NewzIntel.com

Category: Great Britain

  • MIL-OSI: Unaudited Interim Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    19 June 2025

    HARGREAVE HALE AIM VCT PLC
    (the “Company”)

    Unaudited Interim Results

    The Company announces its half-year results for the six months ended 31 March 2025.

    These half-year results will be available on the Company’s website at  https://www.hargreaveaimvcts.co.uk/document-library/.

    In accordance with UK Listing Rule 6.4.1, a copy of this document will also be submitted to the UK Listing Authority via the National Storage Mechanism and will be available for viewing shortly at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism.

    Additionally, the interim report can also be found here:  HHV 2025 Interim Report

    Financial highlights

    Net asset value (NAV) per share   NAV total return   Tax free dividends paid in the period   Share price total return   Ongoing charges ratio
    34.48p   -8.19%   2.75   -6.28%   2.45%
    • £3.6m invested in Qualifying Companies in the period.
    • 92.29% invested by VCT tax value in Qualifying Investments at 31 March 2025.
    • Offer for subscription launched on 9 October 2024 to raise up to £20m. At the date of this report 14m Shares have been issued raising gross proceeds of £5.4m.
    • Final dividend of 1.25 pence and special dividend of 1.50 pence per Share paid 14 February 2025.
    • Interim dividend of 0.75 pence and special dividend of 0.50 pence per Share approved by the Board.
    Summary financial data Six months

    ending

    31-Mar-25

    		 Six months

    Ending

    31-Mar-24

    		 Year

    ending
    30 Sept-24
    NAV (£m) 126.75 155.74 148.01
    NAV per Share (p) 34.48 43.64 40.55
    NAV total return (%) -8.19 -2.59 -3.86
    Market capitalisation (£m) 124.25 150.60 142.34
    Share price (p) 33.80 42.20 39.00
    Share price discount to NAV per Share (%) 1.97 3.30 3.82
    Share price 5 year average discount to NAV per Share (%) -5.52 -5.83 -5.79
    Share price total return (%) -6.28 1.63 0.00
    Loss per Share for the period (p) -3.39 -1.22 -1.86
    Dividends paid per Share (p) 2.75 1.50 4.00
    Ongoing charges ratio (%) 2.45 2.45 2.43

    Investment Manager’s report

    Overview

    What would Harold Wilson, who famously quipped that a week was a long time in politics, have made of the extraordinary times we are living through? If JD Vance’s Munich speech signalled that the new administration was unconstrained by red lines, established protocols or strategic alliances, few truly anticipated the confusion and chaos that would follow on ‘Liberation Day’.

    The tumultuous reaction to Trump’s Rose Garden speech reflected the upending of the principles that had underpinned global trade for decades. Uncertainty swept through markets as analysts assessed the implications for the global economy, a task that was made considerably more difficult by the rapidly evolving nature of the proposed tariff regime and, more broadly, US trade policy. With future outcomes very difficult to predict and price in, significant volatility emerged in a huge range of financial assets. In the medium term, there are potentially profound implications for the value of invested capital as companies review their business models and supply chains.

    Spectacular as this has been, the impact on AIM has been relatively muted. Whilst risk assets in the US were overdue a correction, the same was not true of companies listed on AIM. The early part of the financial year was difficult with the 2024 UK Autumn Budget preceded by some unhelpfully stark messaging from the government. GDP, employment reports and PMI surveys all highlighted a notable softening in the UK economy through the second half of the 2024 calendar year. Measures of UK consumer and business confidence dipped, suggesting that households and companies were becoming increasingly cautious. Both the Office for Budget Responsibility and Bank of England reduced their GDP forecasts for 2025.

    Although UK fiscal policy is seen as being negative to growth and positive for inflation, a very significant increase in public spending is expected to support a pick up in UK economic activity in 2025 with the market consensus for GDP growth in 2025 currently +1.0%. While the Bank of England is currently forecasting 3.5% inflation in 2025, significantly above the 2.0% target, the downside risks to the global economy that have subsequently emerged, along with falling energy prices, are expected to reduce CPI to comfortably below 3.0% by early 2026. As a result, the outlook for interest rate cuts has significantly improved with the market now pricing in up to four interest cuts in 2025. For context, the market was expecting just one cut as we entered into 2025.

    You might reasonably expect all of this to heap more selling pressure onto UK equities. Whilst that was the case within the period under review, it is not so more recently. Although the constantly evolving narrative threatens to undermine the current dynamic, as it stands UK equity markets are going through a mini renaissance. As we have previously observed, UK markets are cheap, both in relative and absolute terms. As the US economy falters and the US exceptionalism narrative comes under pressure, investors are starting to look elsewhere. With a high weighting to more defensive companies, an expectation that the UK economy should emerge relatively unscathed from the new tariff regime, stable politics and low valuations, there is clear interest in UK equities from investors rotating away from US equities. This is yet to result in fund inflows to the IA UK Small Cap sector; however, the flow picture has improved. For now, at least, the market’s focus has shifted away from UK fiscal policy to international trade and the impact of tariffs.

    Returning to events within the six months to 31 March 2025, we regrettably report that AIM was again notably weak, with the Deutsche Numis Alternative Market (ex IC) returning -7.51% over the period on a total return basis. This was not specific to AIM, the domestically focused FTSE 250 Index also endured a difficult period as business and financial markets returned a withering assessment of the 2024 Autumn Budget. Ultimately, pressure on UK government borrowing costs forced the Chancellor to announce spending cuts in her 2025 Spring Statement. More will need to be done and we expect the government to come forward with new initiatives to promote growth, contain spending and/or increase taxes. It will be a difficult balancing act.

    Performance 

    In the six months to 31 March 2025 the unaudited NAV per Share decreased from 40.55 pence to 34.48 pence. A final dividend for FY24 of 1.25 pence and a special dividend of 1.50 pence were paid on 14 February 2025, giving a NAV total return to Shareholders of -3.32 pence per Share, which translates to a loss of -8.19%.

    The Qualifying Investments made a net contribution of -2.70 pence per Share whilst the Non-Qualifying Investments returned -0.25 pence per Share. The contribution to net asset performance is split out in further detail below.

    Qualifying Investments 

    Positive Contributors 

    In November 2024, Aquis Exchange (+95.8%, +£1.71m) received a takeover offer from its larger Swiss peer SIX Exchange at 727p, equivalent to an enterprise value of £194m. The offer price, which was at a 120% premium to the previous closing price and slightly above the 2021 share price high, resulted in an exit multiple of 4.7x book cost. The deal was approved by Aquis shareholders on 18 December 2024 and is expected to complete in July 2025.

    Shares in Cohort (+26.1%, +£1.12m) continued to perform strongly as European nations announced plans to significantly boost defence spending. The UK government announced plans to increase spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, an additional spend of £13.4bn p.a. from current levels. The company announced its subsidiary MASS Consultants received a two-year extension to its Joint Command and Staff Training contract for UK Strategic Command worth over £17.5m. Cohort also completed the acquisition of Australian-based satellite communications company EM Solutions.

    Oberon Investment Group (+43.3%, +£0.49m) raised a further £2.5m in February 2025, providing additional investment to accelerate growth across corporate broking, wealth management and fund management. We used the opportunity to increase our investment in the company. H1 2025 results showed revenue growth of 78% to £4.8m, coupled with a reduction in EBITDA losses. Current trading remains positive with like for like revenue growth of over 30% expected for FY25 (March YE).

    Ilika (+56.5%, +£0.48m) continued to make technical progress with Goliath, its solid state battery technology for electric vehicles (EV). In partnership with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, the company built a prototype battery using industrial equipment and processes, demonstrating the scalability of key steps in the manufacturing process. Goliath has achieved energy density parity with current lithium-ion cells, successfully reached its D6 milestone of testing 10Ah cells, and expects to achieve minimum viable product for EV applications within 2026. The company also successfully completed the transfer of its Stereax micro-battery production to US-based partner Cirtec Medical and expects this partnership to generate revenues in H2 2025.

    Intelligent Ultrasound (+30.0%, +£0.41m) received a takeover offer from Swedish medical simulation company Surgical Science at 13p in December 2024. The transaction valued Intelligent Ultrasound at an enterprise value of £4.7m. Adjusting for the sale of the Clinical-AI business to GE Healthcare in October 2024 for £40.5m, the offer placed a relatively low value on the simulation division. Whilst we voted against the scheme due to the low valuation, the transaction was approved by shareholders on 6 February 2025 and completed on 18 February 2025.

    Negative Contributors 

    Despite reductions to its overheads, a difficult retail environment undermined Kidly (-100.00%, -£1.26m) in its attempts to establish a fundable pathway to profitability. Kidly was placed into administration on 4 March 2025 following a formal sales process. Although the company was subsequently sold from administration, the proceeds did not result in any recoverable value to the Company.

    Zoo Digital (-74.3%, -£1.14m) issued a disappointing year-end trading update with FY25 revenues growing 24% to $50.5m (consensus: $55m) and EBITDA of at least $1m. Cash was also below expectations at $1m. Whilst the film and TV industry has begun to recover from the 2023 strikes, the company has been impacted by project delays and cancellations as streaming platforms continue to evaluate their commercial models.

    On 31 March 2025, Equipmake (-40.0%, -£0.93m) announced a £5m strategic investment from Caterpillar Ventures and a development agreement with Caterpillar. We view this outcome as a significant achievement for a company that was operating with limited working capital . The company also announced a development agreement with JCB, and post period-end, a £650,000 development agreement with CorPower Ocean. A new CFO was appointed.

    Team Internet (-54.8%, -£0.86m) shares fell sharply in Q4 2024 as the company announced that revenues at a recently acquired online marketing business, Shinez would fall short of expectations. This was followed by the negative news in Q1 2025 when the company announced that 2025 would be impacted by changes being made by Google, with a major impact on revenues in the company’s online marketing business. The company also confirmed that it was no longer in talks regarding a potential takeover offer. The year end trading update confirmed 2024 net revenues of $188m (-2% vs prior year) and an operating profit of $8.2m following a $36m impairment to the value of Shinez.

    Eagle Eye (-21.3%, -£0.85m) issued a profit warning in January 2025, cautioning that FY25 revenues would be below market expectations due to lengthening sales cycles. The warning was exacerbated by the company’s decision to make a strategic shift away from professional services work. More promising was the announcement of a major new partnership with a large software vendor where Eagle Eye will be directly integrated into the vendor’s product. Whilst this opportunity will take time to generate revenues, the partnership could become a very material profit generator in time. H1 2025 results reported revenues of £24.2m (unchanged year on year), and adjusted EBITDA of £5.9m.

    Recurring revenue represented 82% of the total with annual recurring revenue increasing by 16% to £41m. The company continues to benefit from a strong balance sheet with net cash of £11.7m.

    Non-qualifying Investments

    Within the non-qualifying portfolio, the IFSL Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth Fund and IFSL Marlborough Special Situations Fund declined by £1.27m over the period. We reduced our investments in both to release liquidity ahead of scheduled dividend payments.

    Within the non-qualifying direct equities portfolio, the weaker outlook for the UK economy following the 2024 Autumn Budget impacted WH Smith and Hollywood Bowl. Bodycote struggled with weak end markets, notably automotive and aerospace, and we sold the position. BAE Systems performed well as the outlook for defence spending in the UK and Europe strengthened and TP ICAP rose as the company announced plans to spin-out its data business Parameta Solutions alongside good results. We exited BAE Systems and took profits in Chemring following strong share price performance and initiated a new position in Trustpilot. The direct equity holdings returned -£0.14m (-1.3%). The losses were offset by gains in the non-qualifying fixed income portfolio, which returned +£0.35m.

    We released £0.99m of liquidity through the sale of the Next 3.0% 2026 bond, again to support scheduled dividend payments. The average maturity of the current portfolio of six investment grade corporate bonds is just over two years with an average yield to maturity of 4.9%. This part of the Company’s portfolio is expected to generate annual income of approximately £0.85m.

    Portfolio structure 

    The VCT is comfortably through the HMRC defined investment test and ended the period at 92.29% invested as measured by the HMRC investment test.

    The market for new Qualifying Investment remained very subdued with just two VCT qualifying IPOs within the 12 months to 31 March 2025. Within the period under review, AIM VCTs invested £27.2m across 17 companies. We were measured in our deployment of capital, investing £3.6m into five companies. The new Qualifying Investments included follow on investments into Rosslyn Data Technologies and Oberon Investments Group. We invested in one IPO, RC Fornax, in addition to two new equity investments into existing AIM companies, Feedback and IXICO.

    Feedback. The company provides software solutions for the NHS which deliver secure, compliant clinical workforce tools and data management. The company’s flagship product, Bleepa, is a secure, cloud-based platform that enables healthcare professionals to share and view medical images, as well as notes and other records between primary and secondary care settings. The company has secured partnerships with both a primary care record provider and an IT consultancy to implement the solution. The VCT invested as part of a £6.1m fundraise in November 2024.

    IXICO. The company is a contract research organisation which provides tech-enabled imaging analysis services to pharma companies conducting clinical trials in neurological diseases, with a focus on Huntingdon’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The company has a network of more than 1,000 qualified sites and currently works with 18 pharma clients across 26 studies. The VCT invested as part of a £4m fundraise in October 2024.

    RC Fornax. The company is an engineering consultancy founded by former RAF engineers which serves the defence industry. The VCT invested as part of the AIM IPO in February 2025 which raised £3.7m.

    Within the qualifying portfolio, we exited through takeover Equals Group, Intelligent Ultrasound and Learning Technologies Group. The Equals Group exit valuation of £277m resulted in a gain of 141% over book cost. The Learning Technologies Group exit valued the company at £858m, a gain of 376% over book cost. We also sold our investments in Gfinity and Surface Transforms following poor performance and reduced our holding in Cohort following a period of strong share price performance.

    By market value, the VCT had an increased 58.4% (Sep 24: 56.0%) weighting to Qualifying Investments, an increased 14.2% (Sep 24: 12.9%) weighting to non-qualifying fixed income, a reduced combined 11.9% (Sep 24: 13.4%) weighting to the IFSL Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth Fund and IFSL Marlborough Special Situations Fund following disposals, and a reduced 7.3% (Sep 24: 8.1%) weighting to non-qualifying direct equities. New investment into Qualifying Companies and the return of capital through dividend distributions resulted in a reduced weighting to cash of 7.6%(1) (Sep 24: 9.3%(1)) of net assets despite inflows from the offer for subscription and the sale of Qualifying and Non-Qualifying Investments.

    The HMRC investment tests are set out in Chapter 3 of Part 6, ITA , which should be read in conjunction with this Investment Manager’s report. Funds raised by VCTs are first included in the investment tests from the start of the accounting period containing the third anniversary of the date on which the funds were raised. Therefore, the allocation of Qualifying Investments as defined by the VCT Rules can be different to the portfolio weighting as measured by market value relative to the net assets of the VCT.

    Outlook

    Although tail risks remain, broadly speaking the US appears to be inching towards a more moderate and workable position on trade policy. Whilst equity markets have quickly moved to price in a benign outcome, other measures such as borrowing costs and exchange rates continue to signal concern about the medium and long term impact on the US. Historically, this would be perceived as a major risk for the global economy; however, in a multi-polar world, there is potential for a moderate decoupling.

    Back at home, the government has completed two reviews that have shown increased support for defence, healthcare and housebuilding. We have good exposure to the first two. There continues to be much discussion about the outlook for the UK as a leading financial hub and the manner in which we support our growth companies. This debate will continue for some time; however, we draw comfort from the level of engagement by a variety of stakeholders. Greater and more coordinated support for the broader growth ecosystem, even if in areas that are adjacent to where we operate, will provide welcome second order benefits.

    This has fed through to AIM, which has been strongly positive since the post ‘Liberation Day’ correction with the index moving higher as investors react to the growth and value opportunity. It remains too early to comment on the durability of the rally but the foundations are being laid. Whilst government spending, as recently outlined, will support the UK growth story for several years to come; we will need to wait until the 2025 Autumn Budget to see whether this is offset by further changes to tax policy.

    We continue to see signs that deal flow is improving, albeit slowly. UK fund flows remain negative; that is the missing piece that must fall into place before investors can finally feel that a corner may have been turned.

    END

    For further information, please contact:

    Canaccord Genuity Asset Management
    Oliver Bedford    		  +44 20 7523 4837
    JTC (UK) Limited
    Uloma Adighibe
    Alexandria Tivey    		 HHV.CoSec@jtcgroup.com
    +44 203 832 3877
    +44 203 832 3891

    LEI: 213800LRYA19A69SIT31        

    The MIL Network –

  • Young guns shine as Juventus hammer Al-Ain 5-0 at Club World Cup

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Randal Kolo Muani and Francisco Conceicao both scored twice as the young guns of Juventus made a statement in their Club World Cup opener with a dominant 5-0 win over Emirati club Al-Ain on Wednesday.

    Kolo Muani grabbed both of his goals in the first half, Conceicao scored either side of the break while Turkey forward Kenan Yildiz also found the net as Juventus dazzled the crowd at Audi Field with some mesmeric football.

    “I’m very happy to win the game, the team played a great game so we’re happy and now we’ll get ready for the next game,” said Kolo Muani.

    “I finished last season well and we’ve started this good as well.”

    The convincing victory sent Juventus top of Group G level on three points with England’s Manchester City, who beat Wydad Casablanca 2-0 earlier on Wednesday.

    Twice Asian champions Al-Ain conceded two thirds of the pitch for much of the first half and Juventus midfielder Khephren Thuram ran the show from about 35 metres out with Conceicao and Yildiz buzzing around in front of him.

    A neat exchange of passing in the 11th minute set Alberto Costa free on the edge of the box and the young Portuguese right back lofted over a cross which Kolo Muani met with a powerful header at the far post for the opening goal.

    Costa’s fine work down the right flank 10 minutes later set up the second goal for Conceicao, who ghosted across the box before unleashing a shot which took a deflection and flew over the outstretched arms of Rui Patricio in the Al-Ain goal.

    A further 10 minutes on and the lively Yildiz took the ball on the left before cutting inside, taking two touches and firing a shot into the net off the post.

    Al-Ain had to push forward if they were going to get anything out of the game but they paid the price for their ambition in stoppage time at the end of the first half.

    A through ball from Thuram found Kolo Muani peeling off the last defender and the French striker slotted the ball into net with the outside of his right foot to take his tally to five goals in his last six games for The Old Lady.

    The Emirati side had a goal ruled out for offside at the start of the second half and skipper Kodjo Laba drew a fine save out of Juventus goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio in the 49th minute.

    Conceicao, however, put the game well beyond them in the 58th minute when he skipped into the box from the right wing and beat Portuguese Patricio for the second time with a fine low strike.

    Patricio finally showed the quality that earned him 108 Portugal caps to deny Kolo Muani a hat-trick in the 66th minute and Juventus substitute Douglas Luiz came close to further blowing out the scoreline in the last couple of minutes.

    Juventus next play Morroco’s Wydad in Philadephia on Sunday, while Al-Ain, who lost to Real Madrid in the 2018 Club World Cup final, face City in Atlanta later the same day.

    -Reuters

  • Captain Gill to bat at number four as India look to fill Kohli void

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    India’s new test captain Shubman Gill will drop down one spot in the order to take Virat Kohli’s old position at number four, vice skipper Rishabh Pant said on Wednesday ahead of their series opener against England.

    Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in tests including 30 centuries, followed former captain Rohit Sharma into retirement from the format last month.

    India named Gill as their new test captain in May, picking the 25-year-old batter over pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.

    “I think Shubman is going to bat at number four and I’m going to stick to number five as of now,” Pant told reporters.

    “And (the) rest, we are going to keep on discussing about that.

    “Obviously, it’s a new start for us, big people have left. Yes, there will be a gap, but at the same time, it’s an opportunity for us to build a new culture from here or take a culture forward from there, just adding to it.”

    Pant said his friendship with Gill will help them tackle the leadership responsibilities, with their first big challenge coming up on Friday when the first test kicks off at Leeds.

    “If you’re good friends off the field, it eventually comes on the field. It’s much better for cricket always, and that is something I’ve always believed in,” he said.

    “Me and him, we get along really well together. We keep on having conversations, and the kind of comfort zone we have with each other, I think that is really going to be special for us.”

    -Reuters

  • MIL-Evening Report: As the federal government fumbles on nature law reform, the states are forging ahead

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Phillipa C. McCormack, Future Making Fellow, Environment Institute, University of Adelaide

    Jakub Maculewicz, Shutterstock

    The South Australian parliament today passed a new law to conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity.

    It brings together native vegetation management, protection for native species and habitat, and conservation on private land. When introducing the bill to the Parliament, Deputy Premier Susan Close said:

    Just as South Australia has led the way on climate action, committing to net zero emissions by 2050, we must now take the same ambitious approach to biodiversity. (This) crucial piece of legislation … will modernise and strengthen protections for South Australia’s biodiversity to benefit us and our future generations.

    SA is not the first state to revise its nature laws. But this is the first environment law in years to be drafted from scratch in Australia. Rather than waiting for federal reform, SA has leapfrogged the protracted process. This new legislation achieves some things no Australian law has done before.

    National environment law reform has stalled

    This all comes at a time when the federal law reform is up in the air.

    The Albanese government failed to pass new national environment laws during its first term.

    Environment protection even went backwards just before the election. The rushed amendments limited powers to reconsider certain environment approvals when an activity is harming the environment.

    Last month, the new Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said environmental law reform was a priority. Still, it may be difficult to get the essential ambitious national reforms over the line.

    In the meantime, state and territory governments are forging ahead.

    Time for states and territories to lead?

    The last state to write a new nature law was New South Wales, in 2016. But a scathing 2023 review of the law recommended a major overhaul.

    The NSW government committed to most of the recommendations, announcing big plans for nature law reforms in July last year. These plans include strengthening land-clearing codes, improving species protections and monitoring, and preparing a new “nature positive” strategy.

    So far, the NSW government has only managed to pass legislation to fix problems with biodiversity offsets. Offset schemes allow developers to compensate for their destruction of vital habitat with gains elsewhere.

    In Victoria, the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 was amended in 2019. These reforms inserted new principles around how the Act should be implemented, and a new approach to crucial habitat. The reforms also emphasised the need to improve species’ survival and adaptation to climate and environmental change.

    The Nature Conservation Act and strategy in the ACT are also due for review. Early consultation concluded in July 2024. A revised Act is likely to be released later this year.

    Does Australia really need two layers of environment laws?

    The short answer is yes, Australia needs both state and federal environment laws. But the interactions between the two could be managed better.

    The Australian Constitution doesn’t give the federal government explicit authority to make laws about the environment. That’s left to the states and territories, which means they make most laws about threatened species, waterways, native vegetation and protected areas.

    The federal government has an overarching responsibility to protect environments that are important to all of us, in national laws. We call these “matters of national environmental significance”.

    Some matters are significant because they involve Australia’s promises to the rest of the world. Australia has international obligations to protect world heritage areas and internationally significant wetlands, for example.

    Other matters cross state borders. The orange-bellied parrot, for instance, migrates across three states to find food and nesting sites.

    Individual states and territories do not have sufficient resources or the national perspective needed to protect these species and places.

    Why do the South Australian reforms matter?

    SA’s new Biodiversity Act does some things no Australian law has done before.

    For example, it looks beyond species and ecosystems, offering protection to so-called “ecological entities”. Regulations will be needed to define what an ecological entity is. But the concept may protect refuges where species shelter from extreme events. It might also offer a new way to protect important landscape features such as coastal dunes.

    Another new concept is “culturally significant biodiversity entities”. The Act defines a culturally significant biodiversity entity as:

    • a native species or ecological community
    • with cultural value to some or all Aboriginal people
    • which is critical to Aboriginal peoples’ relationships with and adaptation to Country.

    The Act also sets up a new Aboriginal Biodiversity Committee. That committee will co-develop policies with the minister. One of these policies will explain how culturally significant biodiversity entities will be identified and managed.

    Other policies will be developed in collaboration with the Aboriginal Biodiversity Committee. These include policies to guide cultural burning of native plants, or to consider and apply Aboriginal knowledge. At long last, Aboriginal people will have a “seat at the table”.

    SA becomes the third state (after NSW and Victoria) to mention climate change in its nature law. This is an important reform. Laws are needed to help nature survive more frequent and severe droughts, floods and fires.

    Environmental scientist and polar explorer Tim Jarvis on biodiversity (Department for Environment and Water)

    All hands on deck

    Australian environments are extraordinary, diverse and ancient. But Australia has long been an extinction hotspot. The continent’s ecosystems remain under serious pressure.

    Our environment laws must be clear and avoid complex clashes or gaps between national and state responsibilities. But SA, NSW, Victoria and soon the ACT show law reform can also be more ambitious. Nature laws can truly help the environment to flourish even as the climate changes.

    Phillipa C. McCormack receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Natural Hazards Research Australia, the National Environmental Science Program, Green Adelaide and the ACT Government. She is a member of the National Environmental Law Association and affiliated with the Wildlife Crime Research Hub and the Centre for Marine Socioecology.

    – ref. As the federal government fumbles on nature law reform, the states are forging ahead – https://theconversation.com/as-the-federal-government-fumbles-on-nature-law-reform-the-states-are-forging-ahead-257666

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: City to welcome new Director Corporate Performance

    Source: New South Wales Ministerial News

    The City of Greater Bendigo is pleased to announce Angela Hays as its new Director Corporate Performance.

    Ms Hays joins the City following roles as Head of People & Customer at Melton City Council and Director Corporate Services at Mackay Regional Council.

    Chief Executive Officer Andrew Cooney said Ms Hays’ experience in providing high level strategic direction, financial management, and her sound understanding of Local government processes made her a strong candidate.

    “Angela has built a diverse career in government roles, while leading and supporting capable teams across a diverse set of portfolios,” Mr Cooney said.

    “Angela will be leading the Financial Strategy, IT, People and Culture, Governance & Performance and Customer Engagement & Communication units.

    “Having recently relocated to Bendigo with her family; Angela is excited about contributing to the community she now calls home.  We look forward to Angela joining the team and bringing her leadership, skills, and experience to the organisation.”

    Ms Hays said she was excited by the opportunity to contribute to the continued success of the City.

    “Having previously worked in Local Government, I understand the important leadership role a council has in a community,” she said.

    “The City is a highly regarded Local Government and I am delighted to accept this role and get to know the Corporate Performance staff and broader organisation.”

    Ms Hays will start with the City on Monday July 7, 2025. 

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Deloraine Police seize illegal firearms, drugs during targeted searches

    Source: New South Wales Community and Justice

    Deloraine Police seize illegal firearms, drugs during targeted searches

    Thursday, 19 June 2025 – 12:31 pm.

    Two people have been separately charged after police seized multiple firearms and illicit substances during two unrelated searches in the Meander Valley area this week.

    Deloraine Police conducted the first targeted search at a Weegeena residence on Tuesday 17 June.

    During the search, police located and seized a .22 calibre rifle, a 22 Magnum rifle, an air rifle, and a Glock pistol as well as ammunition and quantities of illicit substances.

    A 52-year-old Weegeena man has been charged with multiple drug and firearms offences, and will appear in court at a later date.

    In a second, unrelated search at a Deloraine address on Wednesday 18 June, police located a hydroponic cannabis growing room and seized a large quantity of cannabis.

    A 56 year old Deloraine man has been charged with multiple drug-related offences and will appear in court at a later date.

    Inspector Craig Fox said police continued to target illegal drug and firearm activity throughout Tasmania.

    “We know the impact drugs and firearms have on the community, and these searches are evidence of our continued commitment to community safety and holding offenders to account,” he said.

    Anyone with information about illegal firearms or illicit substances is urged to contact police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1800 333 000 or online at crimestopperstas.com.au.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Serious crash at Direk

    Source: New South Wales – News

    Police and emergency services are at the scene of a serious crash at Direk.
    Just after 10am Thursday 19 June police were called to Heaslip Road after reports of a two-vehicle crash.
    Heaslip road is closed at Direk.
    Please avoid the area.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Serious crash at Munno Para Downs

    Source: New South Wales – News

    Police and emergency services are at the scene of a serious crash at Munno Para Downs.

    Just after 9am Thursday 19 June police were called to Coventry Road with the intersection of Dalkeith Road after reports of a two-vehicle crash.

    Coventry Road is closed with Dalkeith Road.

    Please avoid the area.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New scanner could improve brain tumour treatment Scientists at the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian have been awarded £350,000 of Scottish Government funding to investigate a new way to scan brain tumours.

    Source: University of Aberdeen

    FCI scanner

    Scientists at the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian have been awarded £350,000 of Scottish Government funding to investigate a new way to scan brain tumours.
    Funded by a Chief Scientist Office Translational Clinical Studies grant, the team will use Aberdeen-designed, Field Cycling Imaging (FCI) to generate never-before seen images of glioblastoma brain tumours.
    Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive type of brain tumour with over 3,000 new patients in the UK diagnosed each year. Half of all patients die within 15 months of diagnosis even after extensive surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
    Field cycling imaging (FCI) is a new and specialist type of low-field MRI scan pioneered in Aberdeen. The FCI scanner follows in the footsteps of the full body MRI scanner, also invented at the University around 50 years ago which has gone on to save millions of lives around the world. The FCI derives from MRI but can work at low and ultra-low magnetic fields which means it is capable of seeing how organs are affected by diseases in ways that were previously not possible.
    While similar to MRI, in that MRI uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body, the FCI scanner can vary the strength of the magnetic field during the patient’s scan. This means the FCI acts like multiple scanners in one and can extract more information about the tissues.
    A further benefit of this new technology is that it can detect tumours without having to inject dye into the body, known as contrast agents, which have been associated with kidney damage and allergic reactions in some patients.
    The Aberdeen scanner is the only one of its type used in patients anywhere in the world.
    The team of doctors and scientists involved in this project will scan glioblastoma patients undergoing chemotherapy after surgery and chemoradiotherapy.
    They hope to show that, unlike conventional MRI scans, FCI can tell the difference between tumour growth, known as progression, and ‘pseudo-progression’ which looks like tumour but is not cancerous tissue.

    Ultimately this study and related future work will improve quality, effectiveness and healthcare cost-effectiveness in the treatment of glioblastoma patients across Scotland and beyond.” Professor Anne Kiltie

    If they can distinguish pseudo-progression from true progression this could improve care and quality of life in future patients.
    Professor Anne Kiltie, Friends of ANCHOR Chair in Clinical Oncology at the University of Aberdeen, who is leading the study said: “We already have evidence that FCI is effective in detecting tumours in breast tissue and brain damage in patients following a stroke.
    “Applying this exciting new technology to glioblastoma patients could give us a much more accurate and detailed picture of what is going on in their brain. If we can detect true tumour progression early, we can swap the patient to a potentially more beneficial type of chemotherapy. Also, being able to verify that a patient has pseudo-progression will prevent effective chemotherapy being stopped too early, because it was thought that the tumour has progressed, thus worsening prognosis.
    “Providing certainty will also reduce anxiety for both patients and relatives and improve the quality of life of patients.
    “Importantly, having a reliable method to identify progressive disease will allow development and more precise evaluation of emerging potential treatments. This is of particular importance as patients currently have a limited choice of treatments for combatting their cancer.
    “Ultimately this study and related future work will improve quality, effectiveness and healthcare cost-effectiveness in the treatment of glioblastoma patients across Scotland and beyond.”
    Sarah-Jane Hogg, chief executive at Friends of ANCHOR, added: “This is a really promising development and another example of the pioneering work coming out of the University of Aberdeen.
    “Professor Kiltie’s role at the University is fully funded by Friends of ANCHOR through our Dream Big appeal, and our thanks go to our donors and fundraisers for the part they’ve played in supporting this work.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Migrating bogong moths use the stars and Earth’s magnetic field to find ancestral summer caves each year

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Warrant, Professor of Zoology at the University of Lund, Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, and Adjunct Professor, University of South Australia

    Vik Dunis/iNaturalist, CC BY-NC

    It’s a warm January summer afternoon, and as I traverse the flower-strewn western slopes of Australia’s highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, I am on the lookout for a tell-tale river of boulders that winds its way down into the alpine valleys below.

    Here, hidden in cave-like hollows and crevices formed deep within the river of boulders, is one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in the insect world – the summer mass gathering of an iconic Australian insect, the bogong moth (Agrotis infusa).

    Tightly huddled together in their dim cool cavernous world, with each moth’s head pushed slightly under the wings of the moth just ahead, millions of bogong moths sleep out the summer, slumbering in a state of dormancy known as “aestivation”.

    Their little bodies coat the stone surfaces in an endless soft brown carpet, with 17,000 of them tiling each square metre of cave wall. It’s a sight that never fails to take my breath away.

    Bogong moths sleep through the summer heat clinging to the walls of caves in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales.
    Eric Warrant

    Marathon migrations

    To get here, these moths have flown from all over southeast Australia through the spring, arriving from as far away as south-eastern Queensland and far-western Victoria. Converted to human body length, these journeys of roughly 1,000 kilometres would be equivalent to a person circumnavigating Earth twice.

    The moths’ marathon voyages to the Alps are likely undertaken to escape the lethal heat of the coming summer in their breeding areas. When the cool of autumn arrives, the moths leave the mountains to produce their own offspring and die.

    Every summer, bogong moths travel up to 1,000 kilometres to sleep through the heat in cool mountain caves.
    Eric Warrant

    But how on Earth do they know how to find these caves? How do they know the direction to travel and how do they know when they’ve arrived?

    These questions have fascinated me and the other members of my research group for many years. It turns out bogong moths possess a most extraordinary ability to navigate, harnessing Earth’s magnetic field and the stars as compasses to follow their inherited migratory direction.

    Moths, magnets and stars

    We made these remarkable discoveries in a specialised lab we built a few years ago near Adaminaby in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales.

    First we light-trapped bogong moths that were either migrating towards the Alps in spring or away again in autumn. We next placed them in a special flight arena inside the lab, and finely controlled Earth’s magnetic field (with magnetic coils around the arena) and the starry night sky (by projecting a highly realistic starry night sky on the roof of the arena).

    Because we already knew bogong moths have a magnetic sense, we used the coils to completely remove, or null, the magnetic field in the arena. This ensured any orientation using the stars was not confounded by the ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field.

    The orientation of the nighttime sky determines the moths’ direction of movement. When researchers showed moths random star patterns, they flew in random directions.
    Dreyer et al./Nature

    What we found next astounded us. Using only the local Australian starry night sky projected above them, bogong moths flying in our arena were able to discern and follow their inherited migratory direction – both in spring and in autumn.

    If we turned this projected sky by 180°, the moths turned and flew in exactly the opposite direction. If we then took all of the stars in this projected natural sky and randomly distributed them across the roof of the arena, the moths became completely confused and lost their ability to migrate in their inherited migratory direction.

    Navigators with tiny brains

    In the absence of all other possible cues, bogong moths clearly used the stars as a true compass to discern a geographic direction relative to north.

    This is the first invertebrate we so far know of that can do this. Only human beings and some species of night-migratory birds are known to have this ability.

    But in moths this ability is even more remarkable considering their brain is approximately one-tenth the volume of a grain of rice and their eyes only a couple of millimetres wide.

    A magnetic backup system

    We made a final discovery when we moved our flight arena up onto the hill behind the lab under the magnificent dome of the natural starry sky. As expected, the moths were beautifully oriented in their inherited migratory direction.

    But on one of these nights the sky was heavily overcast with cloud. To our great surprise, the moths remained oriented in their migratory direction, even though the stars were obscured.

    The only remaining cue that could have been used was Earth’s magnetic field, which showed very clearly that moths rely on two compasses – a magnetic compass and a stellar compass.

    But of course, two compasses will always be better than one – if one becomes corrupted or drops out, the other can take over. Nature’s perfect solution for robust navigation!

    Bogong moths under threat

    Despite its fantastic abilities, this tiny navigator is under threat. A result of anthropogenic climate change, the recent drought in Australia saw bogong moth numbers fall by a jaw-dropping 99.5%.

    Endless thousands of generations of bogong moths have slept through summer in a few specific caves dotted across these outcrops.
    Eric Warrant

    Endangered alpine marsupials that depend on the moth’s arrival in spring for food – such as the mountain pygmy possum – suffered heavily as a result.

    Droughts in southeast Australia are only predicted to worsen in both frequency and intensity. The future of the bogong moth, as well as the fragile alpine ecosystem that depends on it, does not look very bright.

    Eric Warrant receives funding from the Swedish Research Council, the European Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Carl Tryggers Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, The German National Academy of Science Leopoldina, the Royal Danish Society of Sciences and Letters, the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Royal Physiographic Society.

    – ref. Migrating bogong moths use the stars and Earth’s magnetic field to find ancestral summer caves each year – https://theconversation.com/migrating-bogong-moths-use-the-stars-and-earths-magnetic-field-to-find-ancestral-summer-caves-each-year-259361

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: expert reaction to final draft guidance on donanemab and lecanemab

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Scientists comment on final NICE draft guidance on the use of donanemab and lecanemab for Alzheimer’s disease. 

    Prof Charles Marshall, Professor of Clinical Neurology, Queen Mary University of London, said:

    “This will be very disappointing news to people living with Alzheimer’s disease. However, the decision is understandable given the high cost to the NHS of giving the drugs for a relatively modest benefit. There are several things which would help to get disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer’ disease approved in the future. Firstly, we need better information about the true impact of living with Alzheimer’s disease for both the person affected and their family, so that we can better capture all of the benefit on quality of life that these drugs might have. Secondly, we need improved NHS clinics that can offer high quality diagnosis and monitoring of dementia so that the costs of setting up this diagnosis and monitoring are not weighed against the benefit of the drugs. Finally, we need more effective drugs so that the magnitude of benefit becomes indisputable, and there is currently good reason to be hopeful about this.”

    Prof Rob Howard, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, UCL, said:

    “Nobody should be surprised that NICE have confirmed their earlier view that the new Alzheimer’s disease treatments would not be cost-effective if used within the NHS. Well-conducted clinical trials demonstrated that the actual size of benefits experienced by patients were too small to be noticeable, treatment carries risks of side-effects, and the annual cost of the drugs and safety monitoring required would have been close to the cost of a nurse’s salary for each treated patient.

    “We need better treatments that can make an appreciable difference to the lives of people with dementia and these can only come from further research and study.”

     

    Prof Paresh Malhotra, Head, Division of Neurology, Imperial College London, said:

    “The draft guidance documents from NICE on lecanemab and donanemab mean that these treatments will not be available for people with Alzheimer’s Disease via the NHS. This is not totally unexpected but does create a significant gap between what is done in other countries as well as the private sector, and what will be done for NHS patients. The modest effects and significant costs of these drugs have, understandably, been used to justify these decisions. The treatments would require major infrastructure changes to deliver to all those who are potentially eligible. Perhaps the biggest impact (or lack of it), is that there will be no impetus to change our general approach to make dementia diagnosis faster and to provide longer-term specialist input for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease. New and initially controversial treatments catalysed services and healthcare provision for other neurological conditions such as MS and stroke. People with Alzheimer’s Disease, and Dementia more broadly, will have to continue to wait. In the meantime, we will try to push against the more nihilistic attitudes that are sometimes associated with this very common devastating disease.”

     

    Hilary Evans-Newton, Chief Executive at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said:

    “This rejection is a painful setback for people affected by Alzheimer’s — but sadly not a surprising one. The drugs’ modest benefits, combined with the significant costs of delivering them in the NHS, meant they faced insurmountable challenges. People with early Alzheimer’s in England and Wales now face a long wait for innovative new treatments as they won’t be able to access lecanemab or donanemab unless they can afford to pay privately.

    “This decision sends a troubling signal to the life sciences sector — undermining confidence in the UK as a home for research, innovation and clinical trials. That risks lasting damage to both patients and the economy. NICE’s decision should ring alarm bells for a government that, only a year ago, pledged to make the UK a global leader in dementia treatments.

    “While these drugs are not a cure and do come with potentially serious side effects, they represent an important first step in changing the course of Alzheimer’s. With over 30 Alzheimer’s drugs now in late-stage trials globally, momentum is building – and more will enter regulatory systems in the years ahead. Without intervention from government, people with Alzheimer’s will continue to miss out — not because science is failing, but because the system is. Government must work with NICE, the NHS and industry to pilot licensed drugs, gather more data, and prepare the health system for what’s ahead.

    “One major barrier remains early and accurate diagnosis. Without it, patients can’t access current – or future – treatments. Alongside piloting, urgent investment in diagnostic services is vital if we are to give people a fair chance at the vast progress dementia research is making.”

    Professor Fiona Carragher, Alzheimer’s Society’s Chief Policy and Research Officer, said: 

    “There is no doubt that today’s decision is a setback for people with Alzheimer’s disease. It is highly disappointing that we are in a situation where treatments that slow the progression of the condition are not available on the NHS. 

    “The reality we’re faced with is that these treatments remain out of reach of both the NHS and most eligible people with Alzheimer’s disease. In other diseases like cancer, treatments have become more effective, safer and cheaper over time. It’s essential we see similar progress in dementia.  

    “The fact is, even if donanemab and lecanemab were made available on the NHS tomorrow, too many patients wouldn’t be able to access them because the health system isn’t ready to deliver them. The science is flying but the system is failing. 

    “What we need now is for the UK government to commit to the long-term investment needed to fundamentally change dementia diagnosis so that we are ready for new treatments.  This relies on an early diagnosis and access to specialist diagnostic tests, yet currently a third of people with dementia don’t have a diagnosis at all.  

    “The needs of people with dementia have long been overlooked and this cannot continue. We are heading towards a future where disease-slowing treatments reduce the devastating impact of dementia, and we cannot afford to delay preparing the NHS for them.” 

    NICE published final draft guidance on donanemab and final draft guidance on lecanemab at 00:01 UK time on Thursday 19th June. 

    Declared interests

    Prof Charles Marshall: I have received personal fees from Lilly, Eisai and Roche

    Prof Rob Howard: No COI

    Prof Paresh Malhotra:

    National Specialty Lead for Dementia and Neurodegeneration, NIHR Research Delivery Network

    Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

    Serviced Practice Consultant Neurologist, Cleveland Clinic London

    NHSE Working Group Member (Lecanemab and Amyloid PET)

    Trustee, Alzheimer’s Society

    Recipient of ‘Drugs Only’ Grant for NIHR funded Trial, Shire/Takeda

    Independent Data Monitoring Committee, J&J

    Research funding from NIHR, ARUK, Alzheimer’s Society, MRC, DPUK, BHF, Lifearc, FIFA, FA, UK DRI

    For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Minimum Income Guarantee must arrive with no delays

    Source: Scottish Greens

    18 Jun 2025 Human Rights

    Everyone deserves to be able to afford rent, food and other basics needed to live – MIG must be key to achieving that.

    More in Human Rights

    The Scottish Greens have welcomed recommendations from a Scottish Government Expert Group that nobody in Scotland should live on less than a minimum income.
     
    The Minimum Income Guarantee: a roadmap to dignity for all suggests that social security, employment and other policies should be geared to ensuring nobody falls below the Minimum Income Standard.
     
    The Minimum Income Standard is published by the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation and is based on polling the public on what they think. This produces an MIS generally significantly above current social security payments.
     
    Scottish Greens social justice spokesperson, Maggie Chapman MSP said:

    “Poverty is not inevitable. The UK is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but there are thousands of families struggling to make ends meet and parents being forced to skip meals.
     
    “Over a decade of austerity has caused unimaginable harm to our communities. UK Labour’s refusal to scrap the brutal two child benefit cap and bedroom tax is still forcing folk into poverty. We have a duty here in Scotland to do everything we can to build a social security system that keeps folk safe.
     
    “The Minimum Income Standard published today is an important step forward on this journey – and potentially be a game changer in terms of tackling poverty, boosting health and wellbeing, and removing so much of the stigma of our social security system.
     
    “I hope the Scottish Government takes this opportunity to ensure that everyone, no matter their circumstances, can access the essentials to live in health, happiness and dignity.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Jamieson raises concerns over double standards when it comes to bail following trouble in Ballymena when compared with sectarian disorder in Londonderry

    Source: Traditional Unionist Voice – Northern Ireland

    Statement from TUV Braid Christopher Jamieson:

    “I have been contacted by a number of constituents who are deeply concerned about the apparent discrepancy in how police bail has been handled following the serious sectarian rioting in Londonderry last night, compared to the arrests made in Ballymena last week.

    “It appears that some of those arrested in Londonderry were released on police bail, whereas those detained in Ballymena were charged, brought before the courts, and refused bail.

    “There are even reports of juveniles from Ballymena being remanded in custody, while a very different approach seems to have been taken in Londonderry.

    “Such disparity does nothing to ease tensions and only fuels the perception of a two-tier system of justice.

    “The criminal justice system must not only be fair, but must also be seen to be fair. People must not be left with the impression that the disorder in Londonderry — which the Chief Constable himself described as “blatant sectarian violence” — is being treated more leniently.

    “Londonderry has long been plagued, particularly at this time of year, by violence directed towards its minority Protestant population. It is high time that this was dealt with with the seriousness it deserves — not only by the police and the courts, but by the media as well.

    “To that end, I have written formally to both the Chief Constable and the Director of Public Prosecutions to seek urgent clarification on why such differing approaches appear to have been taken. The public deserves transparency and reassurance that the law is applied consistently, without fear or favour.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Ann Davies MP calls for compensation for losses from bluetongue disease restrictions

    Source: Party of Wales

    Bluetongue restrictions in Wales and England will ‘hamper cross-border trade’ – Plaid Cymru 

    During PMQs today (Wednesday 18 June) Plaid Cymru’s Rural Affairs Spokesperson, Ann Davies MP, urged the UK Government to commit to working with the Welsh Government on a scheme to compensate farming businesses for losses from the bluetongue restrictions.  

    Bluetongue disease is a non-contagious viral disease that primarily affects sheep, cattle and goats.  

    Last week, the Welsh Government said it would introduce limits on moving livestock from June 20, 2025 and that any susceptible animals moving from a bluetongue restricted zone to Wales to live, will require a specific movement licence and testing beforehand.  

    A restricted zone (RZ) in England – limiting the movement of animals – has continued to expand over recent months as the disease has spread. 

    From 1 July, the UK Government has decided to designate the whole of England as an RZ, external, which in practice means movement controls are lifted as the focus shifts to encouraging uptake of new bluetongue vaccines which alleviate the symptoms. 

    The Caerfyrddin MP emphasized that Welsh farmers have taken “hit after hit” and now risk being further affected by restrictions to cross-border trading as a result of the outbreak of the bluetongue disease.   

    Ms Davies explained that key livestock markets and over 550 farms on the border rely on summer trading.  

    The Royal Welsh Show has already banned livestock from England from this year’s event following the spread of the virus. Ann Davies MP has warned that disruption to once-a-year opportunities like this could be “devastating” and has called for the establishment of a compensation scheme to mitigate the effects on farming businesses.  

     

    Speaking in PMQs, Ann Davies MP said:  

    “Welsh farmers are taking hit after hit – from Tory trade deals to Labour taxes, now on top of that, bluetongue restrictions affecting Wales and England will hamper cross-border trade.  

    “Over 550 farms on the border and key livestock markets rely on summer trading. Once-a-year opportunities like the Royal Welsh Show are crucial, and the disruption could be devastating.  

    “Will the Deputy Prime Minister commit to working with the Welsh Government on a scheme to compensate for losses?”  

     

    Angela Rayner MP, the Deputy Prime Minister, who was standing in for the PM today avoided the question and instead attacked Plaid Cymru for voting against the Welsh Government budget. 

     

    When asking the Welsh Government’s Rural Affairs Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies MS yesterday in the Senedd, Ms Davies’ Plaid Cymru counterpart, Llyr Gruffudd MS said:  

    “You’ve explained to us that part of this rationale is to buy time but I have to say: where have you been? We’ve known for months and months, if not years, that bluetongue is on its way.”  

    “I really fear that your decision and your policy decision this week will bring even more worry, even more disruption and even more concern in its wake.”  

    “It’s going to disrupt the functionality of the whole agricultural ecosystem and that in itself could be more damaging than dealing with bluetongue.”  

    “Have you calculated the projected cost to the industry of this proposal that you’re bringing forward, and if you have, what support is being considered to offset some of that burden?”  

     

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Green Party reaction to escalating crisis between Israel and Iran

    Source: Green Party of England and Wales

    / by Green Party

    The Green Party has called on the UK government to press for de-escalation, push for an immediate ceasefire and hold all parties to the same international standards, in response to the escalating situation in the Middle East.

    Co-leader of the Green Party, Adrian Ramsay MP, said:

    “The escalating crisis between Israel and Iran is gravely concerning, not just for regional stability, but for the safety of civilians – there have already been hundreds of casualties. Calls for the total evacuation of central Tehran are deeply alarming indicating people’s homes and hospitals and children’s schools are at risk of attack, not just military targets.

    “We are witnessing a pattern of Israel acting with impunity. In Gaza, military objectives have become indistinguishable from the mass suffering of civilians with little or no critique, let alone sanctions from the international community. And now, we are seeing a similar playbook with Israel appearing to pursue regime change in Iran through unilateral military action, without any international mandate or clear justification.

    “The UK government must urgently press for de-escalation, push for an immediate ceasefire across all fronts, and hold all parties to the same international standards – holding to account Israel for its aggressive unilateral actions and Iran for its well-documented human rights violations.

    “Furthermore, Donald Trump’s warmongering rhetoric is fanning the flames of this conflict. The UK must stand firmly against such a gung-ho approach to military intervention and call on the US to instead prioritise genuine diplomatic engagement and humanitarian relief.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Social care and SEND costs pushing Councils to the brink, say Greens 

    Source: Green Party of England and Wales

    by Green Party

    The Green Party has said Labour’s inadequate funding of SEND and dither over tackling a social care crisis is what is leading so many councils to bankruptcy [1].  

    The Party’s co-leader, Adrian Ramsay MP, said: 

    “We need the government to act urgently on the social care crisis. Instead, Labour has kicked the problem into the long grass, again. The Royal Commission on social care, ordered by the government some months ago, is not due to report until 2028.  

    “There have been around 25 social care commissions, select committee inquiries and white papers since 1997 [2]. We don’t need more dither; we need action. Instead of another Commission, Labour needs to get on with the proposal for cross-party talks on how best to fund social care, but they keep postponing. Meanwhile, people across Britain continue to suffer and local councils are left to pick up the bill for the care sector’s funding crisis.  

    “As for SEND, the Spending Review has failed to address deficits racked up by councils or the fact that many children are not getting the access to special educational needs support they need. The IFS says that any extra money pledged for schools will almost entirely be wiped out tackling the growing demand for special educational needs [3].”  

    “Even with five percent increases to Council tax, many Councils are still effectively looking at bankruptcy [4]. Until the government gets a grip on social care and SEND – the main reasons why councils are going bust – we won’t see any improvement in this desperate situation.” 

    Notes

    1. https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/councils-emergency-funds-tax-hikes-3752666  
    1. https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/briefings/social-care-commissions-looking-back-to-move-forward  
    1. https://ifs.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-06/Spending_Review_analysis_impacts_for_public_services_MW.pdf Slide 6 
    1. https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2025/06/12/4bn-a-year-more-available-for-adult-social-care-by-2028-29-in-spending-review/  

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: England is expanding free school meals – here’s what could happen if they were given to all children

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Professor of Development Economics , Queen Mary University of London

    Children in Jharkhand state, India, eating their midday meal at school. Mohammad Shahnawaz/Shutterstock

    The UK government has announced an extension of free school meals in England to all children whose parents receive universal credit, in order to address child hunger and poverty.

    The government claims that half a million more pupils will now have access to school lunches for free. The total number of children registered for free school meals in England is currently about 2.2 million, or about 26% of the total school population. In addition, all children in infant school, aged between four and seven, are entitled to receive a hot lunch at school.

    But given the high rates of child poverty in the UK, and the value a decent meal provides, there is evidence that free school meals for all children could provide significant benefits in England.

    The provision in Scotland and Wales is more generous: free school meals for children from primary one to five in Scotland (ages four to ten) and for all children in primary school in Wales. But other countries make provision for all children, in both primary and secondary education, to receive meals at school.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Child poverty in the UK continues to be historically high. In 2023-24, 3.4 million children – 23% of all children in the UK – were in relative income poverty. Incidence of child poverty is particularly acute in cities.

    In the UK, the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit resulted in a rise in unemployment. This in turn led to widespread instances of extreme poverty and child hunger. The lack of active policies in the UK to address child hunger, malnourishment and increasing childhood obesity has been widely criticised by the British Medical Association.

    The UK’s experience of high levels of child poverty is in stark contrast with most other high-income countries. The UK ranked 37th out of 39 by child income poverty, ahead only of Turkey and Colombia, in 2023. In comparison, the UK’s adult poverty rate is close to the OECD average, ranking 23rd out of 39 high-income countries. This implies that child poverty can be high even if adult poverty levels are relatively low.

    Global policy choices

    Providing nutritious free school meals is a fundamental cornerstone of government policy to ensure child welfare. It’s used as a poverty alleviation measure all over the world. Almost half of the world’s school meals are free, feeding 418 million children.

    Many of these programmes are based in developing countries. The world’s largest free school meal programme runs in India: the “mid-day meal scheme” feeds 125 million children aged six to 14 and costs the equivalent of £2 billion each year. Similar successful programmes are run in Brazil and some African countries, with another having recently been launched in Indonesia.

    But schemes in Finland and Sweden also cover almost all school children.

    There is a growing body of global evidence on the wider beneficial effects of free school meals on child poverty. Free school meals in India have resulted in higher cognitive outcomes. They have increased school enrolment and school attendance, and thus educational outcomes.

    They have also been found to have an intergenerational effect. In India, fewer shorter children were born to women who had benefited from the country’s school food programme.

    Nutritionally balanced school meals have proven health benefits.
    Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

    Nutritionally balanced children’s school meals are also associated with lower incidence of obesity. Studies in the US and UK, for example, have shown universal provision is linked to lower obesity rates.

    Research into the Swedish scheme has found that children who have free school meals with prescribed nutritional standards not only have higher educational attainment and better health outcomes in adulthood, but also higher incomes. Children from families in the lowest income quartile in Sweden who received free school meals for nine years increased their lifetime income by 6%.

    Other tangible economic benefits include significant reductions in potential healthcare costs as a result of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases. A 2025 European Union report estimates the return from investment in school meal programmes is at least sevenfold, up to a possible €34 for every €1 spent.

    While there is rich scientific and economic evidence that universal free school meals are immensely beneficial, a child’s access to nutrition and government support to obtain nourishment is also a fundamental human right. The School Meals Coalition is an international consortium of 108 countries to achieve free school meals for all by 2030. The UK is one of the few advanced countries not signed up to it.

    Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. England is expanding free school meals – here’s what could happen if they were given to all children – https://theconversation.com/england-is-expanding-free-school-meals-heres-what-could-happen-if-they-were-given-to-all-children-258337

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICE Boston arrest leads to federal charge for Brazilian alien who re-entered US after removal

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    BOSTON – A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apprehension led to federal charges for an illegally present, 43-year-old Brazilian alien residing in Somerville. A federal grand jury indicted Paulo Vinicius Cardozo-Pereira June 9 charging him with one count of unlawful reentry of a deported alien. This indictment follows Cardozo-Pereira’s arrest by officers with ICE Boston May 10.

    “Paulo Vinicius Cardozo-Pereira has allegedly illegally re-entered the United States after having previously been removed by ICE,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde. “He has apparently shown a blatant disregard for U.S. immigration laws, and now he will be forced to answer for his actions. The officers of ICE Boston will continue to prioritize the safety of our public by arresting and removing alien offenders from our New England communities.”

    ICE previously deported Cardozo-Pereira from the United States July 25, 2014.

    It is alleged that sometime after his July 2014 removal, Cardozo Pereira illegally re-entered the United States without permission.

    Cardozo-Pereira will appear in federal court in Boston to face the charge on June 24.

    If convicted, Cardozo-Pereira faces a sentence of up to two years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. ICE will seek to remove Cardozo-Pereira from the United States following the completion of any sentence the federal district court imposes.

    Members of the public can report crimes and suspicious activity by dialing 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or completing the online tip form.

    Learn more about ICE’s mission to increase public safety in our communities on X at @EROBoston and @HSINewEngland.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Police in England and Wales to get more money – but increasing funding won’t necessarily mean less crime

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Graham Farrell, Professor of Crime Science, University of Leeds

    Ian Dewar Photography/Shutterstock

    Police spending will rise by a real-terms 2.3% per year between now and 2028-29, the government announced in its latest spending review, drawn from local council tax. The government says this will help its mission to put 13,000 neighbourhood police on the streets, and “keep communities safe”.

    Police say this is far from enough to meet the government’s ambitions, particularly on cutting knife crime and violence against women, and that it is likely to be “swallowed up” by pay rises for police.

    The awkward truth, however, is that marginal changes to police funding and hiring make little difference to crime either way. Austerity cuts of around 20% to policing budgets in the 2010s were accompanied by declining crime, including domestic violence and antisocial behaviour.

    Widespread security improvements were responsible for the close to 90% reductions in many crime types. For example, engine immobilisers prevent car theft, and secure household doors and windows prevent burglary.

    Crime has been declining across developed countries for decades. But those countries vary greatly in policing practices and funding, so it is clear more policing was not the cause.

    American policing researcher pioneer David Bayley wrote in 1994:

    The police do not prevent crime. This is one of the best kept secrets of modern life. Experts know it, the police know it, but the public does not know it. Yet the police pretend they are society’s best defense against crime and continually argue that if they are given more resources, especially personnel, they will be able to protect communities against crime. This is a myth.

    This does not mean we don’t need police – we do. If there were no police, crime rates would soar. The issue here is diminishing marginal returns (we’re at the level where more funding doesn’t have the same effect).

    But it means the spending review debate had little to do with crime prevention. Rather, it was about how senior staff in public services routinely seek more for their departments. And following the spending review, police chiefs gave themselves an escape clause by claiming the increase is insufficient.

    Want more politics coverage from academic experts? Every week, we bring you informed analysis of developments in government and fact check the claims being made.

    Sign up for our weekly politics newsletter, delivered every Friday.

    In recent years, we’ve learned problem-solving policing can reduce some crimes in some contexts. For example, burglary at construction sites can often be theft of building materials and tools, so the crime problem can be reduced through improved site management (rather than just more arrests).

    However, problem-solving is not easy and so is not widely applied. Simply patrolling hotspots does not affect the crime opportunity structure (factors that tempt, facilitate or precipitate a particular cluster of crimes).

    Additionally, all types of crime, except homicide, are more likely to recur, and relatively soon, after prior victimisation. And while policing to prevent repeat victimisation can reduce crime, it has fallen by the wayside in recent years.

    A recent review by crime scientist Shannon Linning and colleagues examined the effect of more police hiring and more arrests on crime, concluding: “When a sensational crime happens, residents demand action. Often someone will cry for more police and more arrests … neither approach is likely to be helpful.”

    This makes it rather awkward that the government has recently committed to recruiting 13,000 additional neighbourhood police.

    Since most people don’t know the limitations of policing, both the government and the police have been able to maintain the illusion that more police means less crime. Academic police researchers will rarely admit it in case it risks their funding, and the media enjoy a perennially newsworthy topic. Taxpayers foot the bill as well as the emotional, financial and other costs of crime.

    How to stop crime

    There is, however, some room for optimism. What we have learned from the long-term international crime drop and dozens of small-scale successes against different crime types is that reducing crime opportunities is the best approach. With some strategic adjustment, there is much that police and government can do.

    A particular focus for the government and police should be encouraging businesses to take more responsibility for crime. Knife manufacturers and retailers should be involved in introducing a ban on pointed kitchen knives, the most common homicide weapon in England and Wales. The gradual approach over many years that research (in which I was involved) recommended is too long: it should be done within this government’s term.

    A lot of other crimes, including computer-enabled crimes, are generated, facilitated or hosted by businesses. Internet service providers and network providers benefit from advertising and payments, including when they are being used for crime (from stalking and sexual victimisation to fraud and terrorism).

    Manufacturers benefit from theft of phones and other products that need replacing. Online marketplaces profit from usage and advertising when stolen goods are sold, which inadvertently encourages shoplifting, theft and robbery. Online banking and financial services also host significant amounts of fraud, and are now sometimes required to pay up to £85,000 compensation to victims.



    Read more:
    Child sexual exploitation and abuse is a multibillion-dollar industry – new report shows who benefits

    Government and police should develop a portfolio of incentives and disincentives to promote private sector crime prevention, to include regulation and market-based incentives. When businesses have an economic incentive they are tremendously efficient at preventing crime, as car manufacturers showed by improving security that brought 90% reductions in car crime.

    Reducing crime opportunities is also the best way to stop criminality. When young people do not get involved in easy crimes like shoplifting, they do not progress to further crime, including violence against women and girls.

    In short, extra police funding will not reduce crime. A shift in strategy is what is really needed.

    Graham Farrell receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

    – ref. Police in England and Wales to get more money – but increasing funding won’t necessarily mean less crime – https://theconversation.com/police-in-england-and-wales-to-get-more-money-but-increasing-funding-wont-necessarily-mean-less-crime-258977

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Minister for the Cabinet Office speech at Constitution Unit Conference

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Speech

    Minister for the Cabinet Office speech at Constitution Unit Conference

    Delivered on Wednesday 18th of June 2025 by The Rt Hon. Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office.

    Introduction

    It’s a pleasure to be here with you all.

    Before I start, let me commend the Constitution Unit…

    …not just for hosting today’s conference…

    …but for – this year – reaching its 30th birthday. 

    Don’t worry, I’m not going to sing…

    …but I will sing your praises…just a little.

    The esteem in which you are held speaks to the high quality and rigor of your work…

    …and I could not imagine a better audience to speak to on today’s topic.

    Today, I want to focus on Constitutional reform…

    …what it means for our democracy…

    …and, most importantly, what it means for the public.

    But before I start talking about the future, I would like to focus – briefly – on the past.

    Magna Carta

    This year, we celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the 1225 edition of Magna Carta.

    The definitive edition that, arguably, set the template for the United States Declaration of Independence…

    …and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    It may be surprising, then, to learn that the original Magna Carta from 1215 was revoked as quickly as it was ratified.

    King John wrote to Pope Innocent the Third to repudiate the agreement that he himself had struck…

    …and it was annulled a few months after it was sealed.

    As the comedian David Mitchell puts it: “King John thought the country was his to do with what he liked…

    …and the idea that the Kingdom could generate rules that he would then have to obey was absurd to him…

    …as if a billionaire found a ‘No Diving’ sign next to their private swimming pool”.

    But it was the determination of a few people that ensured it was reintroduced…

    …ratified by King John’s son, Henry III, and found its proper place on the statute book.

    Magna Carta began a constitutional thread…

    …to the Bill of Rights in 1689, which established parliamentary sovereignty and the right to free election…

    …the Reform Acts of the 19th Century, which led to the modern electoral system…

    …all the way up to the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law through the Human Rights Act 1998.

    For one of the country’s oldest historic written documents, it still delivers a few new surprises…

    …with Harvard University recently uncovering a Magna Carta original from 1300, after believing it was a much more recent copy. 

    Recent Context

    But what isn’t surprising is what a foundation that Magna Carta creates for our modern constitution…

    …made up of laws, conventions and rules…

    …that, crucially, outlined how no one person is above the law…

    …and that we must all be held to the same standard.

    That’s right in historical principle…

    …but when it comes to Government, has that always been the modern practice?

    To put it plainly: we have reached record levels of distrust and dissatisfaction with how the Government works…

    …and how it can get things done.

    The most recent National Centre for Social Research report found that 45% of people surveyed say they ‘almost never’ trust governments – of any party – to place the needs of the nation above their political party.

    That is at one level a remarkable statistic – but it is hardly surprising. 

    [political content removed]

    No wonder people became exhausted with Westminster… it felt like politics wasn’t working for them.

    What a shocking indictment of our political and constitutional system.

    Especially, when I know the change I can help secure for my constituents through Parliament…

    …and how MPs across parties are motivated by making a difference.

    Parliament remains the forum through which the British people can give an instruction for change.

    …but that is not to say it cannot – or should not – be strengthened.

    Nor is it to say that we should not, always, be looking at the adequacy of checks and balances.

    But, fundamentally, I believe that, through that change, we can restore the public’s faith in our constitution…

    …restore their capacity to feel like political choices can make their lives better… 

    …and make ordinary people feel like they have a stake.

    That couldn’t be more important to this Government. 

    [political content removed]

    Driven by the desire for change. To rebuild our country. National renewal. Returning politics to public service.

    These were not just words on a leaflet. They were something we felt angry about, driven by.

    After fourteen years, we have the opportunity to make people feel like they have a stake in their communities again…

    …a stake in their country again…

    …for people to see their politicians governing as an act of public service, not personal gratification.

    To put country before party.

    Changes to Date

    And we can do this in sensible ways, with tangible steps.

    Take the small task of restoring trust. 

    All of us in this room know that accountability and integrity are core parts of protecting our constitution.

    But what do those things mean to the majority of the population? 

    How can we show action … 

    …convey what that action represents, 

    …and what it will do. 

    If we want to govern in the name of public service, we need to show we care about it.

    That is why we brought in changes – holding our Government Ministers to account in a much stronger way than ever before. 

    The Prime Minister has given the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards the power to independently initiate investigations…

    …without retaining a veto. 

    And the new Ministerial Code, published in November last year, strengthened and clarified standards across the board…

    …enshrining the ‘Seven Principles of Public Life’ directly into the Code. 

    For too long, standards slipped…

    …and few were interested in re-establishing the ideals and principles that should define the Government’s work.

    This is precisely what the Prime Minister promised… 

    …that we would get a grip on the problems we face. 

    And, crucially, that we would be judged by our actions, not by our words. 

    This is a Government focused on national renewal…

    …and, as part of that renewal, embedding higher standards in public life. 

    House of Lords

    Nowhere is our desire for sensible change more evident than in the House of Lords…

    …and the reforms we are finally bringing to that Chamber. 

    Now, I know that there are many hardworking Peers across the Lords…

    …I am incredibly fortunate, in working in the Cabinet Office, to work alongside the Leader of the House of Lords. 

    Peers are, undeniably, a crucial part of our democracy…

    …who use their expertise and experience to ensure legislation is scrutinised to an incredibly high standard.

    But that doesn’t mean we cannot improve it. 

    This belief is at the heart of our Hereditary Peers Bill, which is soon to have its Report Stage in the House of Lords.

    It is shaping up to be the largest constitutional reform to Parliament in the last 25 years…

    …and it was introduced in our first 100 days in office. 

    This could not be more important. 

    It is wholly indefensible that, in the 21st century, there are seats in our legislature allocated by an accident of birth. 

    So, finally, that historic wrong is being put right. 

    It is, in an important way, a gesture towards young people across our country. 

    I want people growing up in Blaenavon, Pontypool and Cwmbran in my constituency…

    …and, indeed, in every part of the country…

    …to feel that they have the same chance as anyone else to play a part in making the laws of the land.

    To remove the barriers, piece by piece, to ordinary people being able to feel like they have a stake in politics, and in parliamentary democracy.

    This sits alongside our other manifesto commitments on Lords reform…

    …like setting a retirement age, minimum participation requirements and making the appointments process more transparent

    …all making Parliament fit for modern Britain. 

    House of Commons

    But our ideas of constitutional reform are not solely focused on the House of Lords.

    No, we must look at the Commons, too…

    …and consider what we could improve. 

    So much of our constitution is wrapped up in the tradition displayed in the Commons. 

    Everything from the architecture, the layout, the procedures…

    …so much of it is symbolic of parliamentary sovereignty…

    …and the great tradition of open parliamentary debate. 

    But while tradition and ritual often protects the principles of our constitution, it can sometimes become a barrier if not updated for today’s world.

    I know that the vast majority of our MPs work hard to serve their constituents…

    …but they can often find that work is hamstrung by arcane procedures and outdated working practices.

    We should not forget that over half of MPs elected in the most recent General Election are new to Parliament.

    So, we need to make sure that the Commons is brought into the 21st Century…

    …and that these new MPs are able to navigate the historic system and use it to create modern, progressive change. 

    This is the precise objective of our Modernisation Committee.

    It’s headed up by my ministerial colleague, the Leader of the House of Commons…

    …and is considering many important issues to make the Commons more up-to-date so that MPs are enabled to deliver for their constituents.

    Everything from the accessibility of the physical parliamentary estate…

    …as well as the accessibility of procedures, language and information.

    It will also examine how to use MPs’ time better…

    …ensuring that sitting hours provide enough time to scrutinise legislation…

    …and give backbenchers a fair opportunity to raise issues on behalf of their constituents.

    The Modernisation Committee has, building on the changes we made in July 2024, asked the Committee on Standards to go further… 

    …exploring how the rules on MPs outside interests can be tightened even further, to ensure MPs are prioritising their constituents…

    …as I know the vast majority already do.

    This is all about making sure that those who turn up in Westminster are not blocked from speaking up for those they represent.

    Union and Devolution

    But I wouldn’t want anyone listening to think that we’re solely focused on what’s going on in Westminster. 

    England is one of the most centralised countries…

    …and my colleague the Deputy Prime Minister and I believe that it’s time we change that. 

    That’s why, in the English Devolution White Paper, we set out our plans to move power out of Westminster…

    …and move it back to those who know their areas best.

    We need to ensure that there is proper devolution throughout England…

    …and hand more power over to cities and communities to make the changes they see needed.

    I believe that devolution is crucial if we want communities to combat the challenges they recognise as uniquely their own…

    …while giving ordinary people a greater stake in shaping their region. 

    Only with strong local leadership and empowered institutions will we fix the foundations of the economy…

    …and bring about the kind of economic growth that is at the very heart of our ‘Plan for Change’.

    But it would be a mistake to think that the UK Government is only concerned with England. 

    We are a government of and for the whole of the UK. 

    My own constituency is in Wales…

    …and many of my ministerial colleagues are from Scotland. 

    But even if we weren’t, the UK Government has a responsibility for the entire UK. 

    Which is why the nations are – and always will be – at the heart of our thinking.

    In fact, an important part of delivering on our missions is rebuilding the UK Government’s  relationship with the devolved governments. 

    We’re putting an end to the disrespect that has been shown to the legitimate devolved Governments and Parliaments…

    …and focusing on a future built on partnership and recognition. 

    We introduced the Council of the Nations and Regions…

    …which creates genuine partnership between the UK Government, the devolved governments, and the mayors of England’s regions. 

    This has met twice since the General Election, most recently on 23rd May…

    …when the discussion was on trade and AI…

    …and how we can harness its potential and use it across the public sector to improve services.

    It’s about letting local leaders have more of a say…

    …and we will work together across the UK on legislation…

    …strengthening the Sewel Convention, which defines how the UK Government interacts with devolved legislatures.  

    A new Memorandum of Understanding will underpin this work. 

    It has been 25 years since power was devolved to governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland…

    …and it is through strengthening this partnership that we can make sure that all UK-wide decisions don’t just benefit one part of our nation…

    …but are made in the national interest – with every region and nation contributing, and shaping, that interest.

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, I would like to thank you for joining me today…

    …and UCL, for putting on this important conference. 

    Outside of these four walls, the phrase ‘constitutional reform’ may not immediately mean much to the ordinary person.

    But they are more than familiar with the rationale for it. 

    Politics that feels divorced from their day-to-day lives…

    …decisions about their local area being made in another nation…

    …a system that seems to safeguard a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ approach to public life. 

    All that has to change…

    …and this Government is making that a reality. 

    We are serious about ensuring our political systems represent every member of our society.

    This isn’t going to be an overnight change…

    …but we have shown – whether it’s in the Lords, the Commons or in our approach to devolution, this is a Government that has heard the calls for change.

    People want to have more of a stake in how they live their lives…

    …and they want a system of Government that represents and empowers them. 

    Through our constitution’s historic foundations, we are building a modern and thriving society…

    …one that serves the people of this country better than before.

    Thank you very much.

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New video campaign to highlight the vital work of social supermarkets – and how…

    Source: Northern Ireland City of Armagh

    Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council is launching a new video campaign to help shine a light on the important work of the ABC Community Food Hub and our network of Social Supermarkets and Wraparound Services.

    The campaign will feature ten short, easy-to-watch videos that explain what social supermarkets are, how they support people through tough times with food and essentials, the wraparound services provided by partners such as Community Advice ABC and practical suggestions on how the public and local businesses can get involved. These will be shared across social media platforms throughout June, July and beyond.

    At a time when many people are feeling the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis, social supermarkets offer a vital helping hand to the most vulnerable residents in our borough. The ABC Community Food Hub already plays a key role in tackling food insecurity—and now, with more awareness and support, we can all help it go further.

    “Our social supermarkets and food hubs play a crucial role in supporting vulnerable people throughout the year,” said Alderman Stephen Moutray, Lord Mayor of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.

    “This campaign is a great way to raise awareness and encourage everyone – residents and businesses alike – to come together and make a real difference in our community.”

    Whether you’re a resident who wants to lend a hand or a business looking to give back, there are lots of ways to support. From food donations to financial help and volunteering, every contribution makes a real difference.

    Even the smallest donation can go a long way. A tin of soup, a bag of rice, or a few toiletries can help feed a family and remind someone that their community cares.

    To donate or for further information check out the council website – Social Supermarket – Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council or email

    *protected email*

    Let’s work together to support the food banks and social supermarkets that are doing incredible work every day across the ABC Borough.

    Watch the videos, spread the word, and help us help others.

    Social Supermarket and Wraparound Service personnel and two engagement organisations. Freedom Foods Pantry ABC Community Food Hub The Bridge Pantry, Banbridge Stepping Stones Pantry, Armagh Community Advice, ABC Café IncredAble St John the Baptist College The Larder Pantry, Via Wings
    Lord Mayor Alderman Stephen Moutray launches the new video campaign to highlight the vital work of social supermarkets. He is pictured with organisations who work with council to ensure social supermarkets are available to all.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Alexander Stadium celebrates the completion of Commonwealth Games-funded Legacy transformation project.

    Source: City of Birmingham

    Alexander Stadium, host venue during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, has marked a new chapter in its 48-year history following the completion of its Legacy Capital Redevelopment Programme.

    The two-year Commonwealth Games-funded Capital programme included redevelopment work at Alexander Stadium and the neighbouring Perry Park, and has produced new and improved infrastructure to inspire future generations.

    This significant milestone was celebrated last week at Alexander Stadium where key stakeholders and partners in the project, including the beloved mascot Perry the Bull, came together to recognise the success and explore the new facilities on offer. 

    Improvements at the Stadium include a new 120-station health and fitness suite, a new third generation artificial pitch for football and rugby, a new cycle studio and a refurbished indoors athletics hall. The permanent lighting arrangement in the main stadium has been designed to future proof future growth and the securing of other major televised events.

    At Perry Park, the redevelopment work includes a replacement children’s playground and new sports activation zone for the community, with new routes around the park and reservoir for running, walking and cycling.

    The improvements, which are part of wider regeneration work in Perry Barr and is set to provide the local community and visitors alike with access to green spaces and high-quality facilities for sport and recreation all year round.

    Following the additional capital works, the stadium continues to be a world-class sporting venue and is set to welcome the European Athletics Championship in August 2026, the first time the UK has hosted the Championship.

    The Stadium also continues to be the home to Birchfield Harriers Athletics club, the most successful athletics club in the country, who have occupied the stadium since 1975; and Birmingham City University, who relocated part of their sports and science campus to the Stadium in 2023.

    Cllr Mariam Khan, Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care said: “I am delighted to hear about the successful redevelopment of Alexander Stadium and Perry Park, cementing its position as a world-class international sports venue.

    “With the European Athletics Championships arriving in 2026 and the UK Athletics Championship and English Schools Athletics Championships amongst other events taking place at Alexander Stadium this summer, it is an exciting time for sport in Birmingham.       

    “The completed regeneration of Alexander Stadium delivers a lasting Commonwealth Games legacy in promoting sport and recreation for not just the people of Perry Barr but the whole city to enjoy all year round.”

    Katie Sadleir, CEO at Commonwealth Sport said: “Alexander Stadium’s transformation is an inspiring example of the continued legacy of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

    It embodies the Commonwealth Sport Movement’s ambition to create lasting impact beyond the field of play — delivering world-class facilities, enhancing community wellbeing, and inspiring the next generation of athletes.

    We are proud to see this legacy come to life in Perry Barr, and look forward to seeing the Stadium thrive as a hub for sport, learning and community engagement for years to come.”

    Nicola Turner, CEO at United by 2022 said “United By 2022 is incredibly proud to support the opening of the Perry Fitness Centre as a lasting legacy of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

    As the custodians of the Games’ community legacy — and of course, the much-loved mascot Perry the Bull — we are thrilled to see these facilities come to life for local residents. These improvements represent more than just bricks and mortar; they are a catalyst for stronger community engagement, healthier lifestyles, and greater access to sport and recreation for all. We can’t wait to see the positive impact they will have in the years to come.”

    Lisa Dodd-Mayne, Executive Director for Place, Sport England, said:

    “The legacy of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games still shines strongly in the city and wider West Midlands.  We have a long history with Birmingham and the Alexander Stadium – one that that we’re really proud of.  We are investing in partners and places that need the most help in getting people active.  We look forward to seeing the local communities of Birmingham enjoy and use these facilities to give them the opportunities they deserve and seeing the legacy of the Commonwealth Games live on.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Proteas building a legacy of winning trophies

    Source: South Africa News Agency

    After ending a 27-year wait to win an International Cricket Council’s Test Championship (ICC), the national men’s cricket team, Proteas Men, have only just started to build momentum towards a culture of winning.

    In a thrilling final against Australia, the Proteas Men secured a historic victory with a five-wicket win on day four at Lord’s in England on Saturday. This was the first senior Men’s trophy since the 1998 ICC Knockout victory.

    “We hope that this can be the start of a lot more of these trophies. As much as we have achieved what we achieved in the past 18 – 24 months, this is not a big legacy as of yet. We will speak again in two to three years. We want to start a culture of winning trophies for the country,” Proteas men’s Captain Temba Bavuma said in Johannesburg at a media briefing.

    The men’s national cricket team received an electrifying welcome with jubilation, song and dance from supporters on their arrival at OR Tambo International Airport, on Wednesday morning. 

    “Seeing so many people welcome us at the airport was quite overwhelming. It was different from the last time we came back from the world cup in 2023. You don’t really realise what you have done until you start to interact with people. 

    “To see the emotion, to hear the things they have got to say; it gives you an insight into what we have done. As a team we are proud that we have been able to achieve something like this, but we are even happier that we have made our people proud,” Bavuma said.

    READ | Cricket world champions arrive home 

    This marked South Africa’s first-ever appearance in a World Test Championship Final, and their triumphant performance signalled a landmark achievement for the nation’s cricketing history. 

    This as Australia, currently ranked number one in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings, entered the final as favourites and defending champions. 

    The Proteas, ranked second, rose to the occasion and delivered a memorable performance, cementing their status as one of the world’s elite test sides.

    The Captain expressed how the team’s journey has not been an easy one.

    “As a team we have our story. It wasn’t a simple and easy one. We have overcome a lot and managed to get to where we are. The biggest thing is that we have embraced everything that means to be a South African,” he said.

    The cricket team hopes this inspires budding cricketers and the nation.

    “Similarly to them, in their quest, their journey for what they want to achieve, as long as they keep having that passion, keep pushing against what people think is the unachievable.

    “We have been confident enough that we have been playing good cricket.  We have been getting ourselves in a position where we can be in finals. Just like with anything, you got to keep going and keep being relentless.

    “There was always that belief that at some point the harder we knock on that door, that it was going to happen,” Bavuma said.

    He said the beauty about international cricket is that there is always more games to play.

    “There’s the Zimbabwe tournament that leads into the start of the new test cycle [which] we will be setting our eyes on what we want to achieve over there. There is always something that we are working towards, it’s a legacy that we want to achieve [and] and trying to put together as a team. 

    “The legacy is not done yet. For now, we want to enjoy what this moment has brought to us,” Bavuma said.

    Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) head of national teams, Enoch Nkwe, said this victory will have a huge impact on generations to come.

    He said this restores a lot of faith and belief in South African cricket. 

    “We look at this format as a foundation to key fundamentals to other formats and the growth of cricket, not only in South Africa, but globally. What is encouraging is this is going to motivate a 15-year-old. We are going to ensure from behind the scenes that will continue to build these building blocks through this format,” Nkwe said.

    The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, said the team’s win gives the nation hope.

    “People should see themselves when they watch our national teams, and that is what we are doing in cricket. They are following in the footsteps of rugby. We are a socially cohesive country [and] a rainbow nation, and you can see this.

    “We are the best sporting nation in the world. We have the strongest women and men in the world. We have the fastest runners, the best soccer players, [and] we have the best rugby players and cricket team,” the Minister said.

    The Proteas men’s head coach Shukri Conrad also expressed his joy at the warm reception the team received upon their arrival at the airport.

    “I am absolutely ecstatic to see people come out in their hundreds. It makes this win even more special. We won a few days ago but it hasn’t sunk in. To get a reception like this… it starts to sink in. The guys have been great, but the fans have been better,” Conrad said. – SAnews.gov.za

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Social Justice Secretary: “Scrap damaging welfare reforms”

    Source: Scottish Government

    Call for UK Government to follow Scottish Government lead on social security.

    Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has urged the UK Government to protect and enhance social security rather than making cuts.

    The UK Government’s Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill has been published today, which includes the details of the first set of changes to ill-health and disability benefits. The Scottish Government will not mirror the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) changes in Adult Disability Payment in Scotland.

    Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:

    “The UK Government’s proposed reforms will be hugely damaging to those who rely on social security support, particularly during the ongoing cost of living crisis. These plans have yet to be passed at Westminster, so there is still time for the UK Government to step back from this damaging policy and I strongly urge them to scrap their harmful proposals.

    “The UK Government’s own analysis highlights how the proposals will push 250,000 more people across the UK into poverty – including 50,000 children. With around half of all children in poverty in Scotland living in a household with a disabled person, the changes threaten to undermine the progress that we are making to reduce child poverty, and the work of the UK Government’s Child Poverty Taskforce.

    “That the UK Government is prioritising deep cuts to disabled people’s support is made even worse by their failure to abolish the two-child limit, which is estimated to have pushed more than 35,000 children into poverty since July last year.

    “The reforms do not reflect the Scottish Government’s values. We will not let disabled people down or cast them aside as the UK Government has done. We will not cut Scotland’s Adult Disability Payment.

    “The UK Government should follow our lead and protect the social security safety system, rather than dismantling it. If they do not, then disabled people can draw no other conclusion than the UK Government remain content to balance the books on the backs of the most vulnerable.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: MOU signed with Homes England to help deliver city centre vision

    Source: City of Plymouth

    Plymouth’s ambitions to provide thousands of homes in the city centre have taken a step closer with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Homes England.

    Neil Hook, Director – Homes England South and London
    Tracey Lee, Chief Executive – Plymouth City Council
    Council Leader Tudor Evans – Plymouth City Council
    Eamonn Boylan, Interim CEO – Homes England

    Council leader Tudor Evans and Homes England CEO Eamonn Boylan signed the partnership document which is the next step in strengthening the working relationship between the two organisations.

    A new strategic partnership will accelerate the delivery of high-quality homes in Plymouth, supporting a transformational regeneration of the city centre and surrounding areas. These homes will play a key role in unlocking the economic potential of recent dockyard investments and help create a vibrant city where people can live, work, eat, shop, and socialise.

    This initiative aligns with the UK Government’s Strategic Defence Review, which identifies defence as a new engine for national growth. The Continuous At Sea Deterrent programme represents a generational investment in national security—and Plymouth is set to benefit directly.

    “Plymouth is at the forefront of a new era of economic opportunity,” said Tudor Evans. “By investing in affordable, high-quality housing, we’re not only supporting our defence capabilities but also creating a thriving, inclusive city for future generations.”

    The provision of affordable homes is central to retaining local talent, attracting new families, and ensuring that all communities benefit from this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

    Our city centre currently has around 800 homes in it. The top 20 English cities have an average of 8,000 homes, and regeneration over the last 20 years in Newcastle, Manchester, Salford, Sheffield and Leeds has shown that more housing in city centres plays a key part in rejuvenating them.

    City centres need to be more than shops, they need to be about culture, leisure, events and festivals, and places to live. There are also 8,000 people on the housing list and while the city centre was built for retail after the war, now is the time to bring people to live in the city centre again.

    The proposal is for a shared delivery plan to work together over five years to deliver a strategy for a series of transformative investments, acquisitions and developments which are rooted in the Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan.

    Interventions are designed to act a catalyst and market-making investments, that will allow the public sector to create the right conditions and confidence for the private sector to invest and deliver the wider regeneration of the city centre.

    Councillor Evans added: “We have been working with Homes England on our vision for the city centre and this is another important step along the road to making a vision a reality.

    “With change of this scale in the pipeline, we need to set out and confirm common goals, get clarity of what we are working towards and be clear about how we are going to bring others along on the journey.”

    Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive of Homes England, said: “Our new Memorandum of Understanding with Plymouth City Council is an important step in strengthening our commitment to the area.

    “We’ll work side-by-side with the council to help achieve their vision for the city centre and support them to deliver 10,000 new homes for the people of Plymouth.”

    Extensive work is underway to develop shared ambitions with the agreed shared outcomes. They are:

    • Pioneering Urban Regeneration: Redefining the city centre as a dynamic hub of activity, focusing on homes and culture and diversification.
    • Delivering Nationally Significant Urban Regeneration: The city centre is nationally significant as a post war response to planning and urban design. Options will be considered to unlock a nationally significant urban extension in the heart of the city centre and look at how models can be pioneered that can be replicated elsewhere
    • Fostering Sustainable Development: The partners will consider ways to create a model of urban development that minimises environmental impact while maximising community benefits.
    • Empowering Local Businesses and Unlocking Private Investment: By strategically deploying government funding and leveraging private sector expertise, the vision is for a city centre that encourages market-led private sector investment and development. This includes working with landowners, leaseholders and occupiers to identify opportunities for joint investment.
    • Championing Social Justice via the Growth Alliance Plymouth (GAP) Through targeted initiatives and inclusive policies, there is potential to improve access to quality housing, education, healthcare, and employment opportunities.
    • Catalysing Private Sector-Led Development: Strategically deploying government funding and leveraging private sector expertise to encourage market led private sector investment and development.
    • Linking delivery to future planning policy: Homes England will work with the Council, Department for Transport, and MHCLG to shape a masterplan for Plymouth that delivers sustainable growth across all housing types and tenures. This will require an ambitious planning framework and a supply chain capable of delivering high quality homes and a population that can afford to live and work in Plymouth. The GAP work will continue to focus on skills, training and education that underpin these broader themes.
    • Embedding long term delivery goals into ways of working. The GAP programme will be the framework from which resourcing, delivery outcomes and ambition are embedded into the Council.

    This ambitious work programme will be overseen by a Strategic Investment and Regeneration Board attended by senior representatives from the Council and Homes England.

    The Council has embarked on a number of transformational projects designed to inject life, new uses and new visitors into the city centre. As well as the transforming the public realm of Old Town Street and New George Street, Armada Way, other projects in the pipeline include the former Civic Centre which is destined to be a city centre campus with a focus on blue/green skills as well as homes. 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Germany’s young Jewish and Muslim writers are speaking for themselves – exploring immigrant identity beyond stereotypes

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Agnes Mueller, Carol Kahn Strauss Fellow in Jewish Studies at the American Academy in Berlin, Professor of German and American Literature, University of South Carolina

    A Muslim guest sits next to a Jewish one during an ordination ceremony at the Rykestrasse Synagogue in Berlin in September 2024. Omer Messinger/Getty Images

    The consequences of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and Israel’s war in Gaza have reverberated far beyond the zones of conflict.

    In the United States, for example, a growing number of people, including some Jewish groups, assert that political leaders are exploiting concerns about antisemitism for their own political goals, from cracking down on academic freedom to deporting pro-Palestinian activists.

    Debate about the war in Gaza feels fraught in Germany, too, where concerns about rising antisemitism have been used to criticize some Muslim communities. The Holocaust looms over discussions about Israel, with many claiming the country’s sense of historical guilt has made it, until recently, reluctant to criticize Israeli politics.

    In the wake of the country’s reunification in the early 1990s, about 200,000 Jews from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union came to Germany. In more recent years, waves of predominantly Muslim refugees from the Middle East have entered a space that already had a large population of Turkish immigrants and their descendants. However, many Germans oppose these more open immigration policies, with widespread backlash against Muslim migrants.

    In recent decades, some of Germany’s migrants and their children – some Jewish, and some Muslim – have used fiction to explore their identity and these contested issues in new ways, challenging simple narratives. As a scholar of German literature and Jewish studies, I have studied how literature creates new spaces for readers to explore the similarities between their experiences, building solidarity beyond stereotypes.

    ‘The Prodigal Son’

    Many of today’s young Jewish writers were born in the former Soviet Union and arrived in Germany with their parents as part of the “quota refugee” program. Initiated in the early 1990s, this program invited Jewish migrants into a newly unified Germany – intended to show that the country was taking responsibility for the atrocities of the past. The newcomers were flippantly called “Wiedergutmachungsjuden,” “make-good-again Jews,” referring to Germans’ desire to atone.

    One of them was Olga Grjasnowa. Born in 1984, Grjasnowa came from Azerbaijan to Germany at age 11. She has written about Holocaust memory, as in her 2012 novel “All Russians Love Birch Trees,” and said in a 2018 interview that all her books are “Jewish books.”

    Olga Grjasnowa during the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Aug. 22, 2019, in Scotland.
    Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images

    Her 2021 book “Der verlorene Sohn,” “The Prodigal Son,” echoes Holocaust memory, but in a historical novel set in 19th-century Russia.

    The protagonist Jamaluddin – the name derives from the Arabic word for “beauty of the faith” – is born in the Caucasian region of Dagestan, as the son of a powerful Muslim imam. To negotiate a peace deal, the boy is given as a hostage to Russia, where he grows up in the Orthodox Christian court of the czar. Though initially treated as an outsider, Jamaluddin assimilates and becomes a high-ranking officer, a life that ends when he must return to Dagestan. But there, too, he now feels homeless, regarded with suspicion as a stranger.

    “The Prodigal Son” deals with abduction, deportation, exile and constant wandering. Jamaluddin’s fate is shaped by authoritarianism, repression, war and discrimination – themes that are familiar in Holocaust literature, though here they befall a Muslim boy in another time and place.

    Repeatedly, the novel makes mention of Jewish communities and their own suffering under the czar. As Jewish boys are being forced to march from remote villages to Saint Petersburg, Jamaluddin is “furious and ashamed” of his fellow officers. But he also begins to feel self-pity, flooded with memories of his own departure from home.

    This scene depicts a historical reality under Czar Nicholas I, who ruled from 1825-1855: Russian Jewish boys were conscripted, sometimes kidnapped, to serve in the army. For contemporary audiences, the description can also evoke the death marches of Jewish prisoners during the Shoah, the Hebrew term for the Holocaust. Several additional moments in the book connect Jamaluddin’s experiences with images of Jewish flight and expulsion.

    New conversations

    Jamaluddin’s fate as an outsider between cultures can also bring to mind migrants’ experiences and emotions today. In 2022, one-quarter of Germans were either migrants themselves or had a parent who was not born in Germany. The largest minority group are Muslim-born Germans of Turkish descent, who are still routinely discriminated against.

    Antisemitism, meanwhile, is pervasive but less obvious. The Germans’ relationship with Jews was long dominated by silence and guilt – and Jews themselves were mostly invisible until the end of the Cold War, when Jewish migration from the former Soviet states picked up. My 2015 book “The Inability to Love” describes how mainstream German authors, fueled by guilt and shame over the Nazi past, fell into a philosemitic antisemitism: Outward displays of repentance for the Holocaust and public policies that ostensibly embraced Jews clashed with privately held prejudice.

    Many examples of new German literature show contemporary Jewish and Muslim characters with complex identities – protagonists who are not seen as simply Jewish, Muslim or belonging to only one culture, pushing back on reductive stereotypes.

    For example, Kat Kaufmann’s 2015 novel “Superposition” tells the story of the young, popular and charismatic Izy, a Russian Jew who lives in Berlin as a jazz pianist. Her love interest is Timur, an Eastern European man with a typically Muslim name. When Izy thinks of her and Timur’s future son, she imagines him growing up with the luxury to conceal where he is from – to define his identity as he wishes, unlike previous generations.

    Writer Fatma Aydemir speaks at a reading in Cologne, Germany, on March 21, 2022.
    Oliver Berg/picture alliance via Getty Images

    Stories by novelists such as Dmitrij Kapitelman, Lena Gorelik, Marina Frenk and Dana Vowinckel also depict moments of connection between Jews and other Germans, or between Jews and Muslims.

    Turkish and/or Muslim writers such as Fatma Aydemir and Nazlı Koca – who now lives in America, writing in English – tell similar stories of young characters navigating German culture as marginalized individuals. They often depict young women who struggle to reconcile their culture of origin with German social expectations and xenophobia today.

    “I wanted to question the idea that we all have one single identity and that’s it,” Aydemir told the literary site K24 about her novel “Ellbogen,” whose protagonist finds herself fleeing to Turkey, her family’s original home, after a personal crisis. “I think things are way more complex, more fluid than most of us want to believe.”

    This younger generation of German Jewish and Muslim writers is recasting entrenched debates, showing characters whose identities are multidimensional and more open than the burdened past or fraught present politics would suggest. Today’s young writers are creating new, brave spaces for conversation and empathy.

    Agnes Mueller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Germany’s young Jewish and Muslim writers are speaking for themselves – exploring immigrant identity beyond stereotypes – https://theconversation.com/germanys-young-jewish-and-muslim-writers-are-speaking-for-themselves-exploring-immigrant-identity-beyond-stereotypes-252968

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Transport Secretary draws line under HS2 ‘mismanagement’ with bold reset plan

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Press release

    Transport Secretary draws line under HS2 ‘mismanagement’ with bold reset plan

    All recommendations from the James Stewart review into HS2 to be accepted by government as Mike Brown takes over as HS2 Ltd Chair.

    • report reveals historic mishandling, lack of ministerial oversight and inadequate control of the project from HS2 Ltd
    • all recommendations to be accepted to grip failing HS2 project and get it back on track
    • new HS2 Ltd Chair Mike Brown appointed as progress made on resetting project

    The Transport Secretary has today (18 June 2025) announced that she will accept all recommendations from the landmark James Stewart review to address years of mismanagement and restore public trust in HS2.

    First commissioned by the government in October last year, the report sets out evidence of the historic mishandling of HS2 including a lack of ministerial oversight and scrutiny, inadequate control of the project by HS2 Ltd and a lack of effective incentives with the supply chain, which will collectively cost the taxpayer billions more than planned. 

    In a statement to Parliament, the Secretary of State condemned the ‘litany of failure’ that has plagued HS2, citing spiralling costs, ineffective oversight and broken promises.

    Without action, Phase 1 alone risks becoming one of the most expensive railway lines in the world – with costs ballooning by £37 billion and £2 billion wasted on cancelled Phase 2 works.

    That’s why since entering office, the government has taken decisive action to get back control of HS2 including: appointing new leadership to reset the project, commissioning the James Stewart review, reducing financial delegations to HS2 Ltd, limiting what the company can do without government approval to place a lid on spiralling costs until the reset is complete and providing £25 billion in the recent Spending Review to support all of this work.

    Speaking from the House of Commons earlier this afternoon, the Transport Secretary set out how the department is already delivering on Mr Stewart’s 5 key recommendations: 

    • Lack of effective ministerial oversight – the HS2 taskforce has been re-established with full senior official and ministerial attendance, offering much-needed oversight and accountability.
    • Stricter cost control – the department is ensuring HS2 Ltd and its suppliers negotiate incentives that ensure cost savings for taxpayers.
    • Lack of capability, skills and trust – the Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd, Mark Wild, is instilling a new era of leadership, reforming the organisation with a focus on building the rest of the railway safely and at the lowest reasonable cost. Wild has previous experience in this, having turned the delayed and over-budget Elizabeth line into one of the most successful and celebrated new operating railways in the world.
    • Lack of clarity on Euston station – the government has already committed funding to start the tunnelling from Old Oak Common to Euston and further detail on delivery of the station will be set out in due course.
    • Lessons for the wider transport portfolio – the government is committing to learning the lessons of the past 15 years to delivering infrastructure differently across its projects, with more to be set out in the upcoming 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy.

    The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to consider the implications for the Civil Service and wider public sector of the issues raised in the report, including whether further action or investigation is warranted.

    The Transport Secretary confirmed that Mike Brown will be taking over as HS2 Ltd Chair, working alongside CEO Mark Wild to deliver a programme reset, including reviewing the costs and schedule, renegotiating HS2’s large construction contracts and reviewing HS2 Ltd’s skills and structure. The Transport Secretary has asked Mark Wild to be ready to provide an update on revised costs and delivery timescales at the end of the year.

    He brings decades of experience to the role, having previously delivered major projects such as the successful delivery of London Underground and mainline rail for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, and a multi-billion pound investment programme on London’s roads, rail and cycling network. 

    Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said:

    This must be a line in the sand. This government is delivering HS2 from Birmingham to London after years of mismanagement, flawed reporting and ineffective oversight.  

    Mark Wild and Mike Brown were part of the team, with me, that turned Crossrail into the Elizabeth Line – we have done it before, we will do it again.

    Passengers and taxpayers deserve new railways the country can be proud of and the work to get HS2 back on track is firmly underway. 

    The initial assessment of the newly appointed CEO, Mark Wild was also published today, reiterating that the overall project in terms of cost, schedule and scope is unsustainable. Due to the scale of the mismanagement of the project, it set out that there is no route by which trains can be running by 2033 as previously planned and warns that costs would continue to increase if not taken in hand. The Transport Secretary accepted this conclusion.

    HS2 is supporting over 33,000 jobs and over 3,400 UK businesses across all UK nations and regions. Over 44 miles of tunnels have been completed to date and the 2.1-mile deck of the Colne Valley Viaduct, the UK’s new longest railway bridge, was completed in September 2024. 

    HS2 will deliver high-speed rail services between London and the West Midlands, providing much-needed extra capacity between London and Birmingham and delivering faster and more reliable trains from London to Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland. Research estimates that HS2 will be responsible for the generation of £10 billion and 30,000 new jobs in the West Midlands, as well as £10 billion and over 18,000 new jobs in west London.

    HS2 and major projects media enquiries

    Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

    Switchboard 0300 330 3000

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Another public inquiry into institutional abuses – why they so often fail to deliver justice for victims

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anne Marie McAlinden, Professor, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast

    House of Commons/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

    Public inquiries have become the standard political response to scandals and public crises, including allegations of institutional abuses.

    At the time of writing, there are multiple ongoing inquiries (or calls for them) into forms of abuse throughout the UK and elsewhere. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Ireland have ongoing institutional abuse inquiries or commissions of investigation. Victims of the late Mohamed Al Fayed are calling for an inquiry into abuses suffered while they were employed at Harrods.

    And the government has just announced a further national inquiry into grooming gangs in England and Wales. There has also been a concentration of institutional abuse inquiries globally over the last 30 years.

    Want more politics coverage from academic experts? Every week, we bring you informed analysis of developments in government and fact check the claims being made.

    Sign up for our weekly politics newsletter, delivered every Friday.

    Ireland in particular has had a lengthy history of such official investigations. Over the last two decades, it has had at least eight. In England and Wales, the issues of grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation have already been examined as part of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse led by child protection expert Alexis Jay. With 19 reports and evidence from over 6,000 victims within its Truth Project alone, it was the largest ever public inquiry in the UK.

    Frequently demanded by victims and the public, inquiries have symbolic value in signifying official acknowledgement of wrongdoing and abuses. However, they arguably fail to deliver truth, justice, accountability and healing for victims in several ways.

    The failures of abuse inquiries

    Inquiries are inevitably constrained by their narrow terms of reference. This sets the parameters of the inquiry and shapes the scope and scale of their investigations and any eventual outcomes.

    Terms of reference are frequently focused on how authorities responded to emerging allegations of abuses – whether churches, police or social services. A fuller examination of the systemic and structural issues that made abuses possible or allowed them to go unchecked for so long would be more useful.

    The investigations are also usually focused on fact-finding at an institutional level. As a result, they often fail to deliver the comprehensive truth of specific cases or hold individual perpetrators to account, which is what many victims seek.

    In older cases of abuse, things are even more difficult because so much time has passed and there may be no witnesses or records left to help prove what happened.



    Read more:
    How to make sure the new grooming gangs inquiry is the last

    Previous research shows that the inquiry process is often deeply traumatising for victims. Even if the emphasis is purportedly non-adversarial, the presence of lawyers and the dominance of legal culture and cross-examination effectively requires them to prove or justify their experiences. The basic effect becomes one of disbelief of victims or dismissal of their experiences of abuse.

    Added to this are the significant costs of inquiries – in terms of money and time. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse is said to have cost more than £180 million. As with many large investigations, it took seven years to produce its final report.

    Inevitably, victims are left waiting years for outcomes and any sense of justice. Monetary redress (or compensation), if it comes at all, only usually happens once the inquiry has concluded.

    Above all, public inquiries are severely limited in their capacity to produce meaningful, systemic and lasting change. Research shows that successive child abuse inquiries, decades apart, continue to make the same or similar recommendations. The lack of action by governments and institutions on recommendations means the issues remain unaddressed.

    Over two and a half years later, many of the Jay report’s 20 recommendations remain unimplemented.

    The collective failures of past abuse inquiries should prompt the government to pause and consider whether another is truly needed – or whether a different approach is required.

    Rethinking public inquiries

    With colleagues at the Transforming Justice Project, I’ve researched justice responses to historical institutional abuses over many years. Our work, based on extensive primary research with victims, as well as advocates and church and state representatives on the island of Ireland, has highlighted some of the failings of inquiries. We have also uncovered an appetite for doing things differently.

    On one level, it is possible to reform inquiries by focusing more centrally on victims and the trauma they have experienced. This could include, for example, adopting themed approaches to inquiries, perhaps related to particular contexts or abuses, which report sooner as standard.

    It might also mean specialist support services for victims running in parallel to inquiries. Or, it might mean involving victims in the design of the inquiry process from the outset.

    It is also worth exploring alternative models of truth recovery, such as non-statutory independent panel in Northern Ireland. This panel focuses specifically on mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries, and workhouses. Here, the accumulated testimony of victims and their experiences will feed into the full statutory public inquiry on these forms of institutional abuse.

    More broadly, rather than commissioning yet another inquiry, the government needs to follow up on existing recommendations from previous inquiries, including on child abuse. It is only by addressing the systemic issues underlying institutional abuse – including cultural attitudes and responses to victims – that we will prevent a recurrence of abuse in the longer term.

    Anne Marie McAlinden received funding from the AHRC and, with colleagues on the Transforming Justice Project, from the British Academy and the Higher Education Authority.

    – ref. Another public inquiry into institutional abuses – why they so often fail to deliver justice for victims – https://theconversation.com/another-public-inquiry-into-institutional-abuses-why-they-so-often-fail-to-deliver-justice-for-victims-259103

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: DfE Update: 18 June 2025

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Correspondence

    DfE Update: 18 June 2025

    Latest information and actions from the Department for Education about funding, assurance and resource management, for academies, local authorities and further education providers.

    Applies to England

    Documents

    DfE Update further education: 18 June 2025

    HTML

    DfE Update academies: 18 June 2025

    HTML

    DfE Update local authorities: 18 June 2025

    HTML

    Details

    Latest for further education

    Article Title
    Action College financial data (CFD) service portal now available
    Information 2024 to 2025 year-end forecast funding claim: indicative reconciliation statement(s)
    Information Adult residency eligibility criteria simplification
    Information Free Courses for Jobs construction expansion

    Latest information for academies

    Article Title
    Information Academies chart of accounts 2025 to 2026
    Information DfE Connect is now available to multi-academy trusts
    Events and webinars Q&A drop-in sessions: Academies chart of accounts and automation
    Events and webinars Academies technical update 2025 to 2026
    Events and webinars Academies technical update 2025 to 2026
    Events and webinars Academies technical update 2025 to 2026
    Events and webinars RPA members only: Crime resilience workshop
    Events and webinars DfE Energy for schools: simplified buying of gas and electricity
    Events and webinars The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) webinar
    Events and webinars Plan technology for your school

    Latest information for local authorities

    Article Title
    Information 2024 to 2025 year-end forecast funding claim: indicative reconciliation statement(s)
    Information Adult residency eligibility criteria simplification
    Information Free Courses for Jobs construction expansion
    Events and webinars RPA members only: Crime resilience workshop
    Events and webinars DfE Energy for schools: simplified buying of gas and electricity
    Events and webinars The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) webinar
    Events and webinars Plan technology for your school

    Updates to this page

    Published 18 June 2025

    Sign up for emails or print this page

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: New Citizen Interaction Policy announced

    Source: Scotland – City of Aberdeen

    A new Citizen Interaction Policy, aimed at promoting positive engagement between the Council and citizens, was approved this week.  

    Councillors from the Staff Governance Committee approved the Citizen Interaction Policy, which reinforces the Council’s commitment to providing accessible services to all members of the community, while supporting the safety and wellbeing of employees and elected members.  

    In addition to promoting positive engagement, the policy includes a zero tolerance pledge against violence, aggression and abuse towards employees and elected members.  

    Committee Convener Councillor Neil Copeland said: “We are here to help and support citizens and we ask them to work with us to make this possible.

    “The policy provides safeguards for Council employees and elected members – while also providing a single point of reference to understand the standards of behaviours expected from all involved parties.”  

    Vice Convener, Councillor Gill Al-Samarai said, “The safety of our employees and the citizens we serve is of paramount importance. By creating a single policy we aim to tackle unacceptable behaviours for the benefit of everyone.”  

    “We will publish the policy on the council website and will seek to raise public awareness of our zero tolerance approach through signage in all of our public facing buildings.”    

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –