The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has today (23 April 2018) announced new appointments to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).

The UKAEA leads the commercial development of fusion power and related technology and position the UK as a leader in sustainable nuclear energy. Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, can play a big part in our carbon-free energy future. UKAEA manages the UK fusion programme at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) which is one of the world’s leading fusion research laboratories.

Shrinivas Honap, Sue Scane, and Professor Sir Adrian Smith have been appointed as new non-executive board members for a 3-year term from 1 April 2018. All 3 bring a wealth of valuable experience to the UKAEA board that will help ensure that it continues to deliver world leading research, innovation and training in nuclear fusion. The non-executive directors will provide advice and oversight across academic, financial and other areas of interest.

Shrinivas is currently a board member at the British Transport Policy Authority and a lay member at Speakers Committee of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). Previously he has held senior roles at Vodafone and Capita and as a non-executive within the NHS. He is currently chair of Audit at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and a non-executive on the board of Registrars of Scotland.

Sue was the Director for Environment & Economy at Oxfordshire County Council until her retirement, having previously been its Assistant Chief Executive & Chief Finance Officer. In her career she helped to get the Oxfordshire City Deal, which aims to maximise the science facilities throughout the county including Harwell, Milton Park and Culham. Sue also serves on the Boards of the Oxford Diocese and of Didcot First.

Knighted in 2011 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001, Sir Adrian is a distinguished statistician and currently the vice-chancellor at the University of London. He previously served as Director General, Knowledge and Innovation at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and was Principal of Queen Mary University of London for 10 years. He has also worked with the UK Higher Education Funding and Research Councils, along with his appointment as Deputy Chair of the UK Statistics Authority in 2012.

These 3 members replace 2 non-executive directors who have reached the end of their terms, and we thank them for their years of service.

A hybrid car tachometer.

We’ve published a new fee calculator and paper forms for AGFS work in the Crown Court.

Revised fee guidance and documents showing offence bandings have already been made available.

These reflect the new way of calculating criminal advocate payments for Crown Court legal aid work.

Paper forms should only be used when the Crown Court online billing system is not available.

Further information

Graduated fee calculators

AF1: claim for advocate graduated fees – paper form

Legal aid: crime claim forms

Crown Court Fee Guidance – to view supporting guidance and frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Offence bandings in AGFS – to find the correct offence banding for a claim

servicedevelopment@justice.gov.uk – to submit questions about the revised AGFS

The Official Receiver provides an update on employment within the Carillion group in liquidation.

A spokesperson for the Official Receiver said:

A further 133 jobs have been saved with employees transferring to new suppliers who have picked up contracts that Carillion had been delivering. This takes the number of employees who have been found secure ongoing employment to more than 11,000.

Regretably 59 employees whose positions are no longer required as Carillion’s business transfers to new suppliers will leave the business.

I continue to liaise with potential purchasers for Carillion’s remaining contracts and remain committed to keeping staff, elected employee representatives and unions informed as these arrangements are confirmed.

further information:

• In total, to date 11,093 jobs have been saved and 2,221 jobs have been made redundant through the liquidation
• This information does not include jobs attached to contracts where an intention to purchase has been entered into but has not yet formally occurred
• More than 3,700 employees are currently retained to enable Carillion to deliver the remaining services it is providing for public and private sector customers until decisions are taken to transfer or cease these contracts
• Further information about rights in redundancy is available on gov.uk

Published 23 April 2018

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After closely examining all the evidence, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found that the proposed merger does not give rise to competition concerns.

The Co-operative Group Ltd (Co-op), as a groceries retailer, and Nisa Retail Ltd (Nisa), as a groceries wholesaler, do not compete head-to-head. However, since Nisa supplies over 4,000 groceries stores, the CMA has carefully considered the potential impact of the merger on competition between shops.

During the course of its ‘Phase 1’ investigation, the CMA took into account that Nisa-supplied stores would still be free to set their own prices and decide which products to stock after the merger, and so the merged company would not be able to directly determine how they compete.

It also examined whether the merged company could raise prices or reduce service quality for retail or wholesale customers. It found that existing retail and wholesale competition made this unlikely.

This is because there are enough local alternatives to both Co-op and Nisa-supplied stores to ensure that people could still shop around to get the best value for them.

Furthermore, Nisa-supplied stores are able to choose between several different wholesalers and would be able to switch supplier if prices were to increase or the quality of service go down as a result of the merger with Co-op.

This all means that the merged company would be unlikely to be able to raise prices or offer a worse service to either stores or to shoppers.

Sheldon Mills, Senior Director of Mergers at the CMA, said:

Millions of people throughout the UK shop at convenience stores and supermarkets, and it is vital that they continue to have enough choice to get the best value for them.

After careful consideration, we’ve found that there is sufficient competition in both the wholesale and retail sectors to ensure that shoppers are not worse off.

The merger will therefore not be referred for an in-depth investigation.

Information relating to this investigation can be found on the case page.