Gurinder Bharaj, of Southall, West London, was sentenced on Friday at Isleworth Crown Court on eight counts of possession and supply of significant quantities of unauthorised and unlicensed medication.

Investigators from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) raided a property belonging to Mr Bharaj in Ealing where more than 100,000 individual doses of unlicensed erectile dysfunction medicines worth more than £30,000 were uncovered and seized. A smaller quantity of prescription medication was also seized.

Following an initial hearing Mr Bharaj pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment with immediate effect (concurrent to all counts). He was also ordered to pay a £75 victim surcharge.

MHRA Head of Enforcement, Alastair Jeffrey, said:

Selling unlicensed medicines is illegal and can pose a serious risk to health.

The fact that a medicine is unauthorised means that it has not been subjected to the regulatory scrutiny and quality assurances required to get a license.

These products can be dangerous as their contents are unknown and untested and the consequences for your health can be devastating.

MHRA will continue to track down and prosecute those who put the public’s health at risk.

MHRA is currently running the #FakeMeds campaign to warn people against buying potentially dangerous or useless unlicensed medicines sold by illegal online suppliers.

Visit www.gov.uk/fakemeds for tips on buying medicines safely online and how to avoid unscrupulous sites.

Baroness Joanna Shields OBE has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Internet Safety.

Matthew Bowcock CBE

Matthew Bowcock CBE was Chairman of UK Community Foundations and is currently a trustee of the Beacon Awards, Philanthropy Impact and The Philanthropy Workshop (previously the Institute for Philanthropy). Matthew was a founding director of Localgiving.com and a member of the Philanthropy Review Board. In 2012 he authored a report for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport called Digital Giving in the Arts – Democratising Philanthropy. Matthew is a trustee of the Watts Gallery. His background is in technology entrepreneurship, company start-up and investment, international marketing and company directorship. After a Law degree Matthew worked for international technology companies before setting up a software business in 1989, the first of several businesses he has established in Australia, the US and the UK. In 2000 Matthew established The Hazelhurst Trust, a private family trust, and since 2005 has focused his energies on developing a new culture of engaged philanthropy in Britain. He was awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June 2014 for services to community philanthropy. He holds no other public appointments.

David Bryan MBA FRSA

David Bryan is Director of Xtend UK Ltd, a management consultancy working in organisational change, leadership development and diversity. mostly in the not-for-profit and public sector. He has over 20 years consultancy experience, providing management training, facilitation to senior management teams, one to one coaching and governance support. Prior to becoming a consultant he worked in senior management within the voluntary sector, the arts and in academia. He has worked with several art forms as a bookshop manager, venue director, producer of contemporary dance, festival organizer and arts consultant. He has been a senior level consultant working with established arts institutions as well as new organisations in the performing arts.
He has been a board member of several arts organisations from: The Gate Theatre, Tara Arts, Black Mime Theatre, Onyxarts Foundation and Tomorrow’s Warriors. He has lectured on Management Studies at Goldsmith College; Arts Management at Birkbeck College and Caribbean History through Literature at City Lit Institute; and taught on a post-graduate social work course at South Bank University. Previous non-executive positions have included Camelot Foundation (Vice Chair) and National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). He is a board member of Dunraven School in Lambeth, and he holds no other public appointments.

David Joseph CBE

David Joseph joined CBE joined Universal Music in 1998 as general manager of the company’s Polydor label before moving up in 2002 to become managing director and later co-President of Polydor. In March 2008, he was promoted to Chairman and CEO of Universal Music UK. Universal Music UK includes the labels Capitol, Decca, Island and Virgin EMI as well as Polydor, alongside the world’s most famous recording studios, Abbey Road. Universal Music UK is home to successful artists from across the musical spectrum including The Rolling Stones, U2, Take That, Florence + The Machine, Mumford & Sons, Sam Smith, Hozier, Years & Years, Bastille, Ellie Goulding and Nicola Benedetti. It also releases the music of global superstars such as Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Rihanna as well as repertoire from Decca, the number one classical label in the world. Prior to joining Universal Music in 1998, Joseph was at RCA where he was head of artist development working with artists including Take That, Kylie Minogue and Annie Lennox. In 2005 Joseph became a member of the BPI Council and for three years was Chairman of the BRITs Committee, which oversees the BRIT Awards. He worked with Doreen Lawrence on Unity, the O2 concert in September 2013 marking the 20th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s murder and is executive producer of Amy, the Bafta and Oscar-winning documentary about the late singer Amy Winehouse directed by Asif Kapadia. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to the music industry. He holds no other public appointments.

Nazo Moosa

Nazo Moosa is Managing Partner of v | t partners, a specialist technology fund, which she formed after serving as Managing Partner at C5 Capital, a technology-oriented investment firm. From 2000-2012, she invested in growth capital at the European technology fund of The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset management company, focussing on investments in the digital media and technology sectors. Prior to Carlyle, she invested in small to medium sized companies at JH Partners, a San Francisco based private equity firm. Nazo has extensive experience serving on the boards of various technology and media companies including Transics, Bigmouth Media and LBi. She also serves on the Investment Committee of RTF, a GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) focussed technology investment fund. She holds no other public appointments.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley has reappointed Mike Ashley, as a Board Member of the Charity Commission, for 1 year from 1 November 2017 to 31 October 2018

Brexit Britain will be the best country in the world to do maritime business thanks to more trade opportunities, more jobs and more investment in new technologies, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said today (11 September 2017).

The government has committed to working with industry to deliver an ambitious export plan for when we leave the European Union.

This will maximise new trade opportunities and significantly grow the UK’s maritime sector to become a global front runner in future innovation and technology.

The government will achieve this by:

• creating a plan to shape and promote the maritime industry up to 2050
• collaborating with industry partners to significantly grow the sector by seizing new trade opportunities
• calling on maritime employers to double the number of apprenticeships they offer
• launching a British shipbuilding ‘renaissance’ as part of the National Ship Building Strategy

The Transport Secretary spoke ahead of at a meeting with international industry figures at 10 Downing Street on Monday to kick-off London International Shipping Week, the biggest promotional UK shipping event in recent history.

Mr Grayling will shortly announce plans for a public discussion to help shape and promote the future of the maritime industry both up to 2050 and beyond.

This vision will looks at how the government can support future growth in an industry which directly supports at least 111,000 jobs and contributes around £15 billion to the UK economy each year.

The Department for Transport will also call on employers to double the number of apprentices they employ in order to boost skills, jobs, and productivity across the UK.

This announcement comes after the government published its ‘National Ship Building Strategy’, which aims to step up a prospective ‘renaissance’ in British shipbuilding.

Building on the government’s industrial strategy, it outlines an ambition to transform the procurement of naval ships, make the UK’s maritime industry more competitive and grow the Royal Navy fleet by the 2030s.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said:

Leaving the European Union will allow Britain to seize new opportunities and rediscover our heritage as a truly global, seafaring, trading nation.

Our maritime industry, far from being a story of the past, is a thriving success story – worth around £15 billion a year to our economy and supporting a quarter of a million jobs.

This government is determined to work with the maritime industry to help it grow significantly and make the UK a world leader for shipping business.

The roundtable summit of maritime leaders at 10 Downing Street will strengthen the partnership with investors and UK exporters and identify post-EU exit opportunities.

Shipping week will highlight the opportunities to boost trade and investment in the sector as the UK leaves the European Union and looks to strike new deals with nations around the world.

The government has already made good progress to bolster our trade and export relationships including by supporting the first Maritime UK trade mission to China and Hong Kong.

International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox said:

The UK’s maritime industry brings billions of pounds a year into our economy and will be vital to our continued prosperity when we leave the European Union. As an international economic department, our ambition is that we lead the way in world-class shipbuilding and maritime technology.

I’m delighted to be here at London Shipping Week to demonstrate our commitment to strengthen this thriving industry and promote the very best of British maritime innovation to the world.

The government has already implemented the recommendations from the 2015 maritime growth study including setting up a ministerial working group for maritime growth. We have also supported maritime training for officers/cadets through the £15 million SMarT budget.

The work to develop a vision for the maritime sector will include maximising the value of new trade deals and a maritime skills strategy that identifies the industry’s future skills needs and the steps required to achieve them.

The ship building strategy also aims to increase the export British ships overseas, and boost innovation, skills, jobs, and productivity across the UK.