• Minister Adams spoke to senior Japanese politicians and leading British businesses about the opportunities presented by Expo 2025.
• He is the first UK Minister to pay a bilateral visit to Osaka since 2017.
• Japanese investment in the UK totalled £102.3 billion in 2020, directly supporting 150,000 jobs.

Cabinet Office Minister Nigel Adams visited Tokyo and Osaka last week to confirm the UK’s commitment to the Osaka Kansai Expo 2025, a major international conference which will highlight British businesses on the global stage.

The Minister met senior Japanese politicians, as well as a range of influential representatives of Japanese and UK businesses and organisations, to discuss partnership opportunities at the Expo and the potential to strengthen the ever-growing relationship between Japan and the UK.

The World Expo is an international event for nations across the world to showcase products, expertise and sources of national pride. In November 2018, the General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) decided that the World Expo 2025 will take place in Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

Minister Adams met with Minister for World Expo 2025, Kenji Wakamiya, and executives from the Japan Association for 2025 World Exposition, using the visit to reiterate the UK’s participation and next steps for both countries to help make the event a success.

Cabinet Office Minister Nigel Adams said:

It has been great to visit Osaka, see the site for the 2025 Expo and learn more about the historic ties between Japan and the UK.

Expo 2025 will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase the best of British innovation and culture and further enhance our deepening partnership with Japan.

My conversations with stakeholders this week have underlined the deep interest and shared values between the UK and Japan and the scope for us to work more closely together in the coming years on key global challenges in life sciences, sustainability and digital technology.

Minister Adams also spoke to business leaders from UK companies and the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan about the scope for businesses in both the UK and Japan to work together on the exhibition. During his visit the Minister spoke to Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) negotiators to underline the UK’s commitment to free trade and joining this world-leading plurilateral trade grouping.

During his trip Minister Adams also spoke to representatives at Astrazeneca’s Tokyo branch about bolstering the UK’s leadership in global healthcare manufacturing and their strong presence across Japan.

Notes for Editors

The Osaka Kansai Expo 2025 will run from 13 April to 13 October 2025 in Osaka, Japan. The overall theme is “Designing future society for our lives”, with sub-themes of saving lives, empowering lives and connecting lives. This will be the biggest international event this decade with around 140 countries and regions already committed to participating. The Prime Minister confirmed UK participation to then Japanese Prime Minister Suga in June 2021, a message reiterated to PM Kishida during his visit to the UK in May this year.

Total trade in goods and services between the UK and Japan was £23.1bn at the end of 2021, with trade largely evenly balanced between both countries (UK exports to Japan £11.5bn, UK imports £11.6bn).

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a trade agreement between 11 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam), covering 500 million people.

CPTPP countries accounted for £110 billion-worth of UK trade in 2019 and its rules remove tariffs on 95% of goods traded between members. UK accession could cut tariffs in vital UK industries like food and drink and the automotive sector, as well as creating new opportunities in areas like digital, data, and across services. Joining CPTPP will deepen our access to fast-growing markets and projected major economies of the future, including Mexico, Malaysia and Vietnam.

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases, and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology. Based in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries. In Japan, AstraZeneca’s  primary focus is on Oncology, Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology fields.

Two men from Leicestershire have been found guilty of fishing illegally on separate occasions this year.

A court heard that on 24 March 2022, Kieran Wood from Leicester had been fishing on the River Soar in Leicester in the close season and without a licence.

Coarse fishing is prohibited in some of England’s waterways from 15 March to 15 June (inclusive) each year to protect vulnerable fish stocks while they are spawning.

In a separate case Thomas Roberts from Shepshed was found guilty of fishing without a licence at Butterley Reservoir, Derbyshire in February this year.

Both cases were brought to Northampton Magistrates’ Court by the Environment Agency on 1 August 2022.

Kieran Wood, 32, was proved guilty in absence and ordered to pay a total penalty of £619. The penalty includes a fine of £440 (£220 for each offence), costs of £135 and a victim surcharge of £44.

Thomas Roberts, 24, pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay a total penalty of £289. The penalty includes a fine of £120, costs of £135 and a victim surcharge of £34.

Michael Alcott, Fisheries Enforcement Officer at the Environment Agency, said:

Kieran Wood and Thomas Roberts have been rightly punished for the illegal fishing they undertook in Leicester and Butterley Reservoir respectively.

Illegal fishing undermines the Environment Agency’s efforts to protect fish stocks and make fishing sustainable.  Money raised from fishing licence sales is used to protect and improve fish stocks and fisheries, benefitting anglers and, for those caught cheating the system, we will always prosecute.

These cases show how seriously the courts take these offences and we hope the high penalties will act as a deterrent to any angler who is thinking of breaking the laws and byelaws we have in place across England.

Anyone can report illegal fishing activities to the Environment Agency incident hotline 24/7 on 0800 807060.

Following several high-profile rulings by the Advertising Standards Authority, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) have issued a joint enforcement notice about the advertising of Kenalog injections on social media.

This enforcement notice warns all organisations offering Kenalog as a hayfever treatment to stop advertising it in any of their social media or website advertising.

Kenalog is a prescription-only medicine (POM), which must not be directly or indirectly advertised to the public. Kenalog is not licensed for the treatment of hayfever in the UK, although it is offered by some beauty and aesthetics clinics, under the personal responsibility of an individual prescriber, and advertised widely on social media.

Now, advertisers must ensure that all references to Kenalog in the text, images or emojis on social media are removed, as well as commonly-used descriptive phrases for the jab such as ‘hayfever injection’ or hayfever jab’ or any account names, testimonials or memes by 29 August 2022. After this date, the CAP’s compliance team will remove non-compliant ads using targeted software and those who continue to promote it may be referred to the MHRA for further enforcement action.

Kenalog is the brand name for triamcinolone acetonide and is a steroid injection that is licensed as a medicine for a number of conditions, though not for the treatment of hayfever.

Claire Tilstone, Head of Advertising at MHRA said:

Social media offers a powerful advertising tool for clinics but they must remain aware of the rules that surround it for medicines.

The advertising of prescription-only medicines in the UK is banned under UK advertising law and so clinics should now urgently review their websites and social media to ensure that they are not advertising the prescription-only medicine Kenalog, to avoid further enforcement action.

We would urge anyone who sees a clinic advertising it, to report it either to the MHRA or the Advertising Standards Authority, and always to consult a qualified healthcare professional to discuss options for hayfever treatment.

Shahriar Coupal, Director of CAP, has said:

Our enforcement notice, published jointly with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, makes it abundantly clear that Kenalog, as a prescription-only-medicine, should not be directly or indirectly advertised to the public. Our rules apply across media, but we are particularly concerned about the prevalence of Kenalog injection advertising on social media.

Through our use of technology and data science, we will proactively monitor and take enforcement action against any advertiser who does not stick to the rules so there is a level playing field for businesses and consumers are protected.

Notes to Editors

• Kenalog is not licensed in the UK for the treatment of hayfever. A prescriber during a consultation with a patient can make a professional decision to prescribe a medicine outside the indications stated in the medicine’s licence to meet the specific clinical needs of their patient. They do this on their own personal responsibility. This further information from the GMC and this article in MHRA Drug Safety Update might be helpful background. During the consultation, patients should be made aware of any risks of using a medicine ‘off-label’ in place of a licensed treatment.
• Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe. All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks. MHRA is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care.