Today (Thursday 2 August) Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability Victoria Atkins confirmed that 67 charities across England and Wales will be provided extra funding from the Home Office’s Anti-Knife Crime Community Fund.

The second round of the Community Fund opened in May 2018 and was originally set at £1 million. Due to the number and quality of bids submitted, and as part of the government’s commitment to early intervention and prevention to tackle serious violence, the funding has been increased to over £1.5 million.

These successful bids, which were selected due to their commitment to educating young people about the dangers of carrying weapons, are set to receive up to £30,000 each.

Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability Victoria Atkins said:

It is vital that the government continues to support community groups who help young people build the resilience they need to take positive steps in life and steer clear of criminal activity.

Early intervention and prevention is vital to tackling serious violence and I am delighted we are able to increase the funding available to support more organisations.

As we continue to deliver on the Serious Violence Strategy I look forward to meeting and working with more of these organisations.

The Community Fund was first launched last year and 47 charities across the country benefited from the funding.

The second round of additional funding forms just one of over 60 actions and commitments announced in the Serious Violence Strategy and reiterates the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of serious violence, backed with £40 million of Home Office funding.

Chief Executive of The Children’s Society, Matthew Reed said:

We are delighted to be awarded this funding from the Home Office, which will allow The Children’s Society to deliver school-based support in Birmingham and an emotional resilience programme in Newcastle.

Supporting young people to live safe and protected lives free from exploitation and knife crime is more important than ever.

This announcement comes just days after the Home Secretary doubled the Early Intervention Youth Fund, which is also part of the Serious Violence Strategy, to £22 million. Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) who work in partnership with community safety partnerships (CSPs) or the equivalent can bid for support from the Early Intervention Youth Fund to deliver projects which steer young people away from violent crime.

A man who broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend and threatened her with a knife will spend longer in prison after the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal for being too low.

Matthew White, 31, carried out an extensive campaign of harassment and threats against his ex-partner following their breakup in 2017. This culminated in White breaking into her home and brandishing a knife at her and her three children. She attempted to flee but White restrained her and made attempts to stab her, as well as punching her in the face multiple times. He also made threats against her family.

White was originally sentenced at Hull Crown Court in May, where he was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment with an extended licence period of 3 years and a restraining order. Today, after the Solicitor General’s referral, the Court of Appeal increased his sentence to 9 years imprisonment with an extended licence period of 5 years.

Commenting on the sentence increase, the Solicitor General said:

“Not only did White’s actions directly impact his victim, but we can also only begin to imagine the long-terms effects this is likely to have on the children who experienced this terrible ordeal. It is only right that White should serve a longer sentence.”

There is up to £15 million for new healthcare technologies, products and processes that support the most innovative opportunities in the life sciences sectors.

We are looking for ideas to:

• prevent and proactively manage chronic health conditions
• better detect and diagnose disease earlier, to create improved outcomes for patients
• develop new, tailored treatments for disease that offer potential cures

The funding is available through the Biomedical Catalyst, which is a partnership between Innovate UK and the Medical Research Council.

There are 2 competitions in this funding round, one for primer awards and another for late-stage projects.

Support for many health projects

The Biomedical Catalyst supports projects from any sector or discipline including:

• precision medicine
• advanced therapies, such as gene and cell therapies
• diagnostics
• digital health
• medical technologies and devices

Organisations that have received funding in previous rounds include Entia, which has received more than £1 million from Innovate UK, much of it through the Biomedical Catalyst.

This has allowed it to work with The Royal Marsden Hospital to develop a hand-held blood testing kit that can be used at home by chemotherapy patients to help them better manage their treatment and limit the number of unnecessary visits they need to make to the hospital.

The system – which has won an AXA PPP Health Tech & You Challenge award – is also likely to have other applications outside cancer care because blood counts are so widely used in hospitals and GP practices.

Entia & Royal Marsden Hospital: developing blood testing kit for chemotherapy patients

Primer awards

Technical evaluation through to proof of concept

Up to £5 million is available for ‘primer’ projects, which cover a technical evaluation of an idea through to proof of concept.

They could include:

• experimental evaluation at laboratory scale
• initial demonstration using in vitro and in vivo models. This should not include human clinical trials
• exploring potential production mechanisms
• early-stage prototyping
• product development planning
• intellectual property protection

Competition information

• the competition opens on 6 August 2018, and the deadline for applications is at midday on 3 October 2018
• projects must be led by a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), working alone or with other SMEs or research organisations
• we expect projects to range in size from £200,000 to £1.5 million and to last between 1 and 2 years
• you can register for a briefing event on 7 August 2018, where you can find out more about the competition and making a quality application

Late-stage awards

Testing a well-developed concept

Up to £10 million is available for late-stage projects. These are projects that test a well-developed concept in an environment that is relevant to its use.

These could include:

• initial human proof-of-concept studies
• demonstration of clinical utility and effectiveness
• demonstration of safety and efficacy, which may include phase I and phase II clinical trials
• developing production mechanisms
• prototyping
• market testing
• intellectual property protection

Competition information

• the competition opens on 6 August 2018, and the deadline for applications is at midday on 3 October 2018
• projects must be led by an SME, working alone or with other SMEs or research organisations
• we expect projects to range in size from £200,000 to £4 million and to last between 1 and 3 years
• applicants that meet the quality threshold will be invited to interview in January 2019 to present their ideas
• you can register for a briefing event on 7 August 2018, where you can find out more about the competition and making a quality application

Global Fin Services Limited (GFS) was wound up in the public interest at the High Court on 16 July 2018 and the Official Receiver is now the liquidator of the company.

Incorporated in October 2015, GFS offered an online platform for trading forex, derivatives and other investments via the website ‘www.trade12.com’. GFS listed a virtual office in London as their registered address but their customers were predominantly located in South East Asia, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Following complaints from the public, the Insolvency Service investigated the company and found several examples of misconduct.

GFS’s representatives made unsolicited calls to members of the public, often to people who had little or no experience of online trading. Customers were subjected to highly pressurised sales tactics and were misled about the amount of returns made on investments.

Returns on investments quoted by GFS representatives ranged from 10-15% per week or month, with a guarantee to cap losses at 10% of the investment, or returns of between 50-100% on deposits within 30 days.

Investors also complained that GFS made it difficult to withdraw their funds and when money was taken out, their accounts would suffer losses. In a ploy to recover money that was taken out, GFS’ account managers would then urge customers they needed to invest more to enable them to try and recover the losses.

Investigators could not see any evidence that funds paid through the website were invested as the sales representatives said they would and GFS failed to provide any of its accounting records, while also claiming they provided clearing services for its holding company, Exo Capital Markets Limited, a company registered in the Marshall Islands.

Those clients who had made complaints against the company reported losses of more than $1.25 million (USD) but the total amount of investments cannot be confirmed because the company failed to produce any evidence of its accounting records.

And there was evidence that financial regulators across the world, including the FCA, had issued warnings against GFS and Exo Capital Markets Limited, which also traded as “Trade 12”.

Irshard Mohammed, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

GFS had a blatant disregard for their customers. They preyed on people who had little to no experience in making investments of this nature, using unscrupulous tactics to secure funds.

We are pleased that the courts have shut down this company, saving any more people losing their money and we hope this sends a strong message that we will robustly investigate and take action where people’s funds and savings are at risk.

By virtue of the appointment of the Official Receiver all public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 2nd Floor, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London SW1P 2HT. Email: piu.south@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.

Notes to Editors

Global Fin Services Limited, company registration number 09836699, was incorporated on 22 October 2015. The company’s registered office is at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, that of a virtual office provider.

The petition to wind-up Global Fin Services Limited was presented under s124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 on 22 February 2018. The company was wound up on 16 July 2018 and the Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator.

Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Further information about live company investigations is available here.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

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