OPBAS marks the latest step in the government’s crackdown on money laundering and terrorist financing, working in partnership with the private sector to tackle these threats.

The watchdog will raise standards across the supervisory regime, and ensure supervisors and law enforcement work together more effectively to help identify and tackle criminals.

There are 25 AML supervisors in the UK, 22 of which are accountancy, estate agents and legal services providers’ professional bodies. These professional bodies bring substantial benefits to the regime, but having several organisations supervising the same sectors risks inconsistencies which criminals may look to exploit. Research shows that serious and organised crime costs the UK at least £24 billion a year.

OPBAS will work with those professional body AML supervisors to help ensure consistently high standards of supervision, with resources focused on the greatest risks whilst minimising unnecessary burdens on the vast majority of legitimate businesses.

It builds on the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) that took effect last month, and set the standards that AML supervisors must meet.

OPBAS will have powers to help and ensure professional body AML supervisors meet those standards. These include the powers to publicly censure or recommend Treasury remove professional bodies that do not comply with their requirements in the MLRs.

There will be complementary safeguards so that professional bodies have opportunities to engage with OPBAS before any penalty is issued and, if necessary, to appeal a decision.

The Economic Secretary, Stephen Barclay, said:

The government is delivering the biggest reforms in a decade to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.

The new watchdog will work closely with private sector, strengthening our partnership to ensure the UK remains a global leader in the fight against corruption.

We are making sure that businesses do not have to shoulder unnecessary burdens while taking the vital steps to disrupt and punish criminals.

Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy puts human rights centre stage of foreign policy.

Sentinel-5 Precursor, part of a joint European Commission–ESA undertaking which aims to supply geo-information products and services based on the use of data from space, is set to leave Airbus’s site in Stevenage.

The satellite will provide essential atmospheric chemistry data to the Copernicus programme before the Sentinel-5 instrument becomes operational in 2021 on the MetOp Second Generation satellite.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

The UK-built Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite and the success of the Copernicus Programme demonstrates what we can achieve through collaboration with our European partners and the UK’s vital role in the programme thanks to our earth observation expertise.

We’ve been clear that we want our companies and universities to continue participating in key EU space programmes, and through our Industrial Strategy and ongoing investment in the UK space sector, we are ensuring we have the infrastructure and skills in place to support our ambition to capture 10% of the global space market by 2030.

Data from the Sentinel satellites benefits the UK public sector in areas such as emergency response or flooding; farming and environmental management; air quality; marine planning and fisheries. The same data also enables commercial applications that help our wider economy function more efficiently and effectively, growing our space sector at the same time.

Dr Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:

The whole of the Copernicus programme is a fantastic success for the UK. It has a global vision, providing near real-time measurements of Earth on an unprecedented scale.

Copernicus has been a major work programme for UK space technology companies, building and testing instruments and satellites. This industrial contribution helps us maintain and expand UK skills and capability, but also strengthens the whole programme, as ESA can rely on UK expertise to make sure these ‘state of the art’ spacecraft have the best and brightest of Europe’s space sector behind them.

Sentinel-5 Precursor features the TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) instrument, developed by Airbus DS Netherlands for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Netherlands Space Office. TROPOMI will measure ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, methane and other atmospheric pollutants at a higher resolution than previous instruments. Having more accurate atmospheric data will enable improved climate models and pollutant tracking and forecasting.

Colin Paynter, Managing Director of Airbus Defence and Space in the UK, said:

For Sentinel-5 Precursor we used thecommercially successful AstroBus platform, enabling us to meet challenging delivery and cost efficiency targets. This mission will give Europe a new way to measure global pollution levels in much greater detail.

Sentinel-5 Precursor is due for launchon a Rokot rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia, in September 2017.

Strikes remain suspended after Transport Secretary holds constructive talks with ASLEF union.

Colin Raymond Cooke, who conspired with his son Paul Cooke to commit a robbery that resulted in the victim’s murder, has had his prison term extended following a referral by the Attorney General.

Mr Cooke Snr, 62, was sentenced in May before the Crown Court at Wolverhampton to 7 years imprisonment for the robbery offence, with 30 months imprisonment to be served concurrently for helping his son to avoid the police after committing a murder.

Repeat offender Paul Cooke was released from prison in May 2015. He visited his father later that day and the two plotted to rob the home of Cooke Snr’s friend, who they knew hid cash in his home. The next evening, Paul Cooke entered the victim’s home and stabbed him to death, making off with all the cash he and his accomplice could find.

The victim’s decomposing body was not found until a month after the murder. DNA underneath the victim’s fingernails linked the murder to Paul Cooke and an unknown male.

Mr Cooke Snr proceeded to dispose of his son’s phone in an effort to hide him from the police.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC MP argued that the original sentence given to Cooke Snr was unduly lenient. The Court of Appeal has today increased his total sentence to 11 years and 6 months.

Speaking after the hearing, the Attorney General said: “This was a well planned robbery, where an innocent person has lost their life. The offender has also shown no remorse in the death of his friend. I am pleased the Court of Appeal has increased the sentence.”