• Environment Agency enforcement action leads to civil sanctions for 3 companies

• £87,000 to go to environmental charities

• Benefits include species and habitats enhancement, community engagement, and improved visitor access to natural environments

A tech firm, a drinks company and a home furnisher will pay a total of almost £87,000 to good causes after they failed to comply with packaging waste regulations designed to protect the environment.

Softcat plc, a well-known IT infrastructure and services provider based in Marlow, has pledged £35,803.99 to the National Trust, after failing to comply with the law for more than a decade.

Meanwhile, alcoholic drinks giant Sazerac UK Limited, based in Hampton Wick, will contribute £45,088.49 to Surrey Wildlife Trust after failure to comply from 2017 to 2019.

And iconic furniture name La-Z-Boy UK Limited, based in Maidenhead, will give £5,736.89 to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, due to non-compliance in 2020.

All 3 recognised that they had failed to comply with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 (as amended), which ensure that businesses fund the recycling of the packaging waste that they place on the UK market.

By failing to register with a compliance scheme and to take reasonable steps to recover and recycle packaging waste, the businesses also avoided paying a charge based on how much packaging they got through in the same period.

The money paid to the charities will help provide and protect local wildlife habitats and wetland areas, and improve people’s access to and enjoyment of these places.

Environment Agency senior technical officer Jake Richardson said:

Any company handling more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year, and with a turnover of above £2 million, must register with the Environment Agency or a packaging compliance scheme, and meet their responsibilities for recycling waste packaging.

If companies fail to meet their obligations under environmental law, we will take action to ensure that they change their ways.

The Environment Agency accepted proactive enforcement undertaking offers from all of the companies, a type of civil sanction which allows businesses to make amends while demonstrating how they will comply with the law in future.

The companies each agreed to register with a compliance scheme, revise internal processes and assign a responsible person.

Mr Richardson added:

The companies also agreed to take measures to ensure they comply with their packaging waste responsibilities in the future.

As well as the charitable contributions, they paid the Environment Agency’s full costs.

We’re satisfied that they won’t repeat their mistakes.

The Environment Agency uses enforcement undertakings for suitable cases, in accordance with its enforcement and sanctions policy. It reserves prosecutions for cases where evidence shows high levels of culpability and serious environmental harm.

Anyone who spots pollution should report it to the Environment Agency via its free 24-hour incident hotline: 0800 80 70 60.

La-Z-Boy UK Limited, 6 Bell Street, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 1BU

The offences relate to failure to comply for registration year 2020, including failure to:

The company will:

• register with a compliance scheme

• revise its internal work procedures

• assign a responsible person

• implement a new methodology

• cover the Environment Agency’s costs

• contribute £5,736.89 to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

La-Z-Boy UK Limited has chosen to make a financial contribution to the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust’s Moor Copse project, which aims to:

• Maintain the biodiversity of a very scarce habitat in the UK

• Increasing the number of important grassland species such as yellow rattle, common knapweed, great burnet, orchids, and crested dog’s tail, on the drier grassland.

• On the wetter parts of the grassland, in hollows and furrows, maintain and increase species such as meadowsweet, water avens, ragged robin and marsh marigold

• Enhance the visitor experience.

Sazerac UK Limited, 60 Marina Place, Hampton Wick, Kingston Upon Thames KT1 4BH

The offences relate to failure to comply for years 2017 to 2019 inclusive, including failure to:

The company will:

• register with a compliance scheme

• revise its internal work procedures

• introduce director-level sign-off procedures

• implement a new methodology

• assign a responsible person

• provide regular updates and training

• cover the Environment Agency’s costs

• contribute £45,088.49 to Surrey Wildlife Trust.

Sazerac UK Limited has chosen to make a financial contribution to The Surrey Wildlife Trust’s ‘Empowering communities’ project, which aims to:

• Engage, inspire and upskill local community groups to help reverse the decline of pollinator species through creating green corridors and space for nature to move, adapt and thrive.

• Create and restore habitat within key biodiversity areas.

• Support local groups and produce toolkits for communities.

Softcat PLC, Solar House, Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 1LW

The offences relate to failure to comply for years 2007 to 2020 inclusive, including failure to:

The company will:

• register with a compliance scheme

• implement a new written procedure

• assign a responsible person

• cover the Environment Agency’s costs

• contribute £35,803.99 to the National Trust.

Softcat Plc has chosen to make a financial contribution to the National Trust’s Langham Pond Boardwalk project, which aims to:

• alleviate the impact of visitors on the surrounding landscape through the installation of 60m of boardwalks at key areas.

• Create new access to the wetland which was previously inaccessible before.

• Help maintain the natural flora, fauna and British duckweed which supports populations of some of the UK’s rarest species.

• Enhance the visitor experience.

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Thank you, Mr Chair. It is now over 250 days since we, along with the rest of the world, witnessed the start of President Putin’s unprovoked, premeditated and barbaric attack on Ukraine. Throughout this time, we have highlighted the truth in the face of Russia’s disinformation and propaganda.  In addition to the horrendous violence Russia has and continues inflict on the Ukrainian people, there has been an enormous cost to the people of Russia too.  Thousands of young Russian lives have been lost on land, at sea and in the air; fighting in an illegal war of choice based on contrived rationales, confused narratives and shifting goals. This is not conjecture, this is not opinion, it is fact.

The failures of Putin’s horrendous adventurism are becoming increasingly apparent to the Russian people.  They are becoming increasingly aware that their recently mobilised family members, neighbours and friends are being badly trained, badly equipped and then sent to the battlefield to reinforce poorly equipped, poorly led and demoralised professional soldiers.  It is perhaps no wonder then that so many Russians have chosen to flee their own country to avoid mobilisation.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Russian military leaders continue to commit more and more Russian troops to the war in an attempt to overcome their failures.  Due to low morale and a reluctance to fight, Russian forces have now reportedly started to deploy “barrier troops” or “block units”.  These units threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives.

Low morale, indiscipline and dysfunction continues to reach the highest levels of Russia’s military leadership too.  On 3 November, Major General Alexander Linkov was reportedly appointed acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District.  Linkov replaces Colonel General Alexander Lapin who was purportedly removed from office at the end of October.  If confirmed, this is just the latest in a series of dismissals of senior Russian military commanders since the onset of the invasion last February, including the Commanders of the Eastern, Southern, and Western Military Districts.  A pattern of blame against senior Russian military commanders for failures to achieve President Putin’s objectives on the battlefield.

It is worth noting that Colonel General Lapin had been widely criticised for poor performance on the battlefield in Ukraine by both Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin.  The latter appears to be gaining increasing influence in the Kremlin, with his private military company being increasingly relied upon to provide fundamental security tasks normally expected of the Russian State.

For example, on 6 November, Prigozhin announced the creation of centres for the training and management of “people’s militias” in Belgorod and Kursk oblasts in

Russia. These “people’s militias” probably function outside the Russian MOD’s structure and chain of command. Their stated intent is to establish units to help defend Russia’s borders.

Meanwhile, as Russia scrambles to fortify its defensive lines throughout eastern Ukraine, Prigozhin announced the construction of a fortified ‘Wagner Line’ of defences in Luhansk oblast. The construction represents a significant effort to prepare defences in depth behind the current Russian front line and protect a key logistics line of communication.

However, as we noted last week, Wagner’s recruitment of Russian convicts including individuals suffering from serious diseases and medical conditions, is a sign of desperation to recruit numbers not fighters.  According to the Ukrainian Centre for Researching and Combating Hybrid Threats, 500 Wagner recruited convicts had died fighting in Ukraine by mid-October. In total, the centre assesses 800-1000 Wagner recruits have likely died in Ukraine. Wagner numbers have been further depleted by substantial non-fatal casualties.

That Wagner, a private military company linked to human rights abuses, is being increasingly relied upon to conduct roles normally expected of a government’s security and military apparatus is itself a telling indicator of the parlous state of Putin’s war machine: more defeats; more Generals sacked; more demoralised troops; more discontent amongst the Russian population; and more critique from Russia’s elites.

Mr Chair, Putin and the Russian military leadership have consistently underestimated the will, determination and courage of the Ukrainian military and civilians to defend their homeland from a brutal and barbaric invader.  They continue to fail to understand that every horrendous attack strengthens the Ukrainian resolve and that of its friends, like the UK, who remain steadfast in our support – for however long it takes – to ensure that the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the independence of Ukraine is fully restored.  Thank you.

Introduction

Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us at this Cyber Essentials showcase event. I’m very excited to be here today, and it is great to see so many people here from a range of organisations including large and small businesses, government departments, trade bodies and charities. I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to attend and celebrate this fantastic event with all of us here at DCMS.

It has been great to hear about the Cyber Essentials journey from Chris [Pinder, IASME] and Lindy [Cameron, CEO, National Cyber Security Centre], and some of the noteworthy milestones of the scheme over the past 8 years. It is amazing to be able to say that the 100,000th certificate was awarded a few months ago, and I know that many of you here today are Cyber Essentials certified and are counted in that number.

The UK government is working to make the UK the safest place to live and work online. DCMS plays a critical role in strengthening the UK’s cyber ecosystem and building a resilient and thriving digital UK, in line with our £2.6 billion National Cyber Strategy. As part of that strategy, we are committed to increasing the uptake of standards such as Cyber Essentials. To date, Cyber Essentials has had a profound impact in driving improved cyber security across a wide range of organisations. It is becoming increasingly embedded within our economy and it is playing a vital role in driving a more resilient and prosperous UK.

We regularly hear from organisations that are benefitting from the scheme – from large blue chip companies to small organisations and local charities, helping the most vulnerable in society – a small managed service provider in Northern Ireland, a nursing home in Liverpool, a domestic abuse charity in the Midlands and a charity supporting those with visual or hearing loss in Scotland – are just a few organisations that have gone through the Cyber Essentials scheme recently.

We have heard a lot about growth today, not just of the Cyber Essentials scheme itself but of the entire ecosystem that surrounds it. It is also helping improve all organisations’ productivity and growth as they securely embrace digital technologies. The government’s vision is for this growth to continue, especially in the face of economic adversity. We want to raise awareness of the scheme, to see an exponential increase in the number of Cyber Essentials certifications and to raise the baseline of cyber resilience across the economy. We want all organisations in the UK to be working towards Cyber Essentials. To do this, we need organisations to be asking their suppliers, partners and other third parties they engage with to have it. Most suppliers to government need to have Cyber Essentials and we believe that organisations across the wider economy should be asking their own suppliers to do likewise and that is our ask of you today – to promote and use Cyber Essentials as a key tool when assessing the security of your suppliers.

Supply chains

I know a lot of you are grappling with cyber security challenges in your supply chains. Worrying incidents have shown us that exploiting supply chain vulnerabilities can have severe, far reaching consequences. In the supply chain call for views we published last year, 46% of organisations said a lack of tools is a severe barrier to managing their supplier risk.

I believe Cyber Essentials has an important role to play here. It is not a silver bullet and does not guarantee organisations won’t  fall victim to a cyber attack, but it does provide protection and resilience for so many. In our engagements with industry, including many of you, we are seeing an increasing number of organisations use Cyber Essentials as a tool to assure themselves that third parties, including suppliers, have implemented minimum cyber security controls.

For example, the NHS recently introduced a requirement for IT suppliers to have Cyber Essentials, thus raising the bar for those organisations that wish to do business with the NHS.  Other organisations have seen reduced costs and increased efficiency in their due diligence processes by requiring suppliers to have Cyber Essentials. A well known property website recently told us that asking for Cyber Essentials from suppliers has reduced their due diligence process from days to hours. For them, Cyber Essentials has a commercial benefit and is saving them money.

In a similar vein, we are delighted to announce that DCMS is now working in partnership with St James’s Place, a large financial services firm, who have recently required all of their partners to become Cyber Essentials Plus certified. We will hear more from them in our panel discussion in just a few minutes, but this is a great example of an organisation proactively driving improved security practices in those organisations they work so closely with.

Cyber Essentials Pathways

Now, it would be remiss of me to not recognise the fact that for some organisations, especially those with large and complex IT infrastructures, it is a struggle to comply with all aspects of Cyber Essentials. As Lindy mentioned, we are looking forward to seeing the results of the Cyber Essentials Pathways pilot and anticipate this will provide a further opportunity for organisations to attain Cyber Essentials. We want to ensure that being Cyber Essentials certified is accessible for all organisations. To this end, we are also in the process of launching an evaluation of the scheme, to help us identify and address any barriers that organisations face when going through the Cyber Essentials process.

Conclusion

On that note, I wanted to close by saying that my officials and I would love to hear from you, to better understand how DCMS and industry can work together to ensure Cyber Essentials is an effective certification scheme. I invite you to collaborate with us, to join us on the journey to improve Cyber Essentials and ensure it continues to raise the baseline level of cyber security across our supply chains.

The new government remains intent on improving cyber security across our economy. Our Product Security and Telecoms Infrastructure Bill is close to completing its passage through Parliament and when it becomes law, this will ensure much better security in consumer IoT products. We are also working to improve our cyber resilience legislation and expand the number of skilled people working in cyber security. We’re continuing to build our digital identity framework, which will help the public and businesses verify identities in an easy, secure and trustworthy manner.

Together we can reduce the social and economic harm that we continue to see from cyber security attacks and drive a more resilient and prosperous UK. Thank you once again for working with us on this amazing scheme.