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The Post Office has said it will not oppose attempts to overturn the convictions of 44 sub-postmasters wrongly accused of theft and fraud because of an IT error.
The former sub-postmasters’ convictions, which were based on evidence provided by a faulty IT system, were “unsafe”, the Post Office said today.

It has now confirmed it will not block the 44 cases being sent to the Court of Appeal, which means all convictions will be quashed.
Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting after the Horizon IT system was introduced to Post Office branches across the country between 2000 and 2002.
It incorrectly showed cash shortfalls, which resulted in many of the postmasters involved being sacked or even put in prison.

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The scandal over the Horizon system has spanned a decade, costing millions of pounds in countless court cases.

It was not until December last year that a High Court ruling exposed the system’s failings. The court concluded that a number of “bugs, errors and defects” had caused “discrepancies” in sub-postmasters’ branch accounts.

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Depression, bankruptcy and jail: Why we sued the Post Office

Today’s decision has been described by lawyers Neil Hudgell and Tim Moloney QC, who are representing part of the group, as a “landmark moment”.
Solicitor Mr Hudgell said: “For the Post Office to concede defeat and not oppose these cases is a landmark moment, not only for these individuals, but in time, potentially hundreds of others.
“The door to justice has been opened. We are today obviously delighted for the people we represent. Clearing their names has been their driving goal from day one, as their reputations and livelihoods were so unfairly destroyed.”
Tim Parker, chairman of the Post Office, said in a statement: “I am sincerely sorry on behalf of the Post Office for historical failings which seriously affected some postmasters.
“Post Office is resetting its relationship with postmasters with reforms that prevent such past events ever happening again.”
In December last year, the Post Office agreed to pay nearly £58m to settle a civil claim brought by 550 sub-postmasters, which kickstarted the criminal appeals process.
Forty-seven convictions brought under Horizon evidence were referred to the Court of Appeal by the English Criminal Cases Review Commission. Today’s decision relates to 44 of those 47.
In May, the Post Office launched a scheme to provide redress to current and former postmasters who were not part of the litigation settlement but who believe they were adversely affected by earlier versions of the Horizon computer system.
The Horizon system is still being used in all 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.

Big differences remain in post-Brexit trade talks with the UK, Brussels’ chief negotiator has said.
As the deadline for cutting an agreement looms, Michel Barnier welcomed some “positive new developments” following this week’s negotiations in Brussels.

But he warned there had been a “lack of progress” on issues like climate change commitments and “persistent, serious divergences on matters of major importance for the EU”.
“We will continue to maintain a calm and respectful attitude, and we will remain united and determined until the end of these negotiations,” Mr Barnier added in a statement released on Friday.

Image: Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen will speak on Saturday afternoon
The UK’s Brexit negotiator, Lord David Frost, said the “outlines” of a free trade agreement with the EU are now “visible”, but “familiar differences ” remain and he is concerned there is “very little time” left.

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Fisheries remain a major sticking point, although he said there had been “some limited progress” on the issue of state aid and a law enforcement agreement.

But the EU needs to “move further” if there was to be an agreement,” he added.

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He said the ninth round of negotiations was “constructive” and conducted in “good spirits”, but the UK is still seeking an agreement “that ensures our ability to set our own laws without constraints that go beyond those appropriate to a free trade deal”.
Lord Frost said that is true of most of the core areas of a trade and economic agreement – notably trade in goods and services, transport, energy, social security, and participation in EU programmes.
“On fisheries, the gap between us is unfortunately very large and, without further realism and flexibility from the EU, risks being impossible to bridge. These issues are fundamental to our future status as an independent country,” he said.
“I am concerned that there is very little time now to resolve these issues ahead of the European Council on October 15.”

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EU: PM breaching ‘good faith’ of Brexit deal

The latest round of negotiations come ahead of talks between the head of the EU Commission, President Ursula von der Leyen, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday afternoon.
A Number 10 spokesperson said it is to “take stock of negotiations and discuss next steps”.
While the two leaders will likely be focusing on trade talks to hammer out an agreement before the transition period runs out at the end of 2020, Ms von der Leyen’s action yesterday will inevitably feature.
She accused Mr Johnson of breaching the “good faith” part of the Withdrawal Agreement, by drawing up a plan to override it in the event trade talks are unsuccessful.
A minister has admitted the move would break international law.

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Both the UK and the EU need to agree a deal by a 15 October deadline – the next meeting of all EU leaders where they would gather to sign it off.
Mr Johnson has said previously he is prepared for there to be no deal.
It has also emerged that European Council President Charles Michel will visit Ireland next week for a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.

Image: Brexit trade talks are nearing the deadline
‘Time for those at the top to put their cards on the table’Analysis by Michelle Clifford, Europe correspondent
Wouldn’t you like to eavesdrop on that Saturday morning conversation between the man and woman either side of the Channel trying to deliver a Brexit deal with so little time left.
That they are talking at all has to be seen as a positive.
The call between the two will come just two days after the EU launched legal proceedings against the UK over its plans to override parts of the withdrawal agreement.
One imagines there will be some time set aside for some firm words about that but the aim of the call is for the two to “take stock” of this week’s negotiations and figure out the next steps with just weeks left now until a deal is supposed to be decided.
The EU has remained tight-lipped about talk of some progress from the UK side but has acknowledged there are still significant gaps between their positions.
Will a frank conversation between the two shove things in the right direction?
Negotiation teams have been hard at it in Brussels all week. The EU and UK chief negotiators met today.
But it’s now time for those at the top of the talks to put their cards well and truly on the table.

Almost half of businesses have continued to see a fall in sales in recent months, despite lockdown restrictions easing.
A survey by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) found business conditions remained “exceptionally weak” in the third quarter of 2020, even though much of the economy has reopened.

With companies enduring a “sustained cash crunch” as a result of the coronavirus crisis, the body has warned conditions remain “fragile” and firms need more support to “navigate a tricky period ahead”.
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It also said it saw little sign of a swift V-shaped recovery, which contrasts sharply with the view the Bank of England’s chief economist Andy Haldane, who this week dismissed pessimistic “Chicken Licken” views about the UK economy.

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The survey of 6,410 firms, employing more than 580,000 people across the UK, found cash flow in the services sector remained at levels comparable to the recession a decade ago.

Hospitality and catering businesses had fared the worst, according to the BCC.

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Overall, it said that while key indicators have improved from historic lows in the previous quarter, they remain significantly lower than before COVID-19 struck.
Nearly half of firms (46%) reported falls in domestic sales, down from 73% in the second quarter.
Two-thirds (66%) of respondents in hospitality and catering reported a drop in sales and bookings in the last three months.

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Suren Thiru, head of economics at the BCC said: “Our latest survey indicates that underlying economic conditions remained exceptionally weak in the third quarter.
“While the declines in indicators of activity slowed as the UK economy gradually reopened, they remain well short of pre-pandemic levels with little sign of a swift V-shaped recovery.”

Track the UK economy’s recovery from lockdown

BCC director general Dr Adam Marshall, said: “Our findings clearly demonstrate that business conditions remain fragile in the face of uncertainty, with the prospect of a difficult winter to come.
“The economy will need more support, over and above the chancellor’s welcome recent efforts. Ministers must stand ready to provide that support, and to strengthen measures to underpin business cash flow and jobs.
“The disappointing test and trace system must be improved to ensure as many businesses as possible can function through the winter and beyond.
“A Brexit deal must be reached to avoid yet more disruption, and above all, businesses need confidence and calm, clear communication to successfully navigate a tricky period ahead.”

Where jobs have been lost in the UK economy

A Treasury spokesman said: “Our support for business has reached, and continues to reach, millions of firms.
“The job support scheme is designed to protect jobs in businesses facing lower demand over the winter due to COVID and is just one form of support on offer to employers during this difficult period.
“Businesses can still access our loan schemes, now extended, defer VAT payments previously due in March, and benefit from business rates holidays, a moratorium of eviction for commercial tenants and the statutory sick pay rebate scheme.
“We’re also continuing to innovate in supporting incomes and employment through our plan for jobs announced in July, helping employees get back to work through a £1,000 retention bonus and creating new roles for young people with our Kickstart scheme.”

E-scooters should be legalised in the UK within the next 18 months to help make cities greener, MPs have said.
A consultation by parliament’s transport committee found e-scooters could be an effective way to cut car journeys and clean up the air.

Renting scooters as part of an e-scooter sharing scheme was legalised for use on the road by the Department of Transport on 4 July.
But the vehicles cannot be used on the pavement and privately owned e-scooters still remain illegal on roads.
MPs said the vehicles, which can travel at more than 15mph, should remain banned from pavements for pedestrian safety.

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Image: Emily Hartridge is the first Briton to have died riding an e-scooter
Committee chair Huw Merriman said: “E-scooters have the potential to become an exciting and ingenious way to navigate our streets and get from place to place.”If this gets people out of the car, reducing congestion and exercising in the open air, then even better.”But he added: “We need to ensure that their arrival on our streets doesn’t make life more difficult for pedestrians, and especially disabled people.”

E-scooters are already popular in several European cities like Paris and Lisbon, thanks to sharing schemes.

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However, the use of them in the UK has been complicated due to their classification as a motor vehicle under the Road Traffic Act 1988.
It says e-scooters cannot be used on the UK’s roads – one of the last countries in Europe where this is the case.Motor vehicles are required to have number plates, with users needing to have a driver’s licence, insurance and wear a helmet.
The committee also heard evidence that local authorities would need extra funding to enforce any new safety restrictions introduced to govern e-scooters.
The transport committee called for e-scooters to be opened up to everyone – even those without a licence – and helmets to be strongly recommended but not mandated by law.
Currently, riders need a full or provisional car, motorcycle or moped licence to use the vehicles, and must be aged 16 or over.

Image: Lime’s service is available in 70 cities around the world
Several areas, including Teesside, Hartlepool, Milton Keynes Borough, Northamptonshire, and the West Midland have now signed up for the trial phase ahead of a potential national rollout.
Mr Merriman said: “Before proceeding with plans to legalise the use of e-scooters, local authorities and government must use the trials to monitor this closely, put enforcement measures in place and ensure they are effective in eliminating this behaviour.”
The committee also said that e-scooters should be promoted as an alternative to short car journeys and not to other active forms of transport such as walking or cycling.
Road safety campaigners have voiced concerns in the past over the vehicles which were responsible for more than 1,600 incidents in 2018.
YouTube star Emily Hartridge, 35, became the first e-scooter rider to be killed in the UK in 2019.
She was given the device as a birthday present by her boyfriend Jacob Hazell.
He has called on the government to make sure the vehicles are safe before being rolled out nationwide.
Research by scooter-sharing operator Lime found that 8% of e-scooter trips had replaced car or taxi journeys across Paris, Lyon and Marseille, while this rose to 21% in Lisbon.But in France 44% of users said they would have walked their trip if e-scooters had not been available, although only 6% said they were walking less overall since they were introduced.The transport committee also emphasised the importance of designing a system to prevent “street clutter” whereby the dockless scooters are left on the pavement causing a hazard.In 2018, Chinese dockless bike rental firm Mobike pulled out of Manchester due to the volume of vehicles stolen, vandalised or dumped.Bicycles were spotted thrown in waterways, set on fire or left hanging from railings, while others had locks smashed to enable people to keep them.

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2019: Emily Hartridge’s boyfriend speaks about her death

The transport committee said e-scooter “parking hubs” should be considered to avoid the problem of e-scooters obstructing the pavement.It also raised the issue of sustainability, and that short life cycle of many models and the fact that due to the design, many e-scooters are scrapped rather than repaired.AA president Edmund King said: “We support the legalisation of e-scooters for use on the public highway, as long as certain safety criteria are met.”As the safest option, we would support the use of e-scooters on extended dedicated cycle ways and recommend some form of training before setting off on the public highway.”The transport committee recommended that speed limits for scooters be set by local authorities but the AA said limits should be agreed at a national level.

The coronavirus-ravaged exhibitions industry has warned that 80% of its total workforce may be lost within weeks as the clock ticks down to the furlough scheme’s closure at the end of the month.
An open letter to Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, signed by more than 330 employers and also the Labour Party, pleads for targeted financial support to prevent the prospect of 90,000 job losses.

The Events Industry Alliance (EIA) argued there was an “existential threat” to the sector, which employs 600,000 people, given that it is among only a handful of industries still forced to remain shut because of government restrictions to tackle COVID-19.
Live coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world

Where jobs have been lost in the UK economy

The letter, sent on behalf of companies across the wider events sector including The O2, pointed out that the replacement for the Job Retention Scheme, the Job Support Scheme, would only help people who are back at work when it gets under way in November.

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“The EIA anticipates that 80% of the exhibitions sector workforce (consisting of events suppliers, organisers and venues), over 90,000 people, will be made redundant… due to continued event closures and the inability of their employers to access the new Job Support Scheme as they are not able to trade at all during the time and therefore will have no income to pay employees,” the letter said.

“Targeted government support is urgently needed for the industry to survive.

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“We therefore propose that the government develops an ‘Events Industry Hibernation Support Package’.”
Among the time-limited measures it requested were an adapted wage subsidy scheme and enhanced access to grants and loans.
The chancellor said his Winter Economic Plan could only support “viable” jobs, essentially ruling that there was no bottomless pit of cash to prevent a surge in unemployment.
The EIA argued that the events industry was worth £70bn annually to the UK economy.
The letter continued: “We are not an unviable sector and simply require support to survive until the time is right to resume events, at which point we can return to our role of driving growth in the wider economy.”
There is anger among businesses over the viability threshold demanded by the Job Support Scheme.
David Cox, chairman of Newbury-based Design Construct & Exhibitions, told Sky News the business had been effectively closed down by the government on 23 March and it deserved support until its restrictions are lifted.

Image: The National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham is among the signatories to the letter
“We have, like many other companies, had the benefit of the furlough scheme, however this does not help with set overheads and financial commitments that we all have to contend with.
“We have had no real income since that day and since September we have had to contribute to all our staff wages without getting anything in return.”
He added: “I would also like to point out that we have, and I am sure most of our event colleagues have, paid corporation tax every year so I find it unacceptable to be labelled as not viable.”

Pension trustees at Clarks, the footwear retailer, are wading into the battle to secure control of the 195-year-old chain.
Sky News understands that the company’s retirement scheme has drafted in advisers from Penfida and FRP Advisory amid advanced discussions with two potential bidders.

Sources said that Clarks’ pension trustees were “actively engaged” with the company about interest from LionRock Capital and Alteri Investors, both of which have submitted offers that would involve a significant dilution of ownership stake of the chain’s founding family.

Track the UK economy’s recovery from lockdown

The talks come amid the devastating impact of COVID-19 on Britain’s high streets, with numerous businesses having collapsed or been forced into swingeing job cuts.
Clarks’ pension scheme is well-funded, although it has a deficit of nearly £200m on a full buyout basis, which refers to the cost of insuring members’ future benefits in full.

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A conclusion to talks about a refinancing of Clarks is expected this month, according to insiders.

Last week, it emerged that LionRock, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm which has backed companies such as Internazionale, the Serie A football club, and the ride-hailing app Hailo, was in talks with advisers to the shoe retailer.

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Any transaction is likely to involve the Clark family retaining an equity stake in the business, although it could be reduced to below 50%, depending on the shape of a deal.
Sky News revealed in May that the footwear chain was in discussions about a share sale, with between £100m and £150m likely to be injected into the business as part of any deal.
In May, Clarks’ new chief executive, Giorgio Presca, unveiled a strategy – dubbed “Made to Last” – that will aim to steer it into its third century of operation.
His plans involve 900 job losses, with 200 new roles being created.

Where jobs have been lost in the UK economy

The chain’s family shareholders have drafted in KPMG to advise them, while Deloitte has been hired by the company’s management team.
PricewaterhouseCoopers had been engaged by a syndicate of the footwear chain’s lenders as they assess the COVID-19 crisis’s impact on its prospects.
Rothschild, the investment bank, is also advising the company.
The string of appointments come after a difficult period for Clarks, which was founded in 1825 and has become synonymous with generations of parents buying their children’s first pair of shoes.
It remains largely owned by descendants of Cyrus and James Clark, who founded the business in Somerset nearly 200 years ago.
Clarks trades from about 345 stores in the UK, employing thousands of people, many of whom were furloughed under the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
In the last year for which figures are available, Clarks reported a post-tax loss of more than £80m.
“We recently announced Clarks’ long-term ‘Made to Last’ strategy that is designed to ensure that our business has a sustainable and successful future, keeping it in step with changes in how consumers around the world choose and buy their shoes,” a spokesman for the company said recently.
“As part of this strategy the Clarks board of directors is currently reviewing options to best position our business, our people and the Clarks brand for future long-term growth.”
A spokesman for the Clarks pension trustees declined to comment.

Ocado is facing allegations that its robot-operated warehouse technology has infringed a rival company’s patents.
The online grocery firm, which has built a surge in its market value in recent years on the sale of such systems, is being sued by Norwegian robotics company AutoStore.

It has filed lawsuits in both the US and UK to seek financial damages, which could run into hundreds of millions of pounds, and an end to Ocado’s lucrative partnerships covering the rollout of the automated warehouse technology.

Image: Ocado is best known as an online grocer but has built its share price success on technology sales
Ocado responded by saying it had not been notified about the legal action but indicated it would fight any such claims.
The Norwegian company argues that its storage system and robots are the foundation on which the Ocado Smart Platform was built on – adding that Ocado was a customer until 2012.

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Chief executive and president of AutoStore, Karl Johan Lier, said: “Since 1996, AutoStore has developed and pioneered technology that has revolutionised retail storage and order fulfilment, and is driving the growth of online retail.

“Our ownership of the technology at the heart of Ocado’s warehousing system is clear.

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“We will not tolerate Ocado’s continued infringement of our intellectual property rights in its effort to boost its growth and attempt to transform itself into a global technology company.
The UK firm, which has enjoyed a ten-fold rise in its market value over the past four years, saw shares fall by more than 8% following the revelation of the allegations but closed just 1% lower.
On Tuesday, its market value surpassed that of Tesco, the UK’s largest grocery retailer, on the FTSE 100.
The company responded: “We are not aware of any infringement of any valid AutoStore rights and of course we will investigate any claims once we receive further details.
“We have multiple patents protecting the use of our systems in grocery and we are investigating whether AutoStore has, or intends to infringe those patents.
“We will always vigorously protect our intellectual property.”

It is not often that a speech from a Bank of England chief economist sends you into a wormhole about ancient folklore.
Then again, Andy Haldane is not your typical policymaker and his speech yesterday about the “economics of Chicken Licken” was not your typical central banker’s speech.

You will probably be familiar with the broad folk story he was referring to: a little chick (Chicken Licken, or alternatively Henny Penny or Chicken Little) becomes convinced, after an acorn falls on its head, that the sky is falling in.

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Businesses react to the chancellor’s plan

The chicken gets the rest of the barnyard so terrified about it that all the animals become convinced the world is coming to an end.
In their terror, they are so blinded to reality that they stumble blindly into a wood where the fox eats them all.

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The first modern versions of the story date from the 19th century, when a Danish scholar, Just Mathias Thiele, included the tale in a book of local folktales, and it has since become a comic book, a cartoon and, more recently, a Disney film – though some of the more modern tellings excise the grisly Victorian ending.

However, the story itself goes back a lot longer than that, for an analogous tale is to be found in the Buddhist scriptures, which date from a few hundred years before the birth of Christ.

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The Buddha tells the story of a hare who is disturbed by the noise of a falling fruit and becomes worried the world is about to end.
Like Chicken Licken, the hare triggers a collective mania among the rest of the other animals and they begin stampeding until they encounter a lion.

Image: Some of the more modern tellings excise the grisly Victorian ending
The interesting bit is what comes next.
In the Buddhist version the lion does not eat them but stops them and forces them to think deductively about whether the world is indeed ending.
They see the folly of their ways and calm is restored.
A very similar story, but with two very different endings, which entail very different moral lessons.
One is a cautionary tale that implies that in the face of a scary moment, we are incapable of controlling our anxiety.
The other is more reassuring: sometimes we face scary moments, but by examining the evidence we can calm down and life can return to normal.
Presumably Mr Haldane had the first of these endings – the Victorian one – in his mind when he warned that “now is not the time for the economics of Chicken Licken.”
That, after all, was the tenor of his speech, that the news really isn’t all that bad and we need to stop catastrophising before we do ourselves some serious harm: “Collective anxiety is as contagious, and could be as damaging to our well-being, as this terrible disease.”

Where jobs are being lost across the UK economy

He has half a point.
The economic news is not quite as bad as many had feared.
The economy did indeed slump dramatically in the second quarter but it is beginning to regain some of the lost ground.
Unemployment has not risen as high as some feared, although it is probably too early to draw any firm conclusions.
But here’s the thing: save for some measures of consumer confidence (which are still low compared with before the disease hit) it is not altogether obvious that people are actually catastrophising.
If we are following the path of Chicken Licken, it seems that so far at least people are following the Buddhist version, where they constantly assess whether their fears are really justified by reality.
Indeed, if there is one bright, shining light in the economic firmament, it has been the behaviour of consumers in their spending.
Retail sales collapsed in the face of the lockdown, but have since bounced back in precisely the kind of V-shape many economists had hoped for.

Image: Retail sales have bounced back
The path of retail sales isn’t representative of the entire economy, but it is a pretty good gauge of consumer sentiment, and far from being stuck in the doldrums, it has recovered almost completely.
Where there are areas of the economy that remain stuck, they remain stuck for reasons that go far beyond anxiety.
The hospitality sector is unable to function as normal due to lockdowns and restrictions.
Events businesses are unable to operate.
Transport firms face a collapse in demand as people work from home.
These are not the fruits of sentiment but of a genuine (but hopefully temporary) shift in the structure of the economy.
It is real, not imaginary.
Perhaps the real subtext of Mr Haldane’s speech was that the real Chicken Lickens are the media.

Image: In the Buddhist version the lion forces the other animals to think deductively
He pointed in his speech towards reports following the second quarter gross domestic product figures, which were largely focused on the record quarterly fall rather than the fact that growth did bounce back in the final month of that quarter.
Now, given this article is written by a journalist, please feel free to discount what I’m about to point out.
But let’s try to imagine a moment in recent economic history where the vast majority of economic journalists warned that we were heading for an economic downturn and the vast majority of the public simply ignored them.
Seems unlikely, doesn’t it?
On the basis of Mr Haldane’s argument, precisely the opposite should happen.
Yet this is exactly what happened during and after the EU referendum of 2016.
The ranks of the establishment predicted a recession if Britain voted leave; in the event British consumers ignored that and carried on spending regardless.
There was no recession, in large part because people simply ignored all those scary warnings.
Indeed, the evidence suggests that all too often people discount what they are reading and seeing in the media and carry on living their lives.
The British public behave far more like the sensible lion in the Buddhist version of this fairytale, preferring to make their own judgments about the state of the economy rather than getting wound up in a kind of mass hysteria.

The UK’s corporate governance watchdog is facing fresh embarrassment over its own leadership amid a failure in Whitehall to rubber-stamp the appointment of its next chairman.
Sky News has learnt that a plan to name Keith Skeoch as interim chair of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has been delayed despite having been signed off by Alok Sharma, the business secretary.

Government sources said the appointment of Mr Skeoch, who had served as a non-executive director of the FRC for more than eight years, was supposed to have been announced in August.

Image: Mr Skeoch recently stepped down as chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen
Mr Skeoch, who recently stepped down as chief executive of the asset management group Standard Life Aberdeen, has now been forced to leave the FRC’s board altogether until the impasse is resolved.
His biography has been removed from the regulator’s website – albeit on a temporary basis.

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One Whitehall source said Mr Skeoch’s appointment as the FRC’s interim chair was now awaiting sign-off from the Treasury.

The former fund management boss is seen in the City as a sound choice to take the role temporarily, although the fact that he had been an FRC director for such a long period already raises its own questions around the regulator’s stewardship.

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Mr Skeoch had sat on its board since March 2012, meaning that when he was removed from its website in the last few weeks, he was within months of reaching the nine-year point at which directors of listed companies are no longer deemed to be independent under the FRC’s corporate governance code.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The day-to-day running of the Financial Reporting Council remains the responsibility of its CEO Sir Jon Thompson.
“We will announce next steps on recruitment of a new chair in due course.”

Image: Mr Skeoch is seen as a sound choice in the City
The delay is the latest awkward development at the FRC, which is responsible for setting the UK’s corporate governance and stewardship codes – the frameworks within which Britain’s publicly traded companies are expected to be run.
Mr Skeoch’s intended appointment as the FRC’s interim chairman was necessitated by the sudden departure of Simon Dingemans in May.
Mr Dingemans, who had only been in the role for less than a year, stepped down after a disagreement with BEIS about his other business interests.
One governance expert described the government’s statement about the chief executive overseeing the day-to-day running of the FRC as “a nonsense”.
“Jon Thompson is a very good CEO, and he is doing a very good job, but that doesn’t mean the FRC board should be without an effective chairman,” the person said.
“This is supposed to be the organisation responsible for setting standards for good governance.”

Image: The FRC has recently confirmed plans to press ahead with the effective break-up of the big four auditors
It was unclear on Thursday which director is chairing FRC board meetings until an interim or permanent successor to Mr Dingemans is appointed.
The leadership vacuum comes at a critical time for the audit watchdog, which is grappling with the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the financial reporting of London-listed companies as well as the wider audit reform agenda.
The FRC has recently confirmed plans to press ahead with the effective break-up of the big four auditors – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers – by forcing them to separate their audit and consulting operations.
Under its proposals, the quartet must submit detailed blueprints to the FRC this month, with ‘operational separation’ coming into effect in 2024.
The shake-up will represent a radical overhaul of the big four’s businesses, and has been sparked by public and political outrage over a string of audit failures at companies, such as Bhs and Carillion, which ultimately collapsed with the loss of thousands of jobs.
The scandal over the collapse of Wirecard, the German payments company, has intensified the demands for urgent reform.

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‘Society wants to know much more about what business is doing’

Whether Mr Skeoch or another person is appointed to lead the FRC, its latest leadership change comes amid uncertainty about its own longevity.
Sir John Kingman, the former Treasury mandarin who now chairs Legal & General and Tesco Bank, proposed in a government-sponsored report last year that the FRC should be abolished and replaced by a statutory body called the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority.
Mr Sharma has signalled his desire to implement the recommendations of Sir John and a separate review of auditing by the City grandee Sir Donald Brydon.
Mr Skeoch could not be reached for comment.

Cyber security analysts tasked with investigating Huawei equipment used in the UK’s telecommunications networks discovered a “nationally significant” vulnerability last year.
Investigators at the UK’s Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) found an issue so severe that it was withheld from the company, according to an oversight report published on Thursday.

Vulnerabilities are usually software design failures which could allow hostile actors (in particular the Chinese state when it comes to Huawei) to conduct a cyber attack. They are not necessarily intentional and can’t be seen as an indication of any hostile intent on the part of the developers themselves.

Huawei: The company and the security risks explained

There is a hypothetical concern that Beijing could purposefully design some kind of deniable flaw in Huawei’s equipment which it would know how to exploit – or that it could have been alerted to a potential attack vector once the issue was reported to Huawei.
The report explicitly states that the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – a part of GCHQ – “does not believe that the defects identified are as a result of Chinese state interference”, and adds that there is no evidence the vulnerabilities were exploited.

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Instead, the agency reported that “poor software engineering and cyber security processes lead to security and quality issues, including vulnerabilities” – and that “the increasing number and severity of vulnerabilities discovered” is of particular concern.

“If an attacker has knowledge of these vulnerabilities and sufficient access to exploit them, they may be able to affect the operation of a UK network, in some cases causing it to cease operating correctly,” the report warns.

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“Other impacts could include being able to access user traffic or reconfiguration of the network elements.”
After the major vulnerability was assessed by the UK’s security services then it was reported to Huawei, in line with the HCSEC’s normal vulnerability disclosure process.
The report adds that HCSEC “continues to reveal serious and systematic defects in Huawei’s software engineering and cyber security competence” – and warns that despite fixing specific issues when directed to do so, the agency has “no confidence that Huawei will effectively maintain components within its products”.

Image: NCSC is part of GCHQ, the UK’s cyber and signals intelligence agency
A spokesperson for Huawei said the report highlighted the company’s “commitment to a process that guarantees openness and transparency, and demonstrates HCSEC has been an effective way to mitigate cyber security risks in the UK”.
They stressed the NCSC’s conclusion that the defects were not believed to be a result of malicious interference from the Chinese state, and that the UK’s networks are not more vulnerable than last year.
“As innovators, we continue significant investment to improve our products. The report acknowledges that while our software transformation process is in its infancy, we have made some progress in improving our software engineering capabilities,” said the spokesperson.
“Huawei has faced the highest level of scrutiny for almost 10 years. This rigorous review sets a precedent for cyber security collaboration between the public and private sectors, and has provided valuable insights for the telecoms sector.”
Although similar vulnerabilities for rival companies which provide networking equipment – whether radio antennas or core switches and gateways – are often discovered, the company argues they do not get the same attention.
“We believe this mechanism can benefit the entire industry and Huawei calls for all vendors to be evaluated against an equally robust benchmark, to improve security standards for everyone,” the spokesperson added.

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Trump: ‘We convinced many countries not to use Huawei’

American restrictions on Huawei (stated to be based on security grounds, although the company argued that it has been unfairly hit by the Trump administration’s trade war) will prohibit US technology companies from providing components – such as computer chips – to the company.
As a result of these restrictions, the British government has ordered that all Huawei equipment must be stripped out of the UK’s telecommunication networks by 2027, following NCSC’s recommendation that it could no longer guarantee the security of Huawei’s equipment if it was to adopt chips from less trusted manufacturers.
The US sanctions were criticised as “arbitrary and pernicious” by Huawei, which has confirmed that 40% of the roles within its enterprise business group in the UK are being made redundant as a result.
Speaking to Sky News last week, Matt Warman MP – who has the infrastructure portfolio under the digital secretary – said he did not expect the US to change its approach towards the company even if a new administration was elected come November.
“If I look across the Atlantic, actually this is an issue where – while the language might be different – there is considerable bipartisan support that is in line with the decision we’re taking,” he said.