On 5 October 2022, the Court made a winding-up order against WRFC Players Limited. The Official Receiver became liquidator of the company as a consequence of the winding up order.

In accordance with her statutory duties, the Official Receiver as liquidator will wind-down the affairs of the company, including realising any available assets and distributing funds to creditors. The Official Receiver will also investigate the cause of the company’s insolvency, including the conduct of current and former directors.

WRFC Players Limited was the entity which employed the players and staff of Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club.

Further information relating to the administration of WRFC Trading Limited or the fixed charge receiver appointment over Sixways Stadium can be found at: www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/news/administration/begbies-traynor-llp-appointed-as-wrfc-trading-limited-administrators.

Information for employees

If you were an employee of WRFC Players Limited, the information in this section provides advice about claiming money you’re owed and where you can seek support.

Who is eligible?

You can apply to the Insolvency Service for redundancy and other payments if:

• you worked for these companies under an employment contract
• you live in England, Scotland or Wales.

How to apply

The Official Receiver will give you details about how to apply and will also give you a case reference number (for example CN12345678).

Once you have this information you can apply online.

What you can apply for

What you can apply for depends on your circumstances. The Insolvency Service can pay:

• money you’re owed by WRFC Players Limited, for example unpaid wages, overtime and commission
• redundancy pay: if you’ve worked for WRFC Players Limited for at least 2 years
• pro rata holiday pay (known as ‘holiday pay accrued’): the leave you were entitled to take between the start of your leave year and the date you were made redundant
• holiday pay taken (HPT): if WRFC Players Limited hasn’t paid you for annual leave you took before liquidation
• statutory notice pay: if you’ve worked for WRFC Players Limited for at least 1 month

There are caps on what we can pay you for each type of claim. Find out how much we can pay you.

Paying your claim

On average the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service pays redundancy and related claims within 14 days of receipt of information.

Find more information about what we can pay.

Redundancy: help finding work and claiming benefits.

Please don’t contact us about how to claim, or to check the status of your application. This will help us deal with everyone’s application as quickly as possible.

Information for creditors

You will need to register as a creditor in the liquidation if:

• you have not been paid for goods or services you’ve supplied to WRFC Players Limited (in liquidation)
• you have paid WRFC Players Limited (in liquidation) for goods or services that you have not received

To register as a creditor you will need to complete a Proof of Debt form which you should then email to piu.or@insolvency.gov.uk

Once you have registered and the Official Receiver receives your Proof of Debt form she will add you to the list of creditors and include you on future correspondence about the case.

Information for customers

If you are a customer of WRFC Players Limited, please contact the Official Receiver via email: piu.or@insolvency.gov.uk.

Section 48(2)(j) of the UK Borders Act 2007 provides that the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) shall:

consider and make recommendations about … the content of information about conditions in countries outside the United Kingdom which the Secretary of State compiles and makes available, for purposes connected with immigration and asylum, to immigration officers and other officials.

To assist the Independent Chief Inspector in fulfilling this statutory role, a body of experts sitting as the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI) regularly reviews the Country of Origin Information (COI) products that are produced by the Home Office. The Home Office refers to COI in procedures that assess claims of individuals for refugee status or other forms of international and humanitarian protection. The IAGCI’s reviews assess whether the content of COI is accurate, balanced, objective, and up-to-date, and they serve as the basis for an ICIBI inspection report.

In addition to reviewing the Home Office’s Country Policy and Information Notes (CPINs) and Country of Origin Information Request (COIR) responses relating to individual countries, the IAGCI examines the way that ‘cross-cutting’ themes are dealt with across all of the COI issued by the department. In the past, thematic reports commissioned by the IAGCI examined coverage of such topics as issues related to women, issues related to children, and sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

At a forthcoming meeting, the IAGCI will consider the coverage of statelessness in the COI produced by the Home Office. In addition to reviewing the treatment of statelessness in CPINs on countries where it is a significant issue, the IAGCI will also consider general recommendations relating to the presentation of country information on statelessness. To inform this discussion, the IAGCI seeks to commission a review paper to be prepared by an expert with in-depth knowledge of statelessness, including how it arises and which groups are most likely to be affected. As with other reviews, the aim will be to ensure that CPINs contain the most up to date, relevant, and useful information to inform accurate decision-making.

The person(s) commissioned to undertake this project will be an experienced researcher with expertise on protection issues pertaining to statelessness and knowledge of asylum and human rights issues. They will not be expected to be an expert on all countries concerned, but some expertise in at least some of the countries where statelessness is a particularly significant issue will be an advantage.

This call for tenders is being re-opened as the reviewer selected following a call earlier in 2022 has since become unavailable.

Description of work

The review should provide an assessment of the coverage of statelessness in existing COI products, commenting on its:

1. Completeness: the extent to which relevant available information on statelessness has been reflected in the CPIN. Additional publicly available sources should be identified where appropriate.
2. Accuracy and balance: whether relevant information from source material has been accurately and appropriately reflected in the CPIN, noting any specific errors or omissions.

The review should provide a comparative summary, noting the strengths and weaknesses of the different reports.

In addition, the review should identify information on statelessness that is not covered in any of the reports but is nonetheless relevant to supporting decisions made by the Home Office. This may involve recommendations for new reports on populations likely to experience statelessness about whom no report currently exists, recommendations for information that could usefully be incorporated into CPINs which do not currently have a section on statelessness, and/or recommendations on other ways of ensuring the necessary information is available to decision makers.

While there is room for individual discretion in the way the researcher approaches the task and prepares a review, it would be helpful for the IAGCI if some specific guidelines were followed:

1. The format and scope of the review should be agreed with the chair of the IAGCI.
2. The COI under review should be assessed in terms of the situation in the country up to the stated ‘cut off’ date for inclusion of information in the report.
3. Any suggestions for additional information (or corrections to information in the document) must be referenced to a source document for the Home Office to be able to use it. If no published source is available to support the suggested information, the reviewer may supply a letter providing the information for use as a source document.

The reviewer will be requested to attend the IAGCI meeting at which their review will be considered. Representatives from the Home Office will also attend the meeting to provide responses to comments and recommendations made in the review.

Reviews commissioned by the IAGCI may be used as source documents for future CPINs and other COI products.

How to apply

Researchers interested in completing this review should submit:

• a letter demonstrating their expertise with respect to issues related to statelessness, human rights and asylum
• their c.v.

Payment for this work will be set at £5,000. Expressions of interest should be submitted to IAGCI@icibi.gov.uk by close of Monday, 31 October. We are only able to accept expressions of interest from individuals and not from institutions or consultancy groups.

The successful bidder will be notified by Friday, 4 November. The completed review will be due by the close of Monday, 6 February 2023, and will be discussed at an IAGCI meeting planned for early next year.

Section 48(2)(j) of the UK Borders Act 2007 provides that the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) shall:

consider and make recommendations about … the content of information about conditions in countries outside the United Kingdom which the Secretary of State compiles and makes available, for purposes connected with immigration and asylum, to immigration officers and other officials.

To assist the Independent Chief Inspector in fulfilling this statutory role, a body of experts sitting as the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI) regularly reviews the country of origin information (COI) products that are issued by the Home Office. These reviews assess whether the content of COI is accurate, balanced, objective, and up-to-date, and they serve as the basis for an ICIBI inspection report.

Country of origin information

The Home Office refers to COI products in procedures that assess claims of individuals for refugee status or other forms of international and humanitarian protection. COI is also used in policy formulation. COI is contained in:

• Country Policy and Information Notes (CPINs)
• Country of Origin Information Request (COIR) responses

CPINs are generated on an ongoing basis, generally focusing on countries from which asylum claims are most commonly received. These reports may provide general background information on a country, address aspects of conditions in a country that are relevant to common types of asylum claims, and/or describe the current humanitarian or security situation in a country. CPINs are compiled from material produced by a range of recognised external information sources (such as news reports, academic literature, independent research reports, and fact-finding reports from UK government or from other governments). CPINs also contain Home Office policy on the recommended position to be taken with respect to various types of claims, based on the available and accepted country information.

COIR responses are prepared to address specific queries from caseworkers or other Home Office officials. These relate to information that is not covered in the CPINs.

Tender details

The IAGCI commissions country experts or experienced researchers to evaluate and report upon the information contained in Home Office COI products. The IAGCI requires an expert to review the following COI products (4 separate tenders, 1 for each country):

Tender 1: Myanmar (Burma)

Tender 2: Albania

Tender 3: the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Tender 4: Iraq

Description of work

Reviewers are asked to evaluate the extent to which the material under review provides an accurate, balanced, and up-to-date summary of the key available sources regarding conditions in the country covered and to identify any areas where the COI can be improved. Specifically, the review should entail:

• assessing the extent to which information from source documents has been appropriately and accurately reflected in the CPIN reports
• identifying additional sources detailing relevant aspects of current conditions in the country
• noting and correcting any specific errors or omissions of fact
• making recommendations for general improvements regarding, for example, the structure of the report, its coverage, or its overall approach
• ensuring no reference is made to an individual source which could expose them to risk

Reviewers should follow these specific guidelines:

• the review should focus exclusively on the COI contained within the document, and not pass judgment on the policy guidance provided
• COI products should be reviewed in the context of their purpose as set out above. It should consider the situation in the country up to the stated ‘cut off’ date for inclusion of information
• when suggesting amendments, rather than ‘tracking changes’ on the original CPIN, a list of suggested changes should be provided as part of a stand-alone review paper, and each report should be reviewed separately. A reporting template will be provided to reviewers
• any suggestions for additional information (or corrections to information in the document) must be referenced to a source document (preferably open source) for the Home Office to be able to use it. The Home Office may use foreign language source documents, but only if the information is considered essential and is not available in an English-language source

Previous reviews of COI products can be consulted on the ICIBI website.

The selected reviewer will be requested to attend an IAGCI meeting at which the review will be discussed. (It is likely that this will be a virtual meeting, and in any case, alternative arrangements may be made if attendance at an in-person meeting is not possible.) Representatives from the Home Office will also attend the meeting to provide responses to comments and recommendations made in the review.

Reviews commissioned by the IAGCI will be published and may be used as source documents for future CPINs or other Home Office COI products.

How to apply

Researchers interested in conducting one of these reviews should submit:

• a one-page letter outlining relevant experience and expertise, including knowledge of human rights and/or asylum issues pertaining to the country covered by the COI under review
• their c.v.

Payment for this work will be set at £2,000. Expressions of interest should be submitted to IAGCI@icibi.gov.uk by close of Monday, 31 October. Unfortunately, we are only able to accept expressions of interest from individuals and not from institutions or consultancy groups.

Successful bidders will be notified by Friday 4 November. Final reviews for all tenders will be due by the close of Tuesday, 3 January 2023, and will be discussed at an IAGCI meeting planned for early in the new year.