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The following joint statement was issued by Prime Minister Theresa May and President Jean-Claude Juncker following their working dinner in Brussels on 16 October 2017:

The Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission had a broad, constructive exchange on current European and global challenges.

They discussed their common interest in preserving the Iran nuclear deal and their work on strengthening the security of citizens in Europe, notably on the fight against terrorism. They also prepared for the European Council that will take place later this week.

As regards the Article 50 negotiations, both sides agreed that these issues are being discussed in the framework agreed between the EU27 and the United Kingdom, as set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. The Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission reviewed the progress made in the Article 50 negotiations so far and agreed that these efforts should accelerate over the months to come. The working dinner took place in a constructive and friendly atmosphere.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister spoke to President Macron of France this afternoon.

On Iran, they both expressed their firm commitment to the nuclear deal, and discussed President Trump’s decision last week not to recertify it.

They agreed to continue to work closely together to ensure the deal is properly enforced, and to push back on Iran’s destabilising activity in the region, including its ballistic missile programme.

They said they would discuss next steps in the margins of the European Council in Brussels later this week.

On Brexit, they discussed progress in the negotiations and looked ahead to this week’s Council.

They also spoke about the strong UK-France relationship, and agreed to continue building on our bilateral partnership in a range of areas.

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister spoke to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this afternoon.

On Storm Ophelia, the Prime Minister expressed her sympathies for the loss of life and said the UK Government stood ready to provide any support if requested.

They discussed the political situation in Northern Ireland and their shared concern over the lack of devolved Government in Northern Ireland for over 9 months.

Both leaders noted that while progress has been made over the past few weeks significant gaps still remained, including on Irish language, and it was up to the two main parties to overcome differences and reach agreement.

The Prime Minister said she was absolutely clear that it was in the interests of everyone in Northern Ireland to see a fully functioning Executive up and running so that local decisions could be made by local politicians.

On the UK’s departure from the EU, they discussed the importance of maintaining constructive progress in the negotiations. Both agreed to continue discussions at EU Council later this week and the Prime Minister reiterated the UK Government’s commitment to protecting the Belfast Agreement and the Common Travel Area.

Kim-Andre Frantzen, of Kenley, South London, was sentenced today at Guildford Crown Court for the supply and possession of substantial quantities of unlicensed medicines.

MHRA investigators raided properties in South London and seized more than 209,250 doses of unlicensed products, including erectile dysfunction medicines worth more than £471,000.

Frantzen pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, and 200 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay a £100 victim surcharge plus costs of £2,500.

MHRA is currently running the #FakeMeds campaign to warn people against buying potentially dangerous or useless unlicensed medicines sold by illegal online suppliers.

MHRA Head of Enforcement, Alastair Jeffrey, said:

Selling unlicensed medicines is illegal and can pose a serious risk to health.

Unlicensed medicines can be dangerous as you just don’t know what’s in them, or if they even work. They may contain dangerous ingredients that could have awful consequences for your health.

Criminals don’t care about improving your health – they are only interested in your wallet. So why take that risk?

We will continue to track down and prosecute those who are willing to put others’ health in jeopardy.

Visit www.gov.uk/fakemeds for tips on buying medicines safely online and how to avoid unscrupulous sites.

A criminal investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) found that Avril Elliott had fraudulently reclaimed VAT between August 2008 and August 2013. On 7 July 2016 she pleaded guilty to fraudulently reclaiming £275,000 and was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment on 25 August 2016.

Scothouses Ltd was wound up with HMRC being the sole creditor in respect of the VAT reclaim. Elliott had resigned as director on 24 June 2014 but the monies owed to HMRC were due entirely to her fraud.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking for 11 years, which prevents her from managing or controlling a company without leave of the court until 2028.

Robert Clarke, Head of Company Investigation at the Insolvency Service said:

The public can be assured that where there have been abuses of public finance provisions which result in losses of this type, the Insolvency Service will investigate the conduct of the parties involved. Action will be taken to remove them from the corporate trading environment for a lengthy period.

Notes to editors

Avril Elliott’s date of birth is July 1967 and she is of Edinburgh.

She was appointed as director of Scothouses Ltd on 2 August 2001 and resigned as a director on 24 June 2014.

Scothouses Ltd (SC205394) was wound up on 5 July 2016 with a deficiency to creditors of £409,990. The company operated as a property development company from the premises at 8 Mountcastle Gardens, Edinburgh, EH8 7SR.

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.

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 Prosecutions team contributes 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.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, 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.

Further information about the work of the Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team is available.

Media enquiries

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:
* Twitter
* LinkedIn
* YouTube

On 13 October, British Defence Attaché to Ethiopia, Colonel Matt Munro handed over certificates to East Africa Standby Force (EASF) military personnel who completed logistic map exercise at the EASF headquarters in Addis Ababa. The 21 EASF military personnel drawn out of Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Rwanda, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda attended a five day long training.

The training, sponsored by the UK, is one of the four training events arranged by British Peace Support Team (BPST) East Africa in the lead up to the Field Training Exercise being held in Sudan in November. It brought together EASF logistics officers from both the police and military together and helped them exercise roles before being deployed into peace support operations.

The other training were the Mission Head Quarter training held in Kenya in September, Force training held in Uganda in September and Battle Group and Sector training which is currently taking place in Uganda.

Defence Attaché, Colonel Munro said:

Peace and security are important for the UK and the East African region. I believe a well trained strong EASF is key to enhancing peace and security in the East African region. Building the capacities of EASF’s military personnel is one important way of ensuring these efforts.

Logistics is an important area for capacity development of military personnel. This particular exercise will have a significant role in equipping officers for the field training exercise in Sudan next month.

The UK has supported the EASF capacity building efforts since 2010 and will continue its support to enhance Global peace and security.

Media Enquires

Mail to: saba.ermyas@fco.gov.uk

Rebecca Dale-Essex, of London, knowingly removed the money over a 24 day period prior to the company going into liquidation. She was the sole director of Belle Maison Direct Limited, which sold children’s furniture until it went into liquidation on 20 April 2016.

£42,000 of the amount removed came after she had informed the local council that her company had insufficient funds to make payments in respect of outstanding business rates. In total, she left creditors, including the council, out of pocket by £140,314.

She provided a disqualification undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy which prevents her from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for six years.

Commenting on the disqualification, Martin Gitner, Deputy Chief Investigator of Insolvent Investigations, Midlands and West at the Insolvency Service, said:

Rebecca Dale-Essex deliberately removed significant amounts of cash from the company that was for her own benefit, leaving little, if anything, for the creditors of her company.

Company directors should note that the Insolvency Service will investigate and remove them from the business environment if they have acted to the detriment of the company creditors.

Notes to editors

Rebecca Dale-Essex’s date of birth is September 1971 and she resides in London; She was appointed as a director on 28 January 2009.

Belle Maison Direct Limited (Company number 06804657) was incorporated on 28 January 2009 and was placed into Creditors voluntary liquidation on 20 April 2016.

On 7 September 2017, the Secretary of State accepted a Disqualification Undertaking from Dale-Essex for 6 years, from 28 September 2017.

The matters of unfitness, which she did not dispute in the Disqualification Undertaking, were that:

• Between 19 June 2015 and 13 July 2015, despite knowing the amounts due in respect of Business Rates, she caused BMD to enter into transactions to the detriment of the company and its creditors totalling of £121,500, which worsened its insolvent position. These monies were funds held in BMD’s bank accounts, which she transferred to herself.

• Further, £42,000 of these funds were transferred between 7 July 2015 and 13 July 2015, after she had emailed the Council advising BMD had insufficient funds to maintain repayments to a historic balance outstanding in respect of Business Rates on 7 July 2015.

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.

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 Prosecutions team contributes 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.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, 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.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

In meetings during the visit, including with Foreign Minister Al Jubeir, Mr Burt highlighted common UK-Gulf security interests and discussed a range of issues. These included UK support for Vision 2030, the need to redouble efforts to end the war in Yemen, and the tensions with Qatar.

Mr Burt discussed the dire humanitarian and economic situation in Yemen with President Hadi and Foreign Minister Mekhlafi.

Speaking after his visit to Riyadh, Minister Burt said:

Saudi Arabia is one of our strongest regional allies and we continue to work closely together in a range of important areas. We support the delivery of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious reform programme, Vision 2030, and the need to resolve the ongoing dispute with Qatar.

Central to all of my meetings was the ongoing conflict in Yemen. I made clear my concern that this conflict was now contributing to the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, and that the longer it continued the worse the situation would get. I also stressed the importance of keeping space open for the humanitarian community. Everyone agrees that urgent steps must be taken to make progress towards a political solution. The UK is playing a central role in these efforts and I call upon all parties to the conflict to show the flexibility required to keep the political process moving.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt @AlistairBurtUK

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

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

Over the past 24 hours, I have been in regular contact with the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and representatives from multi-agency emergency response organisations, ahead of Storm Ophelia. There is close co-operation between the agencies and necessary contingency arrangements are in place with the relevant resources and networks tasked to ensure public services are protected as far as possible. The UK Government stands ready to provide a full range of support if requested.

The Met office has put an Amber warning in place from 12 Noon to 11pm with the likelihood of storm force high winds during this period. Everyone should take steps to protect themselves and their family from the impacts of this severe weather threat.

We should be particularly mindful of the elderly and vulnerable and ensure they remain safe throughout the coming hours. Regular updates will be provided via NI Direct and PSNI across various social media channels.

I am remaining in Northern Ireland today and will be keeping in close contact with the agencies who are planning both for the initial storm and its aftermath.

People should be vigilant and stay safe.