• Only go outside for food, health reasons or work (but only if you cannot work from home)
• If you go out, stay 2 metres (6ft) away from other people at all times
• Wash your hands as soon as you get home

Do not meet others, even friends or family.

You can spread the virus even if you don’t have symptoms.

Mohammed Tufail (59) and Mohammed Umair (27) both signed 7-year disqualification undertakings and from 6 April 2020, father and son are banned from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Car Place Birmingham Limited was incorporated in January 2015 and traded as a second-hand car dealership in Small Heath, central Birmingham.

But two years later, Birmingham Trading Standards seized 6 vehicles from Car Place Birmingham in March 2017 after they were found to be unroadworthy.

Trading Standards brought criminal proceedings against Car Place Birmingham and both directors – even though Mohammed Tufail had resigned as a director in January 2017 two months before the cars were seized – and in March 2018 the courts fined the company just over £33,000.

At the same hearing, Mohammed Tufail received a fine of £11,345, while his son, Mohammed Umair, was fined £8,726. The courts also made a forfeiture order for the 6 cars to be destroyed.

Following the court proceedings, Car Place Birmingham entered into a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation in May 2018 which brought the second-hand car dealership to the attention of the Insolvency Service.

At liquidation the company still hadn’t paid the fine and in the public interest, the Insolvency Service elected to pursue directorship disqualifications against the two second-hand car salesmen.

Tony Quigley, Head of Trading Standards at Birmingham City Council, said:

These individuals supplied unroadworthy and dangerous vehicles with complete disregard for the safety of their customers or other motorists. Both failed to take on their responsibilities and obligations as company directors, and now this ban has come into effect, they are unable to set up, manage or promote any business. Birmingham Trading Standards works in partnership and supports actions taken by all other agencies to protect the public from rogue traders.

Martin Gitner, Deputy Head of Insolvent Investigations for the Insolvency Service, said:

Both second-hand car dealers failed in their basic duty of care to their customers when they sold unroadworthy and potentially dangerous vehicles. These were serious offences and removing Mohammed Tufail and Mohammed Umair from the corporate arena will protect the public from further harm.

Mohammed Tufail is from Birmingham and his date of birth is October 1960.

Mohammed Umair is from Birmingham and his date of birth is February 1993.

CAR PLACE BIRMINGHAM LTD (Company number 09384680)

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 restrictions.

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

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

The donation follows a plea from the NHS to organisations around the UK to send what vital equipment they are able to in order to address potential shortages during the current crisis.

The result has seen UKAEA, based at Culham Science Centre near Abingdon, donate 800 facemasks and 10 boxes of surgical gloves to the John Radcliffe Hospital and the Oxfordshire Community Nursing Service.

UKAEA’s Nigel Furlong, Richard West, Mike Stead and Nigel Mott were able to source as much equipment as possible from the organisation’s stores at Culham – without compromising equipment needed to cover UKAEA’s contingency arrangements.

Mechanical engineer Jeff Stephens delivered the first 500 of the facemasks to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

After this initial donation, Mechanical Technician Karl Beacham spotted a call for help on Facebook from a nurse at the Community Nursing Service. Staff then were able to locate the further PPE equipment, searching different facilities on site. The further 300 facemasks and 10 boxes of surgical gloves were then donated.

UKAEA typically uses 400-500 facemasks a month and currently has a back order of a further 500 facemasks, which means a further donation of PPE is possible as and when the order is delivered.

UKAEA’s Nigel Furlong, who led the co-ordination effort, said everyone involved was more than pleased to be able to support the NHS with critical equipment.

“For myself and colleagues this activity is important as we felt we were contributing to the national response to the pandemic, while also helping our community and ultimately our friends and family.”

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is working with some of the UK’s leading games companies to feature the government’s clear ‘Stay At Home, Save Lives’ instruction in some of their most popular games to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

Getting through the crisis will require a collective national effort and every generation has a role to play, everyone’s actions right now can have a direct impact upon the lives of others. Young people spend more time playing video games than the rest of the population (UKIE), which is why in-game messaging represents a creative, targeted, and immediate way to help reinforce the government’s Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives message, to gamers.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:

It is absolutely vital that we all follow the simple government advice to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. I’m delighted to see the UK’s brilliant video games industry stepping up to strongly reinforce this message to gamers across the UK.

Support from UK video games companies to date include:

Activision Blizzard King are inserting ‘Stay At Home’ messaging in their network of mobile games, most notably Candy Crush Saga. The firm has also donated more than 230 ‘digital poster’ advertising spaces in London, where they would normally advertise their own products, to be used for crucial public health messaging.

‘Stay At Home’ posters are already being featured in Codemasters’ DiRT Rally 2.0, played by millions of unique users since its launch in February 2019, and the company is now looking at ways to roll out more essential health messages in games across Europe and the U.S. in the coming weeks.

Rebellion will be including ‘Stay At Home’ messaging on their games landing page launch sites (the landing page when you load up a game) for their games, with the capacity for these messages to link to relevant gov.uk pages where appropriate. As well as developing games, Rebellion also publish comic books and have also offered advertising in these.

Humam Sakhnini, President of King said:

Everyone at Activision Blizzard, and the King team I lead, are delighted that we’re able to play a small part and help with the delivery of vital public health information. Through our millions of players we’re able to assist Public Health England and the NHS spread their life saving message: stay at home, protect our NHS, and save lives.

Jason Kingsley OBE, Co-founder and CEO of Rebellion:

We’re delighted to be working with the DCMS on this excellent initiative. We know how fundamentally beneficial video games, like Sniper Elite and Strange Brigade, and comics, like 2000 AD, have been and will continue to be for many of us during this extraordinary time. It makes total sense for us to help promote important public health messaging while keeping those fans entertained in the safety of their homes.

Toby Evan-Jones, VP Business Development at Codemasters:

At Codemasters we came to realise that technology within our games, which enables the remote updating of banners within the virtual environment, could be repurposed to assist with the Coronavirus communication effort. This week, through collaboration with Bidstack Group PLC (providers of the ad-replacement infrastructure), we began delivering a version of Public Health England’s ‘Stay Home Save Lives’ message into DiRT Rally 2.0. It’s fantastic to see conversations already being sparked amongst our community.

Approximately 37 million people in the UK play games, and there are around 2,277 active video game companies in the UK. Any company wishing to support the fight against coronavirus through in-game messaging and other initiatives should contact DCMS on enquiries@culture.gov.uk.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The UK games industry directly employs 20,430 FTEs in development, publishing and retail roles, which contribute £1.52bn to the UK economy. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

Rebellion:

• Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of Europe’s biggest independent multimedia studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. 2000 AD is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art.
• With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.
• Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV and film, but at its core it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games.
• The Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill, such as Sniper Elite 4, Aliens vs Predator and the Zombie Army series.

Codemasters:

• Codemasters (AIM:CDM) is an award-winning British video game developer and publisher with over 30 years of heritage. The company specialises in high-quality racing games including DiRT, GRID, and the BAFTA award-winning official F1® series of videogames.

Activision Blizzard

• Activision Blizzard, Inc. connects and engages the world through epic entertainment. A member of the Fortune 500 and S&P 500, Activision Blizzard is a leading interactive entertainment company. We delight hundreds of millions of monthly active users around the world through franchises including Activision’s Call of Duty®, Spyro®, and Crash Bandicoot™, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Hearthstone®, Diablo®, StarCraft®, and Heroes of the Storm®, and King’s Candy Crush™, Bubble Witch 3™, and Farm Heroes™. The company is one of the Fortune ‘100 Best Companies To Work For’ Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard has operations throughout the world. More information about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found on the company’s website: www.activisionblizzard.com

Today (Monday 6 April) the Government has introduced landmark new legislation to tackle the low-welfare, high volume supply of puppies and kittens, by banning their commercial third-party sale in England.

‘Lucy’s Law’ means that anyone wanting to get a new puppy or kitten in England must now buy direct from a breeder, or consider adopting from a rescue centre instead. Licensed dog breeders are required to show puppies interacting with their mothers in their place of birth. If a business sells puppies or kittens without a licence, they could receive an unlimited fine or be sent to prison for up to six months.

The law is named after Lucy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who was rescued from a puppy farm where she was subjected to terrible conditions. Puppy farms are located across the UK with most depending on third-party sellers or ‘dealers’ to distribute often sick, traumatised, unsocialised puppies which have been taken away from their mother at just a few weeks old.

This often involves long-distance transportation, with the puppy or kitten suffering life-threatening medical, surgical, or behavioural problems which are passed on to unsuspecting new owners. Lucy’s Law effectively removes the third-party dealer chain, resulting in all dog and cat breeders becoming accountable for the first time.

As well as Lucy’s Law, the Government has committed to supporting tougher sentences for animal cruelty, raising maximum prison sentences from six months to five years, and has pledged to bring in new laws on animal sentience and to end excessively long journeys for live animals.

Animal welfare minister Lord Goldsmith said:

Today is a significant milestone for animal welfare, and a major step towards ending cruel puppy farming and smuggling. After all the hard work of Marc Abraham and the Lucy’s Law campaign, I’m so pleased that we finally have this crucial legislation which will help tackle the heart-breaking third-party trade of dogs and cats.

But we also need the public to do their bit to help by always asking to see puppies and kittens interacting with their mothers in their place of birth, looking out for the warning signs, and reporting any suspicious activity. By raising awareness of illegal sellers to the local authorities, we can all help to protect the nation’s cats and dogs and give them the best start in life.

Marc Abraham, media vet, author, founder of Pup Aid and the Lucy’s Law campaign, said:

I’m incredibly proud to have led the 10-year campaign to ban cruel puppy and kitten dealers and to get this essential Lucy’s Law legislation over the line. I’d like to give a huge thanks to UK Government for passing this law, as well as every animal-loving parliamentarian, celebrity, welfare organisation, and member of the public that supported us.

Lucy was an incredibly brave dog, and it’s right that her memory is honoured with such an important piece of legislation to help end puppy farm cruelty; protecting breeding dogs just like her, as well as cats, their young, and also unsuspecting animal-lovers from the dangers of irresponsible breeding and cruel puppy and kitten dealers.

Lucy’s Law is the result of a 10-year grassroots campaign supported by prominent figures including Ricky Gervais, Brian May, Rachel Riley, and Peter Egan, and it will help disrupt the supply chain of unscrupulous breeders and dealers who breed dogs in shocking conditions, often kept imprisoned alone in the dark, with very little human or canine company.

Last month, the Government launched the ‘Petfished’ campaign to highlight these conditions and the deceitful tactics pet sellers use to trick buyers into thinking they are responsible breeders selling healthy animals. The campaign urges the public to look out for warning signs which suggest the seller could be an illegal third-party dealer such as litters without a mum present or being rushed through a sale.

For more advice on how to buy a pet safely visit getyourpetsafely.campaign.gov.uk.

Anyone looking to buy a puppy or kitten should look for these warning signs

Before visiting:

• Research. Have a look at the seller’s profile and search their name online. If they are advertising many litters from different breeds, then this is a red flag.
• Check contact details. Copy and paste the phone number into a search engine. If the number is being used on lots of different adverts, sites and dates then this is likely a deceitful seller.
• Check the animal’s age. Puppies and kittens should never be sold under 8 weeks old – do not buy from anyone advertising a puppy or kitten younger than 8 weeks.
• Check the animal’s health records. Make sure the seller shares all records of vaccinations, flea and worm treatment and microchipping with you before sale.

When visiting:

• Make sure the mum is present – if mum is not available to meet, it’s unlikely the puppy or kitten was bred there. Beware of the seller making excuses as to why mum is not there e.g. she’s at the vet’s, asleep, or out for a walk.
• Check there isn’t a ‘fake’ mum – most fake mums don’t interact with the puppies as they fear the real mum returning.
• Watch out for puppies or kittens labelled as ‘rescue’ but with much higher than expected price tags.
• If you feel rushed or pressurised into parting with cash, this is a red flag.
• Health problems observed at purchase are not normal and don’t be convinced otherwise.
• Beware of offers to meet somewhere convenient e.g. car park or motorway services, or ‘shop front’ premises, common with rented properties just to make sales, and ‘sales rooms’ kept separate from nearby or onsite puppy farm.

RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood said:

Over the last decade RSPCA staff have dealt with almost 30,000 complaints relating to the illegal puppy trade. Our rescuers have saved dogs from unimaginable cruelty and hideous conditions; our vets have tried desperately to save the lives of tiny puppies riddled with worms and plagued by health and behaviour problems; and our carers have nursed dogs back to health, teaching them to trust people again, and showing them love for the first time.

We’re incredibly pleased that the Government is today introducing a ban on third-party sales of puppies and kittens. We believe that this, along with tougher licensing regulations that were introduced in 2018 and better education of the public on how to buy puppies responsibly, will help to crackdown on this cruel trade. We hope these laws will be properly enforced so that all dogs who are used for breeding and selling will live happy, healthy lives where their welfare is prioritised above profits.

Holly Conway, Head of Public Affairs at the Kennel Club said:

We are delighted that Lucy’s Law has been introduced today. Sadly, too often irresponsible breeders in the UK and abroad have depended on commercial third-party sellers – like ‘dealers’ or pet shops – to disguise the horrific conditions puppies are bred and brought up in to the public, readily making a huge profit while causing untold suffering.

We hope Lucy’s Law will help bring an end to this cruel trade and that, as well as improving welfare conditions for puppies, it will also encourage anyone thinking of getting a puppy to really do their research, find a responsible breeder and bring home a happy, healthy new addition to the family.

TV personality, model and animal rights campaigner Lucy Watson said:

Sadly, I was totally unaware of the cruelty involved in the legal third-party puppy trade when I unwittingly bought my first dog Digby, a German Spitz, from a licensed pet shop. As a result of his irresponsible breeding, I have witnessed first-hand his life-long behavioural problems, most likely caused by lack of adequate socialisation as a result of early separation from his mum and littermates.

As well as Digby, I have since adopted crossbreed Marley from an organisation dedicated to rescuing puppies and breeding dogs from puppy farms and would always urge others to do the same. I’ve been a proud supporter of the Lucy’s Law campaign since the very beginning and was even lucky enough to have met the actual rescue cavalier Lucy too!

Further information

• Lucy’s Law is the short-hand for the amendment to The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 brought about by The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2019, which makes unlawful the sales of puppies and kittens (under six months in both cases) by third party sellers/anyone other than the breeder. Lucy’s Law currently comes into force on 6 April in England only as it is devolved legislation.
• Lucy’s Law is the result of a 10-year grassroots and multi award-winning campaign to ban third party puppy and kitten dealers, by a coalition of campaigning groups including Pup Aid, C.A.R.I.A.D., Canine Action UK, Hidden Insight, and The Karlton Index. Other animal welfare organisations supporting Lucy’s Law include RSPCA, The Kennel Club, Mayhew, All Dogs Matter, Raystede, Jerry Green Rescue, Friends of Animals Wales, All Party Dog Advisory Welfare Group (APDAWG), All Party Group for Animal Welfare (APGAW), Canine and Feline Sector Group, Institute of Licensing (IOL); celebrities including Ricky Gervais, Jane Fallon, Rachel Riley, Brian May, Peter Egan, Eamonn Holmes, Kay Burley, Carrie Symonds, Gail Porter, Lucy Watson, Liam Gallagher, Meg Mathews, Deborah Meaden, Sue Perkins, Sarah Harding; cross-party parliamentarians notably Michael Gove MP, Lord Goldsmith, Dr Lisa Cameron MP, Sir Roger Gale MP, Neil Parish MP, Alex Chalk MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Kerry McCarthy MP, Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP.
• If you’re rescuing a cat or dog, you can start by checking if the rescue organisation is a member of the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH), although many reputable rescues aren’t members of ADCH.
• If you’re buying a puppy please use The Puppy Contract; and if you’re buying a kitten please use The Kitten Checklist.