Chris Skidmore, Minister for the Constitution, has published a range of proposals that will make the anonymous registration scheme in England and Wales more accessible to those escaping domestic abuse, and ensure that survivors can participate in our democracy.

The anonymous registration scheme protects people whose safety would be at risk if their name and address appeared in the electoral register. For example, this might include victims of harassment or stalking, as well as some witnesses in criminal court cases.

The current system has come under criticism for lacking the flexibility and understanding of various scenarios which survivors of domestic abuse often find themselves in. This can include limiting police attestations to police officers at or above the rank of superintendent, and restricting social services attestations to directors of social services.

Among the measures announced today are plans to update the list of court and other orders that are acceptable as evidence of the risk to an applicant, and lowering the seniority required for an attestor from the police or social services.

The minister has been working with domestic abuse charities over the past 6 months, including Women’s Aid, to explore what could be done to ease the process for one of the most vulnerable groups in society. Women’s Aid estimate that the proposals in the policy statement could help thousands of survivors of domestic abuse.

Mehala Osborne, survivor and founder of the Right to Vote campaign, said:

I was denied a vote whilst living in a refuge, and I never realised how much having a vote meant until it was taken away from me. I had already been through enough, and to be disempowered even more was so difficult. I am so proud to have started the campaign that has led to these proposed changes. Survivors in the future will not be denied their voice and democratic right to vote.

Dawn Morville, survivor of domestic abuse who lived in a refuge, said:

When I was living in a refuge, I could never register to vote as I was worried my ex would be able to hunt me down – and if he had been able to find my address, there is no doubt he would have come after me. This would have put not only me but the other women in the refuge at risk. And for years after I left the refuge, I could still not vote, because I knew that he would find me if he could, and seriously harm me and my children. So the proposed changes are great news. It will empower survivors, and give us back something that domestic abuse takes away: our right to have our say, and be heard, without being terrified that voting could mean our abuser comes after us.

Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, said:

Domestic abuse must not deny women their right to take part in democracy. So, we welcome the changes proposed today on anonymous registration, and we thank the government – particularly the Minister Chris Skidmore, for decisive action on this. The proposed new measures send out a clear message to all survivors of domestic abuse: that their voices matter, and their participation in politics matters.

Chris Skidmore, Minister for the Constitution, said:

This government is committed to removing any barriers that prevent voters from exercising their democratic right. Having met survivors of domestic abuse over the past 6 months, it is clear that the existing system has often let down those affected by domestic abuse.

That is why today we are setting out proposals to reform the anonymous registration scheme in England and Wales to make it more accessible for those escaping domestic abuse. Protecting the safety of survivors by making it easier for them to register to vote without their name and address appearing on the electoral register is a key part of that change.

We are clear that those who have been constrained by their abusers must have full freedom to express themselves in the democratic process – part of this government’s determination to build a democracy that works for everyone.

The government is now welcoming feedback on proposals to expand the evidence to include new types of attestor and new types of documentary evidence, along with other measures in the statement. To share your comments, please contact the Cabinet Office at anonymous-registration@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

Under provisions of the Scotland Act 2016, the Scottish Parliament will shortly gain legislative competence for electoral registration in relation to Scottish Parliamentary and Local Government elections in Scotland. The Minister for the Constitution will be working with his counterpart in the Scottish government in order to together deliver reforms in respect of the UK Parliamentary electoral register and the local government electoral register in Scotland.

Under provisions of the Wales Act 2017, the National Assembly for Wales will in due course gain legislative competence for electoral registration in relation to elections to the National Assembly for Wales and Local Government elections in Wales. However, the changes proposed to anonymous registration will most likely come into force prior to commencement of these provisions.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), delivers a report on the work of the CPPCC National Committee’s Standing Committee at the fifth session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, March 3, 2017. The fifth session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee opened in Beijing on March 3. [Photo/Xinhua]

China’s top political advisory body started its annual session Friday in Beijing, ushering in a political high season that will continue with the opening of the country’s top legislature Sunday.

Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, delivered a work report to more than 2,000 political advisors who gathered to discuss major political, economic and social issues in the world’s most populous nation and second-largest economy.

Top Communist Party of China and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attended the opening meeting at the Great Hall of the People.

Zhao works on Bagua Hill in Jilin province. [Photo/China Daily]

After spending almost half his life chopping down trees in Jilin province, Zhao Xihai decided it was time to make a change.

In 1989, the former logger and explosives worker formulated a plan to mitigate some of the damage he had done to the environment over the years – he would plant 100,000 trees before turning 70.

In the first spring following his retirement, Zhao bought 46,000 seedlings and set about planting them on a barren tract of land on Bagua Hill, 3 kilometers away from his home.

He set himself the goal of planting 1,000 seedlings per day, waking at 4 am each morning to walk to the hill, armed only with a shovel and some painkillers for his chronic stomach problems.

Every day for 46 days, come rain or shine, Zhao went to the hill to plant more trees, eating only small bites of snacks for sustenance and drinking from nearby streams.

He succeeded in completing his task in the time allocated, despite passing out from hunger and exhaustion one rainy day and having to be carried home by a neighbor.

Once the first 46,000 seedlings had been planted, Zhao continued with his task – albeit at a slower pace.

He persisted even after having a blood clot on the brain in 2004, which left him walking with a stick, telling his son: “I will not stop planting as long as I can move.”

By 2007, Zhao had achieved his goal of planting 100,000 trees, but he did not stop there. Joined by his 36-year-old son Zhao Jingchun, who had recently been laid off, he set himself a new mission – to plant 1 million trees, including a number of rare or unusual species.

Within four years, the pair had managed to cultivate 750,000 seedlings, inspiring Zhao Xihai to present his son with a flag honoring his dedication and symbolizing the passing of responsibility to the younger generation.

In March last year, Zhao Xihai was hospitalized after his blood clot returned. He lost the ability to talk and now requires 24-hour care.

His son has vowed to continue his legacy, however, and is on schedule to plant his 1 millionth tree this year, according to Jilin’s Hongshi Bureau of Forestry.

Some have questioned why Zhao Jingchun continues to plant trees when he has no income and a 13-year-old son to support. The entire family is also reliant on Zhao Xihai’s pension.

“Planting trees will be beneficial for generations to come, therefore it is worth all the hardships – that’s what my father would say,” he said.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) alleges that between January 2013 and June 2016, Concordia (formerly Amdipharm), and Actavis UK (formerly Auden Mckenzie), entered into agreements under which Actavis UK incentivised Concordia not to enter the market with its own competing version of hydrocortisone tablets.

In a statement of objections issued to the parties today, the CMA provisionally finds that both companies broke competition law by reaching these anti-competitive agreements, and it also alleges that Actavis UK abused its dominant position by inducing Concordia to delay its independent entry into the market.

Under the agreements, Actavis UK instead supplied Concordia with a fixed supply of its own 10mg tablets for a very low price for Concordia to resell the product to customers in the UK. Actavis UK remained the sole supplier of the tablets in the UK during most of this period, when the cost of the drug to the NHS rose from £49 to £88 per pack.

In December, a separate CMA investigation accused Actavis UK of charging excessive prices to the NHS for the tablets following a 12,000% price rise over the course of several years.

The CMA has provisionally found that the agreements enabled Actavis UK to prolong the high prices in the market, depriving the NHS of the significant price falls that would be expected to result from true competition.

Concordia was the first potential competitor to Actavis UK to obtain a marketing authorisation for 10mg hydrocortisone tablets, a necessary step to enter the market and compete with Actavis UK.

Actavis UK was the sole supplier of hydrocortisone tablets from 2008 until 2015, after it bought the previously branded version of the drug from another company. That purchase meant the drug became de-branded and no longer subject to NHS price regulation, as other companies were then allowed to produce competing ‘generic’ versions.

Hydrocortisone tablets are used as the primary replacement therapy for people whose adrenal glands do not produce sufficient amounts of natural steroid hormones (adrenal insufficiency), as for example with Addison’s disease.

Andrew Groves, CMA Senior Responsible Officer, said:

Anti-competitive agreements can cost the NHS, and ultimately the taxpayer, by stopping competition bringing down the cost of lifesaving drugs like hydrocortisone tablets.

We allege these agreements were intended to keep Actavis UK as the sole supplier of a drug relied on by thousands of patients – and in a position which could allow it to dictate and prolong high prices.

As always at this stage in an investigation, these findings are provisional and no conclusion should be drawn at this stage that there has in fact been any breach of competition law. We will carefully consider any representations of the companies under investigation before determining whether the law has been infringed.

The CMA opened this investigation in April last year. For more information see the case page.

In December 2016 the CMA fined the pharmaceutical suppliers Pfizer and Flynn Pharma a total of nearly £90 million for charging excessive prices for the anti-epilepsy drug phenytoin sodium, after that drug was also de-branded. In February 2016 the CMA fined a number of pharmaceutical companies a total of £45 million for anti-competitive ‘pay for delay’ agreements and conduct in relation to the supply of the anti-depressant drug paroxetine. The CMA has 2 other ongoing investigations into the pharmaceutical sector.

Notes for editors

1. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and certain consumer law.
2. The Chapter I prohibition in the Competition Act 1998 covers anti-competitive agreements and concerted practices between businesses which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the UK. The Chapter II prohibition in the Competition Act 1998 prohibits the abuse of a dominant position by one or more companies which may affect trade within the UK or a part of it. Similarly, Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) prohibit respectively anti-competitive agreements and the abuse of a dominant position which may affect trade between EU member states.
3. The CMA may impose a financial penalty on any business found to have infringed each of these prohibitions up to 10% of its annual worldwide group turnover. In calculating financial penalties, the CMA takes into account a number of factors including seriousness of the infringement(s), turnover in the relevant market and any mitigating and/or aggravating factors.
4. A statement of objections gives parties notice of a proposed infringement decision under the competition law prohibitions in the Competition Act 1998 and the TFEU. It is a provisional decision only and does not necessarily lead to an infringement decision. Parties have the opportunity to make written and oral representations on the matters set out in the statement of objections. Any such representations will be considered by the CMA before any final decision is made. The final decision will be taken by a case decision group, which is separate from the case investigation team and was not involved in the decision to issue the statement of objections.
5. The statement(s) of objections will not be published. However, any person who wishes to comment on the CMA’s provisional findings, and who is in a position materially to assist the CMA in testing its factual, legal or economic arguments, may request a non-confidential version of the statement of objections by contacting the CMA.
6. The CMA proposes to find that the undertaking referred to in this press notice as ‘Concordia’ consists of the following legal entities:
   • From 1 January 2013 until 20 October 2015:
     • Amdipharm Limited
     • Concordia International Rx (UK) Limited (Concordia Rx) (formerly known as Amdipharm Mercury Company Limited)
     • Concordia International (Jersey) Limited (formerly known as Amdipharm Mercury Limited)
     • private equity company Cinven, consisting for the purpose of this case, of Cinven (Luxco 1) S.A., Cinven Capital Management (V) General Partner Limited and Cinven Partners LLP
   • From 21 October 2015 until 24 June 2016:
     • Amdipharm Limited
     • Concordia Rx
     • Concordia International (Jersey) Limited (formerly known as Amdipharm Mercury Limited)
     • Concordia International Corporation
7. Out of these entities, the statement of objections is addressed for the full period under investigation to Amdipharm Limited and Concordia Rx because they were directly involved in the alleged infringements and to Concordia International (Jersey) Limited because it was the direct parent company of the group of subsidiaries to which Amdipharm Limited and Concordia Rx belong. The statement of objections is additionally addressed to Cinven as the ultimate parent company of Concordia International (Jersey) Limited from 1 January 2013 until 20 October 2015, and Concordia International Corporation from 21 October 2015 until 24 June 2016.
8. The CMA proposes to find that the undertaking referred to in this press notice as ‘Actavis UK’ consists of the following legal entities:
   • From 1 January 2013 until 28 May 2015:
     • Auden Mckenzie (Pharma Division) Limited; and
     • Auden Mckenzie Holdings Limited;
   • From 29 May 2015 until 24 June 2016:
     • Auden Mckenzie (Pharma Division) Limited;
     • Auden Mckenzie Holdings Limited;
     • Actavis UK Limited; and
     • Allergan plc.
9. Out of those entities, the statement of objections is addressed to Actavis UK Limited, because the CMA provisionally considers it was the economic successor of Auden Mckenzie and should therefore be held liable for Auden Mckenzie’s direct involvement in the alleged infringements since 2013. Actavis UK Limited was also directly involved in the alleged infringements since 2015. The statement of objections is additionally addressed to Allergan plc which the CMA provisionally considers is jointly and severally liable as the ultimate parent company of Actavis UK Limited for its suspected conduct in the market from 29 May 2015 to 24 June 2016, and formed part of the Actavis UK undertaking during that period.
10. For more information on the CMA see our homepage or follow us on Facebook, Twitter @CMAgovuk, Flickr and LinkedIn. Sign up to our email alerts to receive updates on Competition Act 1998 and civil cartels cases.
11. Enquiries should be directed to Rory Taylor (rory.taylor@cma.gsi.gov.uk, 020 3738 6798).