Month: June 2018

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley MP has extended the appointments of eleven members of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

Joseph McVey, William Gamble, Reverend Lesley Carroll, William McKee, David Rose, Tom Hartley, Hazel Francey and Judith Gillespie have been extended until 31 May 2018 and Geraldine McGahey, Deborah Donnelly and Robin Mullan have been extended until 28 February 2020.

Notes to Editors:

The extensions will allow the introduction of a more staggered approach to future appointments and improve business continuity.

Biographies of Appointees

Biographies can be found here

Terms of Appointment

The positions are part-time.

The position of Commissioner attracts an annual remuneration of £5,000 and the Deputy Chief Commissioner receives an annual remuneration of £10,000.

These positions are non-pensionable.

Political Activity

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity in defined categories within the last five years to be made public.

Lesley Carroll declared that she stood for election as an Ulster Unionist candidate at the 2016 Assembly elections. Tom Hartley has undertaken activities on behalf of Sinn Fein, including representing the party on the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition.

The Government also announces that over 340,000 children were in a 30 hour place in the first year of the policy.

Foster parents will have access to the Government’s flagship 30 hours free childcare offer for three-and-four-year-olds from September, giving them the same rights as other working families in England.

The extension marks a significant step forward in improving the support available for foster families who work, allowing them to take up the additional 15 hours of free childcare already available to other working parents since September 2017.

Today (21 June) the Department for Education has also published data showing over 340,000 children aged three and four years old benefitted from a 30 hours place in its first year, giving thousands of families access to high-quality, affordable childcare. Parents benefiting from the 30 hours free childcare offer can save up to £5,000 per year on their childcare costs, and some parents have been able to increase their work hours or work more flexibly – helping to put more money back in families’ pockets and balancing work and home lives.

Minister for Children and Families, Nadhim Zahawi said:

We know childcare is one of the biggest issues affecting working parents of all kinds, which is why I am pleased that 340,000 people have benefitted from 30 hours of free childcare. Foster parents do an incredible job caring for children whose young lives have been disrupted in difficult and often traumatic ways, bringing them back into a supportive family unit and providing a more settled home life.

We want to make sure foster parents have the option of being able to work on top of their caring responsibilities, where it works for them and the children they care for. For many, this could make the difference between being able to foster or not, so it’s absolutely right that we support them with this challenging but rewarding role.

The 30 hours free childcare offer is backed by the government’s record investment of around £6 billion per year in childcare, which includes an extra £1 billion per year by 2020 to deliver the free entitlements.

Kevin Williams, Chief Executive of The Fostering Network said:

We warmly welcome this announcement which has rectified the initial exclusion of fostered children from this policy, and are pleased that the Department for Education listened to our calls for change.

The 15 extra hours will not be appropriate for all fostered children, but some foster carers, particularly family and friends carers and those offering long-term fostering, will need or want to combine fostering with work outside of the home, and this change will enable them to be able to do so. This is particularly good news for the recruitment of foster carers and is consistent with the message from Government that fostering can be combined with other work.

The move widens the range of childcare support already available from the Government, which parents who are not eligible for 30 hours may be able to access. This includes the universal offer of 15 hours of free childcare for three and four-year-olds, 15 free hours for the most disadvantaged two-year-olds, and Tax-Free Childcare, which can cut childcare costs by up to £2,000 per year for each child under 12 years old.

In May:

• HM Land Registry completed more than 1,723,570 applications to change or query the Land Register
• the South East topped the table of regional applications with 398,029

HM Land Registry completed 1,723,578 applications in May compared with 1,625,098 in April and 1,620,802 last May, of which:

• 373,423 were applications for register updates compared with 346,788 in April
• 848,600 were applications for an official copy of a register compared with 804,157 in April
• 209,803 were search and hold queries (official searches) compared with 196,560 in April
• 26,695 were postal applications from non-account holders compared with 28,161 in April

Applications by region and country

Region/country	March applications	April applications	May applications
South East	384,760	373,677	398,029
Greater London	337,656	314,534	332,546
North West	193,405	184,504	194,722
South West	159,147	159,528	169,351
West Midlands	142,764	140,096	147,196
Yorkshire and the Humber	128,654	121,756	131,727
East Midlands	119,374	115,347	121,511
Wales	76,650	75,111	78,038
North	75,246	73,765	78,596
East Anglia	70,448	66,644	71,749
Isles of Scilly	79	69	41
England and Wales (not assigned)	61	67	72
Total	1,688,244	1,625,098	1,723,578

Top 5 local authority areas

Top 5 local authority areas	March applications	Top 5 local authority areas	April applications	Top 5 local authority areas	May applications
Birmingham	26,895	Birmingham	25,990	Birmingham	26,902
City of Westminster	24,562	City of Westminster	22,505	City of Westminster	24,121
Leeds	19,505	Leeds	18,630	Leeds	19,782
Manchester	17,708	Manchester	16,698	Cornwall	18,301
Cornwall	17,174	Cornwall	16,343	Manchester	17,347

Top 5 customers

Top 5 customers	March applications	Top 5 customers	April applications	Top 5 customers	May applications
Enact	50,160	Enact	48,943	Enact	53,314
Optima Legal Services	28,113	Optima Legal Services	26,741	Infotrack Limited	28,453
O’Neill Patient	26,056	O’Neill Patient	25,473	Optima Legal Services	28,173
Infotrack Limited	22,948	Infotrack Limited	24,411	O’Neill Patient	26,645
TM Group (UK) Ltd	19,320	TM Group (UK) Ltd	18,058	TM Group (UK) Ltd	22,706

Access the full dataset on data.gov.uk

Notes to editors

1. Transaction Data is published on the 15th working day of each month. The June Transaction Data will be published at 11am on Friday 20 July 2018 at HM Land Registry Monthly Property Transaction Data.
2. The monthly Transaction Data showing how many applications for new titles, leases, splitting titles, updating existing titles, official copies of the register and search and hold queries (official searches) were received, reflects the volume of applications lodged by customers using an HM Land Registry account number on their application form.
3. We are challenging ourselves to reassess our language to make our terms understandable to both our commercial and our citizen customers. This is in line with our commitment set out in the Business Strategy 2017-2022 under the ‘simplicity’ element of our ambition.
4. Completed applications in England and Wales shown by region and by local authority include postal applications as well as those sent electronically.
5. Transaction Data excludes: pending applications, bankruptcy applications, bulk applications and discharge applications (to remove a charge, for example a mortgage, from the register).
6. Transactions for value are applications lodged involving a transfer of ownership for value. For an explanation of other terms used, see abbreviations used in Transaction Data.
7. Most search and hold queries (official searches) carried out by a solicitor or conveyancer are to protect the purchase and/or mortgage. For example, a search and hold query will give the buyer priority for an application to HM Land Registry to register the purchase of the property. This can give an indication of market activity.
8. Reasonable skill and care is used in the provision of the data. We strive to ensure that the data is as accurate as possible but cannot guarantee that it is free from error. We cannot guarantee our data is fit for your intended purpose or use.
9. Transaction Data is available free of charge for use and re-use under the Open Government Licence (OGL). The licence allows public bodies to make their data available for re-use.
10. If you use or publish the Transaction Data, you must add the following attribution statement: Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2018. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
11. HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.
12. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.
13. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £4 trillion, including around £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for some 85% of the land mass of England and Wales.
14. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry
15. Follow us on: Twitter @HMLandRegistry, our blog, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contact

Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP will be visiting the Ben Kinsella Trust today to see first-hand how the Trust is working to educate young people away from knife crime.

In 2012, the charity launched the Ben Kinsella Exhibition and workshops, which are designed to help young people appreciate and understand the lasting damage that knife crime can have on them and those around them.

The charity was awarded £11,437 of government funding in 2017 to deliver two holistic and hands on programmes to two groups of up to 20 parents who are concerned about knife crime.

Solicitor General Robert Buckland said:

Knife crime has truly devastating consequences for families and local communities.

To tackle it, we need to change young people’s attitudes so they are not tempted to carry a knife in the first place, and ensure they understand that they risk inflicting injury or even a loss of life if they do.

The government’s Serious Violence Strategy puts a greater focus on early intervention, so it’s great to see the work happening at the Ben Kinsella Trust to educate young people about the dangers of carrying knives.

In April, the government published its first Serious Violence Strategy. The Strategy strikes a balance between prevention and robust law enforcement with an £11 million Early Intervention Youth Fund for community projects to help young people live lives free from violence.

Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust said:

We were really pleased to see that the Government’s new Violent Crime Strategy recognised the important role that prevention and education has in reducing knife crime. No child is born with a knife in their hand, it is a learned behaviour. Through education we help young people learn positive ways to stay safe and turn away from knife crime.

As part of the 6 week global Operation Thunderstorm, Border Force officers made 276 seizures containing tens of thousands of products banned under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) at UK ports and airports.

Operation Thunderstorm (which ran from 1 to 31 May) involved police, customs, environment, wildlife and forestry agencies from 92 countries and was coordinated by INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization (WCO). The international operation has targeted the networks behind global wildlife crime and resulted in millions of dollars-worth of seizures.

The worldwide effort saw 1,974 seizures including 43 tonnes of wild meat (including bear, elephant, crocodile, whale and zebra); 1.3 tonnes of raw and processed elephant ivory; 27,000 reptiles; almost 4,000 birds; several tonnes of wood and timber and 48 live primates.

Border Force officers at ports and airports across the country have intensified their activity to coincide with the international operation. UK seizures include:

• 7 kilos of banned ivory
• more than 120 live Orchid plants
• more than 2,000 Rosewood musical instruments and parts
• more than 3,000 Rosewood carved items
• more than 1,000 orchid extract tablets
• 7,600 cactus extract tablets and 4 live cactus plants
• 9 products derived from crocodile
• 10 large cat skulls
• 4 products derived from snake
• 2 live reptiles

As well as the co-ordinated effort to support Operation Thunderstorm, Border Force has also recently supported an ivory surrender, led by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The surrender ran from mid-July last year to the end of January but continues to receive support from the public. In April, Border Force officers from the Heathrow CITES team took receipt of more than 118kg of voluntarily-surrendered ivory which was subsequently destroyed at a secure location.

Grant Miller, head of the Border Force CITES enforcement team said:

Our participation in Operation Thunderstorm, as well as our support for the ivory surrender, underlines our commitment to tackle wildlife crime which has a devastating environmental impact.

Operation Thunderstorm is a crucial part of a global response to a global issue. The trade in endangered species is driven by organised crime groups and the movement of banned animal products is key to how they operate.

This is why our specialist CITES officers will continue their vital work at the border to prevent the importation of endangered animals and plants, as well as linking with enforcement partners such as the National Wildlife Crime Unit, to stamp out this cruel and exploitative trade.

Border Force is responsible for frontline detection and seizure of items covered by the CITES convention, which tackles the illegal trade in endangered animals and plants. The trade in ivory is strictly controlled under CITES and Border Force plays an important role in preventing the illegal importation and exportation of ivory.

The Heathrow-based Border Force CITES team are specialist officers who are recognised as world leaders in their field.

Anyone with information about activity they suspect may be linked to smuggling and trafficking of any kind should call the UK hotline on: 0800 59 5000.

International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox will travel to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva today (Thursday, 21 June) to call on the organisation to re-focus on its free trade agenda.

While there, Dr Fox will meet with a number of WTO Ambassadors. He will lead a panel discussion on global trade leadership alongside the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and an Executive Director at the International Trade Centre, which works to spread the benefits of free trade to developing economies.

In both of these forums Dr Fox will discuss recent global trade disputes and call for WTO members to work together more effectively in order to tackle these issues and support free trade and the multilateral trading system globally.

This follows a speech he made earlier this week at the Centre for Policy Studies where he called on China to open its markets and ensure compliance with global trade rules, as well as better global enforcement of intellectual property rules.

He will also reiterate the importance of reforming global trade rules for the modern age, focusing on e-commerce to make it easier to trade online, ensuring that the WTO is not left behind by businesses and consumers and that trade continues to grow.

International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox said:

Organisations like the WTO and WIPO are at the heart of the global trade system that has helped lift millions out of abject poverty and supports countless jobs in the UK and around the world.

With free trade and multilateralism under threat, the UK will stand as a leading supporter of its benefits and as the head of Britain’s international economic department I’ll be in Geneva making that case to other countries today.

The visit comes after the WTO forecast global trade growth of 4.4% this year, and the UK itself saw exports increase 7.4% to £625.4 billion to the end of April 2018 compared to the same time last year.

The meetings also come as the UK prepares to take its independent seat at the WTO, outside the EU, and so Dr Fox will use this opportunity to reassure WTO trade ambassador’s that the UK is committed to maintain existing trade arrangements immediately after leaving the EU in order to avoid disruption.

But, long-term, once the UK leaves the EU we will be able to negotiate and sign new trade agreements, join existing agreements around the world, and more freely access fast-growing markets beyond the EU.

Dr Fox will look to explore the opportunities that this future could unlock, meeting with ambassadors from the US, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.