Alexandra Notay joins the Board of the Geospatial Commission replacing Dame Kate Barker whose term ended on 30 June 2021.

The Chair of the Geospatial Commission, Sir Bernard Silverman, said:

I welcome the appointment of Alex Notay to the board of Commissioners and look forward to working with her and the board in continuing to unlock the significant economic, social and environmental value derived from location data and ensuring that the UK is a world leader in this area.

I would also like to convey my sincere thanks to Dame Kate Barker for her valuable contribution to the board, especially her expert advice on housing and land use policy.

The Minister for State, Lord True CBE added:

I am very pleased to welcome Alex to the Geospatial Commission. Our vision as outlined in the UK’s geospatial strategy is to have a coherent national location data framework by 2025 and Alex’s expertise and experience will make a vital contribution towards realising this vision.

I would also like to express my thanks to Dame Kate Barker for her expertise and contribution which has been invaluable in helping the Commission to develop the UK’s Geospatial Strategy.

Alex said:

I am delighted to join the Commission at such an important time. I am always keen to support the effective use and expansion of technology and innovation, both in policy-making and in business practice.

I see the improved and more integrated use of location data as absolutely integral to the real estate investment, housing and planning sector’s contribution to our post-COVID recovery.

The Commissioners are responsible for providing expert, impartial advice to the government on geospatial data, including on strategic priorities and value for money, to inform the UK’s Geospatial Strategy. The Board of Commissioners meet formally up to 6 times per year.

About the Commission

The Geospatial Commission was established in 2018 as an independent, expert committee responsible for setting the UK’s geospatial strategy and coordinating public sector geospatial activity. Its aim is to unlock the significant economic, social and environmental opportunities offered by location data and to boost the UK’s global geospatial expertise.

The overarching objectives of the Commission are to increase economic growth and improve social and environmental outcomes by:

• setting cross-cutting geospatial strategy, policy and data standards
• promoting competition within markets for geospatial data, products and services
• improving accessibility, interoperability and quality of data
• improving capability, skills and resources to support the growth of new and existing geospatial businesses and improve public services

The UK’s geospatial strategy, published in June 2020, sets a vision that by 2025 the UK will have a coherent national location data framework.

The strategy sets out an ambitious programme of activity to achieve the vision, across four key missions:

Promoting and safeguarding the use of location data to provide an evidenced view of the market value of location data, set clear guidelines on data access, privacy, ethics and security, and promote better use of location data.

Improving access to better location data to streamline, test and scale the development of new and existing location data ensuring it is findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable and of high quality.

Enhancing skills, capabilities and awareness to develop more people with the right skills and tools to work with location data – across organisations and sectors – to meet the UK’s future needs and support global development.

Enabling innovation to maximise the commercial opportunities for innovation and promote market-wide adoption of high value emerging location technologies.

The Geospatial Commission has 9 Commissioners:

• Sir Bernard Silverman (Chair)
• Nigel Clifford (Deputy Chair)
• Kru Desai (Independent Commissioner)
• Edwina Dunn (Independent Commissioner)
• Steve Unger (Independent Commissioner)
• Alex Notay (Independent Commissioner)
• Thalia Baldwin (Director of the Commission)
• Karen Hanghoj and Steve Blair are the two commissioners nominated by the six Partner Bodies of the Commission to represent them.

The Independent Commissioners were appointed through an open competition.

Alex Notay Biography

Alexandra Notay is Placemaking and Investment Director at PfP Capital, the fund and asset management arm of Places for People Group, overseeing a UK-wide residential strategy. She is an internationally recognised expert on build to rent, placemaking and sustainable urban development, with 16 years’ strategic advisory and investment experience to private sector, government and third sector organisations across four continents. In January 2019 Alex was selected as one of the 48 women shaping the future of UK real estate at the prestigious BISNOW Women Leaders event.

Alex is a published author and editor of over 30 books and reports on real estate including the renowned ULI UK Best Practice Guide on Build to Rent (2014, 2016). Alex is vice-chair of the ULI UK Residential Council, chair of the BPF working group on residential ESG, serves on BPF’s Build to Rent Committee, AREF’s ESG / Impact Investing committee and is a Member of CREFC Europe. She is also a non-executive director of Essensys plc, Co-Chair of the Creative Land Trust, SouthWest Board Member for LandAid and trustee of the SunScreenIT Foundation.

With a reputation for being ‘abnormally energetic’, Alex is passionate about enabling tangible social impact through innovation and collaboration as well as mentoring the next generation of diverse talent.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, friends, welcome to London and welcome to the Global Education Summit.

We are gathered with heads of state and ministers from over 30 countries, NGOs and other partners, thousands joining online from right around the world.

We are gathered because we are united in believing in one really important thing – and that is in the power of education as a force for good in the world.

We believe in the testimonies we just heard from Sikemi and my fellow lawyer Cynthia, and millions of young people like that.

We believe in their potential, and the power of education to unleash it.

That’s why we’re here today.

And that’s why there is a breathless new urgency around the work that the Global Partnership for Education is doing.

Because we know that COVID has set back progress further and faster than anyone could have possibly predicted at the time.

We know that 1.6 billion children and young people were out of education at the height of those school closures during the pandemic.

There’s a real risk that as many as 24 million children will never return to school. And of course, of those who are out of school, it often the girls that are slowest to get back into education for a whole range of reasons.

We just cannot allow that to happen. That’s why we’ve got to get behind the vital work that the Global Partnership for Education is doing and I want to pay tribute to Alice Albright, to Julia Gillard and the whole GP team for the fantastic dynamism, determination and commitment that they’ve brought to this vital mission.

And I think partnership is the key word in all of this because we know that we’ll achieve much more together, working in partnership, than we could ever alone.

So it’s in that spirit that we are delighted and honoured to co-host this summit with Kenya.

And let me just say a little bit about that partnership that we’ve been nurturing and developing with Kenya, because the Government of Kenya has done a truly phenomenal job, and particularly on education.

They’ve trained more than 102,000 teachers and distributed 60 million textbooks in primary and secondary schools.

They’ve realised the goal of universal primary education and gender parity in enrolment. That’s quite something.

I want to pay tribute in particular to President Kenyatta, and congratulate the whole Kenyan government and indeed Kenya as a whole, on that inspiring achievement.

We as the UK are also proud in helping to support Kenya in the progress they have made, just as we are proud to have worked in partnership with so many others who are represented here at the summit today.

In Ghana, we’ve worked with the Government and NGOs to run community-based classes which have supported over 270,000 out-of-school children to gain literacy and numeracy skills as well as other life skills, which are so important.

In Pakistan, we’ve provided targeted support for over 400,000 highly marginalised young girls. That includes providing scholarships for young girls from tough backgrounds to get an education.

It includes setting up community-run schools to reduce the distance that girls must travel so they can get that vital education.

So let’s keep that engine of progress fired up and build on what we’ve achieved to date. Because, quite simply, we believe that educating girls is the biggest game-changer in global development policy.

And that’s not just something we feel in our hearts – take a look at the facts, the evidence, that back that up.

A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live beyond the age of 5, 50% more likely to be immunised, and twice as likely to attend school themselves.

Our cause today empowers girls and women but it also helps whole families, whole communities, whole nations, get out of the poverty trap and into a better standard of living.

That’s why the UK is hosting this summit, alongside our Kenyan friends.

Between 2015 and 2020, the UK helped over 8 million girls into education.

Earlier this month, at the United Nations Human Rights Council, we introduced a resolution to promote girls’ education, and in particular to promote 12 years of quality education – the bedrock, the foundation – and it was backed by over 80 countries.

So our alliance for this mission is growing, and that’s going to be a multiplier, if you like, as we step up our efforts. Then in Cornwall at the G7 Summit of leaders, under the UK presidency, the G7 endorsed two new targets to focus our work.

Those targets are getting 40 million more girls into 12 years’ quality education and 20 million more girls literate by the age of 10. We want to focus this incredibly important cause on the key areas that will make a difference.

Just think for a moment what it will mean for the lives, the countries and the whole continents that that can be transformed if we can deliver on those global targets and financial goals that we’ve got here today.

Just think about that, it would be truly transformative, if not revolutionary, in particular in Africa.

So let’s do it – let’s get behind this, let’s get behind those targets, let’s find the investments that we know will repay us many times over.

The Global Partnership for Education will be absolutely essential in helping us reach our goals. And as I’ve said, the GPE is the lynchpin in this mission that we’ve set ourselves.

And to transform education in the world’s most vulnerable countries, we want to raise $4 billion at this summit this week.

That is of course the lion’s share of the $5 billion of funding that the GPE needs over the next 5 years to hit these crucial targets.

And the GPE’s going to be investing those resources with a plan they’ve got, in wise ways, in smart ways, focusing on where the money is needed most. And where the investment can add the most value, looking at the highest impact that we can possibly have.

They will work to boost the quality of education by working with countries to develop plans to transform their education systems, encouraging the reforming zeal of the brightest and the best.

Monitoring the implementation of those plans, and investing in key game-changing reforms, whether it’s boosting teacher training, or making the best use of education tech wherever we can.

But we can’t do any of those things without the money.

The funds that we raise this week will allow us to take huge strides forward towards those ambitious targets of 40 million more girls getting 12 years of quality education, 20 million more girls literate by the age of 10.

It’s absolutely critical we raise that $4 billion this week.

If we can, it would be the single biggest financial boost to children’s educational opportunities around the world in history.

And it would come at the point, if we think about this pandemic, of maximum need. So we’ve got a really critical crossroads moment for us all here at this summit this week.

Let’s be restless. Let’s summon all of our ambition, all of our passion, all of our focus, all of the best policy minds that are here.

And for our part, the UK has pledged £430 million.

This is our largest ever pledge we’ve made to GPE. It’s 15% up on the last multi-year pledge that we made, and under the UK’s G7 Presidency, G7 leaders pledged at least $2.7 billion.

So we are off to a flying start.

I call on everyone to pledge whatever they can, and to be as ambitious as they possibly can in pursuit of this life-changing, world-transforming mission that I know we all share.

Together let’s seize the opportunity that this summit presents. Let’s revolutionise the life chances of those girls, those communities, those whole nations and those continents that we have the power, the gift to support.

We know it in our minds. We know it and feel it in our hearts.

Children want to learn – I’ve got two young kids myself, eight and six. They want to understand the world, they want to fulfil their potential and lift up their own prospects but also their families, their communities, their nations.

And that starts and ends with the education they receive. So please, please, please, together, let’s make this moment count.

Thank you all very much.

Agenda Item 2: Implementation of the Bali, Nairobi and Buenos Aires Outcomes

Proposals for a new UK Developing Countries Trading Scheme will replace GSP and we have invited colleagues’ views on the scheme. This is due to come into effect next year. It will be more sustainable, pro-growth and simpler. We are looking to be best of class. Live consultations are underway until 12th September and we welcome members’ feedback.

Agenda Item 4: TRIPS Council Matters

I welcome the factual, objective and accurate report by the TRIPS Council Chair. We all recognised the scale of the challenge as the pandemic continued to rage in so much of the world and paid tribute to the eloquent testimony to its human effects by South Africa and others. We all agreed that our objective should be – to use the phraseology the G7 at Carbis Bay – to vaccinate the world. The question was how.

Sitting on the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce board last year, we faced many challenges in developing and deploying vaccines, including potential bottlenecks and the resilience of our supply chains. IP was not the problem, nor is it. In fact, it was the IP regime that has enabled the extraordinary scientific advances of the last year, including the development of an unexpected number of safe and effective vaccines.

Scaling up the production and delivery of vaccines has been at the heart of our G7 Presidency, including the commitment to share a billion doses within the next year and our national financial contribution to COVAX of £548m (three quarters of billion dollars) as well as our forthcoming sharing of doses through COVAX.

We would continue to encourage voluntary licensing and technology transfer, support COVAX and look to identify solutions to production bottlenecks and weaknesses in the supply chain. And in that respect we very much welcomed efforts to bolster public/private and international collaboration in this area, such as the WTO-WHO Symposium last week, and also the new World Bank/COVAX financing mechanism.

Agenda Item 5 & 6: Work Programme on Electronic Commerce – Report by the Chair and Work Programme on Electronic Commerce and Moratorium on Imposing Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions

Digitalisation is one of the great features of the modern age. It has been hastened by the pandemic. Digitalisation is a good thing for developing and developed countries alike. Many examples have been cited of countries who have been helped to integrate into the global economy and pull themselves out of poverty through digitalisation. We are a very strong supporter of the work programme on e-commerce and recognise the importance of inclusive digital trade. We welcome recent structured discussions held by the GC chair and support constructive, open and inclusive discussions. Let me echo the comments of Australia and EU. It would be inconceivable to do anything other than extend or render permanent the Moratorium. To do otherwise would be bizarre.

Agenda Item 7 & 8: Preparations for the Twelfth Session of the Ministerial Conference and Contributions to the Multilateral Process on the WTO Response to the Pandemic

This is an area where Ministers will want a substantive outcome, as we will still be in the midst of the pandemic when they meet at MC12. Let me pay tribute to Ambassador Walker for the consultations and hard work. Let me also pay tribute to the DG for collaboration with other international organisations and business. We need more of this collaboration in the months ahead. We are a cosponsor of TAHI and therefore encourage others to join up to it. We also welcome the EU and Chinese Taipei’s proposals. As others have said, we need a holistic approach that focuses on practical solutions. That is what is so strong about the trade and health declaration proposal that delivers concrete actions to facilitate trade during the pandemic and beyond, allowing members to react with flexibility and agility to pressures. It is important that as we move forward, we reach an outcome for this Ministerial Conference, but also a programme of work that allows us to develop these proposals in the years ahead to ensure this organisation is prepared for future pandemics.

Agenda Item 13: G90 Declaration on Special and Differential Treatment – Communication from South Africa on behalf of the G90 (WT/GC/234)

My thanks to South Africa and G90 for their paper. We all agree that Special and Differential Treatment remains an important tool for supporting WTO members with genuine need – in particular for supporting Least Developed Countries in their integration into the multilateral trading system and enjoy benefits of this system. This should obviously continue. But, we all recognise that the current mechanism for awarding and claiming SDT requires reform. A more targeted approach based on specific and identified needs is required to ensure those Members with real need are supported during current and future negotiations. A granularity to which the EU just referred. Both at, and in the run-up to MC12, the United Kingdom would like to see concrete progress towards such a more balanced and targeted approach to SDT, and we look forward to engaging with further Members to seek common ground in the weeks ahead.

Agenda Item 14: Paper Titled “The Legal Status of ‘Joint Statement Initiatives’ and their Negotiated Outcomes” – Request from India and South Africa (WT/GC/W/819)

Thank you very much Mr Chairman. What strikes me is the importance of the Joint Initiatives to the credibility of the WTO. If we were to lose the JIs then we would be all the poorer. We support the comments made by the European Union and recall our statements in previous meetings. The UK is a strong supporter of the Joint Initiatives, which have brought much needed energy and dynamism to the WTO. These plurilateral negotiations are enabling a significant proportion of the membership to make much needed progress on key areas, where new rules are urgently needed to demonstrate the Organization’s credibility in the 21st century global economy, in a way that is open and inclusive.

Agenda Item 15: Proposed General Council Decision on Procedures to Enhance Transparency and Strengthen Notification Requirements Under WTO Agreements

As others have said, transparency lies right at the heart of this organisation and I would like to salute the United States for the leadership role they have made on this initiative and really welcome the new co-sponsors who have joined up to it. As our Canadian and US colleagues have said, we have made a real effort to try and listen to the comments of others before bringing this initiative to the General Council, in particular as was said, to consider the capacity constraints that some LDCs fair. So I really would appeal to others across this organisation to join this initiative and we really look forward to taking it forward and put into practice. I think it can really aid us, as so many delegations have expressed in the last day or so. Increased transparency, as a means of increasing the trust, which we need to build within this organisation and I hope that this initiative can be a really constructive proposal to that end.

Agenda Item 16: Joint Communication on Systemic Issues

Thank you to the co-sponsors for bringing forward this joint communication. We are not a co-sponsor but there is much in this communication that we very much commend. We support efforts like this to affirm the rules based multi-lateral trading system and indeed the need for a reform of this organisation in order to support that. We particularly agree with the centrality of this organisation in the multilateral trading system as well as the importance of an open, predictable and transparent system to secure the sort of inclusive, sustainable, greener recovery that I think we all want to see after this pandemic. I also want to mention in this context, in the response to this pandemic, we have just announced today the delivery of the first 9 million promised 100 million doses to developing countries, those 9 million of AstraZeneca vaccines being delivered in the course of this week and next for a number of developing countries, most of them through the COVAX mechanism. As well as the existing negotiations and systemic discussions on reform, we would like to see further reform of the WTO rulebook to mitigate, amongst other things, the impact of market distorting practices in the global trading system, including the use of industrial subsidies. So, we look forward to working with Members across this organisation to progress this reform agenda, both up to, and beyond MC12. Thank you very much indeed.

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Planning permission has been granted to build the country’s first national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament, with construction starting later this year.

The new Holocaust Memorial will be the national focal point to honour the 6 million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered in the Holocaust, and other victims of Nazi persecution, including the Roma, gay and disabled people.

The co-located Learning Centre will also focus on subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The world-class facility will give visitors powerful and engaging experiences to learn about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides through a variety of mediums including historic photographs, film footage and audio recordings so that the stories of survivors can be heard by younger generations, present and future.

The government will provide free entry to all visitors, in perpetuity. Government support will supplement funds raised from visitor donations and other charitable contributions to cover the running costs of the Memorial and Learning Centre which is expected to open in 2024. The government has already announced that it will contribute up to £75 million towards construction costs, to be supplemented by £25 million from charitable donations.

Following planning approval, works will start on the site later this year with an anticipated completion date of 2025.

The decision comes on the back of the sad loss of Asa Bruno of Ron Arad Associates, a crucial member of our design team.

Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:

This is an important moment for the whole country: today’s decision means that the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre will be built in the heart of Westminster, right next to Parliament. The government will now move forward with the construction of the memorial, which will start later this year.

We have a duty to ensure that the history of the Holocaust is never forgotten and never repeated – the Memorial and Learning Centre will allow everyone to reflect, remember and honour those who suffered and died and to educate future generations in anti-Semitism, where, if unchecked, antisemitism and hatred can lead.

I’d like to thank all those who have worked tirelessly – and will no doubt continue to do so – to make this a reality. The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation is driving this project forward and I know this will be deeply appreciated by many, including Holocaust survivors who can be assured that their stories and the history of the Holocaust will continue be told to future generations.

Ed Balls and Lord Pickles, Co-Chairs of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, said:

This is an important milestone, bringing closer the day when we have a national Memorial which properly commemorates the 6 million Jewish men, women and children and all others murdered by the Nazis.

Our planning system is rigorous, fair and transparent, and enables all points of view to be expressed. I’m grateful to the Minister and the Planning Inspector for giving such careful thought to our plans and to the objections raised. Our responsibility now is to move as quickly as we can towards completion, creating a Memorial that the whole nation can be proud of, and one which ensures that essential lessons are never forgotten.

Speaking on the passing of Asa Bruno, Lord Pickles said:

Asa, had so much to give, his patience and calmness at the planning inquiry did us all a great service.

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said:  

This is a significant moment on our journey towards a major national Holocaust memorial. Now the sacred work to enshrine our country’s commitment to teaching the essential lessons of the Holocaust in a monument and learning centre beside parliament, can truly begin. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those responsible for bringing the project to this point, particularly Ed Balls, Lord Pickles and their team.” 

Eric Murangwa Eugene MBE, Survivor of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda, said:

I am extremely delighted by today’s decision to grant planning permission to build the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre at such an iconic location in London. This is truly a ground breaking moment, and I most sincerely wish that the UK and the world will use this centre to learn more about the Holocaust and other Genocides, remember and honour the victims but more importantly, to renew our commitment to the concept and obligation of Never Again.

Sir Ben Helfgott, Holocaust survivor, said:

Holocaust survivors like me came to the UK after liberation, and we made Britain our home; British forces liberated my sister at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The Holocaust is part of British history.

I am proud that the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is being built, in the heart of our country, so it can be visited by millions. I know that long after I, and the other survivors, are gone, the UK will continue to remember the Holocaust and learn what happened when hatred reigned.

Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive, Holocaust Educational Trust, said:

As the Holocaust moves from living memory to history, there could not be a more important time to build this Memorial, in the shadow of Parliament, as a reminder for generations to come of what happened when antisemitism and hatred were able to flourish. This Memorial and Learning Centre will be an important addition to the excellent foundations of Holocaust education and remembrance already established in this country and will help to ensure the legacy of the Holocaust for generations to come.

The Holocaust is part of our shared history that everyone should know about and remember, and I’m proud that this UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is going to be built at the very heart of our democracy.

Nina Olshan, Micro Rainbow

We support the decision to build this memorial in the centre of London, remembering the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust as well as all other victims of Nazi persecution. It is essential that this memorial captures the diversity of the communities the Nazi’s murdered. This memorial can serve as a reminder of how far we still have to go.

In January 2016 the then Prime Minister announced that the chosen location for the Memorial was Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.

After an international competition, with 92 entries in total and ten finalists, Adjaye Associates, Ron Arad Architects and Gustafson Porter + Bowman were selected unanimously as the winning team, by a jury including the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Mayor of London, the Chief Rabbi, experts from architecture, art and design, and both first and second-generation Holocaust survivors. The announcement was made on 24 October 2017.

A planning application was submitted to Westminster City Council in December 2018. In November 2019 the Housing Minister decided to call in the planning application for determination at the national level because of the project’s significant effects beyond the immediate locality.

The planning inquiry was held between 6 October 2020 and 13 November 2020. The final decision on planning consent will be made independently by the Housing Minister following the submission of the planning inspector’s report.

The government committed £50 million in 2015 and in 2019 announced an additional £25 million of government money to be matched by charitable donations.