Preliminary outbreak assessment and updated situation assessments for classical swine fever in Japan.

Farmers and interested parties throughout England will have the chance to shape the future of Environmental Land Management (ELM) by taking part in one of six upcoming online webinars.

Following industry feedback on the disruption caused to the farming community by the coronavirus outbreak in the UK, the government paused the national conversation launched by Environment Secretary George Eustice earlier this year at the NFU conference.

Six webinars have now been set up to ensure that farmers and others in isolation continue to have the opportunity to share their views on the proposed design of three “tiers” of entry, which will enable all farmers and land managers to participate in the new scheme at the right level, and help shape the new scheme.

While farmers are encouraged to sign up to and attend a webinar if they can, a policy discussion document on Citizen Space provides those who can’t attend with the opportunity to respond to the new policy ideas. Their views, experiences and advice will help to ensure the new scheme is co-designed with farmers across the country and does not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Farming Minister, Victoria Prentis, said,

I very much look forward to working with farmers and land managers across the country to develop the future scheme and discuss how it will work on the ground.

Many farmers and land managers are already contributing directly to the co-design of ELM by participating in the ongoing tests and trials and they’re doing great work to explore how the building blocks of the future scheme are put together.

This conversation is a chance for farmers and land managers to have their say and help shape our future approach to farming alongside caring for the environment. I would encourage all those interested to sign up to an event and have their voice heard.

Those interested in attending any event can sign up via Eventbrite, with a full list of the available dates below:

• Wednesday, 1 July – 12:00-1:30 pm
• Tuesday, 7 July – 6:00-7:30 pm
• Thursday, 16 July – 8:30-10:00 am
• Thursday, 23 July – 12:00-1:30 pm
• Tuesday, 28 July – 8:30-10:00 am
• Thursday, 30 July – 6:00-7:30 pm

Farmers looking to get involved in the webinars should also follow Defra on Facebook, as all followers will be notified of the links to sign up to webinars within the events on our page.

The policy document has remained available for review online since it was launched in February. Individuals and organisations that have already submitted a response will also be given the opportunity to review or reconsider this and resubmit their response to the document within the new timeframe for the conversation.

The deadline to share views on the document setting out policy ideas for the new scheme is 31 July 2020.

Six webinars to take place online in July to give farmers across England the chance to discuss and share their views on design of future farming policy

An annual publication on local sites across England in positive conservation.

Alan Gould (53) and Kelley Stewart (48) are each banned for 12 years from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

The pair, both from Manchester, were directors of GEN-X IT LTD, a company incorporated in 2002 and sold computer hardware from premises in Dark Lane, Ardwick, Manchester.

Following complaints of trademark infringements, however, in 2007 the directors signed undertakings on behalf of all parties connected to GEN-X IT that they wouldn’t deal with counterfeit products that hadn’t been manufactured by Cisco or a licensed manufacturer.

By January 2016, GEN-X IT had entered into insolvency proceedings when it was uncovered that the computer trader had for three years bought and sold an estimated 55,000 counterfeit computer products that infringed on the intellectual property rights of Cisco. This was in breach of the undertakings they had previously signed.

Further investigations confirmed that Cisco had established that between January 2013 and January 2016 GEN-X IT bought the Cisco-branded products from a third party, who in-turn had purchased the counterfeit products from China. But these products were not authorised to be sold in the European Economic Area.

And in 2018 Alan Gould and Kelley Stewart accepted that they had infringed Cisco’s trade marks and agreed to pay the vendor a seven-figure settlement penalty.

On 19 May 2020, the Secretary of State accepted disqualification undertakings from Alan Gould and Kelley Stewart after they did not dispute that they had caused or allowed GEN-X IT to trade with a lack of commercial probity. Their bans came into effect on 8 June 2020,

Neil Sheridan, Head of Global Investigations for Cisco’s Brand Protection team, said:

We are grateful to the Insolvency Service for their perseverance in this case, the outcome of which should be a warning to anyone trading in counterfeit products of any sort.

We are committed to tackling both individuals and organisations that recklessly trade in counterfeit Cisco products and create significant risk to critical network infrastructure.

Rob Clarke, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Both Alan Gould and Kelley Stewart were fully aware GEN-X IT was importing and selling computer products that infringed on Cisco’s intellectual property rights, which was a flagrant breach of an undertaking promising they would stop.

Their conduct fell well short of what is expected of company directors. Alan Gould and Kelley Stewart’s substantial disqualifications should serve as a stark warning to those who seek to gain a corporate advantage illegitimately that they could face a lengthy ban from limited liability trading.

Alan Gould is from Manchester and his date of birth is August 1967.

Kelley Stewart is from Manchester and her date of birth is May 1972.

GEN-X IT LTD (Company number: 04480097).

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 restrictions.

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