The Home Office has granted the Community Security Trust (CST) £14 million for security measures to help keep members of the Jewish community safe in their daily lives.

The grant will cover protective security for the next financial year at Jewish institutions such as schools and synagogues.

CST, a charity that monitors and helps protect against antisemitism, recorded 1,805 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2019, a 7% increase on the previous year.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

Antisemitic incidents are not just an attack on the Jewish community, but on everyone who believes in a free and open society.

This funding will help Jewish people practise their religion and way of life without fear of attack or persecution.

Minister for Countering Extremism Baroness Williams said:

No one should feel afraid for practising their religion. We are committed to ensuring our places of worship remain safe spaces for worship, contemplation and reflection.

Only by working together can we ensure that hateful behaviour like antisemitism can be fully eliminated from our society.

The grant was introduced in 2015 following a series of terror attacks against Jewish targets across Europe. It has been renewed yearly following security assessments by the Home Office.

CST Chief Executive David Delew said:

The British Jewish community is deeply grateful for the renewal of Home Office funding for security guards at Jewish schools and other communal premises facing the continuing threat of terrorism.

CST will continue managing this grant, which alleviates a serious financial security burden from Jewish communities across the country.

Most of the funding will go towards protective measures for Jewish schools. While the funding period commences today (April 1), all synagogues remain closed and schools only remain open for the children of those conducting essential work, as part of government efforts to tackle coronavirus (COVID-19).

In addition to the protective security grant, the Home Office also runs the Places of Worship Scheme, which provides funding to improve physical security for non-Jewish places of worship.

The Home Office has also recently launched a consultation to see what more can be done by the government to improve security for faith groups.

We are continuing to work through the implications to our casework and our workforce in response to the developing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Like many in the planning system, we have been making difficult decisions to balance the processing of casework whilst ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our Inspectors and casework staff. All casework events in the near future including site visits, hearings and inquiries have been postponed and our staff are working from home as the Bristol office building is closed. Although keeping casework moving is extremely important, our top priority is to ensure the wellbeing of our staff and the public. These arrangements will continue while the UK government advice on social distancing remains in place.

Trialling new technology 

We will continue to find innovative ways to allow us to progress case work fairly and robustly.

We are looking into the use of  technology that enables us to continue running planning inquiries and hearings online. 

We are exploring methods like video conferencing for events. We are working  to arrive at a solution that enables casework to continue in an open, fair and impartial way. We want to ensure everyone involved including local communities can participate fairly and that this different way of conducting our work does not undermine confidence in the planning system. 

We have, together with the Planning and Environment Bar Association (PEBA) recorded a joint message on the work underway.

Planning Inspectorate guidance during Coronavirus (COVID-19)

We recently released updated guidance on how we are dealing with planning and other case work in this highly unusual situation affecting the whole country. We are still accepting appeals via our Appeals Casework Portal (ACP) but cannot receive correspondence via post at present.

For planning appeals, rights of way and Commons Act 2006 cases, whilst no site visits, hearings or inquiries are taking place at the moment, we are actively considering whether there are types of cases that can proceed without a site visit. Customers are advised to speak to their case officer.

Hearings and preliminary meetings for nationally significant infrastructure projects are postponed, but as the examination process is primarily a written one, in most cases, we are expecting to continue to make good progress. We are continuing to consider information submitted to examinations, and we encourage interested parties to continue to have relevant discussions and prepare information and written submissions where it is possible and safe to do so. Some organisations are choosing to delay their submissions. Updates of all our national infrastructure projects are on our website.

For local plans, inspectors will continue where possible to progress the pre and post-hearing stages of the examination, depending on the stage reached, but there will be delays as local plan hearings are not currently able to take place.

Clearly the situation caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a significant impact to the planning sector. We will continue to monitor the situation and adapt as necessary. We are also providing support to our sponsor department, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government with experts from our organisation to assist with central government efforts.

• Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)
• If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times
• Wash your hands as soon as you get home

Do not meet others, even friends or family.

You can spread the virus even if you don’t have symptoms.

• Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)
• If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times
• Wash your hands as soon as you get home

Do not meet others, even friends or family.

You can spread the virus even if you don’t have symptoms.

Vamplew Charles Limited was incorporated in August 1999 before the company changed its name to Blakemore Wealth Management Limited in March 2012.

Gerard Charles Vamplew Blakemore (71) was the sole director of Blakemore Wealth Management and the company was authorised to provide investment advice around Self Invested Personal Pensions schemes.

Blakemore Wealth Management traded out of Gerard Blakemore’s home in Wolverhampton and between April 2012 and October 2018 the company invested funds on behalf of 34 clients.

The company, however, entered into creditors voluntary liquidation in October 2018, which was brought to the attention of the Insolvency Service due to the substantial losses Blakemore Wealth Management caused its clients.

Following further enquiries, investigators uncovered that Gerard Blakemore, an authorised financial advisor, had caused Blakemore Wealth Management to invest customers’ funds in high-risk schemes without carrying out adequate enquiries about their suitability.

Clients had originally been aware what their funds were being invested in. However, Gerard Blakemore knowingly breached the terms of a 2012 Intermediary Agreement with a Self-Invested Personal Pension operator when he caused Blakemore Wealth Management to invest £8.3 million of client funds without their knowledge in an unregulated overseas company.

Of the money invested, only £607,500 was repaid to Blakemore Wealth Management’s clients and investigators uncovered that Gerard Blakemore was a director of the overseas company from July 2017.

Further enquiries proved that Gerard Blakemore had personally benefited from these unsuitable investments and at no point did Gerard Blakemore disclose the payments to his clients or seek their agreement.

He paid himself more than £247,000 through remuneration, dividends and benefits via commissions the company received.

Gerard Blakemore also caused the company to transfer funds from client investments totalling around £2.1 million to another company registered overseas, of which he was a director from July 2017, and Gerard Blakemore received £1.7 million.

As of 24 February 2020, Gerard Blakemore is disqualified from being a company director for 8 years after he signed a disqualification undertraining in which he did not dispute that he had breached his duties as a director of Blakemore Wealth Management Ltd.

Dave Elliott, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Gerard Blakemore was entrusted with millions of pounds to invest in legitimate pension investment schemes. The Wolverhampton director, however, totally disregarded his clients’ interest and caused substantial losses when he invested £8 million in unsuitable products.

8 years is a significant ban and removing Gerard Blakemore from the corporate arena will protect investors from further harm due to his poor investment advice.

Gerard Charles Vamplew Blakemore is of Wolverhampton and his date of birth is April 1948.

BLAKEMORE WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD (Company number: 03828107).

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of restrictions.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on: