Category: Gov Press Releases

• Guidance published today is the first step in delivering new Secure Schools – part of our commitment to reform youth custody
• New specialist schools will put tailored education and healthcare at the heart of youth justice
• Specialist leaders and their staff will be given flexibility to shape the curriculum to address offending behaviour and support rehabilitation

Minister Dr Phillip Lee has today outlined the next steps in the Ministry of Justice’s pioneering vision for Secure Schools.

As part of the Department’s promise to put education at the heart of youth custody, it has today (1 June 2018) published guidance setting out the expectations and requirements for prospective Secure School providers.

This is the first step in delivering on the commitment to build new Secure Schools and has been developed in close partnership with charities, trusts and partners who specialise in working with children and young people.

This innovative approach to education in a secure environment will combine the ethos and best practice of schools with the structure and support of secure children’s homes.

For the first-time ever – educators will be given the independence to run unique custodial establishments, shaping their own tailored curriculum with greater flexibility and control of their custodial environment.

Secure Schools will have up to 70 places, and will be run by not for profit child-focused and creative providers who will put education, healthcare and purposeful activity at the heart of their work to rehabilitate young offenders.

Today’s announcement will enable potential Secure Schools providers to start preparing applications in anticipation of the opening of a formal application window later in the year.

Justice Minister Dr Phillip Lee said:

Good education in and out of the classroom is the key to unlocking a secure and stable future for young people and I am determined to drive forward our comprehensive reforms so that young people are equipped with the skills to live successful, crime-free lives on release.

Physical activity is key to a productive day in custody and I want education to be at the heart of the core day with children in Secure Schools engaging with health and education services that are tailored to meet their individual needs.

Secure Schools will focus on the root cause of offending, by intervening early to help break the cycle of reoffending – making our streets safer and diverting young people away from a life of crime.

The number of young people in custody has fallen significantly, from around 3,000 in 2010 to approximately 1,000 today, but those who remain in the system have challenging and complex needs and have often been deprived of their chance at education. Secure Schools will demand and deliver ambitious standards for all young people, engaging them fully in education and physical activity, to divert them away from their criminal past.

There have been challenges across the youth estate with unacceptable levels of violence. But there are early signs that standards are improving, with recent inspectorate reports on Feltham and Werrington YOIs praising the significant improvements in safety and child protection. Secure Schools aim to build on this and set the standards and direction for future youth custodial provision.

Secure Schools are just one of the many areas of reform being driven forward by the government, with the Justice Secretary recently launching a new Education and Employment Strategy to set prisoners on a path to employment from the day they arrive in custody. This impacts across the estate and Secure Schools will form a key part of embedding education at the core of youth custody.

Notes to editors

• Secure Schools will accommodate both girls and boys between the age of 12 and 17
• The government is developing a specific inspection regime to robustly monitor the performance of Secure schools
• Secure Schools will be run by secure school academy trusts and will be governed and run under the same legislation as children’s homes and academies
• The government will also host an engagement event this summer to invite potential providers to learn more about the project.

Hill Marshall LLP, a joint venture between two of Cambridge’s leading family-owned businesses, Marshall Group Properties, part of the Marshall Group, and Hill, the award-winning top 20 UK housebuilder, have secured a funding deal with Homes England to accelerate the delivery of 1,300 homes in Cambridge.

The new development, Wing, will be delivered on 160 acres of brownfield land owned by the Marshall Group. The 10-year loan, worth £22.4 million, will be drawn from Homes England’s Home Building Fund (HBF). The HBF helps unlock or accelerate the delivery of residential and mixed-use housing developments through both development loans and loan funding for the infrastructure needed to prepare land for development.

The money will be used to enable infrastructure works for the entire development, including delivery of Main Spine Road, a strategic drainage network, pumping station & strategic landscaping. New transport infrastructure will also be delivered as part of Wing and the nearby Newmarket Road will be upgraded to create access to the development.

Homes England are also funding the relocation of the ground running enclosure at the airport – a purpose built enclosure to reduce noise effects from aircraft engineering testing and a key planning requirement to be completed before any houses are occupied at the site. The relocation of the ground running enclosure will also support the creation of up to a further 1,800 new homes in development sites around the airport.

The funding is being made available in advance of full reserved matters approval being obtained, which is the normal point at which high street lenders would be able to provide funding. This allows the first phase of housing at Wing to be delivered up to 18 months ahead of schedule.

The first phase of the development will be delivered by Hill and once complete, will comprise 350 private homes and 150 affordable homes – including shared ownership and affordable rent tenures.

A spokesperson from Hill Marshall LLP said: “Marshall Group and Hill are two like-minded family firms committed to making Cambridge one of the best cities to live in the UK. We are delighted to have secured new funding from Homes England’s Home Building Fund for this development in the City – it will ensure we are able to deliver an outstanding new community for local residents in half the amount of time it would normally take. Cambridge has long been established as one of the best places to live in the UK and this new community seeks to add further to the City’s success.”

Nick Walkley, Homes England Chief Executive, added: “At Homes England we’re using our land, finance and expertise to speed up the delivery of new homes. This loan through our Home Building Fund is a significant step towards seeing this 1,300 home new community at this key development site in Cambridge become a reality and I look forward to seeing work start on site.”

To commemorate the funding announcement, James Palmer, Mayor of Cambridge & Peterborough Combined Authority, Andy Hill, Chief Executive at Hill, Rob Hall, Deputy Managing Director at Hill, Robert Marshall, Chief Executive of Marshall Group, Richard Howe Managing Director of Marshall Group and Nick Walkley, Chief Executive at Homes England, attended a signing ceremony at Cambridge Airport on 21st May.

The homes on the first phase of Wing are designed by the award-winning team at Pollard Thomas Edwards architects and will offer a range of properties including 1, 2 and 3-bedroom apartments and 2, 3, 4 and 5-bedroom houses. The development will also be home to a wide-range of facilities to support the new community including a new primary school, sports pitches, allotments and retail and commercial space.

Wing is well connected with the new Cambridge North Station just 1¼ miles away and regular buses to the city centre from the nearby park and ride car park. Sales are expected to launch at the development in late 2019, with the first homes expected to be complete in the summer of 2020.

Ends

Notes to Editors

About Hill:

“To be the leading, most trusted provider of distinctive, quality homes in the UK”.

Hill is an award-winning UK top 20 housebuilder and one of the leading developers in London and the south east of England, delivering both private for sale and affordable homes.

The company builds in the region of 2,000 homes a year, including more than 1,000 homes for clients and partners in the affordable housing sector. Hill’s portfolio is diverse, ranging from landmark mixed-use regeneration schemes and large-scale urban extensions, to bespoke housing in rural communities.
Hill has won a string of awards including the WhatHouse? Development of the Year title three years in a row and their Housebuilder of the Year award in 2015.

About Marshall

Marshall was founded in Cambridge as a chauffeur business in 1909 and has grown to become one of the largest private employers in Cambridge and across the UK. Marshall comprises three main businesses: Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, Marshall Group Properties; and Marshall Group Finance which holds a 65% majority shareholding in Marshall Motor Holdings plc, the independent motor retail and leasing business floated by Marshall on the AIM market in 2015. Marshall has consolidated annual sales in excess of £2.2bn and has over 6,000 employees. Marshall Group Properties’ portfolio includes 950 acres of land in Cambridge, including Cambridge Airport, and over 2,000,000 ft² of commercial and industrial property.

About Homes England

Homes England is the new housing delivery organisation that has been created to adopt a more commercial approach to respond to the long term housing challenges facing this country. The new, expanded agency will play a far bigger role in investing in supply and intervening in the market to help deliver 300,000 homes a year by the middle of the next decade.

The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) market study will examine whether the information provided by funeral directors on prices and services is clear enough for people to be able to choose the best option for them.

It will also look at how prices have changed over time and the factors that affect them.

The average cost of a funeral was nearly £3,800 in 2017 – not counting extras that can add another £2000 to the total bill. Affordability and debt can therefore be a real concern to many people, with those on the lowest incomes potentially spending up to one third of their annual income on a funeral.

The rising level of cremation fees will be considered as part of the review, with cremations now estimated to account for around 75% of all funerals.

In parallel to the CMA’s market study, HM Treasury is launching a separate Call for Evidence on regulation in the pre-paid funerals sector. The CMA therefore does not intend to examine the pre-paid sector within its market study.

Daniel Gordon, Senior Director of Markets at the CMA, said:

People can understandably be very emotionally vulnerable when planning a funeral. We therefore think it is important that – at what can be a particularly challenging time – the process is made as easy as possible.
As part of this study, we want to ensure that people can at least receive clear information on prices and the services making up a funeral, and that people get a fair deal on the cremation fees charged.

Views are welcome on any of the issues raised in the statement of scope by the 28 June.

An interim report, presenting initial findings and views on potential remedies, will be published in 6 months, ahead of the final report in a year’s time.

If it finds issues of particular concern, the CMA could take further action, such as opening consumer or competition enforcement cases or launching a full market investigation.

Notes to Editors

1. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law.
2. Market studies may lead to a range of outcomes, including:
   • clean bill of health
   • actions which improve the quality and accessibility of information to consumers
   • taking consumer or competition law enforcement action
   • making recommendations to the government to change regulations or public policy
   • encouraging businesses in the market to self-regulate
   • making a reference for a more in-depth (phase 2) market investigation, or
   • accepting formal undertakings in lieu of a reference
3. The UK funerals market is estimated to be worth over £2 billion a year. The CMA estimates that there are around 5,000 funeral director branches and 294 crematoria currently in operation in the UK. 106 crematoria are privately operated and the remainder are owned and operated by local authorities.
4. The Royal London National Funeral Cost Index 2017 reports that the average cost of a funeral in 2017 was £3,784.

The Crown Court is the first in the country to pilot new software that will streamline and speed up hearings, helping to avoid unnecessary delays in the courtroom. The new system is key to delivering a more effective, efficient and high performing courts service as part of the government’s reform agenda which allows Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and police files to be shared between agencies in one easy to access database.

In Liverpool, the pilot was established with the close co-operation of Merseyside Police, Mersey Cheshire CPS and HMCTS and lessons learnt during user testing will play a vital part in its wider adoption.

Justice minister Lucy Frazer said:

Liverpool courts have been at the forefront of cutting edge technology to improve efficiency, speed up justice and provide value for money for the taxpayer.

I was delighted to see for myself the progress being made towards the modernisation of our justice system, which will make our courts fit for the digital age.

Minister Frazer spent the day at Liverpool Magistrates and Crown Court, as well as the Civil and Family court where she met court staff and the judiciary, and, in addition to the Common Operating Platform, was able to see a live demonstration of a second digital system designed to record sentences in real time.

Results of 18,000 cases a week are uploaded using the Digital Mark Up, which went live at every magistrates’ court across England and Wales in May, and allows a legal advisor to immediately record the outcome of a hearing, ensuring swift justice. This eliminates the need for a lengthy paper process, and means results can be shared immediately with the CPS and police, therefore freeing up staff to concentrate on the most important matters.

The minister also spent time in the Merseyside Centralised Domestic Violence Court – a dedicated court dealing with all cases of domestic abuse at their first hearing in the magistrates’ court as swiftly and sensitively as possible, lessening the impact on the victim.

Today’s digital demonstrations follow earlier advances in 2015 which saw Liverpool Magistrates’ and Crown Courts integrated into a single centre for crime – the first of its scale in England and Wales, and the early adoption of the Digital Case System in the Crown Court. This system enables the judiciary and other parties in Liverpool to prepare, present and share case papers in a digital format, thereby reducing delays.

The Government is investing £1 billion in reforming and modernising courts, which has already delivered:

• A fully paperless system in conjunction with Transport for London – which means thousands of cases involving fare evasion are dealt with more swiftly and effectively.
• An online system which enables court staff to prepare case files and access them digitally in a courtroom during a hearing – saving 68 million pages of paper.
• The ability for those convicted of minor motoring offences to make their initial plea online. 1500 pleas are dealt with online every week. Court staff and the police automatically receive the completed online plea form as soon as the defendant has submitted it, reducing delays.

In the civil courts people can now:

• Make a small money claim online – with over 3,000 claims issued in the first month, cases moving through more quickly, and user satisfaction over 80% during the pre-launch pilot.
• Apply for a divorce online – which has cut errors in application forms from 40% to less than 1%, saving people time and trouble during a traumatic time.
• Apply for probate online – which has also cut errors, speeds up the process, and has a satisfaction rate of more than 90%.

The Department for Work and Pensions has announced that Sir Hector Sants has been appointed as chair of the Single Financial Guidance Body. He will take up the post from 3 October 2018 for a 5 year term.

Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey, said:

Consistent with the Public Appointments Code and following a fair and open competition, I welcome Sir Hector Sants as the first chair of the Single Financial Guidance Body. He will play a pivotal role and lead on improving financial capability across Great Britain.

Sir Hector brings with him vast experience and knowledge from across a range of private and third sector organisations, including how best to support people with problem debt and build wider financial capability. I and my department look forward to working with him.

Sir Hector Sants said:

I am delighted to be appointed chair of the Single Financial Guidance Body. This is an important leadership role with 2 key challenges. In the short-term the dissolution of the 3 existing government sponsored guidance providers and the transition to a single financial guidance body, longer term the new organisation has the opportunity to materially help people better manage their money and in consequence enhance their wellbeing. I look forward to working with the new Board and the executive team to take forward this exciting and important mandate.

More information

Since retiring from full-time work Sir Hector Sants’ focus has been on working to help people manage their money as well as circumstances allow, and promoting a fairer financial system which works for everyone. This reflects his belief that being able to manage money well is an essential life skill.

He is currently chairman of StepChange Debt Charity, the UK’s biggest debt advice charity. He is also a trustee of Just Finance, a charity which collaborates with the Church of England to promote a fairer financial system, and a member of the UK’s Financial Capability Board.

Between 1977 and 2014 he had an executive career in financial services and regulation, which included serving as the CEO of the Financial Services Authority from 2007 to 2012, European CEO of Credit Suisse and a partner of stockbrokers Phillips & Drew.

Remuneration during the set-up phase is £80,000 for a minimum of 21 hours a week. Time commitment will be reviewed once the organisation is in a steady state.

Sir Hector’s appointment follows an open and competitive process which was overseen by The Office for the Commissioner of Public Appointments.

Contact Press Office

Follow DWP on:

• Twitter – www.twitter.com/dwppressoffice
• Facebook – www.facebook.com/dwp
• LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/company/dwp
• YouTube – www.youtube.com/dwp

A bank holiday weekend blitz to check anglers were fishing legally saw bailiffs net 14 people for offences on rivers and stillwaters across the North East.

A total of 14 anglers out of 389 checked were found to be in breach of rod licence and close season legislation and were reported for it.

Environment Agency Fisheries Enforcement Officers visited 80 waters across the North East from the Borders in the north down to North Yorkshire in the south.

It brings the total number of first time rod licence checks to 650 during May, with 37 offence reports issued.
Kevin Summerson, Environment Agency Fisheries Technical Specialist, said:

Our officers were out in force this weekend patrolling our rivers and stillwaters ensuring people were fishing legally and taking action against those flouting the law.

People who don’t buy a licence are not only cheating other anglers and the future of the sport but they are running the risk of a criminal conviction and a fine. There is no excuse.

Intelligence-led patrols

The Environment Agency acts on information received to target their patrols to areas where its suspected illegal fishing is taking place. They work with partners at the police and local angling clubs, supported by the Angling Trust, to gather intelligence.

Just last week, Three men were ordered to pay fines and costs totalling more than £1,300 for poaching with illegal fishing nets in the River Derwent in Gateshead. Kevin added:

We track criminal activity on an intelligence led basis using information gathered by ourselves, partner organisations and reports from the public.

Anyone fishing illegally can expect to be prosecuted and face a fine. I’d urge people to report illegal fishing to us so we can investigate.

All income from rod licence sales is used to fund Environment Agency work to protect and improve fish stocks and fisheries, including improving habitats for fish and facilities for anglers, tackling illegal fishing and working with partners to encourage people to give fishing a go.

Buying a rod licence is quick and easy – they start from just £30 for the year and are free for 13-16 year olds. Under 13s do not need a licence. You can buy them online

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on the phone this morning. She congratulated him on his recent appointment and said that the UK firmly supported his reform and reconciliation efforts.

The Prime Minister thanked Prime Minister Ahmed for the release of prisoners including British national Andargachew Tsege.

They discussed the importance of development assistance, including the support the UK provides to bolster education, economic reform, industrialisation, anti-corruption and job creation in Ethiopia.

They also discussed how the two countries could deepen their trade links, and touched on how the UK’s expertise in infrastructure and financing could support Ethiopia’s economic development agenda.

Today I briefed a number of Ambassadors from State Parties to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

We recognised that the global norm against chemical weapons use is being threatened. The United Kingdom is working alongside our partner states to strengthen the OPCW’s existing mechanisms.

We welcome strong initial support from the international community in response to our request for a Conference of State Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in June. We are confident that states will recognise this threat – that respects no borders – and act in defence of human dignity.

I look forward to further close cooperation with our international partners. We can prevent impunity for the use of chemical weapons, but only by acting together.