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News story: HMS Enterprise returns home after three years on Navy operations

During her time away she helped to stop people smuggling across the globe, saved thousands of lives at sea, and protected Britain’s interests.

Minister of State for the Armed Forces Mike Penning said:

During her three years deployed away from the UK, HMS Enterprise and her ship’s company have helped make the world a safer place.

From disrupting people smuggling in the Mediterranean to assisting in the free flow of trade in the Gulf, and from providing reassurance to our overseas territories to surveying the world’s oceans, she has epitomised how the Royal Navy is protecting the UK’s global interests.

In almost three years she has steamed 150,000 nautical miles, visited 20 countries, and navigated four of the seven seas.

LH Payne with his twins girls Summer and Amelia

HMS Enterprise’s epic deployment began in June 2014, when she headed to the Mediterranean on a routine deployment. At the time, growing unrest in Libya led to the UK government encouraging British citizens to evacuate, and Enterprise was tasked with rescuing more than 200 people from Libya.

She was then tasked with conducting survey operations in the Gulf and southern Red Sea, joining the continuous Royal Navy presence in the region which works to secure some of the most vital shipping lanes in the world and protect Britain’s economy.

It was during this time that teams from the ship volunteered to visit an orphanage in India, helping to refurbish several classrooms, build some swings and even fix a trampoline.

Enterprise later moved to the Mediterranean where she joined the naval force set up to deal with people smuggling. Over the course of the following year, the sailors on board destroyed over 100 unseaworthy craft rescued over 9000 people. As a result she was awarded the Firmin Sword of Peace, the Naval Capability Prize and the HM Efficiency Award, as well as receiving a personal commendation from the Chief of the Defence Staff.

PO Everson accepts the Firmin Sword from Minister for the Armed Forces Mike Penning

Following the heat of the Mediterranean Enterprise was re-tasked to the South Atlantic to stand in for Falkland Islands patrol vessel HMS Clyde during her refit in South Africa.

The ship, and her crew of 78 sailors, returned to Devonport today for the warmest of welcomes from friends and families. Commander Philip Harper, Commanding Officer of HMS Enterprise said;

The crew of HMS Enterprise are justly proud of the work they have done since deploying, and the wide variety of operations will be hard to match in the rest of our careers.

At the same time, we are all really looking forward to coming home. The results of our deployment speak for themselves and we are all eager to spend some time with our families before the ship deploys again later this year.

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News story: New Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport

Bernadette Kelly is the new Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport.

Bernadette Kelly has been appointed as the new Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport. This follows Philip Rutnam’s recent move to the Home Office which was announced in February. The appointment has been made by the Cabinet Secretary with the approval of the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Transport.

The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, said:

I would like to congratulate Bernadette on her appointment. Bernadette has an excellent track record, having worked in a number of departments across government including most recently at the Department for Transport. She will bring that experience together with her strong leadership skills to her new role and I look forward to working with her on the challenges ahead.

The Secretary of State for Transport, The Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP said:

I’m very pleased that Bernadette will be the new Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport. Her knowledge and experience of the department mean she is very well placed to make an excellent start in her new role and I look forward to continuing to work with her.

Bernadette Kelly, said:

I am delighted to be appointed as Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport. DfT is a great Department and I have hugely enjoyed working here in rail. It is an honour to be asked to lead the department and I’m looking forward to the challenge ahead.

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Press release: More than 400 rod licences checked in Easter crackdown

Environment Agency officers checked more than 400 rod licences in an Easter weekend crackdown on illegal fishing.

Officers patrolling North East river banks checked 421 anglers, reporting 29 offences.

Of these, 21 were for rod licence offences, 7 were byelaw and close season offences and one offence under the Theft Act.

It’s currently the close season for coarse fishing, which means fishing for coarse fish on rivers and streams is not permitted. This is done to protect breeding fish, helping to safeguard stocks for the future.

Kevin Summerson, Fisheries Enforcement Technical Specialist at the Environment Agency, said:

It’s encouraging that the vast majority of anglers abide by the law, but there are still too many that we find during patrols that are fishing illegally.

We take illegal fishing very seriously – it’s not fair on other anglers and endangers the future of the sport.

Our work is intelligence led and we work closely with our partners at the police and Angling Trust to target known hot spots and where illegal fishing is reported to us.

We carry out enforcement work all year round and will be continuing throughout the coming weeks, including the upcoming Bank Holiday weekends.

We really want people to get outdoors and enjoy what is a fantastic sport, and the rod licence is great value for money for all the family.

I’d urge people to help us protect the health of our fisheries by reporting any suspected illegal activity to us.

All the money from rod licence sales goes back into maintaining the health of fisheries and waters, angling projects and much more.

Anyone caught fishing without a valid licence could be fined up to £2,500 and fishing during the close season attracts a fine of up to £50,000.

Coarse fishing is still allowed on most still waters and canals, depending on fishery owner agreement, though a valid fishing licence is still required. You can check which still waters and canals still have a close season in operation by checking the byelaws which apply in your area at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-fishing-byelaws

Anyone who wants to go fishing needs to buy a fishing licence. A full annual licence costs £30 (short term and some concessionary licences are also available) and are available online at www.gov.uk/get-a-fishing-licence.

Environment Agency officers routinely carry out licence checks and anyone with information about illegal fishing activities is urged to report it via the Environment Agency’s Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60 or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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News story: £15 million investment in new technologies of the future

Innovative businesses across the UK have received a £15 million boost through our emerging and enabling technologies competition. This is to identify and invest in new technologies with the potential to unlock billions of pounds of value to UK industry and disrupt existing markets.

Eighty high-growth potential projects have been successful in being awarded funding, some of which include:

  • Holosphere Ltd will work with Jaguar Land Rover to create an augmented reality car configurator for use in its network of showrooms
  • Archangel Aerospace will develop an ultra lightweight laser receiver terminal to bring vast amounts of data from satellites in a low orbit down to earth quickly and reliably. This will vastly improve the scope and quality of services provided by earth observation and scientific satellites
  • ‘PlasticARMPit’ a joint project involving ARM, PragmatIC Printing, Unilever and the University of Manchester. This will develop a high-performance energy-efficient processing engine to deliver future flexible electronic devices
  • Croda project, which aims to develop advanced antimicrobial coatings to control and prevent biofilm formation that costs the UK economy tens of billions per annum in damage. The project is led by the global market leader in speciality chemicals, Croda, in collaboration with Scanwel and the University of Liverpool, who provide advanced characterisation tools to help optimise the technology and enable its translation to a number of market sectors

Paul Mason, Emerging and Enabling Technologies Director at Innovate UK, said:

The quality and breadth of applications for this competition was excellent. It highlights the appetite and capacity of UK businesses to innovate, and to find new sources of revenue from new products, processes or services.

For a list of winning projects please see the funding competition winners 2017.

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