Tougher sentences, an end to early release and a major review of the management of convicted terrorists are among a raft of measures to strengthen the UK’s response to terrorism, the government has announced today (Tuesday 21 January).

Confirmed by Home Secretary Priti Patel and Justice Secretary Robert Buckland QC, the new Counter-Terrorism Bill, to be introduced in the first 100 days of this government, will force dangerous terrorist offenders who receive extended determinate sentences to serve the whole time behind bars and ensure those convicted of serious offences such as preparing acts of terrorism or directing a terrorist organisation spend a mandatory minimum of 14 years in prison.

It will also overhaul the terrorist licensing regime, doubling the number of specialist counter-terrorism probation officers and introducing measures such as polygraph testing. It will increase the number of places available in probation hostels so that authorities can keep closer tabs on terrorists in the weeks after they are released from prison.

The government will also review support available to victims of terrorism, including families and loved ones. We will immediately invest £500,000 to increase the support provided by the Victims of Terrorism Unit, to ensure more victims get the support and advice they need, faster.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, said:

The senseless terror attack at Fishmongers’ Hall in November confronted us with some hard truths about how we deal with terrorist offenders, which is why we immediately announced a review into sentencing and licence conditions, to do whatever is necessary to stop these sickening attacks from taking place.

Today we are delivering on those promises, giving police and probation officers the resources they need to investigate and track offenders, introducing tougher sentences, and launching major reviews into how offenders are managed after they are released.

We will also review the support available for victims and their families to make sure they receive the help they need.

The government will also launch a sweeping independent review of the way different agencies, including police, the probation service, and the security services investigate, monitor and manage terrorist offenders – called Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). This will be led by Jonathan Hall QC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.

Funding for counter-terrorism policing will grow to £906 million in 2020 to 2021, a £90 million year-on-year increase. The money will support and maintain the record high number of ongoing counter-terrorism policing investigations and ensure a swift and effective response to terrorist incidents across the country, no matter where they take place.

Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland QC, said:

Terrorists pose a great risk to our society and our way of life, which is why we must bring them to justice and keep the public safe.

Coupled with our strong measures to manage terrorists behind bars, this Counter-Terrorism Bill toughens restrictions on offenders’ communications, increases the number of specialist staff managing them and will ensure they are monitored effectively.

Delivering on the government’s commitments following the Fishmongers’ Hall attack, the announcement represents a major shift in the UK’s approach to the sentencing and management of terrorist offenders by closing gaps in the investigation and monitoring of convicted terrorists.

Alongside the bill, the government is making a major investment in counter-terrorism resources in prisons and probation. The package of measures being announced include:

• doubling the number of counter-terrorism specialist probation staff – these specially trained staff will deliver a set of new, intensive national standards for managing terrorists on licence – these new standards will mean terrorists are subjected to closer monitoring and reporting requirements
• an increase in the number of specialist psychologists and specially trained imams, who play a vital role in assessing risk and challenging the beliefs of radicalised offenders
• an increase in the resources dedicated to training front-line prison and probation staff, who are the first line of defence in identifying and challenging extremism in prisons and probation

Launching her third Annual Report as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman said today that the great majority of schools, colleges, nurseries and child minders in England are good or outstanding, reflecting the hard work of teachers, leaders and support staff who work there.

• 86% of schools are judged to be good or outstanding
• 96% of early years (EY) providers are good or outstanding
• 81% of inspected further education and skills (FES) providers are good or outstanding

This year’s Annual Report also highlights improving developments in children’s social care, with 48% of local authority children services now rated good or outstanding, while 84% of children’s homes, fostering and adoption agencies, residential special schools and other social care providers returned a good or outstanding grade in their most recent inspections.

Ofsted’s core job is to inspect, regulate and report objectively. The Annual Report provides a summary of findings from thousands of inspections and visits and research published over the past year. It presents a ‘state of the nation’ commentary on the quality of education, training and children’s social care services in England. Ofsted is the only independent body that can provide this view across England.

Speaking to an audience of education and social care professionals and policy experts in Westminster, Ms Spielman said that, while the overall picture is good and improving, it’s important not to let complacency creep in.

Ms Spielman said:

It’s important that we don’t allow complacency to creep in. We must ask the tough questions and highlight inadequacy, as well as excellence.

… So, as we look at the high standards of education and good quality care that most are achieving, we must ask: what lies beneath? Away from the excellent work going on in many places, what is getting in the way of further and faster improvement – and what does that mean for our children?

Ofsted launched a new education inspection framework (EIF) in September 2019, which put the quality of the curriculum at the centre of its approach, with less focus on performance data. Since then, there has been a real shift in emphasis in schools. School leaders and teachers have widely welcomed Ofsted’s new approach and the opportunities it has given them to think carefully about their curriculum, and make sure it gives every child the chance to acquire the same knowledge and learning.

However, the Annual Report warns that a minority of schools and other education providers continue to make decisions in their own best interests, rather than those of their learners. This includes various forms of ‘gaming’ that seek to maximise the school’s attainment data and league table positions.

Ofsted is concerned that these providers are failing to act with integrity or focus on what really matters. As a result, some children – particularly the most disadvantaged – are not being well prepared for adult life.
In her speech today, Ms Spielman said:

We must guard against restricting education excessively. Exam results are important but have to reflect real achievement. We should not incentivise apparent success without substance. This doesn’t represent a good education for any child. And for those who aren’t being read a different story every night, who aren’t taken to the museum at the weekend, who don’t get the chemistry set for Christmas, it is especially impoverished. These children need and deserve a proper, substantial, broad education, for as long as schools have them. She continued:

We recently inspected a school that had been requiring every child to take a sports science qualification, using up a valuable GCSE slot, whether or not they had any interest in sports science at all. We’ve seen schools requiring almost every child to take a qualification in English for Speakers of Other Languages, even though they were nearly all native English speakers who were also taking English Language and Literature GCSEs.

We’ve seen schools that have been cutting back drastically on all children’s opportunities to discover the joys of languages, art, music, drama and humanities – so that most children have to give them up at age 12 or 13, when they have barely begun to discover what these subjects have to offer.

… We mustn’t succumb to the seductive but wrong-headed logic that we help disadvantaged children by turning a blind eye to schools that narrow education in this way, as long as they deliver acceptable grades at the end. Grades are hollow if they don’t reflect a proper education underneath. And we have no idea yet who the most talented and singular women and men are, who will drive this country forward in the 2030s, 40s and 50s. They could be in any primary or secondary school anywhere. All of them should have the chance to develop their talents. Poorer children shouldn’t get a worse choice.

Other concerns highlighted in this year’s Annual Report include:

• Ofsted continues to be worried about the number of pupils leaving schools during their GCSE years. Twenty thousand pupils left their state-funded secondary schools between Year 10 (2017) and Year 11 (2018). There are 340 schools with exceptional levels of pupil movement, of which around 100 have been inspected this year.

• This year, Ofsted’s unregistered schools task force provided the evidence for three successful convictions of illegal schools and their operators. However, legal constraints still make it too easy for illegal schools to operate in defiance of the law. Ofsted urgently need stronger powers to seize documents and the Government needs to tighten the legal definition of a school and of full-time education.

• Ofsted’s inspections of provision for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) has exposed a lack of coherence and coordination. Local leaders across education, health and care do not always see themselves as collectively accountable for this provision. Too often, parents encounter fractures in assessment and planning. In these cases, the system is not working well as a whole to make the best decisions and achieve the best outcomes for children and young people.

• Local authority children’s services continue to endure significant financial pressures. Challenges across children’s services are underpinned by a chronic lack of funding, set against increasing demand.

• The children’s home sector is facing huge challenges in sufficiency and capability, which need national oversight and strategic leadership. There are not enough children’s homes in the right places across the country, and there is no central joined-up strategy or plan to meet children’s needs.

• In the FES sector, there has been rapid growth in the number of new apprenticeship training providers. However, a gap remains between the knowledge and skills required for the economy and current provision, in particular in relation to training for low-skilled workers. The sector needs to work much more in tandem with the government’s Industrial Strategy.

• The early years sector has seen a continued decline in the number of childminders. Meanwhile, more and more nurseries are joining large national and international providers, but are inspected individually. These nurseries are more likely to be rated outstanding, which suggests that strong practice can be shared effectively across the whole nursery chain. There may be benefits from a different inspection model that would allow individual inspections of nurseries to be brought together and features across the whole chain to be analysed.

• Increasingly, decisions that affect children’s education and care are being made by central management in large multi academy trusts, nursery operators or children’s home operators. Decisions about the curriculum, the model of care, staffing, safeguarding and behaviour policies go to the heart of what Ofsted needs to consider through inspection and regulation, but the legal framework for accountability is not keeping up with the evolution of the education and care sectors.

In the coming year, Ofsted will look more closely at some of these areas to see if things can be done differently to improve outcomes for children.

The Youth Mobility Scheme allows young people aged between 18 and 30 to live, work or study in the United Kingdom for up to 2 years.

The first ballot of the 2021 Youth Mobility Scheme for South Korean nationals will launch in January, and as with last year the selection criteria has changed to a lottery based system managed by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). There will no longer be the requirement to provide a Certificate of Sponsorship.

As before there are a total of 1,000 places available to South Korean nationals for 2021. 800 applicants will be selected in the first ballot in January, while the remainder of the places will be made available in a second ballot in July 2021. If your application is successful you will be able to live, work and study in the UK for up to 2 years.

If you would like to apply for the scheme you should send one email per applicant to: SouthKorea.YMS2021@FCDO.gov.uk between midday (12pm) on Monday 25 January 2021 to midday on Wednesday 27 January 2021 (South Korea time).

The header or subject line of your email must contain your name, date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY) and passport number as shown in your passport.

This must be written in English only. For example: Kim Jayne – 31/03/2000 – Passport123456789.

The main body of your email should include the following information, written in English:

1. Name
2. Date of birth
3. Passport Number
4. Mobile phone number

The email account will only be open for 48 hours and all emails received within this timeframe will be sent an automated reply confirming receipt.

Once the ballot closes 800 applicants will be chosen at random by UKVI. If you have been successful a second email will be sent to you from the week commencing 15 February to confirm acceptance and provide further instructions on how to make an appointment, along with documentary evidence required to apply for your entry clearance.

Please note successful applicants must prepare online applications and online credit card payments no later than 15 March 2021. Failure to submit your payment online by this date will automatically remove your name from the list and your allocation will be retracted. After you have paid online you have 90 days to submit your paperwork for consideration.

If you are a South Korean national living overseas you can also apply following the instructions above, and if you are chosen to apply you will be able to do so in your country/territory of residence. Applications cannot be submitted for the Youth Mobility Scheme in the UK.

If you’re unsuccessful you will receive an email by 19 February and no further action is required.

Further information about the scheme can be found on gov.uk and any enquiries relating to the application process, online application forms and questions in general should be directed to the UKVI International Enquiry Line.

Mr Hamidali Musa Jiva, owner and sole immigration adviser of Visa and Appeal Services UK, Bolton, was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court on Thursday (16 January 2020) to an 18-month Community Order, 180 hours of Community Payback and ordered to pay costs and compensation totalling more than £3,500.

Mr Jiva had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of providing unregulated immigration advice and services to a number of clients, whilst knowing he was not authorised by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) as required by law. A further three offences are to remain on file.

In sentencing, Recorder Ashworth, took into account the impact Mr Jiva’s illegal and substandard advice had had on his clients, including a notice of deportation being served on one client and another needing to return to their country of origin in order to start a fresh application.

On sentencing Recorder Ashworth said in summary “This was a clear breach of trust in a serious matter. This was a course of conduct over a long period of time. You knew full well you were not allowed to do this, you held out that you were an immigration expert, qualified to provide immigration advice. The reason your registration lapsed is because you didn’t want to pay the fee. Regulation of this area is designed to protect people from the problems we see here”

Speaking about the decision, the Immigration Services Commissioner Mr John Tuckett said “Mr Jiva chose to operate outside the law and without regard for the protection of his clients leading directly to the problems they have since faced. I am delighted with the outcome in this case”.

Notes to the Editor

1. The OISC is an independent public body, established under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, to regulate the provision of immigration advice and services in the UK.

2. For further information contact Cornelius Alexander, OISC Corporate Communications Business Partner, on 0207 211 1617.

Anniversary of the accident involving Piper PA-46-310P Malibu, N264DB, near Guernsey, 21 January 2019.

Crispin Orr, Chief Inspector of Air Accidents, Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said: “Today marks the anniversary of the accident involving Piper PA-46-310P Malibu, N264DB, near Guernsey, and our thoughts are with the families and friends of Mr Ibbotson and Mr Sala at this time.

“The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has conducted a thorough investigation looking at a number of elements including operational, technical, organisational and human factors that may have caused or contributed to this accident. We have worked closely with many specialist organisations including the aircraft and engine manufacturers and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the USA.

The AAIB has published two special bulletins about the accident, one which contained preliminary factual information, and the second which contained medical information for the general aviation community about the dangers of exposure to carbon monoxide.

Our investigation is now at an advanced stage and we intend to publish our final report by the end of March 2020.”

First special bulletin, published 25th February 2019.

Second special bulletin, published 14th August 2019