An agricultural engineer from Totnes in Devon has been sentenced after a worker sustained serious, life changing injuries after falling through a mezzanine floor whilst it was under construction.
Link: Devon based welding engineer sentenced after serious injury to worker
Source: Health and Safety
The fine to be imposed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), comes after its investigation into the airport’s agreement with the Arora Group for the lease of Arora’s Sofitel hotel at Terminal 5. This included a clause restricting how parking prices should be set by Arora for non-hotel guests.
The CMA investigated whether the pricing restriction prevented the Arora Group from charging non-hotel guests cheaper prices than those offered at other car parks at the airport.
Following its investigation, the CMA has provisionally found that Heathrow and the Arora Group breached competition law. Both parties have formally accepted that this was a breach of competition law and have removed the pricing restriction, with Heathrow agreeing to settle the case and pay a £1.6m fine.
The Arora Group will not be fined, as it was granted immunity for coming forward under the CMA’s leniency programme. The programme is designed to encourage companies to co-operate if they think they might be involved in wrong-doing.
As part of its work, the CMA has sent letters to other airports and hotel operators warning against similar anti-competitive agreements.
This is the first time the CMA has taken competition law enforcement action in a case involving a land agreement.
Ann Pope, the CMA’s Senior Director for Antitrust, said:
Airport car parking charges are paid by millions of people and any agreements to restrict price competition are not acceptable.
Competition law applies to land agreements at airport car parks in the same way as any other type of business arrangement.
This fine should act as a strong warning to all companies that the CMA will take action to make sure businesses are free to compete on price.
The CMA has a dedicated reporting hotline for cartels (020 3738 6888) and recently launched a campaign to encourage more people to come forward with information about suspected illegal behaviour.
Link: Press release: Heathrow and Arora admit to anti-competitive car park agreement
Source: Gov Press Releases
Yorkshire Water Services Ltd has been sentenced today after a fitter suffered fatal burns when his clothing was ignited by sparks.
Link: Yorkshire Water Services Ltd sentenced after worker killed
Source: Health and Safety
A scheme, backed with £3m of funding, to help farmers reduce ammonia emissions from agriculture has been officially launched today (18 September, 2018).
The Catchment Sensitive Farming partnership between Defra, the Environment Agency and Natural England will support farmers to take action to reduce harmful ammonia emissions.
Farming is responsible for 88 percent of all UK emissions of ammonia gas which can travel long distances, be damaging to the environment, and combine with other pollutants to form particulates, which are harmful to human health.
The money will fund a team of specialists who will work with farmers and landowners to implement the measures to reduce their ammonia set out in the new Code of Good Agricultural Practice (COGAP) for Reducing Ammonia Emissions.
The team will provide training events, tailored advice, individual farm visits and support with grant applications, all funded by the programme.
Bob Middleton, Programme Manager, Catchment Sensitive Farming said:
As custodians of the land, farmers have an important role to play in protecting the environment. But reducing ammonia emissions can also bring real business benefits.
The UK loses £138m of nitrogen per year from ammonia emissions, so by taking action to reduce them, farmers can get more value from their manure and fertiliser and save money.
This new initiative adds to the existing, popular programme of advice to improve water quality and prevent flooding from farmed land and a new guidance video which sets out simple steps all farmers can take to reduce ammonia emissions, such as the way they handle livestock feed, and manure and fertiliser spreading.
Farming Minister George Eustice said:
There is growing evidence that ammonia emissions can have significant impacts to parts of our environment so we want to help farmers play their part in reducing them.
The specialist team of advisers leading this project can advise farmers on steps they can take, such as improved slurry handling facilities, and grants are available where investment is required.
Reducing emissions from farming is a key element of the government’s ambitious new Clean Air Strategy, which has been welcomed by the World Health Organization.
The announcement comes less than a week after the introduction of the government’s landmark Agriculture Bill which sets out ambitious proposals to protect and enhance our environment.
To replace the Common Agricultural Policy, a new system will reward farmers for “public goods”, which includes taking action to improve air and water quality and soil health.
Link: News story: £3m support scheme launched to reduce air pollution from farming
Source: Environment Agency
MP (NW) Limited (MPNW) was incorporated in September 2015. Its business was listed as ‘other publishing activities’, with a registered office in Chester. The Insolvency Service launched an investigation following complaints about the company’s activities.
On 28 August 2018, the High Court sitting in Manchester heard the petition presented on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The investigation established, and in winding up the company on that day, the Court accepted that MPNW cold-called other small businesses to sell them advertising space in three very similar quarterly magazines – Insight, Inside Story and Reaction – claiming to offer an alternative look at the way the emergency services operate. MPNW also claimed that around 2,000 copies would be printed and distributed for each issue.
However, investigators found that commission-based sales staff misled advertisers into believing that MPNW was a not-for-profit organisation or was directly affiliated with one or other branch of the emergency services, and the numbers of magazines distributed was far lower than indicated.
Additionally, the company failed to keep adequate accounting records with the result that it was not possible to ascertain how many magazines had actually been printed and distributed. Nor has it been possible to know whether all receipts from advertisers were accounted for and what remuneration/commission was paid to directors/staff.
Scott Crighton, a Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
MPNW attracted customers by exploiting their generous and benevolent nature and by misleading them into believing that income generated from advertisements would benefit the emergency services whereas, in reality, just 0.3% of revenue was paid out by way of charitable donation.
The actions of the court in winding up this company has prevented further loss to the businesses community and demonstrates that the Insolvency Service can and will use its powers to take action against those who would seek to profit from the charity and goodwill of others.
Any business owner who is solicited in this way should exercise discretion before agreeing to purchase advertising space.
On the winding-up of the company, the Official Receiver was appointed liquidator.
MP (NW) Limited (Company number 09781619) was incorporated on 17 September 2015. Its registered office is at Unit 20, Evans Business Centre, Minerva Avenue, Chester, CH1 4QL.
The petition to wind up the company was presented in the High Court Manchester on 26 June 2018, under the provisions of section 124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 following confidential enquiries by Company Investigations under section 447 of the Companies Act 1985, as amended. MPNW was wound up on 28 August 2018 and the Official Receiver was appointed as liquidator.
The petition was heard by District Judge McNall and the Secretary of State was represented by Richard Tetlow of counsel and Gowling WLG (UK) LLP solicitors. The company was not present or represented.
Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Further information about live company investigations is available here.
The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.
Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.
Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187
The Insolvency Service
4 Abbey Orchard Street
London
SW1P 2HT
Email
press.office@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
Media Manager
020 7596 6187
This service is for journalists only. For any other queries, please contact the Insolvency Enquiry line on 0300 678 0015.
For all media enquiries outside normal working hours, please contact the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Press Office on 020 7215 1000.
You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:
Link: Press release: Investigation shuts down ‘emergency services’ book publisher
Source: Gov Press Releases
Images from space and computer wizardry have helped Highways England develop a ground breaking approach to promoting wildlife habitat along trunk roads in Devon and Cornwall.
Satellite photos and earth observation techniques have been combined with Highways England wildlife data in a software system that can predict areas where biodiversity schemes will pack the biggest punch.
And the system is proving so successful it has been nominated for an environmental award from CIRIA Big Diversity Challenge.
Highways England’s ecologist, Leo Gubert, explained:
It sounds complicated but essentially the software crunches our data on habitats and species together with information on the surrounding landscape to find the best locations for habitat creation and enhancement schemes as well as landscape management projects.
We look at the populations and habitat connectivity for wildlife such as dormice, bats, endangered butterflies and also species of plants that are of conservation priority and then decide which schemes to prioritise.
The system has been used to deliver a vast woodland and hedgerow connectivity scheme at 21 sites along the A30 and A38 in Devon and Cornwall with 10,000 native trees and shrubs filling or reducing gaps in hedgerow and woodland along the roadside. In total the planting has connected over 105 miles of habitat on the verges and wider landscape adjacent to the roads.
Last winter a heathland creation scheme was also undertaken, with a vision to connect existing heathland on important sites such as Dartmoor, Bodmin and Goss Moor.
A planting scheme promoting habitat for the super rare marsh fritillary butterfly in the Goss Moor area in Cornwall has also been delivered.
The system which was developed in conjunction with CEH (Centre of Ecology and Hydrology) picked up second place in the medium/large scale award at the Ciria BIG Biodiversity Challenge ceremony at the Royal College of Physicians in London..
Leo added:
I am delighted we have been shortlisted amongst so many other projects. It is a perfect example of how new technologies can be a powerful tool in the decision making process maximising our efforts to enhance biodiversity on our road verges.
The result can be wonderful benefits for biodiversity on the land we manage while providing a real sense of achievement for everyone involved.
Highways England is committed to a national Biodiversity Plan which is being supported by a £30 million national investment programme over the next five years.
The plan recognises road verges and associated land can be managed to provide areas of habitat, relatively free from human access that may be scarce in the surrounding landscape.
These road verges can also be used to connect fragmented habitats in the wider landscape, enabling plant and animal populations to move and interact, and so become stronger and more resilient.
Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.
Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.
Link: Press release: High tech system promotes wildlife around Devon and Cornwall roads
Source: Gov Press Releases
Phil Tyrrell’s day job at Highways England involves delivering new cycle routes to make it easier for cyclists to cross motorway junctions and use major A roads.
Now he is putting his knowledge to the test by taking part in the four-day London to Paris bike ride on his 50-year-old Claude Butler Classique, complete with its original Brooks leather saddle.
Phil, from Standish near Wigan, is raising money for the Wigan and Leigh Hospice after his wife had to face cancer twice herself. He said:
I remember saving up for the bike when I was 14 or 15, using my pay from a paper round, Saturday jobs at Woolworths and the Golden Egg restaurant in Chester, and pocket money.
I was made up when I could finally afford to buy my Claude Butler, and remember using it as much as I could to and from school and also at weekends. I could never bring myself to get rid of it so it’s moved house with us over the years, but had been left unused for years.
Earlier this year, I was persuaded to do the London to Paris bike ride and raise money for the Wigan and Leigh Hospice. My wife’s had to recover from cancer twice so I wanted to give something back to the hospice. Realising I needed a road bike, I decided to dig Claude out from the back of the shed and get it renovated.
The bike’s only got five gears but it does what I need it to and we always get to where we’re going in the end. I got a local repair shop to renovate it but I asked them to keep all the scratches as that’s its history – and mine.
I’m feeling a bit tense about the challenge as it’s a long way, but I’ve been out on quite a few practice rides over the past few months and the old leather saddle is surprisingly comfortable. Hopefully I’ll feel the same when I reach Paris!
Phil has been training for the challenge using some of the cycle routes he’s been involved with planning as Highways England’s head of cycling in the North West. The organisation has been given a special £100 million fund by the government to invest in 200 cycling schemes across England by 2021.
Recently completed projects in the region include new cycle paths through the busy Two Mills junction near Ellesmere Port, along the A585 near Fleetwood, and near junction 21 of the M60 alongside the A663 in Oldham. Improvements have also been made to footbridges, signs and road markings across the North West.
Phil added:
We’re committed to significantly improving safety across our road network for everyone, and want to provide cycling facilities that give people a genuine choice about whether to travel in their car or to get on a bike instead.
Admittedly not everyone is going to want to use their bike for a 300-mile trip to Paris, but if we can encourage more people to use their bikes for local journeys then this should also improve the flow of traffic for drivers travelling longer distances.
Phil’s cycling challenge between London and Paris takes place between Wednesday 19 and Saturday 22 September. More details are available at https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/PhilipTyrrell.
Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.
Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.
Link: Press release: Cycling boss swaps office for saddle in 300-mile challenge
Source: Gov Press Releases
Following a joint investigation by the Insolvency Service and the Metropolitan Police, Sarkis Agop Kouyoumdjian (55), of Kensington High Street, West London, appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Friday 14 September where he also received a nine year directorship disqualification.
The court heard that in November 2011, Sarkis Kouyoumdjian voluntarily accepted a disqualification undertaking in connection with the failure of a company that he was a director of which ran a restaurant and owed unpaid taxes. The disqualification meant that he was banned from running companies for four years without the permission of the courts.
However, Sarkis Kouyoumdjian ignored the ban which he had personally accepted and in direct contravention of his disqualification, between November 2011 and May 2014 continued to run two branches of Middle-Eastern restaurant, Massis, as well as Asian fusion restaurant, Cocochan.
In addition to running the restaurants and their connected companies without permission from the courts, Sarkis Kouyoumdjian carried out other offences.
Sarkis Kouyoumdjian ran the restaurants through two companies, Live London Limited and Plaha Catering & Events Limited, but use of the restaurants’ names had been banned through earlier insolvencies and Sarkis Kouyoumdjian’s connection with them.
He fraudulently transferred £59,000 to an associate from a company that he shouldn’t have been running shortly before it entered into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation and also failed to deliver to the liquidator all the files that were needed to help formally shut down the company.
And between 2012 and 2013 Sarkis Kouyoumdjian operated a property company, Tamarix Properties Limited.
The property company bought a number of flats in West London from another insolvent company connected to Sarkis Kouyoumdjian, using money from one of the restaurants he shouldn’t have been running. Sarkis Kouyoumdjian also used money from Tamarix Properties to benefit one of the companies connected to the restaurants.
On 5 September at Southwark Crown Court, Sarkis Kouyoumdjian pleaded guilty to four counts of running companies while disqualified, two counts of using a prohibited company name, as well as one count of fraudulently removing property in anticipation of the commencement of the winding up of a company and another count of failing to deliver up books and records to a liquidator.
Ian West, Deputy Chief Investigation Officer of the Insolvency Service, said:
Sarkis Kouyoumdjian knew exactly what he’d signed up for when he accepted his four-year disqualification but he brazenly ignored its restrictions and continued running restaurants and a property company.
This was a flagrant abuse of company and insolvency law and thanks to the joint investigation with the Metropolitan Police, Sarkis Kouyoumdjian’s sentence should serve as a warning to others that such abuses will be investigated and disqualifications will be enforced.
Detective Inspector Andy Brien of the Metropolitan Police Service said:
This is a prime example of how the Metropolitan Police working together with agencies such as the Insolvency Service can bring offenders to justice. Sarkis Kouyoumdjian showed a complete disregard for the law using companies to build personal gain.
A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:
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 restrictions.
The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.
Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.
Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7637 6498
The Insolvency Service
4 Abbey Orchard Street
London
SW1P 2HT
Email
press.office@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
Media Manager
020 7596 6187
This service is for journalists only. For any other queries, please contact the Insolvency Enquiry line on 0300 678 0015.
For all media enquiries outside normal working hours, please contact the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Press Office on 020 7215 1000.
You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:
Link: Press release: Restaurateur jailed for running companies while disqualified
Source: Gov Press Releases
The Regulator of Social Housing reports that Trinity Housing Association Limited has been placed on its Grading under Review list.
It notifies that at the time of the last Statistical Data Return the provider had fewer than 1,000 homes each and therefore does not have a current published regulatory judgement in accordance with our established procedures.
The regulator is currently investigating a matter regarding the providers’ compliance with the Governance and Financial Viability Standard. The outcome of the investigation will be confirmed in a regulatory notice, once completed.
The regulator’s GUR list is available on the website.
For more information visit the RSH website.
Our About the Regulator of Social Housing page has contact details for media enquiries.
For general queries to RSH, please email enquiries@rsh.gov.uk or call 0300 124 5225.
Link: Press release: Grading under review for Trinity Housing Association
Source: Gov Press Releases
In the first speech in Japanese by a UK minister, Jeremy Hunt makes personal commitment to the Anglo-Japanese alliance.
In remarks to representatives from UK-Japan exchange programmes, the Foreign Secretary is expected to say:
I came to this country for the first time in 1990 to learn Japanese. I lived for eight months in Kyoto, then six months in Nagasaki, followed by six months in Tokyo. I was introduced to Japan and wonderfully looked after by Japanese families all over the country, and I always try to meet them when I come back.
Today, I am here to take forward the new era of friendship between Britain and Japan. We have so much in common as two island nations who strongly support the rules-based international system that has delivered peace and prosperity for many years.
Our friendship stretches back to the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902 – and I am sure it will strengthen in the years ahead, not least because for the first time there is a British Foreign Secretary who can speak a little Japanese.
Attendees at the event will include representatives from the Oxford University Alumni Association, who has approximately 1,500 alumni living in Japan, the British Council and Daiwa Scholarships, an Anglo-Japanese Foundation established in 1988 to support closer links between Britain and Japan.
The Foreign Secretary lived in Japan while in his twenties, and will today meet the families he stayed with at the time: the Fujimoto family, who he stayed with in Tokyo; and the Ito family he stayed with in Nagasaki.
For journalists
Email
newsdesk@fco.gov.uk
Newsdesk
020 7008 3100
Link: Press release: Jeremy Hunt takes forward ‘new era of friendship’ with Japan
Source: Gov Press Releases
