Operating as Plymouth Skip Hire, Calam was paid to dispose of waste but instead tipped it on a farmer’s land

A man who bit off a piece of his victim’s ear has had his sentence increased after the Solicitor General appealed it for being too low.

Leon Smith attacked his victim, who was known to him, while he sat in his parked car in July 2016. Smith opened the driver’s door and shouted at the victim to get out and when the victim refused the offender kicked the victim in the mouth. Smith then kicked the car door and reached in and grabbed the victim’s face and forced his thumb into the victim’s eye. The victim was able to force the offender’s hand away and at that point the offender bit the victim’s ear, ripping off a piece of the ear.

Smith was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and originally sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment suspended for 2 years at Lewes Crown Court. Today, after the Solicitor General’s action, the sentence was increased by the Court of Appeal to 4 years and 8 months immediate custody.

Speaking after the hearing the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, said:

“This was a vicious attack on a defenceless victim which will have lasting consequences. I am pleased that the Court has today increased Smith’s sentence and I hope it brings some comfort to his victim.”

The Annual Safety Review for 2017 contains information on the AAIB’s activity during 2017 and includes an overview of the 29 Safety Recommendations and Safety Actions published in the 39 field and 220 correspondence investigation reports during the year.

It also includes statistical information on the accident causal factors established by AAIB investigations across the aviation industry. To complement this, there is an AAIB general aviation fatal accident review which looks at the causal trends and has links to further research papers, regulatory advice and other useful sources of information for the private aviator. There is also an article on human factors in accident investigation and how the AAIB is developing its capability in this important field.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid today (14 March 2018) set out an ambitious long-term plan of action to tackle the root causes of poor integration and create a stronger, more united Britain.

The Integrated Communities Strategy green paper, to which £50 million will be committed over the next 2 years, seeks views on the government’s bold proposals to boost English language skills, increase opportunities for more women to enter the workplace, and promote British values and meaningful discussion between young people.

Britain is on the whole, a well-integrated society, with 85% of people reporting a feeling of belonging strongly to Britain.

But the evidence, including Dame Louise Casey’s independent review into opportunity and integration, overwhelmingly points to a significant number of communities being divided along race, faith or socio-economic lines.

This reduces opportunities for people to mix with others from different backgrounds, allows mistrust and misunderstanding to grow, and prevents those living in isolated communities from taking advantage of the opportunities that living in Britain offers.

The strategy sets out a range of actions the government plans to take to bring divided communities together, including:

Boosting English language skills

We are proposing a new strategy to promote adoption of the English language across all communities in England, including a new community-based English language programme, a new network of conversation clubs, and support for local authorities to improve the provision of English language tuition for those who need it most.

Increasing economic opportunity, particularly for women

Jobcentre Plus will trial new approaches to support people from some of the most isolated communities into work through personalised skills training to address their individual needs.

Ensure that every child receives an education that prepares them for life in modern Britain

New proposals to ensure young people have the opportunity to mix and form lasting relationships with those from different backgrounds, promotion of British Values across the curriculum and increased take up of the national citizen service.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Britain can rightly claim to be one of the most successful diverse societies in the world. But we cannot ignore the fact that in too many parts of our country, communities are divided, preventing people from taking full advantage of the opportunities that living in modern Britain offers.

Successive governments have refused to deal with the integration challenges we face head on, preferring to let people muddle along and live isolated and separated lives.

We will put an end to this through our new strategy which will create a country that works for everyone, whatever their background and wherever they come from. Integration challenges are not uniform throughout the country, with different areas and communities having varying needs.

The government will work with 5 ‘Integration Areas’ to develop local integration plans: Blackburn with Darwen; Bradford; Peterborough; Walsall and Waltham Forest.

These 5 local authorities have already demonstrated a keen grasp of the challenges they face and shown a desire to try new things and learn from what works. Learning from these areas about what works – and, just as importantly, what doesn’t work – will be shared more widely as the programme develops.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

We want to make sure that all children learn the values that underpin our society – including fairness, tolerance and respect. These are values that help knit our communities together, which is why education is at the heart of this strategy.

It’s also important that children are taught in a safe environment and that we can act quickly if children are at risk or being encouraged to undermine these values. Together, with Ofsted and communities across the country, we will build on the work already underway to achieve this.

We want to start a debate on the Integrated Communities Strategy, to find the most effective ways to address integration challenges. The consultation will run for 12 weeks to 5 June 2018.

Further measures included as part of the Integrated Communities Strategy:

Building stronger leadership

The strategy calls on leaders in national and local government, business and civil society to ensure all services have a strong focus on integration.

We will provide a package of practical information for recent migrants in our integration areas to better help them understand and navigate British life, values and culture. We will also improve communities’ ability to adapt to migration and manage pressures on local services and amenities in order to promote more effective integration.

Respecting and promoting equal rights

The strategy sets out new measures to empower marginalised women, including exploring reform of the law on marriage and religious weddings. We will support training of faith leaders to practice in the British context understanding British culture and shared values. We will also strengthen action to tackle hate crime and encourage greater reporting of incidents.

Building vibrant communities

An Integration Innovation Fund will be introduced to allow organisations to bid to test out new approaches to bring people from different backgrounds together and we will make better use of shared community spaces such as parks and libraries.

See the Integrated Communities Strategy.

To deliver the vision set out in this strategy we recognise that we need to talk to individuals and communities to hear what they think the key issues are and how communities and local and national government can tackle them. The consultation period will run for 12 weeks.

85% of respondents felt that they belonged ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ strongly to Britain. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Community Life Survey 2016-17.

Fertilisers

EN16962:2018 – Fertilizers – Extraction of water soluble micro-nutrients in fertilizers and removal of organic compounds from fertilizer extracts

Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 relates to fertilisers placed on the EU market and designated as an ‘EC fertiliser’. The Regulation states that the content of one or more of the micro-nutrients boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, or zinc present in specified types of fertilisers shall be declared where certain conditions are fulfilled. The sampling and analysis methods shall, wherever possible, be taken from European Standards.

EN 16962 describes a method for extracting water soluble forms of boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc from mineral fertilisers containing one or more micro-nutrients. The standard also describes a procedure for removing organic compounds from the aqueous extract.

The extracts are analysed for the micro-nutrients using the analytical method described in EN16963 – Fertilizers – Determination of boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc using ICP-AES or EN 16965 – Fertilizers – Determination of cobalt, copper, iron, manganese and zinc using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS).

EN 16964:2018 – Fertilizers – Extraction of total micro-nutrients in fertilizers using aqua regia

EN 16964 describes a method for the total extraction of boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc into aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid in a molar ratio 1:3) from mineral fertilisers containing one or more micro-nutrients.

The extracts are analysed for the micro-nutrients using the analytical method described in EN16963 – Fertilizers – Determination of boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc using ICP-AES or EN 16965 – Fertilizers – Determination of cobalt, copper, iron, manganese and zinc using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS).

This sampling method can also be used to extract contaminants such as cadmium, chromium, nickel, lead, arsenic and mercury that may be present in mineral fertilisers and could pose a risk to health and the environment.

The extracts are analysed for contaminants using the analytical methods described in EN16319 – Fertilizers and liming materials. Determination of cadmium, chromium, lead and nickel by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) after aqua regia dissolution, EN16317 – Fertilizers and liming materials. Determination of arsenic by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) after aqua regia dissolution and EN16320 – Fertilizers and liming materials. Determination of mercury by vapour generation (VG) after aqua regia dissolution.

EN 16963:2018 – Fertilizers – Determination of boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc using ICP-AES

EN 16963 describes an analytical method for the determination of boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc in aqueous or acid extracts of fertilisers using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES).

Where only traces of organic matter are present in the extract, it is considered unnecessary in most cases to apply the procedure for removing organic compounds.

EN 16965:2018 – Fertilizers – Determination of cobalt, copper, iron, manganese and zinc using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS)

EN 16965 describes an analytical method for the determination of boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc in aqueous or acid extracts using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS).

Where only traces of organic matter are present in the extract, it is considered not necessary in most cases to apply the procedure for removing organic compounds.

EN 16962, 16964, 16963 and 16965 have been developed in accordance with European Commission Mandate M/335 to prepare standards for methods of analysis in the field of animal nutrition part II, implementing the framework of Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.

Animal feed

EN 17053:2018 – Animal feeding stuffs: Methods of sampling and analysis – Determination of trace elements, heavy metals and other elements in feed by ICP-MS (multi-method).

The elemental composition of animal feed additives and pre-mixtures is required to be known for the purposes of authorisation of certain feed additive compounds under EU legislation.

Trace elements are elements such as iron, copper, zinc, manganese, cobalt and selenium, present in small amounts and important for maintaining the metabolism of biological systems. The term heavy metal generally refers to any metallic element that has a relatively high density and toxicity at low concentrations and includes arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, thallium and uranium.

EN 17053 describes the extraction of arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, mercury, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, thallium, uranium and zinc from animal feeds using pressure digestion with nitric acid and determination by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).

For the extraction of lead from animal feeds containing phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolinite clay) it is specified that wet digestion with nitric acid is used instead of pressure digestion and determined by ICP-MS.

EN 17053 has been developed in accordance with European Commission Mandate M/522 to prepare standards for methods of analysis in the field of animal nutrition, implementing the framework of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.

Food

EN 12014-2:2017 – Foodstuffs – Determination of nitrate and/or nitrite content – Part 2: HPLC/IC method for the determination of nitrate content of vegetables and vegetable products

EN 12014-2:2017 supersedes EN 12014-2:1997 and describes an updated analytical method where nitrate is extracted from vegetables and vegetable products into water and determined either by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a ultra-violet (UV) detector or by ion-exchange liquid chromatography (IC) with a conductivity detector or UV detector.

The existing HPLC/IC procedures have been improved and revalidated to obtain new precision data. The method is now considered applicable to vegetables and vegetable products having a nitrate content of 25 mg/kg or greater.

This method is also considered as suitable for also determining the nitrite content in vegetables and vegetable products but has not been validated.

EN 12014-2 is a standard for the determination of food contaminants implementing the framework of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules.

Further information on food legislation can be found on the document collection: Food and Feed Law. legislation review