I would like to welcome Ambassador Davenport back to the Permanent Council. Thank you to you and your team for this comprehensive report, which provides a helpful summary of developments and activities over the reporting period.

The UK highly appreciates the work of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, its close engagement with government institutions, municipalities, and civil society, and its delivery of important initiatives across the three core pillars of its mandate.

In particular, I would highlight the Mission’s work in contributing to the development of government strategies on Preventing and Countering Terrorism, and on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Communities.  We also commend the work of the Mission in supporting reviews of 22 draft legal and policy documents for compliance with international human rights standards; and in launching the “Protection of Cultural Heritage in Kosovo” Report in July. The UK also particularly values the Mission’s important ongoing work to implement activities focused on tackling domestic and gender-based violence.

The UK notes the increased tensions in late July – highlighted in the Report – around the introduction of new measures on car number plates, and entry and exit documentation. The UK welcomes the subsequent agreement between Serbia and Kosovo on ID documentation, which we strongly support. We continue to encourage both parties to engage constructively to resolve outstanding issues, and to refrain from any inflammatory rhetoric which may increase tensions between communities and reduce the chances of constructive progress.

The UK – alongside our international partners – continues to strongly support the EU-facilitated Dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, and the need for a comprehensive, conclusive, legally binding agreement, which is acceptable to the citizens of both countries and will deliver long-term benefits to them and to the whole region. We value the continued work of EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajčák, including through his visit to Pristina and Belgrade on the 9th of September, outlined in detail in this Report.

Mr Chair, the United Kingdom remains a long-standing and strong supporter of Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state. In this context, we value and appreciate the Mission’s renewed commitment to its work to strengthen Kosovo’s institutions.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you, Ambassador Davenport, for your leadership of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo during this reporting period, and your team for their continued commitment, hard work and expertise.

Thank you, Mr Chair.

Abul Kalam, 48, from Birmingham, has been disqualified as a company director for seven years after being unable to explain over £400,000 of his restaurant’s income and expenditure after his business folded, including £35,000 he claimed through the Bounce Back Loan (BBL) scheme during the Covid pandemic.

Abul Kalam was the sole director of Choose Chilli Ltd which ran Mehfil’s restaurant in Pembroke’s Main Street shopping arcade until 2021.

During the Covid lockdown in 2020, Choose Chilli Ltd applied for and received a £25,000 Bounce Back Loan. These were government-backed loans introduced to support businesses impacted by the pandemic. The company received a further £10,000 top-up BBL in March 2021 but ceased trading and went into voluntary liquidation in July 2021, owing almost £70,000.

Investigators at the Insolvency Service discovered that both the £25,000 BBL payment and the £10,000 top-up loan had been transferred into a bank account in Kalam’s name the day after the money had arrived in Choose Chilli’s bank account.

Under the rules of the BBL scheme, money borrowed had to be used for the economic benefit of the business but Kalam provided no evidence that any of the £35,000 had been used to support Choose Chilli, and the amount remained outstanding when the restaurant went into liquidation.

On further investigation, the company’s bank account showed that more than £178,000 – in addition to the BBL money – was paid into the restaurant and more than £241,000 was separately paid out between December 2019 and July 2021 – a period that included extended Covid lockdowns and restrictions.

Kalam was unable to prove that the transactions were legitimate sales and business expenditure, as he had failed to retain adequate invoices or records to verify the amounts.

The restaurant-owner’s inadequate book-keeping meant investigators were also unable to establish how much money was owed to HMRC in tax and national insurance.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Abul Kalam, after he didn’t dispute that he had caused Choose Chilli Ltd to obtain a Bounce Bank Loan and a BBL top-up loan totalling £35,000 and failed to ensure the funds were used for the economic benefit of Choose Chilli’s business, which was a breach of the terms of the BBL.

He also didn’t dispute he had failed to ensure Choose Chilli kept adequate accounting records – a legal duty of company directors.

His disqualification is effective from 30 September 2022 and will last for seven years.

The disqualification undertaking prevents Kalam from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Lawrence Zussman, Deputy Head of Company Investigations at the Insolvency Service, said:

Abul Kalam has justifiably been removed from the business environment for a significant period and his disqualification should serve as a reminder to others that the Insolvency Service will not hesitate in taking appropriate action.

Notes to editors

Abul Kalam’s date of birth is July 1974.

Choose Chilli Ltd (Company Reg no. 09903418). The Company traded as Choose Chilli.

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 authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, 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.

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

A new independent review has published its recommendations on how landlords, tenants and government can work together to deliver a resilient and productive agricultural tenanted sector.

The Rock Review was commissioned by Defra in January to look at how to provide better support to tenant farmers and tenancies as the government seeks to drive growth and sustainability across the farming sector and rural communities. The Tenancy Working Group, who produced the report, consisted of stakeholders from all parts of the tenanted sector including tenants, landlords and agents.

Published today, the review is clear on the essential role of tenant farmers in delivering our environmental targets, food security, and a growing rural economy. With tenant farmers being stewards on holdings that cover more than half of farmable land in England, this group of farmers need to have access to government schemes.

The review makes a series of recommendations to government to enable the tenanted sector to deliver sustainable food production, meet the challenges of climate change, and improve and enhance biodiversity. The recommendations cover a range of areas, including public schemes, landlord-tenant relationships and new entrants.

Environment Secretary Ranil Jayawardena said:

I would like to thank Baroness Rock and her team for providing their analysis of the issues and opportunities facing tenant farmers in England.

The review is right to set out the importance of having a thriving tenanted sector if we are to deliver growth in our rural economy and unlock farmers’ potential to improve the environment. We will be looking closely at its recommendations.

As we look at how we best deliver our environmental schemes, we will make sure that the needs of tenant farmers remain central to our plans.

Baroness Kate Rock said:

This review provides a clear vision for the agricultural tenanted sector in England that Defra can and should adopt. The recommendations, when taken together, actively move the sector towards a position where tenant farmers operate resilient, successful, and thriving businesses.

Some recommendations can be more immediately delivered by Defra such as changes to scheme design that would expand the opportunities for tenant farmers to access support for improving the environment alongside producing food.

Other recommendations are more structural. These will put the tenanted sector on a more resilient footing as we move through the agricultural transition. They will encourage tenant farmers and landlords to collaborate and invest in productivity, improve the environment and drive growth in the rural economy.

The Tenancy Working Group was formed to provide tenant farmers and associated stakeholders a further opportunity to make sure the new environmental schemes work within agricultural tenancies.

The government will publish a formal response to the review in due course.