The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) aims to grow its Edinburgh contingent to around 25-30 employees, with ambitions to grow further, so it can build its talent base and prepare for the UK’s Exit from the EU.

While the CMA has always had a small presence in Scotland, it is now building on that to ensure it has the talent to truly promote competition and ensure consumers get a fair deal right across the UK.

The expansion will also be a big part of the organisation’s preparation for Brexit. This is expected to increase its merger reviews and investigations into cartels and other anti-competitive behaviours as work previously led from Brussels comes to the UK.

It will allow the CMA to build even stronger relationships with consumer and business groups, other regulators in Scotland as well as the Scottish Government and Parliament, and increase its capability to carry out UK-wide projects from Scotland.

Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said

It is essential that the Competition and Markets Authority has a presence right across the United Kingdom, so we can make sure competition is working for people, businesses and the economy in every corner of the nation.

Though we already have a great team in Scotland, by expanding our numbers we can go further to understand the concerns and issues affecting ordinary people.

He added:

And as we prepare to leave the European Union, it has never been more important for the UK’s competition authority to grow its talent base.

Although the new roles will not focus exclusively on Scottish cases, the CMA can and does address Scottish competition and consumer issues.

As a result of the CMA’s work, for example, Glasgow University no longer stops students from graduating because of unpaid rent in student accommodation fees. In a separate case, the CMA fined Aberdeen based Balmoral Tanks £130,000 for illegally exchanging price information. The CMA has also recently investigated major mergers in Scotland like the deal between North Sea oil companies Wood Group and Amec Foster Wheeler and the purchase by Standard Life of Aberdeen Asset Management.

Beyond specific investigations, people right across the UK are benefiting from the CMA’s wide-ranging examinations of certain industries. Last year, it issued a record £84.2 million fine to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and a £5.2 million fine to Flynn Pharma, after finding that each charged excessive and unfair prices in the UK for anti-epilepsy drug phenytoin sodium capsules. And the authority’s call for reforms in the care home sector aim to make sure people in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland get the support they need in their old age.

Keith Brown, Economy Secretary for the Scottish Government who will meet the CMA Board in Edinburgh on 30 January, commented

The CMA’s expansion in Scotland is a clear sign of its commitment to taking action and making the market fair for consumers and businesses.

It’s a move I’ve championed and provides real opportunity to benefit Scotland’s economy by identifying and tackling the problems faced here by our consumers and businesses.

This will support our on-going work around the collaborative economy and ensure that we continue to develop our approach to consumer, competition and regulatory policy.

Notes to editors

1. The CMA board will meet in Edinburgh on 30-31 January. Minutes will be published on the CMA website.

2. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial department of the UK government with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law.

3. Media queries should be sent to press@cma.gsi.gov.uk or journalists can call 020 3738 6337 or 07774 134814.

Historically, football memorabilia can go for hundreds of thousands of pounds. The most expensive item sold in the UK was an original FA Cup, dating from 1871, which went under the hammer for £420,000 at Christie’s in 2005¹.

The most expensive items of World Cup football memorabilia ever sold include²:

1. Jules Rimet Trophy replica £254,500
2. Nobby Stiles’ 1966 World Cup medal £188,200
3. Alan Ball’s 1966 World Cup medal £164,800
4. Pele’s 1970 second-half World Cup final shirt £157,750
5. Gordon Banks’ 1966 World Cup medal £124,750
6. Geoff Hurst’s 1966 World Cup final shirt £91,750
7. Ray Wilson’s 1966 World Cup medal £80,750
8. Pele’s 1958 World Cup final shirt £70,505
9. Pele’s 1970 first-half World Cup final shirt £66,500
10. Alan Ball’s 1966 World Cup final shirt £51,755

Football fans looking to secure a memento on a smaller budget could pick up a World Cup 2018 inspired personalised registration from DVLA.

Fans of the beautiful game can use the website’s search facility to find the perfect football-themed plate for them with WO18 RLD, WE18 WON and FR18 NCE currently available.

Jody Davies, DVLA Personalised Registrations’ Senior Sales Manager, said:

Football memorabilia clearly has a market and this top ten highlights how much people are willing to spend on commemorating the game. But with more than 50 million registrations available on our website there are almost endless possibilities for football fans to celebrate their passion for the sport and their team, from just £250.

Motorists can get into World Cup fever straight away with 18 registrations now available.

Notes to editors:

Personalised registrations can be bought 24 hours a day online. A dedicated team can also help customers find the registration they want over the phone by ringing 0300 123 0883. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8.00am to 4.30pm.

¹ Guinness World Records

²Wikicollecting

Plans for a national memorial to honour the contribution Sikhs made to Britain and her allies has today (30 January 2018) received backing from Communities Secretary Sajid Javid.

He confirmed government support for campaign to erect a Sikh war memorial in London. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said:

The part played by Sikh servicemen really stands out – a contribution that’s all the more remarkable when you consider that these brave men travelled thousands of miles to fight for a country that wasn’t their own.

We are indebted to all those servicemen who volunteered to serve and fought to defend the freedoms we enjoy today.

That’s why a Sikh war memorial in our nation’s capital will honour their sacrifice and ensure that this part of our shared history is never forgotten. So I’m delighted to get behind this campaign and ensure its success.

Sikh servicemen in the British Armed Forces have displayed extraordinary acts of bravery and sacrifice in the service of Great Britain and her allies. Hundreds of thousands of Sikh soldiers saw active service during the First and Second World Wars and in subsequent conflicts. More than 83,000 turbaned Sikh soldiers gave their lives and more than 100,000 were injured during both Wars.

Despite making up only two per cent of the Indian population when the First World War broke out, Sikhs accounted for more than 20 per cent of the Indian Army’s manpower. Sikh soldiers from the Punjab and surrounding states saw action in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, most notably on the Western Front and at Gallipoli.

On the Western Front Sikhs fought and died alongside their British, Indian and Commonwealth counterparts. Their contribution was essential to the war effort and of the twenty-two Military Crosses awarded to Indian soldiers, fourteen went to Sikhs.

As part of marking the final year of the First World War centenary commemorations, Government has extended support for a campaign led by Slough MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi to help set up a Working Group and support the campaign to find a suitable location. Once an appropriate site has been identified and a memorial agreed on, the Government has agreed to provide funding towards the project.

More information on government activity for the First World War Centenary.

Thank you Mr President, and thank you also to Assistant Secretary General Muller for her briefing.

When considering the Syria humanitarian issue, we always have in mind the powerful plea last December by the Russian Permeant Representative that we should keep our differences over the politics in Syria out of our consideration of humanitarian issues which we strongly continue to agree we should do.

Last week, Mark Lowcock briefed us on his visit to Syria. This was the first time an Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs had visited Syria for over two years, having been blocked previously from visiting. The United Kingdom commends the Under-Secretary-General’s efforts to start a meaningful dialogue between the UN and the Syrian regime in order to improve the humanitarian situation for the people of Syria.

On the basis of his discussions, and as reiterated today, the Under-Secretary-General set out five clear asks to enable the UN to sustain and improve its aid efforts. The UK supports those asks fully.

Unfortunately, the Council has been unable to reach agreement on a text which would unanimously call upon the Syrian regime to ensure that these five asks are granted without delay. And I want to reflect on this disappointing situation.

One of OCHA’s five key asks is the Regime’s agreement to allow three or four UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoys each week across front lines to provide assistance to up to 2.5 million people in besieged and hard to reach areas. These convoys are needed to deliver aid, including both food and medical supplies, to civilians who have lived in a war zone for almost seven years.

This request for consistent, regular access to all people in need is crucial. In 2017, only 27% of UN inter-agency convoy requests were approved by the Syrian regime in full. This is significantly worse than in 2016 when 45% of requests were approved. ASG Mueller’s briefing was especially concerning in this respect. We cannot let this happen again in 2018.

94% of those living under siege are located in Eastern Ghouta. The Assad regime is using humanitarian aid as weapon of war by restricting access to the besieged population. There were no aid deliveries to the area for the whole of December, and nearly 12% of children under five in Eastern Ghouta suffer from acute malnutrition. It is appalling that innocent children are once again suffering the most.

The Under-Secretary-General also requested the immediate evacuation of hundreds of people who are medically in need from Eastern Ghouta. We call on those who can influence the regime to use all of their authority to allow for rapid, unhindered and sustained humanitarian access and medical evacuations for those in need. According to the United Nations Secretary-General, 18 people have already died waiting for the regime’s permission to leave the besieged city. People are dying for want of healthcare and services which are available less than ten miles away in Damascus.

Mr President,

Let us recall that the backdrop of the Under-Secretary-General’s visit was the escalation of airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta and the northwest, including Aleppo, Idlib governorates and Northern Hama. Yesterday at least five people, including a child, were killed by an airstrike on a hospital supported by Médecins Sans Frontières in Syria’s Idlib governorate. The facility was also seriously damaged and at least six people, including three medical staff, were injured as a result of the attack. The airstrikes on the hospital occurred while the doctors were receiving people that had been injured an hour earlier in another airstrike on a market. Those strikes had already killed 11 people.

These are in areas where there are meant to be ceasefires with the stated aim of putting a prompt end to violence and improving the humanitarian situation.

Unfortunately for the people of Syria, this could not be further from the reality. The deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructures in Idlib and Eastern Ghouta continues, in blatant violation of international humanitarian and human rights law.

The intensification of hostilities has displaced approximately 270,000 people within Idlib since 15 December 2017– stretching scarce resources beyond their limits. The escalation of airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths since 30 December. UNICEF reports that, in the first 14 days of 2018, more than 30 children were killed by escalating violence in the enclave.

It is against this backdrop that I call for the regime to allow for the immediate, safe and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to meet fully the needs of those who require food and medical supplies. Let all with influence exert it to ensure this. This is our most crucial immediate request. It is also imperative that all parties adhere to agreed ceasefires and cessations of hostilities, uphold international humanitarian law, and protect civilians.

Mr President,

Yesterday, a number of us visited the US National Holocaust Museum’s exhibition on Syria. We saw the photographs of those killed and tortured by the regime and we read their biographies, their life stories. It had a profound effect on me, and it brought home just how the tragedy in Syria is not a geo-political one; it is a human one. For humanity’s sake, all of us round this table must ensure we have done our all.

Thank you Mr President.

We are contacting organisations from 30 January 2018 with updates and guidance on next steps about their bids for 2018 HPCDS contracts work.

Following the closure of tenders for HPCDS contracts on 11 December 2017, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) will now advise those organisations that:

1. bid for a HPCDS contract but failed to reach the minimum threshold to be given further consideration;
2. have not been shortlisted for a HPCDS contract;
3. have been shortlisted for a HPCDS contract.

How will these announcements be made?

We will formally write to each affected organisation using the e-Tendering system, advising them of the status of their tenders, from 30 January 2018.

We anticipate that all notifications will have been sent out by Thursday 1 February 2018.

Applicants bidding for HPCDS contracts who have not been notified by 1 February should contact us through the e-Tendering message board.

When will new contracts begin?

Services under new HPCDS contracts will begin on 1 October 2018.

How long will the contracts last?

Each contract will initially run until 30 September 2021, with an option for the LAA to extend for up to a further 2 years.

What will happen next?

We will continue to consider tenders in line with the process set out in the Information for Applicants (IFA).

Provider enquiries

Update concerning announcement published on GOV.UK Legal Aid Civil Tender 2018 page: Civil 2018 contracts tender