Jun282017

Press release: Seven year ban for London restauranteur

HM Government

On the second day of his disqualification trial , Yingji Li, the director of Mandarin Kitchen Limited, gave an undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which prevents him from becoming directly or indirectly involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for seven years from 30 June 2017.

Mandarin went into liquidation on 22 April 2014 owing £394,267 to creditors.

The Insolvency Service’s investigation concluded that Mr Li caused Mandarin to employ two illegal workers. He also caused the company to fail to submit returns or payments to HMRC in respect of VAT, PAYE and NIC, with at least £191,748 being owed to HMRC at the date of liquidation.

Commenting on the disqualification, Robert Clarke, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

The Insolvency Service will work with other government agencies to take robust action against company directors who fail to comply with the law. In this case, Mr Li disregarded both immigration and taxation legislation and has therefore been disqualified for a significant period. He will also have to meet the legal costs of the proceedings against him.

Notes to editors

Mandarin Kitchen Limited (CRO No.08421507) was incorporated on 27 February 2013. Mandarin operated eight restaurants in London, its registered office being at 88 Kingsway, London WC2B 6AA.

Mr Li (date of birth 10 November 1988) was the sole formally appointed director between 27 February 2013 and liquidation. Mandarin went into Liquidation on 22 April 2014.

On 9 June 2017 the Secretary of State accepted a Disqualification Undertaking from Mr Li effective from 30 June 2017, for seven years.

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. Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service).

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.

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Jun282017

Investing in poor children saves more lives per dollar spent, UNICEF study finds

United Nations

28 June 2017 – Investing in the health and survival of the most deprived children and communities provides more value for money than investing in less deprived groups, saving almost twice as many lives for every $1 million spent, according to a new study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

&#8220The evidence is compelling: Investing in the poorest children is not only right in principle, it is also right in practice &#8211 saving more lives for every dollar spent,&#8221 said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake in a press release on the study, titled Narrowing the Gaps.

The study backs up an unconventional prediction UNICEF made in 2010: the higher cost of reaching the poorest children would be outweighed by greater results.

&#8220This is critical news for governments working to end all preventable child deaths at a time when every dollar counts,&#8221 Mr. Lake said, noting that investing equitably in children’s health also helps break intergenerational cycles of poverty and gives them a better chance of learning more in school and earning more as an adult.

The evidence is compelling: Investing in the poorest children is not only right in principle, it is also right in practice &#8211 saving more lives for every dollar spent

The study analysed new data from the 51 countries where around 80 per cent of all newborn and under-five deaths occur. It assessed access to six high-impact maternal, newborn and child health interventions: the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, early initiation of breastfeeding, antenatal care, full vaccination, the presence of a skilled birth attendant during delivery, and seeking care for children with diarrhea, fever or pneumonia.

Findings show that improvements in coverage of life-saving interventions among poor groups helped decrease child mortality in these countries nearly three times faster than among non-poor groups. Also, interventions in poor groups proved 1.8 times more cost-effective in terms of lives saved.

The study also found that since birth rates were higher among the poor than the non-poor, the reduction in the under-five mortality rate in poor communities translated into 4.2 times more lives saved for every million people.

Further, it found that of the 1.1 million lives saved across the 51 countries during the final year studied for each country, nearly 85 per cent were among the poor.

Focus on poor children made a difference in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malawi

The study lists Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Malawi as some of the countries with high rates of under-five mortality where focus on the most deprived has made a difference for children. Between 1990 and 2015, under-five mortality decreased by half in Afghanistan and by 74 per cent in Bangladesh and Malawi.

The findings come at a critical time, as governments continue their work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which set a target of ending all preventable deaths among newborns and children under the age of five by 2030. Unless progress on reducing child mortality accelerates, by 2030 almost 70 million children will die before reaching their fifth birthday.

The study calls on countries to take practical steps to reduce inequities, including: disaggregating data to identify the children being left behind; investing more in proven interventions to prevent and treat the biggest killers of children; strengthening health systems to make quality care more widely available; innovating to find new ways of reaching the unreached; and monitoring equity gaps using household surveys and national information systems.