Boris Johnson has appointed the former boss of Tesco as an expert supply chain adviser.
Sir David Lewis, former chief executive of the supermarket giant, will assist both the prime minister and newly appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Stephen Barclay on both immediate improvements and any necessary long-term changes to UK supply chains for goods, Downing Street said.
Sir David will be in the role until the end of the year and will work with government officials to quickly resolve acute, short-term issues, they added.
He will also co-chair a new supply chain advisory group which will be based in the Cabinet Office.
The announcement comes as data revealed around one in six adults in Britain have been unable to buy essential food items in the last fortnight.
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According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), some 17% of adults said they had not been able to purchase such goods because they were not available.
Almost a quarter (23%) said the same for non-essential food items.
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In a statement on Friday, Downing Street said: “This includes both identifying the causes of current blockages and pre-empting potential future ones, and advising on resolutions either through direct government action or through industry with government support.”
The prime minister added he is “pleased” that Sir David is joining the team who have been “working on future-proofing our supply chains across the United Kingdom as we recover from the pandemic”.
“There are currently global supply issues which we are working with industry to mitigate and Dave brings a wealth of experience which will help us continue to protect our businesses and supply chains,” the PM said.
Sir David, who stepped down from the his role at Tesco in September last year, will take up his new position on Monday.
No 10 said businesses have faced “a range of challenges” over recent months “as they recover from the global pandemic which has impacted supply chains across Europe and around the world”.
“The government has acted quickly to introduce a series of measures to relieve pressure on vital supply chains, including by streamlining the testing process for HGV drivers, creating skills boot camps to train up HGV drivers, as well as introducing short-term visas for fuel drivers, food haulage drivers and poultry workers to ease pressures facing these supply chains,” they added.
Speaking to Sky News earlier on Friday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said “we’re right at the tail end” of the situation with fuel supply pressures, following weeks of individuals having to queue to refuel at stations.
Mr Shapps said in “most parts of the country” problems have ended, and that London and the South East are the only two areas “where we’re seeing any continued problems”.
Sky News understands that, as of 9am on Friday, places in the government’s ‘green’ category with average stock levels of fuel include: Scotland, Northern Ireland, North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humber, West Midlands, East Midlands, Wales and the South West.
Eastern and South East areas of England alongside London are in the amber category, with reduced stock levels. No areas are in the red zone.
A former top Post Office lawyer has been accused of telling the Horizon IT inquiry a “big fat lie” over his knowledge of a bug in the system that could have stopped wrongful prosecutions of sub-postmasters in their tracks.
Jarnail Singh was a senior in-house lawyer and subsequently head of criminal law at the Post Office from 2012.
The inquiry into the Horizon scandal heard he was copied into an email containing a report which identified the glitch in the accounting system but denied knowledge of it for years – despite saving the document and printing it out.
Mr Singh denied the claims by Jason Beer KC, counsel to the inquiry.
Mr Beer said the report was sent to Mr Singh just three days before sub-postmaster Seema Misra’s case began in October 2010.
Ms Misra was eight weeks pregnant when she was handed a 15-month prison sentence after being accused of stealing £74,000 from her branch in West Byfleet, Surrey.
Her conviction was later quashed by the Court of Appeal.
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Sub-postmistress wrongly jailed while pregnant
Mr Singh said he “wasn’t made aware” of the report, written by Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins.
Explanation of bug
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Mr Beer said it described a bug “that will result in a receipts payment mismatch” and offered an explanation for apparent cases of theft among sub-postmasters.
He added that a file address on the bottom of the document, which included Mr Singh’s name, showed the lawyer had both saved the report to his drive and printed it out only nine minutes later.
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Ex-Post Office exec accused of lying
He said this proved Mr Singh had lied years later when he denied having advance knowledge of the issues uncovered by a 2013 report carried out by forensic accounting firm Second Sight.
Mr Singh said he also did not know how to save or print documents during his employment at the organisation and had to ask others to do it for him.
Mr Beer accused Mr Singh of telling “a big fat lie” to the inquiry and of having failed to disclose important information to the defence or court ahead of Ms Misra’s prosecution, asking: “You’d known about the bug all along hadn’t you, Mr Singh?”
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‘I have had breakdowns’
The lawyer responded: “No, that’s not true.”
Admission of mistakes
He also denied any suggestion of a cover up but admitted that “mistakes were made” in the prosecution of Ms Misra.
Mr Singh said: “I’m ever so sorry Ms Misra had suffered and I am ever so embarrassed to be here, that we made those mistakes and put somebody’s liberty at stake and the loss she suffered and the damage caused which was not what this was about.”
Following her case, hundreds of people were later wrongly convicted of stealing after bugs and errors in the accounting system, operated by Fujitsu, made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
There were more than 700 convictions in total, dating back from 1995 to 2015.
Victims not only faced prison but financial ruin. Others were ostracised by their communities, while some took their own lives.
Fresh attention was brought to the scandal after ITV broadcast the drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, prompting government action that aims to speed up the clearing of names and payments of compensation.
Official figures have raised fears of a deepening public sector drag on the the UK’s economic recovery from recession.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that productivity in the public sector, dominated by education and healthcare, deteriorated between the third and fourth quarters of 2023.
It measured a 1.0% decline over the period, leaving the figure 2.3% lower than a year ago and even further away from recovering pre-pandemic levels.
Public sector productivity measures the volume of services delivered against the volume of inputs – like salaries and government funding – that are needed to maintain those services.
While the sector has witnessed hits from the impacts of strikes since the end of the COVID crisis, the NHS has struggled to deal with a worsening backlog in many key waiting lists.
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Rows over funding have been exacerbated by record levels of long-term sickness.
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UK’s economy has ‘turned corner’
The official jobless rate stands at just over 4% – around 1.4 million people.
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However, the numbers judged to be economically inactive due to poor health are nearing double that sum.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that the issue has added around £16bn to annual government borrowing bills.
Pressures have been reflected in ONS data, with output in both the health and education sectors falling during the fourth quarter of the year – contributing to the country’s recession.
That was despite rising inputs over the period.
Back in March, chancellor Jeremy Hunt used his budget to announce a Public Sector Productivity Plan – with an emphasis on improving technology in the National Health Service (NHS).
Figures next week are widely expected to confirm the end of the recession, with overall output returning to growth during the first quarter of the year.
Recent private sector surveys have painted a rosy picture for the dominant services sector, which accounts for almost 80% of overall output, despite continued pressure on budgets from the impact of higher inflation and interest rates to help cure the price problem.
Tech giant Apple has recorded the biggest drop in iPhone sales since the early months of the COVID pandemic.
Sales for January to March were down 10% on the same period last year – something not seen since the 2020 iPhone model was delayed due to lockdown factory closures.
Overall, Apple earned $90.8bn (£72.4bn) in the latest quarter – down 4% from last year. It was the fifth consecutive three-month period that the company’s revenue dipped from the previous year.
Apple’s profit in the past quarter was $23.64bn (£18.85bn) – a 2% dip from last year.
It was good news, however, for the overall value of the company as its share price rose nearly 7% after investors had expected a bigger drop in sales.
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March: Apple accused of locking out rivals
Meanwhile, Apple chief executive Tim Cook has discussed how the company is set to use artificial intelligence (AI).
While rival Samsung introduced phones that can feature AI, including generative AI chatbots, Apple has yet to announce how it will be embedded into its iPhones.
The next iPhone is expected to feature AI microchips and bigger screens.
Applewill reveal the newest software when it holds its annual developers’ conference in June.
Generative AI could power phones to write software code, essays or create images based on a prompt by users.
Mr Cook said the company feels “very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI and we’re making significant investments”, adding: “We’re looking forward to sharing some very exciting things.”