English chalk streams are one of the most precious things in the natural world. They are known for their clear waters, rich wildlife and for providing a beautiful place for people to enjoy.

As a child I spent many happy hours fishing in our chalk streams, not that I was ever very effective! The number of fish I caught might not have been very impressive but I grew to love the timeless beauty of our chalk streams.

Recently I have walked along the River Mimram and seen for myself the low flows and Environment Agency fish rescues that have taken place as a result. This is devastating to see. I care passionately about our chalk streams and am committed to doing everything possible to help them return to their former glory. That’s why I am here today.

As many of you know, chalk streams flow from chalk aquifers. Both the streams and aquifers provide essential drinking water for people across the South East and East Anglia. Some water companies such as Cambridge Water are 100% dependent on the aquifers that support the chalk streams. Without this water taps would run dry.

Businesses and farms also rely on chalk streams. Without water they would not be able to operate. This would significantly affect the economy, the livelihoods of the people that they employ and the availability of food to eat.

Despite the recent wet weather, if we look back over the last three years we have seen about 50% less recharge to aquifers than we would normally expect in this part of the country. Some groundwater levels are currently the lowest ever recorded.

This is an environmental drought and we all have a responsibility to play a constructive part in tackling its causes and effects.There is a wider context which also requires all of us to work together; people at this conference and people across the nation. It is the climate emergency, which makes drought and floods more likely. For many years we have been able to use water stored in the chalk aquifer in a sustainable way but recent weather patterns require new approaches that make us more resilient to prolonged dry periods. We face having to invest more money in alternative and more costly supplies of clean water. We will be faced with tough choices as we balance the various needs I have mentioned. We want to face this future together, with you helping us, so that we properly reflect your needs just as we will reflect others.

At the Environment Agency we are working flat out to limit the damage the low groundwater is having and ensure that water supplies are sustainable for the future. This includes taking immediate action to restrict the amount of water taken, developing long term plans to reduce our reliance on chalk streams, working with partners on projects to improve water quality wherever possible and stepping in to limit damage to wildlife and the environment when river levels are too low.

Whilst we have to take water from the environment to live, we have got to make sure that this abstraction is sustainable.

We regulate water abstraction through our licensing system and we are tough with water companies, farmers and businesses that take water from the environment unsustainably or who pollute water. By reviewing licences and reducing the amount of water people can take we have returned 16 billion litres of water back to chalk streams since 2008 and removed the risk of another 14.9 billion litres being taken. This is equivalent to the average annual domestic water use of approximately 300,000 people – similar to the population of Nottingham.

But abstraction regulation can only go so far. Earlier this year, our Chief Executive Sir James Bevan described that we face ‘The Jaws of Death’, when demand for water outstrips supply. We need to find alternative water supplies and reduce demand across the south east. This will mean extensive and costly infrastructure such as new reservoirs and pipes to transfer water from other parts of the country. But it also means each and every one of us using less water.

At the Environment Agency we play a leading role in ensuring resilient water resources for the future. We have instigated planning at a national and regional scale, requiring water companies and other water users to cooperate to make the most of the water we have. Many water company plans contain strategic options for infrastructure developments and Ofwat has allocated up to £450m to companies to fully explore these options. We are supporting and contributing staff to the regulator’s alliance for progressing this infrastructure development

At the same time we are working with numerous partners on a wide range of innovative projects that are improving water quality in our chalk streams.

Since 2011 our partnership work on over 60 projects has been instrumental in achieving improvements to more than 70km of chalk streams at a cost of £4.3 million. We are also working closely with farmers to help them reduce the impact of farming on river quality and with water companies to reduce the amount of phosphates that enter our rivers. By 2020, phosphorous levels will have reduced by 66% since 1995 and by 2027 we will have seen an 85% reduction.

Every drop of water that is wasted is water that could be sustaining our rivers, streams and lakes. People are starting to use less water, down from 155 litres a day in 2002 to 142 litres per person today but this is still way too high. In Denmark people use just 80 litres a day. There is no justification for the difference. People across the UK use a lot more water than they need to and it has to stop. Planners and developers need to ensure that all new developments are water efficient.

We are taking action to encourage water companies to promote the importance of saving water to their customers and have recently joined forces with over 40 partners to launch the Love Water campaign. This is aimed at encouraging people to use less water and look after the water we have by preventing pollution. We need the campaign to grow so that everyone knows that water is precious and wants to take action to protect it.

We need more action and more pace. By using less and looking after what we have we will be able to ensure that we have clean and plentiful water for generations to come for us and for the environment including our wonderful chalk streams. But we will only achieve this if we work together to take action now.

Which brings me back to the task in hand today. We are committed to doing whatever we can to ensuring that there are still chalk streams in a good condition for future generations to enjoy and benefit from. I am delighted to be here today to join forces with you all to make that happen.

Minister for Europe and Americas at the Foreign Office, Christopher Pincher, is in Cyprus today (Friday 4 October) to meet Cypriot leaders.

The Minister will meet President Nicos Anastasiades to discuss Brexit and will welcome the Cypriot Government’s offer guaranteeing the rights of UK nationals living in Cyprus.

Minister Pincher will also meet Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. The Minister will reiterate the UK Government’s support for achieving a long lasting peace settlement between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

The Minister will visit British Sovereign Base Areas and meet with British military serving in Cyprus, including as peacekeepers with the UN Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Minister for Europe Christopher Pincher said:

The United Kingdom has a unique and important relationship with Cyprus and we want that relationship to continue to grow, regardless of Brexit.

We welcome the announcement made by the Cypriot Government to protect the rights of UK nationals in Cyprus, as we have guaranteed the rights of Cypriot citizens in the United Kingdom.

Aspiring teachers in maths, chemistry, physics and modern foreign languages are set to get up to £35,000 during training and their early careers, on top of their salaries.

Trainee teachers in these subjects are set to receive £26,000 during training, with an additional £6,000 to be paid across the first four years of their career, from 2020/21. For those working in high need areas, these additional payments will rise to £9,000.

Teachers in three subjects – chemistry, physics and modern foreign languages – will receive these early career payments for the first time, while trainees in maths have benefitted from phased bursaries for the last two years.

The government has committed more than £250 million in financial incentives to encourage talented graduates to enter the classroom, and remain in the profession, building on a pledge in the Department’s Recruitment & Retention Strategy to ensure the bursary system focuses more heavily on the retention of teachers.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

The inspirational role of a talented, dedicated and committed teacher can never be understated and is the one constant that all of us can remember from our time at school.

I want both the brightest and the best talent to be drawn to the teaching profession and for schools to compete with the biggest employers in the labour market.

The bursaries we are announcing today, along with the 2.75% pay rise for all teachers and school leaders this academic year, will do just that, while ensuring that those who stay in the classroom will benefit most.

Trainee teachers in Art & Design and Business Studies are also set to benefit from new bursaries of £9,000.

Each year, the Department reviews bursaries to decide the offer for trainee teachers, tacking account of both recruitment to date and the future need for teachers in each subject.

Changes to bursary amounts may mean that trainees starting one year may receive a lower incentive when compared with trainees starting another year. However, being able to change the incentive amounts provides flexibility to respond to recruitment need and other government priorities.

In the next academic year, school teachers and leaders are set to receive an above inflation pay rise, after the Education Secretary accepted all the recommendations from the independent School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), to raise the upper and lower boundaries of all pay ranges by 2.75 per cent.

The increase in pay will be supported by an additional £105 million to be paid through the teachers’ pay grant, on top of the £321 million already committed for the 2019-20 financial year, and is equivalent to a £1,000 increase to average classroom teacher pay and a £1,620 increase in the average pay of school leaders.

Teachers’ starting salaries are also set to rise to £30,000 by 2022-23, under government plans for the biggest reform to teacher pay in a generation.

This will make starting salaries for teachers among the most competitive in the graduate labour market, building on the above-inflation average pay increases for teachers in the last two years.

The Teacher’s Pension Scheme is also one of the most generous on offer. From September, the government will be fully funding increased contributions into the scheme, so that school leaders can focus as much of their resources as possible on the front line. It means teachers will get an employer contribution of 23.6% on top their salary towards their pension every year to ensure the scheme is fully funded.

Announced in the Department’s Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy earlier this year, the Early Career Framework will provide new teachers with the foundations for a successful career in the profession through a two-year package of structured training and support.

This will include a reduced timetable to allow teachers to make the most of their training, alongside high-quality materials for new teachers and their mentors that underpin each area of the Early Career Framework.

The Forum was co-chaired by the Rt Hon Dr Andrew Murrison, Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, and H.E. Sabri Bachtobji, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Association Agreement

Both countries committed themselves to finalising a broad bilateral association agreement in the near future. Concluding this agreement will provide a framework for the growing trading relationship between our two countries. It will ensure British and Tunisian businesses and consumers benefit from continued access to markets once the UK has left the EU. Beyond trade, this agreement will provide a comprehensive framework to strengthen cooperation on political dialogue, democracy, education, trade, environmental and human rights matters.

Politics

After appreciating the progress made by Tunisia to ensure a smooth democratic transition, both countries underlined their intention to strengthen parliamentary ties, in order to share experience and promote exchanges between legislative and judicial bodies. Both countries noted the important role that media freedom plays in democracies, with Tunisia expressing an interest in the Global Coalition on Media Freedom due to be announced at UNGA. There was agreement to continue working closely together in the UN when Tunisia assumes its membership of the UN Security Council in January 2020, with Tunisia welcoming the UK’s offer of pre-membership training. Tunisia highlighted gender as a priority issue during its upcoming UNSC membership. There was also agreement to work together on climate and protecting oceans against plastic waste. On Libya, both countries reiterated their support for an urgent ceasefire and a return to the UN-led political process as essential steps towards stabilising that country. Tunisia reiterated its request for concluding a bilateral agreement on visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders. Highlighting recent improvements to the process for students, both countries committed to continuing talks to identify further opportunities to ease visa application for all Tunisians.

Economics and trade

Both countries identified a number of business opportunities to develop, including in the energy, agrifood, textile, tourism and technology sectors. They committed to explore these further in the run-up to the African Investment Summit (AIS) in London in January 2020. They agreed to raise awareness among businesses of the UK Export Finance offer for Tunisia (worth £2 billion). Both countries expressed satisfaction with the impact of their existing initiatives on trade and investment flows, and agreed to strengthen their efforts in order to further trade and investment. They decided to establish a Trade and Investment Multi-Sector Working Group and looked ahead to the launch of a UK-funded project to develop the Tunisian Stock Exchange. Agreement was reached on the Tunisians attending the AIS at the most senior level, while discussions also covered the 2nd session of the “UK-Tunisia Trade and Investment Forum”, which is due to take place on 22 October in London. Both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation on inclusive economic development, beginning with the deployment of new UK development advisers to Tunis before the end of this year.

Education

Both countries welcomed the continuing positive work of the UK-Tunisia Higher Education Commission (HESRC), which has met twice this year. They agreed that important progress had been made to strengthen links between higher education institutions in both countries towards the implementation of the agreed Action Plan. They noted that the HESRC had identified Quality Assurance as an area for further engagement and that a new project funded by the British Council and implemented by the Quality Assurance Agency would start soon. They noted the growing demand in Tunisia for English-language and soft-skills training. They welcomed the UK-funded and British-Council-implemented “Teaching for Success” project (worth £6 million), aimed at enhancing job prospects for the next generation of young Tunisians. The Forum also stressed the importance of fostering bilateral cooperation in the field of culture, in order to enhance the promotion of the Tunisian and British cultural heritages in each country.

Environment/Tourism

Over 120,000 tourists travelled to Tunisia in 2018, with more expected this year. This represented a significant increase. Both countries expressed their support for work to protect the environment, including for COP26, for tackling plastics waste, and for creating an enduring eco-system for sustainable tourism.

Security

Both countries highlighted the continuing serious threat posed by terrorist groups, including “Daesh”, to the UK and Tunisia. They agreed that UK-Tunisia collaboration in the fight against terrorism had been ground-breaking and that they wished to expand and deepen that co-operation at the bilateral level and within the “G7+” security coordination mechanism.

The comprehensive and wide-ranging nature of the discussions reflects the deepening relationship between the UK and Tunisia. The successful conclusion of the sixth annual UK-Tunisia Bilateral Forum underlines both countries’ desire to continue working together in a spirit of friendship and close collaboration to advance their shared interests.

The Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme (HPCDS) offers free ‘on-the-day’ legal advice to anyone in danger of being evicted from their home or having their property repossessed, regardless of their financial circumstances.  Given the vital role the HPCDS plays in ensuring access to justice and the timely resolution of legal problems, the continuation of the service is of paramount importance. The proposed changes will ensure it keeps pace with changes in the wider justice system.

Over a number of months, the Ministry of Justice has worked with stakeholders and agreed a package of measures that would ensure the sustainability of this vital scheme, improving access to legal advice and representation for anyone facing possession proceedings in court.

Justice Minister, Wendy Morton MP said:

Housing repossession and homelessness are two of the most serious civic problems that any person can experience.  This ambitious new model will provide greater support for those who rely on it most, while being more financially viable for providers and ensuring long-term sustainability.

The consultation proposes:

• contracts for individual courts rather than larger geographical areas
• allowing providers to claim for the HPCDS fee in addition to the follow up Legal Help fee
• introducing a set attendance fee for all schemes, replacing the existing nil session payment
• introducing reasonable costs for travel as part of the competition element of the bid

Notes to editors

• The consultation will be open for 12 weeks, closing in January 2020
• A paper summarising responses will be published within 3 months of the closing date of the consultation