Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief and what a week it has been! As you can imagine there has been a lot of important updates going out across the industry this week and we have many stories with everything you might need to catch up on.
The MTA is pleased to announce a new member service – an Apprenticeship Jobs Board. Developed in conjunction with the Design and Technology Association (D&T), the MTA Apprenticeship Jobs Board, allows MTA members to create a company profile and upload any apprenticeship job vacancies they currently have. Find out more exciting details below.
The pandemic continues but, in England, government restrictions are being dropped and most free services, such as testing, and testing and tracing, are being discontinued. Find a lot of detail and key points in article with links and comments in the story below.
As part of our continuing engagement with the business department (BEIS) both directly and through EAMA, we have been asked to help in gathering evidence of our sector is managing with regard to moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and supporting customers. The UK is currently in deadlock with the EU on the hugely significant issue, which it is affecting the broader trading relationship with the EU. Read more from Jack Semple on the issue below.
An unprovoked and bloody invasion by Russia on Ukraine is underway by land, by sea and by air. In response, the Prime Minister yesterday announced the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions we have ever introduced and that Russia has ever faced. To view the sanctions and an update from the National Cyber Security Centre please go to the story below.
New Brexit opportunities and government efficiency minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has sown doubt over the future of independent testing for UKCA mark. The Times reports, from an extended interview that appeared on Saturday 19th February. Catch up on the important details below.
To help you get to grip with your responsibilities, the Health & Safety experts of EIA Member Benefit, Citation, have put together a handy checklist of everything you need to know about accident reporting. View and download the report in the story.
Irwin Mitchell has released a newsletter this week with an article including a speech from MTA CEO James Selka. Find his speech through the link in the story below.
Croner have released a flyer offering free contract reviews throughout the month of March. Have a quick look at the story to see if they can help you.
Again this week, our economic news is split into two parts; one covers the UK and the other reports on data from Europe and the USA. The latest results from the CBI Industrial Trends Survey show that activity in the manufacturing sector is still improving but that we are faced with increasing price pressures. For the UK we also have details of the latest data on investment spending (generally positive but not spectacular) and a note about the latest productivity data (probably best described as mixed). Our promised analysis of the trade (export/import) figures has been held over until next week.
Elsewhere in the world, we have the industrial production and GDP figures for Europe – both good but tempered by the comparisons being with 2020 – and the US market reports for orders for machine tools (which are at an all-time high) and cutting tools (improving but not yet at pre-pandemic levels) to the end of 2021.
That’s all we have for this week’s Brief! We hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to sharing our stories with you again next week!
