• The Ideas Marketplace is an online networking Collaboration Platform for innovators to discuss, collaborate and share ideas to meet defence and security challenges
• The Ideas Marketplace enables innovators to get their ideas in front of an array of government stakeholders and end users

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch the Ideas Marketplace. The Ideas Marketplace is an online networking Collaboration Platform where innovators can discuss, collaborate and share ideas with like-minded users to overcome defence and security challenges and help deliver the next generation of defence and security tools and services.

Welcome to the Ideas Marketplace

The Ideas Marketplace is designed to enable innovative organisations to engage with the best people in defence and security, easily. It encourages collaboration between organisations of all shapes and sizes, to foster new and dynamic relationships to make innovations a success.

From helping innovators gain expertise and specialist support to develop technologies, to forming longstanding partnerships and finding new funding opportunities. The Ideas Marketplace will help innovators to:

• hear about funding opportunities from across government

• access exclusive competitions

• collaborate with another innovators to make ideas a success

• engage with industry leaders and learn more about the defence and security landscape

• foster collaborative relationships and partnerships

Join the Ideas Marketplace here.

Key Features: Innovate. Collaborate

The Ideas Marketplace connects industry to stakeholders. Once a user has signed up, they can:

• list abstracts on project hubs and collaborate with other innovators

• get updates on funding opportunities from across the defence and security community

• learn about the latest defence and security industry news and see how they can get involved

• gain access to networking and collaboration events

• find expert knowledge to make innovation a success

• get help to understand the market for an idea and help to build the business behind it

How does the Ideas Marketplace work?

The Ideas Marketplace functions similarly to an online forum. Once a user has created an Ideas Marketplace profile, they can upload an abstract of their idea or challenge area that they need help with. Like-minded innovators with the same interests will easily be able to find each other through the abstract and specialism search functions, and foster collaboration opportunities.

To help find collaborators, users can also follow areas of interest, specialisms, write posts and spark conversation by sending messages.

The Ideas Marketplace community comprises 10 UK defence and security innovation organisations. Innovators can visit each Ideas Marketplace hub page to see what funding opportunities are available, and if their innovations are relevant.

• DASA: DASA finds and funds exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.

• jHub & jHub digital: jHub is the Innovation centre for Strategic Command, seeking innovation and technology to enhance and improve the operation of the UK armed forces.

• Discover, Analysis and Rapid Exploitation (DARE), the DARE team explores ways of providing cutting-edge technology and operational prototypes to show where the Royal Navy could go in the future.

• RAFX: RAFX develops technology for the RAF to discover how it can help deliver safer, more efficient and predictable operations, and create the next generation Air Force.

• Army Rapid Innovation & Experimentation Lab (ARIEL) seeks to work with innovative industries in a shared space, allowing ideas to be developed, and technology and equipment to be refined.

• DE&S Future Capabilities Group: The DE&S Future Capabilities Group (FCG) works with industry to explore and de-risk new capabilities against Front-Line Command needs.

• Regional Defence and Security Clusters: These are regional collaboration clusters led by industry and academia with the support of government and its ministerial departments such as the MOD and its innovation directorate, and the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).

• UK Space Command: UK Space Command is a joint command staffed by the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, civil servants, and commercial partners. It aims to deliver space equipment programmes that integrate with other defence capabilities.

Checklist: How to sign up and use the Ideas Marketplace

Signing up for the Ideas Marketplace is an easy process:

• Step 1: Visit the Ideas Marketplace homepage and register for an account

• Step 2: Wait for your registration request to be approved

• Step 3: Complete your Ideas Marketplace profile and choose how you want to be contacted

• Step 4: Use the ‘Home ’ tab to upload your abstract, so other like-minded users can engage with you

• Step 5: Use the ‘Collaborate’ tab to see your feed, follow your areas of interest; find collaborators and write posts

• Step 6: Search the Ideas Marketplace for Abstracts by area of specialism

• Step 7: Spark conversation by sending messages to other innovators

Join the Ideas Marketplace

Want to collaborate with like-minded innovators and get your ideas in front of government stakeholders and end-users?

Join the Ideas Marketplace here.

Thank you Mr Whittingdale and Madam President. I am honoured to be part of this panel with Professor Ibrahim and Dr Elliott.

What I want to do today is focus on two key elements – the first is the UK Government’s position on accountability for war crimes and sexual violence – with a focus particularly on Ukraine. Secondly I will talk about actions which we and others within the OSCE have taken in terms of transparency and political accountability.

Firstly, the pursuit of justice and accountability is an integral part of UK’s support to Ukraine.

As we are all aware, the appalling war by the Russian government has caused untold suffering and shattered the foundations of security in the region. Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin, Kramatorsk and now Kremenchuk and incidents in Odesa will be forever seared in our memories. We’re horrified by instances and allegations or rape and sexual violence being committed by Russian forces in the invasion of Ukraine. We are being very clear, and we all should be clear, that the use of sexual violence in conflict zones constitutes a war crime.

We are determined as the UK Government to hold to account the individuals who have undertaken these atrocities – members of the Russian Government and individual members of the Russian military – to hold the responsible for these atrocities so we can make sure this doesn’t ever happen again. And that is why we are heavily supporting justice and accountability efforts, alongside our military, economic and humanitarian assistance. And we are working through the OSCE, with Ukraine’s Prosecution General and with international bodies like the International Criminal Court to bring this issue to light.

Secondly, we believe it is critical to support Ukraine’s own accountability mechanisms.

National jurisdictions will always bear the greatest burden of cases. And so we are supporting investigation efforts by Ukrainian authorities, working in particular the Office of the Prosecutor of Ukraine, who has been doing some outstanding work in investigating war crimes on Ukraine’s territory.

We have appointed Sir Howard Morrison as an Independent Adviser to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General. And our Attorney General also led a scoping mission to Ukraine in May, to assess how the UK can further support Ukraine itself to identify and collect evidence.

In conjunction with this we have procured over 30,000 forensic medical kits to support accurate, reliable and consistent evidence collection. We’ve deployed specialist UK war crimes and conflict-related sexual violence experts to Poland to identify options for further UK support.

And we are supporting grassroots efforts, having launched a £10m Civil Society Fund to support Ukrainian organisations, including those gathering evidence and supporting survivors. We are also funding trusted humanitarian partners to provide protection services and reporting mechanisms.

Putting survivor’s voices up front and centre is paramount. This month we are co-sponsoring a Human Rights Council side event with Global Survivors Fund on reparations for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine. This will provide a platform for survivor voices to highlight challenges, needs and prospects.

Thirdly, we are supporting international mechanisms.

In March, the UK led a group of 37 other states to refer the atrocities in Ukraine to the Court – the largest group referral in the ICC’s history – now supported by 42 states.

The ICC investigation is now underway, led by the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan. We are working with allies in terms of providing financial and technical support as appropriate, including war crime experts to support the investigation.

In addition, in March the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Team set up an online reporting tool for witnesses, including refugees, to submit evidence in support of the ICC investigation. They are submitting evidence both to the ICC and for Ukraine’s own domestic investigation.

Fourthly, we are making use of the OSCE

We see this organization as being key and complementary to the work, particularly in terms of political accountability and increasing transparency. And we’ve been using the OSCE as a bridging mechanism for other structures, such as the ICC and elsewhere until they are fully established and reporting.

In March, a group of 45 participating States in the OSCE, together with Ukraine’s support invoked the Moscow Mechanism. This is an independent fact finding mission to investigate allegations of abuses and violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law in Ukraine. And that large number of participating States invoking the mechanism – 46 out of 57 – was in and of itself a strong signal of the support by the international community.

In April, this produced the first independent fact-finding report by an international institution and that covered the period from the invasion on 24 February through to 1 April.

What it found was credible evidence of war crimes, from the torture, rape and killing of innocent civilians to the forced deportation of over 500,000 people. There are allegations of rape, including gang rape documented across numerous regions in Ukraine. One particularly grave incident recorded in Bovary village where a drunken soldier allegedly broke into a private house, killed the owner and then raped his wife in the presence of her small child.

The report also outlined evidence of humanitarian convoys and healthcare facilities being attacked and of arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killings.

What we have done in terms of a follow up, is the same group of 45 States with Ukraine’s support was to invoke the Moscow Mechanism for the second time. That report will come out in 2 weeks’ time and will cover the period of Russian atrocities in Bucha, and Kramatorsk and further atrocities in that period in Mariupol. We will be calling on as many as we can to help disseminate these findings far and wide. We see it as a key part of political accountability, but also helping to frame the issue of the horrific incidents and use these as a bridging mechanism.

Fifth, it is important to join up the dots and minimise risks of duplication of initiatives.

What we have done with US and EU is announce the creation of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA), which a mechanism aimed at ensuring efficient coordination of all of our respective support to accountability efforts on the ground. This will include putting survivors’ voices up front and centre.

Sixth, the preservation and collection of evidence is vital. The UK is funding independent organisations to gather robust evidence of war crimes.

We believe that ensuring survivors can have their experiences record safely and in a way that strengthens the pursuit of justice is a vital, first step towards accountability. But despite numerous sets of guidance for those collecting evidence and information from survivors and witnesses, mistakes continue to be made in this area.

In many settings around the world, many survivors still face re-traumatisation and unnecessary re-interviewing due to poor practices and lack of coordination between actors involved in this work.

As Lord Ahmad and Prof Elliott have already said, we launched the ‘Murad Code’ at the United Nations Security Council back in April. We see this Code as being a vital step to ensure justice for survivors of sexual violence by setting global standards for the safe and effective gathering of evidence from survivors and witnesses.

And we are urging governments, UN agencies, NGOs and human rights institutions to champion the goal of survivor-centred documentation and ensure adherence to the standards set out in the Murad Code.

In concluding, we continue to be shocked and horrified by the barbaric acts we are seeing from the Russian Government and the Russian military in Ukraine. President Putting clearly underestimated the resolve and bravery of the Ukrainian people, but also the resolve of the international community.

Ensuring accountability for war crimes is a vital tool and it requires international governance, NGOs in Ukraine and international organisations to work together effectively. All hold different bits of the puzzle on building evidence through to ensuring individual accountability and justice.

It’s vital we do this precisely because we need to ensure what has happened with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine never happens again.

Thank you.

The government has today announced ambitious new plans to improve the cost, choice and availability of childcare that will benefit hundreds of thousands of parents across the country.

The UK has some of the highest-quality childcare provision in the world with 96% of early years settings rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding, but it is also one of the biggest costs facing working families today. This means some families, in particular women, feel they are not able to return to the workplace after giving birth due to the high cost of putting their child into paid care.

With the cost of living continuing to rise, the government is committed to doing everything it can to support families with their finances while keeping people in high-wage, secure jobs that help grow the economy. New plans are being set out today to ensure high-quality and affordable childcare is accessible to all.

To drive down costs for providers and parents, a new consultation will look at increasing the number of children that can be looked after by each staff member in early years settings.

It will propose changing staff-to-child ratios from 1:4 to 1:5 for two-year-olds, giving providers more flexibility in how they run their businesses while maintaining safety and quality of care. Childcare for children aged 0-2 is the most expensive for providers to deliver, largely given the need for higher supervision levels.

This could potentially eventually reduce the cost of this form of childcare by up to 15%, or up to £40 per week for a family paying £265 per week for care for their 2-year-old, if providers adopt the changes and pass all the savings on to parents.

Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi said:

Every child deserves a great start in life and that means giving families the support they need.  

Childcare is an integral part of our economy, and these reforms prove again that this government is on the side of working families. I’m hugely grateful to the thousands of dedicated early years professionals who provide daily care and education to our youngest children, which is why I am determined to support them by giving them greater flexibility in how they run their services. 

This in turn will support thousands of families across the country, helping to develop children’s skills while also supporting parents into work.

The government will also increase choice and affordability for parents by taking action to open up the childminder market.

While early years settings such as nurseries are the most popular option for families, childminders are generally the most affordable and flexible form of childcare. While the average cost of a two-year-old attending a nursery for 50 hours a week in England is £265 per week, this compares to £236 with a childminder. The government will support more people to become childminders by:

• Reducing the upfront costs of becoming a childminder via financial support;
• Allowing childminders to spend more of their time working from a greater range of locations – for example a local community centre or village hall rather than their own home;
• Giving childminders greater flexibilities within the ratios when looking after their own children or siblings of other children;
• Working with Ofsted to reduce inspection of childminders; and
• Slimming down the childminder specific Early Years Foundation Stage, reducing the framework by one-third to ensure content is targeted and simpler to navigate.

Government will streamline the Ofsted registration process for providers. More providers registering would mean that parents have a wider choice of providers on which to use these schemes, to pay for childcare that supports their working lives.

The government will also encourage the growth of Childminder Agencies (CMAs). CMAs could ultimately become major players in the childcare market – stimulating competition and driving down costs while providing parents with more options for care. CMAs are central bodies that remove the individual administrative and regulatory burden on childminders, as well as often providing parents with tools such as mobile apps through which to book their childcare.

Minister for Children and Families Will Quince said:

I’m proud of the excellent quality of childcare and early education in England, which is a huge asset to working parents. But too many are struggling to balance work with childcare costs.

We know there are thousands of parents who are eligible for government support but not taking it up. That’s why we want to increase awareness of the existing childcare offers, allow providers to provide services more flexibly and make sure funding gets where it is needed most.

Also announced today is an additional £10 million investment for Maintained Nursery Schools, into the supplementary funding they receive from 2023-24. These settings often care for some of the most disadvantaged children in the country and have additional costs that other early years settings do not – such as the requirement to have a headteacher – because they are constituted as schools.

Since the introduction of the Early Years National Funding Formula in 2017, the government has provided supplementary funding for these nurseries to protect their funding levels. 

This additional funding forms part of a separate consultation on plans to reform how early years funding is distributed around England, to ensure the system is fair, effective and responsive to changing levels of need.

The government has spent more than £4 billion each year for the last five years helping families with the cost of childcare, but almost one million eligible families have not taken up their right to Tax-Free Childcare, which is worth £2,000 per year or £4,000 for children with disabilities. Universal Credit Childcare allows families to reclaim 85% of their childcare costs, worth up to £1,108 per month.

The government is also driving a renewed campaign via the Childcare Choices website so parents can access the support they are entitled to, through a ramped-up marketing campaign backed by £1.2 million, which launched last week. This will also encourage providers to take the necessary steps to offer the full range of childcare support to parents using their services.

Exchequer Secretary Helen Whately said:

Tax-Free Childcare provides a helping hand with childcare costs for working families but thousands of parents could be missing out.

With almost one million families eligible, I want to encourage parents to take advantage of this support of up to £2,000 per year for each child.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Thérèse Coffey said:

We want more people to take up Universal Credit childcare financial support that is available now to help working families. We also want more childcare providers to register with Ofsted and unlock more places that can be subsidised to help with the cost of living.

The government also offers 15 hours per week of free childcare or early education for all 3- and 4-year-olds, rising to 30 hours for working families, and 15 hours for disadvantaged 2-year-olds. 

The Government recently announced that eight million of the most vulnerable households (around a third of all UK households) will receive £1,200 this year and all families will receive £400 – this is on top of changes to Universal Credit, National Living Wage and National Insurance thresholds, so that people keep more of what they earn.

This takes total government cost of living support to over £37 billion – higher than other major economies around the world.

Gemma, from Portsmouth, a mum of one uses Tax-Free Childcare. She said:

As a working mum, it can be tough balancing childcare. But Tax-Free Childcare allows me to free up cash that can cover the costs of other things – when you’re talking about saving 20% of your childcare costs it can make a big difference.

The Government has recently launched a new website which brings government support on offer together in one place so the public can see what support they could be eligible for: www.gov.uk/costoflivingsupport

Featuring on radio, social media and bus stop advertising, the campaign aims to increase parents’ awareness and understanding of the childcare support available to them from the government, and maximise the number of people who take up our offer. This will coincide with the school summer holidays, maximising take up over the long break and beyond.

The campaign will signpost to parents, bringing together in one place the support available through Universal Credit, Tax-Free Childcare and 15-30 hours free childcare, clearly setting out eligibility requirements and providing a handy calculator so parents can estimate their entitlement. We will also look at simplifying the website further to make it as easy as possible for parents to understand the support available.

Universal Credit’s childcare offer can save families hundreds of pounds each month – for example, a single parent with a young child who works in social care three days a week could benefit by around £500 a month if they claimed support for their childcare costs.

Tax-Free Childcare helps working families, including the self-employed, to reduce their household costs and keep more of what they earn. Working parents with annual salaries of up to £100,000 can get up to £2,000 of childcare support each year, or £4,000 for children with disabilities.

Recent Tax-Free Childcare statistics from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have revealed that 512,415 families received up to £2,000 towards the cost of their childcare during the 2021 to 2022 tax year, up from 374,135 in the previous year. More than 384,000 families used Tax-Free Childcare in March 2022 – the highest monthly number of families recorded using the scheme since it was launched in April 2017.

The announcements follow visits by Children’s Minister Will Quince to the Netherlands, Sweden, France and Scotland – whose staff:child ratios for two-year-olds the consultation launched today seeks to mirror.

The Government will also explore how to improve recruitment and retention of staff in the sector, giving parents as much confidence in the care their child receives as possible.