Day: October 20, 2017

Ms Kate Airey OBE has been appointed British High Commissioner to the Republic of Namibia in succession to Ms Jo Lomas who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Ms Airey will take up her appointment during January 2018.

Curriculum Vitae

Full name:	Kate Airey OBE
Married to:	Duncan Low
Children:	Two

2015 – present	FCO, Head, Whitehall Nigeria Unit
2015	FCO, Deputy Head, Ebola Task Force
2014 – 2015	FCO, Deputy Head, UK Ebola Response
2014	Freetown, Deputy High Commissioner
2010 – 2014	Rome, British Embassy, Prosperity Team Leader
2007 – 2010	Abuja, British High Commission, Head, Political Section
2005 – 2007	FCO, Africa Energy Adviser, Climate Change and Energy Group
2004 – 2005	Shell International Oil Products Ltd, Global Oil Products Marketing Manager
2002 – 2004	Shell International, Team Leader, Internal Management Consultancy
2000 – 2001	Shell UK Ltd, Marketing Manager
1999 – 2000	Oxfam, Press Officer

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Shane Zeb Khattak has been disqualified from acting as a director for 10 years, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service. The Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Khattak which commenced on 2 October 2017.

Khattak was acting as a director for Recruitment Base (UK) Limited which provided payroll and recruitment services in the Midlands. He failed to ensure that Recruitment Base complied with obligations around immigration checks, resulting in the employment of 11 illegal workers.

Additionally, from 13 March 2015 until its liquidation he was acting as a director whilst being undischarged bankrupt, without leave of the Court.

On four separate occasions between 30 April 2014 and 8 June 2015, Home Office Immigration Officers investigated businesses in the Midlands, finding illegal workers that were employed by Recruitment Base. The Home Office fined Recruitment Base a total of £140,000, none of which was paid.

Khattak claimed that a fire at the trading premises had destroyed employee records, resulting in an inability to provide documentation on the workers. However, the claimed date of the fire was before the start of employment of 10 of the men found to be working illegally, and the other breach pre-dated the fire by seven months, during which no documents had been provided.

On 15 September 2014, The Law Society petitioned for Khattak’s bankruptcy. A bankruptcy order was made against him on 13 March 2015 in the Birmingham County Court.

Commenting on the disqualification, Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

In this case, Shane Khattak displayed a thoroughly disreputable contempt for his obligation to comply with the law, being willing to provide inaccurate statements to a series of authorities to cover up his activities.

In partnership with the Home Office, who remove people who have no right to work from the market place; the Insolvency Service is seeking to ensure those who exploit the vulnerable will also be dealt with. They will be removed from the bank of legitimate directors.

A Home Office spokesperson said:

Illegal working is not victimless. It undercuts honest employers, cheats legitimate job seekers out of employment opportunities and defrauds the taxpayer.

Businesses should be aware that they have a duty to check that their staff have permission to work in the UK.

We are happy to work with employers who play by the rules but those who do not, should know that they will not go under our radar.

Notes to editors

Shane Zeb Khattak, date of birth September 1987, is of Birmingham.

Recruitment Base (UK) Ltd (CRO No. 08651566) was incorporated on 15 August 2013. Its registered office and trading address were 1606 – 1608 Coventry Road, Yardley, Birmingham, West Midlands, B26 1AL.

Recruitment Base (UK) Ltd was wound up in Birmingham County Court (6436 of 2015) on 3 August 2015 and on 5 January 2016 David A Ingram of Grant Thornton UK LLP, 30 Finsbury Square, London, EC2P 2YU was appointed liquidator. The liquidation has been completed and the company was dissolved on 30 June 2017. At liquidation, Recruitment Base had no assets and liabilities to creditors totalling £254,980.

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.

All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: Cheryl Lambert, Head of Outsourced Investigations, Investigations and Enforcement Services, The Insolvency Service, 3rd Floor, Abbey Orchard Street, London SW1P 2HT. Tel: 0207 596 6117. Email: Cheryl.Lambert@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk

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The European Commission’s Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCOPAFF) has approved (Thursday 19 October) increased protections against Xylella fastidiosa. The plant disease has devastated olive plantations in southern Italy and is killing plants and trees in areas across Europe.

Last month the Environment Secretary Michael Gove wrote to the European Commission stressing that if EU protections were not increased, we would consider our own national measures, which could include a suspension of high risk imports. The disease, which could be deadly to our oak trees, would be difficult to eradicate if it was to arrive, which is why the UK has pushed hard for these increased protections to help keep it out.

The new measures incorporate key proposals from the UK and include strengthened movement requirements on high risk plants and require quicker responses to potential findings of the disease.

Following the vote Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

Xylella poses a serious threat to our plants, trees and horticulture sector and as I made clear to Commissioner Andriukaitis last month, we need to see robust action by the EU against the disease.

I am therefore pleased this has been taken forward. These increased protections will add to our own efforts to protect our horticulture sector and our famous ancient oaks which have stood tall and proud for centuries as a national symbol of strength and survival.

While the measures we pressed for will come into force, we will keep the risk level under continuous review to determine if further measures are needed to keep the disease out of the UK.

When we leave the EU we will have an opportunity to examine all our national biosecurity measures on plant imports to ensure they are as robust as possible and we are doing everything we can to protect the UK against diseases like Xylella.

The new measures will take effect around the end of November, following a formal adoption process in the European Commission and will supplement measures already in place in the UK which require certain plants to be notified to the plant health authorities when they are brought into the country. This enables the Animal and Plant Health Agency to carry out targeted inspections as well as surveillance for disease in the wider environment.