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Three women from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) were nominated in several categories at the Women in Defence UK Awards, with one, Jenni Henderson, taking home the Promotion of Gender Balance Award.

Cat Little, Civil Service Director General Finance, was among those presenting awards in front of more than 200 guests at the Plaisterers’ Hall, London.

Jenni, Dstl’s former Transformation Director, said:

I am absolutely thrilled. It’s been a pleasure to promote gender balance at Dstl, and the accolade is in recognition of everyone at Dstl who strives to create an equal working environment for all.

This year’s awards saw a 75 per cent increase in the number of nominations. Women in Defence UK exists for a community of people who wish to promote the value of women in defence, aiming to encourage women to succeed authentically, share experience, build networks and encourage talent at all levels to join the defence sector.

Acting Chief Executive David Marsh said:

It was a great evening and fascinating to hear about the work of all the nominees. I am very proud that we had 3 finalists from the lab across the various categories and I am thrilled that Jenni has been recognised for promoting gender equality. Jenni has worked hard to promote and role model gender balance across Dstl and Defence and the award is recognition of her leadership.

Also nominated from Dstl were Professor Isobel Norville, a finalist for the Emerging Talent Award, and Professor Joann Prior, for Most Collaborative Award.

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) will shortly publish a report setting out a range of proposals for simplifying VAT.

After over 40 years, the tax is showing its age. What was meant to be a simple tax has become highly complex and it has not kept pace with changes in society.

Angela Knight CBE, Chair of the OTS board, said:

This report presents an opportunity to start addressing the many anomalies of VAT. The tax is awash with layers of complexity reflecting both its evolution over the last 45 years and aspects of the Purchase Tax that VAT replaced. For small businesses, this report will propose ways of simplifying many irritating administrative technicalities and kick off a debate about the registration threshold.

Paul Morton, OTS Tax Director, said:

This report will flag up the effects of the registration threshold, how entry into the VAT system might be smoothed and many other areas where simplification would be beneficial, particularly the complex and often subjective boundaries between those supplies which are standard rated and those which fall within the reduced or zero-rates or which are exempt. In addition, there will be opportunities to build on the good work of the last few years in improving the administrative aspects of the running of the VAT system.

The OTS’s core recommendations will include:

• that the government should examine the current approach to the level and design of the VAT registration threshold, with a view to setting out a future direction of travel for the threshold, including consideration of the potential benefits of a smoothing mechanism
• that HMRC should maintain a programme for further improving the clarity of its guidance and its responsiveness to requests for rulings in areas of uncertainty
• that HM Treasury and HMRC should undertake a comprehensive review of the reduced rate, zero-rate and exemption schedules, working with the support of the OTS

The most significant issue identified in the report is the VAT registration threshold – the turnover level above which a business must enter the VAT system and charge VAT on its sales. At £85,000 the UK has one of the highest levels in the world.

By enabling many small businesses to stay out of the VAT system the high threshold is a form of simplification, but it’s an expensive relief, costing around £2bn per annum, and evidence strongly suggests that many growing businesses are discouraged from expanding beyond this point. The report looks at options for reducing the current ‘cliff edge’ effect resulting in a very visible bunching of businesses just before the VAT threshold, and an equally large drop off in the number of businesses with turnovers just above the threshold. Also examined are the advantages and disadvantages of lowering or increasing the threshold.

VAT has many ‘quirks’. For example, it is well known that a Jaffa cake is a cake (zero-rated) rather than a chocolate-covered biscuit (taxed at 20%). Less well known is that while children’s clothes are zero-rated, including many items made from fur skin, items made from Tibetan goat skin are standard-rated. And a ginger bread man with chocolate eyes is zero-rated but if it has chocolate trousers it would be standard rated. VAT zero rates cost over £45bn per annum to maintain. EU law limits options to make changes in this area but there is a longer-term opportunity to significantly improve the efficiency, simplicity and fairness of the UK VAT system.

The report also

• makes recommendations for improving the day to day administration of the tax, including better and more accessible guidance and a less uncertain penalty system. This would particularly benefit small businesses
• considers specific areas of technical difficulty, including the partial exemption regime, the capital goods scheme, the option to tax and other special schemes

Notes for editors

The OTS is the independent adviser to government on tax simplification, challenging tax complexity to help all users of the tax system; it does not implement changes – these are a matter for government and for Parliament.

This report takes a wide-ranging look at the potential for VAT to be simplified, based on feedback from over 80 trade associations, businesses, professional bodies and individuals.

The report is expected to be published on 7 November.

VAT was introduced in 1973 on entry of the UK into what is now the European Union. VAT is the third largest source of tax revenue collected by HMRC after income tax and National Insurance Contributions, raising £120bn in 2016-17 which amounted to 22.5% of all taxes.

The partial exemption regime covers businesses that make a mixture of taxable and exempt supplies and thus cannot reclaim all VAT that is charged to them.

The capital goods scheme monitors the use of certain capital assets over periods of 5 or 10 years, in case the use changes: changes of use alter the tax that can be reclaimed.

The option to tax regime allows a business to make certain supplies of land taxable, which would otherwise be exempt, thus allowing it to reclaim VAT charged to it.

The £2bn cost for the threshold is an estimation based on the difference between the current threshold of £85,000 and the EU minimum threshold of €10,000.

The OTS team is led by Chairman Angela Knight CBE and Tax Director Paul Morton and has a small staff drawn from HM Treasury, HM Revenue and Customs and the private sector.

The OTS works to improve the experience of all who interact with the tax system. It aims to reduce the administrative burden – which is what people encounter in practice – as well as simplifying the rules. Simplification of the technical and administrative aspects of tax are each important, both to taxpayers and HMRC.

Clive Cobb, who had been a director of Our Bakery Number Two Ltd which traded as The Royal William Bakery, a bakery and restaurant at The Royal William Yard in Plymouth, has been disqualified from acting as a director for 5 years.

The disqualification follows an Insolvency Service investigation which last year had already resulted in another director, Alexander Charles Eugene Qaun, being disqualified for 4 years.

The investigation found that Cobb and Quan were responsible for the company failing to pay VAT, PAYE and NIC from at least May 2013. This led to an arrears of £130,361 with the total amount owed in unpaid tax when the company went into liquidation in October 2015 coming to £142,666.

On 17 October 2017 the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Cobb, effective from 7 November 2017.This follows an undertaking from Quan which was accepted on 15 November 2016.

Commenting on the disqualification, Sue MacLeod, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

These actions have resulted in honest taxpayers losing out. If you run a business in a way that is unfairly detrimental to any of its creditors, including tax authorities, the Insolvency Service will investigate you, and you may find yourself disqualified from acting as a director.

Notes to editors

Our Bakery Number Two Ltd (CRO No. 07725530) was incorporated on 2 August 2011. Its registered office was at Flat 1, Rousden Village Bakery, Rousden, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3XW.

Mr Clive John Cobb is of Dorset and his date of birth is October 1947.

Alexander Charles Eugene Qaun is of Exeter and his date of birth is October 1972.

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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Funeral Payments are available to people who receive certain income-related benefits to help pay towards the cost of a funeral for an immediate friend or relative.

The government consulted on reforms to make it clearer who is eligible for a payment and make it easier for people to claim.

Minister for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance Caroline Dinenage said:

Losing a loved one is a sad and difficult time and we want to make the process of claiming a funeral payment as simple as possible.

I want to thank those who responded to our consultation and I am pleased that we will be bringing in all its recommendations to make it easier for people to make a claim.

The improvements include:

• allowing recipients of a Funeral Payment to receive contributions from relatives, friends or charities without it being deducted from the payment
• extending the claim period from 3 to 6 months from the date of the funeral
• allowing applicants to submit evidence electronically to speed up the processing of claims and get decisions to claimants sooner
• introducing a shorter application form for children’s funerals

More information

Funeral Payments can help pay for the costs of a simple, respectful funeral for people on qualifying benefits. This includes:

• burial fees and exclusive rights of burial in a particular plot
• medical certification fees needed for cremations, including the cost of the doctor’s certificate
• travel to arrange or go to the funeral
• the cost of moving the body within the UK, if it’s being moved more than 50 miles
• death certificates or other documents
• up to £700 for other funeral expenses, such as funeral director’s fees, flowers or the coffin

People in receipt of the following benefits may be eligible for a Funeral Payment:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Pension Credit
• Universal Credit
• Housing Benefit
• Working Tax Credit which includes a disability or severe disability element
• Child Tax Credit

The changes will be brought in next year.

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Follow DWP on:

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

Highways England today announced its preferred route for the A57 Mottram bypass which will cut congestion and improve safety.

The company also confirmed it would deliver improvements at Westwood roundabout at Tankersley in South Yorkshire which links the A61 and A616, and would do further work to refine options for the dualling of the A61 between Westwood roundabout and the M1.

All 3 improvements were part of a consultation held earlier this year.

Tim Gamon, Highways England’s Regional Delivery Director for the North West, said:

More than 1,000 people attended the public information events we held on both sides of the Pennines earlier this year and almost 900 people responded to the consultation – with half backing the option selected for a new link from the M67 terminal roundabout to a new junction at A57(T) Mottram Moor – near Back Moor – and a link from there to a new junction on the A57 at Brookfield.

Most people felt these improvements struck a good balance in terms of convenience for drivers, reduced impact on local communities and improved safety. So we will present them in a statutory consultation next year with a plan to starting construction in early 2020.

Plans for climbing lanes on the A628 are also being considered further following the recent consultation.

Highways England is already starting to deliver some localised safety schemes along the Trans-Pennine route.

More information on the announcement and on the timetable for statutory consultation and project delivery can be found on the scheme website.

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.