Politics

Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, and the South Africa Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, met in London today, Tuesday 24 January 2017, for bilateral talks.

The meeting was a continuation of the ongoing high-level engagement between the United Kingdom and South Africa (SA) to discuss trade and economic relations and follows the recent visit of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to South Africa in December 2016.

Bilateral trade in goods and services between the UK and South Africa stood at £7.6 billion in 2015, with UK exports of goods and services increasing by 25% in the last decade. South Africa’s exports into the UK have increased by over 5% on an annual basis for the last decade. South Africa is the third biggest trading partner for the UK in the Commonwealth. The meeting was an opportunity for ministers to discuss existing links as well as opportunities to further develop these.

Both ministers committed to strengthening ties as the UK prepares to leave the European Union and to work together to identify trade and investment opportunities that will benefit not only the UK and South Africa, but across the wider southern Africa and Africa region.

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, said

South Africa is a key trading partner to the UK – a long-standing, strong and strategic ally for the United Kingdom in Africa and internationally. It is our largest export market in Africa; the largest economy in the southern Africa region and a fellow G20 member. South Africa is also the largest recipient of UK foreign direct investment in Africa accounting for 30% of total UK foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2014, a value of £13.1 billion.

As we become an even more outward looking country, we will continue building on our relationship with South Africa and today’s meeting was an opportunity to discuss how we progress that.

Minister for Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, said:

The UK is a historical and strategic trade and investment partner for South Africa and remains a key market especially for agriculture exports accounting for over 20% of SA’s exports of wine and 30% of fruit exports globally. The UK is the biggest destination in the EU for South African investment, accounting for 30% of SA investments into Europe. Furthermore, 46% of SA’s global investment originates from the UK.

We must ensure that we have a predictable trade and investment environment for mutual benefit for both parties. As we work to achieve this, South Africa looks forward to discussing how our trade post-Brexit could build on the recently concluded Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU.

Media wanting information about Highways England’s routine maintenance projects should, in the first instance, check our website.

The following summary of planned new and ongoing road improvements over the coming week is correct as of 20 January but could be subject to change due to weather conditions or unforeseen circumstances. All our improvement work is carried out with the aim of causing as little disruption as possible.

M1 junction 28 to 35a, Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire/Yorkshire: smart motorway

Until winter 2016, there will be various restrictions in place on the M1 between junctions 28 and 35a to allow for the construction of the smart motorway. These include lane closures, speed restrictions, hard shoulder running and overnight slip road or carriageway closures.

This week, the following closures will be in place:

• Monday 23 January, the northbound entry and exit slip roads at junction 31 and the northbound exit slip road at junction 33, will be closed overnight from 8pm until 6am
• Tuesday 24 January, the southbound entry and exit slip roads at junction 29, the northbound entry and exit slip roads at junction 30, the northbound exit slip road at junction 33, the southbound entry slip road at junction 33, the southbound exit slip road at junction 32 and the northbound exit slip road at junction 35 will be closed overnight from 8pm until 6am
• Wednesday 25 January, the northbound entry and exit slip roads at junction 29, the northbound entry and exit slip roads at junction 30, the southbound exit slip road at junction 32 and the northbound exit slip road at junction 33 will be closed overnight from 8pm until 6am
• Thursday 26 January, the northbound entry and exit slip roads at junction 29a, the southbound entry and exit slip road at junction 31 and the southbound entry slip road at junction 33 will be closed overnight from 8pm until 6am
• Friday 27 January, the Woodall Motorway Service Area entry and exit slip roads, the southbound entry and exit slip road at junction 30, the southbound entry and exit slip road at junction 33 will all be closed overnight from 8pm until 6am
• Saturday 28 January, the southbound up and over at junction 34 and the southbound junction 33 up and over will be closed overnight from 8pm until 6am

Diversions will be clearly signposted.

M1 junction 19, Leicestershire: road improvement scheme

On Monday 23, Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 January, the A14 to M1 northbound link road together with lane 1 of the A14 westbound leading to it, lane 1 of the A14 westbound from junction 2 to junction 1 and lane 1 of the M1 northbound through junction 19 will be closed overnight between 9pm and 6am.

On Thursday 26 and Friday 27 January, lane 1 of A14 westbound together with the A14 to M1 northbound link road, the A14 eastbound from Catthorpe junction to junction 1, lanes 2 and 3 of the M6 southbound together with the M6 to A14 eastbound link road, lane 1 of the M1 southbound together with the M1 to A14 eastbound link road and lane 1 of the M1 northbound through junction 19 will be closed overnight between 9pm and 6am. In all cases diversion routes will be clearly signposted.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

The new Communications Services framework has proved extremely popular with suppliers, resulting in a number of small businesses signing up to work with government for the first time.

The Government Communications Service (GCS) published the list of communications agencies that have been selected to help deliver ground-breaking government and public sector campaigns over the next 4 years earlier this month.

Of the 67 agencies selected for the new framework, 69% are small or medium-sized businesses, 22 are based outside of London and 44 are new to government business. These companies will now be eligible to bid and play key roles in cutting edge campaigns on topics ranging from public health to armed forces recruitment and promoting apprenticeships.

The Communications Services framework complements the Campaign Solutions framework announced in December.

Designed to to help public bodies tap into the very best expertise and talent in the communications industry, the 2 frameworks provide a flexible approach to working collaboratively with agencies to design and deliver innovative solutions for your campaigns.

Campaign Solutions offers a choice of 27 agencies, half of which are SMEs, who will be able to design, plan and deliver entire campaigns.

David Skinner, Crown Commercial Service’s Director of Corporate Solutions said:

A wide variety of innovative, exciting and talented agencies are now on the framework, including many small businesses.

This will provide public sector bodies with the tailored, specialist and flexible advice they need to develop cutting edge campaigns.

Both frameworks were developed in conjunction with GCS. GCS involved around 600 agencies and ran 5 events across the country to shape the new frameworks in a way that will work better for everyone and benefit UK citizens.

In this financial year the GCS is expected to deliver around 100 campaigns.

The government supports investment in the transport network given the benefits it provides to the economy. That is why we are providing substantial funding for the Mersey Gateway Bridge scheme in Halton.

In addition, the government is delivering a number of transport improvements in and around Halton. These include:

• the Halton Curve which will enable passenger services from North Wales and West Cheshire to directly access Liverpool city centre and Liverpool John Lennon airport
• Warrington Waterfront transport infrastructure scheme, a package of highway investment, including a bridge over the River Mersey, which opens up commercial land and alleviates congestion to the south of Warrington town centre
• the Omega J8 (M62) Highway Improvements to support the rapid and significant expansion of the Omega employment site now employing over 5,000 people
• access Improvements to Knowsley Industrial Park and A5300 Knowsley Expressway improvements, highway investments to support access to one of the major employment sites in Liverpool city region

As part of the Department for Transport’s Road Investment Strategy, Highways England (HE) will deliver the M56 J11a scheme to provide a new junction with the Mersey Gateway Bridge which will support the Daresbury Enterprise Zone, key to the knowledge economy in the north-west.

In 2015 the government announced it would look at the feasibility of extending Mersey Gateway bridge toll discounts to residents of Cheshire West & Chester and Warrington. The department has undertaken detailed work and evaluated options for how this could happen, what the costs would be and what this would do to the contracts already signed by Halton Borough Council to deliver the scheme and the tolling infrastructure.

The feasibility work, considered the legal position and the costs to the taxpayer and concluded that free tolling will not be extended beyond Halton Borough Council.

The government has already provided £86 million to Halton to develop the scheme, to pay for land and to deal with land contamination. Once the scheme opens, the government will also be providing a further substantial contribution of £288 million to help fund both the cost of the bridge and also to increase the funds available to enable residents of Halton to use the bridge for free.

It is government policy that users of estuarial crossings should help pay for the benefits they receive. The Mersey Gateway is no different. As is the case with the Dartford Crossings, an exception is to be made for residents of Halton given that the existing Silver Jubilee Crossing is the only road link between the two halves of the borough. Other users will have a range of frequent user discounts available to them to use a crossing that will deliver considerable congestion and journey time improvements to boost the region’s economy.

In evaluating the options open to the government we have considered a number of issues. On the legal side, the feasibility work showed there would be a significant risk of a successful legal challenge to a decision to extend free tolling to some local Councils and not others. On the cost side extending free tolling to only a handful of local Councils would still be at a substantial cost to the taxpayer. An extension of user discounts to not just Cheshire West & Chester and Warrington, as originally suggested, but also to the other 3 authorities that neighbour Halton (Knowsley, Liverpool City Council and St Helens), would be at an estimated cost of £604 million to the public purse. If, as is the case with Halton, the cost was to be split between the government and local authorities, £377 million would fall to the 5 local Councils. For all these reasons we have taken the decision not to extend free tolling beyond Halton.

The Mersey Gateway Bridge is on target for opening in autumn 2017 which is a great testimony to the hard work that all parties including Halton Borough Council have put into this scheme.