FDA: Equal rights for fixed-term staff - A decision of the South London Employment Tribunal that has major implications for thousands of fixed-term employees in the private and public sectors, has been welcomed by the FDA.
The tribunal has decided that four education advisers, working at the Department for Education and Skills on fixed term contracts expiring in March 2006, must be treated in the same way as colleagues on permanent contracts when it comes to redundancy payments.
The decision means that when those contracts expire, the department will have to pay significant redundancy payments unless it keeps the advisors on new contracts. The Department has until
Press release ~ FDA ~ Fixed Term Employee (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 ~ ACAS Q&A briefing ~ Russell, Jones and Walker ~ NASUWT website ~ EIS-FELA website ~ Employer’s Organisation
RA Eng.: Sustainable Engineers – At a time when there is both renewed criticism of teaching standards, the relevance of Degree level education & accelerated melting of polar icecaps, the Royal Academy of Engineering has published Engineering for Sustainable Development: Guiding Principles, which brings together much of UK engineering’s current thinking on applying sustainable development in the real world and proposes 12 principles as a basic framework.
These principles are supported, and in fact grew out of, real-life case studies that the Academy has collected & developed since 1998 when it started appointing Visiting Professors in Engineering Design for Sustainable Development at universities around the UK, with the aim of generating teaching materials for engineering undergraduates that inspire them with an understanding of both the concept of sustainable development and the place of their own engineering field in delivering it.
Press release ~ Engineering for Sustainable Development: Guiding Principles ~ Visiting Professors in Engineering Design for Sustainable Development Scheme ~ Sustainable Product Engineering University Research Centre (SPERC) ~ Higher Education Academy ~ IEE - Engineering for a sustainable future ~ Centre for Sustainable Engineering
Ordnance Survey: A new National
Underground Assets Group (NUAG) has been established to ‘champion better coordination between
utility companies, highway authorities and other interested parties’.
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Its aim is to produce best practice guidelines for
the collection, exchange, reuse & recording of information on underground
assets, all of which is vital to improve the way work on underground assets is
carried out – particularly where it involves street works.
Press release ~
Met Office: The
Met Office is warning its customers and partners to plan for a
’colder than average winter’, coupled with less winter rain than
normal.
Press release ~ Winter forecast 2005/6 (Dec/Jan/Feb) ~
OGC Buying Solutions:
OGC BS is working with government departments on a
project to provide a suite of Postal Services frameworks in the lead-up to full
market deregulation of the
Frameworks
will be awarded on a pan-governmental basis (Central Civil Government and wider
Public Sector) although it is anticipated that their use will be ‘on merit’
based on value for money gains and quality of service
provided.
Press release ~ Catalist portfolio ~ Postal Service framework
RA Eng.: The Royal Academy of
Engineering is launching an annual lecture series in
Press release ~ Innovations in the commercialisation of CDMA for wireless
communications and future directions
DTI: On Saturday
1st October, the National Minimum Wage rose from £4.85 to £5.05 per hour,
while the youth rate, paid to 18-21 year-olds, went up from £4.10 per hour to
£4.25, guaranteeing a pay increase for 1.3 million low paid workers.
Press release ~ Low Pay Commission
(LPC) ~ LPC’s 2005 report (4Mb - 295 pages) ~ DTI NMW
website
DTI: Electricity customers can now see how green their supplier
is, electricity suppliers must give their customers a breakdown of the fuels
they’ve used to generate the electricity they provide, as well as the CO2
emissions and radioactive waste produced.
Press release ~ Green electric.co.uk ~ DTI Energy website ~ Fuel Mix Disclosure ~ Electricity Liberalisation Directive (2003/54/EC)
Press release ~ All Wales transport
Forum ~ Welsh Transport Forum: Review of Community
Transport ~ Action Plan ~ Community Active
Travel Services (CATS) ~ DfT Access to travel for Disabled
website ~ Community Transport Association
DCMS: The government has announced that an
“independent” panel, to advise the Government on the areas in which the new
types of casino created by the Gambling Act will be located, has been appointed
and will report by the end of
2006.
Press release ~ DCMS
Gambling website ~ Gambling Act 2005 ~ Consultation document ’Possible
Changes to The Use Classes Order; Casinos’ (closes
DCMS:
Tessa Jowell
has promised practical support to enable the next generation of sporting
champions to realise their ambitions and to allow ‘schools, businesses and the Government all
to play new roles to boost the chances of Britains medal hopefuls in the
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games’.
Success is ‘guaranteed’ by the fact that every MP is
being provided with a multi-media toolkit to ‘ensure that all communities have a chance to be part of 2012’.
Press release ~ DCMS Sport
website ~ Ofsted - The Physical Education, School Sport and Club Links Strategy
(PESSCL) ~ Talented Athlete Scholarship
Scheme (TASS)
DWP: David
Blunkett has announced that a new gateway will be piloted, in the New
Year, to advise working parents how they can work out for
themselves satisfactory arrangements for child
maintenance.
DWP: David Blunkett has unveiled measures
intended to help people build assets & access affordable credit, as part of
ending the scourge of the loan shark.
£36 million will be allocated to the Growth Fund to support Credit
Unions, Community Development Finance Institutions and other third sector
lenders.
Press release ~ Social Fund ~ Disability Alliance - Social Fund budgetary loans and
grants ~ Association of British Credit Unions ~ National Association of
Credit Union Workers ~ FSA Credit Unions ~ Community Development Finance Association ~ Enterprise
Fund ~ Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI)
Toolkit
Sport
Press release ~ Every Day
website ~ Sport England
DfT: New measures
to crack down on the menace of uninsured drivers have been announced, which
will make it an offence to own a car which is neither insured, nor registered
as off the road. The police will identify & prosecute uninsured motorists,
using a database of all registered vehicles in the
Press release ~ Road Safety Bill (click on ‘R’) ~ Road Casualties Great Britain: 2004 - Annual
Report ~ Defra - Tackling unlicensed and abandoned vehicles ~
’Think Road Safety’ ~ Consultation (closed) - "Seizure of vehicles being
driven uninsured" ~ Greenaway report: Uninsured Driving in the
UK
DTI: Plans to cut back on red tape by
revoking three pieces of outdated competition law have been announced in a
consultation (closes
·
Dental Goods Order 1951
·
Restrictions on Agreements (Estate Agents) Order
1970
·
Imported Timber Order 1960
Press release ~ Revocation orders (scroll down to ‘Revocations) ~ OFT advice
FSA: The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published a
consultation paper (closes
Press release ~ CP05/13 Bundled Brokerage and Soft Commissions Arrangements for
Retail Investment Funds
Forestry Commission: The new Rural
Development Plan, to be introduced
A major aim will be to look at how the grant scheme
can encourage and support sustainable forest management. Another goal is to
find the best method of targeting grants to meet key priorities. Updates will be posted on the Forestry
Commission web site at ‘What’s new’ under the Grants and felling licences
section).
Press release ~ Rural
Development Plan ~ Land Management Contract scheme ~ Woodland
Trust ~ Rural Development Regulation ~ Scottish Forestry Strategy ~ Farmland Premium payments ~ UK Forestry Standard ~ Locational premiums
OFT: At the launch of updated guidance
explaining the credit advertising rules, the OFT said that over 60% of
advertisements in regional newspapers and 68% in popular car magazines, failed
fully to comply with new advertising regulations.
Press release ~ Booklet - Credit
Advertising and FAQs
guidance
DH: Speaking at the Infection Control Nurses Association (ICNA) conference in Torquay,
Chief Nurse Christine Beasley launched an online training tool for all NHS
staff, designed to raise awareness
of the key procedures needed to help reduce infection.
Press release ~ NHS
e-learning (and click on second link) NB. There seem to be some pronlems acssocaited with
accessing this site ~ Infection Control
Nurses Association (ICNA) ~ DH - Saving Lives delivery programme website ~ NHS
Core Learning Programmes Unit ~ Simple guide to MRSA ~ Hospital Infection Society
HSE: The HSE has published a comprehensive guide on Hand-arm vibration (HAV)
that gives advice of what needs to be done to reduce and control the
risks of HAV under the Control of
Vibration Work Act 2005. The
launch of the guide coincides with the first in a series of 15 noise and vibration
roadshows.
Press release ~ Hand-arm vibration: Control of Vibration at Work Regulations
2005 (L140) ~ Sounds Off - Noise
Reduction at Work Conference ~ Control of Vibration Work Regulations
2005
Ofwat: Ofwat has published Levels of service for the water industry in
Press release ~ Levels of service for the
water industry in England and Wales 2004-05 ~ Guaranteed Standards Scheme
TfL:
London Underground (LU) has published the results of the public
consultation "Should the Tube run later
at weekends?" and outlined the next steps in the decision process. A majority of respondents were in
favour of the Tube running later on Friday and Saturday nights, but the
consultation also revealed real challenges would be faced by those who
currently use the Tube early at weekends, particularly on Sunday
mornings.
Press release ~ < FONT color=#0000ff>"Should the Tube run later at weekends?" ~ Good Practice in Managing the Evening and Late Night Economy
DWP: New research published by the DWP
explores the factors influencing the labour market participation of workers
aged between 50 and 69. It examines the relationships between the factors that
influence labour market disengagement, retention & return and reports on
general attitudes towards work & training and explores people’s decisions
about planning for retirement.
Press release ~ Research Report 281 - Factors Affecting Labour Market Participation of Older Workers:
Qualitative Research ~ DWP Research Report 200 - Factors affecting the labour market participation of older
workers ~ Achieving simplicity, security and choice in retirement – An
assessment of government’s proposed pension reforms ~ DWP pension
website ~ Opportunity
Age – Opportunity and security throughout life
Defra: The 2004
Annual Report of the independent Pesticide Residues Committee (PRC) has been
published. The report draws
together the results of the
Press release ~ Annual
quarterly reports ~ Pesticides
Safety Directorate ~ School
food and pesticides ~ Soil Association ~ Pesticide Action Network
UK ~ HSE Pesticide website ~ Food
standards Agency Pesticides website ~ FOE briefing
DfT: Aviation Minister Karen Buck has announced that the
Government will welcome applications from foreign airlines to fly new
international air services to or from
Press release ~ UK Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA) ~ CAA study: An Economic Assessment of the Impacts of Granting Fifth-Freedom Rights
to Passenger Services from UK Regional Airports ~ DfT Aviation website
~ Aviation White
Paper
Scottish Executive: Scotlands most senior law officer
has announced that he is in principle ‘content’ for test purchasing of alcohol
to take place for the purposes of enforcement of licensing laws, despite the fact that it will mean
under-age young people going into shops to buy alcohol to gain
evidence that can be used for prosecution in court.
Press release ~ Licensing (Scotland) Bill ~ Underage drinking and the illegal purchase of alcohol
~ Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People ~
BBC – Underage dinking
help & advice ~ BMA
Cabinet Office: Even if we cannot cut our own
Press release ~ UK Presidency Better Regulation conference
website ~ UK Better regulation executive website ~
Better Regulation for Growth and Jobs in the
European Union ~ EC
Growth and Jobs Website
Defra: The government says that it welcomes
the European Commissions announcement that it supports the inclusion of aviation
emissions in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The European Commission has adopted a
Communication - ‘Reducing the climate
change impact of aviation’ - which recommends emissions trading as the best
way forward, from an economic and environmental point of
view.
Press release ~ Q & A on Aviation and Climate Change ~
European Commissions Communication on aviation
emissions ~ EUs 6th Environment Action Programme ~ 2003 Air Transport White Paper
~ EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) ~
BA Carbon Emissions web page
Defra: Defra has announced farmers set-aside obligation and a revision to
the 10 month rule that will apply for the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in
England in 2006.
Charity Commission: The Charity Commission has appointed AS
Biss to help it draw up a public affairs strategy, following a successful
tender process by the end of
November.
Press release ~ Charity
Commission ~ AS
Biss ~ Regulating for the future ~ The Charity Commissions response to the Strategy Unit
review
Ofwat: Existing water companies have indicated
the prices they could charge water supply licensees for access to their supply
systems. The indicative
access prices, published at the end of August as part of the preparation
for the new water competition regime, will help licensees discuss the options
for changing water supplier with large business customers.
For further information on the
events listed below (and subsequent events) please click HERE
Date:
Venue:
Organiser:
Enhancing individual, team
and organisational performance is the theme of a one-day National School of
Government training and development conference. Designed for public sector senior managers, HR and training
professionals and anyone looking to introduce new approaches, ‘Hitting the
Right Note’ features a presentation on passionate & memorable oral
communication from Russell Wardop, followed by a workshop on developing the
high-performance team led by the City of London Sinfonia.
Date:
Venue: Radisson SAS Portman Hotel,
Organiser: Economist
Conferences - Third Annual Public Sector
Conference
Building on results for
next-generation public services - Government today is engaged in complex
business transformation programmes. A wave of efficiency drives in recent years
has seen public sector organisations make real efforts to streamline operations
and cut costs. Can leaders fulfil the public’s increased expectation of
effective service provision? Is there a handle on developing an effective
service delivery culture? Help shape the answers at this strategic one-day
conference.
Date: March - July
2006
Venue: Pinewood Studios
Organiser: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory -
£10,000 Up for grabs
underwater
In the first competition of its kind in the
Five Universities have already signed up for the
challenge, including
For further information on the above (and
subsequent) events please click HERE
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