A draft order, laid in Parliament today, will proscribe Hizballah in its entirety alongside Ansaroul Islam and JNIM who operate in the Sahel region in Africa.

Subject to Parliament’s approval, from Friday when the order comes into effect, being a member, or inviting support for Hizballah, Ansaroul Islam and JNIM will be a criminal offence, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

My priority as Home Secretary is to protect the British people. As part of this, we identify and ban any terrorist organisation which threatens our safety and security, whatever their motivations or ideology which is why I am taking action against several organisations today.

Hizballah is continuing in its attempts to destabilase the fragile situation in the Middle East – and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party. Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

We are staunch supporters of a stable and prosperous Lebanon. We cannot however be complacent when it comes to terrorism – it is clear the distinction between Hizballah’s military and political wings does not exist, and by proscribing Hizballah in all its forms, the government is sending a clear signal that its destabilising activities in the region are totally unacceptable and detrimental to the UK’s national security.

This does not change our ongoing commitment to Lebanon, with whom we have a broad and strong relationship.

All three groups have been assessed as being currently concerned in terrorism.

Hizballah’s External Security Organisation and its military wing including the Jihad Council were already proscribed in 2001 and 2008 respectively.

The government has taken the decision to proscribe Hizballah in its entirety on the basis that it is no longer tenable to distinguish between the military and political wings of Hizballah.

Hizballah was established during the Lebanese civil war and is committed to armed resistance to the state of Israel. It continues to amass weapons in direct contravention of UN Security Council Resolutions, putting the security of the region at risk. Its involvement in the Syrian war since 2012 continues to prolong the conflict and the regime’s brutal and violent repression of the Syrian people.

Ansaroul Islam seeks to impose its own strict Salafist Sharia law in northern Burkina Faso and are known to target other ethnic groups in the region leading to substantial internal displacement of people. In December 2016, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on an army outpost in Burkina Faso which killed at least 12 soldiers.

JNIM was established in March 2017 as a federation of Al Qa’ida aligned groups in Mali and aims to impose a strict Salafist interpretation of Sharia law in the Sahel region and has claimed responsibility for several attacks in the region in which people were killed.

Furthermore, a separate order laid in Parliament today will proscribe:

• the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKC), the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party (DHKP) and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front/Armed Propaganda Units (DHKC/SPB) as aliases of the Revolutionary Peoples’ Liberation Party—Front (Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Partisi-Cephesi) (DHKP-C) which is already proscribed
• Jaysh Khalid Bin Walid (JKbW) (JKW), Jaysh Khalid bin al-Walid (KBW) and Khalid ibn-Walid Army (KBWA) as aliases of Daesh

These changes will come into force from tomorrow (Tuesday 26 February).

Decisions about proscribing or extending the proscription of a particular organisation are taken after extensive consideration and in light of a full assessment of available information.

There are currently 74 international terrorist organisations proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000, alongside 14 organisations connected to Northern Ireland proscribed under separate legislation.

The Music Hub Plus was incorporated in April 2015 as a Community Interest Company, with Ashford’s Kathryn Holton (39) appointed a director at the same time.

The company was set-up to provide music courses and a unique space for musicians in the local area. But two years later, The Music Hub Plus entered into creditors voluntary liquidation in April 2017 due to loss of contracts and increased creditor pressure.

Kathryn Holton resigned as a director in August 2016 before the company went into liquidation eight months later. Nevertheless she continued to act as a director as The Music Hub was winding down.

However, she was strictly forbidden from running companies for seven years as she had accepted a disqualification undertaking in October 2016 in connection with two other companies that had entered into insolvency proceedings.

And during her time as a director of The Music Hub Plus, Kathryn Holton was remiss in her director duties as she caused the company to fail to maintain adequate records and / or deliver such records as were maintained to the liquidators.

This failure has meant the liquidators have been unable to determine The Music Hub Plus’s final assets, liabilities and deficiencies, as well as the legitimate nature of payments out of the community interest company’s account totalling more than £62,000.

These payments included more than £10,000 worth of expenditure on the company credit card, as well as close to £9,000 paid to the community interest company’s landlord, when the lease was held in the names of a former director and former employee.

Within the undertaking, Kathryn Holton did not dispute that she had failed to ensure The Music Hub Plus maintained adequate accounting records and deliver them up to the liquidators, and that she had also contravened restrictions imposed upon her following a previous directorship disqualification.

Effective from 5 March 2019, Kathryn Holton is banned for ten years from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Peter Storm Aldridge (20), from Ashford, the formally appointed director of The Music Hub when it entered Liquidation, also signed a disqualification undertaking in respect of the failures regarding the company’s accounting records. His ban is effective from 18 February 2019 for six years.

Anthea Simpson, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Not only did Kathryn Holton disregard her duties as a director of a community interest company but she defied a disqualification undertaking she had personally signed-up to when she continued to run The Music Hub Plus.

Ten years is a significant ban and should serve as a warning to others who run community interest companies that you are not immune from acting within the law when it comes to being a responsible company director.

Kathryn Holton is of Ashford and her date of birth is May 1979

Peter Storm Aldridge is of Ashford and his date of birth is December 1998

THE MUSIC HUB PLUS CIC (Company number 09569673)

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 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.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

This group is a partnership of industry, civil society and government.

Read the 2017 report

• Although a voluntary initiative, 58 UK companies (39 oil and gas and 19 mining and quarrying) participated in the 2017 UK EITI process
• in 2017 industry gross value added was £22 billion and net receipts from taxation was £847 million
• the sector is directly responsible for 40,000 jobs, with an estimated total of 280,000 jobs, often highly skilled, supported by the UK upstream oil and gas industry
• exports were £617 million in 2017
• all payments for 2017 have been fully reconciled by an Independent Administrator.

EITI is a global standard to promote open and accountable management of natural resources. It is designed to improve accountability and public trust for the revenues paid and received for a country’s oil, gas and mineral resources.

The UK is a major supporter of EITI’s work across many developing nations, helping those countries manage their natural resources for the long-term benefit of their citizens.

In October 2014, the UK was successfully admitted as an EITI candidate country and is one of 51 implementing countries. The UK is currently undergoing validation to assess whether EITI implementation in the UK is consistent with the EITI Standard. The initial results of the validation will be available shortly.

Find further information about UK EITI and the work of the MSG.

Published 25 February 2019

Bradwell Communications Limited was wound-up in the public interest on 15 February 2019 at the High Court (Manchester). The Official Receiver has been appointed liquidator of the company.

In setting out the basis for the petitions to wind-up the company, the court heard that Bradwell Communications was incorporated in October 2015 and supplied IT equipment.

The company was investigated as a result of connections identified between Bradwell Communications and two associated companies, Direct United (Services) Ltd and Fibre Tex Ltd that were investigated in an earlier case.

Direct United (Services) and Fibre Tex were closed down by the courts in April 2018 after they were found to have operated with a lack of transparency and had traded in an improper manner that resulted in both companies incurring significant liabilities.

Following more recent enquiries, investigators discovered that Bradwell Communications had continued the trade and operations of Direct United (Services) Ltd and Fibre Tex Ltd despite having been wound-up by the courts.

Enquiries into Bradwell Communications were hampered because the company and those that ran it lacked transparency and failed to produce books and records, which meant that investigators were unable to establish who was in control of the company or from where it was trading.

Investigators were also unable to substantiate the company’s filed accounts, which purported to show significant assets and retained profits, or verify transactions passing through the company’s bank accounts with a value of circa £270,000.

David Hope, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Bradwell Communications and those individuals in control of it paid scant regard to their obligations and have sought to abuse the privileges that limited liability offers.

This should serve as strong warning that we will act swiftly to protect the public and business community by investigating and shutting down companies that abuse the corporate regime.

All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 2 Floor, 3 Piccadilly Place, London Road, Manchester, M1 3BN or email: piu.north@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk

Bradwell Communications Ltd – company registration number 09811443 – was incorporated on 6 October 2015. The company’s registered office is at 56 Halford Street, 2nd Floor, Leicester LE1 1TQ.

The petition was presented under s124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 on 21 December 2018. The order was made by Deputy District Judge Carter.

Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Further information about live company investigations is available here.

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

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

The Insolvency Service continues to support the insolvency profession to prepare for the introduction of the Insolvency (Scotland) (Receivership and Winding Up) Rules 2018 and the Insolvency (Scotland) (Company Voluntary Arrangements and Administration) Rules 2018.

To assist readers of the new rules, a table indicating the destination of the provisions in the Insolvency (Scotland) Rules 1986 has been published.

2018 CI Rules – Collated Derivation and Destination Tables (PDF, 505KB, 16 pages)

This document was updated on 16 April 2019