I asked the Bishop of Truro to deliver an independent, honest, unflinching and hard-hitting report. What he has delivered to me today makes for a truly sobering read. I thank him and his team for their hard work.

The interim report comes just after the appalling attacks at Easter on churches across Sri Lanka, the devastating attack on two mosques in Christchurch, and most recently the San Diego synagogue shooting.

There is nothing more medieval than to hate someone on the basis of their faith. That it is on the rise should shock us all.

I look forward to seeing the Bishop’s final report in the summer, and identifying further specific steps the FCO can take to do more to address the fate of persecuted Christians around the world.

A Charity Commission inquiry into an unregistered charity, Fazal Ellahi Charitable Trust, has found that the charity’s trustees failed to properly manage, administer and protect the charity, and its resources, resulting in it being used to facilitate terrorism offences. As a result of the investigation the trustees were removed and are consequently disqualified. The charity has also been dissolved.

The Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the charity which ran a mosque in April 2018, following serious concerns including the conviction of the Imam for six counts of encouragement of terrorism and two counts of encouraging support for a proscribed organisation in relation to a series of sermons and classes for children given at the charity’s premises.

In investigating these serious concerns the Commission carried out a number of checks, including an unannounced visit to the charity’s premises, scrutiny of evidence seized by police and analysis of the charity’s bank statements, finding serious mismanagement and misconduct by the charity’s trustees including a failure to manage the charity’s resources appropriately which allowed the charity’s premises to be misused to encourage terrorism and support for the Islamic State, a proscribed organisation.

In their roles at the charity the Imam and one of the charity’s trustees came into contact with children regularly. The Commission therefore requested evidence of DBS checks and safeguarding policies and procedures but none were provided. The Commission exercised its power, prohibiting the trustees from providing educational classes and recreational activities to children.

The Commission’s analysis of the charity’s bank statements and other records seized by the police found that financial records were incomplete and that the trustees failed to maintain and preserve records relating to the charity’s income and expenditure as they are required to. The Commission took the protective measure of freezing over £160,000 in the charity’s bank account.

Due to this series of failings, both of the charity’s trustees were removed from their positions, and are now disqualified from acting as a trustee or holding a senior management position in any charity in England and Wales. The inquiry also took the protective step of appointing an interim manager to manage and administer the charity and make a determination on its future viability.

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

What has happened at this charity is unacceptable and a clear failing on the part of the charity’s trustees as custodians for their charity. Our actions will reassure the public that abuse of this kind will not be tolerated.

Whilst instances of abuse of charities for terrorism are rare, such links undermine public trust and confidence in charities, and the vital work that charities do. It is right that those responsible have been held to account for their actions.

The interim manager determined that ultimately, the charity did not have a viable future and dissolved the charity, redistributing over £132,000 of charitable funds to 5 registered charities in the Stoke-on-Trent area.

The full report of the inquiry is available on GOV.UK.

Ends

Notes to Editors

• The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales
• The Commission’s inquiry into Fazal Ellahi Charitable Trust closed on 3 May 2019
• The interim manager was discharged on 24 February 2019 following the charity’s dissolution
• The Commission previously considered that the charity had ceased to operate after trustees failed to submit its annual financial accounts or respond to repeated correspondence from the Commission. However, despite its removal from the register in 2009, the charity continued to operate including running a mosque and religious classes for children.
• Section 84A of the Charities Act allows the Commission to direct trustees not to take or continue certain actions.
• Section 79(4) of the Charities Act allows the Commission to remove individuals from acting as trustees, employees, agents or officers of a charity. As a consequence of this they are then disqualified from being a trustee or holding a senior management position in any charity in England and Wales, regardless of whether it is registered with the Commission. It is an offence to act as a trustee whilst disqualified.
• Section 79(3)(d) allows the Commission to ‘freeze’ charitable funds or property or otherwise not to part with property without the Commission’s prior consent.

The oil and gas fiscal forum has taken place, with talks between government and industry leaders focused on the sector’s strengths and what it needs to continue to thrive.

The event was timed to coincide with a call for evidence on strengthening the UK’s decommissioning industry which closes next week.

The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Robert Jenrick, chaired discussions and listened to local concerns. He underlined how important the North East of Scotland is to the UK economy. The industry has contributed over £330 billion in taxes to the UK economy. Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Robert Jenrick said:

The offshore oil and gas sector has been an integral part of the economy for the last fifty years and will continue to be so for decades to come. It supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and delivers half of our national energy needs.

That is why we are backing the industry with an internationally competitive tax system.

The meeting was attended by senior representatives from energy companies such as BP and Shell, as well as supply chain companies and the industry regulator, the Oil & Gas Authority.

The minister used the meeting to discuss the opportunities and challenges posed to the sector as the basin matures, including the increasing amounts of decommissioning activity and the wider energy transition. He reiterated the importance that the government places on the oil and gas industry, including the continued support for a competitive fiscal regime that provides stability for the industry – protecting jobs and encouraging investment.

The Queen has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Graham Barham Usher, BSc, MA, Suffragan Bishop of Dudley, for election as Bishop of Norwich in succession to The Right Reverend Graham Richard James, BA, following his resignation on 28th February 2019.

Background

The Right Reverend Graham Barham Usher, studied ecological science at the University of Edinburgh and theology at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He trained for ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge. He served his title at St Mary the Virgin, Nunthorpe, in the Diocese of York and was ordained priest in 1997. Following the completion of his curacy in 1999, Graham was appointed Vicar of Holy Trinity, North Ormesby. In 2004 he became Rector of Hexham in the Diocese of Newcastle and had the additional responsibility of Area Dean of Hexham between 2006 and 2011. In 2007 he was also appointed Honorary Canon of St Cyprian’s Cathedral in Kumasi, Ghana.

Graham took up his current appointment as Bishop of Dudley in 2014. Graham maintains an interest in ecology as one of the Church of England’s environmental bishops and in medical ethics as a board member of the Human Tissue Authority.

From the creation of new polymers to the use of AI and deep learning to monitor railway tunnels, the Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Best of the Best awards have recognised exceptional outcomes from industry-academic partnerships supported through the highly-valued KTP programme.

The new awards celebrate the strength and diversity of impact made possible with Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs). The awards were judged on criteria including business growth, innovation, transformative change and team and individual contributions.

KTPs are 3-way partnerships between UK businesses, academic teams and qualified postgraduates that support advances in business-led innovation through greater use of knowledge, technology and skills.

Best KTP partnership

The winner of the Best KTP Partnership award is GeckoTech Solutions, Glasgow Caledonian University and associate Dr Mark Jenkins. GeckoTech developed new means of structural condition monitoring through the development of computer vision, signal processing and machine learning.

The other finalists were:

• Toffeln from Bristol, the University of Salford and associate Jenny Anderson, creating a mass customisation strategy for workplace footwear
• Gloucester Wildlife Trust, the University of the West of England and associate Dr Gemma Jerome, using green infrastructure and a whole-life integrated approach to new commercial products

Engineering excellence

The winner of the Engineering Excellence Award is LMK Thermosafe from Haverhill, which entered a KTP with Queen Mary, University of London and associate Harshit Powal to develop novel conductive polymer composites.

The other finalists were:

• Spirent Communications from West Sussex, with the University of Bath and associate Dr Talini Pinto Jayawardena, developing satellite systems with a new threat simulation capabilities
• Geckotech Solutions from Edinburgh, Glasgow Caledonian University and associate Dr Mark Jenkins

Business impact

The winner of the Business Impact Award is specialist ticket company BemroseBooth Paragon from, the University of Hull and associate Haydn Ward, who refined the technology for producing information-storing magnetic strips on tickets.

Business Impact finalists were:

• Principle Healthcare from Skipton, the University of Bradford and associate Dr Suyog Aher, researching in-house granulation technology for the company’s nutritional supplements
• Recycling Lives from Preston, the University of Central Lancashire and associate Dr Ala Khodie devised a process to transform residue from automotive landfill waste into electrical energy

Outstanding contribution

Finally, the winner for Outstanding Contribution from a Knowledge Base KTP Support team was Queen’s University Belfast.

The finalists were:

Best future innovator

The Best Future Innovator winners were previously announced, and include:

• Simon Kingston, EventMap, and the University of Nottingham
• Sean Howson, Mainstream Instruments, and the University of Huddersfield
• Ryan Jessop, Clicksco UK, and Durham University
• Radovan Gallo, Sarissa Biomedical, and Aston University
• Xiaojing Zhu, RGH Rubber & Plastics, and the University of Hertfordshire