Press release: A new and robust inspection regime for secure training centres
Ofsted has published a new joint inspection framework for secure training centres (STCs) that promises to focus even more closely on those are judged inadequate.
News story: Digital open days at Companies House
Are you interested in a career in digital?
We’ve recently launched an ambitious transformation programme which will completely change the way we offer services to our customers. Digital services are an essential element of this transformation.
Over the next few months we’ll be advertising a number of job vacancies in our digital teams, including roles in:
- product management
- user research
- interaction design
- software development
- testing
- architecture
- DevOps
- infrastructure
If you’re interested in being part of our transformation, please come along to one of our digital open days and recruitment sessions at our head office in Cardiff.
Located close to the city centre, our experts will be waiting to talk to you about our exciting digital strategy and the new roles available. Most importantly, you’ll learn more about our culture and why we’re a brilliant place to work.
There are 2 separate drop-in sessions.
Session 1: Monday 8 April, 5pm to 7pm
Session 2: Friday 12 April, 10am to 12pm
Ross Maude, Director of digital said:
We’re starting on a really exciting transformation journey at Companies House, and we have a brilliant culture and way of working here. We’ve fully adopted working with Scrum, we’re working with agile and we’re at the forefront of using things like DevOps to make sure that we’re using the best practices to deliver our services in the most efficient way we can.
We’d really like people to come and see the work that we’re doing, and be part of a team that’s doing really quite amazing things here in the middle of Cardiff.
If you have the skills and experience we’re looking for, we want you to be part of this ambitious programme of change. You’ll have the opportunity to be at the forefront of the government’s digital transformation, and to develop our services to meet the ever-changing demands of the UK’s business landscape.
Find out more about working for Companies House.
News story: Avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland in a no deal scenario
- Strictly temporary, unilateral approach to checks, processes and tariffs in Northern Ireland announced in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
- Approach is key to protecting the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland and avoiding a hard border.
- In no deal, UK Government is committed to entering discussions urgently with the EU and Irish Government to agree long-term measures.
- The government is publishing this approach ahead of the vote in Parliament on No Deal to ensure MPs are fully informed.
- The UK Government has today confirmed the strictly temporary, unilateral approach it would take to avoid a hard border if the UK were to leave the EU without a deal.
In this scenario, the UK Government’s priority would be to enter into discussions urgently with the European Commission and the Irish Government to jointly agree long-term measures to avoid a hard border.
Recognising the unique social, political and economic circumstances of Northern Ireland, the UK Government would not introduce any new checks or controls on goods moving from Ireland to Northern Ireland in a no deal scenario, including no customs declarations for normal goods. The UK temporary import tariff announced today would therefore not apply to goods crossing from Ireland into Northern Ireland.
The UK Government would only apply a small number of measures strictly necessary to comply with international legal obligations, protect the biosecurity of the island of Ireland, or to avoid the highest risks to Northern Ireland businesses — but these measures will not require checks at the land border.
The government recognises that Northern Ireland’s businesses and farmers will have concerns about the impact that the government’s approach will have on their competitiveness. However these are the only steps the UK government can unilaterally take to deliver on our absolute commitment to avoid a hard border in the event of no deal.
A summary of the approach:
- To prevent unfair treatment of Northern Ireland businesses, goods arriving from Ireland would still be subject to the same VAT and Excise duty as today and the UK Government would continue to collect these taxes on Irish goods in future. VAT registered businesses would continue to account for VAT on their normal VAT returns. Small businesses trading across the border and not currently VAT registered would be able to report VAT online periodically, without any new processes at the border. As in Great Britain, businesses currently registered on the EU Excise system would register on a UK equivalent.
- To protect human, animal, and plant health, animals and animal products from countries outside the EU would need to enter Northern Ireland through a designated entry point, regulated plant material from outside the EU and high risk EU plant material will require certification and pre-notification before arriving in the UK. Plants and plant products from a non-EU country which have not been previously checked by an EU Member state would also be checked at authorised inland trade premises.
- To fulfil essential international obligations, there would be new UK import requirements such as checks on documents or registration for a very limited set of goods, such as endangered species and hazardous chemicals. This would not involve any infrastructure or checks at the border including in Northern Ireland.
These unilateral measures only mitigate the impacts of exit that are within the UK Government’s control. They do not set out the position in respect of tariffs or processes to be applied to goods moving from Northern Ireland to Ireland.
This regime is only temporary as we recognise that there are challenges associated with this approach, including the unmonitored flow of goods into the UK and the potential for exploitation of any new system. The government is committed to entering into discussions with the European Commission and the Irish Government as a matter of urgency.
The government will lay the appropriate legislation in light of the outcome of the vote on no deal today.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Karen Bradley, said:
The Government has been clear that a deal with the European Union is the best outcome for Northern Ireland.
But we will do all we can to support people and businesses across Northern Ireland in the event that we leave without a deal.
The measures announced today recognise the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland. These arrangements can only be temporary and short-term.
Notes to editors
Click here for more details on this announcement.
Press release: CMA welcomes Furman Review recommendations
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has welcomed the report submitted today by the Digital Competition Expert Panel to the government.
News story: Temporary tariff regime for no deal Brexit published
Government has this morning (Wednesday 13 March) published details of the UK’s temporary tariff regime for no deal, designed to minimise costs to business and consumers while protecting vulnerable industries. The government is publishing this approach ahead of the vote in Parliament on No Deal to ensure MPs are fully informed.
This regime is temporary, and the government would closely monitor the effects of these tariffs on the UK economy. It would apply for up to 12 months while a full consultation and review on a permanent approach to tariffs is undertaken.
British businesses would not pay customs duties on the majority of goods when importing into the UK if we leave the European Union without an agreement.
Under the temporary tariff, 87% of total imports to the UK by value would be eligible for tariff free access.
Tariffs would still apply to 13% of goods imported into the UK. This includes:
- a mixture of tariffs and quotas on beef, lamb, pork, poultry and some dairy to support farmers and producers who have historically been protected through high EU tariffs
- retaining a number of tariffs on finished vehicles in order to support the automotive sector and in light of broader challenging market conditions’. However, car makers relying on EU supply chains would not face additional tariffs on car parts imported from the EU to prevent disruption to supply chains
- in addition, there are a number of sectors where tariffs help provide support for UK producers against unfair global trading practices, such as dumping and state subsidies. Tariffs would be retained for these products, including certain ceramics, fertiliser and fuel
- to meet our long-standing commitment to reduce poverty through trade, the government currently offers preferential access to the UK market for developing countries. To ensure that access for developing countries is maintained, we would retain tariffs on a set of goods, including bananas, raw cane sugar, and certain kinds of fish
Trade Policy Minister George Hollingbery said:
Our priority is securing a deal with the European Union as this will avoid disruption to our global trading relationships. However, we must prepare for all eventualities.
If we leave without a deal, we will set the majority of our import tariffs to zero, whilst maintaining tariffs for the most sensitive industries.
This balanced approach will help to support British jobs and avoid potential price spikes that would hit the poorest households the hardest.
It represents a modest liberalisation of tariffs and we will be monitoring the economy closely, as well as consulting with businesses, to decide what our tariffs should be after this transitional period.
The government has also confirmed today that it will take a temporary approach to avoid new checks and controls on goods at the Northern Ireland land border if the UK leaves the EU without a deal. The UK’s temporary import tariffs will therefore not apply to goods crossing from Ireland into Northern Ireland.
These tariffs would apply equally to all other trading partners, except for those where we have a free trade agreement in place and around 70 developing countries that will benefit from preferential access to our market.
The government will lay the appropriate legislation in light of the outcome of the vote on no deal today.
Notes for editors
- It is not possible to leave things as they are:
- If we maintained our current external tariff regime and applied it to the EU, this would impose new tariffs on EU imports, driving up prices for consumers and disrupting business supply chains.
- If we fully maintained zero tariffs with the EU, we would also have to extend this to the rest of the world due to WTO rules. This would minimise disruption to EU trade but would open the UK to competition from other countries including those with unfair trading practices.
- Businesses can find more information about our temporary tariff regime here.
- The UK’s temporary tariff regime does not affect our ability to implement trade remedies measures to protect UK businesses from unfair trading practices such as ‘dumping’. The UK will retain 43 existing EU trade remedies measures which involves applying additional tariffs to imports from specific countries.