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DH:  Wasting away - Health Minister, Ivan Lewis, has published a Nutrition Action Plan in conjunction with over 25 leading stakeholders, outlining a range of actions to tackle malnutrition and ensure the nutritional needs of older people in hospitals and care homes are better met. 

The action plan outlines five priorities for health and social care organisations, which are to:

* raise awareness of the link between nutrition and good health and that malnutrition can be treated

* ensure that accessible guidance is available across all sectors and that the most relevant guidance is appropriate & user-friendly

* strongly encourage nutritional screening for all people using health and social care services; with particular attention to those groups who are known to be vulnerable

* encourage provision & access to relevant training for frontline staff and managers on the importance of nutrition for good health and nutritional care, and

* clarify standards and strengthen inspection & regulation 

As part of the plan, the Government and stakeholders will also be encouraging the NHS to use the Council of Europe Alliance (UK) ‘10 Key Characteristics of Good Nutritional Care’ - a landmark document which creates a common understanding of what good nutritional care looks like in hospital settings. 

Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern, has been asked by Ivan Lewis to chair the Nutrition Action Plan Delivery Board that will ensure delivery of the Action Plan.

Press release ~ Improving Nutritional Care: A joint Action Plan ~ Council of Europe Alliance (UK) ‘10 Key Characteristics of Good Nutritional Care’ ~ British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) ~ Social Care Institute for Excellence ~ Age Concern ~ DH – Hospital Food ~ Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) ~ OFNoSH ~ Alzheimer's Society Food for Thought - Food and nutrition for people with dementia ~ ScotGov: Hospital nutrition care standards ~ National Patient Safety Agency: hospital nutrition - patient safety issues ~ Food Standards Agency - Nutrient guidance for care homes ~ British Nutrition Foundation ~ BBC - Nutrition plans 'doomed to fail' 

BERR:  Coalition of the committed rather than the posturing? - A coalition of European Union countries, the European Commission, U.S. states, Canadian provinces, New Zealand and Norway have announced the formation of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) to fight global warming. 

ICAP will provide an international forum in which governments and public authorities adopting mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cap & trade systems will share experiences and best practices on the design of emissions trading schemes.  

This cooperation will hopefully ensure that the programs are more compatible and are able to work together as the foundation of a global carbon market. Such a market should boost demand for low-carbon products & services, promote innovation and allow cost effective reductions so as to allow swift and ambitious global reductions in global warming emissions.

Press release ~ International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) ~ UK's Climate Change Programme ~ Energy white paper: meeting the energy challenge - BERR ~ Climate Change Bill ~ Climate Challenge ~ United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 

DfT:  Detailed achievable framework or politically correct aspirations - A new framework to deliver a transport system to support the economy and reduce carbon emissions has been unveiled by Ruth Kelly.  'Towards a Sustainable Transport System' is the Department for Transport's response to both the Eddington Transport Study and the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change. 

It is the first stage of a consultation process to deliver a transport system that meets the key objectives of supporting the country's economic competitiveness and helping address climate change. 

It argues that forcing the pace of technological improvements and removing the obstacles to behavioural change will be key to ensuring transport makes a substantial contribution to the goal of at least a 60% reduction of CO2 by 2050.  

It will begin the development of a plan for cutting transport's carbon footprint and will hopefully ensure that attention is focused where the most benefit can be gained. The next stage will be the publication of a Green Paper and formal consultation in the spring 2008.

Press release ~ 'Towards a Sustainable Transport System: Supporting economic growth in a low carbon world' ~ Eddington Transport Study ~ Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change ~ DfT - Draft Local Transport Bill ~ Defra: Act on CO2 ~ Foresight Vehicle future transportation automotive technology research ~ Vision 2030 - A Portfolio of Transport Visions ~ The Climate Group  

CLG:  Just how much power has the Treasury and GLG handed over? - The government claims that Councils and communities have been given ‘a new era of greater power and influence to tackle the issues they care about with less Whitehall control’, as the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act received Royal Assent. 

Minister John Healey declared it as ‘D-day for devolution’ confirming that new opportunities for local action will be in place within six months, but adding that ‘this was just the beginning’. 

The Act opens the door to implementing councils' proposals for unitary status.  The Minister claimed that ‘this is an opportunity to create new flagship authorities which can lead the way on meeting today's challenges of promoting prosperity, empowering citizens and communities and modernising local service delivery’, as well as pledging:

* new measures on local petition powers

* improving representation

* greater local action to tackle worklessness, and

* a concordat enshrining a more mature relationship between central & local government by the end of this year 

He will also be setting out a detailed Local Government White Paper Implementation Plan within days.

Press release ~ Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act ~ Strong and prosperous communities - the local government white paper ~ Community empowerment Action Plan ~ The Citizenship Survey April - June 2007, England and Wales ~ Local Government Association ~ Negotiating New Local Area Agreements ~ LAA Dry-run negotiations: Final Report: Headline Messages ~ IDEA - LAA ~ Reward element ~ Developing and implementing the new Comprehensive Area Assessment and associated inspection arrangements (CLG Letter) 

MoJ:  Would you trust a politician with the collection plate? - Talks between the three main political parties to reach agreement on measures to reform political party funding have been suspended, Sir Hayden Phillips, the Chairman of the Talks, has announced. 

In announcing the suspension of the talks Sir Hayden said:

Press release ~ Proposals for the Funding of Political Parties: Draft agreement put to political parties - August 2007 ~ Strengthening Democracy: Fair and Sustainable Funding of Political Parties - March 2007 ~ Funding review website ~ Public Perspectives: The future of party funding in the UK Interim report - Research Study Conducted for The Electoral Commission/COI 2006 ~ Electoral Commission - Donors ~ Hansard – Principles of party funding ~ EC paper from 2004

CC:  So it’s even more big superstores then! - The UK groceries market is delivering a good deal for consumers, but action is needed to improve competition in a number of local markets and to address relationships between retailers and their suppliers, the Competition Commission (CC) has provisionally concluded. 

In its provisional findings report, the CC states that a lack of competition in certain local markets not only disadvantages consumers in those areas but also allows retailers to weaken their offer to consumers nationally.  Further, some retailer land holdings and other practices, such as restrictive covenants, mean that competition is not as effective as it could be in a number of areas. 

The CC is also concerned about the ability of grocery retailers to transfer excessive risk & costs to suppliers through various purchasing practices, such as retrospective changes to supply agreements.  The CC considers that these practices could damage investment and innovation in the supply chain to the ultimate detriment of consumers. 

The CC will now consider a range of measures to address these concerns before deciding on its final remedies.  Options under consideration include the lifting of restrictive covenants and exclusivity arrangements, sales of land holdings, and recommending changes to the planning system to place greater weight on competition and choice. 

 The CC will also consider changes to the Supermarkets Code of Practice (SCOP), which regulates retailer - supplier relationships. 

The CC would like to hear from all interested parties, in writing about both the provisional findings report (by 30 November 2007) and the notice of possible remedies (by 23 November 2007).

Press release ~ Notice of provisional findings ~ Provisional findings report ~ Notice of possible remedies ~ Supermarkets Code of Practice (SCOP) 

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