Month: May 2018

Fintech – short for Financial Technology – is one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK economy. It encompasses innovation in financial services including digital banking, payment technologies, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding platforms. Georgina will be responsible for promoting Northern Ireland’s thriving fintech sector and championing it as a place for firms to develop and grow their business.

Georgina is the digital transformation leader at Allstate and is known as a highly-accomplished technology expert in Northern Ireland. She has over 20 years of experience in tech businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond said:

Fintech is the future of financial services, and we want each corner of the UK to be able to harness its power.
Our new regional fintech envoy for Northern Ireland, Georgina O’Leary, will help the sector to grow and flourish > throughout Belfast and beyond.

I want to congratulate Georgina on her new role. With her wealth of experience in the technology sector, I am
certain she will build on the success of the existing envoys in helping the UK to remain at the cutting edge of the
digital revolution.

Georgina joins the current envoys in championing fintech in their regions:

• David Ferguson, CEO of Nucleus Financial and Louise Smith, Head of Current Account Design for RBS (envoys for Scotland)
• David Duffy, CEO of CYBG (envoy for England)
• Chris Sier, Professor of Financial Technology at the University of Leeds (envoy for the Northern Powerhouse)

The Chancellor also announced today that Richard Theo, Co-Founder and CEO of Wealthify, would become the government’s new fintech envoy for Wales.

Further information:

• fintech is the apps, computer programs and other technologies that support and improve how we bank and access finance. It encompasses innovation in financial services such as crowdfunding, e-banking, payment technologies, peer-to-peer lending, and cryptocurrencies
• fintech contributes roughly £6.6 billion to GDP and employs over 61,000 people across the country. More people work in UK fintech than in New York fintech or in the combined fintech workforce of Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan

A man involved in drug-dealing and gang conflict has had his sentence increased after the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright QC MP, referred it for being too low.

Javarni Cato, 17, was originally detained as he and another male fled a flat in Gloucester where police had found heroin, crack cocaine, and over £500 in cash.

While on bail for the drug offences, Cato fired a pistol at a group of people but no one was hit. Less than a week later, he was involved in a similar shooting which seriously injured a taxi driver. The crimes are believed to be related to Huddersfield gang activity.

Cato was originally sentenced to 5 years 4 months imprisonment at Leeds Crown Court. Today, after the Attorney General’s reference, the Court of Appeal increased his sentence to 9 years.

Commenting on the sentence increase, the Attorney General said:

“I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has agreed with me that this sentence was too low. Gang-related crimes are serious offences, especially when firearms are involved, and a longer sentence more accurately reflects the damage that Cato’s actions have had on individuals and the wider community.”

The government has today (17 May 2018) welcomed Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, and has made a series of commitments to make sure people living in high-rise buildings are safe.

The government has committed to:

• launching a consultation on banning the use of combustible materials in cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings
• banning desktop studies if the current consultation – which closes on 25 May – does not demonstrate that they can be safely used
• ensuring residents have a better mechanism for blowing the whistle on landlords who do not maintain safe buildings
• changing the law to achieve meaningful and lasting reform of the building regulatory system, with strong sanctions for those who fail to comply
• inviting views to inform how the government could implement major reform of the regulatory system
• restructuring building regulations fire safety guidance to ensure it is clear

This is in addition to the £400 million of funding announced by the Prime Minister yesterday to fully fund local authorities and housing associations with the removal and replacement of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, the type used on Grenfell Tower, on social housing buildings above 18 metres.

Secretary of State for Housing, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, said:

It has been deeply moving to hear directly from the Grenfell Tower survivors and community in my first few weeks as Secretary of State.

This was a terrible tragedy that should never have happened. I welcome Dame Judith Hackitt’s comprehensive report and her calls for fundamental reform in the building sector. I am committed to making that happen as quickly as possible.

The cladding believed to be on Grenfell Tower was unlawful under existing building regulations. It should not have been used.

I will ensure there is no room for doubt over what materials can be used safely. Having listened carefully to concerns, I will consult on banning the use of combustible materials in cladding systems on high-rise residential buildings.

We must ensure the tragedy at Grenfell brings change and I call on the industry to work with me to achieve the urgent reform needed.

The government is already acting on Dame Judith’s interim recommendations by consulting on restricting or banning the use of ‘desktop studies’ as a way of assessing the fire performance of external cladding systems.

Dame Judith Hackitt’s review was commissioned in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and has concluded that significant systemic reform is needed spanning every aspect of the ‘life’ of a high-rise building – from design to construction to ownership and on-going management.

The review has found that regulations and guidance are misunderstood, and oversight and enforcement are inadequate. The recommendations set out a new regulatory system. Dame Judith says a collaborative approach is crucial, bringing together government, industry and the community.

Further information

Dame Judith Hackitt’s report is separate to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and, importantly, does not replace the criminal investigation or seek to identify the cause of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

• Dame Judith Hackitt’s final report was published today
• She has published a press release summarising her findings
• Her interim report was published in December 2017
• The consultation on the use of ‘desktop studies’ – a method used to assess fire performance of construction products and systems – will close on 25 May

Background to the review

The review of building safety and fire regulations was commissioned in July 2017 following the Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017.

It was commissioned by the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, and the then Home Secretary, Amber Rudd.

The review’s terms of reference were published in August 2017.

An interim report was published in December 2017.

Dame Judith brought industry representatives together for a summit held in January 2018.

Working groups were established and their findings were reported back to Dame Judith in March 2018.

Electro Rent, a global corporation with its headquarters in the US, acquired Microlease in February 2017. Both companies were close competitors in the rental of specialist equipment that tests and measures the performance of electronic devices used in industries such as telecommunications, defence, utilities and information technology.

The completed merger of the two businesses was referred to a group of independent panel members at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for an in-depth phase 2 investigation in October last year, after an initial phase 1 investigation identified competition concerns.

The group has today published its final decision, finding that Electro Rent’s purchase of Microlease is likely to lead to a worse deal for renters of testing and measurement equipment. They found that Electro Rent, though significantly smaller than Microlease in the UK, was the only other rental company operating in the country to have the resources and stock to compete effectively with Microlease.

The group has therefore concluded that it is likely the merger will lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the sector, and a worse deal for UK customers. It has decided that the merged business will have to sell Electro Rent UK to a new owner, to be approved by the CMA, in order to preserve competition.

Simon Polito, Inquiry Chair, said:

The merged business would be the only suitable UK supplier for a large number of customers. It is unlikely that the new company would be prevented from using its position to increase prices or reduce its quality of service to customers by new entrants or expansion of established companies.

Having looked at this in detail and sought views from a range of market participants, we therefore consider that Electro Rent needs to sell its pre-merger UK business to preserve competition.

We have set strict purchaser criteria to make sure the buyer will be able to operate the business to compete effectively before the CMA approves the sale.

Full information on the Electro Rent / Microlease merger inquiry.

Notes for editors

1. The business that is to be sold, Electro Rent UK, is the former UK operations of Electro Rent. The merged company will continue to operate in the UK with the former Microlease business.
2. Electro Rent and Microlease are both global corporations each with worldwide annual revenues of around £120 million. The head office of Electro Rent is in the US, and that of Microlease is in the UK.
3. Electro Rent acquired Microlease in January 2017. In February 2017 the CMA called in the merger for a phase 1 review. Electro Rent initially offered to sell its UK business to a competitor, in order to overcome the CMA’s concerns. However, the purchaser withdrew from the deal, and the CMA therefore referred the case for a phase 2 investigation on 19 October 2017.
4. On 5 February 2018 the group published its provisional findings and notice of possible remedies and invited views. The group considered responses to its provisional findings and its remedies notice.
5. All the CMA’s functions in phase 2 merger inquiries are performed by inquiry groups chosen from the CMA’s panel members. The appointed inquiry group are the decision-makers on phase 2 inquiries.
6. The CMA’s panel members come from a variety of backgrounds, including economics, law, accountancy and/or business; the membership of an inquiry group usually reflects a mix of expertise and experience.
7. The members of this inquiry group are Simon Polito (Inquiry Chair), Jeremy Newman, Jayne Scott and David Thomas.
8. Media enquiries to the CMA should be directed to press@cma.gsi.gov.uk or 020 3738 6460.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

In a trilateral meeting in the margins of the Western Balkans Summit in Sofia, Prime Minister Theresa May met with Chancellor Merkel and President Macron to discuss the decision by the US to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).

The leaders reiterated their firm commitment to ensuring the deal is upheld, stressing it is important for our shared security. They pledged to work with the remaining parties to the deal to this end.

The leaders stressed that Iran must continue to meet its own obligations under the deal.

The leaders reiterated their concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile programme and its regional activities, which clearly contribute to the destabilisation of its neighbours. They restated their commitment to tackling these issues.