It follows the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) year-long market study into the residential and nursing care home sector in the UK for people over 65. The study found that there is a risk of residents being treated unfairly and that some care homes may potentially be breaching consumer law.

The draft advice sets out what the CMA considers care homes should do to comply with consumer law, including:

• what upfront information they need to provide to prospective residents and their representatives to help them make informed choices
• what they need to do to ensure that their contract terms and the way they treat residents and their representatives are fair
• their obligation to provide services to residents with reasonable care and skill
• what they need to do to ensure that their complaint-handling policies and procedures are easy to find, easy to use, and fair

The CMA is seeking views on the draft advice from a range of interested parties including care homes and their representative bodies, enforcers such as local authority Trading Standards Services and sector regulators. The CMA also welcomes views from residents and their families, charities representing the elderly and consumer groups. The consultation closes on 12 July.

The consultation is part of the CMA’s ongoing consumer protection work in the care home sector. As part of this work, the CMA has also today published its final advice on the charging of fees after a resident’s death following a consultation earlier this year.

Road users not heading to the festival are being advised to seek alternative routes to avoid delays.

About 80,000 people are expected at the three-day festival, being staged from Friday 8 to Sunday 10 June, and surrounding roads are likely to be very busy.

Gates to the campsite open at midday on Wednesday 6 June to allow an expected 60,000 or more campers to spread their arrival times. Up to 20,000 visitors are expected to buy day tickets.

Sarah Redfearn, Highways England’s Emergency Planning Officer for the East Midlands, said:

Major roads and motorways in the area, including the M1, A42, A50 and A453, are likely to be busy.

All routes to the festival will be well signposted, but people travelling in the area should plan their journey in advance.

Festival-goers can check the traffic conditions using our Highways England travel app, or follow us on Twitter @HighwaysEMIDS to check the latest traffic updates before you set out.

Donington Park is located next to East Midlands Airport, four miles west of junction 23a of the M1 and five miles from junction 24. Anyone travelling to the airport should allow plenty of extra travel time for their journey.

Highways England will use electronic message boards on surrounding motorways to advise people of any delays. Extra Traffic Officers are also being deployed for the duration, both in event control and around junction 24 of the M1, to assist motorists, clear incidents quickly and keep traffic moving.

Highways England provides live traffic information via its website, local and national radio travel bulletins, electronic road signs and mobile platforms, such as Android and iPhone apps. Further information is available from the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Image supplied by Festival Republic // Download Festival taken by Paulo Gonçalves

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, today (Thursday 31 May) announced the appointment of Professor Jonathan Haskel as an external member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond said:

I am delighted that Professor Haskel is joining the MPC. I am confident that his expertise in productivity and innovation will further sharpen the Committee’s understanding of the British economy.

I also want thank Ian McCafferty for his six years of service. His insights from business have been invaluable and I wish him well for the future.

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney said:

I am delighted to welcome Jonathan Haskel to the Monetary Policy Committee and am very much looking forward to working with him. His broad academic experience and the depth of his knowledge on productivity and innovation will be hugely valuable to the Committee as we seek to promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary stability.

I would also like to thank Ian McCafferty for his service to the Monetary Policy Committee over the past six years. Our discussions have benefitted greatly from Ian’s profound knowledge of the UK economy and his carefully argued views on monetary policy.

Professor Haskel said:

I’m truly honoured to be nominated to the MPC and to follow Ian McCafferty who has been such a dedicated and hard-working member over the last six years, especially with his work visiting schools. I look forward to contributing to the MPC’s vital role in maintaining the UK’s price stability and communicating its thinking.

As an external member of the MPC, Professor Haskel will hold one of nine votes to decide the future path of UK monetary policy. The MPC meets eight times a year to set monetary policy in line with the objectives set out in its remit.

Professor Haskel will replace Ian McCafferty, who will come to the end of his second term on 31 August 2018.

About Professor Jonathan Haskel

Professor Jonathan Haskel has been appointed as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England. He was appointed by the Chancellor following an external appointment process.

Professor Haskel is currently a Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, where he will continue to teach part time, and prior to that was Head of the Economics Department at Queen Mary, University of London. He is a Non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority and has expertise in productivity growth, and particularly intangible assets. He recently published Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy, co-authored with Stian Westlake. He received his PhD from the London School of Economics.

About the Monetary Policy Committee

The Monetary Policy Committee makes decisions about the operation of monetary policy. It comprises the Governor of the Bank of England, the three Deputy Governors, one member of the Bank with responsibility in the Bank for monetary policy and four external members who are appointed by the Chancellor. External members may serve up to two three-year terms on the MPC.

With this appointment, the full list of MPC members from 1 September 2018 will be:

• Mark Carney (Governor)
• Ben Broadbent (Deputy Governor, Monetary Policy)
• Sir David Ramsden (Deputy Governor, Markets and Banking)
• Sir Jon Cunliffe (Deputy Governor, Financial Stability)
• Andy Haldane (Executive Director, Monetary Analysis and Chief Economist)
• Professor Silvana Tenreyro (external member)
• Michael Saunders (external member)
• Dr Gertjan Vlieghe (external member)
• Professor Jonathan Haskel (external member)

About the appointment process

Professor Haskel has been appointed following an open recruitment process. Twenty-seven applications for the position were received. A panel comprising Clare Lombardelli and Richard Hughes from HM Treasury and Dame Kate Barker, external member to the MPC from 2001 to 2010, interviewed a number of candidates and made recommendations to the Chancellor, which informed his decision.

The Treasury is committed to appointing a diverse range of people to public appointments, including at the Bank of England. The Treasury continues to work to attract the broadest range of suitable applicants for posts. As part of this recruitment process, the Chief Economic Advisor at the Treasury and chair of the interview panel contacted 87 potential applicants to inform them of the vacancy, of whom 44 were women. There were 27 applications, of which five candidates were interviewed.

The gender breakdown for this appointment is below:

The UK Government is investing more than £45 million in the Stirling and Clackmannanshire UK City Region Deal. That will be matched by funding from the Scottish Government, bringing total funding to more than £90 million.

This Deal will drive economic growth across the region, creating jobs and boosting prosperity for generations to come. It is expected to create thousands of jobs over and beyond the 15 years of the plan.

Innovation and research are at the heart of the Stirling and Clackmannanshire UK City Region Deal, while making the most of the area’s fantastic heritage. Projects will drive business start-up and growth, help companies develop and export their world-class expertise, and help more local people get the skills they need to get into jobs.

Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell said:

The UK Government is investing £45 million in the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal. The ambitious and innovative Deal will drive economic growth across the region, creating jobs and boosting prosperity for generations to come. It is now for Stirling and Clackmannanshire to get on with the hard work needed to turn these proposals into a reality.

This is just one part of a programme of UK City Region Deals across Scotland. Today’s announcement brings the UK Government’s investment in UK City Region Deals in Scotland to more than £1 billion. All of Scotland’s seven cities either have, or are in negotiation for, a deal. And talks are underway on the Borderlands and Ayrshire growth deals.

The UK Government is working hard to boost economic growth right across the UK. We want to work with the Scottish Government where we can to ensure the sustainability and prosperity of Scotland’s economy.

Projects in the Deal to be funded by the UK Government include:

• A new Tartan visitor centre in Stirling
• A new Aquaculture Innovation Hub
• A new International Environment Centre
• Releasing land at MoD Forthside for housing and a business premises
• Skills support for people from disadvantaged groups across
• Other capital projects across Clackmannanshire

Work will now start on the detailed business plan for each project.

UK City Regional Deals are a UK Government initiative, delivered in Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Government, local authorities and other partners. All of Scotland’s seven cities either have, or are in negotiations for, a deal. And talks are underway on Borderlands and Ayrshire growth deals. Today’s announcement brings UK Government investment in UK City Region Deals in Scotland to more than £1 billion.

The UK Government is working hard to release economic potential across the UK with our ambitious industrial strategy. We want to work with the Scottish Government where we can to ensure the sustainability and prosperity of the Scottish economy, and make the most of the opportunities of Brexit.

Despite a major drop in the number of top companies with all-male boards, many are still refusing to move with the times – and some of the worst explanations firms have made for not having women among their top employees have been revealed today (Thursday 31 May).

Outrageous explanations for not appointing more women include suggestions they are not able to understand the ‘extremely complex’ issues FTSE boards deal with and the idea women do not want the ‘hassle or pressure’ of sitting on a top board.

The explanations, which come from a range of FTSE 350 Chairs and CEOs, were heard by the team behind the government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review, which has challenged all FTSE 350 companies to make sure at least a third of their board members and leadership are women by 2020.

The explanations include:

1. ‘I don’t think women fit comfortably into the board environment’
2. ‘There aren’t that many women with the right credentials and depth of experience to sit on the board – the issues covered are extremely complex’
3. ‘Most women don’t want the hassle or pressure of sitting on a board’
4. ‘Shareholders just aren’t interested in the make-up of the board, so why should we be?’
5. ‘My other board colleagues wouldn’t want to appoint a woman on our board’
6. ‘All the ‘good’ women have already been snapped up’
7. ‘We have one woman already on the board, so we are done – it is someone else’s turn’
8. ‘There aren’t any vacancies at the moment – if there were I would think about appointing a woman’
9. ‘We need to build the pipeline from the bottom – there just aren’t enough senior women in this sector’
10. ‘I can’t just appoint a woman because I want to’

The number of women on boards has more than doubled in the FTSE 350 since 2011 according to the most recent statistics (November 2017). In that time, the number of all-male FTSE 350 company boards also fell from 152 to 10.

But Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said such appalling explanations as those released today proved companies have more work to do.

He said:

It’s shocking that some businesses think these pitiful and patronising excuses are acceptable reasons to keep women from the top jobs. Our most successful companies are those that champion diversity.

Thankfully, there has been great progress in recent years and through our modern Industrial Strategy and the Hampton-Alexander Review we are determined that everyone has an equal opportunity to reach the top.

Chair of the Hampton-Alexander Review Sir Philip Hampton said:

Around a third of FTSE 350 companies still have very few women either on their boards or in senior leadership roles. We used to hear these excuses regularly a few years ago, thankfully much less so now.

However, leaders expressing warm words of support but actually doing very little to appoint women into top jobs – or quietly blocking progress – are really not much better.

These explanations have been published ahead of the announcement of the latest figures for the number of women on FTSE 350 boards on 27 June, which will mark the halfway point of the independent Hampton-Alexander Review which launched in November 2016.

Many companies reporting their gender pay gap earlier this year explained to the Hampton-Alexander Review team that the pay gap was due to insufficient women in senior roles, and/or a predominance of women in lower paid work. Ensuring women are selected in more equal numbers for senior roles, significantly reduces the pay gap.

Chief Executive of Business in the Community Amanda Mackenzie said:

As you read this list of excuses you might think it’s 1918 not 2018. It reads like a script from a comedy parody but it’s true. Surely we can now tackle this once and for all. Maybe those that give credence to these excuses are the ones that are not up to sitting on boards and should move over: we are in the 21st century after all.

However, we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic; the combination of gender pay gap reporting and the increased focus on equality and diversity in general by responsible businesses means there are more women on boards than ever before. While we still have a long way to go, with the collaboration between government, employers and their employees (both men and women), we could see true equality in our lifetime.

Director of Corporate Governance, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) Sacha Sadan said:

As a major investor in the UK we see diversity as a key business issue. LGIM has been active in the diversity debate since 2011, and has been voting against all male boards since 2015.

Boards made up of just men, from the same socioeconomic backgrounds, cannot be the optimal forum for challenging debates.

Although we have seen good progress at non-executive level there is still much more to do on the senior leadership pipeline. Therefore we continue to encourage companies to tap into the whole talent pool.

UK government Minister Lord Duncan said:

These shocking and pathetic excuses for not appointing women to FTSE company boards highlight the necessity to keep driving home the message that women must be in senior roles.

However, with the number of women on boards doubling in the FTSE 350 since 2011, there has been solid progress. The UK government will continue to build on this as a key part of our modern and diverse nation.

According to research by McKinsey bridging the gender pay gap could add £150 billion to the UK economy by 2025 and it could translate into 840,000 additional female employees.

Under new laws introduced in April 2017, more than 8,100 private and voluntary sector companies reported their gender pay gaps by the 4 April deadline this year. All companies with more than 250 employees are required to report their gender pay gaps.

Tackling the gender pay gap is a key part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy, through which the government aims to help businesses create better, higher-paying jobs while boosting people’s earning power and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to progress in the workplace.