Category: Gov Press Releases

On 13 October, British Defence Attaché to Ethiopia, Colonel Matt Munro handed over certificates to East Africa Standby Force (EASF) military personnel who completed logistic map exercise at the EASF headquarters in Addis Ababa. The 21 EASF military personnel drawn out of Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Rwanda, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda attended a five day long training.

The training, sponsored by the UK, is one of the four training events arranged by British Peace Support Team (BPST) East Africa in the lead up to the Field Training Exercise being held in Sudan in November. It brought together EASF logistics officers from both the police and military together and helped them exercise roles before being deployed into peace support operations.

The other training were the Mission Head Quarter training held in Kenya in September, Force training held in Uganda in September and Battle Group and Sector training which is currently taking place in Uganda.

Defence Attaché, Colonel Munro said:

Peace and security are important for the UK and the East African region. I believe a well trained strong EASF is key to enhancing peace and security in the East African region. Building the capacities of EASF’s military personnel is one important way of ensuring these efforts.

Logistics is an important area for capacity development of military personnel. This particular exercise will have a significant role in equipping officers for the field training exercise in Sudan next month.

The UK has supported the EASF capacity building efforts since 2010 and will continue its support to enhance Global peace and security.

Media Enquires

Mail to: saba.ermyas@fco.gov.uk

Rebecca Dale-Essex, of London, knowingly removed the money over a 24 day period prior to the company going into liquidation. She was the sole director of Belle Maison Direct Limited, which sold children’s furniture until it went into liquidation on 20 April 2016.

£42,000 of the amount removed came after she had informed the local council that her company had insufficient funds to make payments in respect of outstanding business rates. In total, she left creditors, including the council, out of pocket by £140,314.

She provided a disqualification undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy which prevents her from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for six years.

Commenting on the disqualification, Martin Gitner, Deputy Chief Investigator of Insolvent Investigations, Midlands and West at the Insolvency Service, said:

Rebecca Dale-Essex deliberately removed significant amounts of cash from the company that was for her own benefit, leaving little, if anything, for the creditors of her company.

Company directors should note that the Insolvency Service will investigate and remove them from the business environment if they have acted to the detriment of the company creditors.

Notes to editors

Rebecca Dale-Essex’s date of birth is September 1971 and she resides in London; She was appointed as a director on 28 January 2009.

Belle Maison Direct Limited (Company number 06804657) was incorporated on 28 January 2009 and was placed into Creditors voluntary liquidation on 20 April 2016.

On 7 September 2017, the Secretary of State accepted a Disqualification Undertaking from Dale-Essex for 6 years, from 28 September 2017.

The matters of unfitness, which she did not dispute in the Disqualification Undertaking, were that:

• Between 19 June 2015 and 13 July 2015, despite knowing the amounts due in respect of Business Rates, she caused BMD to enter into transactions to the detriment of the company and its creditors totalling of £121,500, which worsened its insolvent position. These monies were funds held in BMD’s bank accounts, which she transferred to herself.

• Further, £42,000 of these funds were transferred between 7 July 2015 and 13 July 2015, after she had emailed the Council advising BMD had insufficient funds to maintain repayments to a historic balance outstanding in respect of Business Rates on 7 July 2015.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.
Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, 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.

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In meetings during the visit, including with Foreign Minister Al Jubeir, Mr Burt highlighted common UK-Gulf security interests and discussed a range of issues. These included UK support for Vision 2030, the need to redouble efforts to end the war in Yemen, and the tensions with Qatar.

Mr Burt discussed the dire humanitarian and economic situation in Yemen with President Hadi and Foreign Minister Mekhlafi.

Speaking after his visit to Riyadh, Minister Burt said:

Saudi Arabia is one of our strongest regional allies and we continue to work closely together in a range of important areas. We support the delivery of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious reform programme, Vision 2030, and the need to resolve the ongoing dispute with Qatar.

Central to all of my meetings was the ongoing conflict in Yemen. I made clear my concern that this conflict was now contributing to the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, and that the longer it continued the worse the situation would get. I also stressed the importance of keeping space open for the humanitarian community. Everyone agrees that urgent steps must be taken to make progress towards a political solution. The UK is playing a central role in these efforts and I call upon all parties to the conflict to show the flexibility required to keep the political process moving.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt @AlistairBurtUK

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

Over the past 24 hours, I have been in regular contact with the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and representatives from multi-agency emergency response organisations, ahead of Storm Ophelia. There is close co-operation between the agencies and necessary contingency arrangements are in place with the relevant resources and networks tasked to ensure public services are protected as far as possible. The UK Government stands ready to provide a full range of support if requested.

The Met office has put an Amber warning in place from 12 Noon to 11pm with the likelihood of storm force high winds during this period. Everyone should take steps to protect themselves and their family from the impacts of this severe weather threat.

We should be particularly mindful of the elderly and vulnerable and ensure they remain safe throughout the coming hours. Regular updates will be provided via NI Direct and PSNI across various social media channels.

I am remaining in Northern Ireland today and will be keeping in close contact with the agencies who are planning both for the initial storm and its aftermath.

People should be vigilant and stay safe.

Foreign Office staff around the world work hard to support British people who need our help. You can talk to a member of the consular team 24/7 by calling the Foreign Office, or the local Embassy number. Our consular network helped more than 23,000 people last year as well as continuing to help those with long-running cases from previous years. I am proud of the contribution which our consular team in the UAE makes to this global effort.

More than 100,000 British people live in the UAE and another 1.5 million visit every year. Fortunately, most stays in the UAE are trouble-free. The nature of consular work means that our team become involved when something has gone wrong. These can be highly distressing cases. Our team is there to provide support to the individuals and their partners and families. This support can include issuing emergency travel documents, visiting British people in hospital or in prison, or providing advice when they have fallen victim to crime. For people in detention our staff are there to support them and take an interest in their welfare. In 2017 so far there have been 213 new detainee cases (in 2016 there were 281).

There are, however, limits to the support we can provide. We cannot interfere in the legal processes or prison systems of other countries (just as we would not allow other governments to interfere in ours). But we do make representations if we have good grounds to believe that, for example, the host country’s own laws are not being properly followed, or a British person is being held in conditions which fall short of international standards. More information on what we can and cannot do can be found here.

Our travel advice for the UAE explains that local laws and customs are very different to those in the UK and that there may be serious penalties for doing something which may not be illegal in the UK. Both our travel advice and our Embassy’s many public awareness-raising campaigns cover some of the specific issues which may arise from differences in laws and customs.

We recommend that people make an effort before they travel to familiarise themselves with local laws and customs, and respect them while abroad. The Foreign Office doesn’t promote any country as a holiday destination. We do publish travel advice on 225 countries or territories to help British people make better-informed decisions about their foreign travel. No foreign travel can be guaranteed safe, but our advice is one source of useful information to help people make well-informed decisions – and take responsibility for their choices – when they are travelling. But we understand that, regardless of how prepared we all are, British people can still find themselves in difficult or distressing situations, and we are ready to help on those occasions.

More detail on how we put together our travel advice is available here.

Universal Health Services, Inc. – through its subsidiary Cygnet Health Care Limited (Cygnet) – acquired Cambian Adult Services in December 2016. Both companies run hospitals providing rehabilitation services to patients suffering from long-term mental illness.

An in-depth investigation by a group of independent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) panel members has found that the merger may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the East Midlands where the companies would be the largest provider of male mental health rehabilitation services, being many times the size of the next largest provider in the region.

The CMA found that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), the main customers of these hospitals, would have less choice, and may face higher prices or lower quality when referring patients. In odrer to maintain competition in the East Midlands, the companies are now required to sell one of their hospitals in the area to a buyer approved by the CMA.

The CMA has cleared the merger in all other regions originally identified, including the West Midlands where it had identified possible concerns about mental health services to female patients in its provisional decision published in August.

Simon Polito, Chair of the inquiry group, said:

Mental health hospitals are a vital part of our healthcare system, caring for some of the most vulnerable in our society. CCGs, who are under increasing budget pressure, should have access to a range of facilities and treatment options so they can ensure the best possible care.

We have found that this merger could affect the quality and price of mental health rehabilitation services for male patients in the East Midlands. The companies must now sell off one of their hospitals in this region.

Notes to editors

1. Cygnet Health Care Limited operates 20 mental health hospitals in the UK.

2. Cambian Adult Services operates 61 mental health hospitals in the UK.

3. 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.

4. The final report can be found on the case page.

5. On 22 February 2017, the CMA started its initial investigation and on 3 May 2017 the CMA referred it for a phase 2 investigation.

6. All the CMA’s functions in phase 2 merger inquiries are performed by independent inquiry groups chosen from the CMA’s panel members, and supported by CMA staff. The appointed inquiry group are the decision-makers on phase 2 inquiries.

7. The members of the inquiry group are: Simon Polito (Inquiry Chair), Thomas Hoehn, Jill May and Andrew Popham.

8. The CMA’s panel members come from a variety of backgrounds, including economics, law, accountancy and/or business; the membership of an inquiry group usually reflects a mix of expertise and experience.

9. For more information on the CMA see our homepage or follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk, Flickr and LinkedIn and like our Facebook page. Sign up to our email alerts to receive updates on merger cases.

10. Media enquiries should be directed to press@cma.gsi.gov.uk or 020 3738 6337

Sarah Elizabeth White, also known as Sarah Regan, has been disqualified from acting as a director following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

She was director of Manchester-based Harrison Black Associates Limited, which, together with the London branch Hayden Moss Associates Limited, promised small business owners that for a fee of up to £3,000 it would reduce their business rates.

Business owners were led to believe they were guaranteed a reduction in their rates or they would received a full refund. Following various complaints, the Insolvency Service opened an investigation into the company under powers set out within the Companies Act 1985.

Both companies were then wound up at Manchester District registry last year. A number of small business owners were left out of pocket by over £34,000.

Commenting on the disqualification, Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

Sarah White was purporting to offer a service she knew the company could not, and did not, provide. She took no steps to ensure that Harrison Black did what customers had paid for and what had been promised within a contract.

Taking action against her should serve as a warning to all directors that if they are abusing their position we will remove them from the marketplace.

The Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted an undertaking from Sarah Elizabeth White on 11 September 2017. The disqualification is from 2 October 2017.

Notes to editors

Sarah Elizabeth White (aka Sarah Regan) is of Audenshaw, Manchester and her date of birth is January 1985.

Harrison Black Associates Ltd (Company Registration No.08978150) was incorporated on 4 April 2014. Its registered office was 83 Ducie Street, Manchester, M1 2JQ, United Kingdom. It traded, at various times, from the registered office and 345 Chester Road, Manchester

Harrison Black Associates Ltd was subject to an investigation by Insolvency Service and, following an application to wind it up in the public interest, was placed into liquidation on 1 March 2016 (Manchester District Registry 3328 of 2015).

The Insolvency Service investigation established that:

• Misleading information was provided to customers regarding the potential benefits of the Company’s services
• Customers were shown misleading documents in order to induce them to make payments
• Customers were wrongly led to believe they were guaranteed a reduction in their rates or they would received a full refund
• White informed customers payment was required to instruct a surveyor and 31 of the 33 customers made a payment and received no such visit
• There is no evidence of any rate reduction appeals have been made on behalf of customers or any refunds made

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Contact Press Office

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

The Charity Commission has published reports for two regulatory compliance cases involving individuals who were convicted of terrorism offences and whose actions were linked to charity. The reports demonstrate the risks to charities of being abused as vehicles for terrorism.

On 23 December 2016 Mr Syed Hoque and Mr Mashoud Miah were convicted of entering into a funding arrangement contrary to section 17 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (see notes to editor).

The case involving Mr Syed Hoque, a registered charity, Shade provided an open letter of accreditation to Mr Hoque as a volunteer of the charity. The trustees told the Commission that they accepted Mr Hoque’s assurances that his travel to Syria would help promote the charity. The letter was provided without any due diligence or establishing any means of controlling or monitoring his activities whilst acting on the charity’s behalf.

The Commission concluded that this was misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity. It set the trustees of Shade a regulatory action plan, which required, among other things, for the trustees to carry out proper due diligence checks on all people and organisations that it funds or works with.

In another case, one of the individuals convicted, Mr Mashoud Miah was connected to an organisation raising charitable funds and which stated publicly that it was a charity, Helping Humanity (not a registered charity – see notes to editor).
During the criminal investigation, the Metropolitan Police found documents relating to the organisation in Mr Miah’s possession, including meeting minutes and correspondence, which suggested he was closely involved in the organisation’s administration.

Following the Commission’s intervention, its directors ended its activities. The Commission actively monitored the directors’ actions in properly winding it up, including closing its bank account, and taking down its website. This means that the organisation and its assets can no longer be used for any future charitable activity.

The Commission is publishing these reports to help other charities minimise the risks associated with individuals who may seek to abuse charities for terrorist purposes.

The Commission has been clear that it does not consider aid convoys an effective means of delivering humanitarian aid, and has warned charities taking part in them that they will be subject to additional regulatory scrutiny to ensure trustees comply with their legal duties and responsibilities. The convictions of these individuals highlight how such convoys are susceptible to abuse.

Ends

Notes to editor

1. The ‘Helping Humanity’ referred to in this case report is not a reference to the registered charity Helping Humanity (charity number 1164722) which was registered with the Commission on 7 December 2015. It is a reference to an incorporated company which was not a registered charity and which has since dissolved.
2. Section 17 of the Terrorism Act 2000 states:
   “A person commits an offence if –
   (a) He enters into or becomes concerned in an arrangement as a result of which money or other property is made available or is to be made available to another, and
   (b) He knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that it will or may be used for the purposes of terrorism.”
3. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
4. The Commission’s annual report of compliance case work, Tackling abuse and mismanagement, provides further information about the Commission’s work tackling abuse of charities for terrorist related purposes.