On Thursday the Institute for Collaborative Working presented us with an award under the supply chain category at a ceremony in London.

2020 has been the year we’ve attained ISO44001 certification for our commitment to collaborative working, and we have continued to embed this through the year, successfully navigating third party audits around “living with certification to ISO44001”.

We’ve also seen the continued success of the Programme and Project Partners (PPP), a ground-breaking 20 year partnership that will deliver the major infrastructure needed to complete our mission.

Alan Hartley, head of procurement and supply chain delivery, attended the socially distanced event. He said:

The supply chain is over half of our £2.2 billon annual expenditure – so collaborative working is central to delivering: greater innovation, long term investment and sustainable relationships.

By collaborating we have and continue to learn from our supply chain, we no longer assume we have the ‘best’ solution.

We want to work with them to create and realise mutual value. With long-term partnerships attracting investment and commitment to small and medium sized enterprises and innovation, our supply chain is key to how we will create a clean and safe environment for future generations.

Our entry for the awards highlighted the wide range of collaborative practices we have been involved with – including:

• work by the Decommissioning Delivery Partnership and Legacy Ponds team to develop an effective way of removing waste from tanks so they can be re-sealed
• the introduction of a concrete batcher by PPP, which was procured through our supply chain saving time and money
• links to our communities through our collaborative Social Impact programme, SiX

Collaborative working programme lead, Stephen Scott said:

Developing collaborative working is a key ingredient and a golden thread in support of our manifesto.

The water supply issue at our Cardiff office has now been resolved.

However, we still have very limited numbers in the office due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. This means it’s taking longer than usual to process paper documents, forms and letters.

It’s a particularly busy time at Companies House with many companies due to file annual accounts before their deadline at the end of the month. We’re also preparing for the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December.

Our digital services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. We encourage all customers to file online before your deadline to make sure your documents are processed quickly and on time.

If you cannot file online, please make sure you file your accounts as early as possible to meet your deadline and to avoid a late filing penalty.

The Board, which will meet over the coming weeks to oversee final funding allocations with the administrative support of Sport England, will be formed of:

• Sir Ian Cheshire (Chair), Chairman of Barclays Bank UK PLC
• Lord Patel of Bradford, Chairman of Social Work England
• Denise Lewis, OBE, British sports presenter and Olympic heptathlon gold medalist
• Nick Timothy CBE, non-executive board member of the Department for Education and member of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee
• Ben Dean, Director of Sport, Gambling and Ceremonials, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Tim Hollingsworth, OBE, Chief Executive, Sport England
• Sally Munday MBE, Chief Executive, UK Sport
• Natalie Ceeney CBE, Vice-Chair of Sport England and chair of Innovate Finance

Preliminary allocations announced by the Government last month have been made on a needs based assessment basis and reflect the submissions made to DCMS from the individual sports.

Each sport will now need to go through an application process to access the support they are eligible for under the final design of the scheme, with the final decisions being made by the independent decision-making board. More details will be announced by Sport England in due course.

It is expected that the first tranche of funding will be distributed in the coming weeks.