How the UK Internal Market Bill will help to boost the Scottish economy
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Scottish Secretary Alister Jack's letter to the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, about the UK Internal Market Bill.
PCA Publishes Revised Regulatory Compliance Handbook
News story
The Office of the Pubs Code Adjudicator has published a revised edition of its Regulatory Compliance Handbook.
The Regulatory Compliance Handbook chapter on Market Rent Only (MRO) Proposals, published in November 2019, ensured that a Pub-owning business (POB) provides its tied tenant with full information about how it justifies its MRO proposal as compliant.
This Chapter, and the first three chapters of the Handbook dealing with POBs’ communications with tenants, Business Development Managers and MRO communications and process originally published in December 2017, are now reissued with revisions and in a single document.
Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA) Fiona Dickie said:
I know that for tenants to satisfy themselves that they are no worse off under their tied agreement than they would be if they were free of tie, they must freely be able to exercise their right to a compliant MRO option.
The law gives the POB the sole power to propose MRO terms, so holding them to account for how they do that is important.
Tied tenants know that the MRO experience has been far from perfect. Too many MRO requests end up in arbitration, even though there are now fewer new disputes and they are not taking as long as they did. Ministers have heard the MRO concerns of stakeholders, including the PCA, in responses to the statutory review.
In the meantime, I’m keeping a close eye on how the Handbook and other innovations, like the initial stay in arbitration proceedings, are influencing POB behaviour so I can consider whether and how to exercise additional regulatory powers to further reduce disputes and improve the MRO experience for TPTs.
The Regulatory Compliance Handbook addresses the minimum standards of behaviours that the PCA expects POBs regulated by the Pubs Code to adopt. It has been updated:
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To make it clear that it applies to the preparation of all MRO proposals, including revised responses provided during the course of MRO negotiations, or as ordered by the arbitrator following a Pubs Code arbitration.
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To reference recent court judgments – confirming that the length of a proposed MRO tenancy must be reasonable. The POB cannot simply offer the remaining term of the existing tenancy without also considering whether that is reasonable in the circumstances.
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To make it explicit that when preparing a MRO offer, the POB must complete a Compliance Checklist and Declaration not only to record the decisions they have made in each case about compliance, but also to explain why they have made those decisions. This can be found towards the end of the Handbook, and the PCA encourages tied tenants to ask for a copy of the Checklist to aid them in negotiations.
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Published 11 September 2020
Liz Truss opening statement for the UK-Japan agreement in principle
In partnership with my friend and colleague, His Excellency Motegi Toshimitsu, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the UK and Japan have now reached agreement in principle for a comprehensive economic partnership.
This is a historic moment for both countries.
This deal deepens the already strong partnership between our two democratic island nations. We both believe in the fundamental principle of free and fair trade.
And we both want to enhance our trading relationship that was worth over £30 billion last year.
For Britain, this agreement is a sign and signal that we are back as an independent trading nation.
When we left the EU, we did so on the promise of looking far beyond our own shores and striking comprehensive trade deals with like-minded friends and allies.
This deal is testament to that vision and ambition. It is our first deal as a independent trading nation … and offers a glimpse of what we can achieve outside the EU.
It goes beyond the EU-Japan agreement in areas like digital and data … financial services … creative industries … and food and drink.
In reaching this deal, we have secured tariff free access for more UK goods and protection for iconic British products … from Welsh lamb … to Yorkshire Wensleydale cheese and English sparkling wine …
We have also secured improved mobility for business people.
At its core, this is a deal that will benefit the whole country. It will drive growth across the country … and help level-up our United Kingdom.
It is a British-shaped deal tailored to our economy … that delivers major wins for our business and consumers.
Strategically, it is an important step towards UK membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership … one of the world’s largest free trade areas … and a cutting-edge agreement.
I want to thank Minister Motegi for the work he has done personally to drive this agreement forward … and for the constructive and positive nature of our discussions.
In reaching this deal, we have sent a clear message that free trade remains the best way forward for the world.
We need more trade – not less – if we are to overcome the economic challenges of Covid, level-up our economy … and advance Britain’s interests globally.
That is why this deal is important … not only because of what it achieves, but because of what it represents: the deepening of ties between two advanced, democratic economies with a steadfast commitment to free trade and the global trading system.
Over the coming months, we will finalise and ratify this agreement and, in doing so, underpin our trading relationship with the third largest economy in the world for years to come.
This is just the beginning for Global Britain.
UK-built nanosatellites ready for take off
Government-backed ‘nanosatellites’ – built in Glasgow – will launch later this month, joining a fleet of more than 100 objects in low Earth orbit that predict global trade movements.
Two of four nanosatellites, made by Spire Global UK and backed by over £6m of Government investment, will take off on the Russian Soyuz launcher on 24 September. The other two nanosatellites will be aboard an Indian PSLV launcher, due for launch on 1 November.
The Spire nanosatellites have onboard intelligent machine-learning algorithms that can predict the locations of boats, track their whereabouts and their estimated arrival times at ports, allowing port businesses and authorities to manage busy docks safely. Spire staff design and build all the sub-systems, and integrate and test the whole spacecraft in the company’s Glasgow headquarters.
Like mobile phones, satellites are also getting smaller and smarter and nanosatellites are roughly the size of a shoe box. Despite their size, they can do almost everything a conventional satellite does.
Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:
Nanosatellites weigh less than a piece of cabin luggage, but are enormously powerful in what they can do. These four Spire satellites are aimed at making trade hyper-accurate, with technology that makes business more cost effective and efficient.
Scotland’s space sector is booming. Our membership of ESA is benefiting companies across the UK, and we are committed to supporting the space economy in every region.
Spire Global UK is a satellite-powered data company that provides predictive analysis or global shipping, aviation and weather forecasting.
These services have been developed under an ESA Pioneer programme, which is a partnership project co-funded by the UK Space Agency.
Peter Platzer, chief executive and co-founder of Spire Global.
Spire is all about helping our customers know what is next, so they can make better decisions. This month we are moving this forward by launching a true super-computer into orbit – 1-2 teraflops! – so that we can analyse data right in orbit, using smart algorithms and machine learning.
This will allow us to get better, smarter and faster analytics to our customers for their business decisions.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, work has progressed with full support from the UK Space Agency who, working with the European Space Agency, have extended exceptional financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises working in the space industry.
Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA, said:
These are yet another example of innovative services provided by Spire under the ESA Pioneer programme that maximises benefits to industry thanks to an efficient co-management approach tailored to commercial best practices.
ESA’s Pioneer programme is one of the partnership projects that is aimed at de-risking partners’ investments, answering market needs. It is part of ESA’s programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES).
Pioneer supports the emergence of commercial European entities with the ability to offer fast and affordable access to space to public and private customers in the field of satellite telecommunications.
The programme creates new opportunities for both established and new players in the fast-changing and competitive satellite communications market.
Historic child abuse in Scotland
News story
GAD has played a key role in a Scottish Government Bill on historic child abuse. The Bill looks to set up a financial redress scheme for abuse survivors.
Expertise from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) has played a key role in a new Scottish Government Bill for survivors of child abuse.
The Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Bill seeks to provide financial redress to people who were abused in relevant care settings before 1 December 2004.
Bill details
The Bill looks to set up a financial redress scheme which offers an alternative to the civil courts. It makes provision for a new organisation called ‘Redress Scotland’. People who were abused (or in some cases their next of kin) will be able to apply for a redress payment with an £80,000 upper limit.
This is the latest in a package of measures set up by the Scottish Government to address historic child abuse.
GAD’s role
The team from GAD worked on several different aspects including estimating the levels of financial redress that might be paid out under the scheme. As part of this, GAD used data from the Advance Payment Scheme which was launched in April 2019. It was set up to help survivors of childhood abuse, who are terminally ill or aged 68 or over.
Actuary Steve Lewis, who led the GAD project team said: “We used our expertise to refine the modelling approach and assumptions adopted by Scottish Government in their earlier models.
“The scheme covers those in residential care settings in Scotland as far back as the 1930s and so key to coming up with realistic costings for the scheme is estimating the number of survivors. We built a bespoke model using mortality rates applicable to each year going back to that decade, rather than relying on modern survival statistics.”
Anticipated claims
Actuaries and analysts in GAD also came up with an estimated claims rate which provides a clearer picture of what the overall cost might be, by making use of the claims data from the Advance Payment Scheme. This is because a key determinant of the overall cost is the number of people (or next of kin) who apply for a redress payment.
The Scottish Government has published further details about the analysis and modelling behind the scheme in the financial memorandum.
Published 11 September 2020