WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
This is why the security of 5G hardware/software is so critical to UK’s connectivity/infrastructure! |
techUK’s campaign week ‘The 5G Future’ – highlighting the importance of the upcoming 5G mobile network, technologies & applications. Throughout last week techUK published news, views & insights from the technology sector on the deployment of 5G and the advantages for individuals, businesses and vertical markets in the UK. Keep up to date with all of this material by viewing all of the Blog posts including:
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techUK: 5G Campaign Week #The5GFuture DCMS: The £2.4m UK / South Korean 5G challenge Some would say; ‘About time too’ Suspicion falls on China after cyber attack on Australian Parliament ... Significant Cyber Incidents | Center for Strategic and International . |
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Making sure devices connected through 5G networks are secure |
Plans to ensure that millions of household items that are connected to the internet are better protected from cyber attacks have been launched by Digital Minister Margot James. Options that the Government will be consulting on include a mandatory new labelling scheme. The label would tell consumers how secure their products such as ‘smart’ TVs, toys and appliances are. The move means that retailers will only be able to sell products with an Internet of Things (IoT) security label. The consultation focuses on mandating the top 3 security requirements that are set out in the current ‘Secure by Design’ code of practice. Following the consultation, the security label will initially be launched as a voluntary scheme to help consumers identify products that have basic security features and those that don’t. Alternative options to the label that Government are also consulting on would be to mandate retailers to not sell any products that do not adhere to the top three security requirements of the Code. |
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DCMS: Plans announced to introduce new laws for internet connected devices DCMS: Margot James speech at the IET Conference |
Start small and develop robust ICT solutions that really deliver benefits |
A system for assessing whether a patient’s condition is deteriorating has been rolled out across the North West Coast – thanks to the Innovation Agency. NEWS2 is the latest version of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS), a points system that helps improve the detection of clinical deterioration. NEWS, which was first produced in 2012 and then updated by the Royal College of Physicians in 2017, is an approach to standardising the assessment of, & response to, acute illness. It consists of a scoring system based on a number of simple criteria which helps improve the detection of clinical deterioration in patients. Endorsed by NHS England and NHS Improvement for use in acute & ambulance settings, the implementation of NEWS2 is being facilitated across England through the 15 Patient Safety Collaboratives (PSCs), which are managed & delivered by the AHSNs. Locally, all acute hospitals and the ambulance trust within the North West Coast region have adopted or are in the process of adopting NEWS2. The aim is for NEWS2 to become the ‘common language’ for communicating patient deterioration across the whole system and its use is now being explored in out-of-hospital settings as well, again with the support of the Patient Safety Collaborative. |
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Innovation Agency: 'Common language' system improves care across North West Coast National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2 | RCP London Patient safety collaboratives | NHS Improvement Innovation Agency: Smartphone tech transforms home care in Liverpool Liverpool 5G Health & Social Care: the first 12 months New patient and public involvement senate launched in Lancashire & South Cumbria Augmented Reality brings lifesaving human contact to people at risk of suicide DHSC: NHS hospitals & GP practices to get fibre optic internet How 5G could transform care for patients in the hospital and at home The potential of 5G in healthcare, telemedicine & remote monitoring NHS Digital welcomes RCGP tech manifesto NICE launches online resource to help development & adoption of new health technologies BCS: Students get funding to study digital hi-tech for patient care |
SME Supplier Locator update... | ||
UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. Against this ambitious backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. Recent arrivals to the SME Supplier Locator service include:
Click here to find out more. |
Too good to be true? |
The UK can end its contribution to global warming within 30 years by setting an ambitious new target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said last week. Ten years after the Climate Change Act became law, now is the right moment to set a more ambitious goal. Achieving a ‘net-zero’ target by the middle of the century is in line with the UK’s commitment under the Paris Agreement; the pact which the UK and the rest of the world signed in 2015 to curb dramatically the polluting gases that cause climate change. Scotland has greater potential to remove pollution from its economy than the UK overall, and can credibly adopt a more ambitious target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 2045. Wales has slightly lower opportunities than the UK as a whole, and should adopt a target for a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. Falls in cost for some of the key zero-carbon technologies mean that achieving net-zero is now possible within the economic cost that Parliament originally accepted when it passed the Climate Change Act in 2008. |
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CCC: Phase out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to end UK contribution to global warming BEIS: Committee on Climate Change 'Net Zero' report BEIS: Secretary of State welcomes the Committee on Climate Change 'Net Zero' report ScotGov: Climate Change action WAG makes climate emergency declaration FS: Effects of climate change are fuelling conflict, UK to drive forward the global response DfT: Heathrow expansion: judgements from the High Court in the judicial review CBI comments on Climate Change Report CBI comments on Heathrow runway ruling TUC: Trade unions will help achieve just transition to low carbon economy techUK supports an ambitious net zero carbon target BEIS: British Steel - EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) update ESRC: A fair share of village water Conflicts & Global Warming ensure the flow will only increase POST: Limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C UK aid protects thousands from extreme weather as ‘mega storms’ tracked across Africa Most detailed picture yet of changing climate launched CCC: Climate change means more action is needed to address risk of UK heatwaves & water shortages |
Editorial Commentary – Let’s have a sense of proportion here! |
Recently there has been some comment in the media about how up to 30% of children in the UK are ‘starving’ because their families are ‘living in poverty’ (Emma Thompson tackles Government on children's food poverty today) While many children may well be ‘going hungry’, one has to wonder if this is just as a result of low family income or also due to the inability of many modern-day parents to prepare & cook wholesome food using raw materials, which are not sourced from ‘branded’ items (for example porridge & raisins rather than a ‘sugar’ brand cereal for breakfast). What about teaching better life skills (especially home cooking) as well? One ‘family-sized’ Indian/Chinese take-away or a delivered Pizza could ‘pay for’ several home-cooked family meals (especially those low in meat – as those proposed in the recent CCC report). Although one does appreciate the difficulties faced by people living in emergency accommodation to prepare home-cooked meals due to lack of space & facilities (such as a fridge). The government has not helped the problem of families budgeting for all their weekly/monthly expenditures with its ‘botched’ implementation of Universal Credit, where the changeover of benefit delivery has seen around a 5-week ‘gap’ in benefit payments, which many cannot cope with. Universal Credit contributing to child poverty Citizens Advice launches new service for people applying for Universal Credit Amber Rudd: “Behind our supportive staff is a compassionate system” JRF: Universal Credit can loosen the grip of poverty, but further reform is needed DWP to look at frequency of Universal Credit payments However, one also has to factor in the dichotomy of the current epidemic of obesity in children UK-wide and the appearance of the first cases of diabetes 2 in children. In gardening terms, this is a ‘hardy perennial’ issue We should also bear in mind that poverty is relative depending where you happen to be born in this world and that here in the UK we don’t really know the meaning of true poverty at its most extreme. ESRC: How climate change led to Cambodia's 'blood bricks' Perhaps the solution for lack of government funding for healthcare & Local Authority spending would be (as has been suggested before) to divert some of the £bns we spend on ‘dubious’ foreign aid projects to resolving UK funding issues (like Children’s Services and Home Economics lessons in school & free evening classes for adults). From an archived article: “People / politicians / the Media are increasingly calling for a bi-party approach to health & social care policy and a re-examination of the 0.7% of GDP set aside for Foreign Aid (FA), especially money given to third parties, where we have no control over how it is spent. In March 2015 (as we have highlighted before), MPs found that £6.3bn of Britain's aid budget had been handed to major agencies to help hit the target of spending 0.7% of nation's income on foreign aid (including the EU, which then ‘claimed it as their own ‘aid’ one presumes).” This is not to say all foreign aid is ‘wasted’ (Now this is how Foreign Aid ought to be spent! ). |
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Still a ‘hot topic’, with widely spread views, for those who put fingers to keyboard in order to ‘share their views’: |
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BEIS: British Steel - EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) update Home Office publishes report on EU Settlement Scheme public beta test phase WAG: Consultation on future of Welsh seas post-Brexit launched WAG: Counsel General warns on Brexit and the Union PC&PE: Parliament’s treaty scrutiny system out of date, Committee calls for reform PC&PE: European Union Committee publishes its tenth international agreements report |
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