Tag: Press Release

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 30 June 1999.

Latest developments on anti-fraud measures in the European Community were published today as part of the Government’s annual statement on the EC Budget.

Commenting on the publication of European Community Finances – the nineteenth statement in the series – Economic Secretary, Patricia Hewitt said :

“As in previous years, this Statement clearly sets out the latest key developments and measures to counter fraud and financial mismanagement in the EC.

“We are determined to crack down on fraud at every level within the European Community. That is why we pressed hard, and won agreement for, UK proposals to reform the EU’s anti-fraud system, drawing on a number of strengths of the UK model:

• a strong, independent Head of Fraud investigations, with statutory protection from dismissal, like the independent Comptroller and Auditor General;
• a Head with wide ranging powers to initiate any investigation on his own initiative, with rights of immediate and unannounced access to papers and buildings and to question officials and Commissioners;
• powers matched by responsibility for making recommendations and ensuring speedy follow up when problems are found;
• powers matched by accountability through the Council and the European Parliament to the taxpayer.

“The new European Anti-Fraud Office meets our requirements. The EU fraud buster will be independent, will initiate its own investigations, and will make sure its recommendations are followed up.

“But getting the new Anti Fraud Office in place is only the vital first step. We need thorough reform in Brussels. And it is coming. The Cologne European Council stressed the importance of reform and modernisation of the Commission and of the European civil service, and proposals will come forward soon.”

Details about EC financial management and measures to counter fraud include:

• the European Court of Auditors’ Annual Report for 1997 and Statement of Assurance, published on 17 November 1998;
• the Council’s recommendation to the European Parliament on the discharge to be given to the Commission for its implementation of the 1997 budget;
• details of progress on the major areas of work under the Commission’s Sound and Efficient Management 2000 Programme;
• the 1998 “Fight against Fraud” report;
• the new European Anti-Fraud Office.

The Annual Statement also sets out a breakdown of expenditure and sources of revenue in the 1999 Community Budget, along with details of the UK’s contributions to, and receipts from, the Budget.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 24 June 1999.

Further steps to improve the flow of new PFI hospitals and schools were unveiled by the Government today when Chief Secretary to the Treasury Alan Milburn published new accounting guidance on Private Finance Initiative(PFI).

Mr Milburn said that the revised guidance on PFI accounting transactions will remove ambiguity and build a platform of certainty and clarity upon which PFI can continue to grow.

Already this Government has signed 140 deals worth £4.7 billion since May 1997 including the largest programme of new hospital building in the history of the NHS, he said.

The document reflects extensive consultation between the Treasury and the accounting profession, including the Accounting Standards Board (ASB) and contractors, and offers the clarity of approach that the industry has been waiting for.

Mr Milburn said:

“The Government’s commitment to partnership between the public and private sector has never been greater. The Government’s new guidelines will make PFI work more effectively and more fairly. This will help deliver higher levels of investment to modernise Britain’s key public services such as the NHS.

“By providing a platform of certainty, the new guidance will help the PFI continue to grow.

“Value for money deals go hand in hand with the key test of genuine risk transfer achieved under PFI contracts. This clarity of approach will enable the revised guidance to work in practice.”

The Treasury’s PFI Interim Accounting Guidance was the basis by which rules were first introduced for determining PFI accounting treatment in September 1997. Last year, the ASB published new principles for making such judgements in an Application Note. The ASB has said that the Revised Accounting Guidance is to be kept under review and updated as necessary in the light of developments in PFI to ensure that it remains both “useful in practice and is consistent with the ASB’s Application Note”.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 17 June 1999.

Following his Internet link-up with Elenata Kasanga from Zambia the Chancellor Gordon Brown said:

“We set ourselves the objective of securing reforms which will deliver faster, deeper and wider debt relief.

“The debt package to be agreed this weekend will deliver quickly to more of the poorest countries a lasting exit from their unsustainable debt burdens and bridge the gap between what the HIPC initiative promised and its current reality.

“The package will:

• mean that 38 of the world’s poorest countries could get up to $50 billion of debt reduction under the enhanced HIPC initiative – the target we set ourselves. It will help an extra 7 countries – Benin, Central African Republic (CAR), Ghana, Honduras, Laos, Senegal and Togo – qualify for HIPC relief;
• on top of that, debt relief will offer another $30 billion; and cancellation of overseas development debt another $20 billion;
•  a result equivalent, in total, to cancellation of two-thirds of the poorest HIPC countries’ official debts.

“Specifically, it will

• ensure that the full financing benefit of debt relief would be felt by countries after a maximum of 3 years rather than after the current maximum of 6 years; and
• deliver more debt relief because the debt sustainability criteria have been substantially reduced. We have lowered the sustainability criteria: the debt -exports ratio and the fiscal criterion. And we have changed the criteria of the calculation to increase the relief and give countries the upside of economic growth after debt relief rather than reducing debt relief to reflect growth.

“Equally important, the link between debt relief and poverty reduction will be strengthened. A new relationship will be formed between the Bretton Woods institutions and the poorest countries and the civil society in those countries. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will be asked to listen to poor countries, to protect investment in health and education and to strengthen the link between their programmes and the international target to halve world poverty by 2015. Developing this framework will be the challenge between now and September.

“We greatly welcome the contribution the churches and non-governmental organisations have already made to securing public support for reform, and we support their desire to pursue the issues further. The package is a good one – but it is not the ceiling of our ambitions.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 20 December 2022.

Brendan Michael Gaughan, 40, from Glasgow has been disqualified as a director for 12 years, after using his companies to take out Bounce Back Loans totalling £135,000 that the companies were not eligible for.

Gaughan was director of three separate property management companies, Gaughan Group Ltd, Gaughan Property Ltd, and Rentl Property Ltd. They were only incorporated in February 2020 and did no business until April 2020.

As a result, they were not eligible for funds through the Bounce Back Loan (BBL) scheme, which was available only to firms that had been doing business on 1 March 2020.

However in May 2020, Gaughan Group received a BBL of £50,000, Gaughan Property received a BBL also of £50,000, and Rentl Property Ltd received a BBL of £35,000.

Gaughan transferred all the funds into a single account and proceeded to use the money to buy a property on Warden Rd in Glasgow for over £115,000 in August 2020. He then sold the property in March 2021 for just over £120,000, and on the same day transferred £100,000 of the proceeds to his personal account.

All three companies were put into liquidation on 11 October 2021, which triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

The Secretary of State accepted disqualification undertakings from Brendan Michael Gaughan, after he did not dispute that none of his companies had been eligible for Bounce Back Loans. He has been banned for 12 years, effective from 27 October 2022. He has separately agreed compensation with the Insolvency Practitioner.

The disqualification undertakings prevent him from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Steven McGinty, Investigation Manager at the Insolvency Service said:

Bounce Back Loans were made available for trading companies adversely affected by the pandemic. Brendan Gaughan should have known his companies weren’t entitled to the loans yet he took them anyway and used the funds for personal gain.

We will not hesitate to take action against directors who have abused Covid-19 financial support like this.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 14 June 1999.

Staff transferring from Government Departments and Agencies to the private sector under PFI and other PPP deals are to have their pensions better protected through a new five point plan announced by Chief Secretary Alan Milburn today.

Launching the new five point plan Alan Milburn said that this was a major step forward in taking forward the Government’s PFI and PPP programmes and one that would guarantee fair treatment to employees.

Mr Milburn said:

“PFI has a key part to play in delivering the Government’s modernisation of public services. For it to work in giving value to the taxpayer it also needs to be trusted by the staff who deliver those services.

“In the past some staff have felt that their pensions have suffered when they have transferred from public to private sector employees. It is not fair or right that staff pensions should be a casualty in PFI deals.

“I want future PFI deals to guarantee fair treatment to employees. This new guidance protects staff pensions. In this way we can ensure that when private sector contractors are selected as partners in delivering services, the decisions are not distorted by handling of pension issues. It is fair to staff, employers and taxpayers alike.”

The Statement of Practice on the Treatment of Staff Pensions in Government PFI deals supercedes existing guidance on procurement practices through a new five point action plan:

• requiring business contracts to be conditional upon staff being offered ‘broadly comparable’ pension packages by the new employer in a way that guarantees that employees are no worse off when they move from the public sector;
• extending these rights for some public sector staff who may be subsequently transferred to another private sector employer or who are involved in integral sub-contracting;
• publishing a Statement of Practice of the Government Actuary’s Department on how ‘broad comparability’ will be assessed;
• making it a standard requirement before a business contract is signed for a new employer’s pension scheme to allow transferring staff the option of moving their accrued credits into that scheme on a fully protected basis;
• ensuring that business deals involving staff transfers will not be signed unless any unresolved employee concerns have been considered by the appropriate Departmental Minister.

The new procurement practices will be introduced immediately. This is without prejudice to the outcome of the Government’s current review of the coverage of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) – ‘TUPE’ – Regulations, which is expected to report later this year.

The new practices will be followed by Government Departments and Agencies. Alan Milburn said that he would be expecting other parts of the public sector to adopt them too, and would be expecting them to do so as quickly as possible.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 10 June 1999.

£30 million of innovative new funding to help cut paperwork and speed up access to justice across the Criminal Justice System was announced by the Chief Secretary Alan Milburn today. Home Secretary Jack Straw, the Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine and Attorney General John Morris welcomed the new funding which is being provided from the Capital Modernisation Fund (CMF).

The investment will create a central fund to provide electronic links to integrate the criminal justice agencies. Such integration will allow electronic case files to be passed between the Police, Prosecutors and Courts and will streamline the management of cases from arrest through to trial and sentence to reduce delays.

The criminal justice system of the future, which the fund will help to build, will have the benefits of:

– the police no longer having to send large bundles of paper to the Crown Prosecution Service, and each criminal justice agency not having to re-key information into its own system;

– improving the courts listing of cases, through more up-to-date information on the availability of witnesses and the readiness of the prosecution and the defence for the hearing, so minimising adjournments and wasted time and travel by victims, witnesses, lawyers and others.

– wider and faster access to Phoenix, the national criminal records database, will cut delays and improve public protection; custody sergeants and courts making decisions on bail, courts deciding between fines, community or custodial sentences, and prison governors deciding on the correct category of prison for an individual will benefit from faster and more accurate information on previous convictions.

Commenting on the investment, Mr Milburn said:

“This innovative pump-priming funding embodies the Government’s commitment to both investing in and modernising public services.

It will cut out time wasting bureaucracy and speed up access to justice. Victims and witnesses in particular can expect an enhanced service with reduced delays. By cutting down on form-filling this new investment will also help free up police, prosecution and court time to concentrate on improving front line services and tackling crime.

In welcoming the project, Mr Straw said:

“This injection of cash is very welcome and is part of our continuing drive to modernise the criminal justice system. It will ensure a greater level of efficiency across the system and will also bring about practical benefits for all those involved by boosting the IT network, integrating the work of agencies, reducing paperwork and raising standards for the management of criminal cases.”

The Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine said:

“This major investment will help to transform the courts. I want the Crown Court and our judges to be at the heart of a modernised, efficient criminal justice system made possible by the latest technology. This is joined-up Government at its best.”

The Attorney General John Morris said:

“Information Technology is a crucial weapon on the Crown Prosecution Services’s fight to prosecute crime successfully. The money released today from the Capital Modernisation Fund will help modernise the criminal justice system and contribute to the integration of electronic links between the CPS, police and the courts, as well as assisting other agencies involved in the fight against crime in the UK.

“I am delighted that the Treasury has again demonstrated the benefits of joined-up Government in this key area, ultimately improving everyone’s lives.”

The £30 million CMF funding will be allocated through the Integrating Business and Information Systems (IBIS) initiative that is taking a strategic approach to IT development across the criminal justice system. The money will be available in the form of bids to a central challenge fund. This will support the best new projects which contribute most to unlocking improvements in communication links, joint working and innovative business solutions across the criminal justice agencies. The focus will be on a modern, efficient criminal justice system that can provide a better service to the public.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 9 June 1999.

Britain has now pledged $171 Million to Millennium Trust Fund

A $100 million British pledge to speed up the debt relief process and cut the debts of the world’s poorest countries has been announced today by the Chancellor Gordon Brown and Clare Short, Secretary of State for International Development.

The money has been pledged to the new £2,000 million Millennium Trust Fund, proposed by the Chancellor and Ms Short, which aims to fund a more ambitious framework for faster, wider and deeper debt relief.

It is proposed the new fund will be made up of:

• the funds of the existing HIPC Trust Fund, to which Britain has already pledged $71 million;
• a call to the world’s richest countries to increase their contributions (this includes the new $100 million pledge from Britain); and
• a call on the European Commission to contribute resources from the European Development Fund.

The Chancellor said:

“Britain has put forward proposals to write off at least $50 billion of debt by the end of the year 2000. We have led the way on the international stage in trying to unshackle the poorest countries from their unsustainable debt burdens. But is now time for us to take action.

“I hope this further $100 million pledge from the UK will encourage our international partners to make further pledges. The richest countries have it within their power to provide a better deal for poor countries and the world’s poorest people.”

Clare Short said:

“If we are to achieve the internationally agreed targets to halve world poverty by 2015 we need to make real progress with debt relief. This further pledge from Britain demonstrates our commitment to speed up the process of debt relief for those countries that are serious about reducing poverty.”

The Chancellor has proposed a write off of at least $50 billion of debt which will allow for quicker debt relief and for a significant reduction in the sustainability ratios. Britain has proposed:

• 150% of the net present value of debt/exports (known as the exports ratio). The figure is currently in the range of 200-250%; and
• 200% of the net present value of debt/government revenue (known as the fiscal ratio). This is currently set at 280%.

The Chancellor stressed that debt relief, poverty relief and economic development must go hand in hand. He said:

“When the debt burdens of the world’s poorest countries are lifted we want to see the money diverted to lift people out of poverty and used for investment in health and education. We want to see a new approach by the IMF and World Bank to see that this happens.”