TSB chief Paul Pester pockets £1.7m as he exits after IT fiasco

Pic:Paul Pester: TSB's boss has stepped down with immediate effect ( PA Wire/PA Images )
Business reporter(wp/es):

TSB chief executive Paul Pester will pocket £1.7 million after announcing his departure from the bank on Tuesday in the wake of a botched IT upgrade.

Pester, who has been chief executive for seven years, has left the company with immediate effect, leaving chairman Richard Meddings in charge until a replacement is found. 

The group, owned by Spanish giant Sabadell, will pay Pester £1.2 million, equivalent to 12 months of pay. He will also pocket £480,000 as a historic award going back to 2014, made before the Sabadell acquisition. 

Any more bonuses will be determined by future performance and the outcome of a regulatory probe by the Financial Conduct Authority into the IT crisis this year, which cost the bank £176 million and caused thousands of customers to leave.

Sources close to Nicky Morgan MP, chairman of the influential Treasury Select Committee, expressed serious concerns about the pay-off and said they will be writing to Meddings to demand more details about the circumstance of Pester’s departure. 

Morgan said: “It is right that he is stepping down. But the committee remains concerned about the continuing problems at TSB, including unacceptable delays in compensating customers who have been badly let down.” 

TSB has a policy which says severance payments are paid with the principle of “no reward for failure”.

Pester was slammed during an evidence session with the committee over his handling of a IT upgrade which locked millions of customers out of their bank accounts. 

He gave up a £2 million bonus but was accused by Financial Conduct Authority chief executive Andrew Bailey of “portraying an optimistic view” of the crisis. The bank said Pester was leaving because its systems and services “were much improved” since the crisis. 

Meddings, the former finance chief of Standard Chartered, said further IT problems over the weekend were not linked to Pester’s departure and said the former chief was not the “fall guy”.

“This is not linked to the migration issue. What we have is the bank’s systems and platforms are operating at a much better level. If you think about the preparation required on this it’s not something done overnight,” he said. 

“It takes some weeks to be arranged for this communication exercise. It’s not an event driven by the weekend events,” he added.

Meddings said Pester, who was absent from a conference call with the media on Tuesday, was neither sacked nor resigned and instead his decision to leave had been reached by “mutual consent”.

“If we’d done it earlier the view would have been it was an inappropriate time to do it because he was leading with huge energy the remediation of the platform. To do it earlier would have been the wrong decision.”

In a statement, Pester said: “The last few months have been challenging for everyone at TSB. 

“However, I want to thank all my colleagues across TSB for their dedication and commitment during this period and for their focus on putting things right for TSB customers.”

Organ Donation Week 2018: How do I register to become a donor and what is the opt-out system?

Health reporter(wp/es):

An NHS-led campaign is urging people to talk to their families about donating their organs during Organ Donation Week.

The Words Save Lives campaign is encouraging people to ‘say yes’ to organ donation to combat donation opportunities lost every year because families don’t know if their loved ones wanted to be a donor or not.

The NHS says just 1 in 3 adults has told their partner or family they want to be an organ donor.

The UK currently has a system that means you have to register to be an organ donor and doctors can only remove organs from people who have registered.

However, a new opt-out system dubbed “Max’s Law” will be in place by 2020 in England if Parliament approves it, meaning adults would be presumed organ donors unless they have specifically confirmed their decision not to be.

There are currently 6,133 people on the transplant waiting list and in the UK in 2017, 411 people died before the right donor was found.

45-year-old Gareth Evans, from Stockport, has been waiting nine years for a heart transplant – longer than anyone else in the UK on the current list of heart transplant patients.

Gareth one of dozens of people spearheading the NHS’s campaign this Organ Donation Week.

Here’s everything you need to know about organ donation, including what you can donate and how to register:

What types of donation are there?

The NHS lists three different ways to donate. These are:

• Donation following brain death (DBD): This person would have had a severe brain injury and permanently lost the potential for consciousness and the capacity to breathe.
• Donation following circulatory death (DCD): This is when a person has irreversible loss of function of the heart and lungs after a cardiac arrest from which the person cannot or should not be resuscitated. It can also be the planned withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment from a person cared for in a critical care environment.
• Living donation: Whilst you are still alive you can choose to donate organs, most commonly, a kidney through a medical operation.

• How do I register to become an organ donor?

  Registering to become an organ donor only takes a few minutes.
  To become a donor, visit the NHS organ donation website and fill out a quick form, giving your personal details and explaining which organs and tissues you would like to donate.
  Once this has been submitted, your preferences will be added to the NHS Organ Donation Register by the NHS and you'll receive your organ donation card through the post.

• Is there an age limit for organ donation?

  The NHS has no age limit for organ donors.
  For a child to register to be an organ donor, they must have a parent or guardian's consent after they die or until they're of the legal age of consent.
  Anyone over 80 years old is not eligible for cornea donation and anyone over 60 years old is not eligible for heart valves and tendons donations.

• What can I donate?

  Your organs and tissues can be used for:
  • Kidney donation
  • Heart donation
  • Liver donation
  • Lung donation
  • Pancreas donation
  • Small bowel donation
  • Cornea donation
  • Tissue and bone donation
  Living donations include living kidney and liver donation and living bone and amniotic membrane donation.

  How do I know if I'm eligible to become an organ donor?

  Most people will be eligible for an organ donation, but the NHS does have certain requirements.
  • Race and skin colour: although there are successful transplants between people of different ethnic groups, people from the same ethnic groups are more likely to be a close match.
  • Screening: your blood will be tested for transmittable diseases including HIV and hepatitis, although if you are HIV positive, you may be able to donate to someone who already has HIV.
  • Existing medical conditions: you cannot be a donor if you have Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease or cancer that has spread in the last 12 months
  • for more details please visit:
  • https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk

Dagenham school fire: Huge blaze breaks out at Roding Primary School one day before children return from summer break

Pic:Roding primary School fire(image-wp)
Staff reporter(wp/es):

A huge blaze has broken out at a primary school in east London one day before its children return from the summer break.

Dramatic images showed huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky as firefighters tackled the flames at Roding Primary school in Dagenham on Tuesday morning.

Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters were battling the blaze, which broke out shortly before 5am in Hewett Road.

London Fire Brigade said that about half of the single-storey building was alight and that crews from several stations were called.

The fire has now been brought under control. 

Station manager Rod Wainwright said: ""Flames could be seen from some distance away and crews were faced with a serious blaze when they arrived on the scene.

"They worked very hard to bring the fire under control but given the intensity of the fire, there is unfortunately significant damage to the school.

"It is unfortunate timing that this fire has occurred just before the start of term.

"It is too soon to speculate on the cause of the fire but as soon as they're able to, fire investigators will enter the site to start their work."

Crews removed a gas cylinder from the school building and have been cooling it down to prevent the risk of explosion. 

Those who live nearby were told to keep their windows and doors shut due to the smoke. 

A statement on the school’s website said the children are set to return from the summer holiday on Wednesday.The school has 1,300 pupils. 

It is unclear when the school will reopen. 

Saint Theresa Catholic Primary School has also been closed for the day due to the smoke.

'acid attack': Three injured after 'noxious substance' thrown in Notting Hill

Pic:'Acid attack': Emergency services were called to the bustling Notting Hill street shortly after 2pm (Katy Clifton)
Crime reporter,London(wp/es):

Three people have been injured in a suspected acid attack on a busy road in Notting Hill.

Emergency services rushed to Westbourne Grove shortly after 2pm on Tuesday following reports of a "noxious substance attack".

One photo, which was posted on social media, showed paramedics and firefighters at work as scores of vehicles descended on the scene.

The owner of a nearby fruit and veg shop said: "We just know there was one crazy man throwing things around, about 35 or 40 years old. He sprayed people's faces."

A witness who works at a nearby jewellers told the Standard he saw a man wrapped in a blanket at the side of the road.

The 58-year-old, named Wael, said: “I just saw so many police and ambulances, there’s people saying acid attack and some saying it involved pepper spray. 

“I saw the guy from the shop sat on the steps of Nando’s with a blanket round him and another person, there was water on the ground outside the shop. Both got in an ambulance after that. 

“This has scared us because the shop down the road had an armed robbery and we have had a break in before. This is be first time this has happened here but in general I think crime is getting worse.”

Tool Lodge, a shop near the junction with Garway Road, was locked by police officers. They later left carrying an evidence bag with them while police tape could be seen on the floor of the store.

A member of staff at a frozen yoghurt shop opposite Tool Lodge said he saw paramedics throwing water at the victims' faces.

Justin, 19, said: "There were ambulances, a fire engine and police officers pouring water on people's faces.

"I didn't see anything but the police and ambulances were here for about an hour."

A Met Police spokeswoman said: “Officers are in attendance along with the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade.

“At this stage it is believed there are three victims.

“No arrests have been made and enquiries continue.”

Westbourne Grove is a popular road running across Notting Hill with numerous shops, restaurants and cafes.

Labour Party agrees to adopt the full-definition of anti-Semitism during crunch talks

Pic:Jeremy Corbyn who has defended controversial comments he made regarding a group of British Zionists ( PA )
Political reporter,London(wp/es):

The Labour Party has agreed to adopt in full an international definition of anti-Semitism, following crunch talks.

The party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) met on Tuesday to discuss how to defuse the row that has simmered for months.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-semitism was incorporated into Labour's code of conduct two months ago. 

However the party stopped short, omitting four examples of anti-semitic behaviour in the definition from its code of conduct for party members. 

A Labour Party spokesman said: "The NEC has today adopted all of the IHRA examples of anti-Semitism, in addition to the IHRA definition which Labour adopted in 2016, alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

"The NEC welcomed Jeremy Corbyn's statement to the meeting about action against anti-Semitism, solidarity with the Jewish community and protection of Palestinian rights, as an important contribution to the consultation on Labour's Code of Conduct."

Critics of the IHRA approach have claimed it could restrict their ability to criticise the Israeli government's actions against Palestinians. 

The party's National Executive Committee has now agreed to adopt all of the definitions.