The UK has joined forces with Canada, the Netherlands, the United States and Australia to launch the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) – a new alliance dedicated to tackling international tax crime and money laundering.

The group will build on existing international cooperation by sharing intelligence and expertise, and will work together on joint operations to crack down on those who make a living out of enabling tax crime.

At their first meeting, the J5 brought together leading experts in tax and other financial crimes from each of the 5 member countries. Together they developed tactical plans and identified opportunities to pursue cyber criminals and enablers of international tax crime.

The new alliance will help HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) build on work that has secured more than £2.8 billion from offshore tax evaders since 2010. That money has been used to fund our vital public services like the NHS.

Simon York, Director HMRC Fraud Investigation Service, said:

Tax crime and money laundering are becoming increasingly global and sophisticated, so it’s crucial we continue to work with international partners to tackle these threats.

The formation of the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) shows our commitment to leading that fight.

Working together, we are broadening the horizon of tax crime enforcement, making the world smaller for those seeking to exploit our systems and ensuring no one is beyond our reach.

This J5 has formed in response to a call to action from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for countries to do more to tackle the enablers of tax crime. All 5 countries face similar threats – organised crime groups and wealthy offshore tax evaders who are well resourced and have access to professional enablers to hide income and assets using the global financial system.

By having a small number of partners, it will allow the group to be more agile and flexible to develop new approaches and carry out joint operations. Any results and benefits will be shared with wider international partners to develop a global understanding of offshore crime.

Membership of the J5 includes the heads of tax crime and senior officials from The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), HMRC, and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

Will Day, Deputy Commissioner, Australian Taxation Office, said:

Recognising that tax crime crosses international borders, by participating in the J5, the ATO and ACIC can work with like-minded international tax administrations and law enforcement agency partners to build on our domestic activity and develop strategies to disrupt crime and better position Australia against emerging threats.

Col Blanch, Executive Director Intelligence Operations, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, said:

Financial crime occurs on a global scale with proceeds of crime transferred between jurisdictions. This is why we are committed to working with our domestic and international partners to proactively target offshore service providers and cybercriminals who specialise in targeting the financial sector.

Johanne Charbonneau, Director General, Canada Revenue Agency, said:

The formation of the J5 demonstrates the serious commitment of governments around the globe in enhancing international cooperation in fighting serious international tax and financial crimes, money laundering, and cybercrime through the use of cryptocurrencies.

The J5 complements the important international work of the OECD through operational collaboration. Our collective efforts and experience will be shared to jointly identify and address the increasingly sophisticated and global schemes and the professional enablers that facilitate such schemes.

Hans van der Vlist, General Director FIOD, said:

The unique thing about the J5 is the operational collaboration between 5 countries on tackling professional enablers that facilitate offshore tax crime, cybercrime and the threat of cryptocurrencies to tax administrations, as well as making best use of internationally available data and technology.

Don Fort, Chief of IRS-CI, said:

We cannot continue to operate in the same ways we have in the past, siloing our information from the rest of the world while organised criminals and tax cheats manipulate the system and exploit vulnerabilities for their personal gain.

The J5 aims to break down those walls, build on individual best practices, and become an operational group that is forward-thinking and can pressurise the global criminal community in ways we could not achieve on our own.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark today (2 July) announced the appointment of Leena Nair and Nigel Boardman as non-executive board members at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Leena Nair, the Chief Human Resources Officer at Unilever, will chair for the BEIS Nominations and Governance Committee, whilst Nigel Boardman, a partner at Slaughter and May law firm, will chair for the BEIS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said:

These appointments will add further extensive business experience to our excellent departmental board.

They will offer challenge and support to the department and ensure we are a truly business-facing organisation that is making a real impact on the UK economy.

Alex Chisholm, Permanent Secretary for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said:

I am delighted to welcome Leena Nair and Nigel Boardman to the board and look forward to working with them.

They will provide excellent stewardship to both the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and the Nominations and Governance Committee, ensuring BEIS is on track to be one of the top departments in Whitehall for its assurance and people management.

Non-executive board members are experts from outside government who provide oversight and challenge to the department in the development of policy and the management of resources.

Leena Nair – Chief Human Resources Officer for Unilever

Leena is the first female, first Asian, youngest ever CHRO of Unilever and member of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE) which is responsible for delivering Unilever’s business financial performance and its ambitious environmental and positive social impact objectives. Ms. Nair bears overall responsibility for the human capital (160,000 people) for Unilever, which operates across multiple regulatory and labour environments spread over 190 countries.

She has led the launch of technology innovations that have pioneered and transformed Unilever’s approach to the future of work in the connected world. Ms Nair was instrumental in driving their employer brand to a record high and in step-changing their Diversity agenda to industry leadership.

Nigel Boardman – Partner at Slaughter and May

Nigel Boardman has been a partner at Slaughter and May since 1982. His practice at the firm includes domestic and international corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, IPOs, demergers, private acquisitions and disposals, private equity, public takeovers, issues of compliance and corporate governance, investigations and insolvency, restructurings, investigations and sports law and art law. He is a Vice-President for Save the Children UK, Deputy Chair of the British Museum and a member of their Audit and Risk Committee. He has received several accolades in his professional career including, The Financial Times’ Special Achievement Award and the Lawyer of the Decade Award from Financial News.

1) The key responsibilities of non-executive board members are to:

• Attend meetings of the departmental board, chaired by the Secretary of State
• Advise on strategy, performance and transformation, operational issues and the effective management of the department
• Provide independent scrutiny for the department upon request
• Work with executives and their teams to continue to improve the performance of the department

2) The BEIS Audit and Risk Assurance Committee’s role is to support the Departmental Board and Accounting Officer in their responsibility to ensure that the Department is a financially sound and efficient organisation which makes effective use of its resources in pursuit of its strategic objectives. Specifically, the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee reviews the effectiveness of the risk management framework established by management to identify, assess and manage risk, thereby playing an important role in supporting our reputation for excellent financial and risk management.

3) The BEIS Nominations and Governance Committee’s role is to support the Departmental Board, by providing assurance and input to key decisions and processes. Its purpose is to scrutinise the Department’s strategies and plans for talent management; succession planning; capability building; Board appointments; senior performance management; incentives & rewards and the implementation of corporate governance policy.

4) These two appointments are in addition to the department’s five existing non-executive board members.

The Prince of Wales has officially marked the renaming of the Second Severn Crossing at a ceremony in Newport today (2 July).

His Royal Highness was joined by The Duchess of Cornwall on a visit to South Wales which signalled the start of Their Royal Highnesses’ annual ‘Wales Week’ tour.

The Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns announced earlier this year the decision to rename the crossing ‘The Prince of Wales Bridge’ as a tribute to His Royal Highness in a year that sees him mark 60 years as The Prince of Wales and as a celebration of Princes of Wales past and present.

Their Royal Highnesses were welcomed to Wales today by the Welsh Secretary, Alun Cairns, and the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones.

The decision to rename the Second Severn Crossing has had the full support of the Welsh Government.

The Royal couple were first hosted on a tour of the Severn Crossing toll office by the Secretary of State for Wales, meeting Highways England staff who have been responsible for the Crossings since they returned to public ownership in January this year.

The party then travelled to the Celtic Manor Resort for a celebratory reception where The Prince of Wales unveiled a ceremonial plaque to mark the renaming of the Bridge.

Addressing the guests from both sides of the estuary, Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said:

I am delighted that Their Royal Highnesses have been able to join us for this special occasion at the start of their week-long tour of Wales.

Through his extensive charity work and support for Welsh business and enterprise His Royal Highness has given decades of continued, dedicated service to our nation.

I hope that the new Prince of Wales bridge and its sister bridge will be seen as positive symbols of the newly invigorated economic, cultural and social opportunities that will present themselves to Wales, helping to make our nation fit for the future.

The visit comes in the year that the UK Government is set to abolish the tolls to use the Severn Crossings.

This landmark moment will see the UK Government deliver on its Industrial Strategy commitment to develop stronger growth corridors across the Welsh – English border, spread prosperity, and enable Wales to fulfil its potential on the global stage.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said:

The Prince of Wales Bridge is a fantastic gateway into South Wales and lower tolls have already saved drivers more than £5 million.

Wales and the South West will get another economic boost when the charges are abolished by the end of the year and hard-working families will make savings of over a thousand pounds a year.

An opening ceremony saw the Defence Secretary unveil a plaque to mark the completion of five years of work and £50 million worth of investment into the high-tech site, which has been labelled ‘the jewel in the crown’ of weapons firm MBDA.

It marks a major milestone for the new site, where design, engineering and manufacturing experts are producing state-of-the-art equipment and systems. Complex weapons being built there will go on to do everything from arming F-35 fighter jets to protecting British troops and Royal Navy ships, whilst the move to the site has seen 100 new jobs created.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

This £50m factory supports 700 jobs in Bolton, showing how central strong British defence industry is to our national prosperity.

MBDA’s investment has created more than 100 new jobs, and this has been supported by a £400m contract from the Government helping to create a further 100 roles within the company.

You can’t have prosperity without security. MBDA in Bolton is keeping Britain safe while creating highly-skilled jobs and opportunities, demonstrating our commitment to the people of Bolton and the North West.

MBDA has a history in the Lancashire region stretching back for more than 80 years when the Lostock site was first opened to build propellers for the war effort. The new facility will now replace that site and provide a truly cutting-edge solution, designed to meet the modern requirements of the MOD and worldwide export customers. It will significantly improve the company’s manufacturing and test capabilities, as well as making them a more agile outfit whilst improving value-for-money for the taxpayer through contributing further cost reductions to the £1.4 billion in savings already generated by the innovative partnership approach to complex weapons between the MOD and MBDA.

Work at the site was given a boost just last April when the Defence Secretary signed a £400 million deal with MBDA to upgrade the ultra-accurate Brimstone missile to become compatible with Typhoon jets. That contract created around 130 new jobs and sustained a further 270 existing jobs at MBDA’s sites in Bolton, Stevenage and across the supply chain.

The Bolton factory also works on the Sea Ceptor missile, which entered service on the Type 23 frigates in May and provides a powerful shield against airborne threats for Royal Navy ships. Land Ceptor, from the same family completed its first successful firing trials in April 2018 as the future battlefield barrier launched from a vehicle on a Swedish test fire range.

Other missiles the site works on include:

• Meteor – world-class air-to-air, radar-guided missile able to defeat fast-moving manoeuvrable targets at long range. It will enter service on Typhoon with the RAF in 2018 and the F35 from 2023

• ASRAAM – Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile enabling UK pilots to engage and defend themselves against other aircraft ranging in size from large multi-engine aircraft to small drones. In service with the Royal Air Force on the Tornado and Typhoon aircraft

• Sea Venom – primarily anti-ship missile designed to destroy small, medium and large vessels, using an imaging infrared seeker that offers full ‘fire and forget’ capabilities in all environments will equip the Royal Navy’s Wildcat Helicopters

• Spear 3 – weapon powered by an innovative miniaturised turbojet engine instead of a rocket motor being developed to meet the F-35’s ground attack requirement

Chris Allam, Managing Director of MBDA UK, said:

I am delighted that the Secretary of State for Defence has today opened our brand-new facility in Bolton. This new site builds on 80 years of illustrious company history down the road at Lostock and prepares us for the challenges of the future. The significant investment placed by MBDA into Bolton is testament to our commitment to our people, to the area, and to delivering on our order book for our customers.

The new facility will also support the Anglo-French “One Complex Weapon” Centres of Excellence initiative – a cross Government scheme which will allow MBDA to develop cutting-edge technology in both the UK and France, while driving new ways of working and increasing efficiency.

The official opening also saw MBDA re-sign the Armed Forces Covenant by which it has already shown its commitment to the military community through facilitating flexible working, support and leave schemes for reservists and participating in the MOD Employer Recognition scheme as well as directly supporting several armed forces charities.