WIREDGOV

Offenders serving short custodial sentences will now be subject to supervision in the community and if they do not comply with the supervision requirements magistrates will have new powers to deal with them, including sending offenders back to custody for up to a fortnight.  This will mean magistrates will play a crucial role in the rehabilitation of offenders and is just one of the ways the role of magistrates is being maximised to reflect modern society and to tackle stubbornly high levels of reoffending.

• Damian Green: new rehabilitation powers for magistrates
• No education, no chance of a job (2nd item)
• Recruiting ex-service personnel to teach in poorly performing schools may not be such a ‘wild’ idea after all
• Civitas:  We need a policy that delivers something between the 2 extremes of ‘giving them the key’ and ‘throwing it away’ (2nd item)
• Search begins to find best organisations to tackle high re-offending rates
• Funding boost for programmes that reduce re-offending

Paperlight Office Series Step 2 – Efficient Document Access for Active Files

Picture your current office set up ……..   Does the time it takes to find information slow down your business processes, not to mention customer service and FOI requests? Could inefficient ways of storing and sharing paper-based documents be having a negative effect on your productivity?

Now it’s time to transform how you handle ‘living’ documents throughout your organisation and across all internal systems and platforms. People keep information close to hand because they want to refer to it regularly or get to it quickly. According to AIIM (Association for Information and Information Management), 72% of public sector organisations claim that it’s harder to find information they own than information they don’t, yet many find it difficult to implement standardised processes for indexing and accessing critical documents.

This second paper in the ‘Paperlight Office Series’  addresses how to achieve optimum control of your information and your working environment with efficient document access for active files, addressing key public sector issues such as:

• Secure access and retrieval
• Sharing and Collaboration
• Compliance and Audit

Simply click here to download your free copy now.

The House of Lords EU Committee has called for a greater role for national parliaments in EU decision-making, including the introduction of a ‘Green Card’ procedure to enable a group of national parliaments to work together to propose new EU legislation or amend existing European law.

Their report also says that national parliaments, working together, should have the right to require proposed EU legislation to be withdrawn or substantially amended.

• National parliaments should have greater role in EU decision-making
• Commission proposal boosts European political parties' ability to represent EU citizens, strengthens democracy
• Solidarity and democracy must also be part of deeper economic governance
• CEPS:  EU Democratic Legitimacy and National Parliaments
• A more democratic and transparent Europe
• National Parliaments and their Role in European Integration: The EU‘s Democratic Deficit in Times of Economic Hardship and Political Insecurity
• Democratic improvements in the European Union under the Lisbon Treaty
• LSE:  Strengthening the role of national parliaments in EU decision-making is not the way to improve the EU’s legitimacy
• EU subsidiarity check by National Parliaments

Firms can now bid for funding to test innovative ways to help take broadband to Britain’s most remote communities.  The focus is shifting to the hardest to reach premises in Britain as the government’s ambitious broadband programme is already on track to deliver superfast speeds to 95% of the UK by 2017.  The £10m fund will enable a range of pilot projects to be run, as the Government seeks to include the most remote areas in the broadband transformation taking place across Britain.

• £10m superfast broadband fund opens for bids
• Consumers suffer from geographic lottery for broadband, new studies reveal
• Superfast Cymru announces 30,000 more Homes and Businesses to get access to high speed fibre
• UK broadband coverage better than European rivals
• UK overtakes major EU nations for superfast broadband
• Commission welcomes finalisation of digital Connecting Europe Facility; European Parliament endorsement means investment in Europe's digital future
• Multi-million pound boost taking Superfast Broadband further and faster
• 3G mobile coverage requirements now met
• Roll out of Superfast Broadband to rural areas speeds up
• Protection for consumers against unexpected mid-contract price rises
• New Broadband Chief as final 5% of most remote areas in Britain tackled
• Superfast Broadband in Wales – 100,000 properties milestone reached
• Bumper day for Rural Broadband
• Broadband key component of Wales' economic success
• Cutting the cost of building broadband infrastructure
• New funding for colleges to improve broadband infrastructure
• The Benefits of Broadband

The MoD’s financial settlement in the next Comprehensive Spending Review must be made in the light of the need to retain a credible deterrent capacity in the country’s Armed Forces, says the Defence Committee in its report on Deterrence.  The deterrent strength of the UK armed forces against conventional military threats is reliant on the credibility of the Armed Forces to project military power. Looking at the nuclear deterrent, the Committee points out that the UK’s ability to effect a nuclear response is not credible in dealing with all threats, and so strong conventional deterrence is also required. 

Chairman of the Committee, the Rt Hon James Arbuthnot, says:  "Deterrence must be credible to be effective: Britain has to show the capacity and the will to respond proportionately and effectively to threats at every level. Recent events in Ukraine illustrate the speed with which new threats, and indeed the reappearance of old threats, can manifest themselves."

• Deterrence in the twenty-first century
• Clarify & formalise Parliament's role in war decisions
• Lords Soft Power Committee releases 'Persuasion and Power' report
• Was the current Ukraine Situation a ‘foreseen threat’ (5^th news item)
• PC&PE:  We no longer wield such a big stick
• MoD:  Re-sizing our military forces is only acceptable if it is balanced by a reduction in political requirements for ‘world policing’

Sir Michael Wilshaw has argued that those schools currently judged good by Ofsted (60%) should no longer be subject to full routine inspections in the way they are now.  Instead, they should receive more frequent, but light-touch visits every 2 to 3 years by one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) - or a serving school leader working as an associate Ofsted inspector - whose job would be to engage in professional dialogue with senior staff.

• Ofsted chief unveils new blueprint for inspecting good and outstanding schools

New research published by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, shows that the UK’s long-term decline in public perceptions of standards in public life is part of a broader trend across Western democracies.

• International comparisons of public attitudes to standards in public life – (Report)

Lord Davies of Abersoch has published the third annual progress report into Women on Boards. 3 years on from the ground-breaking review in 2011, Lord Davies and his steering group report a growing number of women in decision-making roles.

• Women on Boards 2014: 3 years on  
• CBI comments on latest Lord Davies’ report into Women on Boards
• CMS:  Old Boys Club or family responsibilities to blame?
• EU News:  One notes that most ‘top bankers’ are male, which illustrates the point being made rather nicely
• Many would, but will all merit the appointments?

Banks need to put the PPI problem right once and for all says Citizens Advice, as a BBC investigation says Lloyds Banking Group has been cutting the compensation it pays to payment protection insurance (PPI) claimants.

• CAB:  Banks should not be cutting PPI pay-outs on a whim
• BBC:  Lloyds accused of short-changing PPI claimants

More must be done to identify & respond effectively to neglect at the earliest stages so that the most vulnerable children in our society do not remain too long in families where they come to harm, a new report from Ofsted says.  The report, 'In the child’s time: Professional responses to neglect' draws on evidence from local authorities, their statutory partners and the views of parents and carers.

• Neglected children must be better protected

The ICO has launched its latest corporate plan, with the Information Commissioner promising a fresh approach to the handling of issues raised by the public around data protection concerns.  The changes will see a shift in focus, with cases brought to the ICO used to identify broader data protection problems and improve organisations’ current practices.  The approach was first proposed in the ICO’s Looking Ahead, Staying Ahead public consultation in November 2013.

• Corporate plan targets better data protection results

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has launched a new version of its special website for parents & others who help learner drivers with private practice.  The website - www.helpingldrivers.com - gives advice about how to supervise private practice sessions, with tips for what to do before, during and after drives.  It has been completely refreshed for the first time since its launch in 2006, thanks to funding from the Department for Transport.

• RoSPA - Fresh Advice For The Family And Friends Of Learner Drivers As Family Safety Week Reaches Mid-Way Point

Schools across England will save more than £6.5m after the government struck deals with licensing companies for shared rights to use films, newspapers & television shows in classrooms.  The licences previously had to be bought individually by schools and local authorities, often resulting in expensive and time-consuming negotiations.

• Copyright deals will cut red tape and save schools £6.5m

With fewer than 200 days to go until the Scottish referendum, the UK Government has produced the latest edition in a series of information packs - focussing on money & the economy in the context of the independence debate.

• United means shared economic success
• Enshrining Scotland’s values

ETHOS
Exploring the debates that shape public services.
Published by Serco


Tom Edwards
Why are trains late?
Tom Edwards, BBC transport correspondent, goes beyond ‘the wrong kind of snow’ to uncover the complex reasons for rail delays and cancellations.


Isabel Hardman
Profile: Elizabeth Truss MP
As a child she went on CND marches, joined the Lib Dems at university and is now a Thatcherite. The Spectator's Isabel Hardman profiles the tribe-hopping MP.


Shibley Rahman
Living well = greater wellbeing
Dr Shibley Rahman explains why the time is right for an approach that focuses on ‘living well’ for the 800,000 persons diagnosed with dementia in the UK.


Jo Owens
Money, money, money
Entrepreneur and author, Jo Owen, makes the case for investing in the UK and an office of capital expenditure to reassure the markets.