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Category: Press Releases

  • PRESS RELEASE : David Woodward appointed to the National Savings & Investments Board [January 2023]

    PRESS RELEASE : David Woodward appointed to the National Savings & Investments Board [January 2023]

    The press release issued by HM Treasury on 9 January 2023.

    David Woodward has been appointed as a non-executive director to the board of the National Savings & Investments bank (NS&I), the Economic Secretary announced today.

    David’s three-year term officially began on 3rd January 2023. He began his career as a qualified accountant and has worked in senior roles in the private, public and charity sectors.

    His executive career has seen him work in senior finance positions successfully delivering strategic change within large and complex businesses.

    Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Griffith said:

    I’d like to welcome David to his new role. His experience in customer-facing businesses will bring a unique perspective to the NS&I board, and ensure the organisation continues to deliver new and innovative services at the nation’s savings bank.

    In 2008, David commenced his non-executive career, and he has over 10 years of financial services experience and over 5 years working with community and hospital NHS Trusts. He is an experienced audit committee chair. He is also currently a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Hinckley and Rugby Building Society, and he will complete his final term on the Board in March 2023.

    David is also a Trustee of the charity the Consumers’ Association and an Independent Committee Member of the Finance and Estates Committee for Trent.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Haverhill carwash boss, Vasile Matcas, banned for 10-years for Covid Loan abuse [January 2023]

    PRESS RELEASE : Haverhill carwash boss, Vasile Matcas, banned for 10-years for Covid Loan abuse [January 2023]

    The press release issued by HM Treasury on 9 January 2023.

    Suffolk director exaggerated the turnover of his Hertfordshire-based business by 5 times the true amount to falsely claim a £50,000 loan.

    Vasile Matcas, 30, from Haverhill in Suffolk, has been disqualified as a company director for 10 years after claiming government-backed Covid support money to which his business was not entitled.

    Matcas was the sole director of Matcas Ltd, which was incorporated in October 2016 and initially traded as a construction and cleaning company until the Covid-19 pandemic affected trade, when Matcas pivoted the firm to operate as a carwash.

    In June 2020 Matcas applied for a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan to support the transition of the business, based on Matcas Ltd’s 2019 turnover, which he stated as £280,000.

    Bounce Back Loans were a government scheme to help support businesses through the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the rules of the scheme, companies could apply for loans of between £2,000 and £50,000, up to a maximum of 25% of their turnover for 2019.

    The company received the maximum loan amount, and began trading as The Pavilions Car Wash, in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. But the carwash folded and Matcas Ltd went into liquidation in July 2021, owing more than £50,400, including the full amount of the loan, and triggering an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

    Investigators discovered that Matcas Ltd’s actual turnover in 2019 had been around £49,200, and that Matcas had exaggerated the figure by more than 5 times to receive the maximum amount from the Bounce Back Loan scheme. The company should have been entitled to a loan of around £12,300 based on its true turnover.

    The Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Vasile Matcas after he did not dispute that he had caused Matcas Ltd to obtain a Bounce Back Loan in excess of the amount allowed by the loan scheme.

    Matcas was banned for 10 years, beginning on 14 November 2022. His disqualification prevents him from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

    Nina Cassar, Deputy Head of Investigations at the Insolvency Service, said:

    The Bounce Back Loan Scheme was set up to support businesses in genuine need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Vasile Matcas used the loan to start up a new business and gained an unfair advantage by applying for a loan in excess of what was entitled.

    Matcas’ lengthy ban should serve as a warning to others that the Insolvency Service will act to tackle financial wrongdoing.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Tim Reid appointed Chief Executive Officer of UK Export Finance [January 2023]

    PRESS RELEASE : Tim Reid appointed Chief Executive Officer of UK Export Finance [January 2023]

    The press release issued by the Department for International Trade on 9 January 2023.

    Tim Reid has been appointed CEO of UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK government’s export credit agency, taking up the role on 1 January 2023.

    Tim was previously UKEF’s Director of Business Group and joined UKEF from HSBC in 2022, where he held senior positions around the world, focusing on connecting businesses with international opportunities. At HSBC, his most recent role was Global Head of Transaction Banking within the bank’s Global Banking division. Previously he managed businesses across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and North Africa.

    Secretary of State for International Trade, Kemi Badenoch said:

    “I’m pleased to welcome Tim to his new role as CEO of UKEF. Tim brings a wealth of experience and has a proven track record for helping businesses expand internationally. I look forward to working with him to deliver the government’s export strategy – helping businesses to grow, create jobs, and deliver the best of British innovation and quality around the world.”

    Tim Reid said:

    “It’s an honour to be appointed CEO of UK Export Finance. UKEF plays a vital role in helping UK businesses open the doors to international trade, and removing barriers to exporting through access to government-backed trade finance and insurance. With a strengthened commitment to sustainability and continued drive to support SMEs across the UK, I look forward to working with our talented team to deliver the government’s ambitions for export growth.

    Thank you to Samir Parkash for his leadership of the department in the interim.”

  • PRESS RELEASE : Up to £250 million to speed up hospital discharge [January 2023]

    PRESS RELEASE : Up to £250 million to speed up hospital discharge [January 2023]

    The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 9 January 2023.

    NHS will buy thousands of extra beds in care homes and other settings to help discharge more patients to free up hospital beds.

    • Backed by up to £200 million, local areas will buy thousands of extra beds in care homes and other settings to help discharge more patients who are fit to leave hospital and free up hospital beds for those who need them
    • Discharged patients will be given the support they need from GPs, nurses and other community-based clinicians to continue their recovery
    • Additional £50 million capital funding to upgrade and expand hospitals including new ambulance hubs and facilities for patients about to be discharged
    • As part of measures set to be announced later today, six national ‘Discharge Frontrunners’ will lead the way to explore new long-term initiatives to free up hospital beds

    Thousands of extra medically fit patients will be discharged from hospitals into community care settings, such as care homes, over the coming weeks to free up hospital beds and reduce pressure on the NHS, the Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay is set to announce today [Monday 9 December].

    The government will make available up to £200 million of additional funding to immediately buy short-term care placements to allow people to be discharged safely from hospitals into the community where they will receive the care they need to recover before returning to their homes.

    The move will free up hospital beds so people can be admitted more quickly from A&E to wards, reducing pressure on emergency departments and speeding up ambulance handovers. There are currently around 13,000 people occupying hospital beds in England who are fit to be discharged.

    The additional £200 million – on top of the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund already announced which reached the frontline in December and is already helping discharge people more quickly – will fund maximum stays of up to four weeks per patient until the end of March. Integrated care boards – organisations that arrange health services in each local area – will begin booking beds that are most appropriate to patients’ needs.

    The government is immediately making available additional £50 million in capital funding to expand hospital discharge lounges and ambulance hubs. Ambulance queues in some areas are made worse due to a lack of physical space – the new money will create new ambulance hubs where vehicles can manoeuvre more easily to avoid delays handing over patients. The funding boost will also expand discharge lounges in NHS Trusts – areas where patients can be moved out of acute beds while they wait to be discharged, freeing up beds in the meantime.

    In a statement in Parliament later today, the Health and Social Care Secretary will outline a series of further measures to address current pressures facing the NHS over winter, including long waits for emergency care and delays to discharging patients who are medically fit to leave hospital.

    This will include six areas trialling innovative long-term solutions to free up hospital beds and make sure patients get the right care at the right time, which could be rolled out across the NHS if successful.

    Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:

    The NHS is under enormous pressure from Covid and flu, and on top of tackling the backlog caused by the pandemic, Strep A and upcoming strikes, this winter poses an extreme challenge.

    I am taking urgent action to reduce pressure on the health service, including investing an additional £200 million to enable the NHS to immediately buy up beds in the community to safely discharge thousands of patients from hospital and free up hospital capacity, on top of the £500 million we’ve already invested to tackle this issue.

    In addition, we are trialling six National Discharge Frontrunners – innovative, quick solutions which could reduce discharge delays, moving patients from hospital to home more quickly.

    Sussex Health and Care, the Northern Care Alliance, Humber and North Yorkshire, One Croydon Alliance, Leeds Health and Care Partnership and Warwickshire Place have all put forward ideas that will help the patients in their area move out of hospital more quickly whilst providing continuity of care. These ideas include dedicated dementia hubs, new offers of provision for rehabilitative care and creating effective data tools to help manage demand for discharge of medically fit patients – giving them the help they need to live comfortably in the community after a hospital stay.

    This new programme will trial long term solutions to issues which result in patients staying in hospital longer than necessary. For example one area, Leeds, is looking to improve how health teams in their local hospitals are working with those providing community services such as rehabilitation, which will mean better support locally for patients who need support after a hospital stay.

    Prolonged stays in a hospital bed can contribute to poorer outcomes, particularly for older people, with increased muscle loss making rehabilitation harder, as well at the ongoing risk of exposure to infections and the impact on mental health. These delays also have a knock-on impact for other people, including those awaiting elective care and those needing urgent medical treatment.

    The new measures follow the Prime Minister’s speech last week on building a better future, where he set out one of his key promises that NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly.

    Minister for Care Helen Whately said:

    Getting people out of hospital on time is more important than ever. It’s good for patients and it helps hospitals make space for those who need urgent care.

    We’re launching six Discharge Frontrunners to lead the way with innovations to help get people out of hospital and back home.

    Winter is always hard for the NHS and social care, and this year especially with flu in high circulation. That’s why we provided the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund earlier in the winter.

    As well as helping people right now, we’re looking ahead to make our health and care system work better next winter and beyond. These problems are not new but now is the time to fix them for the future.

    People eligible for a Covid booster and flu vaccine is advised to take up the offer as soon as possible to protect themselves and others, and reduce pressure on the NHS.

    In total, up to £14.1 billion additional funding will be invested by government over the next two years to improve urgent and emergency care and tackle the backlog – the highest spend on health and care in any government’s history. £7.5 billion of this support is for adult social care and discharge over the next two years which will also help deal with immediate pressures.

    The NHS is rolling out virtual wards across England as part of plans to deliver the equivalent of 7,000 more beds using a mix of hospital and virtual wards. The NHS has an ambition to set up 40-50 virtual beds per 100K population by 2024. Virtual wards as where people, for example, who have acute respiratory infections can actually be treated at home with telemedicine or pulse oximeters and there is also a new fall service which can save about 55,000 ambulance call outs a year by treating people with falls at home.

    91 Community Diagnostic Centres have been opened so far, delivering over 2.7 million tests, checks and scans already to help diagnose patients earlier.

    The government is also continuing to grow the NHS workforce, with around 42,000 more staff than a year ago, including over 10,500 more nurses and almost 4,700 more doctors.

    Sarah-Jane Marsh, National Director of Urgent and Emergency Care said:

    There is no doubt the NHS is under pressure with latest weekly data showing flu cases in hospital increased by almost half putting additional strain on already busy wards and departments.

    We want to ensure all patients ready to leave hospital do so quickly and safely, and NHS staff are working closely with local authority colleagues to help get more patients out of hospital when they are medically fit to do so.

    We hope the frontrunner programme will offer new solutions for local systems to help patients access the services they need and help to free up bed space in NHS hospitals.

    Background

    The frontrunners are:

    • Sussex Health and Care Integrated Care System: Trialling a new data tool to help services manage performance, give operational oversight and manage demand.
    • The Northern Care Alliance: Trialling specialised dementia hubs to support people who have a greater chance of re-admission.
    • Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care System: Supporting patients to move across health and social care organisations through innovative use of data and real-time intelligence.
    • One Croydon Alliance: Trialling a fully integrated team between acute and community, integrated IT system, integrated financial systems and integrated leadership, to better coordination between hospitals and community care settings like rehabilitation services.
    • Leeds Health and Care Partnership: Focused on intermediate care, establishing an Active Recovery Service providing short term community rehabilitation and reablement. Focus on rehabilitation and reablement not only improves patient experience but helps prevent future re-admission.
    • Warwickshire Place: Trialling a partnership between NHS and Social Care to help provide care and support to patients when they are released from hospital into the community, increasing capacity for home care, and expanding recruitment.
  • PRESS RELEASE : £7 million tech fund to decarbonise freight and boost innovation [January 2023]

    PRESS RELEASE : £7 million tech fund to decarbonise freight and boost innovation [January 2023]

    The press release issued by the Department for Transport on 9 January 2023.

    Government launches a new fund to help small to medium-sized businesses to develop greener and more efficient solutions for freight.

    – new funding to scale up and roll out innovative tech across the industry to decarbonise freight and improve transport links

    – £7 million over 3 years to develop ways to make it easier to move freight from one mode of transport to another and improve journey times and predictability

    – new solutions could help clean our air, reduce traffic, create UK jobs and allow people to get their packages and goods more quickly

    Delivering freight across the UK could become more efficient and cleaner thanks to a £7 million government-backed fund launched today, 9 January 2023 that will roll out innovative new ideas and technology across the industry.

    The freight innovation fund (FIF) will go to up to 36 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They will then work with industry-leading companies to develop innovations to make freight more efficient, resilient and greener, such as ways to improve how freight moves between rail, road and maritime transport.

    By giving innovators the opportunity to test their ideas, the fund aims to help SMEs roll out new technology and ways of working to unlock potentially huge efficiencies and emissions reductions across the sector. This can include how to organise containers better so they can be more easily broken up for the final part of their journey or how to improve links between rail, maritime and road transport.

    Roads Minister Richard Holden said:

    Our freight industry is vital to underpinning the economy and keeps Britain moving, so it is crucial we invest in new innovations to make it greener and quicker.

    This fund will accelerate new ideas and technologies, helping to develop a future pipeline of innovations that can be rolled out to create jobs and allow everyone to get their goods faster and easier.

    The innovation fund was announced last year within the government’s future of freight plan, the first-ever cross-modal and cross-government plan for the UK freight transport sector. It targets the 5 priorities for the freight sector identified in the plan, including being cost-efficient, reliable, resilient, environmentally sustainable, and valued by society.

    Working to bolster the capacity of the freight network – for example, to anticipate, absorb, resist or avoid disruption and quickly recover from disruption when it does occur – can increase the resilience of supply chains across the country for a wide variety of industries.

    The fund will look to support ideas and tech addressing, in particular, 3 long-standing issues in the freight sector.

    – a lack of large-scale cross-industry data collection and sharing between different modes of freight transport, such as road, rail and maritime, that could improve efficiencies and coordination

    – difficulties in inter-modal transport, such as between rail and road, and ways to improve how large consignments are broken up into smaller ones, which could reduce emissions and traffic

    – improvements in freight distribution in ports across different transport modes that could create knock-on benefits with timings, efficiencies, and predictability of the rest of the journey

    The government’s future of freight plan sets a strategy for the government and industry to work closely together to deliver a world-class, seamless flow of freight across the UK’s roads, railways, seas, skies and canals.

    The plan also explains how identifying a National Freight Network will help to better understand freight movements and their value to the economy.

    The FIF builds on previous government initiatives designed to support increased research and development in the freight industry; previous technologies supported in other funds include:

    – Hypermile who developed an artificial intelligence programme that offers real-time feedback to help heavy goods vehicle drivers save fuel

    – Fishbone Solutions developed a programme that uses vibrational data from rail freight wagons and artificial intelligence analysis to determine whether the wagons are working correctly

    – CGA Simulation created a tool that simulates urban environments to predict the best place for infrastructure to enable radical development in logistics

    – Delivered by Connected Places Catapult, the fund will give SMEs access to technical and business support from the organisation.

    Nicola Yates OBE, CEO at Connected Places Catapult, said:

    Each year in the UK, we transport 1.6 billion tonnes of freight using many different modes of transport, and it has never been quicker or easier. The freight sector makes a huge contribution to our economy and contributes significantly to domestic carbon emissions.

    Today, we are delighted to be working with Department for Transport to launch this freight innovation fund as part of their future of freight strategy. The fund will help us to work with innovators and industry partners to develop a pipeline of technology and data innovations that will tackle the freight sector’s emerging needs, ensuring that resilience, efficiency and carbon reduction are core to the sector’s future.

    Kate Jennings, policy director at Logistics UK, said:

    Efficient logistics is vital to the UK and, as a sector, businesses are innovating to drive down emissions while ensuring the availability of the products households, businesses and public services rely on every day. Achievement of the UK’s net zero target is a challenge our members are committed to but this will require continued partnership between the government and industry to achieve. This innovation fund will be a welcome route for our member organisations to develop and access the technologies needed for goods to be moved in an increasingly green and cost-efficient way.

    SMEs will benefit from a freight innovation fund accelerator, which will provide bespoke business support to innovators to help them access private investment, as well as a freight innovation cluster, a community of innovators within the freight industry that hosts regular networking events and activities.

  • PRESS RELEASE : Iran – UK responds to executions of protestors [January 2023]

    PRESS RELEASE : Iran – UK responds to executions of protestors [January 2023]

    The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 7 January 2023.

    The UK has condemned the executions of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini who were part of the recent protests in Iran.

    Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said:

    The execution of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini by the Iranian regime is abhorrent.

    The UK is strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances and the Iranian regime has done further lasting damage to its reputation at home and overseas with yet another disproportionate response to the Iranian people protesting legitimately against their oppression.

    We have and will continue to make our views clear to the Iranian authorities – Iran must immediately halt all executions and end the violence against its own people.

  • HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Government will help families meet economic challenge [September 2008]

    HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Government will help families meet economic challenge [September 2008]

    The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 4 September 2008.

    Gordon Brown has promised that the Government will “do what it takes” to help families deal with the effects of the global economic crisis such as rising food and energy costs.

    Speaking to business leaders at the CBI Scotland annual dinner in Glasgow this evening, the PM said that the Government would make “careful interventions” on behalf of “hard-pressed families”. In addition to the Homeowners Support Package and the £120-a-year tax cut for basic rate taxpayers, the Government was “working up proposals” with utility companies on tackling rising fuel bills.

    The PM said:

    “We will do what it takes to bring security to families on modest and middle incomes. And we will ensure that no-one who is prepared to work hard and adapt to change will lose out as a result of global forces. We will act responsibly to prepare people for the inescapable challenges ahead – in the short, medium and long term.”

    Mr Brown also said that the UK was better placed as a whole to deal with the credit crunch than during any other period of financial turbulence. He highlighted Bank of England independence, a flexible labour market, the underlying strength of business finances and a reduction in public debt as a share of national income as reasons to be “cautiously optimistic” about the country’s economic resilience.

    The PM added that Britain needed to undergo a “revolution” in its energy consumption, reducing its dependence on oil, increasing energy efficiency and creating a low carbon economy . The Government plans to spend £100 billion to ensure that 15 percent of the UK’s energy comes from renewables by 2020.

  • HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : “Whole country behind Paralympic team” – Prime Minister Gordon Brown [September 2008]

    HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : “Whole country behind Paralympic team” – Prime Minister Gordon Brown [September 2008]

    The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 5 September 2008.

    On Saturday, over 200 athletes across 18 sports will begin competing in Britain’s Paralympic squad.

    Continuing our success in the Olympics, Britain’s Paralympic team is one of the biggest of all time and hopes to increase its impressive medal haul of four years ago.

    The PM has sent a message of good luck to all the British competitors wishing “our Paralympic athletes every success”.

    The PM said:

    “The Paralympics is a great sporting event – the second largest in the world after the Olympics – and I know our athletes will do us proud. We have a fantastic record of achievement in the Paralympics and I’m sure this year will be no exception. I wish our Paralympic athletes every success and I know the whole country will be right behind them.”

    The team includes many Paralympic medalists returning to defend their titles as well as a record number of teenagers making their debut.

  • HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Government launches manufacturing strategy [September 2008]

    HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Government launches manufacturing strategy [September 2008]

    The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 8 September 2008.

    The Government has launched its new strategy on manufacturing aimed at helping UK businesses adapt to a changing world and make the most of economic opportunities.

    The strategy paper, Manufacturing: New Challenges New Opportunities, includes a commitment to expand apprenticeships by 1,500 places in addition to the 9,000 places to be created over the next three years.

    There will also be a £24 million injection into manufacturing and production research, support for up to 600 businesses looking at supply chain opportunities in China and India, and a strategy paper to be delivered next year on helping UK companies adapt to a low carbon economy.

    Writing in the foreword, the PM said that “manufacturing not only has been, but remains and will always be, critical to the success of the British economy.”

    Mr Brown marked the manufacturing strategy launch with a visit to the Jaguar car plant in Castle Bromwich. He accompanied Chancellor Alistair Darling, Business Secretary John Hutton and Skills Secretary John Denham on a tour of the facilities and met young people enrolled in the company’s apprenticeship programme.

    Speaking to reporters, the PM said that the workforce at Jaguar displayed the “enthusiasm and determination” that will see UK industry enjoy success into the future.

    Later the PM and ministers will hold an engagement event with members of the public in Birmingham before holding a full cabinet meeting.

  • HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Second World War aviation heroes honoured [September 2008]

    HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Second World War aviation heroes honoured [September 2008]

    The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 9 September 2008.

    The Prime Minister has awarded a special badge of recognition to men and women who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) during the Second World War.

    The awards were handed out at a reception in Downing Street today in honour of the men and women of the ATA, including female pilots known as the ‘Spitfire Women’, for their contribution to the war effort. The ATA supplied more than 309,000 aircraft from factories to front line airfields during the war and returned them when they were damaged.

    The PM said:

    “I am honoured to have this opportunity to give my thanks to the men and women of the ATA. Their dedication and efforts during the Second World War can not be overestimated. They can be rightly proud of their contribution to defending this country during its darkest hours. It is a great privilege to meet so many of them today and to hear of the work they undertook and their sacrifice they made to ensure the delivery of aircraft for the front line.”

    173 air crew personnel lost their lives on ATA missions, including Amy Johnson, the pioneering female civil aviator.