This week, nine technical officers from Fiji’s Maritime Affairs Coordinating Committee received specialised software training to map and define the extent of Fiji’s maritime zones, including extended continental shelf areas.

The training, funded by the United Kingdom and delivered in partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) under the Pacific Extended Continental Shelf Project, is the first of several across the region that will strengthen national ocean governance through improved local knowledge and technical skills.

Permanent Secretary of Defence, Policing, and National Security Mr. Manasa Lesuma, said at the training opening on Monday 28th March:

Maritime zones are the foundation of good ocean governance and Fiji is committed to delimiting and declaring all its boundaries and zones with the United Nations.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, countries are entitled to an exclusive economic zone extending 200 nautical miles (M) from the coastline. In some cases, a country’s continental shelf may extend beyond 200 M. The portion of the continental shelf beyond 200 M is called the “extended continental shelf” or simply ECS.

A country has exclusive, sovereign rights to conserve, manage, or explore seabed resources such as oil and gas, bottom-dwelling creatures such as clams, crabs, and corals, and deep sea minerals within their ECS.

The British High Commissioner to Fiji, Dr. Brian Jones, said:

Establishing rights over these ECS areas is crucial for the stability and development of Pacific island countries. Until these gaps in the world map are closed, Pacific island countries may not be able to fully protect their interests and achieve their blue economy aspirations.

Mapping and declaring these ECS areas, however, is not an easy task. To complete a submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) requires specialised geoscience expertise and deep sea data which is not always readily available in the Pacific. In addition, submissions may wait years in the queue before they are reviewed by the CLCS.

SPC Deputy Director General Science and Capability, Dr. Paula Vivili, said:

One of the challenges we’ve seen across the region has been the loss of institutional knowledge at the national level. The people who drove much of this work when it began in 2005 have moved on or started to retire.

In this respect, this week’s training filled a critical gap for Fiji by training up the next generation of maritime zone experts to take up the baton. Most trainees were early career professionals with expertise in geospatial analysis, hydrography, and geoscience who gained familiarity with the software for the first time.

The training recipients were awarded certificates at a ceremony hosted at the British High Commission Residence in Suva on Friday 1st April.

Subsequent trainings under the Pacific ECS Project will be hosted in Vanuatu and Solomon Islands later this year. Launched in July 2021 under the UK’s Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund, the £363,000 project is supporting Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu to build local capacity, procure specialised software and hardware, acquire data, and, where required, engage experts in geophysics and legal drafting to help progress ECS submissions.

Thirty-one counties, city regions and unitary authorities have been chosen for funding to level up their local bus services in the latest awards from the government’s bus transformation programme.

Including earlier awards, just under two-thirds of England’s population outside London will benefit from new investment to make their buses more frequent, more reliable, easier to understand and use, cheaper, or greener. Improvements will also include integrated ticketing and more bus lanes to speed up journeys.

The successful areas have been chosen because of their ambition to repeat the success achieved in London – which drove up bus usage and made the bus a natural choice for everyone, not just those without cars.

As the government stated in last year’s national bus strategy, Bus Back Better, areas not showing sufficient ambition, including for improvements to bus priority, would not be funded.  

In the meantime, a further £150 million is being provided across England to maintain service levels as patronage continues to recover after the pandemic.

Areas among those set to receive funding today (4 April 2022) to help deliver on their Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP) include:

• Portsmouth
• Stoke-on-Trent
• Greater Manchester
• West Yorkshire
• West Midlands
• Liverpool City Region
• North East and North of Tyne Combined Authorities
• Reading
• Norfolk
• Luton
• York
• Warrington

Mayoral combined authorities will also receive money for buses from the £5.7 billion City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS), which are also confirmed today.

Improvements in the pilot area, Cornwall, will start next week, funded by £23.5 million from the government.

From 10 April, most bus fares in the county will be slashed, with short hop fares down by 20%, longer journeys costing up to 40% less and some bus passes cut by almost 50%.

Passes for unlimited bus travel across Cornwall will cost just £5 per day (down from £9 now) or £20 per week. Town zones offer great value travel for just £2.50 per day or £10 for a week. For commuters travelling 5 days a week, that works out at just £2 a day or £1 per journey.

All tickets will be available on all operators’ services and in the summer contactless tap-on and tap-off payments will be introduced and buses will connect easily with the main rail line at stations across the county.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:

Buses are the most popular way of getting around in this country – but for too long people outside of London have had a raw deal.

The investment we’re making today to ramp up the bus revolution will drive down fares at a time when people’s finances are tight and help connect communities across England.

Today’s funding follows the announcement last week of £200 million for almost 1,000 new electric or hydrogen buses, bringing the total funded in England under this government to 2,000.

A further 600 green buses have been funded in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the block grant to the devolved administrations, putting the UK on target to meet its commitment of 4,000 zero-emission buses. 

The government is today also confirming £5.7 billion in funding to level up local bus, tram, rail, walking and cycling networks in England’s 8 city regions.

The CRSTS, first announced in the autumn statement, give the mayors of our largest cities long-term certainty to plan and deliver transformational improvements to their local transport systems.

The money will help deliver, among other things, a new mass transit network in West Yorkshire, improvements to rail services in the Tees Valley, a flat fare on buses in Greater Manchester and bus rapid transit corridors in the West Midlands. Letters have been sent to the metro mayors outlining the funding.

Today’s announcements, along with the funding of zero-emission buses and the bus elements of the increased CRSTS, form part of the £3 billion for bus transformation announced in 2020. Around £2 billion has also been paid to support bus and light rail services during the pandemic.

The government is also today confirming that tram and light rail operators across the Midlands and the North will also benefit from over £37 million of government support including:

• Manchester (£20.5 million)
• the North East Nexus (£7.3 million)
• the West Midlands (£2.7 million)
• Sheffield (£4 million)
• Nottingham (£3.3 million)

All will receive a share of the government’s multimillion-pound pandemic recovery package.

This money will be used to ensure light rail services continue to run and millions of passengers can continue to get around as the country emerges from the pandemic. 

Today’s confirmed light rail recovery funding allocations come from the wider £150 million package announced by government to support vital bus and light rail services across the country. 

Good morning everyone.

It is a real pleasure to be here in Lillestrøm at this great maritime conference.

The UK and Norway share a long and close partnership. One bound by our common history as great seafaring nations.

And in the face of President Putin’s barbaric and illegal invasion of Ukraine, our partnership is more important to Europe’s security than ever before.

We are both freedom-loving democracies, committed members of NATO, and outward-looking maritime nations.

And in the last month, we have demonstrated our continuing commitment to these principles clearly to the world – as HMS Prince of Wales, the UK’s largest warship, led the NATO taskforce in the largest Operation Cold Response exercise for three decades.

In lockstep with our allies, we have launched an unprecedented package of economic sanctions against Russia. Asset freezes and travel bans are restricting cashflows to reduce Putin’s ability to fund his war machine.

We have targeted oligarchs, members of the Russian Duma, and those closest to Putin. Together, we must make sure they pay the price for Russia’s horrific crimes in Ukraine.

As the UK, USA, EU and Norway stand firm together on coordinating sanctions we reduce Putin’s ability to find diversionary routes.

Looking ahead, trade, investment, and the partnerships between these like-minded nations will be vital to starving Putin of his energy sales.

The West has acknowledged that they have relied on Russian energy for far too long.

So, through new trade and investment relationships around energy we can end this dependence, and starve Putin’s war machine of the funding it needs.

First, we must use our relationships with reliable energy partners like Norway to meet our needs, protect our supply chains, and steady the global market.

The UK imported a third of its gas from Norway last year, and we greatly value that long-standing, mutually beneficial partnership.

Secondly, we must use our trade and investment relationships to grow our green economy.

Over a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs now come from renewables, and we are working with partners like Norway to drive investment and harness the clean energy potential of the UK.

Last year, our two nations became connected by the world’s longest under-sea electricity cable. This is enabling surplus Norwegian hydroelectric power to flow to the UK, and when the UK has an oversupply of wind power, exports of affordable renewable energy to move in the opposite direction.

Across our economies, the more we trade and the more we invest, the more prosperous we will become, and we can use these gains to build a green economy that will eliminate Russian fuel from our energy mix once and for all.

Of course, almost all this trade will be underpinned by the maritime sector.

Around 90% of our traded goods are carried by sea. Virtually all international data – and new energy – travels through subsea cables. And by the middle of this century, global maritime trade volumes are expected to treble.

This trade creates a huge opportunity to revitalise coastal communities, boost growth, and tighten those bonds between nations. But it must not come at the expense of the environment.

Shipping currently accounts for around 2.5% of global emissions, but this share could more than treble by 2050. And the UK is committed to leading the world to build a cleaner, greener, more sustainable maritime network.

At COP 26 in Glasgow last year, we were the lead signatory of the Clydebank Declaration. A coalition of 22 countries, including Norway, that committed to establishing at least six zero-emission, green shipping corridors by the middle of the decade.

As an island nation with a proud maritime heritage, just as in Norway, shipbuilding is part of the UK’s national identity. And where we once built the world’s most powerful vessels, now we must build its greenest.

The UK already holds a global market share of around 5% in green shipbuilding, as well as being a world leader in subsea technology.

We are investing over £200 million to launch the Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions to fund more innovative green research.

And I know that across the shipping industry the Norwegian government and businesses are leading the race to develop those low-carbon solutions.

But decarbonising shipping will be a global effort. And as an independent trading nation once again, we in the UK will use the full arsenal of tools at our disposal, including our independent seat at the WTO, to tackle the protectionism that pervades in maritime trade.

Through free and fair trade, we can share both our nations’ expertise, creating high-skilled jobs, and accelerate the growth the global maritime industry’s green transition requires.

In maritime, and across our economies, trade enables the exchange of the ideas, technology, and expertise that benefit us all.

And this is what Global Britain is championing.

We are not looking inwards – we are focused on trading with the world.

Trade is how we will join forces with our allies to protect our planet, electrify the global economy, and stand as a bulwark against aggressors.

The likes of Putin will not succeed. They won’t divide us. Because we know that we are stronger when we trade together, stand together, and fight for progress together.

All this will only be possible with a strong, secure, and green global maritime sector. And this is exactly what the UK is determined to build.

Thank you.

• Export bar is to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the painting
• Worth £11 million, the painting is a rare example of one of Bellotto’s early masterpieces

A rare early masterpiece by Italian painter Bernardo Bellotto is at risk of leaving the UK unless a buyer can be found.

Dating from the mid-18th century and measuring over two metres wide,View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi marks an important turning point in the young Bellotto’s career as he began a series of journeys around Italy and received his first royal commission for Charles Emmanuel III (1701-1773), King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy in 1745.

This is the first of Bellotto’s paintings to be recorded in Britain and its pair is now at Powis Castle. None of his works currently in this country represent the artist’s career so dramatically and beautifully, and the importance of the work to British art cannot be overstated.

Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:

This rare painting is a masterpiece for its impressive scale and striking composition. Bernado Bellotto’s View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi would make an exceptional addition to any UK gallery and I sincerely hope a buyer comes forward to save the work for the nation.

The minister’s decision follows the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. The committee agreed the painting is outstandingly beautiful and innovative and one of the most remarkable of Bellotto’s career. It represents a stylistically important moment in his artistic development and plays a highly significant part in the understanding and appreciation of 18th century view painting.

Committee Member Christopher Baker said:

Bernardo Bellotto was one of the greatest vedute (view) painters of the eighteenth century and this ambitious work is among the towering achievements of his early career.

A native of Venice and nephew of Canaletto, Bellotto sought novel subjects beyond his home and here created, when in his early twenties, a remarkably mature study of the heart of Verona, notable for its bold composition, unifying silvery light and architectural interest, as well as its lively anecdotal details. Painted for an as yet unidentified British patron, View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi’ is first recorded in London in 1771 when it was consigned to auction.

It was conceived as one of a pair of pictures (pendants); its companion explores a complementary view of the river Adige, looking in the opposite direction, and hangs in the collection of Powis Castle (National Trust). Because of the aesthetic pre-eminence of Bellotto’s work and its fascination in terms of future research around such paintings and their patronage, it would be highly desirable if this wonderful picture could find a permanent home in a British public collection.

The committee made its recommendation on the grounds that the departure of the painting from the UK would be a misfortune given its outstanding aesthetic importance and outstanding significance for the study of view painting in this country.

The decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred for a period ending on 3rd August 2022 inclusive. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 Business Days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the painting at the recommended price of £11,244,000 (including VAT). The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for six months.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the painting should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.
2. Details of the painting are as follows: Bernardo Bellotto, called il Canaletto (Venice 1721–1780 Warsaw)
   A View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi, about 1745–47
   Oil on canvas, 133.3 x 234.8 cm On the whole the condition is very good. There is a marked degree of drying cracking across much of the surface, exposing the lighter underlayers; this is a little distracting in the darker areas of foreground water and boats, but could easily be addressed in a campaign of restoration. There are also scattered local retouchings in the sky, which have significantly discoloured. A pronounced pattern of more widely spaced vertical cracks across the surface may be the result of the painting having been rolled some time well after its execution.
3. Provenance: Anonymous sale, Christie’s, London, 30 March 1771, lot 55, as ‘Canaletti’, sold for 250 gns. to ‘Fleming’; Gilbert Fane Fleming (1724–1776), Marylebone; his sale, Christie’s, London, 22 May 1777, as ‘Canaletti. A view of the city of Verona, esteemed the chef d’oeuvre of the master’, sold for 205 gns. to ‘Ld Cadogan’; Charles Sloane Cadogan, 3rd Baron, from 1800 1st Earl, Cadogan (1728–1807), and presumably by inheritance to his son, Charles Henry Sloane, 2nd Earl Cadogan (1749–1832); (probably) acquired by the Hon. George James Welbore Agar Ellis, from 1831 1st Baron Dover (1797–1833), Dover House, Whitehall, and thence by inheritance to his daughter-in-law Eliza Horatia Frederica (1833–1896), widow of Henry George, 2nd Baron Dover and 3rd Viscount Clifden (1825– 1866); by descent to their son Henry George, 4th Viscount Clifden and 2nd Baron Dover (1863– 1895); his posthumous sale, Robinson and Foster, 25 May 1895, lot 784, as ‘Canaletto’, for 2,000 gns to Agnew’s; acquired by Agnew’s on behalf of Walter Hays Burns (1838–1897), North Mymms Park, Hertfordshire; thence by descent to his grandson Major-General Sir George Burns (1911–1997), North Mymms Park, Hertfordshire; his sale, Christie’s, London, 26 November 1971, lot 30, sold for £300,000 to Cyril Humphris, London; by whom sold to a private collector, thence by descent to the previous owner until sold (‘Property from a Distinguished Private Collection’), Christie’s, London, 8 July 2021, lot 9, for £10,575,000 (including buyer’s premium).
4. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by Arts Council England (ACE), which advises the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.
5. Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Its strategic vision in Let’s Create is that, by 2030, England should be a country in which the creativity of everyone is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. ACE invests public money from the government and the National Lottery to support the sector and deliver the vision. Following the Covid-19 crisis, ACE developed a £160 million Emergency Response Package, with nearly 90 per cent coming from the National Lottery, for organisations and individuals needing support. It is also one of the bodies administering the government’s unprecedented £1.96 billion Culture Recovery Fund.

Today marks two years since I became the current Chair of the Youth Justice Board. The world certainly feels like a different place, as does the youth justice system. Children in particular have been through a lot and I believe that how we respond to their additional needs now and over the next few years will make all the difference. It’s a big challenge, but there is certainly no shortage of commitment from the YJB and our partners.

I’d like to use this opportunity, two years into the role, to thank our various partners for their continued engagement and support. Our unique position as the organisation responsible for oversight of the youth justice system also brings a unique opportunity for us to convene partners across the system.

There are too many organisations and forums, from youth workers to academics, to thank in turn, so I will offer a few examples of the brilliant work our partners have embarked on over the past few months alone.

Last week I chaired a meeting with senior colleagues from across policing organisations, with a very welcome introduction from Minister Atkins. There was clear agreement from all involved that children must not be an ‘add on’ to policing strategies, and that their specific needs and vulnerabilities can be better addressed with more attention and through continued improvement to how our partnerships work. We all agree that getting this right means children will be better supported resulting in less offending by children, fewer victims and safer communities for all.

I was honoured to attend the Butler Trust awards ceremony in March, which celebrated inspiring and talented staff from across the justice system. Throughout my career I have witnessed a youth justice sector brimming with talented and dedicated people, and this is well documented in the case of Paul Wood from West Sussex Youth Justice Service who was one of the worth winners of a Butler Trust award.

On the topic of youth justice services, the most recent youth annual report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation highlighted the commendable performance of youth justice services over the last year. Of those inspected in the last year, two-thirds were rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ and none as ‘inadequate’. Although there is a space for improvement, and a role for the YJB in supporting that improvement, this is a huge achievement for services operating within a pandemic.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’d like to shine a light on the incredible work of our Youth Ambassadors whose expertise and advice has had such a positive influence. They have presented to ministers and senior leaders, influenced the direction of external funding and are currently working on a participation strategy which will reflect the very best of co-creation. I look forward to seeing more of their work, watching our networks grow further and supporting their goal of enabling participation and co-creation across the youth justice system.

I am more motivated than ever to see further improvements through the remainder of my chairmanship. I remain committed to addressing racial disparity, improving delivery of local youth justice services, supporting children so they are less likely to be exploited and/or to offend, and to see improvements to the secure estate, which includes the opening of a secure school. I am confident that with the continued support of partners we will see significant progress over the coming years.

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