News story
The AAIB has sent a team to Beccles aerodrome, Suffolk.
An accident at Beccles aerodrome involving a light aircraft has been notified to the AAIB. An investigation has been launched into the accident and a team of inspectors are at the accident site gathering evidence.
Published 25 March 2022
Press release
Charity Commission opens an inquiry over concerns about the charity’s private prosecutions.
The Charity Commission has announced that it has opened a statutory inquiry into Animal Protection Services (1186401) in relation to significant concerns about private prosecutions the charity brought against pet owners. The regulator is also investigating whether individuals connected to the charity have benefited inappropriately from its work.
Animal Protection Services has charitable objects that include investigating and prosecuting animal cruelty.
The regulator opened an inquiry after the charity’s prosecution of several pet owners for the alleged unlawful and unlicensed sale of pets were dismissed at trial. In both instances, the judges raised concerns that the charity had a financial incentive for bringing the prosecutions. Evidence from these trials was submitted to the regulator.
The inquiry will examine the administration, governance and management of the charity and in particular:
The Commission may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional issues emerge.
It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries are available on GOV.UK.
Published 25 March 2022
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today published its recommendations for the future oversight and governance of Open Banking. The CMA’s recommendations will be taken into consideration in the design of a future entity to succeed the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE). The future entity would build on the significant progress made to date by the OBIE to encourage innovation and support competition in retail banking.
The CMA, HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) have today also published a joint statement outlining their plans for oversight of the future entity, building on the CMA’s recommendations, including the establishment of a Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee.
The UK has been a global leader in this area and, as of January 2022, there were over 5 million users of services powered by Open Banking technology. It has been estimated that by September 2023, 60% of the UK population will be using Open Banking payments.
The CMA launched a public consultation on the future oversight of Open Banking in March 2021. The consultation sought views on what arrangements should be put in place to ensure effective oversight and governance following the implementation of the remaining measures in the Roadmap required under the CMA’s Order for Open Banking; and how the CMA should manage the transition process towards this new governance model. The CMA has carefully considered the responses to the consultation ahead of publishing its response.
The CMA’s recommendations are that the future entity should:
The joint statement published today outlines that the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee will draw up proposals for the design of the future entity by the end of 2022.
Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive of the CMA, said:
Open Banking has been a major success in the UK, bringing innovative new services to retail banking and benefiting consumers, businesses and the UK economy.
The CMA has carefully considered the appropriate future arrangements to boost Open Banking so that its significant benefits can be realised even more widely. We have today outlined the core principles that will ensure the new entity successfully picks up the reins.
In 2017, Open Banking was launched in the UK as part of a package of remedies following the CMA’s market investigation into retail banking. The CMA ordered the 9 largest retail banks in Great Britain and Northern Ireland to pay for and set up an independent Open Banking Implementation Entity.
Open Banking enables consumers and businesses to share their bank and credit card transaction data securely with trusted third parties who are then able to provide them with applications and services which save them time and money. In a market where larger, established banks have accounted for over 80% of the current account market for many years, Open Banking encourages account switching and drives down costs for small and medium businesses, boosting competition and innovation.
Press release
A temporary export bar has been placed on A Pair of Group Portraits of Mr and Mrs Joseph May and their Children by Angelica Kauffman
The paintings are worth £1.5 million and are by one of the major painters of the neoclassical period
A Pair of Group Portraits of Mr and Mrs Joseph May and their Children, dating to 1780, is at risk of leaving the UK unless a buyer can be found.
Worth £1.5 million, the two paintings portray a family separated by gender – making them unprecedented in Kauffman’s work, in which families are normally depicted together. Her known collection of 800 pieces shows no other evidence of this format, which is an exceptional phenomenon both in Kauffman’s work and European art of the late eighteenth century.
Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:
Angelica Kauffman was one of just two female founding members of the Royal Academy. These fascinating portraits are highly unusual for the period, depicting an eighteenth-century family separated by gender. I hope that a buyer comes forward so that they can remain in the UK, and so that we can continue to learn more about these exceptional works of art.
The minister’s decision follows the advice of the [Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest] (https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-collections-and-cultural-property/reviewing-committee#section-1). The committee agreed that the paintings had an unusual and purposeful composition, and noted that the female group and its allusion to the Virgin Mary was especially beautiful.
Committee Member Professor Mark Hallett said:
Angelica Kauffman was one of the most important painters working in late eighteenth-century Britain and this is an especially interesting example of her output. Though the artist is justly celebrated for her subject pictures, Kauffman’s portraits are equivalently complex and ambitious in character. This double portrait of the May family, in which Mary May is pictured with her daughters, and Joseph May with his sons, is extremely unusual in splitting up its male and female subjects in such a direct way. At the same time, Kauffman’s adept handling of composition ensures that the two pictures elegantly complement each other. As well as having a powerful aesthetic appeal, the paintings offer a sensitive pictorial meditation on parental and sibling relationships, and on the different stages of childhood. For all these reasons, they make a powerful contribution to our understanding of Georgian portraiture.
The committee made its recommendation on the grounds that the departure of this pair of paintings from the UK would be a misfortune because of their outstanding significance for the study of eighteenth-century portraiture.
The decision on the export licence application for the paintings will be deferred for a period ending on 24 July 2022 inclusive. At the end of the first deferral period owners will have a consideration period of 15 Business Days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the pair of paintings at the recommended price of £1.5 million (plus VAT of £300,000 which can be reclaimed by an eligible institution). The second deferral period will commence following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for four months.
ENDS
Notes to editors
Published 25 March 2022
The government announced the multi-year funding package as it publishes local criminal justice scorecards for the first time – shining a light on the work of agencies such as the police and Crown Prosecution Service at a regional level.
At present, funding for victim support services is confirmed annually. The move to a long-term model – with at least £147m per year up to 2025 – will allow charities and service providers to plan for the future, build capacity and strengthen their resilience to help even more victims. It comes as Police and Crime Commissioners report that the number of victims accessing support increased by 15% between 2019/20 and 2020/21.
The money will fund emotional, practical and therapeutic support for victims of crime such as women and girls affected by domestic abuse. This includes helping fund more specialist Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs). The investment will provide greater consistency for people accessing these services and ensure help is always there when needed.
We want more victims to have the confidence to come forward, so that more criminals can be prosecuted and victims can get the justice they deserve.
We’re increasing transparency through local scorecards, rolling out pre-recorded cross-examination for rape victims to more Crown Courts, and boosting funding for vital support services to £440 million over the next three years so that victims get the support they need.
The local criminal justice scorecards include information on the time taken for cases to be investigated by the police, for someone to be charged and for the case to be completed at court. The data can be broken down by local police forces, CPS area as well as Local Criminal Justice Boards. The scorecards also include information on victim engagement. Ministers are determined to increase confidence in the criminal justice system so that more victims stick with the process to ensure justice is served. This data will be published alongside scorecards detailing the national picture.
Both the local and national datasets spotlight, specifically, the response to rape and sexual violence – delivering on a key pledge in the government’s Rape Review. The aim is to use this data to help drive a major increase in the number of prosecutions reaching court.
In addition to this, it was also confirmed today that measures which spare victims of rape and modern slavery the trauma of giving evidence in the full glare of a courtroom will be rolled out to the North East of England. Known as Section 28, the measure allows victims – subject to a successful application to the court – to have their cross-examination pre-recorded earlier in the process and outside of the live trial. It can help to reduce stress to ensure they give their best evidence.
The provision will be introduced to Crown Courts in York, Grimsby, Hull, Bradford and Teesside in the coming weeks as part of a phased national roll out. It is already available at Liverpool, Leeds, Kingston-Upon-Thames, Harrow, Isleworth, Wood Green and Durham Crown Courts.
I very much welcome the announcement by the Ministry of Justice about multi-year funding. It’s essential that domestic abuse victims and survivors can rely on getting the long term support they need and deserve.
For too long domestic abuse services have been forced to lurch from one short term financial settlement to another and I delighted to see the Ministry of Justice is addressing this issue.
For many victims of crime, seeking justice can be an unacceptably slow and frustrating experience. But there are marked differences across the country and some areas notably outperform others. These new scorecards will allow us to reveal regional discrepancies, identify best practice and expose weak links.
But scorecards are not a panacea and numerical snapshots do not tell the whole story. They will need to be complemented by the victims’ voice to provide a more rounded picture.
The rollout of section 28 to more courts is a positive move that will help to reduce unnecessary stress and trauma for more victims, and I’m pleased to see this work gather momentum.
Today’s announcement builds on recent government action to increase confidence in the justice system including bringing forward a new Victims’ Bill, ensuring violent and sexual offenders spend longer in prison and investing nearly half a billion pounds to deliver swifter justice through the courts.
It comes as the government relaunches it #ItStillMatters campaign – to help raise awareness of sexual abuse support services so that victims can get the help they need.
Police and Crime Commissioners bring Criminal Justice partners together to improve performance on behalf of victims and our local communities.
Using local scorecards we will gain a greater understanding of the criminal justice system’s performance and we will be able to address issues in a more targeted way.
I know from Survivors Trust Members Agencies, who are all specialist voluntary sector rape and sexual abuse support services, that the additional, long-term funding announced is really welcome and will help them to meet the increasing demand for therapy and advocacy that we’ve seen over the past few years.
Alongside this, the wider roll out of Section 28 pre-recorded evidence will make such a difference for rape victims who often tell us that giving evidence in court feels like re-traumatisation instead of the chance to say what happened to them.
It is welcome to see the government continue to raise the ambitions for victims of crime in the justice system. The CSJ Commission on Sexual Abuse and Exploitation exposed alarming shortfalls in the support available to those affected by heinous criminal acts.
The measures set out today, including local victim scorecards and the wider rollout of pre-recorded evidence, will drive further progress on the protections in place for the most vulnerable victims of crime.
As the national lead on rape and serious sexual assault I welcome this funding for services that provide such a vital role in helping victims. Policing performs an important role, especially in the pursuit of perpetrators, but it’s vital that the correct funding of services across the criminal justice system is there to support victims of these horrific crimes.
We’re working harder than ever with the Crown Prosecution Service in our joint commitment to increase charging and conviction rates for rape, which remain too low. Operation Soteria, a new and research based approach to rape cases, is being trialled across five forces and the feedback from that is encouraging. Our Joint National Action Plan is already seeing improvement and progress across the board, recognising the importance of our relationship in helping those most in need.
The publication of local scorecards provide an opportunity for greater openness and transparency with victims and the public. The availability of this data across all partners in one place, for the first time, is central to developing a more accessible and understandable system. We will now focus on looking at the data and work on improving our response where needed.