Category: Gov Press Releases

Public Health England (PHE) is calling for adults across the country to take a free, online Heart Age Test, which will provide an immediate estimation of their ‘heart age’. If someone’s heart age is higher than their actual age, they are at an increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), with stroke and heart attack being the most common examples, is the leading cause of death for men and the second leading cause of death for women.

A quarter (24,000) of CVD deaths are in people under the age of 75, with 80% of these preventable if people made lifestyle and behaviour changes to improve their heart health (around 19,200 deaths per year – the equivalent to 50 deaths a day or one every 30 minutes). Knowing their heart age helps people to find out whether they are at risk and consider what they can do to reduce this risk.

High cholesterol and high blood pressure can both increase someone’s heart age, making them up to 3 times more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke. In England, one in four adults have high blood pressure yet a further 5.6 million are living with the condition undiagnosed, placing millions of lives at risk of premature death and ill health.

The Heart Age Test asks a number of simple physical and lifestyle questions and provides an immediate estimation of someone’s heart age, as well as a prediction of the risk of having a heart attack or stroke by a certain age. It also gives suggestions on lifestyle changes to help people reduce their heart age such as losing weight, quitting smoking, exercising regularly and cutting back on alcohol.

The Heart Age Test has been completed more than 1.9 million times and four out of five (78%) people have a heart age higher than their actual age. Worryingly, 34% have a heart age over 5 years and 14% at least 10 years over their actual age.

Professor Jamie Waterall, National Lead for cardiovascular disease at PHE said:

Millions are at risk of cardiovascular disease but don’t know it, putting themselves at real risk of suffering ill-health or dying younger. Knowing your heart age is a simple way of finding out whether you’re at risk of a heart attack or stroke. By making important lifestyle changes you can reduce your risk before it’s too late.

Taking a Heart Age Test is something you can easily do at home, but it could be one of the most important things you do to help you live a healthy longer life.

Dr. Matt Kearney, national clinical director for cardiovascular disease prevention, at NHS England, said:

The heart age test is a simple and effective online device with the potential to help millions of people.

The long-term plan for the NHS will prioritise saving lives through improved protection against cardiovascular disease, and increased public understanding of the risks of stroke and heart disease will mean fewer people have to face these devastating conditions.

To help raise awareness of the importance of people knowing their heart age, TV doctor and GP, Dr. Hilary Jones will be taking on the challenge of testing 50 people’s heart age over the course of one day in London on Tuesday 4 September.

Dr. Hilary Jones said:

With 50 preventable deaths every day of people under the age of 75, this is serious. It’s vital that people know their heart health and take steps to reduce their risk of stroke and heart attack.

As well as obesity, poor diet and a lack of exercise, high blood pressure is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but these are all things that people can change, and they can change them now.

As part of the campaign, Amazon and Omron – the UK’s leading blood pressure monitor manufacturer – are working with Public Health England to launch a roadshow called ‘Treasure Your Heart’ to engage more people in the idea of knowing their heart age and blood pressure.

Amazon’s Treasure Truck will arrive in London and Manchester for 2 days to support the campaign and Omron’s nurses and technicians will be testing the blood pressure of as many people as possible. The events will be in London and Manchester on Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 September.

Slimming World is also supporting the campaign to raise awareness of how losing weight can help to improve heart health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and is offering an exclusive discount for new members who take the Heart Age Test.

PHE’s Heart Age campaign will run until 30 September. Adults are encouraged to search ‘heart age’ to take the free online test.

Two key projects which will better connect Hull and help shape the city’s future will begin next month and members of the public are invited to find out more.

A public event next Thursday (13 September, 10am to 7.30pm, Hull Marina Holiday Inn) will give people the chance to look at the exciting plans for Princes Quay Bridge and the improvement work at Roger Millward Way roundabout, both of which will start in October.

The new bridge, linking the marina with the southern end of Princes Dock, will improve access and make it easier for pedestrians, cyclists and disabled users to cross the A63.

At Roger Millward Way, an extra lane will be added through the middle of the roundabout and additional traffic signals will help to reduce congestion and smooth the flow of traffic.

Highways England senior project manager James Leeming said:

It’s great news that we’ll be starting work on these two key schemes. The bridge has been designed to allow further development around the waterfront and is an important part of Hull’s plans for the future.

We’re carrying out these schemes together under one contractor to minimise disruption and to make the best use of the funds available.

While both the bridge and Roger Millward Way roundabout improvements are being built, we’ll have narrower lanes and a reduced speed limit in place.

We want the public to come along to the event and look at what we are doing. There will be the chance to see how the traffic will be managed and how access for pedestrians will be maintained during construction.

The bridge is being part-funded with a £4 million contribution awarded to Hull City Council by the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership.

The £6m improvements to the roundabout are being funded as part of a nationwide £220m Congestion Relief Fund which was announced by the Government last year to help tackle congestion at key locations.

To prepare for work starting on the bridge, Hull’s historic Spurn Lightship will be moved by local marine specialists this week. It will then be moved to its permanent home on the Marina once the bridge has been built.

Councillor Daren Hale, portfolio holder for economic investment and regeneration, said:

Following years of lobbying, it is thrilling to see the commencement of these schemes which are vital to Hull. The building of the pedestrian bridge is a core part of the A63 improvement scheme, and the impact the bridge will have on Hull’s economy cannot be underestimated.

The bridge will reunite the Marina with the city centre by connecting the heart of the city to its thriving waterfront, and is a critical element of our long-term regeneration plans.

The bridge is expected to be finished by early 2020 and work on Roger Millward Way is expected to take around 9 months to complete. The schemes will be delivered by Interserve who has been appointed as the contractor.

Both schemes will be completed in advance of the major A63 Castle Street project which will improve access to the port and city centre. The development consent order application for the project will be submitted later this month ahead of work starting in 2020.

The upgrade is part of the government’s £15 billion roads investment strategy, which is transforming the road network and improving connections between cities.

More details about the scheme are available on the scheme webpage and updates will be provided via Twitter using #a63hullpqbridge

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.

The Rt Hon Sir Alan Duncan MP, Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said:

The UK is disappointed by the Government of Guatemala’s decision not to renew the mandate of the United Nations International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) beyond its current end date of September 2019.

CICIG has made a valuable contribution to the fight against corruption and impunity in Guatemala, strengthening the national institutions of Guatemala in the process. The UK, along with the EU and other international partners, has been a strong supporter of CICIG and we value their work and close cooperation with the Office of the Attorney General of Guatemala.

The UK hopes that CICIG is able to carry out its work fully and independently until the conclusion of its mandate.

We remain committed to supporting the rule of law and strong, independent institutions in Guatemala, which are vital for increasing security and prosperity.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Sir Alan Duncan on Twitter @AlanDuncanMP and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Paul will be leaving to take on the role of Program Director, leading the programme management team, on the $40 billion Metrolinx program in Toronto, the largest public transit investment in Canadian history. Paul, along with his family, will move to Canada at the end of the year. Paul joined HS2 Ltd in 2015 and has been responsible for working with central government and local stakeholders to plan and develop the route for Phase Two.

HS2 Ltd’s CEO, Mark Thurston, said:

Phase Two has come a long way under Paul’s leadership. Phase 2a, the section from Birmingham to Crewe, is already in Parliament and is on course to receive Royal Assent next year. Phase 2b, the section from Birmingham to Leeds and from Crewe to Manchester, is well advanced in terms of its preparation for Parliament, particularly how it integrates with the existing network and the plans of Northern Powerhouse Rail. The working draft environmental statement for Phase 2b will be published later this autumn. We are grateful to Paul for the progress he has made with Phase Two and wish him and his family well in their new adventure.

HS2 Ltd’s Chairman, Sir Terry Morgan, said:

Phase Two is critical to HS2’s goal of changing the economic geography of Britain, by bringing the towns and cities of the Midlands and the North closer together. Paul has played a vital part in moving that concept nearer to reality.

Given its sheer scale and duration, changes of personnel and leadership are inevitable in a project such as HS2, particularly given the global demand for talented and experienced engineers such as Paul, but our focus remains on delivering a railway for the long term future of this country. And that we will do.

Paul Griffiths said:

Seeing HS2 move considerably closer to reality has been a privilege and will always have a special place in my career. HS2 is vital for the future of Britain and I will always be proud to have been part of its development.

Paul will leave HS2 Ltd at the end of December and plans are now in train to find his successor.

• UK aid will help tackle the root causes of dangerous migration and modern slavery in Edo state, the epicentre of Nigeria’s human trafficking business.
• World-class British expertise will reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking through targeted public information campaigns and engagement with young people at schools and universities
• UK support to back use of former slavery victims as myth-busters, to help counter false promises that tempt people to place their lives in the hands of traffickers.

UK aid will protect thousands of vulnerable men, women and children in Nigeria from modern slavery and unsafe migration through innovative prevention work such as public information campaigns, awareness raising at schools and universities, and new research.

Nigeria’s Edo State is a focal point of the human trafficking business, and is also a key source location for trafficking into the UK.

This UK aid package will help stamp out the root causes of dangerous migration through enhanced prevention work.

British expertise will:

• help reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking and unsafe migration through targeted public information campaigns in Edo State. UK government communication specialists will design and lead this in partnership with the Nigerian anti-trafficking police.
• boost engagement with young people at schools and universities to change the aspirations of potential victims
• commission innovative research on what works to prevent dangerous migration attempts
• support NGOs who use former slavery victims to counter false myths that tempt people towards the traffickers.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

It is a necessity that we step up and stamp out modern slavery for good. I am appalled that this shameful stain on our global conscience still exists in the 21st century.

I am proud UK support is driving the charge in tackling the root causes of dangerous migration to prevent vulnerable men, women and children from becoming targeted by traffickers or attempting treacherous journeys again. The benefits of this will be far reaching- preventing regional instability and helping us tackle slavery here in the UK.

Working in partnership with Edo State, a critical trafficking hotspot, this UK aid will shape scalable, cost-effective interventions that tackle the key drivers of modern slavery and unsafe migration attempts. Changing the aspirations of potential victims and migrants in a targeted and tailored way will be essential to achieving this. This is why UK government communication specialists will design and lead a new public information campaign to do just that, in partnership with the Nigerian anti-trafficking police.

By making it worthwhile for people to stay in their home states and supporting NGOs who use former slavery victims to counter false myths that tempt people towards the traffickers, this work will help eradicate these crimes for good.

The UK is at the forefront of the global fight against modern slavery, leading the global Call to Action to end this crime at the UN General Assembly last year, which over 60 countries have now signed.

In 2016 there were over 40 million estimated slavery victims and the UK is committed to eradicating this global scourge, which adds significant costs to the UK economy. Behind these numbers are real people subjected to brutal exploitation every single day.

Notes to editors

• The UK is investing a further £6 million in the ‘Stamping Out Slavery’ in Nigeria (SOSIN) programme, taking its total value to £10 million.
• The programme will support NGOs and Nigerian government agencies to strengthen their slavery prevention work. Working in partnership with Edo State, UK aid will enhance slavery prevention schemes through targeted public information campaigns, education programmes and innovative research. This will shape scalable, cost-effective interventions by NGOs and the government to tackle the root cause of modern slavery.
• This announcement forms part of the doubling of UK development spending (Official Development Assistance) on anti-slavery activities to £150m, announced by the Prime Minister at the UN General Assembly last year.
• The UK is increasing total migration and modern slavery funding in Nigeria to £40.5 million. This prevention programme will complement other Home Office and Foreign Office programmes focused on law enforcement cooperation and tackling the serious organised crime behind people trafficking.
• Modern day slavery costs the UK £4.3billion a year, in terms of policing at home and abroad, and victim care and rehabilitation. Nigeria is estimated to have over 1.3 million slaves and in 2017 Nigerian nationals were the fifth largest group of victims referred to the UK’s national referral mechanism.

The SOSIN project will work by:

• supporting government prevention schemes such as targeted public information, social development and education programmes, and developing new research and data to inform better responses.
• looking at existing anti-slavery outreach in schools and universities and recommend changes in curriculum, messaging or approach, and fund pilots to test and find what works.
• a new public information campaign, designed and led by UK government communication specialists to test new approaches to changing the aspirations of potential victims and migrants, in partnership with the Nigerian anti-trafficking police.
• piloting new prevention interventions, such as using networks of returned victims to counteract false information from traffickers among vulnerable groups, through NGOs that are working in this area.
• doing high-quality research and evidence gathering to share lessons globally on what works.

Mark Field, Minister for Asia and the Pacific, said:

I am extremely disappointed that two Reuters journalists in Burma, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have today been found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment for nothing more than doing their jobs. They provided valuable reporting on abhorrent human rights violations in Rakhine State, and I have consistently called for their immediate release, including directly with the Burmese government.

In any democracy, journalists must be free to carry out their jobs without fear or intimidation. This verdict has undermined both freedom of the media and the rule of law in Burma. Officials from the British Embassy in Rangoon have attended the trial throughout, and believe that the judge has ignored the evidence presented to him, as well as ruling against Burma’s own laws.

This is a bad day for Burma, but those of us who have consistently called for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s freedom will not give up. We call again today for their immediate release. We will remain in close contact with Reuters, and maintain our support as they consider next steps.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Mark Field @MarkFieldUK
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Last week Minister Burt saw first-hand UK funded shelters which are offering enhanced and sturdier protection to the Rohingya people during the inclement weather. He also met with UK-funded aid workers who are providing vulnerable children in the camps with psychosocial support and witnessed the life-saving work to ensure malnourished Rohingya children have access to food high in nutritional value.

The UK Government continues to lead the way in the speed and size of its response to this latest crisis and one year on the focus is on making sure the Rohingya have access to the further support they need while they are living in the camps.

UK aid will provide access to skills training to improve the prospects for Rohingya men and women, better equipping them for the future. In his visit to the camps Minister Burt witnessed first-hand the skills being provided to Rohingya at a small activities centre, where men and women are being taught to sew.

International Development Minister, Alistair Burt said:

Bangladesh is in the midst of the rainy season and there are almost one million Rohingya people depending on the international community during this precarious time. Seeing first-hand the UK-funded work to construct sturdier and more resilient structures is a positive sign and demonstrates that we are doing all that we can to protect them. The realities of the camp have become even more real for me but I have been reassured that our support to this persecuted community is helping them to rebuild their lives.

Minister Burt will appear before the International Development Committee (IDC) in September and will use his evidence session as an opportunity to clearly demonstrate how UK aid is playing an integral role in ensuring the safety of vulnerable Rohingya people, especially during the monsoon and cyclone season.

The Charity Commission has today published the results of its latest monitoring reviews of charity trustees’ annual reports and accounts. The findings reveal a modest improvement in the quality of public reporting, but the regulator says that too many charities are still falling short in this area.

Public benefit reporting plays a key role in providing transparency so that the public can understand exactly what a charity does and how their donations are being used.

As part of its proactive monitoring work, the Commission scrutinised a random sample of 106 charity trustees’ annual reports and accounts filed with it to assess:

• how charities are meeting the public benefit reporting standards
• whether the accounts meet readers’ needs, including a separate sample of “small charities”

Telling your story well: Public benefit reporting by charities

Trustees have a legal responsibility to comply with the Commission’s guidance on public benefit reporting. All registered charities must publish a trustees’ annual report, setting out the charity’s activities for the public benefit.

The Commission’s review found that 51% of the charities reviewed demonstrated a clear understanding of the public benefit reporting requirement – a 5% improvement from last year’s result.

The majority of annual reports also included key aspects of public benefit reporting, with 71% explaining who benefitted from the charity’s activities, and 62% including a public benefit statement.

Some trustees had expanded their statement to explain why they believed their charity’s activities provided public benefit, whilst others discussed the difference that they had made, particularly to beneficiaries.

Do charity and small charity annual reports and accounts meet the reader’s needs?

The Commission examined whether the charities’ trustees’ annual reports and accounts as a whole met readers’ needs, based on a range of criteria.

For the sample of charities with incomes over £25,000, the Commission found that 74% of the trustees’ annual reports and accounts reviewed were of acceptable quality, meeting the basic benchmark set by the Commission.

The most common reason for inadequate reporting was that the trustees’ annual report did not explain the charitable activities the charity had carried out.

For the sample of small charities, the Commission found that 64% of the charities provided trustees’ annual reports and accounts of acceptable quality, meeting the regulator’s basic benchmark. The main reason for inadequate reporting was that the charity failed to provide one or both of the trustees’ annual report and the accounts.

The Commission has provided regulatory guidance to 89 charities included in the reviews in order to help the trustees improve the quality of future trustees’ annual reports and accounts.

Nigel Davies, Head of Accountancy Services at the Charity Commission for England and Wales said:

“Our research into trust and confidence in charities shows that the public no longer give charities the benefit of the doubt; they want evidence that charities make a difference when using their money. Public reporting is an opportunity for charities to tell their story and explain to the public what they do and how they use charitable funds.

“Producing a trustees’ annual report and accounts is not an administrative box-ticking exercise. It is a chance to show how your charity is making an impact and how you are delivering on your core purpose.

“Today’s results show that too many charities are still not meeting very basic standards when it comes to making key information available to the public. I am encouraged to see that an increasing number of trustees recognise the value of public benefit reporting, but there is clearly more work to be done across the sector.”

The full reports are available on GOV.UK.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. The Commission’s research into public trust and confidence in charities was published on 11 July 2018 and is available on GOV.UK.
2. The Charity Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work see the about us page on GOV.UK.
3. Search for charities on our check charity tool.
4. To assess whether small charities accounts met readers’ needs, the Commission included a separate sample of 110 small charities, those with incomes less than £25,000, who are not required to routinely file their trustees’ annual report and accounts with the regulator (except for Charitable Incorporated Organisations)
5. In addition to producing an annual report, all registered charities must prepare accounts and, where the charity’s income is over £25,000, arrange for them to be scrutinised through an audit or independent examination. They must also file their set of accounts with the regulator.