Regina Finn has been appointed as Chair of the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) and the Electricity Settlements Company (ESC).

Regina has held a number of board positions including Chair of Mutual Energy and non-executive director with the Channel Islands Competition and Regulation Authority and Irish Water. She was the first Chief Executive of Ofwat, the water regulator for England and Wales, headed up the Commission for Energy Regulation in Ireland as well as the Office of Utility Regulation in the Channel Islands. She worked for the Irish Government and as Deputy Director General of the telecommunications regulator in Ireland – now ComReg.

This appointment has been made in accordance with guidance issued by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

The LCCC and ESC schemes are designed to incentivise the investment required in our electricity infrastructure to deliver clean and reliable electricity supplies, whilst minimising costs to customers.

Caravan holidays are becoming increasingly popular, with industry figures showing that bookings for 2019 are up by 16% on last year.

There are potentially thousands of motorists who need to check their entitlement to tow, as UK tourists spend around 50 million nights in the UK’s 555,000 touring caravans.

DVLA Strategy, Policy & Communications Director Lynette Rose said:

It’s important that all motorists know what their driving licence allows them to drive and if they’re entitled to tow.

If anyone’s unsure, they should visit GOV.UK where they can find out if they’re entitled to tow with just a few clicks.

Towing rules vary for drivers, depending on when they passed their driving test. There are different towing rules for motorists who passed their test before 1 January 1997.

Whether they are checking the categories of their driving licence or the weight allowance they can tow, motorists can find the information they need to drive safely this summer on GOV.UK.

Harvey Alexander, Director of Marketing at the Caravan and Motorhome Club, said:

There’s been a significant rise in the number of people choosing to spend their holidays caravanning.

Leisure vehicles provide a fantastic way to explore parts of the country you may have never experienced before, and it’s very important to us that we do all we can to help holidaymakers do so safely and legally.

Motorists can check their driving licence entitlements with DVLA’s view or share your driving licence service. They can also get information on towing.

Notes for editors

• The Caravan and Motorhome Club says it has experienced the most successful start to the year ever, with bookings to its 2,700 UK sites up by 16%.
• Statistics on nights spent in the UK’s caravans and motorhomes are from the NCC, a not-for-profit trade industry representing the caravan and motorhome trade.
• Motorists who passed their test before 1 January 1997 are usually allowed to drive a vehicle and trailer combination up to 8,250kg maximum authorised mass (MAM). They should view their driving licence information to check.
• Motorists who passed their car driving test on or after 1 January 1997 can drive a car or van up to 3,500kg MAM towing a trailer of up to 750kg MAM. They can tow a trailer over 750kg MAM as long as the combined MAM of the trailer and towing vehicle is no more than 3,500kg.
• There are further size restrictions for trailers that can be towed by motorists who passed their test on or after 19 January 2013.
• Driving licence entitlements for motorhomes over 3,500kg also changed on 1 January 1997. Anyone who passed on or after that date can drive vehicles up to 3,500kg. People who passed before can drive vehicles weighing up to 7,500kg.
• Get more information about different categories of driving licence.
• The view or share your driving licence service also allows motorists to check their licence for any endorsements. To access their information motorists will need their driving licence and National Insurance numbers, or they can use GOV.UK Verify.
• You can only use this service if your licence was issued in England, Wales or Scotland.

Mr Simpson was educated at the University of Aberdeen from 1975-79 achieving a second class upper division and later a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at Aberdeen College of Education.

His background is in teaching. His first role was as Teacher of Religious and Moral Education, Turriff Academy and subsequently became head of the department. Shortly after he became Staff Tutor in the Grampian region and was later promoted to Assistant Head Teacher, Deputy Head and Head Teacher in the local area. He currently works part-time as a Tutor at the School of Education, University of Aberdeen and in 2016 was runner-up for the ‘Life Time Achievement’ category at the Scottish Education Awards.

Mr Simpson has held numerous roles within the local community including Session Clerk at Macduff Parish Church and is the immediate past president of the Banff Rotary Club. He is also currently a member of the National Mission and Discipleship Council and Convener of Mission Committee, Presbytery of Buchan both community roles he has held in the Church of Scotland since 2017.

In his spare time he enjoys swimming, hill walking, genealogy, local history, reading, international affairs and golf.

Mr Simpson has been married to Louise since 1981. His date of birth is 23rd June 1956 and he is aged 63.

The U.S. Embassy and the British High Commission are deeply concerned about the steady erosion of due process in Tanzania, as evidenced by the ever more frequent resort to lengthy pre-trial detentions and shifting charges by its justice system. We are particularly concerned about a recent case – the irregular handling of the arrest, detention, and indictment of investigative journalist Erick Kabendera, including the fact that he was denied access to a lawyer in the early stages of his detention, contrary to the Criminal Procedures Act.

We urge the Government of Tanzania to guarantee due process to each of its citizens, which it has recognized as a basic human right as signatory to multiple UN Human Rights Conventions, among them the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights.

Effectiveness in the increasingly congested electromagnetic environment is critical to future defence and security operations. We need to harness the advances in metasurface technology and smoothly integrate these innovations into devices and onto platforms to maintain an electromagnetic tactical advantage for the front-line.

Advantage may be realised by sensing and communication superiority over an adversary. This applies equally to enhancing your own capabilities, degrading those of your adversaries, or being better able to differentiate your own signals from those in the congested environment. Advanced metasurfaces science will allow better control electromagnetic waves, thereby giving an operator the ability to understand the battlefield better, communicate further and more securely, and do this more cheaply and with a smaller device footprint than the current technology.

To remain at the forefront of electromagnetic developments, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Metasurfaces competition is, once again, reaching out to experts in the private sector and academia. We want to talk to all innovators who are researching, experimenting or innovating with the latest breakthroughs in metasurfaces technology with the purpose of unlocking new and enhanced applications, device and system performance.

Phase 1 saw the successful placement of 12 contracts across 9 companies, with a combined value of nearly £900k. Building on the success of Phase 1, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), we are seeking new and follow-on proposals incorporating metasurface science to gain a technological advantage, primarily for defence and security, but also for dual use application alongside partner civil sectors. Phase 2 will culminate in a practical demonstration of the work to defence and security end users, therefore we are expecting technology readiness level (TRL) 3 and above to be achievable.

The competition is aimed at people who are interested in exploiting and showcasing their good ideas to harness metasurfaces for improving electromagnetic hardware and systems. We are keen to promote teaming between organisations from across industry, academia, and broader supply chains to develop the role of metasurfaces in relevant applications.

To encourage collaboration and enable innovators to find out more about what has been achieved to date, we will be launching Phase 2 at a demonstration day for Phase 1 on 5 September 2019 at Aston Villa FC, Birmingham. To support connection to dual use and civil opportunities, we expect to be joined by representatives from InnovateUK and the Knowledge Transfer Network. To attend, sign up at Eventbrite.

In parallel to this competition, the Advanced Vision for 2020 and Beyond competition is seeking novel optics and materials (challenge 1) for which metasurface-based solutions can be applicable. If a proposal is submitted to both competitions, it should clearly outline duplications of costs and works. This competition will be holding a launch and collaboration event on 4 September in London, further information can be found on Eventbrite.

At least £500,000 is available for the Metasurfaces Phase 2 competition which will close at midday on 31 October 2019. We anticipate contracts for projects of up to 12 months’ duration to be placed by February/March 2020.