[unable to retrieve full-text content]Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock thanks the NHS workforce for the dedication they have shown in the national effort against coronavirus (COVID-19).
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Joanne Livingstone has been appointed Chair of the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme Advisory Board of England (SAB).
Joanne Livingstone will chair the Firefighters’ Pension SAB which advises the Home Secretary on the desirability of making changes to the scheme. It also advises and assists the 45 Fire and Rescue services in England and their local pension boards.
Her appointment as Chair commenced on 17 August 2020 and will last for four years.
Mrs Livingstone is currently an adviser to the Judicial Pensions Committee which advises the Lord Chief Justice in relation to pensions matters. She also serves as the Chair of Trustees for the Liberty Europe Pension Scheme and is a practitioner member of the Actuarial Council. Previously she worked as a scheme actuary and for Pension Wise, acting as a guider in face-to-face meetings about pensions with members of the public.
Mrs Livingstone said:
I am delighted to be appointed to chair the Scheme Advisory Board in its important role in helping to deliver appropriate pensions to our vital firefighters.
Published 17 August 2020
Daniel Simon Brodie (43), from Temple Fortune in North West London, will begin his 11-year directorship disqualification on 24 August.
After this date the jeweller is banned from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.
Jewelmark UK Limited was incorporated in June 2010 and traded as a watches and jewellery wholesaler, trading from premises in Temple Fortune, North-West London.
Daniel Brodie was first appointed a director of the company in June 2010 and resigned in July 2013, before being reappointed in September 2014.
The jewellery wholesaler, however, began to struggle and in June 2017, the company entered into creditors voluntary liquidation. This brought Jewelmark UK to the attention of the Insolvency Service.
Investigators uncovered Daniel Brodie failed to ensure Jewelmark UK complied with its statutory tax obligations and he had also breached a 2012 court order, which granted Daniel Brodie permission to act as a company director in lieu of a previous disqualification.
In January 2012, Daniel Brodie was banned for 4 years after he failed to ensure a separate company he was a director of – Avya Gems Limited – complied with its statutory tax and filing obligations.
While the correct amount of tax hadn’t been paid by Avya Gems, Daniel Brodie benefitted from dividends and operated a director’s loan account, which was overdrawn.
Daniel Brodie secured from the courts in February 2012 an order that allowed him to continue acting as a director of limited companies, which would have covered his directorship of Jewelmark UK.
The court granted this on the basis that Daniel Brodie complied with 21 conditions, but the jeweller failed to honour his commitments.
Daniel Brodie breached restrictions that he could not receive payments that exceeded £8,000 gross per month from the companies. He also failed to publish in Jewelmark UK’s accounts copies of the 2012 court order and the 4-year disqualification undertaking.
And similar to the misconduct displayed while he was director of Avya Gems, Daniel Brodie failed to ensure that Jewelmark UK complied with its statutory tax obligations, when he received more than £540,000 in director’s loan payments between September 2015 and June 2017.
At the point of liquidation, Jewlmark had outstanding tax liabilities of more than £210,000.
Lawrence Zussman, Deputy Head of Insolvent Investigations for the Insolvency Service, said:
The courts granted Daniel Brodie the ability to act as a company director despite a four-year ban. The jeweller, however, showed total disregard and blatantly breached the court’s conditions by committing similar instances of misconduct that led to his first ban.
Daniel Brodie thought he could continue with impunity but thanks to our investigations, the jeweller has been removed from the business environment for a substantial amount of time.
Daniel Simon Brodie is from Temple Fortune in North West London and his date of birth is September 1976.
Jewelmark UK Limited (Company Reg no. 07288967).
Avya Gems Limited (Company Reg no. 04484073).
A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:
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 other restrictions.
Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.
You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:
Ofsted is to visit local authorities and children’s social care providers from September. The visits will provide assurance that vulnerable children are getting the help, care and protection that they need, amid concerns that some have fallen out of sight during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today the inspectorate has published new guidance for local authorities and the children’s social care providers it regulates and inspects on how the visits will work in practice.
The visits will not result in a graded judgement, and the findings will be published, setting out what is going well and what needs to improve. For the services it regulates, Ofsted will still be able to use its enforcement powers where it has serious concerns.
Although regulated providers will not receive an inspection grade, the reports will have all the information that commissioners need to help them make the right decisions for children.
Inspectors will look at the experiences of children and how local authorities and providers have made the best possible decisions for children in the context of the pandemic. For local authorities, that includes how they have joined up schools and social care services while schools were closed, to stop vulnerable pupils from slipping through the net.
Ofsted will visit as many providers and local authorities as possible, prioritising those it has concerns about. It will also include a sample of local authorities judged good or outstanding at their last inspection to identify good practice that will help others with their recovery plans.
Full inspections of local authorities will not resume until January 2021 at the earliest, while routine inspections of social care providers, such as children’s homes, are on hold until April 2021.
Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for regulation and social care, said:
The normal lines of sight to our most vulnerable children haven’t been in place in recent months. It’s vital that we get back into local authorities and other social care providers to look at how children are being cared for and protected.
We are acutely aware of the pressure children’s social care is facing in the wake of COVID-19. This is not about judging, but offering reassurance to children, families, and those commissioning services. We also want to highlight the excellent work local authorities and providers are doing to make sure children get the help, protection and care they deserve in very difficult circumstances.
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Millions of self-employed people whose livelihoods have been affected by coronavirus will be able to claim a second payment of up to £6,570 from today – as the government continues to help drive the UK’s recovery.
Over 2.7 million benefited from the first stage of the SEISS – with the government handing out £7.8 billion of grants to help them through the crisis.
Those eligible will now be able to receive a second and final grant worth 70% of their average monthly trading profits, with the money set to land in their bank accounts within six working days of making a claim.
Anyone whose self-employed business has been adversely affected by coronavirus since 14 July is eligible for the scheme.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said:
Our self employment income support scheme has already helped millions of hard working people, whose get up and go drive is crucial to our economy.
It means that people’s livelihoods across the country will remain protected as we continue our economic recovery – helping them get back on their feet as we return to normal.
HMRC will contact all potentially eligible customers to advise them that they can claim for a second and final SEISS grant.
The eligibility criteria remains the same as for the first grant, with people needing to have had trading profits of no more than £50,000, making up at least half of their total income.
The SEISS is part of a comprehensive package of support for self-employed people, including Bounce Back loans, income tax deferrals, rental support, increased levels of Universal Credit, mortgage holidays and the various business support schemes the government has introduced to protect businesses during this time.
The Chancellor has also set out the government’s Plan for Jobs to support, protect and create jobs up and down the country- including in the construction and housing sectors through funding to decarbonise public sector buildings and our Green Homes Grant.
Published 17 August 2020