Planning your trip

The Canonisation will be a ticket only event. Tickets are free and can be found on the Newman Canonisation event website along with the programme of public events. Visit the Vatican website for more information on timings and security when entering St Peter’s Square.

Remember your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) but also take out travel insurance. It could save you a lot of money if you get into difficulties. In addition to this advice, check out our Travel Advice for Italy before you set off.

Passports and visas

You do not need a visa to travel to Italy but you must hold a valid passport for the proposed duration of your stay. In Italy you must carry ID with you at all times. If you have alternative forms of photo ID, like a driving licence, it might be worth taking it with you and leave your passport safe in your room. Alternatively, carry a photocopy of the personal details pages of your passport.

Lost or stolen passports

If your passport is stolen report the loss to the local police as soon as possible and obtain a copy of the police report. Please be aware that you cannot travel back to the UK without a valid travel document. You will need to apply online for an Emergency Travel Document.

The cost of an Emergency Travel Document is £100 and you can pay online as part of your application. After you’ve submitted your application, you’ll be told if you need to attend an interview at the British Embassy in Rome. You’ll need to give a contact telephone number and email address as part of your application. Your emergency travel document will normally be ready within 2 working days. You will be advised when it is ready for collection.

Lost or stolen purses and wallets

If you lose your purse or wallet, cancel your credit cards as soon as possible. British consular officials cannot give you money to help you return home. You can transfer money from relatives or friends in the UK using many of the reputable commercial money transfer agencies in Italy including Western Union and MoneyGram. You can also use most major credit cards (and debit cards carrying the Maestro and EC logos) to obtain money from Italian cash machines if you have your PIN.

Transport tips

As in any other city, beware of pickpockets and bag snatchers at airports, railway stations, around the town centre and Vatican, and when using public transport. Only carry what you need, leave spare cash and valuables in hotel safety deposits.

If you travel by bus, tram or metro your ticket must be validated in one of the machines on the railway platform or on board the bus/tram. Failure to do so will result in a substantial fine.

Only use taxis from the official rank at the airport who are obliged to charge the set fare if you are staying within the city walls. If you need a taxi, use an official white one. Taxi apps such as Free Now and itTaxi are very useful.

Telephone: +39 06 4220 0001 (also for out of hours emergencies)

Office hours: Monday to Friday: 9am to 12am and 2pm to 3pm

Local emergency services

• (+39) 118 medical services
• (+39) 112 carabinieri (police and emergency services)

Anglian Water has been ordered to pay more than £156,000 for polluting a Northamptonshire brook with sewage.

In a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency, Leicester Magistrates’ Court fined the company £146,000 and ordered them to pay £10,676 in costs after it found the company’s negligence and lack of maintenance were behind a number of failures at the Yardley Hastings sewage plant.

The pollution occurred over 2 days in August 2016, when at least a kilometre and a half of Grendon Brook was contaminated with sewage.

Tests carried out by Environment Agency officers at the time showed levels of ammonia were 20 times higher downstream – enough to be extremely toxic to fish, invertebrates and other aquatic life.

The pollution was caused by various failures at the pumping station, which takes in raw sewage and transfers it to the main site for treatment. The pumps became air-locked and stopped working, causing sewage to back up in the storage tank, which filled and discharged into the nearby brook. Alarms which should have alerted staff to the problem also failed to sound.

Investigations found the faults were due to a lack of maintenance – and although Anglian Water had undertaken three maintenance visits, they had no records of the affected parts being cleaned or maintained in the year leading up to the incident.

The pollution was reported on 24 August but wasn’t acted on, and the company had no record of the report being made. An alarm triggered the same day to indicate a problem as there was no flow from the pumping station to the main sewage works, but this was mistakenly closed down without being resolved.

The pollution continued intermittently for two days until it was noticed and stopped on 26 August – but this could have been done sooner if earlier reports had been acted on.

Anglian Water pleaded guilty to breaching the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 and the Water Resources Act 1991 in the case heard on Thursday, 12 September.

The company’s environmental permit only allowed the site to discharge into the brook in storm conditions or in an emergency, neither of which applied at the time of the pollution.

The permit also required Anglian Water to maintain a 24-hour alarm system in case the pumping station failed or broke down, and a separate alarm to alert staff when the emergency sewage storage tank overflowed into the watercourse.

But the company only installed this second alarm in October 2016, after the incident – and 20 years after being required to do so by the permit.

Adam Glassford, senior environment officer with the Environment Agency who investigated the incident, said:

Earlier this year, we pledged a tougher approach towards water companies that don’t live up to their environmental responsibilities, and this case proves that we will hold them to account when they pollute the natural environment.

It’s our job as a regulator to protect people and wildlife, and we will take action when they’re put at risk.

In mitigation, the court heard that Anglian Water self-reported the pollution, cooperated with the investigation, and that there was no evidence of dead fish or invertebrates in the affected stretch. The company has since taken steps to fix the faults and to clean up the brook.

In the latest water company performance report, Anglian Water was given 3 out of 4 stars – requiring improvement to reduce their impact on the environment.

Anyone who suspects a pollution is urged to report it to the Environment Agency’s 24-hour incident hotline by calling 0800 80 70 60.

The Environment Agency has successfully prosecuted 3 men from Liverpool for wilfully obstructing a water bailiff following an incident in Staffordshire last April.

Jack O’Callaghan, 30, of Tynwald Place; Patrick Jones, 35, of Judges Drive and Alan Clelland, 56, of Snaefell Ave pleaded guilty in a case held at North Staffordshire Magistrates’ Court in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, on 9 September 2019.

O’Callaghan was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £480 while Jones and Clelland were each ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £400.

O’Callaghan admitted 3 other charges in that he fished without a licence, fished in the close season and failed, when required to do so, to state his name and address to the bailiff.

Jones admitted 2 other charges in that he fished in the close season and without a licence. Clelland admitted one other offence in fishing during the close season.

Environment Agency enforcement officers received intelligence that 3 men were fishing on the River Trent at Great Haywood in Staffordshire on April 19, 2019.

They were later spotted in the grounds of nearby Shugborough Hall where they were fishing the River Sow.

EA officers and estate rangers attempted to speak with the men. However, a short foot chase ensued where the suspects became aggressive and also tried to hide within bushes.

Having been joined by officers from Staffordshire Police, the men were eventually apprehended on the main road in Great Haywood.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “This case shows how determined we are in catching and prosecuting people who flout the laws and obstruct our officers in carrying out their duties.

“An annual fishing licence costs just £30, yet a small number of anglers continue to risk prosecution for fishing without a licence and breaching byelaws in place to protect fish stocks.”

People caught fishing without a licence can be fined up to £2,500. Children under 13 do not need a licence. Licences for children aged between 13 and 16 are free, but a junior licence is required.

Anyone who suspects illegal fishing to be taking place should report the matter to the Environment Agency’s incident hotline, on 0800 807060.

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.

For more information and to buy a rod licence go to www.gov.uk/buy-a-uk-fishing-rod-licence.

This bio-waste sector is critical to a closed loop, circular economy and is particularly important as it helps support agriculture, reduces the need for inorganic fertilisers, mitigates against decreasing soil quality as well as helping to meet renewable energy targets and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

This review will embed recent changes to legislation, including the requirement of the Industrial Emissions Directive, to ensure compliance with best available techniques and emission limits.  

The review will also ensure all bio-waste operations are regulated in a consistent manner and that the objectives of the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan are met. It seeks to improve the quality of recovered material and improve the performance of the sector, securing a regulatory framework that is fair and achievable, whilst providing the best possible protection for people and the environment.

A standard rules consultation will be published in the early Autumn and there have been several consultations on the revised standards and proposed changes for bio-waste. These have provided operators with the opportunity to influence and raise concerns which have been taken into account in final proposals.  

The review will begin with bespoke Installations permits and with sites presenting the highest risk or poor performance being prioritised.  

The EA will shortly formally request information from operators on their process and pollution control measures to assess against new best available techniques. Waste operations permits will undergo a similar process, due to start in the late Autumn 2019.

An Environment Agency spokesperson, said:

“The aim of the review of permitted sites is to ensure the bio-waste sector continues to grow and develop in a sustainable and efficient way, providing benefits to communities and the environment.”

“The review has developed with input from industry representatives from the bio-waste sector, ensuring we are well sighted on opportunities and issues”.

The Charity Commission has disqualified a trustee, after he set up and collected charitable funds to help people in Syria, but made a series of failures amounting to misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the fund.

The Commission opened a compliance case into the charitable fund, known as Team Syria, in April 2015 after identifying that its website invited donations to help people affected by the conflict in Syria. The Commission found there was only one trustee, who was also the founder of the charitable fund.

Although the trustee never registered Team Syria as a charity, the funds raised are legally charitable.

The trustee was subject to a criminal investigation in February 2016, of which he was acquitted in December 2016. As part of the criminal investigation the police seized £7,691.92 of charitable funds held by the trustee.

The Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the charitable fund in June 2017.

Soon after the opening of the inquiry the Commission directed the police not to part with the charitable funds seized from the trustee. The Commission has since distributed these funds to two registered charities operating in Syria.

The inquiry found the trustee:

• was responsible for misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charitable fund, for his failure to fulfill basic legal duties, including keeping accounting records or showing how charitable funds had been spent in the name of Team Syria
• had acted as a trustee of the charitable fund from 22 July 2013 to 14 October 2015 while disqualified from doing so
• provided information to the Commission about the activities of Team Syria, which was contradicted by evidence from the police
• solicited funds in the name of charities that were unaware of his attempts at fundraising for them (or did not consent to it) and he could not show how the funds had been used
• failed to fully co-operate with the inquiry. This is itself misconduct and/or mismanagement.

Michelle Russell, Director of Investigations, Monitoring and Enforcement at the Commission, said:

Our investigation into Team Syria uncovered a wholly inadequate attempt at collecting charitable funds by an individual.

The public has a right to expect those who collect money for a charitable cause, such as helping people in need in Syria, to take their responsibilities seriously. This trustee’s reckless approach to running a charitable fund and handling funds donated by the public, badly let down both the charitable fund’s intended beneficiaries, and the public.

I’m pleased that our intervention ensured that the charitable funds seized from the trustee went to registered charities.

The trustee was disqualified from acting as a trustee of a charity, or from holding any office or employment with senior management functions in a charity, for a period of 7 years from the 26 July 2019.

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