Previously published copies of the National Statistics publication on the economic performance of agriculture in the English regions.

Reconditioned Gearboxes was incorporated in April 2015, with Kevin Woods (43), from Belvedere, South East London, appointed as Director.

The Erith-based car mechanics supplied and fitted reconditioned gearboxes. Just two years later, however, Reconditioned Gearboxes experienced difficulties and by March 2017, the business closed down before the company entered into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation.

An insolvency practitioner was appointed to wind-up the affairs of Reconditioned Gearboxes when they received a number of complaints from customers.

Complaints ranged from customers not receiving goods and services they had paid for, parts were faulty, and, in some cases, customers had to go to another mechanic to correct defective work

Some customers also reported their vehicles were damaged while they in the care of Reconditioned Gearboxes, while others said they had not been refunded for poor work.

These complaints were passed to the Insolvency Service and following enquires, investigators were able to establish several instances of further misconduct.

Reconditioned Gearboxes had taken prepaid orders which remained unfulfilled when the company went into liquidation and owed close to £127,000 in unpaid taxes at the point of insolvency.

And despite knowing the company was about to enter into liquidation and could not complete the work, Kevin Woods caused the company to continue taking payments from unsuspecting customers.

In September 2019, the Secretary of State accepted an 8-year disqualification undertaking from Kevin Woods. Effective from 27 September 2019, he cannot, without the permission of the court, be involved in the formation, promotion or management of a company, directly or indirectly.

David Brooks, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Customer satisfaction was clearly not a priority for Kevin Woods. Not only did he provide a poor service while the company was trading but even when he knew the doors were about to close, he continued to take money from customers without being certain the work would be carried out.

Eight years is a significant amount of time to be banned from running a company and prevents Kevin Woods from causing any more harm to customers who simply wanted to fix their car.

Kevin Woods is of Royal Arsenal, South East London and his date of birth is January 1976.

Reconditioned Gearboxes Limited (Company number: 09547707).

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 restrictions.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Ahead of her visit, UK Minister of State of Asia and the Pacific, Heather Wheeler MP said:

As the UK gets ready to leave the EU, its partnerships outside of Europe will take on an even greater significance and importance.

I am looking forward to visiting South Korea, Mongolia and Japan and learning more about the wealth of opportunities for international investment and trade in each of these countries, as well as their approaches to pressing international issues such as climate change and gender equality.

In Seoul, the Minister will highlight the UK and Korea’s shared historic, economic and cultural ties, including the recently signed UK-ROK continuity Free Trade Agreement, the first in Asia.

Alongside Korean Ministry for Foreign Affairs 2nd Vice Minister Lee Tae Ho, Minister Wheeler will launch a new Senior Economic Dialogue that will facilitate discussion on the ways the UK and Korea can deepen cooperation in areas such as finance, digital economy and climate change.

She will also urge Korean Climate Change Ambassador Yoo Yeon Chul to join the UK by raising Korea’s climate ambition ahead of COP26 in Glasgow and highlight the UK’s ambitious new commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to ‘Net Zero’ by 2050.

With a focus on gender equality and female empowerment, the Minister will give a keynote speech at the Chevening Female Empowerment Reception held at the British Embassy Seoul and share her own views and experience as a successful politician.

On Wednesday, the Minister will travel to Ulaanbaatar, where she will meet several Ministers in the Mongolian government. Discussions will be broad-ranging and will cover trade and investment, democracy and media freedom, climate change, the Illegal Wildlife Trade and wider geo-strategic issues.

On Thursday Minister Wheeler will lead the official opening ceremony of its new Embassy office in the Shangri-La Office Tower and then spend the day visiting the world-class Oyu Tolgoi mine in the Gobi desert.

On Friday the Minister will travel to Tokyo, where she will meet with the Environment Minister to discuss climate change, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to discuss security, trade, and the UK-Japan relationship following the UK’s exit from the EU.

Further information

How to register and update your personal, business and land details on the Rural Payments service (including RLE1 guidance).

New technologies including electrification, digital services and autonomy could revolutionise aviation.

They could help to power a new generation of flying taxis, drones delivering goods and services and small, all-electric aircraft.

The UK has played a leading role in aviation over the last 100 years and is well-placed to take advantage of a new generation of aircraft that could help to ease congestion and reduce the carbon footprint of the industry.

Individuals from businesses and research organisations with an interest in this field are invited to apply to attend a workshop to develop ideas to meet the challenges posed by future flight.

The invitation is the first phase of a £125 million government investment in the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Future Flight Challenge. It will be matched by a £175 million investment from industry.

Demonstrate green flight and new services

The aim of the Future Flight Challenge is to demonstrate innovative ways to achieve greener flight, new services and ways to travel, increased mobility, better connectivity and reduced congestion.

Individuals applying to attend the 2-day workshop in February 2020 can come from a wide range of disciplines.

They must show how they would attempt to solve one or more of 6 problem statements:

• the full range of drone applications is stifled by the absence of the physical and data infrastructures needed to exploit the potential of the global market
• current air traffic management systems are not scalable
• there is a need to develop autonomy while maintaining high levels of safety
• there is a need to move towards more electric flight by moving technology between urban, sub-regional vehicles and larger aircraft
• there is a need to develop use cases and operational frameworks for the adoption of autonomous air vehicles
• there is no aviation innovation or development environment that will allow real-life demonstration and evaluation of the issues presented in the first 5 problem statements

The aim of the discovery workshop is to help participants form consortia that will apply for funding in future phases of the competition.

Competition information

Phase one discovery workshop

• the workshop will be held in Birmingham, 4-5 February 2020
• no grant funding is available at this stage but costs will be covered
• the application process is open and closes on 13 November 2019
• it is open to UK businesses and research and technology organisations
• a briefing event will be held on 7 October 2019

Phases 2 and 3

• we expect future projects to range in size between £5 million and £20 million