HM Government

Passengers travelling into and out of Bristol are set to benefit from a fleet of modern trains providing extra seating, air-conditioning, wi-fi and at-seat plugs.

Smart ticketing is also to be rolled out locally with trials of contactless payments now underway at 11 stations in the area to make journeys easier.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today (6 July 2017) visited Bristol Temple Meads station to welcome the modern diesel Turbo trains, which launched for the first time on the Severn Beach line into the city this week and also to see progress on the smart ticketing trials.

The first train in the modern fleet marks stage one in a full rollout in the Bristol and wider area, providing passengers with more space and more comfort on their journeys to and from work.

They are being introduced on commuter routes into Bristol, Taunton, Cardiff, Gloucester and Portsmouth over the next year. The route between Temple Meads and Severn Beach via Clifton Down and Avonmouth was chosen first because it has seen some of the strongest growth of any community rail line in the country.

The introduction of electric trains between Maidenhead and London Paddington since May has allowed the release of the more modern diesel trains for passengers in the Bristol area.

Mr Grayling also saw a new pilot scheme at the station to introduce ticketless travel on rail journeys into and out of the city. The ‘Touch’ smart ticketing pilot is currently being tested at stations on the same Severn Beach line into Bristol and is jointly funded by train operator Great Western Railway (GWR) and Bristol City Council.

It is due to launch in September and will allow passengers the option of tapping in and out using cards as well as tickets. Gates along the route are being upgraded with smart readers as part of testing for the scheme. Smart ticketing is much more convenient for passengers because it allows paperless commuting and speedy, tap-and-go travel. It allows them to avoid queues when buying tickets and makes it easier to replace lost, stolen or damaged tickets.

During his visit, Mr Grayling met with GWR’s Engineering Director Andrew Mellor and representatives from Bristol City Council to see progress on the scheme and to take a look inside the cabs of the new Turbo fleet. He said:

The rollout of the more modern trains is great news for passengers in and around Bristol because they offer more seats, more facilities and greater comfort. It is a demonstration of our determination to put passengers at the heart of everything we do.

I applaud GWR and the City Council as well for their investment in the future of our railways with their smart ticketing venture. This is an excellent example of the vision the government spelled out at the end of last year – to give every passenger across the country the option of travelling on rail with a smart ticket or card by the end of 2018.

Nationally, the government has committed £80 million to expanding smart ticketing across the country. Around 450 stations across the south-east have already been upgraded to support the initiative.

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More than 130,000 people are expected to head for the showground on the edge of Harrogate from Tuesday 11 to Thursday 13 July.

Andrew Charnick, Emergency Planning Officer for Highways England in Yorkshire, said:

About 130,000 people are expected to attend over the course of the three days and while we at Highways England do all we can to alleviate congestion on the major routes to the event and keep traffic flowing, obviously it will be busier than normal in this area.

We work very closely with partners including the police to ensure people travelling to events can get around as smoothly as possible. We are advising road users to plan their journeys into Harrogate next week – that might mean a simple check for congestion before leaving the house, delaying their journeys or even opting for a different mode of transport on the day.

We have a lot of experience of handling events like this and have tried and tested systems in place. We work with our emergency service colleagues to ensure those heading for the event get there with minimum fuss and delays.

Motorists not planning to attend the show should plan ahead and leave extra time, and check our twitter feeds and website for the latest information to ease their journeys over that weekend.

Drivers can check travel conditions before setting out on journeys. Highways England provides live traffic information via its website at www.trafficengland.com, local and national radio travel bulletins, electronic road signs and mobile apps.

Information is also available from Twitter as well as services in other regions and on our traffic information page.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

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CDC – the UK’s and world’s oldest development finance institution – has today launched a new 5 year strategy that sets out how it will direct more investment into conflict and fragile states, drive innovation and improve its development impact and accountability.

The new strategy will ensure CDC can continue to make pioneering investments to create the jobs and opportunities needed to fight poverty in the hardest to reach places, and cement CDC at the heart of the UK’s work, promoting responsible, private investment to stimulate economic growth in the poorest countries.

In the last 3 years, businesses backed by CDC in Africa and South Asia have created over 3 million new jobs and generated over $9 billion worth of local tax revenue, helping support improvements to public services like health and education.

The new 5 year strategy, which will be launched by CDC’s new CEO, Nick O’Donohoe, builds on recent successes and addresses important issues raised by previous independent audits, development NGOs and Parliament.

CDC will continue to focus on creating jobs in Africa and South Asia and within these regions, on fragile and conflict affected countries such as DRC and Sierra Leone. CDC is committed to maximising its development impact through new and innovative approaches that can transform whole sectors – for instance increasing access to affordable medicines and developing clean off-grid solar technology.

The strategy keeps job creation at its heart, but broadens CDC’s impact goals to include women’s economic empowerment and climate change.

The strategy also commits CDC to increased levels of reporting on investments and achievements, making more data available online, improving transparency and accountability.

International Development Minister Lord Bates said:

Creating jobs and boosting prosperity in the poorest countries is a hallmark of Global Britain, furthering our national interests by developing our trading partners of the future.

CDC uses its expertise to invest in growing businesses that can create more and better jobs, tackle poverty and reduce aid dependency. And this is fundamentally about people. By strengthening infrastructure, businesses and markets, CDC is helping individuals find work so they can feed their families and send their children to school.

We have radically transformed CDC over the last 5 years to ensure their investments are targeted where they are needed most, and the new strategy reflects our shared ambitions for the organisation to have the greatest impact for the world’s poorest and deliver value for money for UK taxpayers.

Developing country markets has huge potential to become the UK’s trading partners of the future and to contribute to global prosperity. However, there is a currently a huge shortage of the investment needed to stimulate this growth.

The additional financing needed to achieve the UN Global Goals by 2030 is estimated at $2.5 trillion every year, but current investment levels are less than half of that. CDC is pivotal in forging the path for future investment by demonstrating that it is possible to invest responsibly and successfully in the hardest –to-reach places, encouraging more much-needed private sector capital to flow into these countries.

CDC, which is wholly owned by the UK government, uses its skills and expertise to support over 1200 businesses in over 70 of the poorest countries.

Every penny of profit generated by CDC is reinvested – this makes every penny of UK taxpayers’ money go even further.

Since 2012 all of CDC’s investments have been focused in developing countries in Africa and Asia – where 80% of the world’s poorest live – and where it can have the greatest impact for the world’s poorest and deliver value for money for UK taxpayers.

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The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a statutory inquiry into Chesed Leyisruel Trust, registered charity number 1141178. The inquiry was opened on 25 May 2017.

The charity has objects for the relief of poverty in the Jewish community and more widely. Its objects also include the advancement of Jewish Orthodox education and religion.

The regulator is investigating the charity after it failed to file its accounting information for the financial year ending 31 March 2016 by the deadline despite frequent reminders from the Commission. This failing was exacerbated by the fact the charity was previously included in a class inquiry and failed to submit its annual accounting information for the financial years ending 31 March 2014 and 2015. That inquiry concluded on 31 January 2017 following compliance by the trustees.

The trustees’ continuing non-compliance in failing to submit accounting information so soon after exiting the Commission’s class inquiry which covered the same issue, is of serious regulatory concern and warrants investigation by the Commission.

The inquiry will examine:

• the extent to which the trustees are complying with their legal duties in respect of their administration, governance and management of the charity and in particular: their compliance with legal obligations for the preparation and filing of the charity’s accounts and other information or returns
• the extent to which the trustees have complied with previously issued regulatory guidance

In addition to obtaining the overdue accounting information the inquiry will seek to ensure that the trustees comply with their legal duties to file future account submissions within the statutory deadlines.

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.

The charity’s details can be viewed on the Commission’s online charity search tool.

Ends

PR 53/17

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Notes to editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
2. Search for charities on our online register.
3. Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the Commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.
4. The Commission’s decision to announce the opening of a statutory inquiry is based on whether it is in the public interest to do so and with consideration of our objective to increase public trust and confidence in charities.

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Education Secretary Justine Greening has today (Thursday 6 July) set out her mission to spark the skills revolution needed to help Britain make a success of leaving the European Union.

In a keynote speech to business leaders at the British Chambers of Commerce Education summit, Justine Greening told business leaders that the country can only rise to the challenge of developing the skills and talents of our young people if government and business work together. This includes developing plans for new T levels, backed by an extra £500 million of government investment per year announced in the budget, which will help build the army of skilled young people that business and the country need.

Justine Greening also outlined plans to deliver the huge range of skills needed to make Britain a success, everything from coding to engineering and construction to design, at a time when migration remains high on the political agenda.

Education Secretary Justine Greening told the business audience:

I want to create an army of skilled young people for British business. But I need your help. Government can’t do it alone.

Because that’s what we need, never more than now. A skills revolution for Brexit Britain. That’s the real strategy on migration.

Great companies need great people. And my Department has a mission to give our young people the very best start – to become those great people.

The introduction of T-Levels will be the next stage in this journey – a gold standard for technical and professional excellence. Offered alongside apprenticeships, they will form the basis of our new technical education system.

Delivering these reforms will be a challenge. I am clear there is only one way to get this right – through a genuine partnership between business, government and education professionals. This means we need a collective plan. One plan. One team. for skills.

A skills revolution. A technical education revolution. That is how we meet those challenges – head on. It’s how we build our future.

T levels will build on the success of the government’s ambitious reforms that have already contributed to the proportion of young people not in education, employment or training being at a record low.

But still too many young people are being left behind, which is why the Education Secretary is responding to calls from business and education experts – CBI, BCC, Ofqual, the Association of Colleges and Lord Sainsbury – to get technical education right for a new generation.

Justine Greening also announced:

*£50 million investment from April 2018 to fund high quality work placements -a key component of every T Level – to help prepare young people for skilled work *£15m to contribute to improvements in further education so we have the colleges and teachers we need to deliver the new T levels *Plans to bolster the role of the current Further Education Commissioner – Richard Atkins – who will take on responsibility for Further Education Colleges and Sixth Form Colleges *Plans for a Department for Education summit with businesses in the autumn to start developing the T level curriculum

The full speech is available here.

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