Email is as secure and cheaper than communicating through paper and fax machines, the Health and Social Care Secretary said in a speech at an NHS England conference.

He outlined an ambition for healthcare staff to email patients directly with information on appointments to reduce delays, boost cyber security and cut wastage.

NHS organisations will be able to use any secure email provider – not just NHSMail – if it meets the required security settings. This is so that NHS organisations can choose the best service for their needs and email providers are encouraged to innovate.

The move is part of Matt Hancock’s tech vision for helping NHS organisations to introduce innovative technologies for the benefit of staff and patients.

Digital services and IT systems will soon have to meet a clear set of open standards to ensure they can talk to each other across organisational boundaries and can be continuously upgraded.

Any system that does not meet these standards will be phased out and the government will look to end contracts with providers that do not understand these principles for the health and care sector.

The Health and Social Care Secretary announced a fax machine ban in December 2018. Fax machines have now been removed from the NHS Supply Chain so trusts can no longer buy them.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said:

Having to deal with outdated technology is hugely frustrating for staff and patients alike – and in many cases downright dangerous. A letter lost in the post could be the difference between life and death.

We have signalled the end of archaic fax machines in hospitals and GP practices, and as of this year the NHS will no longer buy them. Our mission now is to make it as easy as possible for GPs to communicate safely and securely with their patients and colleagues.

There is no reason why a doctor cannot email a patient confidentially, for example with their test results or prescription, rather than make them wait days for a letter or ask them to come into the surgery. The rest of the world runs on email – and the NHS should too.

Mr Richard Kerr, Chair of the Royal College of Surgeons Commission on the Future of Surgery, said:

Last year, work undertaken for the RCS’s Commission on the Future of Surgery revealed that NHS hospital trusts own over 8,000 fax machines. This is ludicrous.

We know that digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, genomics and imaging for healthcare, are going to play an increasingly important role in how we deliver patient care.

It is therefore imperative that the NHS uses modern communication channels that are up to the job of transmitting vast amounts of personalised patient information quickly and securely.

The RCS fully supports the health secretary’s ban on fax machines in the NHS.

At approximately 23:45 hrs on Sunday 20 January 2019, a train operated by Northern encountered two track workers who were walking along the Browney Curve on the East Coast main line, South of Durham. The track workers had just set up a work site and were walking with their equipment to get to their place of work. However, because of an earlier planning mistake which went undetected, trains had not been stopped on the line on which the work site had been established. This occurred because the possession (a part of the railway which is closed to traffic to enable engineering works) did not encompass the location of the work.

RAIB was notified of the incident by Network Rail and has carried out a preliminary examination to understand the circumstances and identify whether it provides the potential for significant new safety learning. On the basis of the evidence that was available at the time, the RAIB has decided not to undertake an investigation into this incident.

The RAIB has previously carried out many investigations into accidents and incidents involving track workers, including a class investigation published in 2017.

Following this latest incident, the RAIB has written to Network Rail to remind it of the importance of addressing RAIB’s findings following an investigation into a near miss at Camden Junction South on 28 February 2017. This recommended that Network Rail investigates ways to improve the layout and format of notices publishing the safety arrangements for track workers, with a specific focus on the greater use of diagrams to represent information.

In July 2018 the RAIB published a safety digest into a near miss west of Dundee. This again arose as a result of people not realising that the location of the work, and the location where protection had been planned, were different. In that safety digest, the RAIB re-iterated the learning from the near miss at Camden Junction South.

The implementation of the Camden South Junction recommendation is still in progress. The incident on the Browney Curve serves as a timely reminder of the importance of addressing this recommendation.

In its letter, the RAIB also observed that it would be helpful if new planning tools currently being developed by Network Rail could undertake automatic checks on whether work sites are actually located within the possession to which they are linked. The letter has been copied to the Office of Rail and Road as the safety regulator for the UK railways.

Brian Anderson Snr (61), from Irvine, was appointed a joint director of Anderson Builders Limited in August 2014 before becoming the sole appointed director in June 2015.

Anderson Builders was involved in the construction of commercial buildings but the company’s performance struggled before it had to cease trading in February 2017.

Independent insolvency practitioners were appointed to wind-up the company but were hampered as Anderson Builders had failed to maintain or preserve adequate company records.

Further investigations by the Insolvency Service into the company and the conduct of Brian Anderson while a director confirmed that between August 2014 and February 2017 the company failed to maintain or preserve adequate company records.

This meant that it was impossible for investigators to verify more than £930,000 worth of expenditure from the company’s bank account.

This included receipts worth £286,000 and if they were a true representation of all sales made by the company, details of fixed assets totalling close to £16,000 in the last set of accounts and what was the position of more than £50,000 withdrawn from the Directors Loan Account.

Of the £930,000 worth of expenditure, more than £592,000 remains unexplained, including 36 cheques totalling £26,660 and cash withdrawals worth just under £22,000.

Investigators were also unable to confirm the accuracy of tax assessments submitted by Anderson builders between April 2015 and January 2017, resulting in the tax authorities being owed more than £120,000 in the liquidation of the company.

On 9 January 2019 at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, Sheriff McFarlane granted a disqualification order against Brian Anderson for a period of seven years. Effective from 30 January 2019, Brian Anderson is banned from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

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

“Maintaining proper accounting records is non-negotiable when you are a director of a limited company. But Brian Anderson clearly failed to do this and as a result, we cannot explain the exact nature of thousands of pounds that went through the company or whether a lack of documentation was a cloak for other misconduct.

“Being banned from running companies for seven years is a significant amount of time and Brian Anderson risks a substantial fine or even prison time if he breaches his disqualification.”

Brian Anderson is of Irvine and his date of birth is August 1958

Anderson Builders Limited (Company number SC362713).

The order was pronounced by Sheriff McFarlane in Kilmarnock Sheriff Court. Laura McMillan appeared for the Insolvency Service and a Mr Lynch appeared on behalf of the defendant.

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 administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

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

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

A £9 million cash injection to speed up the locally-led building of new garden towns and villages across the country has been announced today (13 February 2019).

The Garden Communities project is expected to deliver 200,000 properties on large sites by 2050, and the latest funding will help get 21 sites ready for development.

The government project is helping ambitious councils get well-designed homes built on large sites, and the money will help pay for master-planning and technical studies.

Work is already underway on 10,000 properties across the country in garden towns and villages, with 36,000 expected to be underway or completed by 2022.

Housing Minister Kit Malthouse MP said:

We have not built enough homes in this country for the last three decades, and we are turning that around as we work towards our target to build 300,000 properties a year by the mid-2020s.

This £9 million funding boost is giving councils the support and cash injection they need so they can finish planning new developments and get diggers on site.

The developments being funded include a 2,000 home site for custom and self-builders in Bicester, on land purchased by the council from the Ministry of Defence.

It also includes developments in Basingstoke, Didcot, Taunton, Harlow-Gilston and across Northamptonshire where work is already underway on the first phase of developments.

The funding will be administered by Homes England.

England

In England, the December data shows, on average, house prices have risen by 0.3% since November 2018. The annual price rise of 2.3% takes the average property value to £247,886.

The regional data for England indicates that:

• the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber both experienced the greatest monthly price rise, up by 2.0%
• the East of England saw the most significant monthly price fall, down by 1.1%
• the West Midlands experienced the greatest annual price rise, up by 5.2%
• the North East saw the largest annual price fall, down by 1.0%

Price change by region for England

Repossession sales by volume for England

The lowest number of repossession sales in October 2018 was in the East of England.

The highest number of repossession sales in October 2018 was in the North West.

Average price by property type for England

Funding and buyer status for England

Building status for England

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

London

London shows, on average, house prices have risen by 0.1% since November 2018. An annual price fall of 0.6% takes the average property value to £473,822.

Average price by property type for London

Funding and buyer status for London

Building status for London

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Wales

Wales shows, on average, house prices have risen by 0.8% since November 2018. An annual price rise of 5.2% takes the average property value to £161,845.

There were 56 repossession sales for Wales in October 2018.

Average price by property type for Wales

Funding and buyer status for Wales

Building status for Wales

*Figures for the two most recent months are not being published because there are not enough new build transactions to give a meaningful result.

Access the full UK HPI

UK house prices rose by 2.5% in the year to December 2018, down from 2.7% in the year to November 2018.

The UK Property Transaction Statistics for December 2018 showed that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of transactions on residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater was 102,330. This is 3.6% higher compared with a year ago. Between November and December 2018, transactions fell by 0.1%.

House prices grew fastest in Wales and in the West Midlands region, increasing by 5.2% in the year to December 2018. House prices in London fell by 0.6% in the year to December 2018. London house prices have been falling over the year since July 2018.

See the economic statement.

Notes to editors

1. The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The January 2019 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 20 March 2019. See calendar of release dates.

2. We have made some changes to improve the accuracy of the UK HPI. We are not publishing average price and percentage change for new builds and existing resold property as done previously because there are not currently enough new build transactions to provide a reliable result. This means that in this month’s UK HPI reports, new builds and existing resold property are reported in line with the sales volumes currently available.

3. The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.

4. Sales volume data is also available by property status (new build and existing property) and funding status (cash and mortgage) in our downloadable data tables. Transactions involving the creation of a new register, such as new builds, are more complex and require more time to process. Read revisions to the UK HPI data.

5. Revision tables have been introduced for England and Wales within the downloadable data. Tables will be available in csv format. See about the UK HPI for more information.

6. Data for the UK HPI is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency.

7. The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from the ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.

8. The UK Property Transaction statistics are taken from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) monthly estimates of the number of residential and non-residential property transactions in the UK and its constituent countries. The number of property transactions in the UK is highly seasonal, with more activity in the summer months and less in the winter. This regular annual pattern can sometimes mask the underlying movements and trends in the data series so HMRC also presents the UK aggregate transaction figures on a seasonally adjusted basis. Adjustments are made for both the time of year and the construction of the calendar, including corrections for the position of Easter and the number of trading days in a particular month.

9. UK HPI seasonally adjusted series are calculated at regional and national levels only. See data tables.

10. The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three-month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.

11. Work has been taking place since 2014 to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.

12. Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.

13. The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).

14. Repossession sales data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.

15. For England, this is shown as volumes of repossession sales recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales, there is a headline figure for the number of repossession sales recorded in Wales.

16. The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession sales data prior to April 2016 is not available. Find out more information about repossession sales.

17. Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.

18. HM Land Registry’s mission is to guarantee and protect property rights in England and Wales.

19. HM Land Registry is a government department created in 1862. It operates as an executive agency and a trading fund and its running costs are covered by the fees paid by the users of its services. Its ambition is to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

20. HM Land Registry safeguards land and property ownership worth in excess of £4 trillion, including around £1 trillion of mortgages. The Land Register contains more than 25 million titles showing evidence of ownership for some 86% of the land mass of England and Wales.

21. For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry

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