The Home Office has today (Thursday 19 October) published proposals to update the laws around antique firearms, following advice from the police and the Law Commission of a rise in criminal cases involving antique weapons.

A new consultation will consider enshrining in law a new definition of antique firearms, which will help ensure older firearms which still pose a danger to the public are licensed.

Minister for Policing and the Fire Service Nick Hurd said:

This country has some of the most robust gun laws anywhere in the world.

But we must not be complacent, which is why these laws are kept under review, and a rise in antique guns being used in crime requires action.

This consultation will bring clarity to the law so that older firearms that still pose a danger to the public are properly licensed to stop them falling into the hands of criminals.

The consultation follows recent convictions connected to the misuse of antiques weapons. In November 2015, 18 members of the ‘Burger Bar Boys’ gang in Birmingham received substantial sentences for a range of firearms offences. They had sourced antique firearms and arranged for ammunition to be specially made to fit the weapons. They had then sold the weapons to criminal gangs for considerable profit.

In June 2017, Sultan Meer from London was sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment for firearm offences. A police investigation showed that Meer, who claimed to be a collector of antique firearms but was already prohibited from possessing a firearm, was obtaining antique guns and trying to acquire ammunition for them.

The consultation will consider which obsolete cartridges and propulsion systems will lead to a firearm being considered antique. It will also consider a change to the automatic cut-off date of manufacture after which all weapons must be licensed. Currently this date is 1939 but this could shift to 1900.

The High Speed Rail (Preparation) Act annual expenditure report is published today under Section 2 of the High Speed Rail (Preparation) Act 2013.

The report covers the period from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.

A copy of the report will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Geovation has expanded its programme to support three new PropTech start-ups. This is the first time the programme will back PropTech disruptors and follows news that HMLR will begin to collaborate with OS to stimulate the innovative use of land and property technology and data through Geovation.

The PropTech businesses will be joining the programme alongside three GeoTech start-ups.

Business Minister Lord Prior said:

Building more affordable homes is central to the Government’s commitment to creating an economy that works for everyone and the partnership between HM Land Registry and Ordnance Survey is a new and exciting chapter of this.

The Geovation Programme encourages and supports the growing number of new start-ups driving innovation in the housing sector. Geovation is now supporting six new PropTech and GeoTech companies to develop new technologies to propel the UK towards becoming a global leader in the land and property market.

The PropTech businesses are:

Rentr tracks UK local authority licensing schemes for rental properties, identifying properties that meet regulated safety standards. Landlords and agents can audit entire portfolios broken down by postcode in seconds and review the daily status changes of individual properties.

Orbital Witness uses satellite imagery, property ownership data and cutting edge artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct due diligence on properties to assist conveyancers, by highlighting areas of risk early.

AskPorter is an AI machine learning messaging platform that optimises property and facilities management by reducing administration and management costs while improving customer satisfaction. The platform uses an intuitive conversational interface that enables a chatbot to answer common questions.

The GeoTech businesses are:

FlowX offers a low-cost solution to traffic congestion, and the pollution this causes, by providing object classification algorithms to exciting sensory data. This is achieved by integrating data from existing infrastructure sensors and then applying machine learning to give the ability to react to congestion before it even happens.

Safe & the City aims to build a safer community one step at a time by creating a GPS app that uses evidence informed data and crowdsourced geotagged information to paint a picture of safe routes and what streets to walk down.

Explaain reinvents the online article. Most journalists put the most noteworthy information first and leave context and background for later. Explaain allows journalists to include more of the research that doesn’t usually make it into a final article. They recently used their technology to run GE2017.com – a voting preference app that had more than 2 million completed surveys in the run-up to this year’s general election. They will be developing location-aware alerts and reminders, and geospatial context for cards.

John Abbott, Director of Digital, Data and Technology at HM Land Registry says:

With our support these start-ups have the opportunity to revolutionise the technology that underpins the property sector and create data-driven services that will make property related transactions simpler, faster and cheaper for everyone.

During the first six months of the programme, participants will develop their ideas to prototype stage. They will benefit from £10,000 of funding and commit to spending twenty hours per week on their project. At this point the prototype will be assessed for its commercial viability. If the Geovation team decides it has viability, the following six months will be spent creating a product and launching it, assisted with a further £10,000 funding.

Alex Wrottesley, Head of Geovation, says:

We’re very excited to be working with these businesses. The programme offers an exceptional launchpad for any new business in the PropTech or GeoTech markets and we’re looking forward to giving this new group our full support.

The sites are being investigated due to concerns they are breaking consumer law by hitting customers with hidden charges and unexpected fees, such as for fuel, or late night pick-ups and drop-offs.

Over the last year the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been working with car hire comparison sites to ensure their customers get clear and accurate prices.

As a result of this, there has been a significant improvement in the accuracy and clarity of information on car rental price comparison websites and, today, standards are much higher across much of the sector. For example, most comparison websites now clearly flag young driver surcharges and one-way fees in the prices they quote.

However, a small number of businesses have been identified which may have still not made adequate improvements.

This has resulted in the launch of 2 enforcement cases and prompted the CMA to publish advice to the sector on how to comply with consumer law, issuing letters to 40 companies, asking them to maintain standards and, where necessary, make improvements to comply with the law.

The advice makes clear the CMA’s expectations, such as:

• including all extra charges in the price they first give their customers;
• clearly setting out fuel pricing policies to customers; and
• warning them about high excess or deposits amounts.

Today’s announcement builds on the CMA’s work with the European Commission into ‘the big 5’ car rental firms in 2015, which resulted in savings of an estimated £100 million for UK customers.

It also follows the CMA’s year-long in-depth examination of online comparison tools, which set out clear ground rules for all sites. They should be:

• Clear on key issues such as how they make their money;
• Accurate in the information they provide;
• Responsible about how they use people’s personal data; and
• Easy to use.

James MacBeth, Project Director, said:

For many people hiring a car is an essential component to days out, holidays and trips. No one should be misled or face unexpected charges, whether they choose to book directly with the car hire company or through a comparison site.

While we have seen improvements in the way car hire comparison sites quote prices, we are still concerned that some companies may not have faced up to their legal obligations, and as a result we have opened 2 enforcement cases.

We expect this sector to provide clearer information about the true costs, and to explain upfront what customers will actually pay. Businesses must read our advice and make the necessary changes. If companies break the law they risk enforcement action, as these cases show.

People thinking about renting a car overseas should look at our advice and the Citizens Advice top tips to help you avoid being caught out when renting a car.

Notes to editors

1. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. For CMA updates, follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk, Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn.
2. The key pieces of consumer protection legislation relevant to the CMA’s investigation are the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) and Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The CPRs contain a general prohibition against unfair commercial practices and specific prohibitions against misleading actions, misleading omissions and aggressive commercial practices. Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act aims to protect consumers against unfair contract terms and notices, and requires contract terms to be fair and transparent.
3. The CMA has not reached a final view on whether the practices it is concerned about breach consumer protection law, and will listen to the companies’ responses to its concerns. If necessary the CMA will take action through the courts to enforce that law under Part 8 of the Enterprise Act 2002. Ultimately, only a court can rule that a particular term or practice infringes the law.
4. The CMA will continue to take steps to encourage and maintain compliance with consumer law in this sector. This will include conducting a review in early 2018 with further enforcement cases if necessary. It is also gathering evidence on complaints about problems that people have experienced overseas (in particular those relating to charges for damage) in order to build on the work we have already done with overseas regulators to tackle problems experienced abroad.
5. Media enquiries to the CMA should be directed to press@cma.gsi.gov.uk or 020 3738 6798.

Norovirus is an unpleasant vomiting bug that usually lasts about 2 days. There’s not much that can be done to treat it but there are ways to reduce the risk of passing it on to those around you.

It is highly contagious and so it’s important to practise good hygiene by thoroughly washing hands with soap and warm water, staying away from places like hospitals and care homes and avoiding preparing food or having close contact with others when ill to limit the spread of norovirus, which causes unpleasant, but short lived, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Nick Phin, National Infection Service Deputy Director, PHE said:

Norovirus can be unpleasant and is easily passed on to those around you. Most people get over it within a day or 2 but, in the very young, elderly or those who have weakened immune systems, it can last longer and it is easy to get dehydrated, so it is important to drink plenty of fluids to prevent this.

It is transmitted by touching hands or surfaces that the virus has landed on. All surfaces should be thoroughly disinfected after any episode of illness.

Those who have diarrhoea and vomiting should not prepare food until 48 hours after symptoms have disappeared. We advise that they should avoid visiting GP surgeries, care homes and hospitals if they have symptoms. If anyone has symptoms and is concerned they should contact NHS 111 or talk to their GP by phone.

One of the best ways to protect against norovirus and to help prevent infection is by practising good hygiene. This includes thorough hand washing with soap and warm water especially after using the toilet and before eating or preparing food.

Symptoms of norovirus include sudden onset of nausea, projectile vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Illness typically lasts about 24 to 48 hours.