Sixteen trailblazing projects across the country are set to receive £3 million of new funding to support innovative approaches to integration Communities Minister Lord Bourne confirmed today (20 May 2019).

From a community gardening project in south-west London that helps new migrants to practice their English language skills while learning how to cultivate land, to table tennis clubs to be run across 3 housing estates in Brighton, the government’s Integrated Communities Innovation Fund will help drive forward projects to tackle the causes of poor integration.

Delivered in partnership with Sport England, the Fund will engage 70,000 people with activities in schools, community and leisure centres, and in partnership with businesses, local authorities and housing associations.

The Communities Minister made the announcement while visiting the Blackfriars Settlement in London which is running a project to encourage social mixing through pop-up ‘friendliness cafes’.

Communities Minister, Lord Bourne said:

Britain is on the whole a well-integrated society, but we know that too many people are still locked out of the benefits that come with full participation in society.

To tackle the root causes of poor integration we need to bring together people from all backgrounds and from all parts of society, from business leaders to grassroots charities.

That is why we have partnered with Sport England to fund 16 trailblazing projects that seek to bridge divides and bring communities together in bold and innovative ways.

Government will fund 14 projects across the country, while Sport England will fund 2 projects in Birmingham and Brighton.

Tim Hollingsworth, Chief Executive, Sport England said:

Sport England is proud to be working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to help integrate communities up and down the country.

Not only does taking part in sport and physical activity have powerful mental and physical health benefits, it can help people develop new skills and bring them together in a shared experience.

We look forward to working with the projects as they help people feel more connected to their communities and society as a whole.

Today’s announcement is part of the government’s ongoing work to tackle the causes of poor integration, including working with 5 integration areas across England: Blackburn with Darwen; Bradford; Peterborough; Walsall; and Waltham Forest, who have produced their own ambitious local integration plans.

The government is committing at total of £2,747,722. Sport England committing an additional £271,203 of funding for the Brighton Tennis Club and Youth Sport Trust.

Aldridge Education

Project in the Blackburn with Darwen Integration Area working with 14 to 19-year-olds to empower young people to lead enterprising solutions to social challenges. Students will work in teams to develop ideas and run their own businesses supporting social projects.

Employment programme to stimulate people’s autonomy, aspiration, engagement and access to social capital through personal integration plans. Focusing on vulnerable homeless newly arrived refugees and migrants in Bristol, Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

Employability programme for NEET adults. Provides social mixing opportunities for the BAME and white British community, and run in the former Brierfield Mill, which has been renovated by the Club into a brand-new leisure facility.

The Behavioural Insights Team

Two projects: one delivered by UKActive through its UK-wide physical activity camps during the summer holidays, and another to develop a new evidence-based curriculum for PSHE classes in 15 schools across Birmingham and Coventry.

Brighton Table Tennis Club

Running table tennis clubs across three housing estates in Brighton. Each club is delivered by a team of 3 qualified coaches: one experienced coach, one community coach who comes from the estate, and one qualified coach who is an unaccompanied asylum seeker.

The Challenge Network

Project in London, Birmingham and Manchester bringing together young people from different backgrounds through a volunteering and employability programme. Participants can attend an interview for a paid position with one of The Challenge’s corporate partners.

CXK

Develops a new employment-based pathway to integration for people living marginalised and isolated lives in Kent and Medway. Participants will create video CVs to be uploaded via a new portal, and a network manager will engage employers and encourage businesses to weave integration into existing corporate social responsibility, equality and diversity policies

Groundwork London

Tackles local integration challenges in Barnet and Hackney through activities that bring together white settled majority communities, well-established ethnic minority communities and recent arrivals to the area. Activities include “chatterbox sessions”, employment support, and volunteering around environmental action.

Learn English at Home

Merges social mixing opportunities with language interventions through a structured programme combining community gardening and language support. Activities will take place across south-west London, working with ethnic-minority adults and local resident volunteers.

Luton Tigers

In-school interventions using poetry, art, dance and drama to explore commonalities and differences between children from different backgrounds. Supplemented by lunch-time sport activities in preparation for an inter-school sports programme where children will team up with, and compete against, children from other schools.

Mary Ward Settlement

Informal social events at a pop-up community café, addressing barriers to meaningful social mixing. Participants can volunteer to help run activities, and outreach events will be supported by a community engagement officer across Southwark and Lambeth.

National Literacy Trust 

Project in the Integration Area of Bradford addressing community segregation through art. Works with a diverse mix of primary schools, local artists and members of the public to create exhibitions to showcase different cultural backgrounds and shared values.

Project in Kent targeting Roma and non-Roma people living in deprived and fractured communities. Activities will include capacity-building for local providers, family learning sessions and cultural-awareness workshops.

Super Being Labs

A free app that facilitates access to knowledge, services and events for new migrants in Haringey. Tackles integration challenges through information, advice and guidance on topics such as finding a new home, healthcare, banking, learning English, and life in the UK.

Youth Sport Trust

Project aiming to address school segregation and lack of social mixing in Birmingham, bringing together 22 highly segregated schools with different levels of disadvantage and diversity to integrate through sporting activity. Activities include inspirational assemblies, sport events and volunteer training, culminating in a large-scale sporting festival.

Incorporated in September 2009, Edward & Moore Limited was a company with several public houses trading under its name in Nottingham and Derby.

Kirpal Rathaur (51), from Nottingham, was the appointed director at the same time as Edward & Moore was incorporated. But close to 10 years later, the company entered into Creditors Voluntary Liquidator in November 2018, owing close to £6.9 million to creditors.

The liquidation triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service, which established that for more than four years between February 2010 and November 2014, Kirpal Rathaur caused Edward & Moore to submit inaccurate returns to the tax authorities, generating an outstanding shortfall of close to £7 million.

Further enquiries discovered that in March 2015, Kirpal Rathaur falsely took Edward & Moore off of the business tax list. He then caused Edward & Moore to continue trading until liquidation and because the company hadn’t been paying business tax for several years, the company built-up liabilities of £7.9 million.

And for the life of the company, Kirpal Rathaur failed to maintain and/or preserve adequate accounting records. This meant it was impossible to establish what happened to the £7.9 million in unpaid taxes, how much in total was owed to the company’s creditors, including the tax authorities, as well as establishing how much money Kirpal Rathaur withdrew from the company.

On 29 April 2019 the Secretary of State accepted an 11-year disqualification undertaking from Kirpal Rathaur. Effective from 20 May 2019, he is banned for 11 years from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Martin Gitner, Deputy Head of Investigations, of the Insolvency Service said:

Directors cannot pick and choose what taxes they want to pay but this did not deter Kirpal Rathaur from avoiding paying business duty that he rightfully owed.

An 11-year disqualification is a substantial ban, seriously curtailing Kirpal Rathaur ability to run companies, and demonstrates our commitment to investigate and ban those directors who abuse the tax systems and their responsibilities.

Kirpal Rathaur is from Nottingham and his date of birth is October 1967.

Edward & Moore Limited was incorporated on 23 September 2009 (company registration number 07027343).

The full list of public houses:

• Blue Bell Inn
• Cucamara
• The Bear & Lace
• Bag O Nails
• Fat Cat – Friargate Derby
• Fat Cat – Mansfield Road Nottingham
• Fat Cat – Chapel Bar Nottingham
• Up N Down Under
• Currylounge

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

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 other restrictions.

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

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

The Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has announced £70 million over three and a half years for the Better Health Programme, a range of health initiatives that could improve the lives of up to 150 million people across 8 emerging economies.

Speaking in the margins of the World Health Assembly on Monday, Mr Hunt will also call for a new World Patient Safety Day to highlight the importance of patient safety globally. The UK and Kenya have co-sponsored a resolution on Global Action on Patient Safety at the World Health Assembly. The resolution has support from more than 30 countries internationally. A decision on whether the resolution will be adopted will be made later in the week.

Speaking ahead of the event, the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said:

WHO Director General Dr Tedros has been inspirational in driving forward improvements in patient safety globally. The next big moment is the motion this week which will create a World Patient Safety Day to shine a spotlight on how to reduce the million deaths every year from medical error. Today we call on our friends and partners across the world to support our motion at the World Health Assembly, get behind us, and make this change to help save so many lives.

Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said:

The more focus we can bring to the cause of patient safety across the world, the more lives we will be able to save which is why I am grateful to the UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for leading the global campaign on patient safety. I urge all countries to adopt the World Health Assembly’s motion next week, and put this issue at the top of the global health agenda.

Patient harm in healthcare is one of the top ten causes of death and disability in the world. Two-thirds of cases occur in low- and middle-income countries where as many as 1 in 4 patients are harmed unnecessarily while receiving healthcare.

The Better Health Programme will help to reduce the growing burden of diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. It will improve clinical processes such as the recording of preventable deaths, hospital governance and quality of care in up to 4,000 hospitals.

Technology will be at the heart of the Better Health Programme, whose digital health track will boost the potential for health professionals to provide services to women, hard to reach groups and those in rural areas. Better Health will also provide education and training for health workers, helping to drive up care quality and will draw on UK best practice to strengthen the monitoring the performance of staff, hospitals and clinics to reduce deaths, infections and improve patient safety.

The money for the Better Health Programme comes from the Prosperity Fund, which ensures that aid tackles poverty overseas, and also delivers for the UK. Provisional estimates are that the programme could generate an average £1.30 for each £1 invested locally, and a similar amount in terms of exports for the UK. British businesses are well-placed to respond to commercial opportunities arising from the programme.

Additional Information

• Four delivery partners are being contracted, following a competitive process, to deliver the programme and will be responsible for the delivery of programme.

• The programme will operate in 8 ODA eligible countries Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar.

• FCO-led 3.5 year programme, developed in consultation with the UK Departments of Health, International Development and Trade, with the assistance of UK government health organisations.

• UK Health Services Exports are worth 1.7bn or 0.7% of overall services exports (2016).

Further information

Harry Bain is Editor and Publisher of The Searcher magazine, a publication produced primarily for metal detectorists and amateur archaeologists. The magazine is 34 years old and is distributed nationally and internationally both in digital and paper formats. She also publishes Digging Deep, the newsletter of the National Council for Metal Detecting. Her earlier career was in graphic design and marketing and now has a growing range of branded merchandise. Harry pro-actively encourages responsible metal detecting and supports hobby organisations who actively promote finds recording and best practice.

The role is not remunerated.This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The Government’s Governance Code requires that any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years is declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation or candidature for election. Harry Bain has made no such declaration.

From today (Monday 20 May), visitors from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States will be able to use ePassport gates at ports across the UK and juxtaposed controls in a move designed to speed up border controls for low-risk countries.

There were over 10 million arrivals in the UK by nationals from these countries in 2017.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Our new global immigration and border system will improve security and fluidity for passengers coming to visit or work in the UK.

Expanding the use of ePassport gates is a key part of this and allows us to improve the passenger experience of those arriving in the UK while keeping our border secure.

The new system will help to drive our economy, cement our reputation as a global leader and send a clear message to the world – the UK is open for business.

The change means the Government has delivered early on the commitment made in the Spring Statement, where the Chancellor announced that nationals from these seven countries would be able to use ePassport gates from June.

ePassport gates have been available to British and EU nationals since 2008. EU nationals will remain eligible to use them once the UK leaves the EU.

Chief Executive of the Airport Operators Association Karen Dee said:

As airports prepare for the busy summer months, we know that no one likes to wait long in a queue for passport control. That is why airports work closely with Border Force to ensure the border is welcoming, while maintaining the UK’s security.

Enabling more passengers to use ePassport gates is an important next step in our joint efforts to enhance the welcome at the border. It will demonstrate the UK is open for business, tourism and visiting friends and relatives. It will also free up Border Force officers for other duties, improving the experience of all passengers.

Additionally, the Government is removing the need for all non-EEA travellers to fill in landing cards upon arrival in the UK, making for a smoother entry to the country.

The move will reduce the burden on passengers while maintaining the UK’s border security, as exactly the same security checks will be in place.

The UK is already a world leader in automated passenger clearance, allowing more nationalities to use ePassport gates than anywhere else. In the year ending September 2018, 51.9 million passengers used them across the UK and juxtaposed controls.

The gates use facial recognition technology to compare the passenger’s face to the digital image recorded in their passport. They are monitored by Border Force officers and anyone rejected at the gates will be sent to a manned passport check to have their identity and passport checked.

The gates can be used by those aged 18 and over, and who are travelling using a biometric or ‘chipped’ passport. Those aged 12 to 17, and who are accompanied by an adult, are also able to use them.

There are currently 264 ePassport gates in operation at 15 air and rail terminals in the UK and juxtaposed controls.