Published 4 February 2020

Aquinis (BM519) is a British registered 18.27 metre scallop dredger owned and operated by Jones Trawlers Ltd, which is based in Fleetwood, Lancashire.

The court heard how on 23 July 2018 MMO Marine Officers were completing a routine patrol of Brixham Harbour when Aquinis arrived alongside on the main fish quay. The officers noticed a man at the side of the vessel with a white fish box. There were some blue bags on the edge of the quay and the man, along with another man, lifted the bags into the box before dragging it into Brixham Trawler Agents cuttlefish processing area.

The officers entered the area and saw two white fish boxes containing 11 of the same blue bags. On further inspection it was found they contained sole, anglerfish, brill and turbot. The skipper of the vessel Calvin Jones arrived on the quayside and told officers Aquinis wasn’t landing and had only come to Brixham for ice. He denied the fish in the blue bags had come from Aquinis.

One officer boarded the vessel and noticed the Elog wasn’t up to date. Mr Jones said this was because he considered he was still fishing. When he brought it up to date no fish were included, only king scallops. He said the only fish he had caught was 6kg of either brill or turbot but he had no other fish on board and had not landed any fish in to Brixham that day.

In the fish room officers found no fish, only king scallops in the same type of blue bags. A crew member said the 6kg of brill or turbot had been disposed of over the side of the vessel as the refrigeration systems were broken. The officers then weighed the fish from the blue bags and found sole (135.77kg), brill (7.63kg), turbot (21.27kg) and anglerfish (63.6kg).

On 27 September 2018 Mr Jones was interviewed under caution and admitted the blue bags of fish were landed by Aquinis. He said the plan was to weigh the fish then contact the South West Fish Producer Organisation to see if it was worth leasing quota to land them. Quota leasing cannot be done retrospectively.

In sentencing Mr Jones and the company, District Judge (Magistrates Courts) Matson found that his actions had been carried out deliberately and that he initially lied to the officers about the fish, which was an aggravating feature. The Judge went on to find that the harm caused by the offence represented a significant interference with the regulatory regime which was designed to protect stocks from overfishing.

Both defendants entered guilty pleas. Mr Jones was fined a total of £400, ordered to pay £400 in costs and a £40 victim surcharge. Jones Trawlers Ltd was fined £3,333, ordered to pay £3,000 in costs and a £170 victim surcharge.

Introduction

This morning, the independent inquiry into the issues raised by the disgraced surgeon Ian Paterson published its report.

The inquiry was tasked with reviewing the circumstances surrounding the jailed surgeon’s malpractice that affected so many patients in the most appalling way.

As the report states, between 1997 and 2011 Paterson saw 6,617 patients of whom 4,077 underwent a surgical procedure in the independent sector, and between 1998 and 2011 Paterson saw 4,424 patients at HEFT of whom 1,207 underwent mastectomy.

Apology

The report contains a shocking and sobering analysis of the circumstances surrounding Ian Paterson’s malpractice. It sets out the failure in the NHS, the independent sector and the regulatory and indemnity systems. As a result of these failures, patients suffered unnecessary harm. Their testimony in this report makes harrowing, appalling reading.

As such it makes for harrowing reading and it is with deep regret that we acknowledge the failure of the entire healthcare system to protect patients from Ian Paterson’s malpractice and to remedy the harms.

Nothing I can say today can lessen the horrendous suffering that patients and their families experienced and continue to go through. I can only start to imagine the sense of violation and betrayal of patients who put their trust in Ian Paterson when they were at their most vulnerable. That the inquiry reports today, on World Cancer Day, makes this all the more poignant.

I apologise, on behalf of the government and the NHS, for what happened, not least that Ian Paterson was able to practise unchecked for so long.

The patients

I would also like to pay tribute to the bravery of all those former patients who came forward to tell their stories to the inquiry and whose anonymised accounts have been recorded in the report. I know this will make for difficult reading, as it highlights the human cost of our failure to detect and put a stop to Ian Paterson’s malpractice.

There was a catalogue of failings that resulted in harm to thousands of patients, causing devastation to countless lives. Some of these patients were let down several times, not least by the providers and the regulatory system that should have protected them, and by the failure of the medical indemnity system to provide any kind of redress at the first time of asking.

The report

From the outset Bishop Graham wanted patients and their families to be central to the inquiry’s work and to be heard. It was right therefore that patients and their families saw the report first, early this morning, shortly before it was presented to Parliament.

Two aspects of the report are particularly striking to me: that the various regulatory bodies failed in their main tasks, and the absence of curiosity by those in positions of authority in the healthcare providers in the face of concerns voiced by other healthcare professionals.

The report presents a tangled set of processes. Accountability was not exercised when it should have been. Some of the problems arose from not following through on established procedures, as opposed to insufficient procedures being in place. So, we must take full responsibility for what happened in the past if we are to provide reassurance to patients about their protection in the future.

Government response

I am therefore very grateful that the suite of recommendations, based on the patient journey, present a ‘route map’ for government. The recommendations are extremely sensible, and we will study them in detail. I can promise the House a full response in a few months’ time.

That response will need to consider the answers to some very important questions that cut right across the healthcare sector. Because – unequivocally – regardless of where patients are treated, and regardless of how their care is funded, all patients should be confident the care they receive is safe, meets the highest standards, with appropriate protections, and that they are supported by clinicians to make informed decisions about the most appropriate course of care.

I am also very aware that it is not the first time that regulatory failure has been highlighted in an inquiry report.

We have done much to make the NHS a safer system in recent years: revalidation, a reformed CQC, and work by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, to establish the Medical Practitioners Assurance Framework, to oversee medical practitioners in the independent acute sector.

In the case of Ian Paterson the system did not work for patients. Recent events at Spire show there are still serious problems to address.

Patient safety is a continual process of vigilance and improvement. The inquiry does not jump to a demand for the NHS and the independent sector to invent multiple new processes, but to actually get the basics right, implement existing processes, and for all professional people to behave better and to take responsibility.

NHSE/I published a new patient safety strategy last summer, led by the National Patient Safety Director, Dr Aidan Fowler. It focused on better culture, systems and regulation. Very sensible yet familiar words. All things today’s inquiry says were not delivered. What we need now is action across the NHS and its regulatory bodies, and the same determination to change in the independent sector.

Conclusion

To conclude, we are absolutely committed to ensuring lessons are learned and acted upon from the findings of this shocking inquiry, in the interests of enhancing patient protection and safety, both in the NHS and the independent sector.

For today, I apologise again on behalf of the government and the NHS and send my heartfelt sympathy to the patients and their families for the suffering they have endured.

Good morning everybody, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Sir David, Ladies and Gentlemen

I am thrilled to welcome you all to the launch of what I hope will be a defining year of action for our country, and indeed for our planet, on tackling climate change but also on protecting the natural world

now when I used to come in a long time ago as a kid, as I’m sure all of us have done, there used to be a very curious exhibit on the way in – which unfortunately doesn’t seem to be there – it’s been removed, I think, for repair in Yorkshire or somewhere

it is a very curious carriage, and it looks like the sort of thing that could have carried Madame Bovary around Paris

except it wasn’t pulled by horses this carriage – can you see the thing in your mind –

it is an electric taxi – the world’s first – and it was invented by an unsung genius called Walter Bersey in 1897

And Walter Bersey like many of us in this room was a total nut for electric vehicles

he built an electric bus that went 4000 miles, this is around 1895

he built a series of electric vans

and he built a total of 75 of these taxis, and they were popular and commodious, velvet lined and effective

because they could turn on a dime they obeyed all the TFL scriptures, and they could mount Savoy hill, which was the steepest in central London

But the tragedy for Bersey, and the tragedy for humanity

was that he allowed himself to be daunted in what he was trying to do

because he was in the end defeated by the sceptics

and those who thought that his efforts were technologically impossible

First he was fined for going too fast – his vehicles could get up to 12 mph – and he was fined for going down parliament street without a chap in front carrying a red flag, which you had to have in those days

and he did admittedly, as time went on, experience some minor technological issues

the beautiful glass batteries that he had that weighed only two tonnes, were not always reliable, the tyres gave way under the strain

and eventually his electric taxis – so lovely and so convenient – were subject to a growing hostile whispering campaign by those who were wedded to the old technology, the ostlers and the coachmen and everyone else in involved in horse drawn vehicles

and in the end, and the end came pretty soon for Bersey, he gave up,

and he concluded that it was impossible

He wound up his company, surrendered to the internal combustion engine in 1899

and that was the last electric taxi on the streets of London for more than a century, 110 years in fact,

until a certain visionary mayor decided to launch a campaign in 2008, and there they are, you can see them all over the streets, or hybrids anyway,

and as you look at that Bersey taxi it is impossible not to feel the pathos

It’s as though humanity came 110 years ago – more than that 120 years ago – to a fork in the road – and took the wrong way

And look at what happened in the century since Bersey despaired

We have had a catastrophic period in which the global addiction to hydrocarbons has got totally out of control

We’ve poured so much CO2 into the atmosphere collectively that our entire planet is swaddled in a great tea cosy of the stuff

CO2 levels today are at a level not seen since 3 million years ago when there were trees on Antarctica,

Since Bersey despaired of his electric taxi, the temperature of the planet has gone up by one degree, and it is now predicted, unless we take urgent action, to get three degrees hotter

And in the hurricanes and the bushfires and the melting of the ice caps, and the acidification of the oceans, the evidence is now overwhelming and it is taking its toll, this phenomenon of global warming is taking its toll on the most vulnerable populations around the planet, which is why the UK has now committed to £11.6bn in tackling global climate change and in financing climate initiatives around the world

And we know, everyone – and it’s fantastic to see so many people here this morning – because I think we all know that as a country and as a society, as a planet, as a species, we must now act

and we in the UK, will do everything we can to support our Chinese friends in their biodiversity COP which is also coming up in the Autumn

and I think it’s very important there should be a link between the two and there should be a clear sharing of the agenda,

because we must reverse the appalling loss of habitats and species

It’s only by repairing the damage to the natural world

and restoring the balance between humanity and nature – which is now so grotesquely out of kilter

that we can address the problem of climate change

and of course at the same time we have to deal with our CO2 emissions

and that is why the UK is calling for us to get to net zero as soon as possible,

for every county to announce credible targets to get there, what’s we want from Glasgow

and that is why we are pledged here in the UK to deliver net zero by 2050

and we’re the first major economy to make that commitment, I think it’s the right thing to do,

I think it’s quite proper that should, we were the first after all, to industrialise. Look at historic emissions of the UK

we have a responsibility to our planet to lead in this way and to do this,

and of course there are people in this country – not necessarily in the Treasury – and people around the world who may say,

of course it’s expensive, of course it’s difficult, it will require thought and change and action, people will say it’s impossible and it can’t be done,

and my message to you all this morning is that they are wrong

and if you look at what this country has done, since 1990 – cutting CO2 by 42 per cent and at the same time seeing a 73% increase in the GDP of this country

We have done that through sheer determination and technological optimism

in 1990 70 per cent of the power of this country came from coal

it’s now down to 3 per cent – and we want to get it to zero by 2024

and that is because, we’re able to do that, because this county is leading a revolution in renewable energy and by the way, it’s driving our national agenda of uniting and levelling up our country,

because it’s parts of the North and the North East of the country in particular, that are showing the lead in renewable energy

the world’s biggest offshore wind turbines are built beside the Humber,

the carbon capture storage is being pioneered on the banks of the Tees.

one in five electric vehicles sold in Europe is built on the banks of where – the Wear. And there you go.

So I say to all those who doubted Walter Bersey, eat your heart out, because his basic idea has triumphed, hasn’t it?

And the thing that they thought to be impossible has actually proved to be the solution,

And even the aviation industry is now committing to be carbon neutral by 2050

well we are on the verge, I’m assured, within a couple of years of having viable electric passenger aircraft

And we will get there, we will get there

And that is the lesson of that electric taxi that I wanted to look at and speculate about mournfully.

it is not that Walter Bersey was wrong, he wasn’t wrong

he was wrong to doubt himself

and the sceptics are wrong to doubt the promethean genius of humanity to solve these problems

So we will crack it and I hope that we can as a planet and as a community of nations get to net zero, as I say, within decades

We’re going to do it by 2050, we’re setting the pace, I hope everybody will come with us

and let’s work with Giuseppe, let’s work with our Italian friends to make COP 26 a great success, a fantastic success for our country and for our planet

and let’s make this year the moment when we come together with the courage and the technological ambition to solve man-made climate change and to choose a cleaner and greener future for all our children and grandchildren.

Cathryn Ross has been appointed as the first Chair of the new Regulatory Horizon Council, a government-backed committee to ensure that UK regulation keeps pace with innovation and enables it to thrive while safeguarding the public.

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi has appointed Cathryn Ross, the Group Regulatory Affairs Director at BT, as the first chair of the committee, which was a key recommendation from the white paper on Regulation for the fourth Industrial Revolution.

It will be responsible for:

• advising government on regulatory reform to bolster the rapid and safe development and introduction of emerging products, services and business models in the UK
• working with innovators, businesses, academics and regulators to scan the business horizon for technological innovation and trends, building on existing work and data across government
• delivering a regular report with recommendations on priorities for regulatory reform to put the UK at the forefront of the industries of the future

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi said:

The government is determined to make the UK the best place in the world to do business and a key part of that is getting our regulations right. We already have a thriving tech sector, worth £184 billion to the economy every year, and this council will help supercharge this sector through more agile regulations.

Cathryn’s leadership of the council will help us ensure our regulatory system keeps pace in a fast-changing world.

Cathryn Ross said:

I am delighted to be appointed as the inaugural Chair of the Regulatory Horizons Council. The council will play an important role in ensuring an outcome focused, and flexible regulatory system in the UK.

Our aim will be to enable innovation to thrive while protecting citizens and the environment.

Regulatory practices in the UK were given the highest overall country score by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2018. This new council will look at what more can be done to support technological breakthroughs and help make the UK economy the most innovative in the world.

Cathryn Ross is the Group Regulatory Affairs Director at BT Group.

At BT Cathryn is responsible for developing and implementing BT’s regulatory strategy across the group, covering regulation in the UK and beyond.

Cathryn is an economist by profession and earlier in her career worked at the Office of Rail Regulation, the Competition Commission, Oftel and as a consultant.