CCWater: Thames Water loses penalty shoot-out – With Thames Water’s ability to meet its leakage targets on par with the accuracy of the England penalty takers, both the Consumer Council for Water and Defra have welcomed Ofwat’s decision to legally bind Thames Water into carrying out repairs worth £150 million in addition to their normal commitments – over double the maximum imposable fine. The undertaking will replace 368km of mains at the expense of its shareholders and commits the company to achieving demanding future leakage targets and security of supply for Londoners and other Ofwat has promised that the company's progress will be closely monitored and that subsequent failures would lead to further enforcement action, including fines if appropriate, from 2007. Dame Yve Buckland, Chair of CCWater, said: "A deal is a deal. Yet Thames Water has failed to meet its leakage targets for four successive years and last month admitted that it loses 894 million litres of water each day from its network - enough to fill 358 Olympic swimming pools. Press release – CCWater ~ Press release – Defra ~ Press release - Ofwat ~ Five fast fixes for households on water saving - CCWater ~ CCWater ~ Thames Water ~ Consumer blog on the current water restrictions - CCWater ~ Leakage from public water supply – Environment Agency ~ Beat the Drought Healthcare Commission: ‘Significant failings’ call for special measures - The Healthcare Commission has recommended special measures after widespread institutional abuse of people with learning disabilities was discovered at an NHS Trust in A report published by the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) details findings of a joint investigation into services for people with learning disabilities at Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust. The report describes many years of abusive practices at the trust and the failure of senior trust executives to tackle this. Investigators found evidence of institutional abuse including some staff hitting, pushing, and dragging people, withholding food, administering cold showers, an over-reliance on medication to control behaviour, as well as illegal and prolonged use of restraint. A number of staff working in the homes were found to be caring and well intended, however, they were not working in accordance with best practice. The investigation revealed serious and wide-reaching flaws in the local NHS Trust’s procedures for protecting adults. Senior managers failed to identify and correct situations involving physical, emotional and environmental abuse. Press release ~ Additional press release ~ Healthcare Commission ~ Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) ~ Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust ~ Protection of vulnerable adults (POVA) ~ No secrets: guidance on developing and implementing multi-agency policies and procedures to protect vulnerable adults from abuse ~ NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service ~ Mencap ~ Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) JRF: Child poverty proving expensive - A study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has concluded that the Government’s existing policies will not be enough to reduce child poverty in line with its targets, despite its recent success in bringing child poverty down. The wide-ranging study, the first systematic attempt to calculate what will be needed to achieve these ambitious targets, estimated the future impact of current policies and examined what it will take to halve child poverty by 2010 and end it by 2020. The report suggests that if current policies continue unchanged, the Government’s earlier target of reducing child poverty by a quarter (by 2004/5) might not be met until 2020, and that if the original final target was to be met then it would be too expensive to rely only on state redistribution to end child poverty over this period. The report concluded that ending child poverty in a generation can only be achieved if both benefits/tax credits become more generous and parents’ earning opportunities are improved. However, the report’s author does acknowledge that whatever the eventual cost of ending child poverty, the cost to society is likely to be much greater in the long term if the problem is ignored, stipulating that as well as the human and social damage, there are direct costs to taxpayers. Press release ~ Report: What will it take to end child poverty? Firing on all cylinders ~ Summary of findings ~ A series of background papers on child poverty ~ Micro-simulating child poverty in 2010 and 2020 ~ Five case studies ~ End Child Poverty coalition ~ Joseph Rowntree Foundation ~ Child Poverty Action Group ~ Save the children ~ Shelter ~ ActionAid HSE: The end of a sick joke? - The popular view that public sector workers take more sick leave than their private sector counterparts, which has been a cornerstone of friendly rivalry between the two sectors, could be a misleading according to a HSE report. The results of the Survey on Workplace Absence, Sickness and (ill) Health (SWASH) 2005, suggest that there is evidence of higher rates of employer under-recording of employee absence within the private sector, this being concentrated within smaller businesses. The survey, confirmed that levels of absence were higher in organisations with more than 250 employees, the argument here being that almost all public sector organisations employ more than 250 employees, whilst the majority of private sector employees work in small or medium sized organisations. The survey also found that public sector workers are more likely to work when they are ill than those in the private sector and that stress was reported more widely amongst public than private sector respondents, the public sector citing that more of their workers work face to face with the public than their private sector counterparts. There also appeared to be notable differences in sick pay arrangements between the private and public sectors, with over one-fifth of private sector respondents reporting that they received no pay for the first three days of continuous absence. Press release ~ Managing sickness absence & return to work ~ Workplace Health Connect ~ Confederation of British Industry ~ Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) ~ Creating a healthy workplace ~ Reducing costs from absence ~ Work-related stress ~ UK National Work-Stress Network DCLG: Trust me, I’m a politician! - The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly, has urged Central and local government to now move into an era of mutual trust. Announcing the direction she wants to head in the build up to the Local Government White Paper to be published in the autumn, Ms Kelly outlined a shift from the 'top down State' to the 'trusting state'; from 'earned autonomy' to 'presumed autonomy'; and from a process-driven system to a people-driven one. Ms Kelly's comments included a vision of an “unprecedented era of devolution” in which “citizens had choice over the services, empowered communities [and] self-confident local authorities playing a key strategic and scrutiny role”. Ms Kelly recently published a new report - Mapping the Local Government Performance Reporting Landscape - about burdens on local government. It says that 80% of the performance reporting produced by councils is information required by In a stark admission of the nonsensical levels of red tape, Ms Kelly announced the aptly named Lifting Burdens Task Force to reduce burdens on local government. The purpose of the task force is to tell the Government which requirements cause the most aggravation on the ground and which add the least value - and then to agree packages of burden reduction with central government through the Central Local Partnership. Press release ~ Ruth Kelly’s speech ~ Report: Mapping the Local Government Performance Landscape ~ Local Government Association (LGA) ~ Central and Local Government Information Partnership (CLIP) ~ Local Government - DCLG ~ UK Local Government ~ Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA) ~ New Local Government Network |
CIOB: A new independent survey has confirmed the news respectable builders have been longing for and shown that a decisive 91% of homeowners were either satisfied or extremely satisfied with building work carried out within the last three years.
Perhaps more significantly, most of those questioned were found to have followed sensible procedures for choosing and working with builders, suggesting that increasingly careful behaviour is helping to drive the cowboy builder out of the market; resulting in more opportunities for builders who have developed a good reputation through high quality work and reliable behaviour.
For example, 82% had employed either a builder known to them already or because of a recommendation, with 91% getting some form of verbal or written quote prior to the work being done.
The majority (82%) made some kind of check, either following up references or checking that the builder was
a member of a professional body.
The survey also put paid to the myth that customers have to wait an age for builders to begin work - most builders (76%) started work within a month of work being commissioned.
Press release ~ The Cowboy Builder: A public perspective ~ CIOB ~ Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ~ Find a building – Federation of Master Builders ~ Avoiding the Cowboys ~ buildthisway.co.uk ~ The cowboy builder comes in two disguises – UK-Builder.com ~ Customer relations for builders - UK-Builder.com
Defra: As
we bask in the hot sunny weather (or seek refuge by the A/C unit) the
conditions combined with pollutant emissions from the continent and locally
have contributed to high concentrations of ground level ozone over most of
High ozone levels were recorded in London, Birmingham, Manchester,
Newcastle, Brighton, Leicester, Portsmouth, Swansea, Midlands, north-east,
north-west, south-east and south-west England, East Anglia and South
Wales.
Despite the recent high levels of ozone, peak levels are generally
decreasing in the
Press release ~
Air Quality Archive gives regular updates ~
Heat wave plan
~ <
FONT color=#800080 size=2>Consultation on the review of the Air Quality
Strategy closes 11
July 2006 ~ Ground Level Ozone ~ EU Ambient Air Quality Directives ~ Defra Air Quality ~ Defra Air Quality e-Digest statistics ~ UK
Air Pollution Information System
CEOP: The
Child Exploitation and Online Protection
(CEOP) Centre has announce a series of workshops designed to look at the
growing phenomenon of social networking sites, inviting a
cross-section of young people, parents, educators and key online industry
players.
The events are to be held on the week beginning 17th July to discuss
this latest online trend and how young people can stay safe in this virtual
environment.
Launched on
In support, major corporations such as Microsoft, AOL and VISA, as well
as children's charities including the NSPCC and Childnet International have
put considerable resources and weight behind the new
initiative.
If parents, educators, young people and industry are interested in taking
part, please send an email to support@ceopevents.co.uk
Press release ~
Child
Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre ~ ThinkuKnow
~Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) ~
NSPCC inform ~ Child Protection Policing -
Home Office ~ Child
Protection on the Internet – Home Office ~ Virtual Global Taskforce ~ Childnet
International
DTI: The
Council for Science and Technology (CST)
has been asked by Government to review progress of its
commitments on nanotechnology policy and will cover the Government's actions in the two years since their
response to the Royal Society/Royal
Academy of Engineering report ‘Nanoscience and nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties’
I>.
Comments are being invited on:
·
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The extent to which the Government has taken
forward the commitments described in its Response.
·
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The timeliness and effectiveness of the
actions taken by Government.
·
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Whether there have been significant
developments in nanoscience/nanotechnology since February 2005 which raise new
issues the Government did not address in its Response, and should
now.
Written submissions will be accepted until
The review will be published in spring 2007.
Press release ~
HO:
A National Policing Board is to be created to drive
improvements and strengthen the governance of policing in
The main functions of the Board will be
to:
·
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Agree the Home Secretary's annual
national strategic priorities for policing.
·
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Set key priorities for the National Policing
Improvement Agency.
·
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Set agreed priorities for the police reform
programme.
·
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Enable Ministers, the leaders of the police
service and police authorities to monitor progress in implementing the reform
programme and identify and overcome barriers to delivery.
·
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Provide a regular forum for joint debate and
three way communication on the opportunities and challenges facing
policing.
Press release ~
National Policing Improvement
Agency ~ Association of
Chief Police Officers (ACPO) ~ Association of
Police Authorities (APA) ~ National Policing Plan 2005-08 ~ Police Service UK ~ Home Office
police
DTI & HMRC:
Employees in the childcare sector who are paid less than the minimum wage will be given a
helping hand by the Government in a joint DTI and HM Revenue & Customs
venture.
Teams from HMRC, which ensures payment of the minimum wage, will begin a
year-long enforcement campaign after finding one in three
of the nurseries paying less than the minimum
wage.
The Paymaster General commented that there was a belief that misunderstanding contributes to the problem, and in
response HMRC will at first focus on education and helping employers
get their house in order to meet their obligations and will only resort to tougher
enforcement measures where necessary.
Press release ~
Defra: A
new partnership between farmers and government to shape
agriculture for the next decade and beyond has been set out today by
David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs.
Mr Miliband said he wanted 'a
shared agenda for farming which could not only tackle
some of the world’s biggest environmental challenges, but also deliver
prosperity in this country'.
Mr Miliband outlined four guiding principles for the new
partnership:
·
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A long-term view in which the Government will
provide a clear framework of funding and policy in return for clear commitments
to change from the farming industry.
·
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A sensible financial deal shared by
Government and farmers.
·
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More streamlined regulation which is
effective, transparent, proportionate and cost-effective.
·
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System-wide change, especially in the key
areas of the food chain and animal health and welfare.
Press release ~
David Miliband’s full speech ~ Sustainable food and farming strategy -
Defra ~ Sustainable Food Procurement ~
Sustainable Development ~ Farmers Link ~ Agricultural
Development and Advisory Service ~ Sustainable communities -
Defra
Defra: In
continuation with the Government’s push on climate change, local
authorities, communities and individuals are being urged to use
their energy and innovation in meeting environmental challenges
and to adapt their lifestyles in order to combat climate
change.
The Government hopes that by devolving power to local
authorities, communities and individuals, this will allow them to use their
different resources to protect what is rightfully their
environment.
As part of his “one planet living” sustainability theme, Mr Miliband has
highlighted three environmental challenges which he believes will require the
engagement of local communities:
·
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Energy
·
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Waste
·
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The management of green
spaces
Environment Secretary Mr Miliband has cited that a lack of
environmental awareness and responsibility at any level of society
was comparable to anti social behaviour, and that
responsibility for our environment is all our business.
Press release ~
Sustainable Development ~ “I will if you will” - Sustainable Development
Commission ~ Local Government – Sustainable Development Commission ~ Sustainable Communities – Improvement and Development
Agency ~ Climate change and local communities: how prepared are
you? – UK Climate Impacts Programme ~ The
Carbon Trust ~ Climate Change - Defra ~ Climate Change - BBC
DH: NHS
community hospitals are to receive extra funding worth up to £750
million over the next five years
for investment in facilities offering patients more blood tests,
x-rays and minor operations outside of large hospitals.
Funding will be available to support a variety of projects ranging
from converting old acute hospitals into community hospitals and
renovating
existing community hospitals to community based chemotherapy and
mobile cancer scans.
Work on building the first new clinics and community hospitals will
start early next year.
The new community hospitals will offer speedy access to medical
checks, day surgery and even out-of-hours GPs. Other services that the community hospitals could provide
include care for minor injuries, blood and urine testing and ultrasound. There is also scope for community
hospitals to be the sites of procedures such as endoscopies and
biopsies.
Press release ~ White Paper: Our Health, Our Care, Our Say ~ Supporting documentation for White Paper ~ Community Hospitals Association (CHA) ~ Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP)
DWP: The
publication of the Welfare Reform Bill has been marked as the next stage in
the Government's plans to modernise the welfare state and break down
the barriers that they claim have prevented people from getting into
the workplace and staying in work.
The Bill contains powers to replace incapacity benefits with a new
Employment Support Allowance that alongside a new Personal
Capability Assessment will help give individuals more relevant
support and get them into appropriate work.
It will also provide more power to tackle benefit fraud which will
strengthen the "two strikes" rules so that people who commit a second benefit
offence within five years of their first one can have their benefit
withdrawn.
The pilots have already helped to get 25,000 people back into work and
this programme will be available to all new IB claimants by April
2008.
Press release ~ Welfare Reform Bill ~ DWP Bill explanatory website ~ Job Centre Plus ~ Disability Rights Commissions ~ Benefits and Work
HM Treasury: The Government has launched a consultation on the Payment Services Directive,
which once agreed will allow UK payment providers, such as credit card issuers,
to significantly expand their markets by offering their
services across the EU – closing 25 September 2006.
The Directive aims to deliver an EU internal
market in payment services, harmonizing the legal and technical requirements
for the provision of payments services and introducing a new EU-wide licensing
regime for businesses which offer payment services but which are not licensed
as banks or e-money issuers.
The directive will also support the delivery of the
industry-led Single Euro Payments
Area (SEPA) initiative, which is intended to enable cross-border
payments in Euros to be made as cheaply, easily and efficiently as
payments within individual Member States.
Press release ~
Consultation ~ Euro Payments Area (SEPA) – European Central Bank ~ SWIFT/SEPA article
DCLG: From
The new measures mean if an HMO is occupied without a
licence, a local housing authority has the power to seek
an order for the repayment of up to 12 months' housing benefit
paid out and tenants can also seek an order for recovery of rent.
In parallel with the initiative, guidance has been issued to
councils on the procedures they must follow in seeking authorisation from
residential property tribunals to make Empty Dwelling Management Orders
(EDMOs).
There are ten exceptions in all, covering, amongst other things,
temporary absence, second homes, properties on the market and inherited
properties, where special rules apply and which will be exempt for a period of
at least six months after grant of representation (probate) is
obtained.
Press release ~
Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) ~ Licensing in the private rented sector ~
HMO - Chartered Institute of Environmental
Health ~ HMO Licensing requirements ~ Empty Dwelling Management Orders (EDMOs) ~
EDMOs – Chartered Institute of Housing ~ Empty
homes ~ The Empty Home
Agency ~
The Housing Bill 2004 ~
Housing Act 2004
HMRC:
New guidance
aimed at helping businesses who want to utilise
computers systems to comply with their Value Added Tax (VAT)
obligations has been launched by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the British
Standards Institute (BSi).
The BSi Publicly
Available Specification 76 (PAS 76 - VAT in the
By developing the PAS 76, HMRC has enabled the Organisation for Economic and Commercial
Development's international guidelines on tax functionality in
accounting, to become a detailed specification.
Press release ~
PAS 76 Accounting software - Value Added Tax in the
UK ~ Value
Added Tax (VAT) ~ Organisation for Economic and Commercial
Development ~ British Standards Institute (BSi) ~ VAT guidance and help –
Businesslink
FSCS: The
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
(FSCS), the
The figures,
revealed as part of the FSCS's annual report, show a record increase of
180% in claims completed by FSCS for compensation (26,000 completed claims in
2005/06, up from 9,220 in 2004/05).
The increase
resulted from strategies put in place by FSCS to deal with surges in
the number of endowment compensation claims received by the Scheme:
20,100 new endowment claims were received during the year, an increase of 131%
on 2004/05 (itself a year of unprecedented numbers of new claims received by
the Scheme).
Press release ~
Annual Report 2005/06 ~ Financial Services
Compensation Scheme (FSCS) ~
DCLG: The
Government is to cut planning restrictions on micro-renewable technology as
a new report proposes streamlining the planning system for household
applications.
The new report published by the Government's Householder Development Consents Review
(HDCR) Steering Group says certain householder applications and those for
small scale micro-renewable technology - such as solar water heating and small
wind turbines - should be allowed to go ahead without the need for a planning
application.
The Government will publish detailed proposals on micro-generation which
take account of size and the impact on neighbours in the autumn.
The review also proposes streamlining the planning system where
neighbours do not object and to judge applications on their impact rather
than volume or size.
Press release ~
Householder Development Consents Review Steering Group
Report ~ Householder Development Consents Review (HDCR) ~
Micro-generation - DTI ~
Community Renewables Initiative ~
Micropower Council ~ Planning
Portal ~ Planning Permission - DCLG ~ Sustainable Communities –
I&DeA
DH: New
figures published by Health Minister Lord Warner show that 3,454 GP
practices have taken up an incentive
payment in participate in practice based commissioning, the Government
reform giving doctors and nurses a greater say in how the NHS
provides and buys services for patients.
There is also the first evidence that practice based
commissioning is reducing NHS costs by cutting down on unnecessary hospital
admissions.
A report published today by the NHS Alliance reveals that a number of
primary care trusts (PCTs) are projecting savings of over £1 million for
reinvestment in additional services as more practices adopt practice based
commissioning.
The NHS Alliance report goes on to highlight how practice based
commissioning is leading to higher quality services for patients in local
and convenient settings.
Press release ~
NHS Alliance reports ~ Practice Based
Commissioning ~ Practice based commissioning: Engaging
practices in commissioning ~ Practice based commissioning: GPC guidance for GPs and
local medical committees - BMA ~ NHS Primary Care Contracting ~ Natpact
CRE: With
pre-tournament fears of racist violence against non-white football fans during
the World Cup having failed to materialised, the head of the UK’s Commission
for Racial Equality is urging the EU to build upon the considerable effort
Germany put into ensuring that racist attacks did not blight the tournament and
put tackling racist violence at the top of the political and legal
agenda.
CRE chair Trevor Phillips said:
“While the tournament has been
free of racist violence, there is still a great deal of work to be done, as
racist incidents continue to shame international football, both on and off the
pitch.
The CRE advocates the adoption of
an EU-wide legal framework to offer a harmonised level of protection.”
In the months leading up to the World Cup, a number of attacks against
immigrants in Germany led to some areas being unofficially declared as no-go
zones for those with coloured skin.
Press release ~
Commission
for Racial Equality ~ FIFA against racism ~ EU Framework Decision on Racism
and Xenophobia ~ European
Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) ~
European
Network Against Racism (ENAR) ~ ‘Germany Acts’ – BBC News
DH & HPA: The following statistics have
been released:
·
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Abortion
·
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Sexually Transmitted Infection data for
2005
Press release ~ Abortion Statistics 2005
~ DH Abortion ~ Abortion Law Reform Association ~
Sexually Transmitted Infection data 2005 ~ HPA HIV & Sexually Transmitted
Infection ~ Playing
Safely ~ NHS
Direct
Acas: A
growing number of businesses are turning to Acas for good employment relations
advice, according to a recent employment relations survey, placing it as the second
highest source of advice for managers in the private
sector.
The survey revealed a 60% increase in the proportion of businesses
with 10 or
more employees using Acas' expertise - up from 16% to
26%.
Other highlights from the WERs report
are:
There was also a decrease in employees raising formal grievances
in most cases. The exception
was bullying, which has increased.
Press release ~
Order online - Inside the Workplace: Findings from the
2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey ~ Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 –
DTI ~ Acas ~ Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
~ Trades Union Congress ~ Business Link ~ DTI - Employment Matters ~ Employee Relations Forum ~
Federation of Small Businesses ~ Confederation of British
Industry
HMRC:
Business Brief 08/06
Contents:
·
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VAT: "Beneficial Ownership" of land and
property - outcome of Consultation announced December 2005
·
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Update to Notice AGL1 Aggregates Levy (July
2006) - change to water discount calculation
·
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AT: Clarification of the treatment of travel
agent funded discounts
·
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VAT: Issue of VAT Notes no 2
2006
Press release ~ Business Briefs 2006 (it
sometimes takes time to appear here)