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The Foreign Secretary will attend a meeting on Syria organised by France and the US to discuss how best to make progress towards a political solution to the conflict and support the efforts of the UN Special Envoy for Syria.

Following this, the Foreign Secretary will host his US, Saudi Arabian and UAE counterparts at the British Embassy in Paris for a meeting to discuss a political solution to the conflict in Yemen. The “Quad” group of Foreign Ministers last met in December in the UAE.

Speaking ahead of his travel, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

The conflicts in Syria and Yemen have created two of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. There can be no military solution to either conflict, only peaceful and carefully negotiated political solutions will truly end the suffering.

The UK will continue to take a leadership role in these crucial diplomatic efforts with our international partners around the world, intensifying work to find a sustainable way forward.

Further information

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During 2017 the Environment Agency successfully prosecuted 108 individuals and companies for flouting waste and fishing laws in the North East resulting in almost £170,000 in fines and costs.

There were 16 prosecutions of individuals or companies for waste offences, amounting to total fines of £62,763 and costs of £40,493.

There were also two custodial sentences, three suspended sentences, two community orders and two rehabilitation orders. The courts also awarded a total of £14,735 in compensation to those affected by the crimes, which included a landowner left with costs of £100,000 to remove 585 tonnes of waste dumped on their land.

In addition, the Environment Agency revoked two environmental permits from waste companies who continually failed to meet their permit conditions.

Courts imposed a further £19,162 in fines and costs on an individual and company for twice polluting a protected water course.

In fisheries enforcement, there were three serious offences resulting in £1115 in fines, costs and victim surcharge, plus two 12 month conditional discharges.

There were a further 87 offenders prosecuted for 119 rod licence offences, including 77 offences for fishing without a licence. This resulted in total fines, costs and victim surcharge of £29,461, with three offenders also given conditional discharges.

Enforcement activity has taken place right across the North East in Teesside, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Northumberland.

The Environment Agency’s enforcement teams work alongside other specialist teams to support businesses in abiding by their permit conditions, but take tough action against those who deliberately flout regulations.

Fisheries enforcement officers carry our regular patrols and act on information and intelligence to target illegal activity on our rivers.

Jamie Fletcher, Environment Manager at the Environment Agency in the North East, said:

We take illegal waste and fishing activity very seriously. We have had some excellent results in court over the last year and will continue to work hard in the coming year to ensure enforcement action is taken against those who flout the law.

Waste crime can cause serious pollution to the environment, puts communities at risk and undermines legitimate businesses, impacting on investment and economic growth.

Similarly those fishing illegally are cheating other anglers and putting the future of the sport and quality of our rivers in jeopardy.

We have specialist teams that work hard to target those suspected of being involved in illegal activity and to ensure any necessary action is taken against them.

We work closely with a wide range of partners including local authorities, police and the fire service, and I’d like to thank them for their continued support.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Mr Abbott on 6 December 2017 for a period of 12 years, which commenced on 27 December 2017.

Mr Ray was a director of Reactiv Media Ltd, a Halifax-based marketing company which made unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes and stated it owned and maintained one of the largest databases for UK consumers, being able to target campaigns for various entities from sole traders’ to blue-chip organisations.

The company went into liquidation on 8 April 2016 with estimated creditor claims totalling over £2 million.

Mr Abbott has not disputed that he had failed to ensure that Reactiv Media:

• provided accurate information in a Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership grant application, leading to an unmerited payment of over £33,000
• complied with its responsibilities under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and The Conduct of Authorised Persons Rules 2014, leading to an unpaid penalty of £75,000 and cancellation of authorisation to provide claims management services.
• did not trade to the unreasonable risk and ultimate detriment of HM Revenue & Customs and to his benefit, while it was insolvent

Commenting on the disqualification, David Brooks, Group Leader at The Insolvency Service, said:

There are 3 distinct allegations underpinning this disqualification. As a whole, they show a director who flagrantly breached his duties to regulators and company creditors over an extended period. The privilege of limited liability status should be removed from such individuals.

Facts of this case, which were particularly disquieting, were the £252,071 of personal spending on deposits for two houses in the very month that the unjustified grant funds were given to the company, and the nature of some of the £177,664 of identified personal benefits taken from 1 September 2015: This included at least £55,000 spent on jewellery and Mr Abbott’s wedding.

Andy Curry, ICO Enforcement Group Manager said:

This latest disqualification of a company director is another welcome step towards stopping the scourge of nuisance calls.

The ICO has made it clear we’re committed to recovering the fines we issue on behalf of taxpayers and those millions of people who have been hounded by unwanted calls. If the fine remains unpaid we work with the Insolvency Service to pursue all the options. We are pleased this person can’t run or be involved in the management of another company which has the potential to make nuisance calls to members of the public.

Notes to editors

Reactiv Media Ltd (Company Reg No. 06252030) was incorporated on 18 May 2007 and latterly traded from Elant House, Old Power Way, Lowfields Business Park, Elland, W Yorks, HX5 9DE.

The Company went into liquidation on 8 April 2016, with an initially-estimated deficiency as regards creditors of £2,363,148.

Tony Ray Abbott’s date of birth is May 1971 and he resides in Surrey.

The Secretary of State accepted a Disqualification Undertaking from Mr Abbott for a period of 12 years on 6 December 2017. The disqualification commenced on 27 December 2017.

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

I failed to ensure that Reactiv Media Ltd (Reactiv Media) provided accurate information in an application to The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for a Business Growth Programme Grant, leading to a grant payment from that programme of £33,941 on 17 March 2015, which Reactiv Media was not legitimately due

I had signed an acknowledgement of the offer of a grant by LEP on 6 May 2014, agreeing that Reactiv Media would be bound by the offer and would comply with all such terms and conditions. These included a term that all information provided in respect of a grant application must be full, complete and true; to aid detection and prevention of fraud so that public funds were protected.

On 24 February 2015, a claim report was completed by Reactiv Media claiming a £50,000 grant, based on 10% of total applicable expenditure of £500,000. Invoices totalling £459,610 were scheduled and attached to the claim received by the LEP. The invoices (before VAT) totalled £383,420.

The schedule includes three invoices from January 2015, of which copies provided to the LEP were signed by me, which total £339,418 before VAT. The grant was based on 10% of the net value of eligible invoices supplied, so the 3 invoices represented £33,941 of the claim.

These three invoices are not reflected in the company purchase ledgers, the sales ledgers of the two suppliers concerned and the suppliers have confirmed that they did not issue any such invoices.

LEP paid Reactiv Media £38,326 on 17 March 2015. During March 2015, net payments were made by Reactiv Media for my benefit totalling at least £252,071.

I failed from at least 12 November 2012 to 2 December 2015 to ensure that Reactiv Media complied with its responsibilities under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR) and The Conduct of Authorised Persons Rules 2014 (CAPR), leading to an unpaid penalty of £75,000 and cancellation of authorisation to provide claims management services.

On 24 July 2014, The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a Monetary Penalty Notice for £50,000 in respect of Reactiv Media’s contraventions of regulation 21(1)(b) of PECR, after satisfying itself that Reactiv Media had used, or instigated the use of, public telecommunications service for the purpose of making 601 unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes to subscribers, where the number allocated to the subscriber in respect of the called line was listed on the Telephone Preference Service register of numbers kept by OFCOM in accordance with regulation 26 PECR. The 601 complaints were received from 12 November 2012 to 31 December 2013. The fine was increased to £75,000 by a First-Tier Tribunal on 13 April 2015. Reactiv Media made no payments towards the penalty.

On 11 July 2016, The Claims Management Regulation Unit of The Ministry of Justice (CMRU) cancelled Reactiv Media’s authorisation to provide claims management services. This was subsequent to identifying material breaches of the CAPR.

Nine of 227 calls on 5 October 2015 reviewed by the CMRU were dispositioned incorrectly as “not interested” despite the client expressing a desire not to be contacted again, in breach of Client Specific Rule 4 and Rule 1.2 of the Direct Marketing Association’s Code.

Of 100 calls, supplied to the CMRU on 2 December 2015, 35 contained misleading statements, in breach of Client Specific Rule 1c), 2 calls breached Client Specific Rule 1e) regarding prioritising the interests of clients where advice was given, and 2 calls were in breach of the Client Specific Rule 7 regarding use of the expression “no win no fee”.

I caused or allowed Reactiv Media to trade from 1 September 2015 to March 2016, when I knew (or ought to have known) that it was insolvent, to the unreasonable risk and ultimate detriment of HMRC and to my benefit.

Reactiv lost its contract with its principal customer, representing c. 70% of its turnover, in August 2015. Draft accounts for 31 May 2015 set out net assets of £415,668 but, after removal of a bad or doubtful debt of £705,196 owed by an insolvent associated company, it had net liabilities of £289,528.

Only two payments totalling £40,156 were ever made in respect of liabilities owed to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in respect of PAYE/NIC for 2015/16 of £332,821. These were insufficient to even repay the April 2015 return period of £43,361, due for payment in full by 22 May 2015. There were no payments after 10 July 2015, despite a Time To Pay agreement in August 2015 which was then immediately defaulted upon.

From 1 September 2015, Reactiv Media incurred further PAYE/NIC liabilities to HMRC of at least £155,701.

In comparison, in the same period, Reactiv Media made net cash transactions to my benefit totalling at least £177,664, wrote off a loan owed by an company associated to me of £14,670, and transferred both an investment in that company valued at £75,000 and a further debt it owed of £93,550 to associated third parties

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.

Contact Press Office

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

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Some 16 local projects have been funded by the A14 Community Fund since it launched in July 2016. The initiative was launched by Highways England to fund projects connecting local communities with the A14 upgrade, and it has already been making a difference within the communities living along the road in Cambridgeshire.

The £400,000 funding pot was launched in July 2016 and £110,000 of it has already been allocated to projects ranging from education and environment, to encouraging cycling and walking.

Gerard Smith, legacy lead for the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon project at Highways England, said:

This different approach to community engagement is a first for Highways England.

We care about the impact our road improvement projects have on people’s lives and at the same time, we understand the critically important role that communities play in shaping our schemes as well as the economic, social and physical landscape around them.

An initiative like the A14 Community Fund makes it possible for us to support community-led projects that will leave a positive legacy for the local area long after we have finished our construction work and the new road is open to traffic. And I’m delighted to say it’s been very successful in supporting great projects so far.

Grants of up to a maximum value of £10,000 are available to people living along the A14 in Cambridgeshire in a series of quarterly grant rounds until the end of the project in December 2020 or when all the money has been allocated – whichever comes soonest.

There have been five rounds so far, with more opportunities coming up to bid for grants to support projects across a wide range of areas including the environment, health and well-being, heritage, arts, skills, and culture.

As examples, projects could:

• focus on the new leisure opportunities opened up by the scheme
• chronicle changes to the local area over time
• complement the environmental measures being put in place
• revisit how public spaces are used

Gerard added:

We realise it can be daunting for small organisations to write a grant application for the first time. Initially, we noticed people found it hard to demonstrate how their project linked to the A14 road improvement project. We have now put in place a two-stage process which encourages applicants to talk to our team so we can help them frame their project to give it the best chances.

Most of the best projects we’ve seen are the ones where the bidders have worked closely with our team at design stage to understand the wider impacts.

We’ve had some great bids so far and I am sure there are more to come. What we’d really like to see are bids that build on the positive legacy we are leaving with the road improvement scheme: a much improved network of cycling and walking routes that communities can link into or capitalising on improved access to areas which didn’t have it before for instance.

I look forward to seeing the bids we get for this and future rounds!

Case study 1: University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education A14 Writer in Residence

The University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), successfully bid for funding last year for a post of A14 Writer in Residence based at Madingley Hall, a stone’s throw from the A14 in Cambridgeshire.

The post was taken up by Daisy Johnson, a librarian, children’s writer and blogger from York, from 6 September.
Since then, Daisy has been encouraging people living and travelling along the A14 in Cambridgeshire to reflect on roads and the nature of travel via a series of free creative writing initiatives including face to face courses, pop up sessions, visits to schools and a Facebook page where she has been offering regular writing prompts to followers.

The hope is for local people from all walks of life to re-discover their love of stories, and the ultimate outcome will be for all involved to contribute to an anthology to be launched at a free event held at Madingley Hall this March.

Midge Gillies, Academic Director, Creative Writing, University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, said:

Our A14 Writer in Residence, Daisy Johnson, has done a wonderful job of taking ideas about travel to many corners of the community. She has been particularly successful at engaging youngsters who see travel in a completely different way – you’re stuck in a traffic jam? Luckily, you’re wearing your edible outfit that will stop you from becoming peckish. Or wait till it’s dark to see the dragon races along the A14.

Daisy has also been active on Facebook where the A14 Stories site has persuaded people to think about their local community and to write something creative – often for the first time or after a very long gap.

And we’ve been thrilled by the response from the diverse group of students (and one lovely hearing dog) who have turned up to our three, free creative writing courses.

Roads take us to school, on holiday, to hospital, to a wedding or a funeral. We’ve all got a story about a special journey. I look forward to seeing which stories make it into the A14 writing anthology!

Case study 2: Cambridge Science Centre, On the Road school workshops

The Cambridge Science Centre successfully bid early last year for funding to create a new cross-disciplinary workshop for schools, aimed at years 6 to 10 (10 to 15 year olds), that ties in the environmental theme of their ‘LifeWorks!’ exhibition with engineering, using the A14 as a case study.

The team developed a workshop called ‘On the Road’, which investigates the materials used in road construction and looks at the environmental considerations to take into account in road building.

To date, the workshop has been delivered to more than 700 students living near the A14 (and some further afield), mainly in secondary schools (key stage 3) but also in a number of primary schools.

The workshops were tailored to the local environment and needs of the schools, with some interested in bridge construction while others looked at general construction skills, engineering or environmental science.

Helen Slaski, CEO of the Cambridge Science Centre, said:

“This funding has enabled Cambridge Science Centre to develop an exciting, hands-on workshop entitled ‘On the Road’ for the A14 project. Nearly 1,000 students throughout the East of England, particularly in areas impacted by the construction, have benefitted from this outreach programme which fulfils Cambridge Science Centre’s objectives of enhancing education and inspiring young people to think about STEM that is all around them in their daily lives. Thank you for the funding, it has made a real difference and inspired youngsters to get involved with STEM related activities.”

A14 Community Fund

More than £110,000 out of the £400,000 fund has been allocated and 16 local projects have been granted funding under the A14 Community Fund.

More funding rounds are planned between now and when the project completes, with applications accepted until the fund runs out.

More than 2,000 people are estimated to benefit at some point from the approved projects
Other examples of funded projects include:

• The Countryside Restoration Trust: received £9,005 to support water voles in the area of the A14 improvements
• Great Paxton Community Village Shop Ltd: received £9,965 to provide a convenience shop for the local community including volunteering and work experience opportunities
• The Offords Recreation Hut (Offord Village Hall): received £2,160 to provide a secure bicycle parking facility for village hall users
• Histon & Impington Community Orchard Project: received £1,752 to complete and help maintain the orchard by providing a motorised brush cutter & hedge trimmer and an information sign
• Groundwork East: received £10,000 to improve confidence and employability of people furthest from employment by growing wildflower plugs for use on the borrow pit nature reserves created by the A14
• Alconbury C of E Primary School: received £5,000 for an artist to work with the whole community to update 5 murals in the school hall
• Great Paxton Parish Council: received £3,000 to conduct a feasibility study into options to provide a safe alternative to the hazardous B1043 for cyclists

For more information about the A14 Community Fund, which is administered by the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, and to apply, visit the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation website.

Highways England is upgrading a 21-mile stretch of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon to three lanes in each direction including a brand new 17-mile bypass south of Huntingdon, with four lanes in each direction between Bar Hill and Girton. The project will add additional capacity, boost the local and national economy and cut up to 20 minutes off journeys.

The 2,200 strong construction team is keeping to the project’s challenging timetable, with the improvements on track to open to traffic by the end of 2020.

You can see a new fly-through simulation of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme below.

A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme fly-through

For the latest information about the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme, including job and training opportunities, visit www.highways.gov.uk/A14C2H follow @A14C2H on Twitter and like our Facebook page

To book the A14 Cambridge to Huntington mobile visitor centre to attend a public event for free, call 0800 270 0114 or email A14CambridgeHuntingdon@highwaysengland.co.uk.

Tell the A14 communications team what you think, complete the annual communications survey.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

At an event at the Foreign Office hosted with the Israeli embassy, the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev, will gather to honour heroic men and women with the British Hero of the Holocaust Medal.

The award, whose previous recipients include Sir Nicholas Winton, recognises those Britons who undertook extraordinary acts of courage and self-sacrifice, in order to help Jewish people and others.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

The moral conviction and bravery of the British Heroes of the Holocaust should fill us with pride.

These exceptional individuals saved hundreds of lives and went above and beyond the call of duty in the most difficult circumstances to do the right thing.

As a government we are committed to ensuring that society learns the lessons of the Holocaust so that bigotry and prejudice are given no place to take root.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Nazi oppression was defeated not only through military force but also through quiet acts of courage and compassion.

These eight individuals are true British heroes and a source of national pride for us all, fully deserving of our lasting respect and lifelong gratitude. Their willingness to stand up to hate with often little regard to their own personal safety is an inspiration to us all.

Award Recipients

The eight recipients of the award are:

1. British Diplomats John Carvell and Sir Thomas Preston who issued almost 1500 Jews with certificates to enable them to escape to Palestine. Margaret Reid who worked in the Passport Control Office of the Berlin Embassy and issued visas that allowed thousands of Jews to emigrate. She often bent the rules for issuing visas, a practice that was deliberately overlooked by the British Consul-General Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes, another recipient of the award;
2. Academic Doreen Warriner and Trevor Chadwick who worked closely with the ‘British Schindler’ Sir Nicholas Winton in Prague to organise the evacuation of hundreds of Jewish children from the then Czechoslavakia to Britain.
3. Dorothea Weber (née LeBrocq) who sheltered her Jewish friend Hedwig Bercu during the German occupation of the Channel Islands at great personal risk. She was aided by a German soldier, Kurt Ruemmele, whom she married after the war and;
4. Otto Schiff who helped to create the Jewish Refugees Committee which arranged to bring Jews out of Germany and Austria to Britain during the war, as well as supporting them financially once here.

This Government is determined that the genocide of six million Jews will never be forgotten. That is why it will be building a spectacular and poignant Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, right next to Parliament, reminding all of us of the depths to which humanity can sink, and the importance of robustly opposing all forms of bigotry.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 will take place on Saturday 27 January with thousands of activities and events taking place across the country at community centres, schools, libraries, museums, arts venues, prisons and places of worship.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Secretary on Twitter @BorisJohnson and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
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• Follow the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on Twitter @MHCLG