The Home Office has up to £300,000 to invest in up to 5 innovative projects that are designed to disrupt live online child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Projects should investigate new methods and technologies. This may include detecting and disrupting live streaming or identifying and disrupting related financial transactions. It may also include other interventions such as psychological or behavioural approaches.

The competition is being run under the SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative).

Identification, disruption and prevention

This competition is particularly seeking technical and psychological solutions for identification, disruption and prevention. It could include:

• identification of live streams or associated chat logs, both in real time or from an archived live-stream content
• making use of any wider indicators of child sexual abuse and exploitation in order to identify and disrupt live-streamed content
• supporting identification of potential victims or offenders by hosting providers
• deterrence of potential offenders and preventing children becoming potential victims through behavioural insights or targeted communications

Competition information

• the competition is open, and the deadline for applications is 14 November 2018
• it is open to any organisation that can demonstrate a route to market for its idea
• we expect total project costs to be up to £60,000 and for projects to last up to 3.5 months
• successful projects will attract 100% funded development contracts
• applications should be made through the Crown Commercial Service’s e-Sourcing Suite

Published 26 October 2018

In the dataset you can find the date of sale for each property, its full address and sale price, its category (residential or commercial) and type (detached, semi-detached, terraced, flat or maisonette and other), whether it is new build or not and whether it is freehold or leasehold.

Of the 96,355 sales received for registration in September 2018:

• 73,463 were freehold, a 1.3% increase on September 2017
• 11,270 were newly built, a 25% increase on September 2017

There is a time difference between the sale of a property and its registration at HM Land Registry.

Of the 96,355 sales received for registration, 21,016 took place in September 2018 of which:

• 450 were of residential properties in England and Wales for £1 million and over
• 251 were of residential properties in Greater London for £1 million and over
• 2 were of residential properties in West Midlands for more than £1 million
• 3 were of residential properties in Greater Manchester for more than £1 million
• none were residential properties in Cardiff for more than £1 million

The most expensive residential sale taking place in September 2018 was of a terraced property in Kensington and Chelsea for £14,000,000. The cheapest residential sale in September 2018 was of a terraced property in Hyndburn for £18,000.

The most expensive commercial sale taking place in September 2018 was in Ascot for £23,625,000. The cheapest commercial sales in September 2018 were in Ruislip and Benfleet for £100.

Access the full dataset

Notes to editors

1. Price Paid Data is published at 11am on the 20th working day of each month. The next dataset will be published on Wednesday 28 November 2018.

2. Price Paid Data is property price data for all residential and commercial property sales in England and Wales that are lodged with HM Land Registry for registration in that month, subject to exclusions.

3. The amount of time between the sale of a property and the registration of this information with HM Land Registry varies. It typically ranges between two weeks and two months. Data for the two most recent months is therefore incomplete and does not give an indication of final monthly volumes. Occasionally the interval between sale and registration is longer than two months. The small number of sales affected cannot be updated for publication until the sales are lodged for registration.

4. Price Paid Data categories are either Category A (Standard entries) which includes single residential properties sold for full market value or Category B (Additional entries) for example sales to a company, buy-to-lets where they can be identified by a mortgage and repossessions.

5. HM Land Registry has been collecting information on Category A sales from January 1995 and on Category B sales from October 2013.

6. Price Paid Data can be downloaded in text, CSV format and in a machine readable format as linked data and is released under Open Government Licence (OGL). Under the OGL, HM Land Registry permits the use of Price Paid Data for commercial or non-commercial purposes. However, the OGL does not cover the use of third party rights, which HM Land Registry is not authorised to license.

7. The Price Paid Data report builder allows users to build bespoke reports using the data. Reports can be based on location, estate type, price paid or property type over a defined period of time.

8. HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.

9. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

10. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £4 trillion, including around £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for some 85% of the land mass of England and Wales.

11. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry.

12. Follow us on Twitter @HMLandRegistry, ourblog, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Mr Mundell will also be supporting a nearly 700-mile charity bike ride across the US as part of the commemorations.

On 21 December 1988, 259 passengers on board Pan Am Flight 103 from London Heathrow were killed by a terrorist bomb which detonated in the skies above Lockerbie. The aircraft wreckage crashing on the town killed 11 Lockerbie residents. Thirty years on, a group of five local men are cycling from Lockerbie to Syracuse to complete the journey on behalf of those who could not.

The five ‘Cycle to Syracuse’ riders represent Lockerbie Academy, Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Ambulance Service and the RAF Mountain Rescue Service. They all have strong links with the town and the bombing. Their 672-mile Lockerbie – Syracuse journey remembers the 270 lives lost in the air and on the ground, the work of the emergency services, and the response of the townspeople in the aftermath.

The USA leg is the third and final stage of their journey. It started with visits to local schools around Lockerbie, and was followed by a mass cycle earlier this month which saw dozens of cyclists ride from Lockerbie to Edinburgh Castle where they were welcomed by Mr Mundell.

In the States they will set off today [Friday 26 October] from the Lockerbie memorial cairn in Arlington National Cemetery. They will ride through Maryland, Philadelphia and New York City, ending at Syracuse University in upstate New York next Thursday [1 November]. Mr Mundell will see the group off from New York’s City’s Central Park on Tuesday morning [30 October] on the final stage of their journey. He will then travel to Syracuse University to meet staff and students and take part in the University’s annual remembrance week.

Since 1998 strong links have built up between the town of Lockerbie and Syracuse University, where 35 of the victims were studying. Since 1990, a ‘Syracuse Scholarship’ has allowed young people from Lockerbie Academy to study in the USA. Fifty eight students have now studied at Syracuse University, forging strong bonds and friendships between families on both sides of the Atlantic.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell said:

I was brought up in Lockerbie, and know how deeply the air disaster has impacted on the town. But I have also seen the very positive links which have grown between Lockerbie and Syracuse University over the years since. As we approach the 30th anniversary of the bombing, it is fitting that five local men are making the journey to Syracuse to remember those lost, and to raise money for a local youth mental health charity. I look forward to seeing them off on the final leg of their journey, and to seeing our friends again in Syracuse for the University’s 30th remembrance week.

Cycle team leader Colin Dorrance said:

Our journey to Syracuse started in the primary schools around Lockerbie. We have had the opportunity to tell the children about the bombing, but also about the wonderful opportunity that they may have to study at Syracuse in the future.

It has encouraged them to speak to their parents about the bombing, learning something of how it affected the older generation in 1988. We are all reminded of just how selfless and heroic so many people were, and how widely it is still talked about today. Of course, for some, the journey will never end.

“My teammates and I are focused on the 600 miles we will cycle in the USA over the next week, ending at Syracuse University. The prospect is exciting, humbling and moving all in one.”

The cycle group, which is being sponsored by ScottishPower, is also raising money for local youth mental health charity Soul Soup, to employ a dedicated worker within Lockerbie Academy.

On their journey the cyclists are carrying a specially-crafted Shepherd’s Crook, sourced from wood in the Tundergarth area near Lockerbie, and a book of commemoration. Both will be presented to the Chancellor and President of Syracuse University as gifts from the town of Lockerbie.

Working with professional bodies including the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers, the National Association of Estate Agents and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the government aims to help estate agents spot the signs of money laundering and reinforce their legal and moral obligations to report suspicious activity.

Money laundering in the UK potentially runs to hundreds of billions of pounds per year, according to the National Crime Agency’s National Strategic Assessment 2018.

The campaign, called Flag It Up, has been targeting solicitors since 2014 and accountants since 2015, and is now expanding for the first time into the property sector with support from HMRC, which supervises estate agents under the money laundering regulations.

Ben Wallace, Minister for National Security and Economic Crime, said:

Criminals who seek to use this country as a place to launder money should be in no doubt that they have nowhere to hide. Estate agents are a crucial line of defence against them and that’s why they’re under a legal – and moral – obligation to file a report when they spot something amiss.

It’s wrong to think of money laundering as a victimless crime. Those with dirty cash to clean don’t just sit on it – they reinvest it in serious organised crime, from drug importation to child sexual exploitation, human trafficking and even terrorism.

The campaign, which is being promoted through social media, digital advertising and at industry conferences, urges estate agents to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) to the National Crime Agency when they spot signs such as a client being evasive or contradictory about the source of a large sum of money or using many different bank accounts.

Over the period April 2017 to March 2018, estate agents submitted just 710 suspicious activity reports compared with accountants submitting 5,036 and independent legal professionals submitting 2,660.

Estate agents could be prevented from trading or even face prosecution if they fail to comply with money laundering regulations. This could result in unlimited fines or a prison term of up to 2 years.

Simon York, Director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said:

HMRC is determined to crack down on money laundering, and as the supervisor of estate agents under money laundering regulations, works closely with the sector to help them tackle this crime.

The extension of the Flag It Up campaign to the property industry will help bolster our efforts and sends a clear message from both the Government and the sector that the door is closing on money laundering.

Mark Hayward, Chief Executive of NAEA Propertymark, a professional body for estate agents, said:

Both small and large estate agencies are susceptible to criminal activity. Houses bought with laundered money often sit empty, taking homes away from the market that could be used for families and having a further negative impact on the wider community.

By partnering with the campaign, we are pleased to see the Government engaging with the sector to support estate agents in their legal anti-money laundering obligations.

Flag It Up complements other action taken by the government to target dirty money such as the Criminal Finances Act and tools like Unexplained Wealth Orders and Account Freezing Orders.