The Charity Commission has opened an inquiry into the Sikh Channel Community Broadcasting Company Limited (registered charity number 1136163) due to serious regulatory concerns resulting from a meeting with the charity’s trustees. The inquiry opened on 13 November 2019.

During a meeting with the charity’s trustees in October 2019, the Commission found a number of regulatory concerns about the charity’s governance, including conflicts of interest, and concerns over the charity’s financial management.

The inquiry will examine:

• whether the trustees have properly exercised their legal duties and responsibilities under charity law in the administration of charitable funds held by the organisation;
• the financial management of the organisation;
• whether there has been private benefit to the trustees or former trustees of the charity;
• the charity’s activities and partnerships with other organisations;
• the conduct of the trustees.

Since the opening of the inquiry new trustees and a new CEO have been appointed to the charity who are looking to make improvements.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

Ends.

Notes to Editors

1. An inquiry is not a finding of wrongdoing.
2. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales; our role is to regulate charity trustees’ compliance with the charity law framework.
3. The charity exists to further the charitable work of the Sikh religion and community.

Did you know the CNC is now followed by over 35,600 people across our various social media accounts?

As well as our Facebook and YouTube pages, we also have 16 Twitter accounts. These are run and updated by operational officers and staff at our 10 Operational Policing Units and various other departments, including Firearms Training, Operational Support and Development and our Dog Unit.

If you are looking to learn about life at a particular location, then following the Twitter account for that area will give you a real flavour of the role and the local community. If you live in an area close to one of our sites, your local account will also show you what our officers and staff are doing to keep your community safe.

As a national police force with a counter terrorism focus, our social media accounts help us spread the word of the exceptional work of our officers and staff. If you don’t already follow one of our accounts, why not join the conversation and sign up to follow one today?

If you haven’t had a look at our social media accounts, search for Civil Nuclear Constabulary on Facebook or YouTube or follow one of our Twitter accounts: @NuclearPolice; @CNCDounreay, @CNCDungeness, @CNCHartlepool, @CNCHarwell, @CNCHeyshamOPU, @CNCHinkleyPoint, @CNCHunterston, @CNC_Sellafield, @CNCSizewell, @CNCTorness, @CNC_OSD, @CNCPride, @CNCFirearmsDept, @CNCLearn, @CNCDogs

The winning project investigated how to apply big data and design principles to tackle urban transportation and the difficulties that elderly people face in cities around the world.

The project was supported by the Newton Fund Researcher Links Workshops programme, facilitated by the British Council and National Natural Science Foundation of China. It also brought together early career researchers from the UK and China inspiring the next generation of scientists.

Presenting the award, Dame Barbara Woodward, British Ambassador to China, said:

I am delighted to award the Newton Fund prize to this fantastic project which is helping to make our cities more liveable for our ageing population.

The UK-China research partnership has delivered huge benefits to the world in tackling global challenges and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Newton Fund has played a key role in bringing the best UK and Chinese scientists together and will continue to provide more opportunities in the future.

Five projects were shortlisted for the China category of the Newton Prize 2019. These included:

• A new generation of solar panels to reduce fuel consumption and support our transition to a low carbon economy
• A nature-based solution to tackle the problem of rising water levels due to climate change
• Protecting cities against the challenges of climate change and extreme weather
• Vaccines to combat avian disease and support food security

The UK-China Research and Innovation Partnership Fund (the Newton Fund) offers comprehensive funding to bring together the best researchers and innovators from UK and China to tackle the biggest challenges we face globally. The 2019 Newton Prize, welcomed by the UK and Chinese governments, rewards achievements of the Newton Fund in tackling global challenge issues such as climate change, food security, and health.

Since its launch in 2013, over 1000 partnerships have been jointly supported across 120 UK, and 260 Chinese research institutions and businesses.

Professor John Loughhead, Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said:

These shortlisted projects demonstrate how efforts to tackle global development challenges can change lives.

As well as making a valuable contribution to global goals, these partnerships also develop new and fruitful networks between researchers and provide vital career opportunities to researchers and innovators.

Professor Wang Hongan, Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Software Design said:

With Newton Fund support, we have brought together an interdisciplinary research team, combining the UK’s strength in service design and China’s strength in big data analysis and natural interaction technology to provide intellectual and human support to resolve the issues of global sustainable urbanisation.

We hope to use our technology to provide personalised services to vulnerable groups in cities such as the elderly and disabled.

Another three projects from China were shortlisted for the £500,000 Chair’s Award under the Newton Prize, tackling challenges in crop monitoring and smart farming for food security, and cancer. The Chair’s Award winner will be announced on February 12th 2020 in London.

Notes to Editor:

UK-China science and innovation collaboration

UK and China science and innovation collaboration spans nearly 40 years. In 2017 the UK-China Joint Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation strategy was launched; the first comprehensive science and innovation strategy that China had developed with another country. The strategy sets the framework for future cooperation to jointly tackle global challenges and drive economic growth over the next 10 years covering co-operation across the spectrum, from research through to the commercialisation of new technologies.

• The UK is China’s second-largest partner in terms of joint publications, after USA
• Collaborative research output has almost doubled over the five years from 2014 to 2018, going from 8,111 papers in 2014 to 15,182 in 2018, an average y-o-y increase of 17%
• UK-China publications perform significantly better than non-collaborative publications, with FWCI of 2.16 in 2018 (China alone, 1.03; UK alone 1.56).

Source: Elsevier/SciVal

The UK-China Research and Innovation Partnership Fund

The Partnership Fund is a bilateral fund launched in 2014. The Fund is managed by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. Funding is allocated through competitive process managed by both sides. The Fund is delivered by partners including:

• UK side: UK Research and Innovation, the Royal Society, Academy of Medical Sciences, British Academy, Royal Academy of Engineering, the British Council and the Met Office.
• Chinese side: Ministry of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Science, and China Meteorological Administration, Chinese Academy of Engineering, among others.

Support for the UK side comes from the Newton Fund, with £180m allocated to the China partnership. The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships between the UK and 17 partner countries to support economic development and social welfare. The partnership with China is the largest.

Newton Prize 2019

The Newton Prize is a £1 million fund which recognises the excellent research and innovation the Newton Fund has invested in since its launch in 2014. The Newton Prize 2019 covered the partnerships with China, Indonesia and the Philippines. Each country has received one prize of up to £200,000 to the project that best demonstrates high quality research and impact. The Chair’s Award of £500,000 will be presented to one project from across the three in this year’s prize that best demonstrates knowledge exchange and partnership working. An independent Newton Prize judging committee made up of experts from the UK and the 2019 countries was chaired by Professor Alice Gast, Imperial College London President.

Green is GREAT

The Newton Fund and Newton Prize are proud to support Green is GREAT, an ambitious multi-year national campaign run by the British Embassy Beijing. Tackling climate change is a clear priority for the UK and we continue to move forward on fulfilling our global role in leading efforts to tackle climate change and the effects of a declining environment. The UK-China Green partnership is helping to tackle climate change, and through Green is GREAT campaign activity we will deepen this partnership to create even wider impact. The first phase of Green is GREAT campaign will focus on three strands: Green Finance, Renewable Energy and Marine Plastics.

The Prime Minister spoke to Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada.

He began by offering condolences for the Canadians who lost their lives in the Ukraine International Airlines crash.

The leaders discussed the need for urgent deescalation on all sides following last night’s airstrike on Iraqi bases hosting Coalition forces.

They also agreed on the importance of Coalition forces being able to continue their vital work in Iraq countering the shared threat from Daesh.

On the nuclear deal, the leaders committed to continue working together and with international partners to ensure Iran is prevented from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Towns across England will be able to compete in a new Town of the Year competition, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick announced today (9 January 2020), as he set out a new package of support to level up the country.

The new competition aims to celebrate towns’ achievements, including in areas such as entrepreneurship, technology, community, enterprise, and integration.

It will also support communities to come together to create a bright future and unleash their full potential through innovation, creativity, and community spirit.

A new ‘Towns Hub’ will also be established within the department to work directly with local people as they develop town investment proposals and help communities share best practice to transform their towns.

In the months ahead, the Communities Secretary will visit all of the 100 areas receiving funding under the £3.6 billion Towns Fund to set out the government’s ambition to restore the fabric of our towns and cities and give local people far more control in how they are invested in, and to hear directly from people in these communities on the specific support and investment they need.

Kicking off his countrywide town tour in Wolverhampton, Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said: 

People have put their trust in this new government and we’re making an immediate start to serve local communities and deliver real change, through our £3.6 billion Towns Fund.

I will visit all these areas in the coming months and make sure they’re receiving the practical support and investment they need on the ground.

To celebrate the achievements of our towns, we are launching a national Town of the Year competition. These plans will help make this decade a time of renewal for towns and communities, delivering on the Prime Minister’s bold agenda for the future.

A new expert-led advisory panel will also be convened to advise on how to revitalise our towns over the next year. The specialists, including entrepreneurs and people who have delivered real change, will help shape government policy to support the growth agenda.

This comes as over £16 million of funding has been delivered to local authorities to help develop new innovative proposals in 100 areas across England, as part of the Towns Fund. Each place will have the opportunity to bid for funding of up to £25 million. 

The ‘Towns Hub’ based across the country will work directly with the 100 places, with a named representative from the department supporting local people on the development of their plan.

They will also evaluate the emerging town investment plans, share best practice across towns and build on the Towns Fund investments for potential future support to towns from across government.

The Fund will allow the town’s future to be in the hands of local people, giving them a say in how this money is being spent by submitting ideas for how to improve skills and transport, create new jobs and regenerate their local community.

Northern Powerhouse Minister Rt Hon Jake Berry MP said:  

As we move from a decade of recovery to a decade of renewal, we are doing everything we can to unlock the potential of towns across the North of England.

Backed up with billions of pounds of extra investment, we are giving local people all the support they need to breathe new life into their town centres.

Our plan to unleash the North’s potential will deliver real, visible change in local communities. With extra investment to drive economic growth and tax cuts for small businesses, we are a government on the side of the people as we work to build a truly Northern Powerhouse.

The competition will be launched later this year, and further details will be announced in due course.

See the 100 places being supported to develop Town Deals across England.

You can submit your ideas for how to improve skills and transport, create new jobs and regenerate your local community here: mytown.communities.gov.uk/

A total of 100 places – including 45 places across the Northern Powerhouse and 30 places in the Midlands Engine – will be the pioneers of new Town Deals building on the Prime Minister’s announcement in July of an additional £1.325 billion to support towns as part of a renewed vision to level up every part of our country, which took the total value of the Towns Fund to £3.6 billion.

Over £16 million of capacity funding has been shared across 100 places. Between £140,000 and £173,000 will help each of these areas develop long-term plans to bid for up to £25 million on making their town a better place to live and work.