Romar Innovate has been awarded a contract to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group.

The Cleator Moor based firm will provide services to NDA sites across the UK, including Sellafield.

The contract is worth an estimated £30 million over 4 years.

Sellafield Ltd led the procurement process on behalf of the NDA group.

It will unlock additional investment by Romar Innovate in its West Cumbria operation and underlines Sellafield Ltd’s ability to leverage opportunity for its local community via its supply chain strategy.

Susan Lussem, Sellafield Ltd supply chain director said:

Keeping our workforce safe is our highest priority.

Access to high quality, cost-effective PPE is vital to maintaining safety and allowing us to progress our mission to create a safe environment for future generations.

I’m delighted Romar Innovate, a fantastic West Cumbrian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), will be providing these vital services across the UK, including at Sellafield.

I’d like to thank previous provider Arco for their high-quality service, investment in West Cumbria, and vital support for our community during the COVID-19 response.

Romar Innovate is part of the JBS Group.

The contract will see the company supply Sellafield Ltd, Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd, Nuclear Transport Solutions, the Low Level Waste Repository, Magnox Ltd and the National Nuclear Laboratory.

Its winning bid includes innovative proposals to drive down costs and provide greater efficiency for the UK taxpayer.

The company has pledged to create additional jobs in West Cumbria and will deliver community benefits including funding and mentoring for local entrepreneurs, and educational scholarships.

Margaret Johnstone of Romar Innovate said:

We’re delighted to have secured this recent tender competition.

This allows us to continue investment in our Cumbria based infrastructure and personnel, and we look forward to maintaining our high levels of service and innovation in partnership with our clients across the NDA group.

A new and upgraded parachute for the UK-built Rosalind Franklin Mars rover has successfully passed a series of high-altitude tests, bringing further exploration of the Red Planet one step closer.

Rosalind Franklin has been built with government backing to try to detect life, past or present, on the Red Planet. 

After several weeks of delays due to bad weather the latest tests to determine the parachutes’ fitness for use in the harsh conditions of Mars saw the descent vehicle dropped from a stratospheric balloon at an altitude of about 29 kilometres above Sweden.

The 15 metre-wide first stage main parachute performed flawlessly at supersonic speeds, while the 35 metre-wide second stage parachute experienced one minor damage, but decelerated the mock-up of the landing platform as expected.

The team will be looking in more detail into the origin of this new anomaly before finalising the configuration of the next pair of drop tests to take place in October or November from Oregon, USA.

The rover was built in Stevenage by Airbus, while the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory led on a key instrument known as the PanCam, a high-resolution 3D camera which will look at the terrain and rocks to try to detect signs of life.

The University of Leicester, Teledyne e2v and STFC RAL Space worked on the Raman Spectrometer which will use laser light to identify particular minerals and organic compounds and search for life. The rover is due to launch in 2022, arriving on Mars in 2023.

Chris Castelli, director of programmes at the UK Space Agency, said:

The Rosalind Franklin rover showcases some of the best of the UK’s space sector and will be Europe’s first planetary rover.

It’s fantastic that this flagship mission is now one step closer to launching to the Red Planet to lead the search for signs of life.

Adjusting and testing the ExoMars parachutes has been a priority following a series of unsuccessful drop tests in 2019 and 2020.

The tests focused on demonstrating the readiness of new equipment developed by Airborne Systems, as well as verifying changes to the parachute and bag provided by Arescosmo. They follow ground-based high-speed extraction tests, conducted by NASA in California, in May.

Landing safely on Mars is a notoriously difficult task. This testing is an essential part of ensuring a successful mission. 

The UK Space Agency is the second largest European contributor to the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars mission, having invested €287 million in the mission and £14 million on the instruments. This, in addition to successful negotiations with ESA, secured key mission contracts for the UK space sector.

Richard Franklin, Managing Director of Airbus Defence and Space UK said:

If the M25 is where London stops then Stevenage is where space starts. After more than a decade of design, development, and manufacture of the ExoMars rover in Stevenage, it’s great to see these latest successful tests putting us on target for launch next summer.

Seeing the rover’s tracks across the Martian surface as it starts its search for life on the Red Planet will not only be a fantastic testament to the UK’s space capability but also help inspire the next generation of space engineers.

Thierry Blancquaert, ExoMars programme team leader at ESA, said:

We’re very happy to report that the first main parachute performed perfectly: we have a supersonic parachute design that can fly to Mars. There will be at least two further opportunities to test this parachute design to gain further confidence.

The Rosalind Franklin rover requires two main parachutes – each with its own pilot chute for extraction – to help slow it down as it plunges through the Martian atmosphere. The 15 metre-wide first stage main parachute will open while the descent module is still travelling at supersonic speeds, and the 35 metre-wide second stage main parachute is deployed once at subsonic speeds. 

The parachute had originally been packed inside the bag around the central mortar that contains the pilot chute, such that upon extraction it unwrapped in a 360º fashion. Folding the band of the parachute in two layers, so that it first unfolds in one direction and then 180º in the other direction, proved to reduce the tendency of the canopy to experience friction incurred by wrapping around the mortar.  

Once the module gets close to its destination, it will enter a six-minute landing sequence. 

Drag from the atmosphere will slow it from 13,000 miles per hour to 1,000 miles per hour. 

The first parachute will then be deployed, followed 20 seconds later by the second one. 

When it gets around 0.6 miles above the surface, an engine will start to slow the descent even further to allow for a safe touchdown.

The latest Size and Health of the UK Space Industry report shows the UK space sector is booming. Income from the UK space sector has risen from £14.8 billion to £16.4 billion, representing growth of 5.7% in real terms, while employment is up by 3,200 from 41,900 to 45,100. 

More than 6 million applications were made to the EU Settlement Scheme before the 30 June deadline, marking an astonishing success in protecting the rights of EU citizens in the UK.

Statistics released today (Friday 2 July), show there were 6.02 million applications made to the scheme by 30 June, with 5.1 million grants of status.

There have been more than 5.3 million applications from England, 291,200 from Scotland, 98,600 from Wales, and 98,400 from Northern Ireland.

The surge in applications, including more than 400,000 in June alone, means that there are around 570,000 pending applications. The government has repeatedly assured those who applied before the deadline that they will have their rights protected until their application is decided, as set out in law, and they have the means to prove their protected rights if needed.

People who submitted an application by the deadline receive a Certificate of Application, which they can use if they need to prove their immigration status for any reason, such as taking up a new job or renting a new property.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

When we left the EU we promised to protect the rights of EU citizens who have made their life in the UK, and developed the hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme to ensure they could call the UK home in the years to come.

Having more than 6 million applications to the scheme is an unprecedented achievement and I am delighted that we have secured the rights of so many EU citizens – our friends, neighbours and family members.

Most non-complex applications are still being decided within five days. The Home Office has also put extra resource into concluding applications as quickly as possible, while around 5,000 older cases cannot progress as they are held at the suitability stage, for example awaiting the result of a pending criminal prosecution.

The government will take a flexible and pragmatic approach to considering people’s reasonable grounds for applying late. The Home Office has published non-exhaustive guidance setting out where somebody may have reasonable grounds to make a late application and has said it will continue to look to grant people status rather than refuse.

Those currently receiving benefits who have not applied will not see their payments stop immediately and the Home Office is working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs to reach out to people who may be eligible to apply. It is important that anyone eligible who has not applied to the EUSS does so to ensure that benefit payments do not stop, and help is available for people who may need to apply.

If somebody who may be eligible for the EUSS and has not made an application is encountered by Immigration Enforcement, they will be issued with a notice giving them a further opportunity, generally 28 days, to apply to the EUSS, and will be signposted to the support available to do so.

Support for applicants will continue to be available through the Settlement Resolution Centre, Assisted Digital and the network of 72 organisations across the UK grant-funded with £22 million by the Home Office through to 30 September 2021 to help vulnerable groups apply. A process is in place to prioritise late applicants where they may be at risk of destitution.

Minister for Future Borders and Immigration Kevin Foster said:

I’m delighted more than 6 million applications have been made to our hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme and we have a team of 1,500 caseworkers working on those outstanding.

The safeguards we have built in to protect those who have not yet applied, but who may still be eligible, will mean everybody will be able to get the status they deserve and if you did miss the deadline I would urge you to get in touch today so we can help.

The EU Settlement Scheme opened on 30 March 2019 and there will be indefinite scope for those with reasonable grounds for applying late to do so.

The EU Settlement Scheme has been open for applications longer than any scheme for UK nationals in the EU. In comparison, schemes in ten EU countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Slovenia, and Sweden, are open for a year or less.

Further information on the EU Settlement Scheme is available on our media blog.

Abul Azad, Abul Ashraf, and Abul Khaled, have been banned from acting as company directors for 7 years, 7 years, and 3-and-a-half years respectively.

The three brothers, all from Melton Mowbray, were directors of A & A (Melton Mowbray) Limited and shared the running of the Apurba, Bombay Brasserie and Tandoori Knights Indian restaurants.

However, they deliberately or recklessly destroyed or removed sales records in their company accounts in order to avoid paying the full VAT and corporation tax amounts that were due. In total, £566,749 was owing to HMRC when the brothers placed the company into liquidation.

Throughout the Insolvency Service investigation, the brothers sought to discredit and place blame on the company’s accountant, despite receiving written warnings from the accountant in successive years that the company had inadequate record keeping processes in place and that it was obvious that cash and sales records were going missing. In some cases, sales identified solely through card payment data was found to be more than their total reported sales, which also included cash payments.

Abul Azad and Abul Ashraf signed disqualification undertakings accepting that they caused or allowed the company to suppress its sales over a period of at least 4-and-a-half years, to the detriment of HMRC. Their bans begin on 6 July 2021 and last for 7 years.

Abul Khaled, who was only a director of the company for a short time during the period, admitted to causing or allowing the company to suppress its sales over a period of at least 8 months. His ban of 3-and-a-half years also begins on 6 July 2021.

Cassandra Dowthwaite, Deputy Head of Insolvent Investigations (North) at the Insolvency Service, said:

This ban should serve as a warning to other directors tempted to conceal sales and withhold taxes, which are needed to fund vital public services, for their own benefit.

Companies have limited liability, which is a privilege, not a right, and The Insolvency Service have strong enforcement powers which we will not hesitate to use to remove that privilege from dishonest or reckless directors.

Abul Azad is of Melton Mowbray and his date of birth is May 1964.

Abul Ashraf is of Melton Mowbray and his date of birth is January 1971.

Abul Khaled is of Melton Mowbray and his date of birth is March 1977.

A & A (Melton Mowbray) Ltd (company number 07246095). It went into Creditor Voluntary Liquidation on 15 August 2018.

Azad and Ashraf were the longest serving directors, having been in post since the company was incorporated on 6 May 2010. Abul Khaled was in office from 1 November 2015 to 1 July 2017.

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of restrictions.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct.

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