UKPOL.CO.UK

Author: admin

  • PRESS RELEASE : £30M Boost for Farmers Leading the Way in Nature Restoration [May 2025]

    PRESS RELEASE : £30M Boost for Farmers Leading the Way in Nature Restoration [May 2025]

    The press release issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 28 May 2025.

    Thousands of farmers will benefit from a £30 million boost to payments received for nature-friendly farming practices under the Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme. This uplift recognises and rewards the vital role farmers play in restoring habitats and protecting England’s iconic landscapes.

    From 1 January 2025, payment rates for 157 HLS options will rise, rewarding farmers already delivering for nature – particularly in uplands and other sensitive areas where they protect rare species, restore habitats, and maintain traditional countryside features.

    Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner said:

    Farmers are the backbone of our countryside, and they’re leading the charge to restore nature.

    This £30 million uplift in HLS payments recognises their essential role in protecting our environment – work that’s crucial for long-term food security, boosting productivity, and tackling climate change.

    By backing them with fairer rewards, we’re investing in a stronger and more sustainable future for British farming, helping to drive growth in rural communities as part of our Plan for Change.

    Following the Environment Secretary, Steve Reed’s, pledge at the NFU Conference, this funding brings the HLS payment rates closer to those offered under our Environmental Land Management schemes.

    This builds on a record £5 billion investment into farming, as well as the appointment of former NFU President Baroness Minette Batters to recommend new reforms to boost farmers profits.

    We also have a record number of farmers enrolled in farming schemes, with more money being paid to farms than ever before.

    Payments will be automatically increased, landing from December 2025.The government is committed to targeting public funds wisely, making farming more profitable and sustainable for decades to come as we deliver on the Plan for Change.

  • NEWS STORY : Frederick Reeves and Claire Reeves Banned for Eight Years after Taking Payments for Singing Waiters While Solfan1 Limited Was Insolvent

    NEWS STORY : Frederick Reeves and Claire Reeves Banned for Eight Years after Taking Payments for Singing Waiters While Solfan1 Limited Was Insolvent

    STORY

    A husband-and-wife team who ran the wedding entertainment company Solfan1 Limited—trading as The Best Singing Waiters—have been disqualified as company directors for eight years after continuing to take customer payments when they knew the business was on the brink of collapse.

    Frederick Reeves, 49 (also known as Jamie Reeves), and his wife Claire Reeves, 41, of Dickens Place, Wigan, ran the surprise ‘singing waiter’ service, in which performers blended in as catering staff before bursting into song. Despite mounting debts and a winding-up petition from HM Revenue & Customs for more than £200,000, the couple carried on accepting deposits and full payments from 43 customers across the UK between 28 March and the company’s liquidation on 1 May 2024, receiving some £43,590 in total.

    Solfan1 Limited was incorporated in November 2015 and went into liquidation with liabilities exceeding £700,000 and assets of just over £168,000. Although Frederick Reeves was never formally appointed a director, he acknowledged acting in that capacity when accepting his disqualification.

    Rob Clarke, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said the Reeveses’ actions “fell well short of the standards we expect of company directors” and left many couples “heartbroken” when the promised performers failed to appear at their weddings.

    The bans prevent both Frederick and Claire Reeves from promoting, forming or managing any company without the court’s permission until May 2033.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Husband-and-wife directors banned after taking payments for singing waiters when company was insolvent [May 2025]

    PRESS RELEASE : Husband-and-wife directors banned after taking payments for singing waiters when company was insolvent [May 2025]

    The press release issued by the Insolvency Service on 28 May 2025.

    The company continued to take deposits and full payments when it was insolvent.

    • Frederick and Claire Reeves hired people who would burst into song at social events such as weddings
    • The husband-and-wife allowed their company, Solfan1 Limited, to trade when they knew it was in serious financial trouble and on the verge of liquidation
    • Couples continued to pay deposits or payments in full when Frederick and Claire Reeves knew there was no reasonable expectation the company could provide the services it offered

    A husband-and-wife team who ran a business which provided surprise singing waiters at weddings have been banned as directors after taking payments from customers when the company was insolvent.

    Frederick Reeves, 49, also known as Jamie Reeves, and his wife Claire Reeves, 41, ran Solfan1 Limited, which traded as The Best Singing Waiters.

    The company provided performers who would blend in at weddings by pretending to be waiters before bursting into song at an agreed time.

    However, the couple continued to take deposits, or payments in full, from 43 customers across the UK when they knew their company was unable to pay the debts it owed.

    The couple, of Dickens Place, Wigan, have now been banned as company directors for eight years.

    Solfan1 went into liquidation with liabilities of more than £700,000 and assets of just over £168,000.

    Rob Clarke, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

    Couples were left heartbroken after finding out the singing waiters they had paid to perform at their weddings would not show up.

    Several of the customers who lost out financially were even offered discounts by the company to make their payment in full at the time of the booking.

    The serious misconduct that both Frederick and Claire Reeves displayed falls short of the standards we expect of company directors which is why they have both been disqualified until May 2033.

    Solfan1 was incorporated in November 2015. Claire Reeves was appointed as director in April 2018.

    Frederick Reeves was never officially listed as director of the company but did not dispute that he acted in the capacity of a director when accepting his disqualification following Insolvency Service investigations.

    The company was in financial difficulties in early 2024, having been served a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs for tax debts of more than £200,000 at the start of February.

    Following discussions with a private insolvency practitioner, the couple agreed on 28 March that Solfan1 should be placed into liquidation.

    However, from then until the company went into liquidation on 1 May 2024, they continued to take deposits and full payments from new customers.

    Analysis by investigators revealed that an estimated 43 customers made payments totalling £43,590 to the company during that period.

    The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted disqualification undertakings from Frederick and Claire Reeves, and their bans both started on Wednesday 28 May.

    The undertakings prevent them from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

    Further information

    • Frederick Reeves, also known as Jamie Reeves, is of Dickens Place, Wigan. His date of birth is 29 August 1975
    • Claire Reeves is of the same address. Her date of birth is 12 October 1983
  • NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 28 May 1925

    NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 28 May 1925

    28 MAY 1925

    By 264 votes to 81, the House of Commons decided to adopt the report of the Barnes Committee on the claims of the professional ex-ranker officers to increased pensions. In a discussion of Mr Sidney Webb’s motion on the overlapping and consequent costliness of local administrative bodies, the Minister of Health announced the Government’s determination to press forward with the reform of the Poor Law as soon as possible and to circulate a draft Bill among local authorities.

    The Unionist campaign in the Ayr Burghs by-election opened with a meeting addressed by Captain Elliot, Under-Secretary of Health for Scotland. Mr W. M. R. Pringle was adopted as the Liberal candidate. The Budget is the issue upon which the election will be mainly fought.

    Lord Oxford spoke on the future of Liberalism at a luncheon held in his honour at the National Liberal Club, London.

  • NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 27 May 1925

    NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 27 May 1925

    27 MAY 1925

    In the House of Lords the Poor Law Emergency Provisions Continuance (Scotland) Bill was read a second time.

    The House of Commons discussed a Vote of £96,000,000 for the Ministry of Pensions. Complaints were heard against the administration of the Department and against the system of final awards, both of which, however, found supporters. Replying to the debate, the Minister of Pensions said that, like their predecessors in office, the Government intended to maintain the essential principles of the Warrant and the Pensions Act. They could not alter the present system of final awards.

    The Queen celebrated her 58th birthday. A family luncheon was held at Buckingham Palace.

    Impressive scenes were witnessed at the funeral service of the late Earl of Ypres at Westminster Abbey.

    A critical position has arisen in Scotland over the erection of Weir steel houses.

    Sir John Gilmour, Secretary for Scotland, opened the new sanatorium at East Fortune, Haddingtonshire. The sanatorium is the result of a combined effort by the seven south-eastern counties of Scotland.

    Consideration of the Allotments Bill was completed by a Standing Committee of the House of Commons.

    M. Caillaux, the French Minister of Finance, foreshadows heavy taxation for a number of years.

    M. Berger, an official of the French Royalist organisation Action Française, was assassinated in Paris.

  • NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 26 May 1925

    NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 26 May 1925

    26 MAY 1925

    In the House of Lords a debate took place on the growth of Civil Service expenditure.

    The Finance Bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons by 331 votes to 139.

    The Mental Deficiency Amendment Bill passed Committee stage and was read a third time in the House of Commons.

    Mr Baldwin, broadcasting an Empire Day message from 2LO, said it should be the ambition of all to pay at least one visit, however brief, to Britain overseas.

    An account is given of the steps taken by the Egyptian police to track the alleged murderers of the Sirdar.

    The Duke of Northumberland has been appointed a Knight of the Garter.

    The Right Honourable Sir John Baird, C.M.G., D.S.O., has been created a Baron.

  • NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 25 May 1925

    NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 25 May 1925

    25 MAY 1925

    The King laid the foundation stone of the new building which is being erected in London for Lloyd’s.

    Japan has been revisited by an earthquake disaster, this time of a more localised nature but of great severity. Several townships are reported to have been destroyed by the shock and by the fires which followed, and hundreds of souls perished.

    Forty-four persons were drowned when the Turkish steamer Keriman foundered in the Black Sea.

    In a lifeboat disaster on the Breton coast twenty-seven men perished.

    The Prince of Wales crossed the Orange Free State border for the second stage of his South African tour.

    A verdict in the Malabar murder trial, in which nine persons were charged in connection with the death of Mr Bawla and the wounding of an Indian singing-girl, Mumtaz Begum, has been reached. Three of the accused were sentenced to death, four transported for life, while the remaining two were acquitted.

    The conversion of the Jews was the principal subject discussed by the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland.

  • NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 24 May 1925

    NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 24 May 1925

    24 MAY 1925

    A large earthquake was confirmed in North Tajima, Japan, which had led to many deaths and damage to property.

    London County Council said that it was planning to construct a large number of single room tenements to rehouse the poor following slum clearances throughout the city.

  • NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 23 May 1925

    NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 23 May 1925

    23 MAY 1925

    The death of the Earl of Ypres was announced.

    The Prevention of Unemployment Bill, a Socialist measure proposing to set up outside the Cabinet and under the chairmanship of the Minister of Labour a Committee charged with investigating unemployment and preparing work-providing schemes year by year, was rejected in the House of Commons by 216 votes to 118.

    The second Court of the season was held at Buckingham Palace.

    In an Empire Day message signed by the Marquis of Linlithgow and Sir Cyril S. Cobb, the Navy League urged the Government to lay down, within the next few years, a sufficiency of cruisers to provide an adequate margin of security against all measurable risks.

    The Prince of Wales held a great reception of native tribesmen at Umtaia, Cape Province. The leading chief delivered a loyal address, ending with the words, “Sun, shine on us,” and the title of “Shining Sun” has been conferred on His Royal Highness.

    The new Belgian Government formed by M. Van de Vyvere was defeated in the Chamber by a resolution of no confidence, moved by M. Max, Liberal, and carried by 98 votes to 73. The Ministry has resigned.

    The press reported that Amundsen had reached the North Pole and was on his way back.

  • NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 22 May 1925

    NEWS FROM 100 YEARS AGO : 22 May 1925

    22 MAY 1925

    In the House of Lords, the second reading of the Parliament (Qualification of Peeresses) Bill was negatived by 80 votes to 78.

    Transport policy, road development and the cheaper use and wider application of electricity were the chief topics of debate in the House of Commons.

    The Poor-Law Emergency Provisions (Scotland) Bill passed Report stage and its third reading after a sitting of the Commons that lasted until six o’clock in the morning.

    The Silk Association of Great Britain and Ireland expressed satisfaction with the new silk-tax proposals.

    The final selection of a Unionist candidate for Ayr Burghs will be made today at a meeting of the Central Council of the Ayr Burghs Unionist Association. The names before the council are Lieutenant-Colonel T. C. Moore, C.B.E., who was defeated at Coatbridge at the last election, and Mr D. G. Somerville, who was defeated at Barrow-in-Furness. The Liberals have resolved to contest the seat.

    Lord Wledisloe, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, told the Council of Agriculture that it is hoped to introduce next year an agricultural policy that will command a large measure of general consent. A Bill on the marking of imported agricultural produce will be introduced this session.

    Last evening’s bulletin regarding the Earl of Ypres stated that he was gradually sinking.