The court heard how during a routine market inspection by MMO officers on 19 December 2017, 39 boxes of bass weighing 1118.70 kg were identified and labelled as being landed by Top Dog.

Top Dog is a 4 metre fishing vessel owned and operated by Dean Rollason since 2008. The vessel is licensed to fish for bass using gill nets, trawls and seinnes but did not have an authorisation to fish for bass using hooks and lines.

When MMO systems were checked it was found that Top Dog had landed a total of 3,645.60kg bass between 1 November 2017 and 31 January 2018.

When interviewed by MMO officers Mr Rollason admitted that the full 3,645.60kg of bass was caught using hooks and lines. He stated he mistakenly believed his fishing authorisation included the use of hooks and lines.

Five charges were brought before the court for breaching fishing licence conditions by catching bass using hooks and lines. A number of similar offences were taken into consideration by the Court.

Mr Rollason pleaded guilty to all charges and was fined £2,500 (£500 for each offence), ordered to pay £4,050 in costs and a victim surcharge of £50.

The funding injection is part of the existing £5.6bn deal with defence supplier QinetiQ, which trials and tests everything from missile systems to underwater sensors and night vision capabilities.

The funding will support the employment of around 1,800 people across 16 MOD-owned testing sites through the Long Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA) with QinetiQ.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

Ensuring our cutting-edge equipment is tried and tested before it is sent to the frontline is crucial to our military’s capability.

This £1.3bn investment will not only guarantee our Armed Forces’ have the reliable, state-of-the-art weaponry they need, but will also support jobs across the nation.

The £1.3bn boost, which will also deliver £85m of savings and modernises the contract mechanics, will ensure essential test and evaluation services for many of the MOD’s high-profile programmes continue to be supported until March 2028.

Those programmes include the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers and the Dreadnought submarines.

As well as the funding injection, QinetiQ and the MOD have agreed a portfolio of investments, worth £190m, to improve capability resilience and to ensure that the Test and Evaluation sites around the country, including MOD Pendine in Wales, MOD British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre (BUTEC) at Kyle of Lochalsh in Scotland, and MOD Boscombe Down in England, remain fully operational.

The latest £1.3bn commitment will also cover the running costs of training services, equipment and the operational staff that support the test and evaluation ranges.

Chief Executive Officer at DE&S, Sir Simon Bollom said:

This latest contract amendment under the LTPA demonstrates how we are continuing to support our key defence programmes by investing in essential test and evaluation services.

This is another example of how DE&S is working collaboratively with industry and the Front Line Commands to ensure our Armed Forces have the best value equipment and training to meet the operational demand.

QinetiQ Chief Executive, Steve Wadey said:

Today’s agreement enhances our contribution to the safety and operational effectiveness of UK armed forces in an era when threats to our security remain acute and are changing rapidly.

In line with our strategy, we are introducing innovative ways of working and making selective investments to reinforce the UK’s position as a world-leader in the generation and assurance of military capability. This will enable us to support the MOD’s future programmes and win more work from both UK and international customers.

Two years on from the horrific chemical weapons attacks that took place in Khan Sheikhoun, and almost one year since the attack in Douma, we the United States, United Kingdom and France warn against, and remain firm in our resolve to respond appropriately to, any use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. The regime’s history of repeatedly using chemical weapons against its own people cannot be disputed, and we remain determined to hold it accountable for indiscriminately killing innocent men, women and children with these heinous weapons. These attacks violate international norms, have caused extreme suffering, and contributed to a worsening of the already acute humanitarian crisis in Syria.

The Assad regime was shielded from being held immediately accountable for its continued use of chemical weapons, in particular in the United Nations Security Council, with the dismantling of the independent investigative mechanism designed to attribute responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Responsible states have remained committed to upholding the prohibition against chemical weapons and ensuring that there will be no impunity for those who use, seek to use, or protect those who use these weapons, in particular by strengthening the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team will now work to identify the perpetrators of chemical weapons use in Syria, an important step in ensuring accountability. The United States, the United Kingdom, and France reaffirm their strong resolve to work jointly in achieving this practical goal.

Only a credible, negotiated political settlement, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254, can end the conflict in Syria. The Assad regime must not repeat the use of chemical weapons in Syria. There should be no doubt as to our determination to act strongly and swiftly should the Assad regime use these weapons again in the future.

The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is holding a collaboration event for the Predictive Cyber Analytics competition.

The purpose of the event is to foster exciting collaborative projects with the potential to bid into phase 2 of the competition.

As part of this event, suppliers funded under Phase 1 of the competition will be delivering a short presentation on the work they are undertaking.

To participate in this collaboration event please register by going to the Eventbrite page.

Please note that places for this event are limited and if the event is oversubscribed, we reserve the right to limit attendance if needed.

In August 2018, DASA launched Phase 1 of the Predictive Cyber Analytics Competition.

Phase 1 of this competition sought proposals to:

• predict the most likely cyber events, preferably with a focus on forecasting future cyber threats attacks, events and actions allowing defence and security to better prepare for, anticipate and counter future threats
• predict optimal defensive cyber action
• use the predictions to enable proactive defence in a hostile and contested cyber environment, thereby reducing the impact of an attack and it’s likelihood of success

Overall 7 bids were successful with total funding of £920.4k awarded.

Phase 2 of the competition will be launching later this year and will be open to both new and existing suppliers.

Further details will be released on the DASA website.

If you have any queries, please do contact us at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

Her Majesty The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of The Rt Hon Dame Victoria Sharp DBE as the President of the Queen’s Bench Division from 23 June 2019. This appointment will follow the retirement of Sir Brian Leveson on 22 June 2019.

Dame Victoria Sharp DBE will be the first woman President of the Queen’s Bench Division.

Biography of candidate

Dame Victoria Sharp DBE read law at Bristol University, was called to the Bar in 1979 and took Silk (QC) in 2001. She was appointed as a Recorder in 1998, a Deputy High Court Judge in 2008 and a High Court Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division in 2009. Dame Victoria was Presiding Judge of the Western Circuit from 2012 to 2013 and was appointed a Lady Justice of Appeal in 2013. In 2016 she was appointed Vice President of the Queen’s Bench Division and a member of the Judicial Executive Board and Judges’ Council.

The Appointment

The appointment of the President of the Queen’s Bench Division was made by Her Majesty The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor following the recommendation of an independent selection panel chaired by Lord Burnett of Maldon, the Lord Chief Justice. The other panel members were: The President of the Supreme Court, Baroness Hale, Professor Lord Kakkar (Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission), Ms Jane Furniss CBE (Lay JAC Commissioner) and Professor Emily Jackson (Professor of Law and former JAC Commissioner).

The President of the Queen’s Bench Division is responsible for the work of the Queen’s Bench Division and is in charge of the Administrative Court. The work of the Division consists of crime and a wide range of civil claims including personal injuries claims, negligence, breach of contract, libel and slander (defamation), non-payment of debt and possession of land. The Commercial Court, Admiralty Court and Technology and Construction Court are also part of the Queen’s Bench Division.

The Exercise

This selection exercise was run under the relevant sections of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, as amended by the Crime and Courts Act 2013, and the Judicial Appointments Regulations 2013.

In accordance with section 70 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the panel determined the selection process to be followed. As required by regulation 12 of the Judicial Appointments Regulations 2013, the Lord Chancellor was consulted as part of the selection process.

In accordance with sections 2(1) and 10(3) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, the selection exercise was open to all applicants who satisfy the judicial-appointment eligibility condition on a 7 year basis, or are judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Court of Appeal, or High Court.