Register for the 2021 international Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation conference

Register for the 2021 CWD conference

  • Runs from 2 to 4 November 2021
  • Fully virtual event
  • Hear from international experts
  • Opportunities to network and work collaboratively

Registration closes on 29 October

After careful consideration, we have decided to hold CWD 2021 virtually on 2 to 4 November 2021 from 12 noon to 2.30pm GMT daily.

About the conference

The 23rd CWD Conference is organised by Dstl, the science inside UK defence and security, on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. It’s a unique opportunity to hear from international experts and to work collaboratively to help achieve a future free from chemical weapons.

The organisers took the unavoidable decision to cancel CWD 2020 due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and had hoped to hold CWD 2021 as an in-person conference. However, the emergence of the Delta COVID-19 variant in the UK, along with restrictions on international travel, has resulted in increased uncertainty around holding a major in-person event with an international audience. CWD 2021 will be held virtually, with the intention of returning to physical conferences from CWD 2022, next May.

Our virtual conference programme takes into account the changing demilitarisation landscape, including new threats, technical challenges and the approaching completion of destruction of declared chemical weapons stockpiles.

Its scope will include wider science and technology issues related to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), including chemical analysis and forensics.

Sessions will be held from 12 to 2.30pm GMT on 2, 3 and 4 November 2021 and all presentations can be accessed on demand on our virtual platform during, and after, the conference.

Key dates

  • Registration closes on 29 October 2021

During the 3 days of presentations, there will be ample opportunity for discussion and networking. The conference is open to anyone with a relevant interest in CWD, and is attended by representatives of governments, industry, academia and the armed forces.

Why attend CWD 2021

Our conference supports the global effort to eliminate chemical weapons and fosters co-operation through the exchange of information and ideas relating to safe disposal. CWD is the primary international forum for making valuable professional contacts in this field.

  • Participate in this unique forum for our community
  • Exchange knowledge and expertise
  • Network with others in the field
  • Meet international experts
  • Collaborate with your peers
  • Learn about innovative and exciting new solutions
  • Share your technical challenges
  • Discover and offer fresh thinking, new ideas, different approaches
  • Contribute to a future free of chemical weapons

Register

Register now to join us in demonstrating our shared commitment to eliminating this class of weapons of mass destruction, and discover ways we can overcome the challenges associated with their elimination.

Published 16 November 2020
Last updated 4 October 2021 + show all updates

  1. Updated conference information

  2. CWD 2021 is now to be held in November as a virtual event, with an early bird discount for registrations before 10 September 2021.

  3. The conference has been rescheduled to September 2021 and the deadlines for abstract submission and registration have been extended.

  4. Updated conference information

  5. First published.



Sellafield logistics provider wins two safety awards

Peterson received the awards in recognition of their consistent delivery of high safety standards and innovation.

Held annually, the awards celebrate the services and achievements of our contracting community and the important contributions they make to the safe and secure operation of our sites.

Peterson won our Chief Executive Officer’s Award for their consistent excellence in health and safety performance, security and operational resilience, and providing value for our local communities.

Mark Neate, Sellafield Ltd’s Environment, Safety and Security Director, said:

The commitment of everyone is paramount to successful safe operations. Maintaining our collective focus and personal responsibility to safety is crucial.

Our employees and contractor colleagues work together to safely progress our risk and hazard reduction mission, helping to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.

Peterson also received a Management of Contractors Safety Award for the second year running in recognition of their collaborative and innovative work at our off-site Security and Distribution Centre at Lillyhall in Cumbria.

Working closely with the Sellafield Ltd warehouse team, Peterson have introduced a number of innovations that have helped create a state-of-the-art facility at the centre; delivering fuel savings of £75,000 for the wider supply chain and avoiding over 190,000kg of CO2 emissions last year by maximising the consolidation of all goods.

Alan Matear, Peterson Site Manager, said:

Our team’s relentless drive to deliver an excellent service has been exemplary since the start of operations at Lillyhall.

These awards are a reward for their hard work, dedication and success achieved throughout the year.

We are excited about the future and will continue working with the Sellafield team to innovate and enhance our operations.

The Box Encapsulation Plant Direct Import Facility (BEPPS-DIF) delivery team, Jacobs Field Solutions and Nexus also picked up a Contractors Safety Award for their overall safety performance.



Commission finds trustees failed to protect charity from founder who misused funds

Press release

The Charity Commission has disqualified the founder of Kenya Community Support Network

The Charity Commission has disqualified the founder of Kenya Community Support Network (KCSN) after finding he used the charity to provide significant financial benefits to him and his family.

The charity has been dissolved and all trustees found responsible for misconduct and mismanagement for their part in allowing Mr Samson Ochieng, the charity’s founder, to misuse the charity.

KCSN had charitable objects that included relieving poverty among Kenyans in the UK and in Kenya.

The Commission became involved with the charity in 2016 after Comic Relief suspended its grants to KCSN following concerns the charity was being used for personal financial gain.

The Commission opened a statutory inquiry in 2018, finding that Mr Ochieng had been in effective control of the charity since he founded it and that the trustees had not properly exercised their legal duties and responsibilities under charity law. This had resulted in:

  • £39,500 paid direct to the founder and his family without adequate record-keeping to justify the payments
  • a family member of the founder being appointed without an open recruitment process as a paid consultant to the charity
  • the charity carrying out marketing activities on behalf of Kenyan commercial companies in the UK, an activity which was outside of the charity’s objects.

Tim Hopkins, Assistant Director of Investigations and Inquiries at the Charity Commission, said:

Good governance is not a bureaucratic detail, it’s essential in ensuring a charity delivers on its charitable purpose and isn’t exposed to unnecessary risk.

The trustees of Kenya Community Support Network failed to provide this and instead, through their lack of oversight, enabled serious misconduct and mismanagement to take place. Our inquiry has rightly exposed the failures of this charity’s trustees and Mr Ochieng for his misuse of the charity and he has now been disqualified from serving as a trustee for his conduct.

The Commission’s statutory inquiry opened on 22 January 2018 and concluded with the publication of the report.

Read the full report of the inquiry into Kenya Community Support Network.

Notes to Editors:

  1. The charity was removed from the charity register on 2 November 2020.
  2. Mr Ochieng was disqualified for 8 years from acting as a trustee or holding a senior position at a charity on 20 March 2020.
  3. The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its purpose is to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society.

Published 16 November 2020



Freeports bidding process opens for applications

  • the new hubs of business and enterprise will create thousands of jobs, regenerating communities and turbocharging Britain’s post-Brexit growth
  • those granted Freeport status will benefit from generous tax reliefs, simplified customs procedures and wider government support, boosting the local economy in the industrial heartlands

The bidding process to establish new, innovative Freeports that will boost the economy, create thousands of jobs and turbo-charge post-Brexit trade opened today.

Seizing on the opportunities presented by leaving the EU, ports and their communities across England can now apply for Freeport status in a move that will transform historic sea, air and rail ports into national hubs for trade, innovation and commerce to regenerate communities in our industrial heartlands as the nation levels up and builds back better.

Designed to attract major domestic and international investment, areas given Freeport status will benefit from a wide package of tax reliefs, simplified customs procedures, a streamlined planning processes to boost redevelopment and government support to promote regeneration and innovation.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said:

Our new Freeports will create national hubs for trade, innovation and commerce, levelling up communities across the UK, creating new jobs, and turbo-charging our economic recovery.

As we embrace our new opportunities as an independent trading nation, we want to deliver lasting prosperity to the British people and Freeports will be key to delivering this.

At the centre of the new Freeports policy is an ambitious new customs model, drawing on international best practice, and building on the UK’s existing customs arrangements. A firm can import goods into a Freeport without paying tariffs, process them into a final good and then either pay a tariff on goods sold into the domestic market, or export the final goods without paying UK tariffs.

Areas given Freeport status will also benefit from a wide package of tax reliefs, including on purchasing land, constructing or renovating buildings, investing in new plant and machinery assets and on Employer National Insurance Contributions.

Streamlined planning processes and government funding will also boost redevelopment and promote regeneration and innovation.

The first Freeports will be open for business in 2021, and sea, air and rail ports from across England are encouraged to apply, working in tandem with their local leaders, businesses and others in their communities.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick said:

Our Freeports will be international centres for trade and investment, powering regeneration, job creation and entrepreneurship. I am delighted that ports, councils and their private sector partners can now apply for Freeport status – with all the special opportunities it will bring to their communities and the country.

The government is working constructively and collaboratively with the devolved administrations to establish at least one Freeport in each nation of the UK, in addition to those allocated in England.

Richard Ballantyne, Chief Executive, British Ports Association, said:

The launch of the Freeports bidding process in England today represents a huge step forward in the establishment of fair and inclusive Freeports in the UK. We are pleased that Government recognises and supports ports as drivers of economic development and prosperity. Ports, and the wider maritime industry, are eager to play their part in the solution to national economic recovery and the regeneration of coastal communities.

Tim Morris, Chief Executive Officer, UK Major Ports Group, said:

We welcome the launch of the Freeports Bidding Prospectus. Port operators all across the UK are developing ambitious proposals to respond to the Freeports opportunity. The UK Major Ports Group and the port operators themselves look forward to working closely with the Government to build ever stronger gateways for the UK’s global trade, boost prosperity for coastal and inland communities and maintain high standards.

The government is committed to levelling up all regions of the UK by spreading opportunity through private enterprise; creating jobs and seizing the opportunities presented by leaving the EU.

Notes

  • the full Bidding Prospectus will be live on gov.uk at 11am on Monday 16 November
  • bidders will need to submit bids by Friday 5 February 2021, and bids will be assessed by a MHCLG chaired assessment panel in March 2021, with decisions made in Spring
  • the government remains committed to ensuring its Freeport model maintains the UK’s high standards with respect to security, safety, workers’ rights, data protection, biosecurity and the environment, while ensuring fair and open competition between businesses
  • freeports will adhere to the OECD Code of Conduct for Clean Free Trade Zones, and current obligations set out in the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations 2017 will be maintained


Joint statement on the implementation of prudential reforms in the Financial Services Bill

News story

Joint statement from HM Treasury, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on the implementation of prudential reforms contained in the Financial Services Bill.

As the Financial Services Bill continues its progress through Parliament, HM Treasury, the FCA and the PRA consider it appropriate to update industry on planned timelines for introducing the UK’s Investment Firms Prudential Regime (IFPR) and implementation of those Basel 3 reforms which make up the UK equivalent to the outstanding elements of the EU’s 2nd Capital Requirements Regulation.

We have decided to target an implementation date of 1 January 2022 for these two regimes. This follows feedback from industry in relation to these specific proposals and in response to the most recent Regulatory Initiatives Grid (September 2020), where industry raised concerns about the general volume of regulatory reform in 2021. HM Treasury will ensure the relevant secondary legislation is in place in good time, and the regulators will endeavour to provide industry with as much sight of the final rules as possible ahead of this date, to support effective implementation.

HMT and the PRAs’ April statement on Basel 3.1 implementation still applies.

Published 16 November 2020