Thank you, Mr President.

I would like to start by thanking the Prosecutor for her 32nd report on the situation in Darfur pursuant to Security Council resolution 1593 (2005). The continued work of the Prosecutor and her team is an important part of the efforts towards ensuring accountability for the most serious of crimes committed in Darfur. The International Criminal Court also has an important role to play in global efforts to end impunity for these crimes of international concern, and the United Kingdom fully supports its efforts to hold perpetrators to account and achieve justice for victims in Darfur.

Mr President, since this Council was last briefed on the situation in Darfur pursuant to Security Council resolution 1593 we have continued to see the Government of Sudan make welcome progress in implementing key reforms to ensure justice and accountability is delivered across Sudan. These include the repeal of criminal law provisions that prevented cooperation with the ICC as well as legal reforms on women’s and children’s rights.

Here, I would like to draw particular attention to the first visit of the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, to Khartoum, a historic moment for the new Sudan. The cooperation between the Court and the Sudanese authorities is a clear demonstration of the importance that the transitional government has placed on the pursuit of justice for victims of atrocity crimes in Darfur. As is the recent Juba Peace Agreement, which pledges the signatories’ preparedness for full and unlimited cooperation with the ICC concerning persons for whom arrest warrants have been issued.

Mr President, whilst it is right that we recognise and applaud the progress that has been made, the UK acknowledges that this is one of many steps in the process of ensuring justice and accountability are served – and that issues of concern remain. As the Prosecutor details in her report the security situation in Darfur has deteriorated during this period, with spikes in violence resulting in the deaths, injury and further displacements of civilians. The continued persistence of human rights violations and incidence of sexual violence, particularly against children, is concerning and unacceptable.

Here, I echo the statement to the Council of my country’s Permanent Representative on Tuesday and call on the Government of Sudan to build on the progress already made and intensify their efforts to improve judicial systems and rule of law institutions as part of the implementation of their National Plan for Civilian Protection (S/2020/429).

Finally, I would like to thank the Prosecutor and her team for their continued dedication and work on this situation during this reporting period. The United Kingdom welcomes the work of the Office of the Prosecutor since the surrender of Ali Kushayb to continue their investigative activities to strengthen and reinforce this case. We urge the Government of Sudan to continue their work with the ICC and facilitate, swiftly, the Office’s request for support on these efforts including access to Darfur.

In closing, Mr President, let me reiterate the United Kingdom’s support for the welcome commitments that the Government of Sudan has made on ensuring justice and accountability not only for historic crimes committed in Darfur, but across Sudan. We urge Sudan to build upon this progress as they continue to implement the goals of the transition. We stand ready to assist as part of our wider commitment to support the people of Sudan.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has written to the Mayor of London today (10 December 2020). The letter sets out an agreed approach to 11 policy Directions issued to the Mayor in March 2020 and issues two new Directions for the Mayor to amend his London Plan before it can be published in its final form. The letter invites the Mayor to re-submit his draft London Plan for final approval, as soon as is practical.

The Government has today (Thursday 10 December) published a Command Paper setting out details of an agreement in principle on the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol between the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove, and the EU Commission Vice President, Maroš Šefčovič. The agreement in principle draws on months of UK Government engagement with businesses and technical engagement with the EU and the Northern Ireland Executive.

The paper outlines how this meets the Government’s three key commitments to the people of Northern Ireland as the Protocol takes effect:

• Unfettered access guaranteed for Northern Ireland businesses to the rest of the UK market – with no export declarations required as goods move from Northern Ireland to Great Britain.

• Northern Ireland’s place in the UK customs territory secured – with a new UK Trader Scheme to ensure there are no new tariffs for businesses and consumers on internal UK trade, and the means to maintain the UK’s VAT area.

• Smooth flow of trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland maintained – with critical flexibilities to maintain the flow of food supplies and medicines, and avoid the need for any new physical customs infrastructure.

The UK Government is also launching a new element of its Comprehensive Support Scheme for Traders. The Movement Assistance Scheme (MAS) will complement the existing Trader Support Service, which now has over 19,000 businesses enrolled. The MAS will provide assistance for traders moving food or agricultural products for which specific SPS controls apply – meaning the Government will cover, for example, reasonable costs for obtaining Export Health Certificates. Businesses can be assured that despite the new requirements of the Protocol, businesses will be supported to deal with new direct costs.

The deal means the whole of the United Kingdom will be able to make the most of the freedoms that come with the end of the Brexit transition period, including giving the Northern Ireland Executive the scope it needs to support its agricultural and fisheries producers outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). It also provides a solution to the inadvertent risk of “reach back” of the Protocol’s state aid provisions to companies in Great Britain, requiring a “genuine and direct link” to commercial operations taking place in Northern Ireland.

This agreement in principle means the Protocol can be implemented in a pragmatic and proportionate way – protecting the territorial and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom, upholding the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and helping to ensure there is no hard border on the island of Ireland.

The Chancellor the Duchy of Lancaster, Rt Hon Michael Gove, said:

This agreement with the EU provides stability and security for the people of Northern Ireland. We have guaranteed unfettered access for Northern Ireland businesses to the whole of the UK market, protected Northern Ireland’s place in the UK customs territory and ensured the smooth flow of trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The UK Government has been working closely with ministers and officials from the Northern Ireland Executive on the implementation of the Protocol. And we have listened to the concerns raised by Northern Ireland businesses in designing our Trader Support Service, and the complimentary Movement Assistance Scheme we are launching today.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt Hon Brandon Lewis, said:

The Government’s top priority has been to protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and the gains made through the peace process. Our approach has been guided by this principle as we delivered against the commitments set out in our May Command Paper.

The agreement announced this week provides certainty to businesses in Northern Ireland, protects their interests and recognises Northern Ireland’s integral place in the United Kingdom.

Coronavirus press conference (10 December 2020)

Good evening, and welcome back to Downing Street for today’s coronavirus briefing.

Today I’m joined by Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, and Professor Steve Powis, Medical Director of NHS England.

The start of our COVID-19 vaccination programme on Tuesday was the latest in a long line of firsts for the NHS. The NHS was the first health care system in the world to roll out the vaccines for other deadly diseases like TB, measles, mumps and rubella, and meningitis C.

So I’m so proud we can now add COVID-19 to that list.

Before updating you on vaccine deployment, I’d like to go through the latest coronavirus data.

The average number of new cases each day is now 16,236 – that has risen over the last week.

Today, there are 15,242 COVID patients in hospital across the UK – which is slightly less than last week. And sadly, 516 deaths were reported yesterday.

Vaccine deployment

The fall in the number of cases has flattened off – and is rising in some parts of the country like Kent, Essex and some parts of London.

It shows us this fight is far from over and how we must all play our part and stay on our guard, now and through Christmas.

We’ve got help on the horizon and we can all see that with the vaccine – so don’t blow it now. And of course, this shows why the deployment of a vaccine is so important.

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone involved in the vaccine rollout so far, which has been done with such professionalism and skill.

And today I want to pay a special tribute and thank pharmacists, who are working with such a tricky vaccine. Must be kept cold at -70 degrees. They have done so much work to get ready for this moment at such pace.

As of today, we are vaccinating in 73 hospitals across the UK. Tens of thousands of people have had the jab.

I want to set out the next steps.

I can confirm that we will shortly expand our vaccination programme further to 10 more locations in England and from next week we will begin vaccinations in GP-led sites and vaccinate in care homes by Christmas.

We will keep on expanding this roll out to reach more and more people.

As more vaccines come on stream, we will open vaccination centres in larger venues, like sports stadia and conference halls next year and that’s when most people can expect to get their jabs.

When the time comes, the NHS will get in touch with you – so you don’t need to come forward and get in contact with the NHS.

Get the jab

On Tuesday in Milton Keynes, it was great to meet some of the patients and the staff involved.

And I loved what Barbara – who’s 82 – said. When she got her jab there she said: “I’d much rather get the vaccine than COVID-19 itself”.

I’m with Barbara. It’s free according to need – and it’s the very best way to protect you and to protect those around you. And when enough people get vaccinated – and we see those hospitalisations coming down – we can then start lifting those restrictions which have made this year so tough.

And I felt so proud when I sat with Muhammad Hassan, I sat with him while he got his jab. He’s a doctor at Milton Keynes Hospital who volunteered to treat COVID patients – and himself caught COVID in the first peak.

He said the jab was painless.

But we also talked about the challenges that we still face right now while we roll out the jab across the country.

Protect the NHS

Even with this mass vaccination programme, for the next few months, we will not have sufficient protection through the vaccination programme.

This is always the most difficult time for the NHS anyway for the winter months.

And with the number of cases flattening again, we’ve all got to do our bit and not put more pressure on the NHS.

To do that, we must keep respecting the rules where we are and take those sensible steps that we can all take: washing our hands, covering our face and making space between people, respecting that social distancing and the rules that come with it.

We can’t stop that now, just because the vaccine is here.

And even if you’ve had the jab, you are not immune. The vaccine will not fully protect you until 7 days after you’ve received the second dose and we don’t yet know if it will stop you from passing on the disease to other people.

So we all have to keep acting as if we still can pass it on. That is the safest way to get the number of cases down and keep people safe.

London, Kent and Essex

I’m particularly concerned about the number of cases in London, Kent and Essex.

Cases are rising – and in many areas, already high.

Looking into the detail, the testing results and surveys show us that by far the fastest rise is among secondary school age children, 11 to 18 year-olds while the rate among adults in London is broadly flat.

But we know from experience that a sharp rise in cases in younger people can lead to a rise amongst more vulnerable age groups later. We’ve seen that happen before.

So we need to do everything we can to stop the spread among school-age children in London right now.

We must not wait until the review which will take place on the 16 December.

We need to take targeted action immediately.

Having spoken to the leaders of London’s councils, and to the mayor, we have decided to put in place an immediate plan for testing all secondary school aged children in the 7 worst affected boroughs of London, in parts of Essex that border London, and parts of Kent.

We want to keep schools open, because that’s both right for education and right for public health.

We are therefore surging mobile testing units and we will be working with schools and local authorities to encourage these children and their families to get tested over the coming days.

More details will be set out tomorrow.

And I want to urge all those involved to step forward for testing.

It is important that 11 to 18 year-olds get tested in these boroughs irrespective of whether they have symptoms – this is a really important point, because we know that you can have COVID – and you can still pass it on – even without symptoms.

Around 1 in 3 people with COVID have no symptoms at all but they can still pass it on to others.

I know that nobody wants to be responsible for endangering those around them so I urge everyone involved to get a test.

We surged testing in Leicester. We surged testing in Liverpool.

We know that community testing can work and it requires a collective spirit of determination and resilience, and of people coming together to do the right thing. Something I have confidence that everybody involved will find in the days to come.

This sort of community testing deployment is not just available in London, Kent and Essex, where cases are rising, but also across the country to help get cases coming down.

We are now working with over 100 local authorities across England – and with the 3 devolved administrations – to help get cases down using community testing.

This includes Manchester, Kirklees and Lancashire, who are planning to mobilise community-based testing in their areas before Christmas. As are Manchester and Kirklees.

This offer remains available across the UK to be done in partnership with local authorities and devolved administrations.

Test and Trace 2.0

We can deploy this sort of massive testing, because of the work NHS Test and Trace have done so effectively to build our vast testing capacity.

Our new NHS Test and Trace Business Plan, which we published today, sets out how we will grow this yet further.

Today’s figures on testing and tracing show that – thanks to improvements in the way we do contact tracing – by reducing the number of repeat calls that are made to individual households, which has been one of the pieces of feedback that we’ve received, our contact tracing now reaches 86% of contacts, and that’s up from around 60% just a few weeks ago.

I want to pay tribute to the contact tracing team, working under Dido Harding, for delivering on this very significant improvement.

From today, I can confirm that people instructed to isolate by the COVID-19 app, and are eligible, can claim the £500 Test and Trace Support Payment directly through the app too.

Hospital upgrades

Even as we work to overcome these immediate challenges, I’m determined that we also lose no time in modernising our hospitals.

Today, I can announce 1,800 projects, which are being funded from our £600 million package to upgrade and refurbish hospitals across 178 NHS trusts this year.

This will include projects for fixing roofs, for new MRI machines. These projects, which will be completed over the winter period, will make a real difference for staff and patients alike and help our NHS build back better.

Close

These announcements that I’m making today show just what a massive effort is needed every day to tackle coronavirus even with the vaccine on the horizon.

I’m very grateful to all those working in schools, local authorities, delivering the vaccine rollout, our pharmacists, NHS Test and Trace and the hospital improvement programme for the efforts that will be needed to deliver all of this.

It shows that every part of our NHS – from GP surgeries to hospitals – and every part of government – local and national – is all playing its part in the battle against this virus.

We’ve got to remember, in this battle, that we’re all on the same side.

And, especially with Christmas coming, there’s something we all can do which is to respect the rules, and all of us, at all times, do all that we can to stop the spread of the virus.

This is a marathon, not a sprint.

We’ve got to keep going.

The finish line is in sight.

And I know that, together, we can get there.