Over one billion children in the world’s poorest countries will see a transformation in their educational opportunities thanks to £430 million of new UK aid announced by the Prime Minister today (Friday 11th June).

This afternoon, in the first session of the UK’s G7 Summit, leaders discussed how to build back better from the coronavirus pandemic in a way that creates opportunities for everyone. Ensuring all girls get a quality education is central to that goal.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused an unprecedented global education crisis, with 1.6 billion children around the world out of school at its height. Girls have been hardest hit as the pandemic compounded the obstacles to education girls already face, including poverty, gender-based violence and child marriage.

The support announced by the UK today will go to the Global Partnership for Education, the largest fund dedicated to education in developing countries.

Since it was established in 2002 GPE has contributed to the largest expansion of primary and lower secondary schooling in history, getting 160 million more children into school. In countries where GPE works the number of girls enrolling in school has increased by 65 per cent.

Next month the UK and Kenya will co-host the Global Education Summit in London which aims to help raise $5 billion to support the work of the GPE over the next five years. The funding boost pledged by the UK and other G7 countries will go a considerable way towards achieving this goal.

Getting girls into school is one of the easiest ways to lift countries out of poverty and help them rebound from the coronavirus crisis – a child whose mother can read is twice as likely to go to school themselves and 50% more likely to be immunised. With just one additional school year, a woman’s earnings can increase by a fifth.

Supporting girls’ education is therefore a cornerstone of the UK’s G7 Presidency. Today G7 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to targets set at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in May to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more girls reading by the age of 10 in the next five years. The work of the GPE will be instrumental in helping achieve those targets.

Today the Prime Minister called on fellow leaders to make their own major commitments to achieve these targets, as well as the ambition to ensure every girl in the world receives 12 years of quality education.

Italy and the European Commission have already made pledges of €25 million and €700 million respectively to GPE and further announcements on funding are expected from G7 partners in the coming days.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:

The best way we can lift countries out of poverty and lead a global recovery is by investing in education and particularly girls’ education.

It is a source of international shame that every day around the world children bursting with potential are denied the chance to become titans of industry, scientific pioneers or leaders in any field, purely because they are female, their parents’ income or the place they were born.

I am calling on other world leaders, including those here at the G7, to also donate and put us firmly on a path to get more girls into the classroom, address the terrible setback to global education caused by coronavirus and help the world build back better.

The £430m of new aid funding announced today will go towards GPE’s work in 90 lower-income countries that are home to 1.1 billion children over the next five years. In time GPE aim to train 2.2 million more teachers, build 78,000 new classrooms and buy 512 million textbooks.

This funding pledge for the Global Partnership for Education is separate to the £400m of UK aid which will be spent this year on bilateral efforts to increase girls’ access to education.

Can I begin by welcoming you all here to Carbis Bay. It’s genuinely wonderful to see everybody in person, I can’t say what a difference it makes.

You’ve all been going through the most wretched pandemic the world has faced for at least our lifetimes. I actually think that this is a meeting that genuinely needs to happen because we need to make sure we learn lessons from the pandemic. We need to make sure we don’t repeat some of the errors that we have made in the course of the last 18 months or so and we put in place what is needed to allow our economies to recover. They have the potential to bounce back very strongly and we have all sorts of reasons to be optimistic, but it is vital that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the last great crisis, the last big economic recession of 2008 when the recovery was not uniform across all part of society.

What’s gone wrong with this pandemic, what risks being a lasting scar, is the inequalities that have been entrenched. We need to make sure that as we recover, we level up across our societies – we need to build back better.

I actually think that we have a huge opportunity to do that, because as a G7 we are united in our vision for a cleaner, greener world. A solution to the problems of climate change in all those ideas, in those technologies, that we’re all addressing. Together I think there is a potential to generate many, many millions of high wage, high skilled jobs and I think that is what the people of our countries now want us to focus on.

They want to be sure that we’re beating the pandemic together and discussing how to never have a repeat of what we’ve seen. But also that we’re building back better together. And building back greener. And building back fairer. And building back more equal. Maybe in a more gender neutral, a more feminine, way. So those are some of the objectives we have before us today. Thank you all very, very much.

A haulage company and its director have been ordered to pay £9,923 for moving waste in and out of an illegal waste site in Fineshade, Northamptonshire.

BRC Haulage Ltd, of Cygnet Park, Hampton, Peterborough, and Robert Canavan, Director of BRC Haulage Ltd, pleaded guilty to a number of charges at Northampton Magistrates Court on 9 June 2021. These were 3 charges of illegally depositing waste, and 5 charges of breaching their waste duty of care by failing to prepare waste transfer notes to document the nature of the waste leaving the site.

The illegal waste site they used at Monkton Sidings in Fineshade near Corby had no environmental permit and is operated by serial waste offender, Stephen Lack, who was jailed for 18 months in January 2021.
The lack of environmental permit meant that waste was stored on the bare ground, placing land and water resources, including the neighbouring Fineshade Woods, at risk.

Environment Agency Lawyer Sarah Dunne told the court that waste transfer notes are necessary to ensure that waste is handled safely and correctly. BRC Haulage Ltd had many years of experience and knew that such documentation was required but didn’t take steps to record waste movements in and out of the Monkton Sidings site.

She also explained how they had prevented the Environment Agency from effectively regulating the site and, by depositing waste at an unpermitted site, had saved costs and fees.

Defending BRC Haulage Ltd and Robert Canavan, barrister Mauro Maselli said that the defendants apologised for their offending. He told the court that they had co-operated with the Environment Agency and had admitted the offences at an early stage.

Sentencing the defendants, the magistrates observed that this had been reckless offending. Fining the Company £5,000, BRC Haulage Ltd were told that they had been in business long enough to understand that they were working in a highly regulated industry and that Stephen Lack was not a lawful operator. The Company was ordered to pay the Environment Agency’s costs of £4,128.

Robert Canavan, of Park Road, Peterborough in his capacity as a Director, was fined £768 and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £77.

Yvonne Daly, Manager at the Environment Agency, said:

Illegal waste sites like Monkton Sidings are a blight on our environment, countryside and to communities and legitimate business.

We would advise members of the public to make their own due diligence checks when choosing a waste carrier before there is any commercial contractual agreement.

Check your waste collector’s waste carriers registration online or call 03708 506 506.

Earlier this year the Environment Agency and partners launched the Joint Unit for Waste Crime, aiming to stop serious and organised crime in the UK Waste Industry. Find out more about the initiative.

The charges: ILLEGAL DEPOSITS – BRC HAULAGE LTD On 29 August 2019 you deposited controlled waste namely a quantity of mixed waste in or on land at Monkton Sidings when there was no environmental permit in force authorising such a deposit contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 On 31 August 2019 you deposited controlled waste namely a quantity of mixed waste in or on land at Monkton Sidings when there was no environmental permit in force authorising such a deposit contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 On 16 September 2019 you deposited controlled waste namely a quantity of mixed waste in or on land at Monkton Sidings when there was no environmental permit in force authorising such a deposit contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990

ILLEGAL DEPOSITS – ROBERT CANAVAN On 29 August 2019 BRC Haulage Ltd deposited controlled waste namely a quantity of mixed waste in or on land at Monkton Sidings when there was no environmental permit in force authorising such a deposit and that offence was due to your consent, connivance or neglect as a Director of BRC Haulage Ltd contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) and section 157(1) Environmental Protection Act 1990

On 31 August 2019 BRC Haulage Ltd deposited controlled waste namely a quantity of mixed waste in or on land at Monkton Sidings when there was no environmental permit in force authorising such a deposit and that offence was due to your consent, connivance or neglect as a Director of BRC Haulage Ltd contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) and section 157(1) Environmental Protection Act 1990

On 16 September 2019 BRC Haulage Ltd deposited controlled waste namely a quantity of mixed waste in or on land at Monkton Sidings when there was no environmental permit in force authorising such a deposit and that offence was due to your consent, connivance or neglect as a Director of BRC Haulage Ltd contrary to section 33(1)(a) and (6) and section 157(1) Environmental Protection Act 1990

DUTY OF CARE OFFENCES – BRC HAULAGE LTD On 29 August 2019 you failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) Environmental Protection Act 1990.

On 30 August 2019 you failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) Environmental Protection Act 1990.

On 31 August 2019 you failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) Environmental Protection Act 1990.

On 2 September 2019 you failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) Environmental Protection Act 1990.

DUTY OF CARE OFFENCES – ROBERT CANAVAN On or about 29 August 2019 BRC Haulage Ltd failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and such failure was due to your consent, connivance or attributable to your neglect as a director of BRC Haulage Ltd contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) and section 157(1) Environmental Protection Act 1990

On or about 30 August 2019 BRC Haulage Ltd failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and such failure was due to your consent, connivance or attributable to your neglect as a director of BRC Haulage Ltd contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) and section 157(1) Environmental Protection Act 1990

On or about 31 August 2019 BRC Haulage Ltd failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and such failure was due to your consent, connivance or attributable to your neglect as a director of BRC Haulage Ltd contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) and section 157(1) Environmental Protection Act 1990

On or about 2 September 2019 BRC Haulage Ltd failed to comply with the duty of care imposed by section 34(1)(c)(ii) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in that, being a person that carries controlled waste, namely, a quantity of waste soil and hard core, did fail to take such measures as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that, on transfer of the waste, that there was such a written description of the waste as to enable other persons to avoid any contravention of section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and such failure was due to your consent, connivance or attributable to your neglect as a director of BRC Haulage Ltd contrary to section 34(1)(c)(ii) and (6) and section 157(1) Environmental Protection Act 1990