Friday Brief Intro 18/11/2022

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! What a wet week it has been! We hope that the weather hasn’t stopped you from shuffling into the festive spirit as the end of the year creeps closer!

To kick off our newsletter this week we would like to invite you to two webinars coming up next month from Croner. They will be covering HR and health & safety and specialised sessions including relevant legislation and key case law. Take a look at the story below for dates, times and a link to their website.

This week saw a significant announcement on the introduction of the UKCA and the use of the CE mark in Great Britain;  billed as cutting costs for businesses and removing potential disruption, the government has announced that the CE mark will continue to be recognised for a further two years (through to the end of 2024).  The new announcement also means that importers can continue to fix the UKCA mark by use of a label and on accompanying documents (rather than on the product itself) until the end of 2027.  Find out more about this in our article below.

The Home Office are conducting an evaluation of the Right- to-Work Scheme. Employers must conduct Right-to-Work checks on all prospective employees.  By participating in their research, businesses can raise any views they have on right to work checks and associated processes. Take a look at the story below to find out what this includes.

The Institute of Export and International Trade has launched a new Exporting Starter Pack Voucher Scheme see:  Exporting Starter Pack Voucher | Introduction to Exporting Offer, which will provide £2,500 worth of free training through a series of six webinars commencing next week. Find out more about the scheme below.

Cranfield University believe the role of manufacturers has never been more important in making the sustainable changes we need to see in how we live day to day, how we travel and how we consume and power our activity. Manufacturing and Materials Week will give manufacturers an opportunity to reflect on what resource and energy efficiency might mean for them. Register your attendance and download the full event programme in the story.

The main headline this week, at least in terms of economics, is, of course, the Autumn Statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Other sources will have more than adequately covered the impact on the UK as individuals (tax rates and thresholds, energy bills, etc.) but we take a look at some of the detail that affects companies, especially those in the manufacturing technology spectrum that those sources probably haven’t mentioned.

There is a bumper bundle of other economic news this week as well, so we have split this into three parts covering the UK, Europe and the USA for ease of reading.  The UK section rounds up the 3rd quarter economic data that came out last Friday covering investment and trade and also looks at the latest data on productivity.

For Europe we have the latest data on GDP and industrial production as well as a review of the new forecasts from the European Commission while the US section covers the latest trends for the machine tool and cutting tool market across “the pond”.

Finally, despite our best intentions to get the MTA Business Survey turned around more quickly this month, it is still open for your last minute input – the online form is at https://www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-oct22 – please take a couple of minutes to give us your feedback if you have not already done so (and thanks to those who have).

That’s all we have for this week’s Friday Brief! Have an amazing weekend and we look forward to ‘seeing’ you again next week.

Cranfield University – 2022 Manufacturing and Materials Week will be taking place on Monday 28 November – Thursday 1 December

We believe the role of manufacturers has never been more important in making the sustainable changes we need to see in how we live day to day, how we travel and how we consume and power our activity. Those manufacturers are facing some incredibly difficult challenges: finding people with the right skills, managing costs at […]

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INSTITUTE OF EXPORT OFFERS FREE EXPORT TRAINING

The Institute of Export and International Trade has launched a new Exporting Starter Pack Voucher Scheme see:  Exporting Starter Pack Voucher | Introduction to Exporting Offer, which will provide £2,500 worth of free training through a series of six webinars commencing next week. The new scheme is to help to support growth, and to assist the […]

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Evaluation of the Right to Work Scheme

The Home Office are conducting an evaluation of the Right- to-Work Scheme. Employers must conduct Right-to-Work checks on all prospective employees.  By participating in their research, businesses can raise any views they have on right to work checks and associated processes including: Conducting manual document checks for British and Irish citizens Home office digital status […]

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Policy shifts again on UKCA/CE marking

A raft of further easements on CE marking deadlines have been announced by BEIS, along with a review on how costs and burdens on firms can be reduced further. The easements include: CE marking and reversed epsilon marking will continue to be recognised until the end of 2024 for most goods being placed on the […]

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Croner Webinar Schedule

These exclusive sessions are free to association members. We cover HR and health & safety basics, right through to specialised sessions including relevant legislation and key case law. www.croner.co.uk MON 5th – Absences and Conduct Around the Christmas Period Mon, Dec 5, 2022 | 12.30pm start MON 12th – What to Expect in 2023 Mon, […]

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ECONOMIC NEWS – USA

USMTO and CTMR, September 2022:  The US Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) programme tracks orders in the US market, based on the reports from participants.  In the first three-quarters of this year, total orders were worth $4.2 billion, +2.7% higher than in the same period in 2021 (January to September). We don’t usually comment on the […]

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ECONOMIC NEWS – EUROPE

European Industrial Production, September 2022:  Last week we reported on the UK manufacturing output data and we now have the equivalent figures for Europe from Eurostat.  However, these are compiled on a slightly different basis with Eurostat using industrial production;  although this is mostly manufacturing output, it also includes energy production. Total industrial production increased […]

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ECONOMIC NEWS – UK

UK Investment, 3rd Quarter 2022:  Among the package of data published last Friday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) were the figures for investment spending in the 3rd quarter.  At this stage, we only have the high level data, with the breakdown by sector and industry to follow at a later date. Total business […]

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SUMMARY OF THE ECONOMIC STATEMENT

This week, Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented the Government’s Autumn Statement – notably not a budget but designed mainly to instil some stability and confidence in the UK economy following the ill-fated “fiscal event” given by the previous resident of 11 Downing Street back in September. Many news channels will have covered much […]

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AUTUMN STATEMENT – NOVEMBER 2022

The Autumn Statement 2022 comes at a time of significant economic challenge for the UK and global economy. Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine has contributed to a surge in energy prices, driving high inflation across the world. Central banks are raising interest rates to get inflation under control, which has pushed up the cost of […]

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Croner Webinar Schedule

These exclusive sessions are free to association members. We cover HR and health & safety basics, right through to specialised sessions including relevant legislation and key case law. www.croner.co.uk MON 5th – Absences and Conduct Around the Christmas Period Mon, Dec 5, 2022 | 12.30pm start MON 12th – What to Expect in 2023 Mon, […]

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