Category: Gov Press Releases

Recommended new safety measures to better protect private tenants by reducing the risk of electric shocks or fires caused by electrical faults were published for consultation today (17 February 2018) by Housing Minister Heather Wheeler.

Five yearly mandatory electrical installation safety checks for all private rented properties and safety certificates for tenants, to prove checks and repair work have been completed, are part of a package of independent recommendations to improve safety.

The government is also consulting on how best to enforce the strengthened safety regime along with whether landlords who do not comply should face tough penalties of up to £30,000.

As well as making homes safer for tenants, electrical installation improvements benefit the landlord as a material improvement to their properties, helping prevent fires which could cause costly and significant damage.

According to the most recent data tenants in the private rented sector face a higher risk of electrical shock and fires caused by electrical faults in their homes compared to social housing tenants.

To address this the government introduced new powers in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 to set and enforce tougher electrical safety standards in the private rented sector and established a working group of independent experts from industry and a range of other sectors to develop recommendations.

This builds on other measures already introduced or planned to improve the quality of private rented properties including fines of up to £30,000 for rogue landlords and agents and banning orders for the worst offenders.

The government is also supporting a Private Member’s Bill which will require all landlords to ensure their properties are safe and give tenants the right to take legal action.

Housing Minister Heather Wheeler said:

Everyone deserves a safe place to live. While measures are already in place to crack down on the minority of landlords who rent out unsafe properties we need to do more to protect tenants.

That’s why we introduced powers to enable stronger electrical safety standards to be brought in along with tough penalties for those who don’t comply.

We want to ensure we strike the right balance between protecting tenants while being fair for landlords. So I want to hear from as many people as possible whether these independent recommendations are the right approach.

Independent recommendations published for consultation today, include:

• 5 yearly mandatory electrical installation safety checks for all private rented properties.
• Mandatory safety certificates confirming installation checks have been completed along with any necessary repair work provided to both landlord and tenants at the beginning of the tenancy and made available to the local authority on request.
• A private rented sector electrical testing competent person’s scheme should be established to ensure properly trained experts undertake this work. This would be separate from existing building regulations competent person.
• Landlord supplied electrical appliance testing and visual checks of electrical appliances by landlords at a change of tenancy should be promoted as good practice and set out in guidance.

Today’s consultation seeks views on each of the safety recommendations as well as how best to approach enforcement – including what the penalty for non-compliance should be.

Final proposals will follow the conclusion of Dame Judith Hackitt’s Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. Dame Judith is due to submit her final report to ministers in spring this year.

Legislative powers only cover the private rented sector. We will publish a social housing green paper in spring which will cover a wide range of issues including the safety and quality of social housing.

The government has also provided UK consumers with the highest ever levels of protection, investing an extra £12 million each year in the product safety system through the new Office for Product Safety and Standards.

Further information

See the consultation: Electrical safety in the private rented sector. The consultation runs until Monday 16 April 2018.

Latest data from the English Housing Survey (2015-16) shows 60% of homes in the private rented sector had all 5 recommended electrical safety features installed compared to 74% of local authority homes and 76% of housing association homes. These 5 features are modern PVC wiring, modern earthing, modern consumer units, miniature circuit breakers and Residual Current Devices.

As part of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 the government introduced powers to set requirements for electrical safety standards in the private rented sector along with their enforcement through secondary legislation. A working group of independent experts was established to provide recommendations to ministers.

Representatives from the following organisations were part of the working group: Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, British Gas, Electrical Safety First, Chief Fire Officers Association, Association of Residential Letting Agents, Shelter, Residential Landlords Association, National Approved Lettings Scheme, British Property Federation, National Landlords Association, Local Government Association, Chartered Institution of Environmental Health, Institution of Engineering and Technology, NAPIT and Electrical Safety Round Table and the Health and Safety Executive.

There are existing regulatory requirements to help protect tenants:

• mandatory 5 yearly electrical installation checks for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)
• the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires landlords to keep installations in the property, including the supply of electricity, in good repair and proper working order
• building regulations since 2010 have required all circuits in new or rewired homes to comply with the wiring rules in BS 7671 and include the installation of a Residual Current Device (RCD) covering any new circuits in the consumer unit since July 2008
• local authorities have powers, through the Housing Act 2004, to take action where there are electrical hazards in a property

Government has announced tough new powers to crack down on bad practices, stamp out overcrowding and improve standards for those renting in the private sector: Current and proposed powers include:

• introduction of civil penalties of up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution
• extension of Rent Repayment Orders to cover illegal eviction, breach of a banning order or failure to comply with a statutory notice
• database of rogue landlords/letting agents convicted of certain offences from April 2018
• banning orders for the most serious and prolific offenders from April 2018
• introduced protection for tenants against retaliatory eviction where they have a legitimate complaint and stopped landlords from serving an open-ended eviction notice at the start of a tenancy
• required landlords to install smoke alarms on every floor of their property, and test them at the start of every tenancy, and to install carbon monoxide alarms in high risk rooms
• councils can make a direction to remove permitted development rights to convert properties where there are local concerns about the change of use
• government supports the further measures in Karen Buck MP’s Private Member’s Bill to protect tenants in both the social and private rented sectors, which passed at the second reading on Friday 19 January

I welcome the appointment of Martin Griffiths to the role of UN Special Envoy for Yemen. Mr Griffiths brings a wealth of experience from several high profile UN positions in the region, and is a leading expert on international mediation and conflict resolution.

I would like to thank Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed for his dedication in the role of UN Special Envoy since April 2015, working to facilitate a credible peace process in Yemen.

The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to help bring to Yemen the peace, stability and security that all Yemenis deserve. This can only be reached through an inclusive political settlement. Mr Griffiths and his team will be central to achieving progress and I call upon all parties to engage with the UN process in good faith.

Notes to editors:

The UK strongly supports the work of the UN in Yemen. We support the efforts to reboot a UN peace process as a matter of urgency. By the end of the financial year 2017/18, we will have provided £1.68 million to the UN Special Envoy’s office to bolster the UN’s capacity to facilitate the peace process.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

A dangerous driver who caused the death of a man in Tooting by careless driving has had his sentence increased after the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, appealed it as too low.

Anthony Howell hit Adinajib Awale on the junction of Tooting Bec Road and Dr Johnson Avenue on 2 May 2015. Despite his car suffering damage because of the collision, Mr Howell did not stop at the scene. Instead, after returning home, Howell called the police for a crime reference number for insurance purposes. He said that the damage had been caused by someone throwing something at his car.

Howell was originally sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment suspended for 2 years at Kingston Crown Court. Today, following action from the Solicitor General, the Court of Appeal increased Howell’s sentence to 16 months, to be served immediately.

Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General said:

“Anthony Howell’s actions are inexcusable; to cause a fatal collision because of careless driving is atrocious and to fail stop at the scene to help the victim was disgraceful. No sentence can bring back Mr Awale but I hope that the increase will bring his family some comfort.”

The Charity Commission is encouraging anyone who would like to share relevant information about the Presidents Club Charitable Trust and the charity’s fundraising event on 18 January to come forward, in order to help the Commission determine whether trustees of the charity have complied with their legal duties and responsibilities.

The Commission, the regulator of charities in England and Wales, opened a regulatory compliance case into charity on 24 January 2018, following media reports alleging that some staff were exposed to harassment and inappropriate activity at the event. The police have already stressed that any allegations of criminal behaviour should be reported to them.

Tracy Howarth, Head of Regulatory Compliance at the Charity Commission says:

It is important that anyone who attended or worked at the event knows they can come forward and raise concerns with us. We can’t provide any legal remedy or compensation to individuals. But what we can and must do, is to assess whether the trustees of the charity complied with important legal duties and responsibilities in managing their charity.
We want to ensure we have all the information possible to make a balanced and reasoned assessment of the facts.

So I would like to encourage anyone with relevant information to come forward.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Commission at: rauemailteam@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk.

The Commission stresses that some the issues raised by the event are not within its regulatory remit and it is working closely with other regulators as appropriate.

The opening of the case is not in itself a finding of wrongdoing. When the case has concluded, the Commission will publish a report detailing what issues it looked at, what it found and what it did. Previous Commission regulatory case reports are available on GOV.UK.

Notes to editors

1. As a result of the media coverage arising from the event, the trustees of the Presidents Club Charitable Trust have decided to carry out an orderly winding up of the charity. They have confirmed they will not take any steps to dissolve the Charity until the Commission’s regulatory compliance case is complete.
2. The objects of the charity allow funds to be applied for such charitable purposes as the trustees may decide. The charity has made grants to a number of charities. Some of these have said that they now wish to return funds to the charity. The Commission has published guidance on its website for those charities who are considering whether or not they should, or can, return charitable funds insert link. In most cases, the Commission’s consent will be required to authorise the return of historic donations.
3. The trustees have established a separate contact point to deal with complaints and intend to appoint an appropriately qualified independent complaints assessor to consider those complaints received. No complaints have been made to date. The trustees have told the Commission that they are committed to the timely and efficient resolution of any complaints received.

Speaking after a tour of the shopping centre, Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said:

I am absolutely delighted to be here in Victoria Square enjoying the very best that Belfast has to offer. You just have to look at this view, look at what this city is today, and think about what has been achieved in 20 years. Think about how much more we can do, and how much we have to build on, to continue Belfast and Northern Ireland’s success.

I’ve just been hearing about how in terms of retail outlets, this centre is number one not just in Northern Ireland but in the island of Ireland, and it is number three in the whole of the United Kingdom in some categories. That is a fantastic achievement. It really goes to show what is bringing people to Belfast, why they are coming to Northern Ireland and why we want it to continue.

This has been a difficult week, I’m not going to make any pretence of that. We worked extraordinarily hard to do our very best to enable an Executive to be formed and I still believe that can be done, with the will of the politicians to deliver what the people of Northern Ireland want and need: their elected politicians doing the right thing and delivering devolved government for the people of Northern Ireland. The message I have had from the retailers and shoppers I have met downstairs is that that is what they want too. They want to exploit the opportunities that would come from a stable government being able to deliver the reforms and the transformation this country needs.

I am here to help them deliver that. I will do all I can to try and get devolved government back into Stormont because I genuinely believe that is the best thing for the people of Northern Ireland.

The government has announced a review of its 25 year Bovine TB strategy to be chaired by Sir Charles Godfray, a population biologist and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Four years after the 25 year strategy was first published, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has said he believes now is a good time to review progress and consider what additional actions might be necessary now to ensure other tools and interventions are ready to be deployed in later phases of the strategy. The government has said it also envisages future reviews at five yearly intervals.

The 25 year strategy outlined a very broad range of interventions to fight the disease including tighter cattle movement controls and removal of infected cattle from herds, improved diagnostic tests, enhanced biosecurity measures, the culling of badgers in areas where disease is rife, vaccination of badgers and work to develop a viable vaccine for use in cattle.

So far, the principal elements deployed in the first phase of the strategy have been cattle movement controls, the removal of infected cattle from herds and the badger cull which covered more than 20 different areas in 2017. Michael Gove and Farming Minister George Eustice have said they want to ensure other elements of the strategy, such as cattle vaccination or developing genetic resistance, are ready to be deployed in the next phase of the strategy in order to ensure the government maintains progress towards its target of becoming officially TB free by 2038.

Farming Minister George Eustice said:

Bovine TB is a slow moving, insidious disease which presents many challenges. It is difficult to detect, can be harboured in the wildlife population and no vaccine is fully effective. There is no single measure that will provide an easy answer and that is why we are pursuing a wide range of interventions including cattle movement controls and a cull of badgers in areas where disease is rife.

Now is a good time to review progress to date and identify steps we could take now to accelerate some of the elements of our 25 year strategy that might be deployed in later phases. While the badger culls are a necessary part of the strategy, no one wants to be culling badgers forever.

Bovine TB has a negative effect on the health and welfare of affected animals and dealing with the disease costs the taxpayer an estimated £100 million a year. Over the last year alone more than 30,000 infected cattle had to be slaughtered in England.

The review’s Terms of Reference are available.

The review is due to end in September 2018. The findings will be submitted to Defra Ministers for consideration and a final report published in due course.

Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP will visit the University of Kent’s Law Clinic today to see the pro bono work happening there.

While there, the Solicitor General will also take part in a ‘hot seat’ Question and Answer session. The students will have the opportunity to ask questions about pro bono work and Public Legal Education.

The Solicitor General will also tour the new £5 million Kent Law Clinic as part of his visit and meet staff and solicitors from the local community who volunteer there. The Law Clinic takes on pro bono cases for individuals and community organisations who are unable to afford other legal services.

The Solicitor General said:

Pro bono work often starts at universities and colleges, where students gain first-hand experience of providing legal advice and help to those in need.

The advice these students give will help make a real difference to people’s lives as well as to the communities in which they live.

They are the next generation of lawyers, and the skills they gain now will put them in good stead in their future professional careers.

The students gain practical experience of the law in the clinic, and are involved in all aspects of casework. They undertake such tasks as interviewing clients, carrying out legal research, drafting statements of cases, negotiating and appearing as advocates before the County Court and other forums.

Professor John Fitzpatrick, Kent Law Clinic director said:

We are delighted that the Solicitor General is to visit the Kent Law Clinic, and warmly welcome his support for pro bono legal projects in universities.

Working in law clinics to provide a free legal service to those who need, but cannot to pay for access to the law offers students not only a new way of learning the law itself and very useful vocational skills, but also a new perspective on law and society.

We can only make a small contribution of course, but we hope a rich one to those clients and students who are involved.

A ‘collaboration fund’ of up to £10 million has been announced today (16 February) as part of a series of measures to help farmers and small producers compete and thrive alongside larger businesses in the food supply chain.

The fund will be designed in consultation with the farming industry and will work by bringing together those interested in co-operation. These groups will be supported by the funding to formally establish, develop or expand, so that farmers and growers can take advantage of new market opportunities to help their businesses thrive. Collaboration between farmers can bring substantial economic benefits, enabling farmers to benefit from economies of scale, share knowledge and jointly market their produce.

The move was announced today in the Government response to the consultation on the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator, along with a range of other measures which will come into force to help protect the rights of farmers and small producers, including:

• Introducing compulsory milk contracts between producers and purchasers to help protect dairy farmers by setting out clear terms, including the price for the delivery of milk, the timing of deliveries, the duration of the contract, details of payment procedures, and arrangements for collecting and delivering raw milk
• A requirement that slaughterhouses use a standard grid for the classification of sheep carcasses to help ensure farmers are paid per carcass in a more transparent manner, providing more certainty for farmers in the price they will get for their animals
• A commitment to work with industry to explore improving transparency and access to prices along the supply chain, to help farmers and small producers see if they are getting a fair deal for their produce
• An assessment from the Competition and Markets Authority into whether more grocery retailers could come under the remit of the GCA
• Tackling late payments by highlighting to farmers and small producers the role of the Small Business Commissioner

Announcing the measures Farming Minister George Eustice said:

This package of measures is designed to improve transparency and integrity within the food supply chain and to support collaborative business models where producers can come together to strengthen their position or work jointly on specific areas of work.

Too often in the past, farmers have ended up being price takers and there have been too many instances where a lack of transparency in prices and charges by some processors has undermined the market. If we want a successful farming industry in the future then it is essential that we have properly functioning markets and that farmers receive a fair share of the value of the food they produce.

Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said:

This Government’s Industrial Strategy is building a Britain in which suppliers of all sizes can get a fair deal. The Groceries Code Adjudicator has already made a significant impact, with suppliers reporting retailers’ improved compliance with the Code.

Today’s announcement will build on this good work, protecting suppliers and ensuring their rights are enforced when it comes to late payments.

The measures will be designed with the farming industry and apply to farmers and smaller producers in England and are expected to be brought in later this year. The collaboration fund will open for applications later this year.

Background:

1. The Groceries Code Adjudicator is the independent regulator ensuring that the UK’s largest grocery retailers treat their direct suppliers lawfully and fairly
2. Small Business Commissioner was launched in December 2017 to support small businesses in resolving payment disputes and tackle unfair payment practices. The Commissioner handles complaints between small business suppliers (with fewer than 50 staff) and their larger customers
3. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy introduced a regulatory amendment on 5 February clarifying business representatives’ right to legally challenge unfair payment behaviour, such as late payment, on behalf of their members.

A No 10 spokesperson said:

The Prime Minister spoke to the leaders of Sinn Fein and the DUP on the phone earlier this evening about the recent phase of political talks in Northern Ireland.

In both phone calls the Prime Minister expressed her disappointment that an agreement had not yet been reached despite recent progress being made by everyone involved.

She reiterated how the government remains absolutely committed to restoring an Executive and that it is still her firm belief that restoring devolved government – so that democratically elected politicians can make locally accountable decisions – is in the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister was clear that she still believes the basis for an agreement exists and recognised the leadership both parties had shown over past weeks and months. She urged them both to reflect on the recent phase of talks in order to find the best way forward.

On next steps, the Prime Minister was clear that the UK government has a responsibility to consider what needed to be done to protect the interests of Northern Ireland in the ongoing absence of an Executive. She added that the Northern Ireland Secretary would continue to work closely with the parties, and the Irish Government in accordance with the three stranded approach, to support that process.