August 2021 News and Blogs

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards for UK businesses of all sizes and sectors. The awards can provide: excellent marketing opportunities and press coverage worldwide recognition as an outstanding British company increased turnover and international trade a boost to staff morale, and also to partners and stakeholders  The awards are a self-nominating process and are free to enter. The application period is currently open, and will close on 22 September 2021...

Chwarae Teg will be working with employers to create workplace policies, reporting mechanisms and support processes that can be rolled out across organisations to make workplaces safer for everyone and are recruiting 20 employers from across Wales to take part in this pioneering project. They are looking for one individual from each organisation to commit to three ½ day sessions during September and October this year. If you are interested in taking part in the...

Cybercrime is on the rise as is the severity of attacks. Whether you’re a micro business, SME or large corporation, understanding how to safeguard your organisation against a breach is a crucial element to all-round success. Knowing where to start with cyber resilience measures can appear to be a costly and complicated minefield but that’s a myth which the Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales (WCRC) is working hard to eradicate and re-educate business owners and...

A new digital renewals service that slashes bulk renewal time for IP rights from 5 days to 5 minutes has now been opened up to all customers by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). For the first time, customers who need to renew a registered design can do so online. Customers can also renew up to 1,500 IP rights, - including combinations of patents, trade marks and designs - in a single digital transaction. The IPO...

First Minister Mark Drakeford is urging people in Wales to get vaccinated and keep taking familiar steps to help address rising coronavirus cases. It comes as he confirms there will be no significant changes to Covid rules in this 21-day regulations cycle. Three weeks ago Wales moved to Alert Level Zero. This removed legal restrictions on meeting others and enabled all businesses to open, while also keeping key legal protections in place. Face coverings are...

Businesses affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will now be protected from eviction until 25 March 2022. As part of a package of interventions the Welsh Government is making to support businesses, the moratorium against forfeiture for the non-payment of rent will now be further extended. It was originally due to end on 30 September 2021. This measure will ensure that landlords of relevant commercial premises are prevented from forfeiting the leases of such premises...

The NHS COVID Pass lets you share your coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination records in a secure way. It allows you to prove to others that you have been vaccinated. This could be for: travelling abroad showing your employer that you are fully vaccinated and are not required to self-isolate if you’re identified as a contact attending certain events or venues For further information please visit GOV.Wales.

Businesses will have an additional year to apply new product safety markings for most products placed on the market in England, Scotland and Wales. The UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking allows the UK to have control over its goods regulations, maintaining the high product safety standards expected in the UK. Recognising the impact of the pandemic on businesses, the UK Government will extend this deadline to 1 January 2023 to apply UKCA marks for certain products to demonstrate compliance with product safety regulations, rather than 1 January 2022. The UKCA marking replaces the...

The Leo Programme is a bespoke, one to one accelerator for high-growth and high potential entrepreneurs. Twenty businesses will be supported on the next phase of the Leo Programme, a free six-month accelerator run by the UK Space Agency and powered by Entrepreneurial Spark, where they will get access to tailored, specialist online and in-person support from space industry and business growth experts. The programme is open to businesses already in the space sector and...

Future Fashion Factory is looking for fashion and textiles designers (and particularly those outside of London) to participate in research on the different types of support that micro and small businesses need. For further information use the following link - Call for Research Engagement from Micro & SME Designers & Manufacturers (google.com)