Tag Archives: HM Government

Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry today (Friday 8 December) called on communities to support local cultural institutions over the festive break as he visited the Rovers Return set of Britain’s best-loved soap.

Jake Berry walked the famous cobbled street and met the cast and crew of Coronation Street in Manchester to mark Northern Powerhouse Culture Week, and celebrate over 57 years of the household show being broadcast to the nation.

During the trip he threw the spotlight on how government investment is supporting cultural institutions across the North of England, and urged people to get out and celebrate their local highlights.

Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry said:

I can’t think of a more perfect way of marking Culture Week than visiting the set of one of the world’s most iconic TV shows – made right here in the Northern Powerhouse.

As well as being an economic powerhouse, the North of England is also a cultural powerhouse, with hundreds of the country’s best museums, art galleries and other cultural organisations on people’s doorsteps.

Over the festive period, I’d encourage people to try something they haven’t before. From Liverpool’s Albert Docks to Newcastle’s Discovery Museum, let’s enjoy some of the most iconic, well-known and well-loved places the Northern Powerhouse has to offer.

Cultural funding

As part of its commitment to ensuring that the Northern Powerhouse continues to blaze trails in arts and culture industries in the UK, the government has invested:

• £13 million to the Hull City of Culture 2017
• £20 million for the Great Exhibition of the North and for a Northern Cultural Regeneration fund to pave way for future cultural investment in the Northern Powerhouse
• £78 million for the Factory Manchester – Manchester’s new theatre and exhibition space
• and from April 2018, an additional £170 million, or 75% of the Arts Council’s lottery funding, will be invested outside of London, which means an additional 31 cultural institutions and organisations in the North will receive regular government investment

During the visit, the minister also visited the Manchester Museum, which has benefitted from £5 million of government funding, to hear about exciting plans for a new South Asia gallery. This will draw on some of the best of the national collections from the British Museum to engage with the city-region’s diverse communities and tourists.

Culture Week (4-8 December) showcased the amazing talent and industry throughout the North from sports and the arts, to the media and music and film industries. The themes for week included:

• sporting culture – Monday
• arts culture – Tuesday
• exhibiting culture – Wednesday
• media culture (TV, film, gaming) – Thursday
• music culture – Friday

Visit @NPHinfo on Twitter for more information or search #CulturedNorth.

The week coincided with the announcement of 11 bidders for the Northern Cultural Regeneration Fund – a £15 million government investment to help build a lasting regional legacy from the Great Exhibition of the North.

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• Government has identified £1.7 million in back pay for 16,000 workers – more workers than in any previous naming round.
• 260 employers named and fined a total of £1.3 million for underpaying the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates. *Retail, hospitality and hairdressing were the most prolific sectors named in this round.
• In Wales, nine employers were named , amounting to £11,000 in arrears, £9000 in penalties, affecting 14 workers.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) today (8 December) named 260 employers for failing to pay 16,000 workers at least minimum wage rates.

Government investigators identified £1.7 million in back pay for some of the UK’s lowest paid workers and fined employers £1.3 million for underpayment.

Retail, hairdressing and hospitality businesses were among the most prolific offenders in this round. Common reasons for errors made include: failing to pay workers travelling between jobs, deducting money from pay for uniforms and not paying for overtime.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said:

It is unacceptable for employers not to pay their staff the wages they should receive.

Today’s announcement shows how the UK Government is clamping down on the nine employers in Wales who have failed to pay their staff the National Minimum Wage.

I encourage employees who think they are being underpaid to seek Government advice to ensure they receive what they’re entitled to.

The UK Government is working hard to create the right conditions for economic growth and job creation in Wales, but without compromising employee rights.

Business Minister Margot James said:

There is no excuse for not paying staff the wages they’re entitled to and the government will come down hard on businesses that break the rules.

That’s why today we are naming hundreds of employers who have been short changing their workers; and to ensure there are consequences for their wallets as well as their reputation, we’ve levied millions in back pay and fines.

Bryan Sanderson, Chairman of the Low Pay Commission, said:

The Low Pay Commission’s conversations with employers suggest that the risk of being named is encouraging businesses to focus on compliance.

Further, it is good to see that HMRC continues to target large employers who have underpaid a large number of workers, as well as cases involving only a few workers, where workers are at risk of the most serious exploitation. It is imperative that the government keeps up the pressure on all employers who commit breaches of minimum wage law.

If workers are concerned they are not being paid the correct rates then they can seek advice from workplace experts Acas.

Since 2013, the scheme has identified £8 million in back pay for 58,000 workers, with 1,500 employers fined a total of £5 million. This year the government will spend a record £25.3 million on minimum wage enforcement.

Rates will rise again in April 2018, giving young workers in particular the biggest pay boost in a decade.

For more information about your pay, or if you think you might be being underpaid, visit the dedicated National Minimum and Living Wage website

The Welsh firms identified were:

• Mr Martin Brindley Station Cars, Wrexham LL11, failed to pay £5,303.74 to 1 worker.
• Total Site Maintenance Limited, Neath Port Talbot SA12, failed to pay £3,176.62 to 127 workers.
• Brynamman One Stop Limited, Neath Port Talbot SA18, failed to pay £1,252.76 to 1 worker.
• Ron Skinner & Sons Ltd, Blaenau Gwent NP22, failed to pay £863.5 to 2 workers.
• Rothwell & Robertson Limited trading as Ye Olde Bull’s Head Inn, Isle of Anglesey LL58, failed to pay £627.53 to 1 worker.
• Men At Work (Wales) Limited, Conwy LL31, failed to pay £310.8 to 1 worker.
• Mr Stephen Gomes trading as Moksh, Cardiff CF10, failed to pay £263.22 to 2 workers.
• Vale Holiday Parks Limited, Ceredigion SY23, failed to pay £213.38 to 2 workers.
• Schoolhouse Daycare Limited trading as Swansea DVLA Schoolhouse Daycare, Swansea SA6, failed to pay £125.37 to 1 worker

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Renowned experts at the company responsible for the country’s motorways and major A roads are updating the “Design Manual for Roads and Bridges” (DMRB) to make it easier for designers to understand and use.

The DMRB is a cornerstone of the delivery and management of motorway and all-purpose trunk roads across the UK and is a respected document used across the globe.

The modified standards are being published in phases, with the first set being released in 2018 and the full update complete by the end of March 2020.

The re-drafting will be completed using a revolutionary online authoring tool, signalling an important move to digital technology and therefore give the potential for future updates to be more straightforward.

Highways England Chief Highway Engineer, Mike Wilson said:

Highways England is the recognised authority for road design, building and maintenance, and our standards are used across the globe.

This is an exciting time for the highways sector and as we deliver both the government’s £15 billion road investment programme and look ahead to 2020 and beyond, we are delighted to be able to start releasing the first updates to this crucially important document.

We are grateful to our partners in the industry who have supported this significant review which will ensure our roads are designed, built and maintained to the very highest, safest standards.

In April 2015 Highways England began working on a project to review and update the complete suite of over 350 documents and associated Interim Advice Notes (IANs) that make up the manual. This is a specific requirement of the Protocol attached to the Highways England Licence as part of the Government’s Road Investment Strategy.

These changes include making it easier to produce and maintain the manual. Requirements and advice will be easier to distinguish, which will result in fewer departures from the standards required for new schemes and the time/cost associated with these.

Over the years, the existing manual has become difficult to use due to the many revisions and variations in language and style. Following a consultation with key stakeholders and users of the manual, a number of changes have been implemented including a new set of drafting rules that follow best practice from national and international standardisation organisations.

The governance processes are also being updated to streamline the development process of the standards and make it more efficient.

To support this extremely ambitious and demanding programme, Highways England is supported by several leading UK consultants, providing world class expertise, to ensure that the manual is fit for the future. Collaboration among suppliers and leaner ways of working are key to successfully delivering the updates.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

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Details of the completion of the two challenges that make up the Defence and Security Accelerator competition can be found at Future Aviation Security Solutions (FASS): finding explosives hidden in electrical items.

Event summary

Accelerator Innovation Partner Jim Pennycook opened the innovation network event by welcoming the delegates and gave an overview of the day which signposted the research funding opportunities for innovative science and technology providers in this themed competition.

FASS programme overview and keynote address

Tim Cook, Programme Manager for the Department of Transport briefed the audience on the Department of Transport (DoT) FASS programme – the background, current projects currently being funded and future plans to address the barriers to innovation in aviation security.

Parliamentary under Secretary for the Department of Transport Baroness Sugg CBE gave the keynote presentation.

Competition briefing

After coffee break, Tim Cook then gave the audience an overview of this competition and highlighted key points. James MacDonald gave a science and technology perspective and Andy Price provided an airport perspective which brought the challenges to life.

Competition process and overview

Information on the competition’s scope, process and key milestones was briefed by Emma Howe, Accelerator Competition Manager.

How to work with DASA

Mike Madden, Open Call for Innovation Lead then gave an overview and update on DASA and then outlined how organisations can work with the Accelerator and gave advice on how to submit good proposals for funding.

All queries will be answered by email. Send queries to our competition FASS@dft.gsi.gov.uk and DASA accelerator@dstl.gov.uk email inboxes.

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Firth Rixson Metals Limited has been ordered to pay a fine of £80,000 after pleading guilty to polluting a watercourse in Glossop.

The Environment Agency prosecuted the company after over 600 litres of a solution of hydrochloric acid, caustic soda and water polluted nearby Shelf Brook.

This had a significant impact to the brook, resulting in 199 dead brown trout within a 500 metre stretch, with invertebrates also affected over two kilometres. The fins and eyes of the fish were noted to have a burnt appearance.

Member of the public reported incident

A member of the public initially reported the pollution in Shelf Brook to our Incident Hotline in April 2015.

Officers attended the area and found dead fish. Samples taken from the brook and a drain leading from the Firth Rixson Metals site into the brook were found to contain a highly alkaline liquid, made up of various metals, at elevated levels.

As part of Firth Rixson Metal’s manufacturing process, an acid scrubber was used. Hydrochloric acid emissions were neutralised with caustic soda. Below the scrubber was a waste tank in a plastic containment bund.

Environment Agency launched investigation

The Environment Agency investigation identified a valve had been left open. This allowed water into the scrubber unit and the automatic dosing equipment had continued to add caustic soda. Staff failed to respond properly to alarms and a pump, which should have returned the solution, failed to activate.

This resulted in a highly alkaline solution overflowing from the containment bund, which entered the nearby drain to the brook. The company had failed to cap the drain, despite recent advice from local authority inspectors.

Pollution had significant impact

In sentencing, District Judge Davison said Firth Rixson Metals Ltd had allowed a state of affairs to exist which led to the incident.

Mark Easedale, Environment Manager for Greater Manchester, said:

This pollution incident had a significant impact on Shelf Brook, killing brown trout, which are a key indicator species of good water quality. The sentencing sends out a very clear message to anyone whose recklessness and negligence causes serious pollution to the environment. We will not hesitate to take action against polluters.

Our staff work 24/7 to protect people and wildlife from pollution incidents and we encourage people to report such incidents to the Environment Agency’s Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

Firth Rixson Metals Ltd pleaded guilty to causing a water discharge activity not under and to the extent authorised by an Environmental Permit contrary to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010.

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