Author Archives: HM Government

Today (20 September) it was announced that BBC Children in Need will be partnering with The Royal Mint and HM Treasury on their £1 coin campaign, joining forces for Pudsey’s Round Pound Countdown.

Kicking off a nationwide campaign, BBC Children in Need, The Royal Mint and HM Treasury will challenge the country to join Pudsey to hunt down the millions of remaining round £1 coins, and put them to good use by donating to BBC Children in Need.

With less than four weeks to go before the round £1 stops being accepted in shops and restaurants, BBC Children in Need is encouraging everyone to check their piggy banks, empty coat pockets and dive down the back of sofas to dig out any lurking round pound coins.

A new poll* suggests that six in ten of us would like to donate our remaining round pounds to charities, like BBC Children in Need. With one in three people still having these coins stashed away in savings jars and piggy banks, the message is clear – dig them out, head over to your local drop-off point and donate them to BBC Children in Need’s 2017 Appeal!

Commercial Director of BBC Children in Need, Jonathan Rigby, said:

We are really excited to work with The Royal Mint and HM Treasury for Pudsey’s Round Pound Countdown and hope that as many people as possible will get involved in this nationwide treasure hunt and put their old round pounds to good use. Every round pound donated will go on to make a real difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

CEO and Deputy Master of The Royal Mint, Adam Lawrence, said:

Any round £1 coins donated to BBC Children in Need through Pudsey’s Round Pound Countdown will not only go to a fantastic cause but they will make their way back to The Royal Mint where some will be melted to make new £1 coins.

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Jones MP, said:

Over the last few months, we have urged the public to spend, bank or donate their round pounds ahead of the October 15 deadline. We are delighted to partner with BBC Children in Need, and are encouraging everyone who can, to promise their round pounds to Pudsey.

BBC Children in Need’s vision is that every child in the UK has a childhood that is safe, happy and allows them the chance to reach their potential. The charity is currently supporting over 2,400 projects in communities across the UK that are helping children and young people facing a range of disadvantages such as living in poverty, being disabled or ill, or experiencing distress, neglect or trauma.

Notes to editors

There are thousands of BBC Children in Need drop-off points across the country where you can handover your donations. For more information on where to find them, visit www.bbc.co.uk/Pudsey.

*Figures are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,004 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken across September 2017. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of UK adults (aged 18+).

BBC Children in Need

BBC Children in Need’s vision is that every child in the UK has a safe, happy and secure childhood and the chance to reach their potential. The charity will realise this vision by supporting, promoting and publicising work that addresses the challenges that children and young people face and work that builds their skills and resilience.

BBC Children in Need is currently supporting over 2,400 projects in communities across the UK that are helping children and young people facing a range of disadvantages such as living in poverty, being disabled or ill, or experiencing distress, neglect or trauma.

Further information on BBC Children in Need can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/Pudsey.

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There are around 170,000 mid-sized businesses registered in the UK. Businesses with either a turnover of more than £10 million or more than 20 employees, and undergoing significant growth, can now seek expert help from HMRC growth support specialists.

Known as the Growth Support Service, HMRC tax experts will offer dedicated support, tailored to the customer’s needs. It has been created to help growing, mid-sized businesses access the information and services they need.

This could include:

• helping with tax queries about their growing business
• supplying accurate information and co-ordinating technical expertise from across HMRC
• supporting them to get their tax right first time and access relevant incentives or reliefs

The Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mel Stride said:

Mid-sized businesses make vital contribution to the UK economy and I want to see them grow, succeed and prosper.

The Growth Support Service will help these expanding businesses access tailored tax assistance so that tax administration doesn’t stand in the way of their growth and ensures businesses can focus on finding new opportunities.

Businesses who meet the eligibility requirements can apply online; they will then be contacted by their dedicated growth support specialist at HMRC, to discuss their requirements. The bespoke service will generally last between three to six months.

The top five industries and sectors that could benefit from the Growth Support Service are:

1. Manufacturing (for example building, printing or maintenance firms)
2. Information and communication (for example IT or software companies, film makers or publishers)
3. Administrative and support services (for example vehicle hire companies, recruitment agencies or call centres)
4. Professional, scientific and technical services (for example law and accountancy firms or quantity surveyors)
5. Wholesale and retail (for example high street shops, food and drink outlets or car showrooms)

The introduction of the service demonstrates HMRC’s continued commitment to support UK businesses get their tax right. In addition to the existing customer relations service for large businesses; last month, the department launched the Small Business Online Forum for small businesses and the self-employed.

1. Follow HMRC’s Press Office on Twitter
2. HMRC’s Flickr channel can be found here.
3. Further guidance on the Growth Support Service eligibility criteria and online application.
4. The Growth Support Service is free to eligible mid-sized businesses.

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The Foreign Secretary urges China to keep up pressure on North Korea during a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister in New York.

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Theresa May will today urge internet firms to go ‘further and faster’ to stop the spread of terrorist material – including the development of new technology to stop it from ever appearing on the web in the first place.

The Prime Minister will co-host a meeting on preventing terrorist use of the internet today (Wed 19 September) at the UN General Assembly in New York, with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

She will welcome the progress made by the biggest internet companies towards stopping the spread of terrorist content.

But the Prime Minister will say that the internet firms can still do more to stop the spread of evil material by groups such as Daesh which promotes terrorism or provides information on how to make bombs or attack pedestrians with vehicles.

In particular, she wants them to ‘develop new technological solutions to prevent such content being uploaded in the first place.’

Britain, France and Italy will also say that, where terrorist content does appear, they want a target of one to two hours for taking it down. This is the period during which most of the material is disseminated.

The PM-hosted event will be attended by a string of the world’s biggest tech companies.

They include Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter, who in June agreed to the establishment of a new Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism. Google will also play a key role.

The Prime Minister will tell the event that Daesh material is still available on the internet for ‘too long’ after being posted.

She will also warn firms that, as they remove content more quickly, terrorist groups will adapt – and the tech firms must do the same.

She will say:

Terrorist groups are aware that links to their propaganda are being removed more quickly, and are placing a greater emphasis on disseminating content at speed in order to stay ahead.

Industry needs to go further and faster in automating the detection and removal of terrorist content online, and developing technological solutions which prevent it being uploaded in the first place.

Internet companies are already making progress towards the automatic identification of terrorist content.

Google and YouTube have announced they are increasing their use of technology to help automatically identify videos.

Twitter suspended 299,649 accounts between Jan 1 and June 30 this year. Some 75 per cent of accounts were suspended before their first Tweet.

Facebook have also stated publicly that they are looking at developing artificial intelligence to automate the identification of terrorist material.

The Prime Minister will also urge other world leaders to join the battle against online extremism.

Speaking ahead of the event, she said:

We need a fundamental shift in the scale and nature of our response – both from industry and governments – if we are to match the evolving nature of terrorists’ use of the internet.

I call on others to join the UK, France, and Italy in pledging their support for this approach.

This is a global problem that transcends national interests. Governments must work with and support the efforts of industry and civil society if we are to achieve real and continuing progress and prevent the spread of extremism and terrorist use of cyberspace.

In order to succeed, we must be united in our determination to fight terrorist exploitation of the internet.’

Today’s meeting follows pressure from the Prime Minister for action at the G7 summit in Italy earlier this year.

In the wake of the cowardly attacks on London, Manchester and other global cities, the internet firms agreed to the establishment of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism in June.

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The governments of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have announced a new Military and Security Cooperation Agreement, signed today in Jeddah by the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and the Saudi Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman.

Defence Secretary, Sir Michael Fallon said:

The security of the GCC, of all Gulf Countries, is critical to UK security. I am delighted to have signed today with HRH the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia a new Military and Security Cooperation Agreement between our two countries; this Agreement further cements the UK’s long standing relationship with our key Gulf partner.

The agreement will promote cooperation between our two countries across the Defence and Security sectors, helping Saudi Arabia better protect her national security, including counter-terrorism, intelligence, training and education, medical services and logistics.

The agreement was signed during a wider visit to the Middle East, in which the Defence Secretary met British personnel serving in Iraq. He also visited the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where the UK is working closely with US as the two largest contributors to the Coalition’s military campaign.

During his time in Iraq, Sir Michael met with personnel from the Mercian Regiment, Engineer Regiment, Intelligence Corps, and Medical Regiments at Erbil and Taji where they have been involved in training Iraqi Security Forces, Kurdish Forces and Ninewah police.

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