Kurt John Barkhuizen, 28, from Scunthorpe, applied for and received a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan in June 2020. But Kurt Barkhuizen was not running a business at the time and was not eligible for any funding through the scheme, which was providing assistance to companies during the pandemic lockdown.

The Insolvency Service looked into the case when Kurt Barkhuizen petitioned for bankruptcy in April 2021, with debts in excess of £30,000 on top of the Bounce Back Loan.

When questioned, Kurt Barkhuizen said that he had intended to sell his home to clear his debts and start a car dealership business buying and selling second-hand cars using his car mechanic skills. He told investigators that he had been clear to the lender that his business was not yet trading at the point he applied for the loan.

Kurt Barkhuizen said he had not been able to proceed with his business plans due to the start of the pandemic, as lockdown meant car auctions were cancelled, and the sale of his house also fell through.

However he spent nearly £30,000 of the Bounce Back Loan to buy and insure a car, which he then sold for £10,000. Kurt Barkhuizen spent just over £8,000 on services for his would-be business, including premises, a van and tools, and made payments of more than £4,300 to creditors, but used the remainder of the funds on living expenses.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a 9-year bankruptcy restrictions undertaking from Kurt John Barkhuizen, which commences on 7 February 2022.

As a result, he is under a number of restrictions, including not being able to borrow more than £500 without disclosing his bankrupt status, and he cannot act as a company director without the court’s permission.

Fiona Newman, Deputy Official Receiver at the Insolvency Service, said:

Kurt Barkhuizen took out a Bounce Back Loan but failed to ensure this was used for business purposes as the terms of the loan set out. He also had considerable debts at the time and has failed to return any money to creditors.

We will not hesitate to impose bankruptcy restrictions in these circumstances.

Notes to editors

Kurt John Barkhuizen is of Scunthorpe and his date of birth is January 1994.

Details of Kurt John Barkhuizen’s undertaking is available on the Individual Insolvency Register

Bankruptcy restrictions are wide ranging. The effects are the same whether you are subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order or to an undertaking. Guidance on the main statutory consequences flowing from a bankruptcy restrictions order or undertaking.

Information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct

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Richard Graham MP, the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the ASEAN Economic Community, undertook an official visit to the Philippines last 14-18 February 2022. The purpose of the visit was to promote trade and investment ties between the UK and Philippines, and to explore new areas of mutual collaboration and prosperity as the world recovers from the pandemic.

Throughout the week, Mr Graham called on DOF Secretary Sonny Dominguez, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez, DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, DOTR Secretary Arthur Tugade, DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi and Makati Mayor Abby Binay. Mr Graham also reconnected with senior business leaders, including the British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines and the Makati Business Club, for a useful exchange of business and market insights. Along with the promotion of collaborations in sustainable infrastructure and in technology, green finance and UK Export Finance, Mr Graham reiterated the UK’s continuing commitment to increased trade between the UK, the Philippines and the ASEAN region.

Together with DOTR Secretary Tugade, Mr Graham witnessed the launch of education and training partnerships between the Philippine Railways Institute and the UK National Skills Academy for Rail, and between the Philippine Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and Solent University. The signed MoUs will support the high-level skills requirements in rail and maritime to strengthen the future workforce in the transport industries.

As the Chairperson of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Mr Graham, together with British Ambassador Laure Beaufils, visited Cotabato City in support of our work with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on the peace process under the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) Programme.

Mr Graham also met with the Department of Science and Technology and the Philippine Space Agency to celebrate the success of the Filipino engineers who underwent training on satellite system design at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in the UK in 2021, and to show appreciation of the continued engagement of the Philippine Government with the UK on space initiatives, and other aspects of technology and innovation.

UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Richard Graham, said:

I remain more convinced than ever that the direction of the Philippines is very positive and that what we can do together, the UK and the Philippines, whether on economic dialogues, liberalizing trade, opening up opportunities for foreign investment, bringing in new technologies, helping the Philippines to be more sustainable in its growth on clean energy, there is so much we can do. I leave with a very strong feeling that our two countries together are just going to grow even closer.

Richard Graham is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Gloucester. He began his business career with the Swire Group, as General Manager for Cathay Pacific in the Philippines. He has also worked in the UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office and was previously posted in Kenya and China.

Today (23 February 2022) marks the first anniversary of the Space Bridge between UK and Australia – a partnership focused on facilitating collaboration between the two countries’ space sectors.

A world first, the Space Bridge has unlocked improved access to trade, investment and academic research opportunities, better advice to businesses and innovative bilateral collaborations.

The arrangement enhances cooperation between the UK and Australian space sector to work on space-related activities, from sharing Earth Observation data to collaborating on robotic and artificial intelligence.

Several exciting initiatives have taken place since the signing last year, including the Department for International Trade-led UK Space Export Academy collaboration, which facilitated workshops for UK SMEs on trade policy, export regulations, finance and tax, insight into the Australian space landscape and practical advice on business pitching. The graduation event in September 2021 enabled 23 individual engagements between UK companies and Australian industry, academia and government.

With a global audience of up to 1,000 attendees, the virtual UK and Australia roadshows showcasing key strategies, strengths, and capabilities of the space sector last year were instrumental in facilitating engagement between UK and Australian investors and collaborators across industry and academia.

The first funding call launched under the UK-Australia Space Bridge has also been hugely successful, with five collaborative research projects receiving a total of £250,000 from SmartSat CRC and the Satellite Applications Catapult, with the support of the UK Science and Innovation Network. Digital Content Analysis Technology Ltd, OneWeb and Spire Global UK were among those to benefit from the funding and are currently working on the projects due to be completed by the end of June 2022.

Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said:

Although separated by many seas, the Space Bridge has connected the UK and Australia in whole new ways. It is unlocking greater innovation, promoting the exchange of knowledge and forging new partnerships to maximise the vast potential of our growing space sectors.

The Space Bridge is a prime example of how we can join forces with our partners to catalyse investment and help meet the UK’s increased ambitions in space. International collaboration is a key pillar of the UK National Space Strategy and we are proud to be working with our Australian colleagues to leverage resources and opportunities from across Government, industry, academia, and private investors – driving forward this exciting initiative.

Sam Adlen, Chief Strategy Officer at the Satellite Applications Catapult said:

As the Space Bridge reaches its first anniversary, it is clear that strong foundations have been laid. It has been great to work with impressive Australian colleagues, and to see the partnerships developing and the potential future impact that will be delivered. The opportunity for space enabled growth is only growing, and the strong ties between the UK and Australia will enable the capacity and utility of the space bridge to grow significantly for the benefit of both countries and citizens globally.

The UK-Australia partnership is a priority for the UK space sector, bolstered further by the UK’s recent £1m commitment for Earth Observation in Agroclimate to help farmers deal with climate change.

Nearly £7 million awarded to turbocharge UK projects that are developing innovative energy storage technologies, in first round of government-backed competition.

The intermittent nature of renewables like solar and wind power means that energy can be produced when it is not needed, such as during extended periods of high wind. However, as new technologies are developed, this energy can be stored for longer, helping manage electricity generation variations and increasing resilience, while also maximising value for money.

Twenty-four projects based across the UK have been awarded the first round of funding through the Longer Duration Energy Storage competition, which is worth £68 million in total. These projects will benefit from a share of over £6.7 million to develop new energy storage technologies that can utilise stored energy as heat, electricity or as a low-carbon energy carrier like hydrogen. Ranging from the development of thermal batteries to converting energy to hydrogen, they have been selected because of their potential to improve technology performance and reduce the cost of meeting net zero. Successful projects could benefit from a greater tranche of funding from a second phase of the competition, which will support these projects towards commercialisation, encouraging private investment and creating new jobs.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Hands said:

Driving forward energy storage technologies will be vital in our transition towards cheap, clean and secure renewable energy.

It will allow us to extract the full benefit from our home-grown renewable energy sources, drive down costs and end our reliance on volatile and expensive fossil fuels. Through this competition we are making sure the country’s most innovative scientists and thinkers have our backing to make this ambition a reality.

As part of the UK government’s commitment to reach net zero, we are accelerating the transition to clean, renewable energy, and shifting to a green electricity grid by stepping up the use of clean energy sources like wind and solar power.

This will not only help reduce the nation’s dependence on expensive fossil fuels, but will also provide cheaper energy to consumers, and will mean more of the UK’s energy is produced domestically. The green energy transition will therefore involve ensuring the UK’s electricity infrastructure can cope with greater shares of renewables, while meeting power demands securely.

Today’s funding is awarded under Phase 1 of the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration competition (LODES), part of the government’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. Phase 1 will be followed by Phase 2, which will see the remainder of the £68 million funding awarded to several of the most promising Phase 1 projects, to proceed to build and demonstrate their technology fully. Selecting projects for the next stage will take place upon the completion of Phase 1, whereby projects will be assessed based on their potential to commercialise their technologies.

The energy storage projects receiving funding today include:

• Sunamp’s EXTEND project, East Lothian, Scotland – will receive £149,893 for a feasibility study to further develop the storage duration of their thermal batteries. They will look to pair their heat batteries with household energy systems to tackle periods of low renewables generation on the grid
• Cheesecake Energy’s FlexiTanker project, Nottingham, England – will receive £139,411 to develop their thermal and compressed air energy storage technology to integrate more renewables into the grid, helping to fast-track the decarbonisation of the UK electricity system
• B9 Energy Storage’s Ballylumford Power-to-X project, Larne, Northern Ireland – will receive £986,082 to mobilise an innovative 20MW Power-to-X project at Ballylumford. Green hydrogen produced by electrolysers will be stored in underground salt caverns and used for transport and to displace natural gas in fuel blending trials. This project paves the way for future large-scale deployments connected to offshore windfarms

Andrew Bissell, Chief Executive Officer at Sunamp said:

For the past decade, we have focused on decarbonising hot water and have delivered a world-beating 20,000 heat batteries using our phase change material into the market so far, and we are now bringing forward our Central Bank products for heat. Our thermal storage technology can be combined with heat pumps to deliver more than twice as much heat per unit of electricity on demand than direct electric heating. This funding will accelerate how we can further enhance thermal storage duration, working with wind energy from the grid and solar PV in homes, to provide heat and water during extended intervals of low renewables generation when green power is not available on the grid, eventually reducing the overall cost of operation to be lower than gas.

Larry Zulch, Chief Executive Officer at Invinity said:

The LODES initiatives are yet another demonstration of the UK’s commitment to building a thriving low carbon economy. Invinity greatly appreciates BEIS’s vision for that future, especially the vital role that safe, reliable and robust long-duration energy storage has to play on a Net Zero UK electric grid. In realizing that vision we are tremendously pleased to be working again with BEIS, Pivot Power and EDF to plan the deployment of a vanadium flow battery 8 times the size of the one currently operating at Energy Superhub Oxford.

The funding announced today is a key step towards supporting the development and commercialisation of innovative energy storage technologies, in turn supporting the UK’s transition to relying on renewables, while also encouraging private investment and new green jobs.

The £68 million Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration competition is funded through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies and processes through the 2020s and 2030s.

This competition is being conducted in 2 phases, and across 2 streams. The 2 competition streams are designed to support technologies at different stages of development, with Stream 1 supporting actual demonstrations of the technologies, and Stream 2 supporting prototype demonstrations. Funding for Stream 1 is in the form of Capital Grants and the projects have been required to secure additional private investment.

Read a full list of the projects receiving funding under:

Phase 2 will build on Phase 1, selecting several of the Phase 1 projects for further funding to build and demonstrate their technology fully.