Article 16

Telegraph
Liz Truss will insist on Sunday that Britain will overhaul the post-Brexit agreement over Northern Ireland unilaterally if she cannot reach a “negotiated solution” with the EU.
Writing in The Telegraph in her first intervention as Boris Johnson’s new Brexit negotiator, the Foreign Secretary states that the Article 16 “safeguard clause” in the Northern Ireland Protocol was “explicitly designed … to ease acute problems because of the sensitivity of the issues at play” on the island of Ireland.
The warning, which is likely to inflame tensions with Brussels, comes ahead of Ms Truss’s first face-to-face meeting with Maros Sefcovic, her EU counterpart, at Chevening, the Foreign Secretary’s country residence, on Thursday.
In early November, Mr Sefcovic warned of “serious consequences” if the UK triggered Article 16, which allows either side to take unilateral “safeguard measures” if the protocol causes “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
Until now, senior EU officials had believed that the Government had “shelved” a back-up plan to trigger Article 16, partly as a result of a series of political rows which were seen as having severely weakened the Prime Minister’s political standing. Both sides also ideally want a resolution before Northern Ireland’s election campaigns begin in March.

Mail
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has warned she is prepared to unilaterally override parts of the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland if the negotiations she is newly leading fail.
Ms Truss said she will suggest ‘constructive proposals’ to her EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic this week during their first face-to-face talks.
But she said she is ‘willing’ to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, which would suspend parts of the treaty designed to prevent a hard border with the Republic, if a deal cannot be struck.
The Foreign Secretary was handed responsibility for the negotiations after Lord Frost resigned as Brexit minister last month.
Ms Truss is hosting Mr Sefcovic, a European Commission vice-president, at the Chevening country retreat afforded to the Foreign Secretary when he visits on Thursday.

Sky News
Liz Truss has warned she is willing to trigger Article 16 – unilaterally overriding parts of the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland – if the negotiations she is now leading fail.
However, the foreign secretary said she will suggest “constructive proposals” to her EU counterpart, Maros Sefcovic this week during their first face-to-face talks in a bid to “resolve the situation”.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, she said she remains “willing” to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol if needed.
This would suspend parts of the treaty designed to prevent a hard border with the Republic of Ireland if a deal cannot be struck.

Covid

Mail
Coronavirus should be treated like the flu and Britain’s mass jabs programme should be scrapped after the booster campaign is complete, the ex-chief of the UK’s vaccine taskforce has said.
Dr Clive Dix, who was chairman of the government agency from December 2020 until April, called for a return to a ‘new normality’ and a volte-face on the approach throughout the pandemic.
He said the country needs to learn to manage the disease rather than focus on halting the spread of the virus amid hope the Omicron variant is even less severe than the flu.
The latest vaccination figures showed that 22,526 first dose jabs, 32,455 second doses and 207,801 booster jabs were delivered on Friday. It brings the total number of people to have received at least two doses of a vaccine to 47,632,483, whilst 35,273,945 have received a booster jab.
It comes as Britain’s daily Covid figures fell for the third day in a row on Saturday, official data showed in a sign the worst of the latest wave may be over.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) figures show there were 146,390 new positive tests over the last 24 hours, down 18.5 per cent on the previous week’s figure of 179,637.
It marked the biggest week-on-week fall since the start of November, well before the supermutant strain sent cases soaring across the country.

BBC News
Cutting the self-isolation period to five days would be “helpful”, the UK’s former vaccines minister has said.
People who test positive for Covid are required to self-isolate for seven days, but several sectors are experiencing staffing pressure.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the country is “witnessing the transition of the virus from pandemic to endemic”, reports the Sunday Times.
The paper also speculates that free lateral flow tests could end in weeks.
But a government source said that no decision had been taken and free tests will remain in place as long as they are needed.
Opposition politicians have criticised the suggestion of stopping the free tests.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said such a move would be an “utterly wrongheaded” approach to dealing with coronavirus.

ITV News
Nadhim Zahawi has become the first government Minister to publicly support the reduction of the Covid isolation period from seven to five days, which he said would be “more helpful”.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the Education Secretary said: “The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have said they want to review it, so we will stick to seven days but if they review it and say they will bring it down to five days that is even better for me, it’s even more helpful.”
Mr Zahawi also told the paper he believes the UK is “witnessing the transition of the virus from pandemic to endemic”.
His comments come after parents were urged to book jabs for their children as official Covid deaths passed 150,000 in the UK.

iNews
Omicron could be the first sign that people will one day live alongside Covid-19 as if it was the common cold, according to a government scientific advisor.
“We’re not quite there yet” but Omicron could be “the first ray of light” according to Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) and a University of Warwick professor.
The Omicron variant appears to be less likely to cause severe disease than previous Covid-19 strains despite being more transmissible and capable of evading vaccines more easily.
Dr Tildesley is optimistic that Omicron is a step in the right direction.
He said on Times Radio: “The thing that might happen in the future is you may see the emergence of a new variant that is less severe, and ultimately, in the long term, what happens is Covid becomes endemic and you have a less severe version.
“It’s very similar to the common cold that we’ve lived with for many years.
“We’re not quite there yet, but possibly Omicron is the first ray of light there that suggests that may happen in the longer term.

Times
Free lateral flow tests face the axe under plans for living with Covid which Boris Johnson will announce within weeks.
More than £6 billion of public money has been spent on mass testing using the devices.
The new system could mean free tests being provided only in high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools, and to people with symptoms. Contact tracing by NHS Test and Trace is also likely to be scaled back.
A senior Whitehall source said: “I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody for evermore.

Mirror
Free lateral flow tests could soon be scrapped for most of the public within weeks, reports claim.
Under plans reportedly being weighed up by officials, the tests could soon only be available in “high-risk” settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools.
Boris Johnson is said to be poised to announce the move as part of the Government’s strategy for living with the virus.
The move would also see the NHS Test and Trace service scaled back, according to The Sunday Times.
A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody forevermore.
“It’s likely we will move to a scenario where there is less testing but where we have a capacity to ramp it up if necessary, such as in the winter.”
The Mirror has contacted the Department of Health for comment.

Mail
Free lateral flow tests are set to be axed as the Government prepares the country to live with coronavirus without ongoing restrictions.
Boris Johnson is set to announce the measure within weeks, the Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper reported that the new system could mean that free tests are only given in high-risk settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools, and to people with symptoms.
Contact tracing by NHS Test and Trace could also be scaled back. More than £6billion has been spent on mass testing using lateral flow devices.
A senior Whitehall source told The Sunday Times: ‘I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody for evermore.
‘It’s likely we will move to a scenario where there is less testing but where we have a capacity to ramp it up if necessary, such as in the winter.’
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned Mr Johnson that axing universal free lateral flow tests would be an ‘utterly wrongheaded’ approach to dealing with coronavirus.

Sun
FREE lateral flow tests face being scrapped within weeks to save billions as ministers predict six more years of Covid, reports claim,
Under plans reportedly being considered by officials, the tests could soon only be available at no cost in “high-risk” settings such as care homes, hospitals and schools.
The cost-cutting move would also see the NHS Test and Trace service scaled back, according to The Sunday Times.
A Whitehall source told the newspaper: “I don’t think we are in a world where we can continue to hand out free lateral flow tests to everybody forevermore.
“It’s likely we will move to a scenario where there is less testing but where we have a capacity to ramp it up if necessary, such as in the winter.”
The move is believed to be part of the Government’s future strategy for living with the virus as ministers predict six more years of Covid.
However, it is understood that a final decision on lateral flow tests is yet to be made.

Sky News
The prime minister has been warned it would be “utterly wrongheaded” to scale back free lateral flow tests following reports they could be limited to high risk settings.
Both the Labour Party and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon have warned Boris Johnson against the move amid concerns tests could be limited to care homes, hospitals and schools, and people with symptoms.
The Sunday Times said the announcement, which could come “within weeks”, may also see the NHS Test and Trace system scaled back.
The free rapid tests were first made available to everyone in England – including those without symptoms – last April.

Energy

iNews
A group of green Tory MPs have called for the environmental levy placed on electricity bills to be paid by the Treasury to ease the burden of rising energy costs for the consumer.
The Conservative Environment Network (CEN), with 116 Tory MPs among its members, has argued the Treasury should temporarily fund them from the Exchequer and urgently devise policies to fund the social and environmental energy projects in the long term.
CEN director Sam Hall said: “One of the most attractive options would be to take some of the social and green policies off electricity bills and fund them from the Exchequer itself, at least in the short term.
“We could deliver that immediate cut to bills and at the same time redress the imbalance between electricity and gas.”
The proposal has been endorsed by the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group, an alliance of businesses and charities that will write to the prime minister on Monday calling for better insulation for people to cut bills by £500 a year.
Mr Hall stressed the funding is underpinned by legally binding contracts so there can be no overall reduction in the green subsidy.

Cladding

Telegraph
Hundreds of thousands of leaseholders are to be spared from the crippling cost of stripping Grenfell-style cladding from their properties after the Government backed down and said it would make the building industry pay instead.
Ministers will on Monday announce a “reset” aimed at shielding leaseholders from costs of hundreds of thousands pounds to remove the unsafe cladding after a decision by Michael Gove in one of his first acts as Levelling Up Secretary, the Telegraph understands.
Mr Gove is expected to say that leaseholders living in properties of 11 metres or higher will now pay nothing towards the remediation of unsafe cladding.
He will scrap a controversial scheme that would have forced people living in buildings less than 18 metres high to take out loans to cover the costs.
Those in taller blocks can already have their cladding costs covered by a £5bn funding pot.
Some 38,000 apartment blocks are estimated to be 11 to 18 metres high, with campaigners claiming the figure is closer to 90,000.
At the same time, the Government will launch an aggressive campaign to pressure building companies responsible for the scandal to “step forward with a solution” – and threaten to impose one with legislation if they do not.

BBC News
Flat owners will not have to pay to remove dangerous cladding from lower-height buildings under new government plans, BBC Newsnight understands.
It means leaseholders in buildings of between 11 and 18.5m will no longer be expected to take out personal loans to cover the cost of the work.
Instead, the government will try to secure up to £4bn from developers towards the costs.
It had already promised to pay to remove cladding in taller buildings.
If ministers are unable to secure the funding from developers it may come out of the housing department’s budget.
In the wake of the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, flammable cladding and other fire safety defects were discovered in hundreds of blocks of flats across the UK.
Removing cladding can cost millions of pounds per block, with the cost often being borne by individual flat owners, under the leasehold system in England and Wales.

iNews
Michael Gove is expected to announce flat owners will not have to bear the cost of removing dangerous cladding under new government plans.
The Housing Secretary is set to make a statement on Monday on a new package of measures intended to “reset” the Government approach to the cost of cladding removal, placing the burden on property developers.
At present only leaseholders in buildings taller than 18 metres can access grants to replace unsafe cladding under measures introduced in England after the Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people in 2017.
But a leaked letter from Simon Clarke, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to Mr Gove said a threat of tax or legislation could be used to pressure developers to cover the estimated costs of up to £4 billion for buildings of 11 to 18 metres tall as no new public money would be made available.
Details of the letter, reported by BBC Newsnight, said loans for smaller buildings would be replaced by a “limited grant scheme”.

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