The jetty, which is used to load and unload ammunition for the Royal Navy’s surface fleet, was last upgraded in the 1970s and had reached the end of its economic life. The upgrade work has not only extended the life of the jetty by an estimated fifty years, but has also made the site accessible for the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

The £67-million pounds contract was awarded to VolkerStevin in 2019. Alongside them, DIO also worked with managing agent Jacobs, who provided engineering and professional services, as well as designer Arch Henderson. In completing this major project, £20-million pounds was spent with local suppliers and small and medium enterprises in Scotland.

The previous jetty was demolished and replaced with a new 135m long jetty structure, requiring 127 steel piles to be driven into the loch bed to support a reinforced concrete deck. The works also included the installation of navigation aids and five mooring dolphins which are connected to the jetty by a pedestrian access bridge. Two modular fender spacer units have been placed in front of the new fender panels and move with the tide to prevent the overhanging flight decks of HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales from colliding with the jetty.

In addition, the project included the installation of two modern pedestal cranes to load and unload ammunition and the erection of modular buildings for offices, power generation and stores. The perimeter fencing and CCTV system have also been upgraded to provide a complete modern facility.

The team faced a challenge when the scale of HMS Queen Elizabeth’s first planned deployment increased, resulting in the need for the jetty to be operational nine months earlier than originally planned. All parties worked closely together to progress the project sufficiently for the Royal Navy’s flagship to be able to berth at the unfinished jetty, which she did successfully in March this year.

Sustainability and protecting the environment of Loch Long was an important consideration for the project team. The use of capture blankets prevented material from entering the water when the old jetty was demolished. All jetty demolition waste was transported on barges offsite to recycling facilities on the Clyde to minimise disruption to the public and will be reused for construction. To avoid the need to lay new electric cables through the water, the new navigation aids are solar powered.

There were concerns about the possible impact of noisy piling works on marine mammals, so two observers used underwater listening devices, along with visual inspections, to make sure no marine mammals were in the area before work began. If any were located, work was stopped to give them time to move away.

Craig MacDonald, DIO’s Project Manager, said:

It’s been such a pleasure to work on such a nationally-important and dynamic project. The project has faced numerous challenges, but they have been overcome with good teamwork, communication and collaboration. It’s great to see this vitally important facility now in full operation.

John Cox, managing director, VolkerStevin said:

We are very proud to have played a key role in the successful delivery of all three phases of the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carrier infrastructure upgrade programme. The completion of this final phase, is testament to the hard work and commitment of the entire team, and demonstrates the benefits of a strong collaborative approach in the delivery of complex critical infrastructure projects.

Justin Goldberg, Jacobs’ Vice President for Defence & Security, said:

As Principal Service Provider, we managed the contract on behalf of DIO as part of a dedicated team with the vision and drive to keep this project moving forward. Through early contractor engagement and close collaborative working, we were able to deliver within budget and programme constraints, providing the Royal Navy with an important facility for years to come while ensuring sustainability and protection of the environment. We are now applying best practice from this exemplar project to other maritime work.

As a critical national infrastructure project, work continued through the pandemic with all necessary precautions taken and guidance followed to keep everyone safe.

The jetty was handed over to Defence Equipment and Support, who will operate it. The Glen Mallan Northern Ammunition Jetty is the third and final jetty refurbishment to support the nationally critical £7-billion Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) Aircraft Carrier programme.

The Home Secretary Priti Patel is bringing forward legislation so that football banning orders, which can currently be imposed on people convicted of violence, disorder and racist or homophobic chanting, will be extended to cover online hate offences.

The move comes after black players in the England football team were subject to disgraceful racism following the Euro 2020 final, and the Prime Minister pledged to get tougher on online abusers.

The new law is expected to take the form of an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and will be brought forward early in the new year.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

This summer we saw the beautiful game marred by disgraceful racism from online trolls, who hid behind their keyboards and abused our footballers. Racism is unacceptable and for too long football has been marred by this shameful prejudice.

Those responsible for appalling racist abuse online must be punished. The changes to the law I am announcing will make sure they are banned from attending football matches.

Football banning orders bar the individual from going to regulated football matches for 3 to 10 years. Latest statistics show there are currently over 1,300 football banning orders in force across England and Wales.

They are issued either following a conviction for a football-related offence or following a complaint by a local police force, British Transport Police or the Crown Prosecution Service.

These agencies can make an application to the court to make an order in respect of a person who has at any time caused or contributed to football related violence or disorder whether in the UK or elsewhere.

Breach of a football banning order is a criminal offence and is punishable by a maximum sentence of 6 months in prison, an unlimited fine or both. In addition, a further order may be imposed. They are time limited – orders expire and new ones are imposed all the time.

Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, said:

Racist abuse flooding footballers’ social media feeds all hours of the day has a profound impact on everyone involved in the game and it has to end.

We are tackling this abhorrent behaviour in all forms. As well as banning racists from games, we are introducing ground-breaking new laws to stamp out abuse online and make sure tech firms tackle the hate on their sites.

The Home Secretary will extend the government’s disregards and pardons scheme to ensure that anyone convicted or cautioned for consensual same-sex sexual activity, under discriminatory laws that have since been abolished, can apply to have them ‘disregarded’ – meaning it would be wiped from their criminal records and not required to be disclosed.

An automatic pardon will be extended to all individuals whose cautions and convictions are disregarded under the scheme.

While people have been able to apply to have historical same-sex sexual cautions and convictions disregarded since 2012, government is taking action to widen the scope of the current scheme which is too narrow. Present laws set out a specified list of offences which can form the basis of an application, which are largely focused on the repealed offences of buggery and gross indecency between men.

Via an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the government will scrap this specific list and broaden eligibility of the scheme to encompass any repealed or abolished civilian or military offence that was imposed on someone purely for, or due to, consensual same-sex sexual activity.

The amendments will also enable those who have died prior to the amendment coming into force, and within 12 months after the amendment coming into force, to be posthumously pardoned.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

It is only right that where offences have been abolished, convictions for consensual activity between same-sex partners should be disregarded too.

I hope that expanding the pardons and disregards scheme will go some way to righting the wrongs of the past and to reassuring members of the LGBT community that Britain is one of the safest places in the world to call home.

The Home Secretary is grateful to Lord Cashman and Lord Lexden for raising this important issue during the bill’s committee stage.

Conditions must still be met in order for a disregard and pardon to be granted, including that any other party involved must have been aged 16 or over and the sexual activity must not constitute an offence today.

The government has already passed ‘Turing’s Law’ in 2017, returned medals of LGBT veterans and apologised for the archaic ban on LGBT diplomats in the civil service.

There is an application form and guidance notes on applying for a disregard and pardon of convictions for decriminalised sexual offences.