The FCA have also appointed Mr Randell as the Chair of the Payments Systems Regulator (PSR), the economic regulator for the UK’s payment systems industry, from the same date. He will replace the outgoing Chair of the FCA and PSR, John Griffith-Jones. … read more
A scheme to encourage the best experienced professionals to swap the boardroom for the classroom is to be backed by government funding to expand into Hastings, School Standards Minister Nick Gibb has been announced today (5 January). Now Teach – a cha… read more
HMA Jan Thompson in her veteran Skoda MB car. Photo by Libor Fojtik/Economia, 2017.
After much soul-searching, I have decided that my beloved embecko belongs here in the Czech Republic where it has spent the first 50 years of its life. So, hard though it is to part with it, I would like to auction it to raise money for one of my favourite charities Sue Ryder. This is a British charity which has been providing hospice care and assistance to those in need in the Czech Republic, and support to their families, since 1998.
If you are interested, please send your bid by e-mail to prague.reception@fco.gov.uk by 12:00 (noon) on Wednesday 10 January. The car will go to whomever enters the highest bid, and the proceeds will go to Domov Sue Ryder, z.ú., in Prague. If you have any questions before then, we will try to answer them. The floor price is 30 000 Kč.
I want my dear embecko to go to a good home. So please only bid if you will look after it well.
Please join me in supporting Sue Ryder!
Jan Thompson, British Ambassador to the Czech Republic
Conditions of auction and deadlines are available here. Sue Ryder Czech Republic. Photo by Libor Fojtik/Economia, 2017.
The Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State had an in-depth constructive discussion on developments in Iran and the protests there. They agreed on the importance of the right of freedom of expression. They also agreed that human rights in Iran needed to be fully respected in handling the demonstrations and undertook to monitor the situation closely. The Foreign Secretary reiterated the UK’s ongoing commitment to the Iran nuclear deal and to working with our allies and partners to address Iran’s destabilising activities in the region.
On the crises in the Middle East, they discussed the importance of moving forward on a process aiming at a political settlement in Yemen and the need to reinvigorate the political process on Syria.
They also agreed to maintain the pressure on North Korea to end their illegal nuclear programme.
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read moreMore than 76,500 (91%) of farmers in England received their 2017 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) money by the end of December.
RPA Chief Executive Paul Caldwell said:
We understand how important BPS payments are to farmers and their businesses. That’s why RPA staff have worked really hard to get money into bank accounts in the first month of the payment window, injecting just over £1.45 billion into the farming and wider rural economy. I’m very grateful to them for all their work so far.
We know there are still farmers waiting for payments and will make them as soon as we can. This month we will communicate directly with those farmers who are still to be paid to help them plan.
BPS payments are made direct to bank accounts so farmers should make sure RPA has the most up-to-date account details. Once a payment has been made a remittance advice is sent in the post, confirming the amount paid. A claim statement will also be sent to explain how payments have been worked out.
More information on BPS 2017, including scheme rules and details of how payments are calculated, is available at GOV.UK/rpa/bps2017.
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