Sally Bolton OBE

Sally is Strategic Planning and Operations Director at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, having joined the Club as Head of Corporate Affairs in 2016. Prior to this Sally spent two years as Managing Director of the Organising Committee for the London double header of World Athletics Championships in 2017.

Sally assumed this role having led the team that delivered a highly successfully Rugby League World Cup in 2013, a role for which she was recognised with the award of an OBE.

Prior to this Sally was the Rugby Football League’s Director of Projects & Planning and played an integral part in the Rugby Football League team that won the rights to stage the 2013 tournament. Prior to joining the RFL, Sally held a number of other roles in sports administration at club and Governing Body level including a period as Chief Executive of Wigan RLFC and Orrell RUFC. In addition, Sally has worked in the highly regarded sports consulting group at Deloitte and run her own sports consulting business. Sally has been a member of the UK Sport Major Events Panel since 2013.

The role is remunerated at £218 per day. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Sally has declared no such political activity.

World-leading powers to ensure online sellers pay the right tax, and don’t leave law-abiding high street and online businesses at a disadvantage, have come into force today (15 March 2018). These were first announced by the Chancellor at Autumn Budget 2017.

The internet has revolutionised the way people shop and helped many businesses to sell their products across the UK. Online marketplaces can help those who sell through their platforms to understand the tax rules and therefore avoid fines from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). And, indeed, they have the responsibility to make sure that fraud does not happen on their watch.

These new rules strengthen powers to make online marketplaces accountable for VAT fraud committed by online sellers on their platforms.

These powers are known by the term joint-and-several liability (JSL) for online marketplaces.

If sellers based in the UK or overseas are not paying the correct VAT when selling in the UK, and are not removed from the site following the issue of a notice by HMRC to the marketplace, HMRC will pursue the marketplaces themselves for any future unpaid tax by those sellers.

For any sales made from today onwards, the rules also make online marketplaces liable for VAT where they knew or should have known that an overseas online seller should have been VAT-registered, but was not.

This sends a clear message that businesses in the UK and overseas, online and on the high street, must all play by the same rules, protecting traditional high street and legitimate online sellers who pay what they owe.

Marketplaces must now also make sure sellers using their platforms display a valid VAT number on the site, when they are given one. This will help buyers make an informed choice about buying goods from a VAT-registered businesses with confidence.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mel Stride, said:

Whilst the honest majority pay what they owe, some businesses that sell goods online to UK shoppers are failing to pay the correct amount of VAT.

This behaviour unfairly undercuts businesses trading in the UK that play by the rules, abuses the trust of buyers, and deprives the government of significant revenue that funds vital public services.

We are clear that everyone must pay their fair share of tax, and tackling tax evasion in all its forms is a top priority for the government.

The UK has led the way in tackling this type of fraud and, in September 2016, was the first country to introduce tough powers to tackle VAT evasion by overseas sellers – these have already gone a long way to remove over a thousand non-compliant overseas businesses from selling goods online in the UK and to motivate tens of thousands of overseas sellers to register for VAT.

The new rules go further to strengthen and develop our operational response to online VAT fraud and error from both UK and overseas businesses.

As well as this, businesses can apply to register for the Fulfilment House Due Diligence Scheme from 1 April 2018. This scheme, which was first announced at Budget 2016, will require businesses that store imported goods for, or on behalf of, overseas sellers from outside the EU to keep certain records and perform certain checks on the goods they are storing.

Taken together, the respective packages of measures announced at Budget 2016 and Autumn Budget 2017 will help protect around £1 billion of tax revenue by 2023, and further enhance HMRC’s ability to ensure everyone is paying their fair share.

For more detail, read:

• guidance on VAT: online marketplace seller checks
• guidance on VAT: businesses that sell goods in the UK using online marketplaces
• measures announced in Autumn Budget 2017
• measures announced in Budget 2016
• guidance on the Fulfilment House Due Diligence Scheme

Beach goers can take to the seas this summer at nine beaches newly designated as bathing waters on the south coast.

Eight beaches in Cornwall, including Booby’s Bay and South Fistral, and one in Bournemouth – Manor Steps received their designation today, bringing the total number of designated bathing waters across England to 423. At designated bathing waters, the Environment Agency help protect the health of swimmers, surfers and other visitors, by testing the water for levels of bacteria and publishing the results online. Across England there are currently 270 bathing waters with “excellent” water quality.

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said:

This is great news for anyone who enjoys a trip to the seaside. Britain’s beaches are visited around 150 million times each year and the water at these nine beaches, along with more than 400 bathing waters around England, will be tested by the Environment Agency to help protect the health of visitors.

I would encourage everyone to use the online ‘Bathing Water Data Explorer’ to check the water quality at designated bathing spots before heading out for a dip in the sea.

The eight beaches to be designated in Cornwall will take the number of designated beaches in the county to 89. The newly designated bathing waters in Cornwall are:

• South Fistral beach in Newquay
• Booby’s Bay near Trevose Head
• Mexico Towan, Upton Towan and Godrevy, all situated on a long stretch of dunes in St Ives Bay
• Northcott Mouth beach to the north of Bude
• Gwynver Beach which forms part Whitesand Bay
• Tregonhawke in Whitsand Bay

In Bournemouth, Manor Steps Beach, part of the 15 kilometre coastline of Poole Bay on the Dorset coast, has also been designated as a bathing water.

Beachgoers can find a list of designated bathing waters around the UK and their water quality ratings on the Bathing Water Data Explorer.