they protect their users. 

Ofcom, the regulator, will have the power to fine companies failing to comply with the laws up to ten per cent of their annual global turnover, force them to improve their practices and block non-compliant sites. Crucially, the laws have strong measures to safeguard children from harmful content such as pornography and child sexual abuse.

Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, the government is launching the next phase of its Online Media Literacy Strategy. It aims to help vulnerable and ‘hard-to-reach’ people, such as those who are digitally excluded or from lower socio-economic backgrounds, navigate the internet safely and teach them to spot falsities online. 

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will spend £2.5 million to advance the plan through the next year including on training, research and providing expert advice. This includes a new Media Literacy Taskforce featuring experts from a range of disciplines and a boost to the Media Literacy Fund, which gives teachers and local service providers the skills they need to teach people to improve their critical thinking of what they see online.

Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

The time has come to properly protect people online and this week MPs will debate the most important legislation in the internet age.

Our groundbreaking Online Safety Bill will make the UK the safest place to surf the web. It has been significantly strengthened following a lengthy period of engagement with people in politics, wider society and industry.

We want to arm everyone with the skills to navigate the internet safely, so today we’re also announcing a funding boost and plans for experts to join forces with the government to help people spot dodgy information online.

Thinking critically online has never been more important. There was a rise in misinformation and disinformation on social media and other online platforms during the global pandemic and the Kremlin continues to use disinformation to target UK and international audiences to justify its actions in Ukraine.

Ofcom research shows adults are often overconfident in their ability to detect disinformation and only 32 per cent of children aged 12 to 17 know how to use online flagging or reporting functions.

Forty per cent of adult internet users do not have the skills to assess online content critically and children up to the age of 15 are particularly vulnerable.

A new Media Literacy Taskforce with 18 experts from a range of relevant organisations, including Meta, TikTok, Google, Twitter, Ofcom and the Telegraph as well as universities and charities, will work with the government as part of its strategy to tackle disinformation and help hard-to-reach and vulnerable groups in society think about what they see on the web, including improving their ability to protect their data and privacy.

The taskforce will look at new ways to identify and reach people most in need of education. This could include working through local authorities or coordinating support offered by local services to roll out training.

The Media Literacy Fund will expand a pilot ‘Train the Trainer’ programme which ran last year to give teachers, library workers and youth workers more skills to help boost people’s critical thinking skills.

New research will be commissioned to understand the root causes of poor media literacy and on the effectiveness of different methods which aim to build people’s resilience to misinformation and disinformation.

The fund will have a broader scope including a focus on improving media literacy provision for people who are particularly vulnerable online – such as children or people suffering with mental health issues.

Since it launched in July 2021, the Online Media Literacy Strategy has provided £256,000 in grant funding to five organisations to adapt media literacy resources for teachers working with disabled children, run a successful awareness campaign to promote Safer Internet Day and empower LGBTQ+ young people with tools to deal with online abuse.

Nick Poole, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) said:

Media literacy is the key to helping people lead healthier, happier and safer lives online, particularly the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach in our society. As a member of the DCMS Media Literacy Taskforce, I welcome the breadth and ambition of this new Action Plan, which demonstrates the government’s commitment to this important agenda. As librarians and information professionals, we look forward to playing our part in bringing it to fruition.

Will Gardner OBE, CEO of Childnet International and a Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre said:

Media literacy is a core part of Childnet’s work with children, young people, parents and carers, and we fully support the Media Literacy focus and work of the DCMS. This work has never been as important as it is now.

There is a great deal of work being done in this space in the UK. The government is playing an important role in helping to identify where there are gaps and where focus or learning is needed, and then supporting responses to that.

As part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, in February 2022 we worked closely with the DCMS in helping to promote the Safer Internet Day campaign to LGBTQ+ young people. We fully support the continued focus of the Action Plan, including ensuring that ‘hard-to-reach’ groups are supported as well as those who are particularly vulnerable online.

ENDS

Notes to editors

• The £2.5 million announced in the Action Plan today will be used to fund three projects in the media literacy programme: the Media Literacy Taskforce, the Media Literacy Fund, and a research programme. Further details about the fund and how organisations can apply will be announced in the summer.
• The Media Literacy Action Plan will complement the UK government’s range of counter-disinformation measures which includes the Online Safety Bill and DCMS’s Counter-Disinformation Unit, which monitors harmful misinformation and disinformation and works with social media platforms to ensure action to address it.
• The Media Literacy Taskforce will meet approximately every two months and report to DCMS ministers. The Taskforce will operate over the next three years but the composition of members will be subject to change. The members of the taskforce are:

Media Literacy Taskforce: Steering Board Members