The Security Council remains seized of the threat to international security from Iran’s continued nuclear escalation. Iran’s nuclear programme is now more advanced than at any point in the past.

Iran has been taking unprecedented steps to accelerate the pace of its nuclear programme in the past three years and continues to escalate unabatedly. Some of the most serious steps have been taken during the negotiation process aimed at returning Iran to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) and the U.S. to the deal.

Intensive diplomatic efforts to restore the JCPoA have resulted in a viable deal being on the table since early March. We regret that up until now Iran has refused to seize this diplomatic opportunity and continued its nuclear escalation

Recently, Iran announced the installation and use of additional powerful advanced centrifuges and the removal of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s JCPoA-related surveillance and monitoring equipment. This occurs in the deeply concerning context of Iran continuing to increase its stockpiles of uranium enriched at 20% and 60% to unprecedented levels. The IAEA received its mandate to verify and monitor JCPoA implementation directly from the UN Security Council. Iran’s complete termination of key JCPoA-related transparency measures is therefore a particularly negative, counterproductive and provocative step, which this Council cannot remain silent on.

Iran’s actions raise further obstacles for Iran to return to full implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPoA, and to restore the Agency’s ability to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Iran’s actions are rapidly unsettling the balance of the package we had negotiated over many months to restore the JCPoA and closing the window for an immediate diplomatic solution. The impact on international security and the international non-proliferation regime of such an outcome would be grave and long lasting.

We call upon Iran to stop and reverse its nuclear escalation, return to full cooperation with the IAEA and seize without further delay the offer on the table, which would benefit the Iranian people and nation.

We express full support for the efforts of the JCPoA Coordinator to restore the JCPoA. Iran should take this opportunity to conclude the deal, while it is still possible. Unfortunately, it is our understanding that at the meeting which ended yesterday in Doha, Iran once again refused to seize the opportunity and, instead, made new extraneous and unrealistic demands.

Today, the Security Council also will discuss key developments of Iran’s missile programme, which are inconsistent with UN Security Council resolution 2231. The Council will call upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology. Only a few days ago, Iran conducted another test of a space launch vehicle, which contains dual use technology that can be used to construct long-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles. We urge Iran to refrain from such provocative actions. We strongly condemn Iran’s continued destabilising activity in the region and we call upon Iran to stop all ballistic missile activities and proliferation inconsistent with UNSCR 2231 and other UNSC resolutions.

We also fully support the efforts of the Secretary General to examine and report any evidence of transfers of items, materials, equipment, goods and technology or related services inconsistent with UNSCR 2231.

It follows the recommendation made in an independent review of the criminal legal aid system and will see the typical criminal barrister earn £7,000 more a year.

Criminal solicitors will also receive a 15 percent increase for their work in police stations and magistrates’ and youth courts, with further multi-million-pound reforms to solicitors’ pay still under consideration.

The fee increase is being fast-tracked with the legislation required being laid in July so that legal professionals begin to see the pay rise before the end of 2022.

The remaining proposals in the recent consultation on criminal legal aid will be responded to later this year, with potential further increases for solicitors and other legal professionals as part of longer-term reforms, with £20 million set aside for this work.

Justice Minister James Cartlidge said:

Our energetic efforts to tackle the courts backlog are working but the strike action by criminal barristers threatens all that progress, despite the very generous pay offer on the table.

The typical criminal barrister will earn an extra £7,000 a year from September, so I urge the Criminal Bar Association to accept this offer to stop victims having to wait longer for justice.

The confirmed 15 percent rise is on top of up to £74 million extra allocated to criminal legal aid per year over the last 4 years that is increasingly reaching barristers and solicitors as more of the cases outstanding from the pandemic are concluded.

The proposal to increase investment in criminal legal aid by £135 million a year is the biggest rise in a decade and raises taxpayer spending on it to a record £1.2 billion.

The Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid found that, before expenses, the median fee of a criminal barrister in 2019-20 was £79,800 and that 80 percent earn at least £45,000 after expenses. While junior barristers earn much less in their first couple of years of practice, by their third year of practice the average criminal barrister will earn £65,000 before expenses.

The government is investing £477 million into the justice system to reduce backlogs in the courts caused by the pandemic and has also removed the cap on how many days courts can sit for a second year. The investment means more trials can take place and the same decision last year meant that nearly 17,000 more days were sat in the Crown Court than the year prior to the pandemic.

Video technology has been rolled out to over 70 percent of all courtrooms and 3,265 virtual court rooms have been opened so that more hearings can take place.

Since May, magistrates have been able to sentence offenders to up to a year in prison, doubling their previous powers, helping to free up an estimated 1,700 extra sitting days of Crown Court time each year.

Notes to Editors

This has been a highly successful and historic NATO Summit in which we have once again exceeded expectations in the unity and single mindedness with which this alliance is confronting Putin’s illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine.

After 127 days of war we in NATO are now more resolved than ever that Europe’s boundaries cannot be changed by force and that we must give the Ukrainians the means to protect themselves. And we are.

In the last few days virtually everyone around the table has agreed to give more to help.

And at the same we have to recognise the impacts that this brutal invasion are being felt around the world. In Africa, in Latin America, in Asia – there is not a country that is not being affected now by the surge in energy prices and the shortages of food and fertiliser.

And so just as we in the UK are focused on helping people next month, in July to the 8 million households with £1200 with more help to come, £400 for every family to help with the cost of living and energy. So too, the governments of the Commonwealth, of the G7 and NATO are determined to work together to ease the pressure around the world, whether that means getting the grain from Ukraine or encouraging moves to increase global energy supplies or helping countries to find alternative sources of fertiliser

And we must frankly recognise that not every country takes the same view of Putin’s invasion or sees it in the way that we do. And so we have agreed that we have to explode some myths.

We have to explode the myth that western sanctions are in some way responsible for these price spikes when of course it is the Russian invasion that has caused the shortages of food and Putin’s blockade that are stopping the grain leaving Ukrainian ports.

We need to explode the myth that NATO was in any way responsible for provoking the conflict. Nothing could be further from the truth. And if you want proof that this is a purely defensive alliance, you could have no more eloquent testimony than the accession of Finland and Sweden – quintessentially peace loving countries that have been neutral for decades.

The fact that these two paladins for peace have joined NATO tells you all you need to know about NATO and all you need to know about Putin.

We need to show the global south that we are the partners they need and that we NATO countries and that we’re there to help them as they make the transition to a green future and that they should beware the trap of running up huge debts to other countries that do not share our values and maybe do not have their best interests at heart.

And the final myth we need to debunk is that when it comes to crisis such as this, western democracies, because of the pressures that politicians face, do not have the same staying power.

And I think If Ukraine were to be crushed or forced into a bad peace, the consequences for freedom around the world would be appalling.

And that view is shared by everyone in NATO, so let us be absolutely clear, the best way for us to win the argument around the world about our values, what we stand for, about our opposition to the use of force to change boundaries, about international law. The best way to win that argument is for the Ukrainians to win and for Putin to fail in Ukraine.

That’s why I’m pleased today we have announced another billion pounds worth of military support. And if you wanted evidence of the amazing ability of the Ukrainians to fight back, to overcome adversity to repel the Russians, then then look at what has happened just today on Snake Island where Russia has had to cede ground.

In the end it will prove impossible for Putin to hold down a country that will not accept his rule.

This has been a crucial summit in that we are resolved not just to support Ukraine, but we have agreed a new strategic concept, we are moving beyond the doctrine of tripwire deterrence on NATO’s eastern flank to a new approach of defence deterrence by denial. And countries around the table are also recognising that they must spend more.

And in our case that means meeting, and being prepared to exceed, the target we set for ourselves a decade ago of everybody spending 2% of our GDP on defence, goals which were then set for a very different era. What we are saying is that we want Jens Stoltenberg, the General Secretary to start work on that new target now and he has agreed to do that.

We need to invest for the long term, in vital capabilities like future combat air, while simultaneously adapting to a more dangerous and competitive world. The logical conclusion of the investments we propose to embark, of these decisions, is 2.5% of GDP on Defence by the end of the decade.

I want to say a big thank you to our Spanish hosts, and I think they have done an amazing job and thanks to Jens Stoltenberg, and say at the end of this Madrid Summit – the NATO alliance is plainly in robust health and getting stronger, with new members and a renewed purpose.

We can see that our work is cut out and we can see that there are billions of people around the world, swing voters, who need to hear and understand our arguments, but we have a huge advantage of knowing what we want, in believing in our ideas and having the means to do what we want to do, and above all we are united and, if history is any guide, then I believe that this great alliance will again be successful.

Thank you very much.