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A man with history of drug offences has today had his latest sentence increased after the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, referred it for being too low.

Wesley Usherwood, 20, was arrested in February as part of Operation Blade and found to be in possession of drugs with a street value of £18,000. It is estimated he was supplying £1,000 worth of heroin and cocaine a day in the Worcester area.

Usherwood has several previous convictions, and failed to complete the unpaid work, drug treatment, and rehabilitation requirements imposed after a previous conviction for a drugs offence in April 2017.

Usherwood was originally sentenced to 4 years imprisonment at Worcester Crown Court in March. Today, after the Solicitor General’s reference, the Court of Appeal increased his sentence to 6 years 9 months in prison.

Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General said:

“Usherwood’s extensive history of drug dealing will have destroyed the lives of many individuals, families, and communities. Crimes of this nature will not be tolerated and I am pleased to see his sentence has been increased.”

The International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt today (Thursday 8 May 2018) praised the heroic efforts of Scottish aid workers delivering life-saving assistance to people that have fled violence in Burma and are now sheltering in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Visiting the British Red Cross offices in Glasgow today, she spoke to Scottish aid worker Kenny Hamilton, from Glasgow and currently stationed in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

Mr Hamilton leads a sanitation project building safe toilets and overseeing the treatment and safe disposal of human waste to help prevent the spread of deadly diseases.

The risk of a cholera outbreak in Cox’s Bazar is extremely high and will increase further with the looming monsoon season, which is expected to flood camps and could contaminate around half of the clean water sources.

Earlier this week, Ms Mordaunt announced fresh UK aid support for people living in Cox’s Bazar to provide medication, sturdier shelters, food, clean water and support for women to give birth safely.

Speaking at the British Red Cross offices in Glasgow, the International Development Secretary said:

With the devastating cyclone and monsoon season looming over the crowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people are in danger of landslides or of falling ill with potentially fatal diseases.

The UK is leading the way to provide vaccinations, strengthen shelters and deliver food and clean water to those that have been forced to flee their homes because of brutal violence and persecution.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent continue to play a vital role in the response to this crisis and Scottish aid workers are among those remarkable humanitarians delivering life-saving assistance to the men, women and children who have suffered so much.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent have already provided emergency support to 254,000 people – backed by UK aid – including fresh water, jerry cans and hygiene kits.

A 24 hour surgical field hospital with 100 beds, including 40 isolation beds, is operating opposite one of the largest makeshift camps, staffed by Bangladeshi doctors and midwives with international medical and support staff.

British Red Cross aid worker Kenny Hamilton said:

Our priority is water hygiene, health promotion and making existing sanitation facilities more robust for the upcoming monsoon season. UK aid support will help our response effort to limit the impact of the rains both in terms of potential damage to infrastructure from landslides and promoting hygiene.

To do this we are decommissioning unsafe latrines and building new, safe, sustainable ones that will be cleaned on a regular basis. We are not only making these latrines safer to protect against disease, but also for women and vulnerable people by building them in appropriate areas and making sure they are properly lit and dignified.

As the monsoon season sets in, it is more imperative than ever that cleaning happens regularly so that people can go to the toilet safely and to protect against the spread of disease.

From the onset of the crisis the UK has been a leading donor, and this week’s announcement of an additional £70 million of humanitarian support will help ensure hundreds of thousands of persecuted people who have fled neighbouring Burma will be better protected during this dangerous time.

UK aid supported work to prepare the Cox’s Bazar camps for the monsoon season began in January, when the UN estimated 102,000 men, women and children were living in areas at risk of flooding and 12,000 people were at risk from landslides.

Notes to editors

1. The UK Government has contributed £129 million to the crisis since 25 August 2017. As part of this, £70 million announced on Monday 7 May is a new package of support, not previously allocated to this humanitarian programme.
2. UK support totalling £4 million is enabling the Red Cross Red Crescent to provide up to 200,000 vulnerable people with food, healthcare, water and sanitation in response to the crisis in Bangladesh.
3. This crisis resonates with the British public who have shown remarkable generosity raising £25.9 million for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal. This includes £5 million which has been matched pound for pound by the UK Government.
4. There are approximately 941,000 people living in Cox’s Bazar camps. Of these 681,000 are new arrivals since August 2017.
5. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Red Cross Movement is the world’s largest humanitarian network. The Movement is made up of 190 individual National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, working through 17 million volunteers who are dedicated to the Fundamental Principles of Humanity, Neutrality, Impartiality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity and Universality.

The project involves concrete repairs and waterproofing along a two-mile section of the ageing viaduct in the West Midlands.

Work on the southbound carriageway, between junctions 1 and 2, is approaching completion and in the coming weeks the entire operation, involving more than 500 workers, transfers to the northbound carriageway.

Already more than 5,000 separate repairs have been carried out on the southbound carriageway, 3,500 more than anticipated.

The majority of work is scheduled to continue until autumn 2018, with other work continuing into spring 2019.

Highways England senior project manager, Zbigniew Twarowski, said:

The scale of this project is vast and has involved a large number of repairs.

On top of that we’ve had one of the harshest winters in years, which has added to the challenges.

We will not know the full extent of the repairs needed on the northbound carriageway until work there is under way.

We appreciate the level of disruption this project involves and I’d like to thank motorists, businesses and residents for their patience. Meanwhile, our teams are working as hard as they can to get the job done.

At more than £100 million, M5 Oldbury is believed to be the largest concrete repair project, by value, ever carried out in Britain.

Much of the work takes place underneath the viaduct and so workers cannot always be seen on the surface itself.

To keep the motorway open, a contraflow system is in place with traffic currently using the northbound carriageway with two lanes operating in each direction, along with a 30mph speed limit. Traffic is anticipated to move to the southbound carriageway in June.

Slip roads at junctions 1 and 2 are being kept open to ease effects on the local network.

However, as part of the work, a number of closures of the southbound off-slip at junction 2 are planned, for more information check the Highways England Roadworks Finder.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

Local Government Secretary, the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, has today (10 May 2018) announced he is sending commissioners into Northamptonshire County Council to ensure residents receive the high quality services they need and deserve.

Mr Brokenshire confirmed 2 commissioners would meet senior officials and councillors before beginning their work to help rebuild the authority.

The action follows the publication of an independent report which highlighted serious failings within the council.

In a written ministerial statement to Parliament, the Secretary of State said the commissioners would be led by Tony McArdle, former Chief Executive of Lincolnshire County Council. He will be supported by Brian Roberts, former Deputy Chief Executive of Leicestershire County Council, and an expert in financial management.

Local Government Secretary, the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, said:

Action of this kind is rare and is not taken lightly, but I simply cannot ignore the scale of the problems facing Northamptonshire.

It is essential residents are able to have faith in their council, particularly in the responsible use of taxpayers’ money.

That’s why I’m taking swift action by appointing commissioners who carry with them a wealth of experience. I am confident they will dedicate themselves to the task at hand.

Northamptonshire County Council, the district and borough councils and voluntary organisations have all supported the appointment of commissioners.

Directions given to the commissioners will see them take over the council’s functions associated with governance and scrutiny, appointment of statutory officers and strategic financial management.

The commissioners are due to be in place until 31 March 2021 and will update the Secretary of State every 3 months on progress.

Further information

Lead commissioner – Tony McArdle

Tony McArdle was Chief Executive of Lincolnshire County Council between 2005 and 2018. He took up post at a time when the council was suffering from significant corporate governance and service failures and was under the immediate threat of government intervention. He left Lincolnshire with the authority enjoying a reputation as progressive and innovative with a strong profile in a range of areas of work and an established record of high-quality service delivery.

Prior to moving to Lincolnshire, for 7 years Tony was Chief Executive of the Borough Council of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. He has held interim appointments in other councils and has also been involved in delivering elements of the Council of Europe’s programme to improve local government practice in Croatia, Bulgaria and Russia.

Tony chaired the Association of County Chief Executives from 2015 to 2017. He is a Director of the National Centre for Rural Health and Care and a member of the Courts of both the University of Lincoln and Bishop Grosseteste University.

Tony also served as an infantry officer in the Territorial Army for 22 years.

Finance commissioner – Brian Roberts

Brian is the former Director of Corporate Resources and Deputy Chief Executive at Leicestershire County Council.

Previously he worked at Staffordshire County Council, Hampshire County Council, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Hart District Council and Merseyside County Council.

Brian qualified as an accountant in 1980. He is immediate past president of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). He was a member and past president of the Society of County Treasurers and he has also been a Local Government Association core finance adviser and past president of the Association of Local Government Treasurers. Brian is currently a national council member of CIPFA and a trustee of the Centre for Public Scrutiny.

The Foreign Secretary said:

The United Kingdom condemns in the strongest terms the Iranian rocket attacks against Israeli forces. We strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself.

We urge Iran to refrain from further actions which will only lead to increased instability in the region. It is crucial to avoid any further escalations, which would be in no one’s interest. We also continue to call on Russia to use its influence to press those in Syria to cease their destabilising activity and work towards a broader political settlement.

Further information

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