Category: Gov Press Releases

• Up to 50 Hawking Fellowships will support the research of our most talented mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists for up to 3 years
• prestigious award from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will honour the memory of the world leading British physicist who died in March this year

Science Minister Sam Gyimah today (Monday 11 June) announced that new fellowships are to be created in mathematics and physics in tribute to Stephen Hawking, the world-leading British scientist whose work changed our understanding of the universe.

The fellowships, which will build on the government’s modern Industrial Strategy and its record investment in science, research and innovation, will be awarded to exceptional candidates completing their doctoral studies in the fields of maths, physics and the computer sciences. Financial support will be offered to allow them to continue their work in any UK institution for up to 3 years.

UK Research and Innovation will award up to 10 “Stephen Hawking” fellowships a year for the next 5 years.

Professor Stephen Hawking was instrumental in providing greater insights into how the universe was created and is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant minds in science. His work included ground-breaking analysis of the laws that govern the universe, including his revelation that black holes produce radiation.

Science Minister Sam Gyimah said:

Few have contributed as much to humanity’s understanding of the universe as Professor Hawking. His ground-breaking work inspired people of all ages and nations to think about the cosmos and their place in it, and to appreciate the beauty and elegance of mathematics and physics.

I am delighted to announce that, following discussions with the Hawking family, we are creating the Hawking Fellowships in his memory. The Fellowships will allow exceptional graduate students in maths, physics and computer science in institutions across the UK to take their work even further. I can think of no more fitting tribute to this great man than to support the next generation to push the boundaries of knowledge of the laws that govern our universe.

Stephen’s children, Robert, Lucy and Tim Hawking said:

Our father knew the value that fellowships could provide to advancing research. As a scientist who made extraordinary discoveries throughout his career but particularly in his early years, he was very interested in the development of new talent and devoted much of his career to his teaching roles. We are thrilled that these fellowships will be named after him and see this as a great tribute to his life in science.

UKRI Chief Executive Professor Sir Mark Walport said:

Professor Hawking’s life and work provided inspiration far beyond the world of scientific research. His discoveries opened a new window on our universe and through his books and personality he opened a unique window on science to millions. It is an honour to be launching fellowships in his memory and fitting that they will support a new generation of exceptional talent.

The fellowships will build on the work outlined in the government’s modern Industrial Strategy, building on our strengths in science, research and innovation to build a Britain fit for the future and using this vital knowledge to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

Notes to editors:

• Further details of the fellowship and how to apply will be publicised later this year.

Since 2016, the Insolvency Service has wound up nine health supplement companies in the public interest after they scammed people, often the elderly and vulnerable, into unnecessarily buying their products.

The Insolvency Service estimates that there have been close to 36,000 victims who have been duped by these nine health supplement businesses, cheating them out of around £10.6 million, and during Scams Awareness Month is warning members of the public there could many more examples of these schemes in operation.

Consumer Minister Andrew Griffiths MP said:

These shocking supplement scams are targeting thousands of the most vulnerable people in our society. The Insolvency Service is playing a vital role in protecting consumers and cracking down on these cowboy firms.

During Scams Awareness Month I am encouraging anyone who has fallen foul of these scams to speak up and report it, so we can stamp them out for good.

In one case, Newbury-based Healthspring Wellness Product Limited contracted a call centre based in Mumbai to sale health supplements on their behalf. Specifically targeting people 55 and over, who were either housebound or had difficulty in getting to the shops, the call centre deployed aggressive sales tactics, as well as giving out false medical advice.

Following an Insolvency Service investigation, Healthspring Wellness was wound up in the public interest in the high court in November 2017. The activities of the registered director, Vidjan Wasta, were also investigated and as of 18 April 2018, he has been disqualified from running companies for 11 years.

And in another example, Nitesh Prakash Dhawan and Virendra Singh Thakur were the bosses of two linked companies – Greenlife Wellness Limited and Naturecare Wellness Limited. The two companies would purchase data lists containing details of people over the age of 65 with health concerns for arthritis and joint pain before using offshore call centres to make unsolicited calls to sell their target victims a range of health supplements.

Investigators found that call centre staff deployed a range of unscrupulous tactics, such as claiming to be ringing on behalf of doctors or other qualified health professionals while offering unregulated health advice, as well as phoning people registered with the Telephone Preference Service.

The two companies were put into compulsory liquidation in October 2017 following a petition presented by the Secretary of State and the two bosses have since been banned from acting as directors in the UK for 14 years each – effective from 19 March 2018.

Since 2016, the Insolvency Service has secured directorship bans totalling 53 years for rogue health supplement bosses and to prevent you or a loved one from being targeted by a similar scam, the Insolvency Service recommends:

• Don’t stop taking prescribed medicine in favour of health supplements without speaking to your GP or pharmacist first
• If you or a loved one think they have been a victim of a health supplements scam report it immediately to Action Fraud UK or get advice from Citizens Advice Consumer Service
• Don’t rush into buying health supplements just because the seller is offering a good deal and if you’ve already made a payment, contact your credit card company and/or bank and tell them that you may have fallen victim to a fraud

ENDS

Notes to editors

Statistics date from 2016 onwards and figures based on information gathered during investigations

Further examples of companies being shut down and victims’ testimonies can be found on the Health Supplements Scam microsite.

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 authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, 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.

Contact Press Office

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The Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain are today (11 June 2018) launching a consultation to look at whether the financial resources test for restricted operator licence holders needs to be changed.

All operator licence holders must demonstrate a certain level of financial resources based on the type of licence they hold and the number of vehicles they’re operating.

The level of financial resources available is checked when operators first apply for a licence but is a continuing requirement and can be checked at any stage during the life of the licence.

The test is designed to show they’ve got enough money to cover the cost of keeping large, commercial vehicles safe whilst they’re being used on public roads.

For restricted operators (those who just carry their own goods or run no more than two passenger transport vehicles), the financial levels are set by the Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain.

The current rates – £3,100 for the first vehicle and £1,700 for each additional vehicle – haven’t been reviewed since 2004.

The rates for standard licence holders (those who carry other people’s goods or run passenger transport vehicles full time) are higher and set by European legislation.

Richard Turfitt, the Senior Traffic Commissioner for Great Britain, said:

The cost of maintaining vehicles properly has increased since we last reviewed the rates for restricted operators.

Although we’ve taken a conscious decision not place any additional burdens on restricted operators, especially
following the period of economic downturn in 2008, it’s right to review the financial security test now and get the
thoughts of industry and stakeholders on where the levels should be set.

Restricted operators work in a number of diverse sectors so I encourage them all to engage with this consultation so we can understand the impact of any changes.

The consultation will run from 11 June to 31 August 2018.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns will celebrate the enormous international contribution of Wales’ independent TV producers and creative industries in a joint reception with TAC (Teledwyr Annibynnol Cymru) at Gwydyr House later today (Monday 11 June).

In his address to the trade association for Welsh television producers, Mr Cairns will acknowledge the importance of the creative industries to the Welsh economy, an industry which employs around 50,000 people across the country.

He will also speak about the UK Government’s continued support for S4C and the acceptance of an independent review of the Welsh-language broadcaster which suggested a package of reforms to better serve Welsh speaking audiences in the future.

The Welsh Secretary will be joined by Margot James, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries and Gareth Williams, Chair of TAC, in recognising the achievements of some of Wales’ most decorated producers including Boom Cymru, Rondo and Avanti Media.

The reception comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Cardiff will host next year’s Creative Cities Convention, beating off stiff competition from Bristol and Glasgow because of its international reputation as the home of Doctor Who and popularity amongst the 20 million people who visit every year.

Cardiff’s broadcasting and cultural excellence has also been recognised by Channel 4, who have shortlisted the city as a potential site for its new headquarters alongside Bristol, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and the West Midlands.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said:

In Wales we have some of the most talented TV producers and independent broadcasters in the world, creating jobs and opportunities for thousands of people across the country.

Our cities are increasingly becoming the destinations of choice for major investors who recognise the enormous impact our content creators have on the international scene.
I encourage them to continue producing such exceptional work which is growing the sector here in Wales and boosting our economy, and the UK Government is ready to support them in achieving that.

Margot James, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, said:

Our creative industries are an economic and cultural powerhouse enjoyed by millions around the world and it is great to see independent Welsh producers getting the international recognition they deserve for their incredible work.

We want every nation to contribute in these vibrant sectors and are working closely with the creative industries and broadcasters across the country to make sure this upward trajectory continues in the future.

Gareth Williams, Chair of TAC, said:

TAC is working hard to show what our sector has to offer, and we greatly welcome the Wales Office’s support in that work.

Dozens of active production companies in Wales make high-quality programmes in a wide range of genres, from drama like Un Bore Mercher/Keeping Faith and Bang to international factual co-productions; from children’s content to sport and live events coverage.

Wales’ stories, locations, perspectives and diverse voices can enrich any broadcaster’s output. With Cardiff hosting the Creative Cities Convention 2019 and shortlisted as a potential location for a Channel 4 hub, plenty of opportunities lie ahead.

ENDS

Police will be able to boost the number of detectives by up to 1,000 in the next 5 years following new government funding to develop a national training programme.

The Home Office will work with Police Now, an award-winning police graduate recruitment programme, to develop the scheme.

The Home Office is providing £2.8 million to support Police Now in 2018 to 2019 and will provide an additional £350,000 seed funding for the detective entry programme.

The programme will include digital training to ensure that recruits are equipped to deal with the changing nature of modern crime. It will also focus on problem solving, crime prevention and safeguarding so that detectives on the scheme meet the needs of forces and communities.

Minister for Policing and the Fire Service Nick Hurd said:

Detectives are the fact-finders of our police service. They play an important role in bringing criminals to justice and getting to the bottom of complex crimes.

I’m keen to get more new detectives trained up, so I’m delighted to support this innovative Police Now programme, which will bring in new talent, train detectives in a matter of months and complement other measures that the government and police are taking to keep the public safe.

The programme will include an expanded version of the innovative summer academy model which Police Now uses to offer accelerated neighbourhood officer training.

Together these steps will help to ensure forces are matching the capacity and capability of their workforce to the demands they face, while also recruiting more people directly into specialist roles via accelerated training programmes.

David Spencer, co-founder and chief executive of Police Now, said:

As a former detective myself, I understand the positive impact that detectives can have on reducing crime, increasing confidence in communities and protecting the most vulnerable in society.

Working with forces and the Home Office, we hope this new scheme will encourage a new group of diverse and brilliant individuals to enter the police service and contribute to the outstanding work being done by existing detectives up and down the country.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing are also leading work on providing a national assessment of detectives and developing sustainable solutions to ensure that forces have adequate investigative capacity.

Chief Constable Matt Jukes, the NPCC’s National Lead for Detectives, said:

Detectives do a vital job investigating crimes, apprehending offenders and protecting people from harm. The complex nature of investigations and our work to protect vulnerable people has made the role of detectives more challenging than ever.

In order to mirror the changing nature of crime, we need to recruit and develop a diverse group of individuals, who will contribute to this vital area of policing and its future, underlining the critical nature of effective investigations to public confidence and trust.

Police Now is a national police recruitment programme which started in the Metropolitan Police. The former Home Secretary granted more than £5 million to the scheme in 2016, which enabled Police Now to expand and become an independent charity supporting multiple police forces across the country.

Police Now currently operates across 25 forces in England and Wales, and was recognised as offering the best learning and development initiative in the public and third sector by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in September 2017.

Hostile state activity will be met with a rapid and unified G7 response, including greater intelligence sharing, under an agreement secured by Prime Minister Theresa May.

The move will also see hostile states publicly ‘called out’ for their egregious behaviour – with coordinated international attribution of cyber and other attacks.

Speaking at the G7 Summit in Quebec, the Prime Minister has emphasised that recent events, including the reckless use of ‘NotPetya’ ransomware and the attempted murder of the Skripals in Salisbury, have demonstrated the importance of a unified international response to send a clear message that such hostile state activity will not be tolerated.

The Prime Minister has stated that calling out malicious activity helps to end hostile states’ false sense of impunity, demonstrates our awareness of their activity, and underlines our willingness to defend ourselves.

At the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting last month, the UK proposed a new, more formalised approach to tackling foreign interference across the G7.

And today, G7 leaders have agreed to establish a new Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM).

The Prime Minister said the agreement sent a strong message that interference by Russia and other foreign states would not be tolerated.

This G7 initiative will support preventative and protective cooperation between G7 countries, as well as post-incident responses.

It includes:

• sharing of threat intelligence, including hostile activity, techniques and practices
• Improving understanding of partner countries’ policies and thresholds for taking action
• support for independent international institutions
• work with industry to strengthen physical and digital infrastructure
• co-ordinated attribution of hostile activity
• joint work to assert a common narrative and response

Speaking at the G7 Summit, the Prime Minister said:

There is no doubt that foreign interference in our democratic institutions and processes, and other forms of hostile activity, pose a strategic threat to our shared values and interests.

So I welcome today’s agreement that the G7 will exchange information, co-ordinate action, and develop strategies to reinforce our democracies, strengthen our societies’ resilience and uphold freedom of expression and a free and independent media in the face of this growing threat.

Today’s announcement shows that the G7 will not tolerate foreign interference in any one of our democracies, that we are getting organised, and that we will take coordinated action against those who seek to violate the rules-based international system.

Calling out malicious activity helps to end hostile states’ false sense of impunity, demonstrates our awareness of their activity, and underlines our unwavering willingness to defend ourselves.

The Prime Minister has also called for additional measures to curb Russia’s ability to undermine the international rules-based system, including:

• doing more together as the G7 to better understand illicit money flows and then agree concrete actions to stop dirty money undermining our democracies
• sharing more information so that Russian intelligence agents expelled from one country do not simply enter another country

The UK has also lobbied for a robust, united international position to uphold and strengthen the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

Today the G7 has discussed its collective commitment to the Chemical Weapons Convention and called on all countries to support the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) special Conference of States Parties, which is expected to take place later this month.

The Prime Minister has urged fellow leaders to capitalise on the important opportunity this meeting presents to empower the OPCW to attribute responsibility for chemical weapons attacks, strengthening the global norm against chemical weapons use.

AbleChild Africa, Humanity and Inclusion, British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group, Orbis Charitable Trust and Deafkidz concentrate a lot of their work on people with disabilities who can be marginalised by society.

They work with people of all ages in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Afghanistan where people with disabilities are often the most vulnerable in society.

Many of these charities work in health and education to ensure people with disabilities are getting the support they need including; eye care services in hard to reach areas, support to deaf communities and where possible helping people with disabilities find suitable employment.

These grants come in the second round of funding from UK Aid Direct, announced by the Department for International Development. In total, 30 small and medium sized civil society organisations, who work on a wide range of issues throughout the developing world will benefit. As well as projects focussed on disability inclusion, funding will also be provided to projects working on food security and nutrition as well preventing violence against women and children.

UK Aid Direct has already reached more than 3 million people, through 147 grants, across 31 countries.

Announcing the latest round of funding, Secretary of State for International Development, Penny Mordaunt said:

An estimated 800 million people with disabilities live in developing countries. Many of these people continue to face appalling levels of stigma, discrimination and abuse, and all too often miss out on the opportunities that are the right of every person.

Small and medium sized charities offer a wealth of experience, expertise and skills essential to our mission to find innovative new solutions to complex development problems.

Many of these charities represent the best of British expertise and I am extremely proud that through UK Aid Direct, we are strengthening our great partnerships with them to improve the lives of those living in extreme poverty.

The UK government will co-host its first-ever Global Disability Summit in London in July alongside the International Disability Alliance and the Government of Kenya. The summit will bring together leaders from the private sector, governments, donor agencies and charities to raise awareness of this under-prioritised issue and show our commitment to transform the lives of people with disabilities. It will secure ambitious commitments to make a tangible difference to the lives of millions of people around the world.

Lauren Watters, Head of Programmes at AbleChild Africa said:

The UK government is leading the way for disability inclusive development and we are tremendously excited that it has identified the need to empower Youth with Disabilities in Rwanda through UK Aid Direct. Our project will facilitate meaningful youth involvement tackling the multiple barriers this group face and supporting their full inclusion into society.

Steve Crump, Founder of Deafkidz:

It is extremely gratifying that the UK government has acknowledged our important mission to help deaf children around the world live safely and without fear through the UK Aid Direct scheme. Our work is vital, not only to provide vulnerable children with the ear and hearing care they need, but also to change the dangerous stigmas they face each day.

Notes to Editors

There are 30 Aid Match Direct grants being announced with a total funding of £28,968,130

Further information and the full list of recipients of the latest UK Aid Direct grants are available here: www.ukaiddirect.org/news/

UK Aid Direct is a five-year; £150 million programme currently changing the lives of over 3 million of the world’s poorest people with UK aid from the UK Government.

Funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), UK Aid Direct was established in 2014 as a successor to the Global Poverty Action Fund (GPAF), which was created in 2010.

UK Aid Direct is a challenge fund designed to support the UK’s commitments to achieving the Global Goals.

Funding rounds will continue until 2020.

The UK Government will co-host its first ever disability summit later this year that will focus on four central themes:

• tackling stigma and discrimination
• inclusion in education
• routes to economic empowerment
• harnessing technology and innovation

On 9th June 2018, Sr Imelda Poole, IBVM was made Member of the Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2018, for her achievements and services to end modern slavery.

On the announcement of the award, the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Sally Axworthy, said:

I am delighted to learn that Sr. Imelda Poole has been awarded this honour by Her Majesty The Queen.

It is well-deserved recognition of Sr. Imelda’s outstanding service in combatting human trafficking and modern slavery, through the European religious sisters’ anti-trafficking network RENATE which she leads, and through and Talitha Kum, the religious sisters’ worldwide anti-trafficking network.

Sister Imelda is a key ally in Her Majesty’s Government’s campaign to eradicate modern slavery. It is wonderful to see such a distinguished friend of this Embassy honoured in this way.

Note for editors:

· Read more about Sr. Imelda Poole in the case study written by HM Ambassador Sally Axworthy to mark 2017 International Women’s Day.

Follow @SallyAxworthy @UKinHolySee