Lorraine has extensive experience in senior roles across a range of international companies and high-profile public sector organisations, including Thames Water, the Olympic Delivery Authority and London and Continental Railways Ltd. As Chair of Sellafield Ltd, Lorraine will report directly to David Peattie.

In her role as Chair of the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Council, Lorraine Baldry has already gained valuable experience of working within the nuclear industry.

David Peattie said:

I am extremely pleased to welcome Lorraine as Chair of the Sellafield Ltd Board. Her contribution will be valuable to Sellafield Ltd, as it continues to make progress in cleaning up the hazards left from the earliest days of the UK’s nuclear industry.

Her unique blend of experience, from a diverse range of organisations in the private and public sector, will help Sellafield provide a continued focus on safety while making decommissioning progress and delivering value for the UK taxpayer.

Lorraine Baldry said:

I am privileged to be given this opportunity, as Chair of Sellafield Ltd, to help the organisation in its mission to clean up some of the most complex nuclear facilities in Europe.

The next few years will be an important time for Sellafield as we look towards the end of nuclear fuel reprocessing and making accelerated progress in decommissioning and hazard reduction.

Mr Tariq Hussain, aged 34 years of Livesy Street, Rochdale, Lancashire, was, on 16 April 2018, fined £600 and ordered to pay £1999 compensation at Manchester Crown Court, having pleaded guilty to 3 charges of providing unregulated immigration advice.

Mr Hussain was the company director of Immigration Assistance Services Ltd, Milkstone Road, Rochdale where clients met him to discuss their immigration issues. Mr Hussain had misrepresented his company as being qualified to provide immigration advice and services by virtue of being supervised by a number of unqualified persons. Mr Hussain stated he had been provided supervision at any one time by three companies, including one based in Malta, another in Peterborough and a London firm headed by a lawyer based in Romania. The prosecution was brought by the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner as the claimed supervision was a sham. Despite this being highlighted to Tariq Hussain, he, nonetheless, chose to continue to seek to provide immigration advice whilst exploiting ‘Surinder Singh’ applications to the Irish authorities.

In sentencing, HHJ Lawton, said, “You set up a company providing immigration advice and by your plea today acknowledge your neglect in the supervision claimed. You put an artificial gloss on your claim to supervision to enable your company to provide immigration advice. You have pleaded guilty and I bear in mind persons have lost money”

Speaking about the decision, the Deputy Immigration Services Commissioner, Ian Leigh, said, “We have clear standards outlining what we expect in terms of the fitness and competence of regulated advisers. Tariq Hussain chose to operate outside the law. I am delighted with the outcome of this case, and I hope this sends a clear message to other people considering providing immigration advice under sham supervision arrangements. Either act within the law or you will find yourself in court.”

On 4 April 2018 the regulator opened a statutory inquiry into the charity over concerns about its handling, reporting and response to serious allegations of misconduct and harassment involving senior staff members in 2012 and 2015.

Among the issues under inquiry is the extent to which the trustees have ensured that any misconduct allegations, complaints or incidents received by the charity since 1 January 2016 have been appropriately handled.

The Commission would like to hear from anyone with information which is relevant to the inquiry including misconduct allegations, complaints or incidents involving the charity and has set up a dedicated email address for anyone wishing to contact or submit evidence to the inquiry. The email address is savethechildreninquiry@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk.

The inquiry is confined to the issues of safeguarding in the context of misconduct and harassment of the charity’s staff; it is not examining safeguarding in the context of the charity’s programme delivery for beneficiaries.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see the about us page on GOV.UK.
2. Search for charities on our check charity tool.

Revised assessment arrangements for GCSE computer science will continue for the 2020 exam series, Ofqual announced today (Friday 20 April).

At the start of this year, and following consultation, we changed the assessment arrangements for GCSE computer science. We announced that, for students taking exams in 2018 or 2019, their grades would be based on their exam performance alone. We changed the arrangements because of evidence that the confidentiality of at least some of the tasks required by some of the exam boards had been compromised.

We are now advising teachers that the same arrangements will stand for students who start studying the subject this September and take their exams in 2020. They will be formally assessed only by exam. These students must still complete a task set by their respective exam board, but this will not be formally marked.

Students may be given a choice of which non-exam task to complete by their exam board. The tasks support the curriculum requirements for the course, notably the opportunity to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills involved in programming. Schools and colleges must, therefore, confirm to their exam board that they have set aside the required amount of time for students to complete a task and given them the opportunity to do so.

Teachers will be able to use the non-exam task to consolidate students’ understanding and programming skills in a practical context. While the exam boards might change the conditions under which the task is completed and/or give a greater prominence in their exam papers to questions drawing on students’ programming experience, students’ grades will be based on their exam performance alone.

Sally Collier, Chief Regulator, said: “We want to give teachers early notice of this decision so that that they can begin preparations ahead of the summer. We hope that this confirmation is helpful for schools and colleges in planning for the next academic year.”

In our decision on the assessment arrangements for 2018 and 2019 we explained we would consider options for the longer-term that would support the curriculum intentions and provide a valid means of assessment. As well as considering the feedback on longer term options we received in response to our consultation, we are gathering more input and evidence from stakeholders on this issue. We will also evaluate how the new arrangements work in practice and consider how the arrangement for GCSE computer science fits in with the UK Digital Strategy.

Later this year, we intend to invite computer science teachers to provide feedback on the new arrangements and to consult on any proposals for the longer term. This extended timetable will allow us to consider a full range of options.