News story: Presentations from Ofqual’s summer series symposium 2017

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email publications@ofqual.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.




News story: Diebold sale resolves CMA concerns over cashpoint merger

Diebold Nixdorf has sold Diebold’s customer-operated cashpoint business in the UK to Cennox.

The sale comes after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ordered the company to sell one of its UK cashpoint businesses earlier this year to address competition concerns around the global merger between Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf.

Diebold Incorporated (Diebold), a US company which provides financial self-service products including automatic teller machines (ATMs or cashpoints), bought Wincor Nixdorf (Wincor), a German firm which also provides these products, on 16 August 2016. The new company was named Diebold Nixdorf Incorporated (Diebold Nixdorf).

A group of independent panel members at the CMA investigated the merger and found the market for customer-operated ATMs in the UK had only 3 significant suppliers – NCR, Diebold and Wincor – and that the proposed merger would result in a substantial lessening of competition that could lead to higher prices or loss of quality for the companies’ customers.

To prevent this, the group decided that Diebold Nixdorf must sell either Diebold’s or Wincor’s UK customer-operated ATM business to a new owner, who would then have to be approved by the CMA.

The purchase by Cennox (a UK-based specialist ATM services group) has now been approved by the CMA and brings the merger investigation to a close.




Press release: “Illegal and unscrupulous waste criminals” ordered to pay £175,000

The Environment Agency successfully prosecuted 2 known criminals and their company who were sentenced on Friday 9 June 2017 for illegal waste tipping and storage at Baldwins Farm and Bush Farm in Essex.

The Environment Agency investigated PCS Recycling and the owners, Patrick James Corbally Snr and Patrick Lee Corbally Jnr, between 1 March 2012 and 8 May 2013. The men were arrested on site by police officers. They were found guilty of depositing waste, including potentially hazardous materials, in 2012 and 2013.

During the investigation, Environment Agency Officers discovered a large area, the size of 2 football pitches, where waste had been tipped and spread, accumulating to over 15 metres high in places. This area, known as Baldwins Farm, was being used as an illegal waste site, and at least 7,000 tonnes of waste was deposited there between 1 March and 31 August 2012. Both defendants pleaded guilty to operating a regulated facility without a permit at Baldwins Farm.

Patrick Corbally Snr and Patrick Corbally Jnr also pleaded guilty to being responsible for another organised illegal tip at a nearby site, known as Bush Farm (Priory Angling Club). The defendants were responsible for depositing in excess of 9,000 tonnes of waste at this second site. The estimated cost to the landowners (Cemex UK) of clearing and remediating the site of waste was up to £3 million pounds.

Patrick James Corbally Snr and Patrick Lee Corbally Jnr were each given 10-month prison sentences, which were suspended for 2 years, and along with the PCS Recycling, ordered to pay fines of £120,000 and £55,000 compensation to the land owner Cemex.

The sentence was imposed on the basis that the defendants had acted deliberately. There had been major costs of site remediation and significant interference with lawful waste operators, whose legitimate businesses had been undermined.

This fine is one of the highest ever to be imposed on individual defendants following an Environment Agency prosecution.

Sarah Mills, the Enforcement Team Leader at the Environment Agency, said:

Due to the complexity of the case, it took a lot of resources to get the right outcome from this investigation. Waste crime is a serious issue diverting as much as £1 billion per annum from legitimate business and treasury. Since April 2011 the Environment Agency has invested £65.2 million in tackling it.

Illegal and unscrupulous waste criminals are working with total disregard for the environment, landowners, legal waste operators and any member of the public who use the land. We are determined to stop them by working with our partners in a collaborative effort. We hope this sentence serves as a message to those involved that we won’t stop the fight against this blight, and that it acts as a deterrent against those who undermine legitimate businesses within the industry.

We urge any landowners, farmers, ramblers or dog walkers who find these sites to call us immediately on our 24-hour free incident hotline number 0800 80 70 60 or make an anonymous report to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

For all media enquiries, please call: 0800 141 2743




Press release: “Illegal and unscrupulous waste criminals” ordered to pay £175,000

The Environment Agency successfully prosecuted 2 known criminals and their company who were sentenced on Friday 9 June 2017 for illegal waste tipping and storage at Baldwins Farm and Bush Farm in Essex.

The Environment Agency investigated PCS Recycling and the owners, Patrick James Corbally Snr and Patrick Lee Corbally Jnr, between 1 March 2012 and 8 May 2013. The men were arrested on site by police officers. They were found guilty of depositing waste, including potentially hazardous materials, in 2012 and 2013.

During the investigation, Environment Agency Officers discovered a large area, the size of 2 football pitches, where waste had been tipped and spread, accumulating to over 15 metres high in places. This area, known as Baldwins Farm, was being used as an illegal waste site, and at least 7,000 tonnes of waste was deposited there between 1 March and 31 August 2012. Both defendants pleaded guilty to operating a regulated facility without a permit at Baldwins Farm.

Patrick Corbally Snr and Patrick Corbally Jnr also pleaded guilty to being responsible for another organised illegal tip at a nearby site, known as Bush Farm (Priory Angling Club). The defendants were responsible for depositing in excess of 9,000 tonnes of waste at this second site. The estimated cost to the landowners (Cemex UK) of clearing and remediating the site of waste was up to £3 million pounds.

Patrick James Corbally Snr and Patrick Lee Corbally Jnr were each given 10-month prison sentences, which were suspended for 2 years, and along with the PCS Recycling, ordered to pay fines of £120,000 and £55,000 compensation to the land owner Cemex.

The sentence was imposed on the basis that the defendants had acted deliberately. There had been major costs of site remediation and significant interference with lawful waste operators, whose legitimate businesses had been undermined.

This fine is one of the highest ever to be imposed on individual defendants following an Environment Agency prosecution.

Sarah Mills, the Enforcement Team Leader at the Environment Agency, said:

Due to the complexity of the case, it took a lot of resources to get the right outcome from this investigation. Waste crime is a serious issue diverting as much as £1 billion per annum from legitimate business and treasury. Since April 2011 the Environment Agency has invested £65.2 million in tackling it.

Illegal and unscrupulous waste criminals are working with total disregard for the environment, landowners, legal waste operators and any member of the public who use the land. We are determined to stop them by working with our partners in a collaborative effort. We hope this sentence serves as a message to those involved that we won’t stop the fight against this blight, and that it acts as a deterrent against those who undermine legitimate businesses within the industry.

We urge any landowners, farmers, ramblers or dog walkers who find these sites to call us immediately on our 24-hour free incident hotline number 0800 80 70 60 or make an anonymous report to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

For all media enquiries, please call: 0800 141 2743




News story: UK co-hosts international Family Planning Summit

On 11 July the UK is co-hosting an international summit on family planning in London with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The summit aims to boost global commitment to one of the smartest investments governments can make: ensuring women and girls have access to family planning services.

Why do we need a summit?

Expanding access to contraception and family planning programmes is one of the most cost-effective ways to break the cycle of poverty. It empowers people to plan their futures and reach their fullest potential.

Huge progress has already been made, but there are still 214 million women around the world who do not want to get pregnant and are not currently using modern methods of family planning.

Voluntary family planning enables women and girls to complete their education and take up better economic opportunities: it transforms lives, creating more prosperous, stable societies, which is in the UK’s interest. That is why International Development Secretary Priti Patel is stepping up the UK’s global leadership through an international summit on family planning in London this summer.

What will the summit achieve?

Together with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UK will bring together governments, the United Nations, foundations, the private sector, civil society and youth advocates from around the world. Outcomes from the summit will include a range of new commitments from developing countries, donors and other partners. These commitments will increase access to family planning services for women and girls in the world’s poorest countries, fix problems with supply chains and prioritise the needs of women and girls in humanitarian crises.

What has been achieved globally on family planning already?

The 2012 London Summit on Family Planning kick-started an international movement (FP2020) to increase investments in voluntary family planning. Since then, the FP2020 movement has driven considerable progress: by 2016, an unprecedented 300 million women in the world’s poorest countries were using voluntary modern contraception.

UK investments alone have resulted in nearly 7 million more women using safe, modern contraception. Clear progress has been made, but more needs to be done if we are to reach our global ambition of reaching an additional 120 million women and girls by 2020.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel said:

I am proud of the UK’s global leadership on family planning, sexual and reproductive health. We can see the progress that is being made around the world – but much more needs to be done.

That’s why the Family Planning Summit will be so important. It is a vital and exciting opportunity for the key players to get together and speed up progress to help 120 million more women and girls take control of their own lives through voluntary, modern family planning by 2020.

Visit the Family Planning Summit website.