LLW Repository Ltd raised a record £9,339 for Charity of the Year, Give Us A Break 2010, after a magnificent response from the workforce.

The charity is raising money to fund a short stay centre in West Cumbria for disabled children and their families, and employees voted to support it as their charity in 2018/19.

A string of fundraising events were initiated and organised by the workforce including a book sale, baking competition, sponsored car wash, Christmas Jumper Day and numerous raffles. LLWR’s Lead Team also agreed to match-fund £2,000 for the charity.

Cath Giel, LLWR’s Head of Public Affairs, said: “We have a fresh chosen charity every year, and the enthusiasm for giving, and for coming up with new ways of fund-raising, shows no sign of diminishing. In fact, the opposite is true.

“Many members of our workforce helped to raise funds for Give Us A Break, and we are grateful to them all, not least our apprentices, whose Christmas Food Market initiative proved a tasty new addition to our fundraising efforts, adding almost £700 to our tally, and a few inches to waistlines!”

Leaders from the construction industry have been reminded that tough new rules on paying their suppliers on time are due to come into force in September.

David Blyth has had his sentence increased to 13 years 6 months’ imprisonment by the Court of Appeal.

The new Airline Insolvency Review: final report has been published, providing recommendations on how to protect consumers in the event of an airline or travel company failure. Experts in the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) supplied advice and analysis to the review team, including the complex task of calculating the cost of protection which the report recommends charging to airlines.

The review draws on lessons from the collapse of Monarch Airlines in October 2017. This was when 85,000 passengers were repatriated – in the UK’s largest peacetime repatriation operation – by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Repatriation costs

GAD played an integral part in the preparation of the report by analysing the cost implications of financial options. Actuaries and analysts examined the likely losses that occur when airlines become insolvent and assessed the cost of the different financial options. Analysis from GAD estimated repatriation costs and looked at the cost of setting up a system which would pay for passenger protection.

The report’s key recommendations include:

• proposals for a new Flight Protection Scheme amounting to less than 50 pence per person, which would protect passengers if an airline became insolvent while they were abroad
• reforms to the UK’s airline insolvency regimes so an airline’s own aircraft can be used to repatriate its passengers should it fail
• plans to improve awareness, and the take up, of safeguards which protect customers with future bookings, should airlines collapse

Key partners

As one of the authors of GAD’s Airline Insolvency Review – Risk Analysis Phase 2 report, Chris Paterson, commented: “The analysis carried out by our team is an integral part of a suite of publications and data produced for the review.

“We provided estimates of the cost of protecting passengers in the case of an airline insolvency, which were used in the report’s recommendations.”

GAD’s full report is Annex D of the supporting evidence research reports.

• Dame Elizabeth Gloster will lead the investigation into LCF and how the FCA exercised its powers in relation to it

• The findings will be reported to HM Treasury

• HM Treasury will also review the regulation and marketing of the kinds of retail investment products issued by LCF

An independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collapse of investment firm London Capital & Finance (LCF) and the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) supervision of the firm has been formally launched today (Thursday 23 May).

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, has approved the FCA’s appointment of Dame Elizabeth Gloster to lead the investigation and has laid before Parliament the direction to initiate this work. Mr Glen has also announced that the Treasury will begin a wider policy review in response to the case, including a review of the regulatory regime for ‘mini-bonds’ and other non-transferrable securities.

The Economic Secretary, John Glen, said:

We urgently need to get to the bottom of the circumstances around the collapse of LCF.

Dame Elizabeth will bring her vast experience and rigour to this important investigation, which will help ensure this type of thing doesn’t happen again.

The Treasury will also be looking at how the current regime for these investments works, so customers are properly protected and the UK’s financial system can continue to be one of the safest in the world.

Dame Elizabeth has had a distinguished career as a barrister and as a judge on the High Court and the Court of Appeal. As well as her current work as an international arbitrator, she has deep experience in commercial law and will bring expertise in financial services, insolvencies and regulation to the role. She will look at how the FCA exercised its powers and whether it fulfilled its statutory objectives with respect to LCF. The FCA will report the findings of the investigation to the Economic Secretary, as well as the lessons it will take from those findings.

Further information

In April the Economic Secretary wrote to the FCA to set out that he would order an investigation into the failure of LCF, using Treasury powers under section 77 of the Financial Services Act 2012. Section 77 gives the government wide ranging powers to direct an investigation.

The move follows a meeting of the FCA board earlier this year where they agreed that a statutory investigation was in the public interest and requested the Treasury direct the FCA to carry out an investigation.

The Treasury will commission research into the wider market for ‘mini bonds’ and other non-transferable securities, and their role in the economy. The Treasury will also consider the regulatory arrangements currently in place for the issuance of these investments, including the Financial Promotions regime which governs the marketing of those products.

The Treasury will work with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to review the tax rules for the Innovative Finance Individual Savings Accounts (IF ISAs) and the relationship of these rules to the financial services regulators.