Monica Coyle, 51, from Kilmarnock in Ayrshire has been disqualified as a director for 10 years after fraudulently claiming a £30,000 government Bounce Back Loan (BBL).

Coyle, a former NHS nurse, was director of Positive Pulse Limited, a health and wellbeing company which provided health checks to employees of businesses. She had also been president of business and professional women’s group Ayrshire Business Women in 2019.

Coyle applied for the Bounce Back Loan in May 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic impacted her business.

She falsely declared turnover of £130,000 in her application, rather than the actual turnover of her business, which was less than £5,000.

As a result, Coyle received a BBL of £30,000, of which she spent over £26,000 on personal use.

Bounce Back Loans were earmarked for small to medium sized companies impacted by Covid-19, and the loans were designed to support the company, rather than for the director’s own gain.

Positive Pulse Limited went into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation in February 2022, owing £30,000 to the bank, in respect of the BBL.

The Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Monica Coyle, after she did not dispute that she caused the company to apply for, and receive, a BBL of £30,000 which the company was not entitled to, following which she received personal gain.

Her ban is effective from 16 September 2022 and will last for 10 years.

The disqualification undertaking prevents Monica Coyle from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Investigation Manager Steven McGinty said:

‘Bounce Back Loans were made for the economic benefit of the company, not for directors’ personal gain.

‘Monica Coyle exploited the scheme and took taxpayers’ money during the pandemic which she knew she was not entitled to.’

Notes to editors

Monica Coyle is from Kilmarnock and her date of birth is October 1971.

Company number – SC520256

Trading address – 49A Portland Road, Kilmarnock, KA1 2EQ

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] (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corporate-insolvency-effect-of-a-disqualification-order ).

[Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct] (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service ).

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Ten Armed Forces establishments have been graded good for their initial training offering. However, persistent weaknesses in resources, infrastructure and accommodation are affecting the quality of recruits’ experiences.

Ofsted has published its 14th annual report on the effectiveness of care and welfare arrangements for recruits, trainees and officer cadets. The annual report draws on evidence from 13 inspections, including a single ungraded inspection of 5 University Royal Naval Units (URNUs) and their headquarters.

Recruits and trainees generally benefit from high-quality training, care and welfare arrangements. But too often, Ofsted found senior officers and their staff spending time dealing with the legacy of a lack of investment in infrastructure, or handling poor maintenance contracts. The RAF Officer Training Academy (RAFOTA) at RAF Cranwell, for example, had classrooms with leaking roofs and accommodation blocks that frequently lacked hot water and heating.

Inspectors also found that the needs of female recruits or trainees were not being considered fully. Women are often accommodated away from their male peers to ensure privacy. But this has led to some being isolated, especially in establishments where there are very few female recruits. In other instances, staff did not always ensure that female recruits were issued with uniforms or equipment that fitted them properly, increasing the risk of injury.

This was the second year that Ofsted has used the revised inspection handbook to inspect care and welfare in Armed Forces initial training establishments.

Inspectors graded the key judgement areas of:

• training and support
• personal and professional development
• quality of facilities
• infrastructure and resources
• effectiveness of leadership and management

They also provided an overall effectiveness grade for each establishment.

Ten of the Regular and Reserve establishments were graded good for overall effectiveness and most of the key judgements. ITC Catterick was judged outstanding in 2 of the key judgement areas: quality of training and support, and leadership and management. Two establishments were judged to require improvement: RAFOTA at RAF Cranwell, and the Defence Medical Academy (DMA).

Ofsted’s report recommends that all Regular and Reserve training establishments:

• urgently deal with the continuing and repeated failures in infrastructure. Provide commanding officers and their teams with clear guidance and funding to improve accommodation and infrastructure so that recruits, trainees and staff can live, learn and work in good-quality, well-maintained settings
• ensure that female recruits and trainees are given suitable kit and uniforms, and accommodation that provides adequate security, privacy and facilities

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, said:

I would like to congratulate the commanding officers, and their teams, at the good establishments this year. Their success is indicative of the very good work that so many military and civilian staff do to train and care for recruits and trainees.

However, more remains to be done to address weaknesses in resources, infrastructure and accommodation, which affect the quality of training and recruits’ and trainees’ experiences. I strongly urge colleagues in the Ministry of Defence to deal with the recommendations from this report to ensure future generations of Armed Forces personnel get the high-quality training, care and welfare they deserve.

Inspections of 8 Regular training establishments and 4 Reserve units contributed to the annual report as well as the single ungraded inspection of 5 URNUs and their headquarters. Ofsted used a new inspection model for University Service Units (USUs) and now intends to carry out graded inspections of other USUs using the same model.

All inspections were carried out between October 2021 and May 2022.

• West Burton, North Nottinghamshire, selected as the home of the ambitious STEP fusion energy programme, underpinning an industry expected to be worth billions to the UK economy
• Fusion promises to be a safe, low carbon and sustainable part of the world’s energy supply with potential to help sustain net zero in the future

The UK Government has confirmed the West Burton power station site in North Nottinghamshire will be home to the ground-breaking STEP prototype fusion energy plant.

The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) plant will be designed and constructed to demonstrate the ability to put net electricity on the grid. It will also pave the way to enable future commercial fusion energy plants to be commissioned and constructed.

Fusion energy has great potential to deliver safe, sustainable, low carbon energy for generations to come. It is based on the same processes that power the sun and stars.

The Government-backed STEP programme will create thousands of highly skilled jobs during construction and operations, and attract other high-tech industries to the region, furthering the development of science and technology capabilities nationally.

The ambitious programme will also commit immediately to the development of apprenticeship training centres in Nottinghamshire, building on the success of the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) Oxfordshire Advanced Skills centre in Culham, which develops around 180 apprentices from 25 employers every year.

Business & Energy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said:

“Fusion offers unparalleled potential for clean power production, promising a future of inexhaustible energy that could unshackle us from fossil fuels and make us truly self-sufficient and secure.

“Over the decades we have established ourselves as pioneers in fusion science and I am delighted to announce an important step in that mission, replacing the West Burton coal-fired power station with a beacon of bountiful green energy. The plant will be the first of its kind, proving the commercial viability of fusion energy to the world.

“It could be an industry worth billions of pounds to the UK economy, positioning the UK to design, manufacture and export the first fleet of fusion plants, and putting us at the vanguard of a future market.”

Professor Ian Chapman, UKAEA Chief Executive, said:

“Selecting the location of the STEP prototype plant is a huge, visible moment in the challenging and long-term endeavour of bringing fusion energy to the grid. West Burton is a natural fit for the STEP programme with a rich industrial heritage now being developed and repurposed for a low carbon future. It really is ‘from fossil fuels to fusion’.

“We look forward to working with people in the region to develop our ambitious plans and realising broader social and economic benefits.”

The West Burton site, which is home to a coal-fired power station owned by EDF, was selected following a rigorous assessment process over almost two years. Fifteen locations were long-listed following an open call for sites in December 2020 and this was reduced to five after assessments in October 2021. The second round of assessments concluded in the spring with UKAEA making its final recommendations to the Secretary of State in May 2022.

Fusion has the potential to provide a near-limitless future source of low carbon energy, complementing other sustainable sources like wind and solar. When a mix of two forms of hydrogen are heated to extreme temperatures – 10 times hotter than the core of the sun – they fuse together to create helium and release huge amounts of energy.

The energy created from fusion can be used to generate electricity in the same way as existing power stations. Fusion is many million times more efficient, per kilogram, than burning coal, oil or gas. The raw materials needed to provide the fuel for fusion are readily available in nature. However, there remains a number of significant technical hurdles to overcome to realise fusion, and the STEP programme aims to address these.

STEP is expected to pave the way to the commercialisation of fusion and the potential development of a fleet of future plants around the world. UKAEA, which carries out fusion energy research on behalf of the UK Government, is targeting first operations in the early 2040s.

The other sites shortlisted to host STEP were Ardeer, North Ayrshire; Moorside, Cumbria; Goole, East Yorkshire; and Severn Edge, Gloucestershire.