Finnmaster safety bulletin published

News story

Safety warning issued after the initial investigation into a cargo ship fire found blocked fixed CO2 fire extinguishing system pilot hoses.

We have published a safety bulletin based on our initial findings following an auxiliary engine room fire on board the Finland registered ro-ro cargo ship Finnmaster as it departed Hull, England, on 19 September 2021.

This accident remains under investigation and the detailed causes and circumstances will be published in an investigation report in due course.

Request for information

To assist this investigation, it is requested that service providers, owners and operators pass details of any blocked pilot system hose assemblies that they find to us.

Email maib@dft.gov.uk with the title ‘CO2 Pilot System Hose Assembly Issues’ and include the name of the vessel, the date and place of installation of the affected hose assemblies, and details of the defects identified.

Published 10 March 2022




9-year ban for director who lied to secure Covid-19 financial support

Inderjit Singh Dadial, 32, from Wolverhampton has been disqualified as a director for nine years.

He was sole director of Cali Juices Ltd, a wholesaler of specialised soft drinks, which was incorporated in 2019 with a registered address in Wolverhampton.

In June 2020 Inderjit Singh Dadial applied for and secured £50,000 through the Bounce Back Loan scheme.

The company’s accounts ending January 2020 however showed turnover of just over £2,000, but the Insolvency Service investigation found that Inderjit Singh Dadial had lied and stated the turnover as £250,000.

The company was not in fact eligible for any money under the scheme based on its actual accounts, and income received into the company’s bank account.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Inderjit Singh Dadial after he admitted grossly inflating the company’s turnover to secure the Bounce Back Loan. His ban runs from 21 March 2022 and lasts for 9 years.

The disqualification undertaking prevents him from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Dave Elliott, Chief Investigator at The Insolvency Service said:

Inderjit Singh Dadial had significantly inflated the turnover on the application to obtain a loan to which Cali Juices Limited was not entitled.

The Insolvency Service will not hesitate to investigate and use its powers against those who have abused the COVID-19 support schemes.

Notes to editors

Inderjit Singh Dadial of Wolverhampton and his date of birth is December 1990.

Cali Juices Ltd (Company Reg no. 11798166)

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

  • act as a director of a company

  • take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership

  • be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

Information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:




Recruitment vacancy for VMR Project Support

News story

Recruitment details of a fixed term vacancy in our Legislation Team.

Lectern with VMD logo

This vacancy for Veterinary Medicines Regulations (VMR) Project Support in the Legislation Team is initially for a 2-year fixed term appointment with the possibility of becoming permanent, subject to budget approval.

This exciting and interesting puts you at the heart of the VMD’s Legislation Section, which sits within the VMD’s Legislation & Enforcement Office. The Office leads on the development, implementation and enforcement of policy and legislation on veterinary medicines and medicated feed in the UK.

Summary

Job Title

VMR Project Support in Legislation Team

Grade

HEO

Salary & Pension

£32,557 – £35,888 per annum with Pension Scheme

Annual Leave entitlement

Commencing at 25 days

Role

In this role we are looking for experience in project management, policy, or making secondary legislation, in order to play a central role in our project to update the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013.

How to apply

You must make your application via the Civil Service jobs website where you will find a full job description including salary details.

Closing Date

13 April 2022

Published 10 March 2022




Brockham oil site permit variation issued

Press release

Decision to allow waste water re-injection follows second round of public consultation.

The Environment Agency has issued a permit variation to Angus Energy, which operates the Brockham oil site.

This will allow the operator to re-inject waste water, which must be from its operations at Brockham, into one of the existing boreholes on the site.

This decision follows public consultation that took place between 29 December 2021 and 31 January 2022. Having reviewed the responses, the Environment Agency decided to approve the application.

See further information on the application published for the consultation.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:

In deciding whether or not to issue this permit variation, the Environment Agency took into account all relevant considerations and legal requirements.

An environmental permit sets out stringent conditions that all oil and gas sites must adhere to. We will not issue an environmental permit for a site if we consider that activities taking place will cause significant pollution to the environment or harm to human health.

It is a condition of the permit variation that the waste water to be re-injected must originate from operations at Brockham oil site. This condition is made clear in the Decision Document and in the introductory note of the permit.

Until the operators have a Radioactive Substances Regulation bespoke permit, they cannot accept produced water from outside Brockham oil site.

Information on how the Environment Agency determines applications, the timescales involved and how onshore oil and gas is regulated, can be found at:

Public consultations

Further information on how when and how the Environment Agency consults on permit applications and standard rules for environmental permits, can be found at:

Existing environmental permits at Brockham

Angus Energy is currently the holder of a number of environmental permits issued by the Environment Agency in accordance with the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

The current permitted activities at Brockham oil site allow the undertaking of the following activities:

  • the loading, unloading, handling or storage of, or the physical, chemical or thermal treatment of crude oil
  • storage of additional raw materials
  • use of diesel generator for on-site electricity
  • flaring of gas for emergency only
  • combustion of produced gas in an engine with a rated thermal input of 0.93 megawatts
  • use of oil-fired bath heater for oil/water separation
  • discharge of surface water from non-process areas of the site.
  • the management of extractive waste from production activities, not involving a waste facility
  • the management of extractive waste generated by well workover
  • the management of extractive waste generated by well decommissioning
  • storage of radioactive waste on site prior its disposal off site (a standard rules radioactive substances permit)

Published 10 March 2022




Abramovich and Deripaska among seven Oligarchs targeted in estimated £15bn sanction hit

  • Owner of Chelsea FC sees his assets frozen, a prohibition on transactions with UK individuals and businesses, a travel ban and transport sanctions imposed.
  • Abramovich’s one time business partner, leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska, also sanctioned with the same measures.
  • Putin’s right-hand man Igor Sechin and four more of Putin’s inner circle targeted with asset freeze and travel ban.
  • Economic Crime Bill coming into force next week will allow UK Government to move further and faster than ever on sanctions.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has today (Thursday 10 March) announced a full asset freeze and travel ban on seven of Russia’s wealthiest and most influential oligarchs, whose business empires, wealth and connections are closely associated with the Kremlin.

As part of the UK’s leading efforts to isolate Putin and those around him, these oligarchs – who have a collective net worth of around £15bn – will have their assets in the UK frozen, they are banned from travelling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them.

Those newly-sanctioned by the UK include Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, worth more than £9 billion; leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska worth £2 billion, and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. A further group of Russia-based oligarchs close to Putin have also been placed under sanction. Those sanctioned today are:

  • Roman Abramovich owner of Chelsea FC and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel
  • Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group
  • Igor Sechin is the Chief Executive of Rosneft
  • Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank
  • Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom
  • Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft
  • Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:

There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine.

Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the UK’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said:

Today’s sanctions show once again that oligarchs and kleptocrats have no place in our economy or society. With their close links to Putin they are complicit in his aggression.

The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame.

Our support for Ukraine will not waver. We will not stop in this mission to ramp up the pressure on the Putin regime and choke off funds to his brutal war machine.

These sanctions are the latest step in the UK’s response to Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion, designed to ensure he fails in Ukraine by crippling Russia’s economy supporting his war machine. The UK has been at the forefront of this effort, shutting out large proportions of whole sectors of the Russian economy, such as its defence industry, its financial institutions and its transport sector. The UK has already sanctioned more than 200 of Russia’s most significant and high-value individuals, entities and subsidiaries since the invasion, with over 500 of them now covered by the UK’s sanctions list.

The Economic Crime Bill coming into force next week will also significantly simplify the process of imposing sanctions, allow the UK to more easily sanction individuals, stop oligarchs threatening the UK with multi-million pound lawsuits for damages at the taxpayer’s expense and also allow the UK to mirror allies’ designations. The UK will keep going further, faster and deeper to punish Putin’s regime for this callous war.

The UK will continue to lead global efforts to provide Ukraine with economic, diplomatic, humanitarian and defensive support.

Given the significant impact that today’s sanctions would have on Chelsea football club and the potential knock on effects of this, the Government has this morning published a licence which authorises a number of football-related activities to continue at Chelsea. This includes permissions for the club to continue playing matches and other football related activity which will in turn protect the Premier League, the wider football pyramid, loyal fans and other clubs. This licence will only allow certain explicitly named actions to ensure the designated individual is not able to circumvent UK sanctions. The licence will be kept under constant review and we will work closely with the football authorities.

Notes to Editors

Asset freeze: an asset freeze prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person and which are held in the UK. It will also prevent funds or economic resources being provided to or for the benefit of the designated person.

Travel ban: a travel ban means that the designated person must be refused leave to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom, providing the individual to be an excluded person under section 8B of the Immigration Act 1971.

Transport sanctions: recently introduced powers make it a criminal offence for any Russian aircraft to fly or land in the UK, and give the Government powers to remove aircraft belonging to designated Russian individuals and entities from the UK aircraft register, even if the sanctioned individual is not on board. Russian ships are also banned from UK ports.

  1. Roman Abramovich has stakes in steel giant Evraz, Norilsk Nickel and owns Chelsea FC. He sold a 73% stake in Russian oil firm Sibneft to state-owned gas titan Gazprom for £9.87 billion in 2005. His net worth is an estimated £9.4 billion. He is one of the few oligarchs from the 1990s to maintain prominence under Putin. None of our allies have yet sanctioned Abramovich.

  2. Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group, a major extractives and energy company which owns UC Rusal, one of the world’s major aluminium producers. He has a multi-million pound property portfolio in the UK. His net worth is an estimated £2 billion. The US designated Deripaska in 2018.

  3. Igor Sechin is the Chief Executive of Rosneft, a Russian state oil company and particularly close and influential ally of Putin. Sechin has been sanctioned by the US and EU.

  4. Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank, the second largest bank in Russia. VTB Bank was designated by the UK on 24 February 2022. Kostin is a close associate of Putin, and has long supported Kremlin objectives through VTB Bank. His net worth is an estimated £379 million. Kostin has been sanctioned by the US and EU.

  5. Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom, making him one of the most important executives supporting the Russian Government. Miller served under Putin in the 1990s when Putin was deputy mayor in St Petersburg. Miller has been sanctioned by the US.

  6. Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft. He first met Putin, when both served as KGB officers in Dresden in East Germany in the 1980s. They have remained closely associated ever since. Tokarev has been sanctioned by the US and EU.

  7. Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya. The UK designated Bank Rossiya, widely considered to be the Kremlin’s private bank, on 22 February 2022. Lebedev was sanctioned by the US in 2016.

*Net worth calculated by Forbes.