Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited, more commonly known as SPAC Nation, was wound up in the public interest in the High Court on 9 June 2022 before Judge Burton. The Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator of the company.

The court heard that SPAC Nation was incorporated in 2012, a charity set up to advance Christianity. Much of its charitable work was based in London, working particularly with vulnerable people, youth, and offenders.

Initially, the church group received positive reviews and media attention. But by late 2019 SPAC Nation was subject to media scrutiny following allegations by former church members they had been financially exploited by senior church personnel.

The Insolvency Service received complaints about SPAC Nation before instigating its own confidential enquiries into the church group’s activities.

Investigators interviewed one of the company’s directors, Adedapo Olugbenga Adegboyega, who was also known as Dapo Adegboyega or Pastor Dapo. During interviews, Mr Adegboyega said that the church group had over 2,000 members and 200 ordained ministers and pastors but failed to provide any supporting information.

Further enquiries found that SPAC Nation either failed to comply or only partially complied with statutory requirements, including providing data to support claimed donations, and accounting records in support of £1.87 million of expenditure.

The company’s financial statements in the two years to 31 December 2019 set out £610,000 of rent expenditure. However, the company did not have a single base of its own and would hire venues across London to hold services, at significant expense.

Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited was wound-up after the court concluded the company operated with a lack of transparency, filed suspicious or incorrect accounts, and was insolvent at the time of the hearing.

It was also recognised that the company provided inconsistent information to the Insolvency Service and Charity Commission, and failed to deliver up adequate accounting records

The company remains subject of a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission, who are examining financial, governance and safeguarding matters at the charity.

Edna Okhiria, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

While SPAC Nation claimed it had noble intentions to support vulnerable and young people, our enquiries uncovered a different side of the charity. There were clear concerns around how the church group managed its affairs and SPAC Nation failed to properly account for income received from donations and other expenditure.

The court recognised the severity of SPAC Nation’s actions and this sends a strong message that proper records and accounts must be maintained, even if you’re a charity.

All enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to the Official Receiver of the Public Interest Unit: 16th Floor, 1 Westfield Avenue, Stratford, London, E20 1HZ or piu.or@insolvency.gov.uk.

Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited (company number 08208638), was incorporated on 10 September 2012. Its registered address is that of a serviced office provider at 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX.

The petition was presented by The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 18 January 2022 in the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts in England and Wales (CR-2022-000106), under the provisions of section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 following confidential enquiries by Company Investigations under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985, as amended.

Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for BEIS. Further information about live company investigations is available here.

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

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Plans outlined as part of London Tech Week include proposals to replace unnecessary paperwork to deliver around £1 billion in business savings

• Will give researchers more flexibility to conduct life-saving scientific research and deliver major breakthroughs to improve people’s lives

Tougher fines for firms hounding people with nuisance calls and a clampdown on bureaucracy, red tape and pointless paperwork are part of reforms to transform the UK’s data laws for the digital age and seize the benefits of Brexit.

Data fuels innovation in every area of the global economy. For consumers, data powers the everyday apps they use to get around, shop online and manage finances. It helps public and private sector organisations make better decisions so they can trade, manufacture and deliver public services more effectively. It was used efficiently and responsibly in the nation’s fight against COVID-19 to model and ultimately control the spread of the virus.

Data-driven trade generated nearly three quarters of the UK’s total service exports and generated an estimated £234 billion for the economy in 2019.

To round off London Tech Week, the government is publishing its response to a consultation which aims to harness the power of data to help British businesses trade abroad, boost the UK’s position as a science and technology superpower, and improve people’s everyday lives.

It sets out how the Data Reform Bill announced in this year’s Queen’s Speech will strengthen the UK’s high data protection standards while reducing burdens on businesses to deliver around £1 billion in cost savings that they can use to grow their business, boosting the economy.

The plans will modernise the Information Commissioner’s Office, the data regulator, so it can better help businesses comply with the law. It will also gain tougher powers to crack down on nuisance calls.

As well as empowering the UK to strike new data partnerships, the reforms will fuel the responsible use of data for innovation by providing clearer definitions on how consent is obtained for research.

Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

Today is an important step in cementing post-Brexit Britain’s position as a science and tech superpower. Our new Data Reform Bill will make it easier for businesses and researchers to unlock the power of data to grow the economy and improve society, but retains our global gold standard for data protection.

Outside of the EU we can ensure people can control their personal  data, while preventing businesses, researchers and civil society from being held back by a lack of clarity and cumbersome EU legislation.

John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner, said:

I share and support the ambition of these reforms.

I am pleased to see the government has taken our concerns about independence on board. Data protection law needs to give people confidence to share their information to use the products and services that power our economy and society. The proposed changes will ensure my office can continue to operate as a trusted, fair and impartial regulator, and enable us to be more flexible and target our action in response to the greatest harms.

We look forward to continuing to work constructively with the government as the proposals are progressed and will continue to monitor how these reforms are expressed in the Bill.

FURTHER INFO

Reducing burdens on businesses

Since the European Union’s highly complex General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented in the UK four years ago, many organisations have been held back from using data as dynamically as they could.

A lack of clarity in the legislation has led to an over-reliance on ‘box-ticking’ to seek consent from individuals to process their personal data to avoid non-compliance. Its largely one-size-fits-all approach, regardless of the relative risk of an individual organisation’s data processing activities, puts disproportionate burdens on small businesses including startups and scaleups.

The government’s new data protection rules will be focused on outcomes to reduce unnecessary burdens on businesses.

This bill will remove the UK GDPR’s prescriptive requirements giving organisations little flexibility about how they manage data risks – including the need for certain organisations, such as small businesses, to have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) and to undertake lengthy impact assessments.

It means a small business such as an independent pharmacist won’t have to recruit an independent DPO to fulfil the requirements of UK GDPR, provided they can manage risks effectively themselves, and they will not have to fill out unnecessary forms where the risk is low.

Organisations will still be required to have a privacy management programme to ensure they are accountable for how they process personal data. The same high data protection standards will remain but organisations will have more flexibility to determine how they meet these standards.

Analysis by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) shows the reforms will create more than £1 billion in business savings over ten years by reducing these burdens on all businesses.

Protecting consumers from nuisance calls and unnecessary cookies

The new Bill will increase fines for nuisance calls and texts and other serious data breaches under the UK’s existing Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which aim to prevent companies contacting people for marketing purposes without consent.

The fines will increase from the current maximum of £500,000 and be brought in line with current UK GDPR penalties which are up to four per cent global turnover or £17.5 million, whichever is greater.

PECR rules will also be updated to cut down on ‘user consent’ pop-ups and banners – the irritating boxes users currently see on every website – when browsing the internet.

Currently, users have to give their consent for cookies (the data points which allow sites to remember information about an individual’s visit) to be collected. To do so users have to opt in to cookie collection every time they visit a new site.

The government’s new opt-out model for cookies will heavily reduce the need for users to click through consent banners on every website they visit – meaning that people will see far fewer of the frustrating boxes online.

Under the new rules internet users will be better enabled to set an overall approach to how their data is collected and used online – for example via their internet browser settings.

Before the legislative changes are commenced, the government will work with the industry and the regulator to ensure technology is effective and readily available so people can set their online cookie preferences to opt out via automated means. This will help web users to retain choice and control over how their data is used.

Modernising the Information Commissioner’s Office

The ICO will be modernised to have a chair, chief executive and a board to make sure it remains an internationally renowned regulator. The change will introduce a wider set of skills to support robust decision-making and broaden the legal responsibility underpinning the ICO’s work, which currently sits solely with the role of Information Commissioner.

The ICO will have new objectives which will give Parliament and the public better ability to hold the regulator to account. Currently, UK GDPR does not provide the ICO with a clear framework of objectives and duties. It is instead obliged to fulfil a long list of tasks. Clearer objectives to prioritise its activities against and a more modern governance framework will better equip the ICO to fulfil its role and bring it in line with the best practice of other regulators.

Strategic objectives will be set out in the Bill. They will underline the importance of the regulator continuing to uphold data rights and encouraging the responsible use of personal data, but will have greater emphasis on taking into account growth, innovation and competition.

The reforms will introduce a new way for how the ICO develops statutory codes and guidance, which share best practices for organisations using, sharing or storing personal data in specific instances, such as protecting children’s data online.

The ICO will be required to set up a panel of experts in relevant fields when developing each piece of statutory guidance. The Secretary of State will also need to approve ICO statutory codes and guidance before they are presented to Parliament. This will bring the ICO in line with other UK regulators, such as the Electoral Commission and strengthen the accountability of the privacy watchdog when it makes legal rules.

Enabling the innovative use of data

The reforms will further cement the UK’s position as a science superpower by simplifying the legal requirements around research so that scientists are not needlessly impeded from using data to innovate and make major breakthroughs.

The Data Reform Bill will more clearly define the scope of scientific research and give scientists clarity about when they can obtain user consent to collect or use data for broad research purposes.

This removes the need for them to have the ultimate purpose of their research project finalised before collecting data. For example, scientists will be able to rely on the consent a person has given for their data to be used for ‘cancer research’ as opposed to a particular cancer study.

It will enable more groundbreaking research such as the work carried out by researchers from Moorfields Eye Hospital and the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology who made a breakthrough in patient care using AI technology. The researchers successfully trained machine learning technology on thousands of historic de-personalised eye scans to identify signs of eye disease and recommend how patients should be referred for care. This new way of using data has the potential to revolutionise the way professionals carry out eye tests.

Empowering international trade

The UK is committed to maintaining high data protection standards and continuing the free flow of personal data between like-minded countries. The data reforms will support the UK government’s ambitions to strike new data partnerships with important economies and improve international data transfers which a number of technologies rely on, such as GPS navigation, smart home technology and content streaming services.

The government’s International Data Transfer Expert Council, made up of global experts on data, will play a major role helping the UK unlock the benefits of free and secure cross-border data flows.

The group, which combines world-leading academics, organisations such as the World Economic Forum and the Future of Privacy Forum alongside digital industry figures including Google, Mastercard and Microsoft, will be empowered to remove barriers to data flows and ensure services from smart devices to online banking can be provided more reliably, cheaply and securely.

The government continues to work closely with international partners on data adequacy deals with priority countries, including the United States, Australia, the Republic of Korea and Singapore.

Statement from Albania; Australia; Canada; Costa Rica; European Union; Iceland; Japan; Republic of Korea; Republic of Moldova; Montenegro; New Zealand; North Macedonia; Norway; Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu; Ukraine; United Kingdom; and the United States:

“We, the Ministers of the undersigned WTO members, stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. At the 12th Ministerial Conference of the WTO we engaged in finding multilateral solutions to pressing global issues and negotiated to deliver for communities across the globe. This does not represent a normalizing of trading relations with Russia.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine, assisted by Belarus. Belarus’ accession to the WTO was halted in 2020 and we will not consider it further. We stand in unwavering support of Ukraine and will work together to find ways to use trade to support Ukraine to rebuild its economy and society. The Russian Federation’s actions, which have continued unrelenting for more than 15 weeks, are an unprovoked, premeditated attack against a sovereign democratic state. They also constitute an egregious violation of international law, including the UN Charter, and undermine fundamental principles of international peace and security. These actions show the Russian Federation does not respect international institutions, disciplines, and norms.

Russia’s indiscriminate attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and blockades of Ukraine’s seaports have also exacerbated pre-existing problems affecting supply chains in multiple sectors, with 1.7 billion people in over 100 countries now facing severe food, energy and commodity supply issues and price rises.

Together, we insist that the Russian Federation must urgently stop its military aggression against Ukraine and immediately withdraw its troops. We are firmly convinced that the Russian Federation must be held accountable and must cease its actions, which undermine global peace, security and international law.

We will continue to take actions, as WTO Members, that we each consider necessary to protect our essential security interests, and we will continue to impress upon the Russian Federation the urgent need for it to live up to its responsibility to restore and maintain international peace and security.”