News story: Digital Outcomes and Specialists 1 expires on 2 September 2017

If you’re a buyer and you published requirements on the framework before 24 February 2017, you need to award the contract to the successful supplier before 2 September.

You’ll need to use the Digital Outcomes and Specialists 1 call-off contract.

You’re not affected by the expiry of Digital Outcomes and Specialists 1 if you published requirements on the Digital Marketplace before 24 February and have signed the contract with the successful supplier.

If you published your requirements on the Digital Marketplace on or after 24 February, you will continue to award your contracts using the Digital Outcomes and Specialists 2 call-off contract.

Email enquiries@digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk if you have any questions.



Press release: Ciarán Maxwell sentencing

Speaking after the sentence was delivered, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

I pay tribute to the police and other agencies in successfully bringing this case before the courts. This has undoubtedly saved lives.

A large volume of dangerous material was seized and this significant jail sentence is an indication of the harm that this individual posed.



News story: Merchant ordered to pay £4,700 for buying fish while unregistered

Lancashire company pleads guilty to buying fish without appropriate MMO registration

Representatives of Dockside Ltd, a company that owns a wet fish shop in Fleetwood, Lancashire, were ordered to pay £4,715.27 by Blackpool Magistrates Court on 26 July 2017.

The company pleaded guilty to purchasing first-sale fish directly from a fishing boat other than as a registered buyer, contrary to regulation 8 of the Registration of Fish Buyers and Sellers and Designation of Fish Auction Sites Regulations 2005.

The court heard how the Marine Management Organisation acted after being made aware the company had been purchasing fish from a number of vessels without being a registered buyer with the MMO. Upon investigation marine officers found the company had purchased £18,487 of fish between April 2014 and September 2016 while being an unregistered buyer of first-sale fish.

The company was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay an additional £2,545.27 in costs and a victim surcharge of £170.

The Registered Buyers and Sellers Scheme is designed to help ensure that fish is traceable from net to plate and to monitor and protect fish stocks. The MMO has produced a guide on the regulations for buying and selling fish.



Press release: Foreign Secretary calls for urgent action from Venezuelan government

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said:

Venezuela stands on the brink of disaster and Nicholas Maduro’s government must stop before it is too late. The country is turning on itself – more than 100 have died already – and democracy and basic rights are in jeopardy. The dubious Constituent Assembly vote has dramatically deepened the problems and ramped up tensions. It is time for the government to see sense and start working with the opposition on a way forward that brings the people of Venezuela back together.

Further information



News story: Keeping Kids Company

A spokesperson for the Insolvency Service said:

We can confirm that the Insolvency Service has written to the former directors of Keeping Kids Company informing them that the Business Secretary intends to bring proceedings to have them disqualified from running or controlling companies for periods of between two-and-a-half and six years.

As this matter will now be tested in the Court it is not appropriate to comment further.

  • The intention to bring disqualification proceedings follow an investigation by the Insolvency Service, an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
  • The proceedings will name all nine former directors; Sunetra Devi Atkinson, Erica Jane Bolton, Richard Gordonn Handover, Vincent Gerald O’Brien, Francesca Mary Robinson, Jane Tyler, Andrew Webster and Alan Yentob. The former chief executive Camila Batmanghelidjh was not formally a director at the time the charity collapsed, however the proceedings will allege that she acted as a de facto director and should therefore also be disqualified from running or controlling other companies