• Minister for Export and Trade Promotion Baroness Fairhead visited London City Airport to meet airport executives and SMEs as new Exporting is GREAT campaign is unveiled
• London City Airport announces partnership with Department for International Trade (DIT) to promote British exports and support the Exporting is GREAT campaign
• Baroness Fairhead consults airport on emerging Export Strategy shortly after making final call for business to help shape the UK’s trading future

Baroness Fairhead, Minister for Export and Trade Promotion, visited London City Airport yesterday and unveiled new Exporting is GREAT branding featuring 5 export ‘heroes’.

Celebrating their partnership with the Department for International Trade (DIT), the airport is hosting the creative campaign to inspire and support more UK companies to take their first steps towards selling overseas.

The artwork is being displayed in the airport’s departure lounge and on their main ‘City Icon’ digital screen outside the terminal over the coming weeks.

Five businesses featured in the creative campaign met with the minister and CEO of London City Airport, Robert Sinclair, to discuss their export journeys. They are:

• Chemian Technologies (North East)
• Stitch and Story (South East)
• Norton Motorcycles (Midlands)
• Sensoteq (Northern Ireland)
• Joe and Seph’s Popcorn (London)

The visit came shortly after Baroness Fairhead made a final call for businesses to input into the government’s new Export Strategy which will report in the coming months.

Speaking at London City Airport, Baroness Fairhead said:

I am determined to help British businesses seize global export opportunities across the world.

The Department for International Trade is helping thousands of new companies to export every year through our online export support tools at great.gov.uk

This campaign provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase our export heroes and inspire many more businesses to sell their products overseas.

Robert Sinclair, CEO of London City Airport, said:

As a vital gateway for business travellers, and with its proximity to growing clusters of SMEs in East London, London City Airport is uniquely placed to strengthen DIT’s new campaign, and reach a truly captive audience.

Already the airport is associated with trade exports totalling over £11 billion per year, and once our 4 year £480 million development programme is complete, even more routes to new destinations and markets will help connect businesses with opportunities overseas – helping an outward-looking Britain to prosper.

Ian Dell, Managing Director of Chemian Technology, one of the companies profiled in the campaign said:

Exporting has always been of fundamental importance to Chemian Technology since I founded the business in 1996. Most of our turnover currently comes from overseas sales and we now sell to more than 30 countries worldwide.

Exporting is certainly not an easy process but I’d encourage every company with an innovative product to do what we’ve done and look overseas for growth.

DIT’s Exporting is GREAT campaign is currently showcasing 30+ UK businesses – from a range of sectors and regions – to inspire and support firms up and down the country to export.

Background

1. The Export Strategy is expected to report in the coming months. Evidence will be taken until 18 April 2018.

2. The Department for International Trade (DIT) secures UK and global prosperity by promoting and financing international trade and investment, and championing free trade. We are an international economic department, responsible for:

• bringing together policy, promotion and financial expertise to break down barriers to trade and investment, and help businesses succeed
• delivering a new trade policy framework for the UK as we leave the EU
• promoting British trade and investment across the world
• building the global appetite for British goods and services

3. Exporting is GREAT is the government campaign to inspire and support more UK companies to take their first steps towards selling overseas and help existing exporters grow further. At great.gov.uk UK businesses can apply for real-time global export opportunities, access expert advice, trade services, training and events.

4. Featured companies:

Chemian Technologies

Darlington-based Chemian Technology develops and manufactures ingredients for the pharmaceutical, chemical and cosmetic industries. The company began exporting after a request from an overseas customer and has received market support from DIT. Overseas sales make up 70% of its revenue and they export to over 20 counties.

Norton Motorcycles

Founded in 1898 and selling its first motorcycle sold in 1902, Norton Motorcycle has been an iconic British brand for nearly 120 years. Its current owner, Stuart Garner re-established the company’s UK manufacturing base and delivered the company’s first motorcycle of the new millennium in 2010.

It now sells around 1,000 motorcycles each year all over the world and employs 120 staff in the UK. Government support has allowed Norton to grow its business in key markets like Australia, Japan and the USA.

Stitch and Story

Stitch & Story, a knitting kit manufacturer, has seen sales increase by 200% in the last year as a direct result of exporting to the US, following support from DIT.

Based in Dartford, Kent, the business distributes to US marketplace Uncommon Goods, as well as independent gift stores and retailers. The exporting opportunity was secured after Stitch & Story exhibited its products at consumer trade show, NY Now, with support from DIT.

The success of Stitch & Story’s international expansion is being celebrated in DIT’s Exporting is GREAT campaign.

Sensoteq

Northern Ireland based company Sensoteq, design and manufacture bespoke low power wireless sensors for remote machine health monitoring. The company have been exporting for over a year after government support connected them with customers overseas.

Joe and Seph’s

Joe & Seph’s are a family owned and run business on a mission to produce the best-tasting popcorn in the world.

The company started exporting after a French department store saw the popcorn in Selfridges in London.

Working with DIT the company started to understand the size of the export opportunity and over the last few years have focused much more proactively on exporting.

Their products are now stocked in over 25 countries with the main focus on Scandinavia and the Middle East.

Further information

Scott McClung (47) was the sole director of SDS Logistics (Bonnybridge) Limited, a company registered as freight transport by road and based in Leslie Park, Denny, Stirlingshire.

After six years, however, the company ceased trading on 15 August 2016 when it was placed into liquidation, with an eventual deficiency to creditors of £1,860,934.

An investigation by the Insolvency Service following the liquidation found that between May 2014 and April 2017, SDS Logistics misused close to 1.7 million litres (approximately 1,688,648 litres) of rebated Gasoil, otherwise known as red diesel, in their road vehicles.

Gasoil is a rebated fuel, dyed red, for identification purposes. It can be used in registered agricultural or construction vehicles, such as tractors, excavators, cranes and some other non-road applications such as boats, and carries a significantly reduced tax levy compared to Derv, the white diesel fuel used in ordinary road vehicles.

But it is illegal to use red diesel in vehicles registered for and used on public roads.

SDS Logistics’ misuse of the fuel was first detected when HMRC officials visited SDS Logistics’ premises in April 2016 and found four vehicles had been misusing red diesel.

HM Revenue & Customs levied an excise duty of £790,456 and a penalty of £553,210 but SDS Logistics failed to pay, leading to its liquidation.

On 13 February 2018, Mr McClung gave a disqualification undertaking to the Insolvency Service, which was accepted by the Secretary of State, on 21 February 2018. The disqualification is from 14 March 2018 and is effective until 14 March 2027.

Robert Clarke, Investigations Group Leader at the Insolvency Service, said:

The substantial period of this disqualification reflects the fact this director put his financial interests above all else in taking advantage of this subsidised fuel. The majority of similar businesses pay the proper duty on the fuel they use, and carry that legitimate cost within their trading strategy.

This was a blatant disregard by a director to obtain an unfair competitive advantage.

Scott Andrew Walker McClung’s date of birth is March 1970 and he resides in, Denny, Stirlingshire.

Scott Andrew Walker McClung was appointed as a director of SDS Logistics (Bonnybridge) Limited (Company Registration No. SC380133 ) from 8 November 2011 to 28 February 2014 and again from 31 March 2014 to the date of liquidation on 15 August 2016.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

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 other restrictions

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies. The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

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

Red Diesel

Diesel used only in vehicles that are operated solely off-road or in machinery and attracts a lower rate of excise duty than diesel used on the road. Vehicles and machinery that are permitted to use rebated fuel include:

• Agricultural tractors, plant and machinery
• Mobile cranes
• Digging machines
• Snow ploughs
• Gritters
• Road rollers and surfacing vehicles

HMRC has compiled a full list of the vehicles that can use red diesel.

HMRC officers have the power to:

• Examine any vehicle and its fuel
• Require the vehicle’s owner or driver to open the fuel tank for inspection
• Require the vehicle’s owner to produce documentation relating to the vehicle
• Enter and inspect any premises, apart from private houses, to inspect, test and sample fuel
• Ask anybody concerned with the sale, purchase or disposal of rebated fuel for their documentation

Vehicles found to be using rebated fuel illegally may be seized by the authorities. The vehicle’s owner will then have to pay a fee for the vehicle’s release, which would include a penalty for the offences, up to a £250 fine for each offence, along with an amount to cover the duty owed.

Serious offences may result in the issue of an unlimited fine to the operator and a prison sentence of up to two years.

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7637 6498 or 020 7596 6187

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Image from forward facing CCTV showing the incident. Note: the bright spots are light reflections (image courtesy of West Midland Trains)

Assessments to measure the progress pupils make from the very start of primary school are, following an open procurement exercise, set to be designed and delivered by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), the School Standards Minister Nick Gibb announced today.

The assessments will ensure that schools are recognised for getting the best outcomes for their pupils and that teachers receive credit for their hard work during the initial years of education.

The Reception Baseline Assessment will be administered as a twenty-minute, teacher-recorded assessment of children’s communication, language, literacy and early mathematics skills. It will cover material that many children will already be familiar with and pupils will not have to prepare for it, either at home or in school. It will replace the statutory tests which pupils have faced at the end of Key Stage 1, freeing up teacher time and resources so they can focus on what really matters in the classroom.

The activity-based assessment will enable better, fairer measures of primary school performance by capturing the progress teachers help pupils to make from the first weeks of reception all the way through to the end of year 6. Current progress measures are based on data from the end of Key Stage 1, which means they do not give schools credit for the crucial work they do with pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2.

Assessments form a fundamental part of a child’s education and many teachers already routinely assess children when they start the reception year to inform their teaching and identify where extra support is needed.

Today’s announcement is part of wider plans to create an excellent primary assessment system and will build on the progress already being made in schools across England, with 1.9 million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010.

School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said:

A good primary education lays the foundations for success at secondary school and beyond, so it is right that we help make sure every child reaches their potential from the moment they start their education.

This quick, simple assessment will us help to capture the progress that children make throughout primary school and provides a fairer measure for school accountability. I would encourage teachers and headteachers to work with us through the trials and pilot to make sure we get the assessment and measures right.

Academic standards are rising thanks to the hard work of teachers and our reforms. Our young readers are among the best in the world, the proportion of primary pupils reaching the expected standards in reading, writing and maths is up 8 percentage points and the attainment gap has narrowed by 10.5% since 2011.

Ahead of the assessment being rolled out to all schools by the end of 2020, the NFER will, subject to final contracts, work closely with teachers across the country to ensure the check is age-appropriate for reception year pupils. It will not be used to judge, label or track individual pupils.

The Department for Education has also confirmed today that:

• When the baseline is fully established, Key Stage 1 assessments will become non-statutory for first and infant schools and, at the same time, they will become non-statutory for all-through primaries;
• From 2027, reception to Key Stage 2 progress measures will be published for all-through primary schools, but not for those with a different age range;
• First and infant schools will continue not to have progress measures published. These schools will continue to be responsible for demonstrating the progress their pupils have made to Ofsted and those with an interest in school performance; and
• Middle and junior schools will be in a similar position to first and infant schools with responsibility for evidencing progress based on their own assessment information.

Carole Willis, Chief Executive of NFER said:

We are pleased to have been selected as DfE’s preferred supplier for the new Reception Baseline Assessment. As a not-for-profit organisation, we are committed to projects that will improve education and outcomes for children and young people, such as our recent work on teacher recruitment and retention, and our work on social mobility.

NFER has been developing robust assessments for over 70 years, for use by teachers, schools and government agencies. Our experience in producing a Reception Baseline Assessment in 2015 demonstrated that it is possible to undertake a robust assessment of children’s language, literacy and numeracy skills at this age. Reception children enjoy taking our assessment – which involves using resources such as counting teddy bears, plastic shapes and picture sequencing cards, reflecting familiar classroom practice.

This new assessment is intended to be a cohort level measure, rather than an individual pupil measure. Introducing such a measure at the start of reception allows the huge contribution that schools make to children’s progress in the first three years of school to be properly recognised.

The introduction of the reception baseline assessment, which is supported, in principle, by the National Association of Headteachers and the Association of School and College Leaders, follows an extensive public consultation and is part of wider changes to the primary assessment system which focus on pupil progress, mastering literacy and numeracy, and scrapping unnecessary workload for teachers. Following the consultation, the government confirmed it would:

• Improve the early years foundation stage profile, including revising the early learning goals to better prepare children for year 1 and reviewing the assessment guidance and process to reduce teacher workload and allow teachers to use their professional judgments;
• Remove some of the wider burdens on teachers, including making Key Stage 1 tests and assessments non-statutory from 2023 and remove the requirement for schools to submit teacher assessment data to the government for reading and maths at the end of Key Stage 2, as these subjects are already assessed through statutory tests, from 2018-19;
• Introduce a multiplication tables check to aid children’s fluency in mathematics from 2019-20; and
• Improve teacher assessment of English writing by giving teachers greater scope to use their professional judgement when assessing pupils at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 from the current academic year (2017-18).

Updated: Summary of responses added.