A six-year-old boy from Bristol who raised over £280,000 for NHS charities has been awarded the Prime Minister’s daily Point of Light today.

Frank Mills, who has spina bifida, is following in the footsteps of his hero Captain Tom by walking every day to raise money for the NHS. Frank’s initial fundraising target of £99 – in honour of Captain Tom’s age when he began – has been met nearly 3,000 times over. Having learned to walk only 18 months ago, Frank continues to walk every day.

In a personal letter to Frank, the Prime Minister said:

Every day I say thank you to someone in our country for doing something special. And today I want to say thank you to you! Your daily walks are an amazing fundraising feat.

I know you have watched Captain Tom on the television and I think you are brave and brilliant just like him.

Well done and thank you for all you have achieved for our wonderful NHS.

Reacting to the Prime Minister’s announcement, the Mills family said:

What started as a very simple, spur of the moment response to seeing Captain Tom Moore do his fundraising walk, with the hope of raising £99, has become an incredible amount of money raised for an excellent charity by people very generously responding to Frank’s effort. As a family we’ve been utterly overwhelmed not only by the amount of money given but by the lovely messages of support and encouragement left on his Just Giving page. We feel thanks really should go to all those who made it happen!

And Frank’s response was:

Cool!

The Prime Minister’s UK daily Point of Light award was first launched in April 2014 to recognise outstanding individuals making a difference where they live. Frank is the 1367th person to be recognised. As Britain unites to fight the spread of coronavirus, the award is focusing exclusively on people serving their community through the pandemic.

1. The United Kingdom aligns itself with the Group B statement. We commend H.E. Ambassador Zniber, the Chairman of the WIPO General Assemblies, H.E. Ambassador Rivasseau, the Chair of the Coordination Committee, Dr Francis Gurry, WIPO Director General, and all other colleagues who have made it possible for this important session of the WIPO Assemblies to proceed in these unique and unprecedented times.

2. We would like to take this opportunity to thank DG Gurry for his long lasting dedication to intellectual property in general and to the World Intellectual Property Organization in particular. We look forward to reflecting fully upon the twelve years of his leadership and accomplishments during the sixty-first series of meetings of WIPO Assemblies scheduled for September 2020.

3. This delegation would like to congratulate Mr Daren Tang on his election and appointment as the next Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization. This is an important moment, commencing a transition period from one leadership of this organisation to another. In this regard, the UK wishes to thank the chairs and vice-chairs of the General Assembly and the Coordination Committee, Director General Gurry, as well as the WIPO Legal Counsel and his team for guiding us through the electoral process.

4. The decisions made during this transition period will inevitably affect the functioning of the organisation under the new leadership. Therefore, we anticipate that the DG Elect will participate in discussions to enable a smooth transition on 1 October and ensure that this important organisation functions well in the years to come.

5. The UK delegation sees numerous challenges and opportunities going forward. The fundamental elements underlying the success of the WIPO are keeping the organisation, the international IP system and the IP narrative fit for purpose.

6. Fit for purpose for businesses to secure international protection effectively. We wish to engage in a discussion on a vision of the international IP system in 10 years and beyond. This includes clear pathways that enable services to be provided digitally from end-to end, as well as enhancing document-sharing services like the DAS. The current COVID-19 crisis poses both challenges as well as opportunities in this sense.

7. Fit for purpose for a robust IP narrative that informs complex discourse on global innovation and creativity. We call for a strong WIPO engagement strategy encompassing the use of its convening power as well as its knowledge base and resources. In our view, this will help deliver on the organisation’s core mandate “to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world” for both IP stakeholders and global decision makers.

8. Fit for purpose for practitioners and policy makers around the globe to develop sound policies and advice. The UK welcomes the efforts so far on understanding the impact of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies relating to intellectual property. This delegation wishes to continue and strengthen this work stream going forward.

9. Fit for purpose for Member States and the organisational structure to govern the WIPO well. We will continue to stress the importance of the principles of accountability, transparency, ethics, independence, as well as efforts to minimise the organisation’s environmental footprint. Likewise, we wish to discuss the current structure of WIPO committees and potential improvements.

10. The UK wishes Mr. Tang great success in his new role as Director General and looks forward to cooperating closely with him and his team in the coming six years.

One million face masks have been intercepted at East Midlands Airport, as part of a zero-tolerance approach towards unsafe PPE that will not reliably protect those working at the frontline of the coronavirus crisis.

The Government is working hard to ensure the right PPE goes to the right healthcare workers as quickly as possible; whilst using intelligence-based intervention to keep products that will not protect out of the marketplace.

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), within BEIS, examined an estimated one million face masks in a batch of consignments at East Midlands airport.

OPSS detained 700,000 suspect face masks, based on assessments of their quality, marking, certification and documentation. Masks and other items that could be shown to be safe were released for immediate use, including by businesses working at the frontline such as care homes.

OPSS is coordinating intelligence across the UK’s ports and borders and has deployed an enforcement team to East Midlands Airport in response to information from Border Force.

OPSS Chief Executive Graham Russell said:

We are committed to supporting legitimate businesses who are working hard to increase the supply of PPE to health and social care settings. But anyone setting out to supply unsafe PPE, with fake certification and false safety marks, needs to know we take a zero-tolerance approach.

We will use all necessary enforcement powers to make sure unsafe PPE does not enter the supply chain and will take action against importers who set out to flout important safety rules.

OPSS has seen a rise in intelligence relating to PPE products including sales of non-compliant or counterfeit face masks and hand sanitisers, being sold online, in shops and at markets.

300,000 items from the consignment have been cleared by OPSS personnel, actively protecting health workers against the pandemic. Unsafe PPE that cannot be re-worked or used safely in another setting will be quarantined or destroyed.

In notes

• OPSS has been working closely at East Midlands Airport with the Health and Safety Executive, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and Leicestershire Trading Standards

• OPSS put in place two regulatory easement routes from 26 March, which maintain essential safety requirements, but streamline administrative processes to speed up supply of PPE to the NHS and other essential workers.

• For Government purchases for the NHS, PPE can be supplied without CE marking or conformity assessment, provided it meets essential safety requirements and is cleared by the Health and Safety Executive.

• As a result, manufacturers going through the approval process for sale or donation to the NHS can have new PPE approved in weeks rather than the months or years it can take under the normal system. In one example, a leading company (Apple) has gained regulatory approval for a new face mask with support from OPSS officials in just 10 days.

• Authorities in the Netherlands recalled 600,000 defective face masks manufactured in China.