Month: August 2018

For the first time ever 100% of UK employers identified as being in scope of gender pay gap regulations have published their data.

The UK is one of the few countries in the world to require employers to publish such comprehensive gender pay gap data.

Under new regulations that came into force in April 2017, all employers with over 250 employees are required to report their gender pay gap data. All 10,000 UK employers that the Government has identified as having over 250 workers have now published their data.

The data has shown that more than three out of four in scope UK companies pay their male staff more on average than their female staff, more than half give higher bonuses to men, on average, than women, and over 80% have more women in their lowest paid positions than in their highest paid positions.

The Government Equalities Office has also published today [Wednesday 1 August] a new ‘What Works’ guidance for companies to help them improve the recruitment and progression of women and close their gender pay gap.

Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mordaunt, said:

It is appalling that in the twenty-first century there is still a big difference between the average earnings of men and women.

While I am encouraged that over 10,000 employers have published their data, these figures set out in real terms for the first time some of the challenges and the scale of this issue.

We need to take action to ensure businesses know how they can make use of their best talent and make their gender pay gaps a thing of the past.

Sheila Flavell, Chief Operating Officer, FDM Group, a global professional services provider with a focus on IT, said:

At FDM diversity and equality have always been our core values and we are proud once again to report a zero per cent gender pay gap for the second year in a row.

Achieving this required a huge effort at all levels of the organisation, including major initiatives such as our women returners and graduate recruitment programmes which help women train and enter the world of technology. We also had honest conversations about senior pay, job roles and increased opportunities for introduced flexible working initiatives to ensure strong representation of women at the top of the company.

Fiona Dawson, Global President of Mars Food, said:

Delighted to see the launch of the Government Equalities Office, ‘What Works’ guidance and to see that the evidence based recommendations within it echo so many of those made by the Women’s Business Council particularly in relation to the importance of flexible, agile and dynamic working.

The gender pay gap regulations and first year of reporting has focused the attention of the businesses community and its leaders on understanding the causes behind their organisations, and sector’s, gender gaps and the importance of putting into place practical solutions and actions to tackle their causes. Supportive guidance such as this document and best practice case studies of what has worked are vital for organisations to now take the next step in ensuring their staff have the same access to opportunity regardless of their gender.

Equality and Human Rights Commission Chief Executive, Rebecca Hilsenrath, said:

Building on the work by the Government Equalities Office, our enforcement approach has proved to be successful, resulting in full compliance by all those considered to be in scope.

We have been clear that it is not only the right thing to do but that we would use all our enforcement powers where employers failed to report. They have taken our warnings seriously and avoided costly court action. We will now be turning our attention to the accuracy of reporting.

The ‘What Works’ advice to employers published by the Government Equalities Office today includes recommendations to:

• Assess candidates based on actual tasks they would be expected to perform in their role, and make interviews more structured to avoid unfair bias creeping in.
• Encourage salary negotiation by showing salary ranges, as women are currently less likely to negotiate their pay than men.
• Introduce transparency to pay, promotion and reward processes.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• The ‘What Works’ guidance was produced in partnership with the Behavioural Insights Team.
• The guidance, including details of all of the research evidence, has been published on the gender pay gap website, https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/
• For more information please contact the GEO press office on 0207 023 0600.
• Sheila Flavell, Chief Operating Officer, FDM Group, also said:

The gender pay gap reporting process has been an incredibly positive initiative for UK companies, elevating a vital issue to the top of the boardroom agenda and forcing business leaders to face up to the extent of the problem.

Whilst in some cases the reporting has shown major pay discrepancies in companies, it’s important to recognise that tackling this issue is no easy task. These businesses should be judged on the plans and promises they put in place to reduce the gap, and the willingness shown to make change happen.

• Fiona Dawson, Global President of Mars Food, also said:

Last year Mars partnered with the Women’s Business Council to create ‘The Pipeline Effect’, a toolkit enabling gender parity beyond middle management where the gender gaps within most sectors dramatically increase.

In the toolkit we’ve identified three primary obstacles to women’s mid-career progression. The visibility of relatable role-models, the need for supportive line management and most importantly the access to flexible, dynamic and agile working patterns.

In Mars we’ve embraced this by rolling out multi-level sponsorship and mentoring programmes to support more women into senior leadership positions.

This is supported by our in depth line manager training which ensures our family friendly policies including parental leave and flexible working are applied consistently across the business and ensures all employees hold authentic conversations with their managers allowing our male and female associates to enjoy balanced lives with thriving families and careers.

The Charity Commission has today announced the appointment of an interim manager to Capricorn Animal Rescue and Sanctuary (inc. Aston, Hawarden Animal Aid) due to continued concerns about the governance and management of the charity.

Interim managers are appointed to take over the running of a charity where the Commission has identified misconduct or mismanagement, or there is a need to protect the charity’s property.

The Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Capricorn Animal Rescue and Sanctuary on 9 February 2017 to examine regulatory concerns about the governance of the charity, potential unauthorised trustee benefit, and whether the trustees have properly exercised their responsibilities under charity law – particularly their duty to account for the charity’s funds.

The Commission made an order under Section 76 (3)(g) of the Charities Act 2011 on 30 July 2018 to appoint Guy Hollander of Mazars as interim manager to the exclusion of the trustees.

He will take on full control of the day-to-day management and administration of the charity from the current trustee until the Commission makes a further order.

Harvey Grenville, Head of Investigations and Enforcement at the Charity Commission said:

We are not satisfied that the current governance procedures and practices are working properly, or are likely to be rectified by the trustees. A decision by the Charity Commission to appoint an interim manager is not taken lightly and reflects the seriousness of our regulatory concerns.

Part of the interim manager’s duties will be to establish the viability of the charity and determine the most appropriate option regarding its future.

The Commission’s investigation continues.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. This appointment is a temporary and protective power that will be reviewed at regular intervals. It will continue until the Commission makes a further Order for its variation or discharge.
2. The Commission is aware that the charity has been the subject of concerns from members of the public relating to the welfare of animals in the charity’s care; this does not fall within the Commission’s remit and concerns on this matter should be directed to the RSPCA. Their 24-hour cruelty and advice line can be reached at 0300 1234 999.
3. 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 are available on GOV.UK.
4. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. For more information see the about us page on GOV.UK.
5. Search for charities on our online register.

Ms Claire Evans OBE has been appointed British High Commissioner to Belize in succession to Mr Peter Hughes OBE. Ms Evans will take up her appointment in October 2018.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Full name: Claire Elizabeth Evans

2012 to present	FCO, Deputy Director, Protocol Directorate
2008 to 2012	Doha, Deputy Head of Mission
2003 to 2007	Dubai, Deputy Consul General and Director of Trade and Investment
2000 to 2002	FCO, Deputy Head, Human Resources Operations (Americas, Africa and Middle East), Personnel Department
1998 to 1999	FCO, Deputy Head, Recruitment Section
1996 to 1998	FCO, Desk Officer, UK/Russia Bilateral Desk, Eastern Department
1992 to 1995	Islamabad, Third Secretary (Commercial)
1989 to 1992	Jakarta, Deputy Head of Management
1988 to 1989	FCO, Executive Assistant, Secretary of State Private Office
1987 to 1988	FCO, Executive Assistant, Personnel Services

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

At Leeds Crown Court [Tuesday 31 July] former company director Jonathan France was sentenced to 10 years, as well as being disqualified as a company director for 12 years.

Also at court were his accomplices Jody Firth and Graham Myles Schofield having assisted Jonathan France carry out his dishonest activities.

Jody Firth was sentenced for 5 years and 4 months, while Graham Myles Schofield received a sentence of 2 years and 6 months. Jody Firth was also disqualified as a company director for 5 years and Graham Schofield was banned from running companies for 3 years.

Jonathan France was first disqualified from being a director of limited companies for 14 years in 2004 for his role in the mismanagement of Eric France and Son (Metals) Limited which went into insolvency. He was then declared bankrupt in November 2008 as he was unable to pay more than £7million owed after the collapse of his sole-trader businesses Embassy Racing and EFS Group.

Being bankrupt and disqualified should have limited his ability to directly or indirectly run a company but Jonathan France ignored these restrictions and continued to run companies. He also diverted millions of pounds from the company accounts to a combination of other business and personal accounts so that he could buy a house, luxury items and a fleet of cars.

And with the help of Graham Myles Schofield, he misled the Trustees managing his affairs that he had no assets to pay back his debts. Just under £7 million has since been recovered by the Trustee in bankruptcy.

Deputy Chief Investigation Officer, John Fitzsimmons, of the Insolvency Service, said:

Jonathan France is a fraudster and lied in order to cover up his true activities and fund his opulent lifestyle. But it wasn’t just him who carried out the deception as he was supported along the way by Schofield and Firth, two racing colleagues who were well aware of France’s bankruptcy.

We will always seek to tackle those who flagrantly disregard and cynically abuse the insolvency regime, which is there to protect creditors. After a substantial investigation we are pleased to see that France, Schofield and Firth have received significant prison terms.

Only months before he was made bankrupt in 2008 on the grounds that he had no money to pay his debts, Jonathan France deliberately transferred close to £180,000 worth of money and assets out of his personal estate to avoid paying his creditors.

France’s money and assets went to Graham Myles Schofield and Jody Firth, friends he had made through motor-racing. Assets moved by France included two classic cars worth £27,000 to Graham Myles Schofield and Jody Firth, as well as a further £152,607 was transferred to bank accounts controlled by Graham Myles Schofield.

Jonathan France then began a sustained campaign to continue running companies despite having restrictions placed on him. With Schofield, he also engineered false and misleading explanations to the Trustees and the Official Receiver about a substantial amount of possessions.

Between 2008 and 2013, Jonathan France managed and controlled JKL (Wakefield) Ltd before the company went into insolvent liquidation. The company bought and sold metals and listed Jody Firth as the company director but not Jonathan France.

And Jonathan France repeated the same tactic when Graham Myles Schofield had his name down as the official director for two racing companies effectively controlled by Jonathan France. WFR Ltd and WFR Holdings Ltd ran between 2011 and 2014 before also going into liquidation.

While managing JKL (Wakefield), Jonathan France diverted more than £6 million from the company accounts to a combination of other business and personal accounts.

Items bought from the £6 million included a 5-bedroom house in Huddersfield through a Discretionary Settlement Trust, while just under £200,000 was spent on furniture and £70,000 was used to buy fine wines.

And around £1.8 million was also used to purchase a fleet of high-end vehicles and personalised number plates, including three Aston Martins, two Ferraris, as well as a Rolls Royce and McLaren.

Jonathan France achieved the deception by falsifying company cheques, invoices and other paperwork to make it appear as if payments had been to bona fides creditors of the company when in fact they were made to purchase the cars and luxury goods.

After Jonathan France repeatedly failed to properly disclose his property to the Trustees, he was twice privately examined at Huddersfield County Court in 2012. At court, Jonathan France repeatedly and falsely argued that he had sold various items of jewellery, including two Rolexes and a platinum ring, as well as a number of paintings to a colleague for £250,000.

Jonathan France pleaded guilty to four counts of fraudulently transferring property, three counts of acting as a director while bankrupt, as well as one count each for failing to disclose property to the Official Receiver or Trustee, perjury, fraudulent trading, false accounting and money laundering.

Jody Firth pleaded guilty to helping Jonathan France run a company despite being a bankrupt, while both Jody Firth and Graham Schofield pleaded guilty to money laundering.

Notes to editors

The defendants

Jonathan Dean France aged 46 of Wakefield

Graham Myles Schofield aged 53 of Mirfield, West Yorkshire

Jody Dean Firth aged 36 of Wakefield

The Insolvency Service (England and Wales)

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Enforcement teams contribute to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

• YouTube