A Cornish waste disposal company has been ordered to pay £26,500 in fines and costs for illegally handling and disposing of hazardous waste.

Glebe Quarry Limited was also ordered to pay £17,000 compensation to a local farmer after waste contaminated with asbestos was dumped on his land. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

The company, which trades as 1st Call Skips, operates a permitted waste transfer station at Glebe Quarry near Roche, St Austell. On 6 December 2017, the company pleaded guilty to 5 separate offences at Truro Crown Court.

The offences occurred at 3 sites in Cornwall, including the company’s own waste transfer station, a nearby farm and a site operated by the china clay company, Imerys.

The Environment Agency had earlier advised the company to improve Glebe Quarry after the drainage and concreting at the site was checked and found to be ‘inadequate’. No action was taken so the Environment Agency issued an enforcement notice requesting that improvements works be carried out.

Glebe Quarry Limited appealed, but the appeal was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate; forcing the company to carry out the improvements that were finally completed in November 2016.

Further checks by the Environment Agency revealed the company had unlawfully dumped more than 2,400 tonnes of waste, some of which was contaminated with asbestos, on land which wasn’t authorised by their site permit. Glebe Quarry Limited continued illegally dumping waste at the site despite being warned they would be committing an offence if they carried on.

In 2015, the defendant also sent waste to Imerys Minerals Ltd with waste that should have been suitable for land improvements for restoring an area of china clay spoil heaps. However, it was later found to be contaminated with asbestos.

The asbestos was discovered before the waste was spread and the loads were returned to Glebe Quarry. Nearly 50 tonnes of hazardous material was removed by Glebe Quarry Limited but was never traced as no paperwork was kept.

Glebe Quarry Limited also supplied waste to local farms for use in low-risk activities such as the construction of farm tracks. This was done under an exemption which is an agreement that doesn’t require a permit. The waste supplied to one farm was heavily contaminated with asbestos and cost nearly £120,000 to clean-up.

Matthew Lee of the Environment Agency said:

This case sends a clear message to those who put profit ahead of the environment and human health.

As a minimum, we expect waste companies who hold environmental permits to act legally and should set an example to others, but the behaviour in this case has fallen far short of exemplary.

Appearing before Truro Crown Court on 22 June 2018, Glebe Quarry Limited was fined £12,500 for offences under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010, the Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005, and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

In addition to the financial penalty, the court ordered that Glebe Quarry Limited must proactively inform the Environment Agency which sites they are sending their waste to and they must also remedy the sites they have polluted.

If you see waste crime taking place report it by calling our incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60 or anonymously to Crimestoppers.

The Secretary of State, in consultation with the Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care, has appointed Deborah Coles, Professor Seena Fazel, Professor Jennifer Shaw, Jenny Talbot OBE and John Wadham as Members of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2021.

The Ministerial Council on Deaths in Custody formally commenced operation on 1 April 2009 and is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Home Office. The Council consists of 3 tiers:

• Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody
• Independent Advisory Panel (IAP)
• Practitioner and Stakeholder Group

IAP forms the second tier of the Ministerial Council on Deaths In Custody. The remit of the Council (and IAP) covers deaths which occur in prisons, in or following police custody, immigration detention, the deaths of residents of approved premises and the deaths of those detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA) in hospital.

The role of IAP, an arms-length body, is to provide independent advice and expertise to the Ministerial Board. It provides guidance on policy and best practice across sectors and makes recommendations to Ministers and operational services. IAP’s aim is to bring about a continuing and sustained reduction in the number and rate of deaths in all forms of state custody in England and Wales.

Deborah Coles is Director of INQUEST. She is an experienced strategic thinker and lobbyist for social justice with particular expertise on the investigation of deaths in custody and detention and the treatment of bereaved people in the UK and internationally.

Seena Fazel is a Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science, and honorary consultant forensic psychiatrist for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. He works clinically in a local prison. His main research interests are on suicidal behaviour in prisoners, mental health of prisoners, and risk assessment in criminal justice and mental health.

Jennifer Shaw is Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Manchester and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. Her research interests include suicide primarily within the criminal justice system, homicide and the mental health of prisoners. She has over thirty years experience working clinically in the NHS.

Jenny Talbot has undertaken significant research on people with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system; she works for the Prison Reform Trust

John Wadham is a human rights lawyer and currently chair of the National Preventative Mechanism set up by the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, which brings together 21 statutory bodies monitoring detention in all forms of state custody in the UK.

John Wadham has stood as a Labour Party candidate – for the Uttlesford District Council 2015 and spoken at one public meeting in Saffron Walden Town Hall in 2015 as Labour Candidate.

The rest of the new members declared no political activity.

For more than a decade Alastair was dedicated to his role representing in court those who did not have the mental capacity or means to represent themselves. Alastair also took on the role of Public Trustee in October 2016.

The Ministry of Justice’s Permanent Secretary, Richard Heaton, paid tribute to Alastair:

Like many colleagues, I have greatly admired Alastair’s long and dedicated service as Official Solicitor and, more recently, as Public Trustee. Alastair was an ardent advocate for the rights of the vulnerable and was at the forefront of developments in that area of law. I also remember well his earlier career as a highly respected member of the Government Legal Service.

I know that he will be greatly missed by those members of the judiciary and staff who were fortunate to work with him. But I think the support provided over the years to so many vulnerable people, by Alastair himself and by his office, should be regarded as a tribute to him and a mark of his achievement.

On behalf of the department, I offer my sincere condolences to Alastair’s family and friends.

The 3 Deputy Official Solicitors and the Deputy Public Trustee will be covering the Official Solicitor and Public Trustee’s statutory and leadership responsibilities.

The
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has up to £2 million to invest in trials of innovative ways to improve productivity for micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

The funding is part of the government’s Business Basics Programme, announced as part of the modern Industrial Strategy.

The aim of the programme is to identify and test ideas that encourage SMEs to adopt existing technology and management practices that would improve their productivity.

Projects should show how to improve SME productivity

The competition will fund 2 types of project, proof of concept or feasibility studies and full-scale trials. If a proof of concept is successful, there is potential to access further funding to move the project into a full-scale trial in the future.

Projects should look at how to increase the adoption of technology and business practices to improve the productivity of SMEs. This could include:

• adopting existing technology, such as accountancy, CRM or HR software, cloud computing or payment systems
• adopting modern business practices, such as leadership and management capabilities or developing an innovation culture
• a combination of the 2 approaches above

Ideas could include increasing awareness about the benefits of technology, how to create interest in adopting new technology and business practices, making the benefits of new technology clearer and providing advice and support.

Competition information

• the competition is open, and the deadline for applications is at midday on 4 September 2018
• projects can be led by a business, public sector, academic, charity or trade organisation working alone or with partners
• we expect projects for full trails to have costs of up to £400,000 and to last between 3 and 12 months
• we expect proof of concept projects and feasibility studies to have costs of up to £60,000 and to last between 3 and 6 months
• businesses could attract up to 70% of their project costs
• a briefing event will be held on 12 July 2018

Honourable Minister, Faiszer Mustapha, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Suba sandiawak weeva, Elorukum Vanakam, Asalam Alaikum

This evening, Helen and I, together with all of our colleagues in the High Commission and in the British Council, are honoured to have so many friends here together. Some of you have travelled a long way to be with us tonight. A special welcome to [former President Nasheed and] our other guests from Maldives, neighbour of Sri Lanka and long-standing friend of both of our countries.

I recently came across a useful bit of advice for people giving speeches. It was this: “Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.”

The Minister and I will do our best to finish speaking before you have finished listening, but we will need your cooperation. In advance, thank you.

The playwright Oscar Wilde commented: “I can resist everything except temptation”.

This evening I can resist almost everything except the temptation to tell you something about why seventy years of the relationship between Sri Lanka and the UK gives us lots of good reasons to celebrate.

1948 was not, of course, the beginning of our relationship. But with Independence came the beginning of a new chapter. Throughout the past seventy years ours is a relationship that many people have valued, invested in and cherished.

We have many reasons to celebrate today:

• We are proud of our people to people links, and of the hundreds of thousands of people of Sri Lankan origin living in the UK who help to make our country as successful as it is today.
• We are proud of our links through parliamentary traditions, the law and the Commonwealth. It’s a pleasure to have Members of Parliament who have recently been in London with us tonight. We were very pleased to have President Sirisena lead Sri Lanka’s delegation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London in April.
• We are proud of our flourishing educational and cultural links, a large but by no means the only part of the important work being done by the British Council in Sri Lanka, ably represented by its director, Gill Caldicott, and members of her team this evening. It’s good to lots of the many Sri Lankan organisations that make these educational and cultural faces of our relationship as successful as they are with us.
• We are proud too of our links through sports. We are looking forward to having the England cricket team here (and will be hoping they fare better than did against Scotland last weekend).
• We are proud of the many business links we enjoy, some of them more than a century old, others new and equally exciting.
• And we are proud of the work that our High Commission does, with all the organisations we work with and the projects we fund, from supporting Sri Lanka to achieve its objective of being free of mines by 2020, to promoting inter-religious dialogues in Trincomalee and Batticaloa, from working with the Sri Lankan Police Service on tackling violence against women, to supporting Sri Lanka’s Peacebuilding Priority plan. The British government is currently providing more than £50 million of funding to development support in Sri Lanka. My special thanks to all of my colleagues on the High Commission team, without whose talent and hard work we could not do what we are doing.

Mention of the businesses that link us gives me an opportune moment to thank our five sponsors this evening for their generous support.

De La Rue – one of the world’s leading producers of secure documents, a company that manufactures here in Colombo and exports from Sri Lanka to the region.

Finlays – a company whose relationship with Sri Lanka goes back more than a hundred years. If you have had the good fortune to try one of our tea cocktails tonight it was made with Finlays’ Earl Grey tea.

HSBC – HSBC needs no real introduction. With a history spanning well over a century in Sri Lanka, they are the oldest bank in the country as well as a global ambassador for Britain’s financial services industries.

Jaguar Land Rover and their authorised local distributor, SML Frontier Automotive. This year Land Rover, one of UK industry’s most iconic brands, celebrates its 70th birthday as well as 70 years in Sri Lanka.

And Unilever, alphabetically last but by no means least – another champion of the UK’s long trading relationship with this country, in the local market since the nineteenth century and a manufacturer here for the last 80 years.

They deserve our applause.

These companies’ stories of successful investment in Sri Lanka illustrate the traditional and the modern in the business our two countries are doing together. Each of their successes tells its own tale of commitment, talent, opportunity and ambition. Theirs are exciting examples that illustrate the possibilities for doing business in Sri Lanka today, opportunities that will only grow with sensible economic reform.

As many of you will know, we don’t have a national day in the UK. But we do celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s birthday. This year we celebrate her 92nd birthday and her 66 years – two thirds of a century – on the throne. We were delighted that Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex were able to represent The Queen at the official celebration of Sri Lanka’s 70th anniversary of independence in February.

Winston Churchill, historian as much as politician, commented: “If we open a quarrel between the past and the present we shall find that we have lost the future.”

It think it can equally be said that if we continue today to build on friendships founded in the past, they will be stronger still in the future in ways that benefit us all. And that is our firm ambition.

Ladies and gentlemen, can I ask you to join me in a toast:

To His Excellency, Maithripala Sirisena, President of Sri Lanka and to the people of Sri Lanka.