Tag Archives: HM Government

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Press release: Local skills and jobs in nuclear part of Industrial Strategy

The importance of nuclear and the huge benefits to technical education and local jobs for the Bridgwater area were reaffirmed yesterday when Jesse Norman, the new Energy Minister, visited Hinkley Point and Cannington Court training centre, near Bridgwater, Somerset for the first time.

During the visit the Minister toured the Hinkley Point B power station and the construction site for Hinkley Point C.

He also met apprentices and EDF Energy employees at both the Cannington Court training centre, and the Construction Skills and Innovation Centre.

Energy Minister, Jesse Norman said:

The visit to Hinkley Point C construction project has been fascinating.

This project heralds a new era of nuclear power generation in the UK, and coming here has given me a chance to see low-carbon energy driving local and national economic growth, attracting new businesses and creating high-skilled, well-paid jobs.

These are all key goals of our new UK-wide Industrial Strategy.

Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will provide:

  • 25,000 jobs and apprenticeships during construction
  • An estimated 64% of the £18bn cost of construction to go to UK businesses
  • 900 permanent jobs once running; and
  • £40 million a year to the local economy

Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy’s Nuclear New Build Managing Director, said:

The UK Government has placed its trust in us to deliver Hinkley Point C on time and on budget and this visit is an opportunity to show the Minister the significant progress we have made. We now have more than 1,000 workers on site, carrying out earthworks, building staff accommodation and constructing the jetty which will allow us to bring in many of our supplies by sea.

Hinkley Point C is already achieving some of the aims of the Government’s industrial strategy by creating thousands of jobs and opportunities in the South West and by helping to secure the long-term future of the UK nuclear industry.

The Government is committed to ensuring the country has a secure low carbon energy supply. Hinkley Point C will be a critical part of that, and will inaugurate a new era of UK nuclear power – building on Britain’s strong nuclear legacy.

Currently, the UK has eight nuclear power stations which generate around 20% of power in the UK. Almost all of these existing power stations are due to close by 2030. This underlines why the Government is taking decisions now on how we will ensure we have sufficient and diverse supply fit for future generations.

Hinkley Point C will provide seven per cent of Britain’s electricity needs for sixty years. The Industrial Strategy Green paper released last week included plans for a radical overhaul of technical education to address its historical undervaluation in the UK and provide a credible alternative to the academic route for young people who choose not to go to university.

The strategy sets out plans to enable everyone to develop the skills they need to do the high-paid, higher-skilled jobs of the future.

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HM Government • • •

Press release: Misconduct after failure to comply with Commission

Regulator publishes report of its inquiry into Urban Relief.

The Charity Commission has today concluded its inquiry into Urban Relief (former registered charity number 1114537). The Commission opened an inquiry on 3 February 2015 after a trustee of the charity had been convicted of a number of offences, including managing a brothel, concealing criminal property and using the charity’s bank account to launder funds from the proceeds of crime.

The Commission undertook scrutiny of the charity’s bank accounts and conducted further enquiries, including attempting to meet all the trustees. Although the inquiry’s analysis of the bank account records indicates that the charity did receive and spend funds, the inquiry saw no evidence that those funds were obtained or applied in furtherance of its objects.

Both the convicted trustee and his wife (also a trustee) failed to cooperate with the inquiry despite being ordered to do so by the Commission. The Commission found that 2 of the 4 charity trustees were unaware that their names had been declared to the Commission (see endnote 1).

The inquiry concluded that the trustees were responsible for mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the charity due to a persistent failure to comply with the Commission’s orders and directions. The Commission removed the charity from the register on 21 November 2016 (see endnote 2).

Carl Mehta, Head of Investigations, Enforcement at the Charity Commission, said:

The trustees in this case failed to abide by even the basic duties of trustees and failed to cooperate with our investigation. This charity has now been removed from the register of charities and the trustee involved was held to account by the criminal justice system.

The full report is available on GOV.UK.

Ends

PR 07/17

Notes to editors

  1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
  2. Search for charities on our online register.
  3. Details of how the Commission reports on its regulatory work can be found on GOV.UK.

Endnotes

  1. The Commission established in the inquiry that out of the 4 trustees 2 had never consented to be trustees, or acted in that capacity.
  2. The charity ceased to operate as of August 2014, the last discernable date that any funds were transacted through the charity’s bank account.
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HM Government • • •

Press release: Bishop of Sheffield: Philip North

The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Philip John North for election as Bishop of Sheffield.

The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Philip John North, MA, Suffragan Bishop of Burnley, in the diocese of Blackburn, for election as Bishop of Sheffield in succession to the Right Reverend Steven John Lindsey Croft, MA, PhD, on his translation to the See of Oxford on 6th July 2016.

The Right Reverend Philip North (aged 50), was educated at the University of York and trained for the ministry at Saint Stephen’s House, Oxford. He served his curacy at Sunderland Saint Mary and Saint Peter, in the Diocese of Durham from 1992 to 1996. Since 1997 he has been a member of the Company of Mission Priests.

From 1996 to 2002 he was Vicar of Hartlepool Holy Trinity in Durham Diocese and also served as Area Dean of Hartlepool from 2000 until 2002. From 2002 to 2008 he was Priest Administrator at the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham and from 2004 to 2007 he was also Priest-in-Charge of Hempton in the diocese of Norwich. From 2008 to 2015 he was Team Rector of the Parish of Old Saint Pancras in the Diocese of London. Since 2015 he has been Suffragan Bishop of Burnley.

His interests include current affairs, cycling and walking.

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HM Government • • •

News story: British Embassy Kabul Programme Fund 2017-18

British Embassy Kabul Programme Fund bidding round now open.

The British Embassy Kabul have a dedicated fund for supporting projects which further our priorities in Afghanistan. The fund will support projects implemented between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018.

How to apply to the 2017-18 bidding round:

We are looking for a range of relatively large-scale bids (£100k – £600k), which can achieve an impact in one year. We may also consider larger or smaller-scale bids in some areas, if they can still demonstrate that they can achieve an impact.

Currently we are inviting bids in the area(s) of:

Social Cohesion and Countering Extremism [closing date: 12th February 2017]

Bidders should submit bids that focus on:

  • Strengthening Afghan Civil Society organisations who focus on Countering Extremism to develop their capacity to research, design and implement local programmes to counter violent extremism.
  • Research activities to support the ongoing Peace and Reconciliation process.
  • Programmes designed to improve social cohesion, encourage plurality of voices and build resilience in communities.

Project bids for further priority themes will be invited throughout February 2017. Please check this site for details and closing dates.

In all thematic areas, successful bidders will be expected to demonstrate:

  • That the project proposal provides good value for money;
  • That the project proposal has a clear, achievable impact, and responds to a local demand or need;
  • That their organisation has the capacity to deliver the project to a high standard;
  • How the project helps build Afghan capacity (International NGOs/companies should aim to partner with a local Afghan counterpart where feasible);
  • That the impact of the project will be sustainable beyond the end of the funding period (i.e. 31 March 2018);
  • That they have carefully considered all risks and have proposed suitable mitigation methods.

N.B. Bids for projects in Afghanistan’s provinces will be given a higher priority.

To apply, you should:

  • Read all the documents and requirements
  • Complete the project concept note form and submit your proposal to BEKProgrammeFund@hotmail.com by the date given above in the theme header. Please ensure the theme area of the bid is included in the subject line.

Implementers who have been successful at the initial concept note stage will be contacted by the British Embassy and invited to submit a full proposal by late March 2017.

Implementers whose proposals are awarded funding will be notified by April 2017, with an expectation that activity could begin shortly afterwards, and end by 31 March 2018.

Before bidding please familiarise yourself with the following key documents:

PDF, 326KB, 11 pages

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PDF, 151KB, 2 pages

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PDF, 257KB, 18 pages

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HM Government • • •

Press release: Late payment reporting guidance launched for large businesses

  • guidance published ahead of measures coming into force in April 2017 to boost transparency of payment practices to help small and medium sized businesses (SMEs)
  • regulations laid in parliament today will make large businesses publish details on the time taken to pay their suppliers to shine a light on bad practice
  • latest figures show SMEs are owed £26.3 billion in overdue payments

Guidance to help large businesses report on how quickly they pay their suppliers will be published today (31 January 2017), as regulations are laid in parliament by Small Business Minister Margot James.

The regulations confirm that from April 2017, large companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) will have to publically report twice a year on their payment practices and performance, including the average time taken to pay supplier invoices.

Failure to report will be a criminal offence and the guidance published today will help large businesses and limited liability partnerships prepare for these measures coming into force.

Small Business Minister Margot James said:

The UK is home to a record 5.5 million small businesses and the industrial strategy will help address many of the challenges they face getting finance and scaling up. It’s completely unacceptable that small and medium-sized businesses are owed £26.3 billion in late payments, which hampers their ability to grow and has no place in an economy that works for all.

Large businesses have an important role to play and the guidance published today will help them fulfil their responsibilities and improve payment practices across the board.

The changes are part of a package to shine a spotlight on bad payment practice and lead to improved standards. This includes the appointment of the Small Business Commissioner to support small businesses in resolving payment disputes, with the Commissioner’s office expected to be up and running later in the year.

Recent findings from the payment processor Bacs report that nearly half of the UK’s small-to-medium sized businesses experience late payment, with £26.3 billion owed to them in total. The regulations laid in Parliament today aim to tackle this by increasing transparency and helping small businesses make informed decisions about who they do business with.

The modern industrial strategy green paper sets out a plan to improve living standards and economic growth by increasing productivity and driving growth across the whole country. We encourage businesses of all sizes and anyone with an interest to respond.

Mike Cherry, National Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, said:

The new duty to report is the centrepiece of the government’s transparency agenda to combat poor payment practice. We welcome this as an important tool to change a UK business culture where it is deemed acceptable to pay small firms late. We estimate that if payments were made promptly, 50,000 business deaths could be avoided every year, adding £2.5 billion to the UK economy. It’s now crucial that these regulations are introduced and robustly enforced with proper sanctions put in place for any large business that tries to hide its payment practices.

There is now a clear will to tackle poor payments. Together with the new Small Business Commissioner and the developing corporate governance agenda to improve supply chain respect at board level, we must see a reduction in the £26 billion owed in late payments.

Jacqueline de Rojas, Managing Director of UK, Ireland and Northern Europe at Sage, said:

Our small business customers across the country tell us that late payment is still one of their biggest barriers to competing with larger suppliers. We know it impacts their ability to invest and innovate. And when you consider that people building these businesses create two-thirds of all new jobs, it’s easy to see what a detrimental effect this could have on the financial health of the nation.

Through partnerships, advice and digital tools, we work hard to help small businesses manage cash flow challenges, and this new light-touch regulation is good news for them. This is a welcome move in the right direction to creating a stronger, fairer economy and making the UK the best place to start and run a business.

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HM Government • • •