CCWater: Money down the drain and into the bank - Thames Water has reported an increase in profits in the face of missing its leakage targets for the fourth successive year and applying for a drought order for
The water company’s admission that it has failed to achieve its leakage target for 2005-06 by 34 million litres per day, whilst at the same time announcing pre-tax profits up 31% to £346.5 million has been greeted by uproar from the Consumer Council for Water, which branded the announcement 'totally unacceptable' to consumers and would rub salt in the wounds of consumers facing bill increases and water restrictions over recent months.
Thames Water is losing 894 million litres of water a day – enough to fill 357 Olympic swimming pools.
On the 9th June the water company applied to the Government for a Drought Order, in addition to a current hosepipe and sprinkler ban, to further restrict the use of water to its five million customers in
The last time a Drought order was requested for
CCWater Press release ~ Ofwat Press release ~ Thames Water Press release ~ Thames Water ~ Consumer Council for Water (CCWater) ~ CCWater consumer blog on the current water restrictions ~ Ofwat ~ Beat the Drought ~ Leakage from public water supply – Environment Agency ~ Water resources – Environment Agency ~ Defra facts and figures
Cabinet Office: All for one and one for all - The Government has set out its vision for a partnership approach between public, private and third sectors to deliver public services that are more focused around the needs of individuals and communities.
In what is billed as an important step forward in the Government's public service reform agenda, the Government has announced a range of proposals designed to ensure the work of the third sector is expanded on and properly supported.
The initiatives, to be brought together in the autumn through the publication of the Third Sector Public Service Delivery Action Plan, include:
· A comprehensive review of community equipment with the aim to achieve an improvement in the way in which vital equipment and support are delivered to people coping with difficult circumstances and allow the third sector to play a bigger role, both in delivering services and informing their design.
· Looking towards a new delivery model with the aim of ensuring users are always guaranteed a service tailored to their needs, through effective local partnerships between public, private and third organisations.
· The Office of the Third Sector to ensure that longer-term funding arrangements become the norm rather than the exception.
· A new Public Service Innovation Team will be established within the Office of the Third Sector, providing an intelligence bank for best practice in the third sector and acting as a bridge for sharing and fostering innovation in the public sector.
Press release ~ Future Services Network ~ Care Services Efficiency Delivery (CSED) ~ Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) ~ National Consumer Council (NCC) ~ Confederation of British Industry
DH: Roll up, roll up - The Government has established a new unit which it claims will allow social entrepreneurs to help create new ways to provide choice in health and social care.
The new Social Enterprise Unit will encourage innovation and entrepreneurialism in health and social care and pave the way for new services which better meet patients and service users' needs.
Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said:
"The voluntary and community sector work very hard in the community and are well placed to understand what people need.
The new unit will encourage social enterprises to involve staff and service users in designing and delivering services tailored to meet people's needs and also achieve greater value for money.”
The announcement comes at the same time as another initiatives launched by Prime Minister Tony Blair to increase involvement of the voluntary sector in delivering public services that are more focused around the needs of individuals and communities.
Press release ~ DTI SBS bulletin (see public procurement chapter) ~ Care Services Efficiency Delivery (CSED) ~ DTI Small Business Service ~ Future Services Network ~ Expert Patients Programme ~ School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) ~ UnLtd
MPA: Together against terror - The Metropolitan Police Authority is to hold a series of public forums, entitled 'Counter-Terrorism: The
The move continues the work from a previous community conference organised by the MPA in the wake of the July 2005 terror attacks, and will give specifically invited
A senior MPS officer will be invited to each session to provide an initial response to the communities' issues and then take questions from the group,
At the first hearing on
Press release ~ Counter-Terrorism: The London Debate ~ Metropolitan Police Authority ~ Counter Terrorism Section - MPS ~ UK Resilience ~ HO Counter-terrorism strategy ~ MI5 Security Service
Patent Office: Can the copy-cats be neutered? - A Government report has been published warning that international intellectual property crime is an increasingly serious problem with seizures at EU external borders rising dramatically.
Issues highlighted in the report include:
· In relation to film piracy, a 20% increase during 2005 of DVDr burners seized - confirming the shift to
· Reports of Chinese organised criminal networks in the
· High quality packaging, making it almost impossible to tell the difference without technical expertise.
· Pharmaceuticals are seen as a boom industry with the incidence of counterfeit medicines increasing more than 45% against 2004.
Music piracy is now seen as endemic and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) estimates that there is now somebody on every street in the
At the frontline is the IP Crime Group, established as part of the National IP Crime Strategy, which has received more than 500,000 intelligence reports in the last nine months.
In 2005 major tactical operations with a series of weekend raids at Wembley Market - a hotspot for counterfeit and pirated goods, which netted more than £1.5 million of counterfeit and pirated goods.
Press release ~ National Intellectual Property Enforcement Report ~ IP Crime Group ~ National IP Crime Strategy (LF 926K) ~ Intellectual property crime – Patent Office ~ Intellectual property crime – Organised Crime Task Force ~ IP Crime Congress 2006 ~ European Communities Trade Make Association
CCWater: The
Consumer Council for Water in the
The call comes as Wessex Water
reported an operating profit of £152.5million (up 24% from 2004-05) and
Press release ~
HO: A total of 17,715
weapons were handed in during the first week of the national knives
amnesty. As well as knives, the
weapons surrendered include machetes, meat cleavers and
axes.
Police in Devon & Cornwall also
took receipt of an anti-tank rocket launcher.
The national knives amnesty began
on
It is an offence to carry a knife
in public without good reason or lawful authority, with the exception of
a folding pocket-knife with a blade not exceeding three inches. Those found guilty face a penalty of up
to two
years' imprisonment.
Press release ~ crimereduction.gov.uk ~ Violent Crime Reduction Bill ~ Home
Office
DTI: The newly
enabled Work and Families Bill is set to offer new rights to working
parents and carers and
new benefits to business.
Working parents stand to benefit
from new rights to more maternity and paternity leave and pay, whilst for the
very first
time, carers of adults will be given a right to
request flexible working in recognition of the difficulties
many carers face in juggling work with caring
responsibilities.
Businesses will also benefit from a
package of measures designed to make life easier for employers, with the view
of helping them plan ahead and manage maternity leave with greater
certainty.
Press release ~ Work and Families Bill ~ Work and Families - DTI ~ Working Families ~ Carers UK ~
Working time and time off - BusinessLink ~ Equal Opportunities
Commission ~ FathersDirect ~ British Chamber of Commerce response to Bill
publication
DTI: Royal Assent
has been given to the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy
Bill, making it easier for householders who produce
electricity from microgeneration technologies at their homes to sell unused
power back to their supplier.
The Bill aims to reduce carbon
emissions and fuel poverty through a series of measures designed to
increase installation of micro-wind turbines, solar panels and other localised
energy production technologies.
It is hoped that opening up the
ability to earn money for the sale of electricity produced by these
technologies will help to offset the cost of installation and play a
part in the expansion of the sector, bringing both environmental and economic
benefits.
Press release ~ Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill ~ DTI microgeneration
strategy ~
MoD: Whilst heavy
police surveillance is a matter of course at the World Cup in Germany, football
fans may be surprised to know the full extent of the monitoring techniques
used, namely the use of state-of-the-art surveillance aircraft flown by
the Royal Air Force.
At the request of the German
national authorities, E-3D early warning aircraft - based at RAF Waddington in
The aircraft from part of a NATO
force to provide extra security during the matches and ceremonies, supporting
German air surveillance by providing additional low-level radar coverage and
radio relay.
Press release ~ NATO
Airborne Early Warning and Control Force (NAEW&CF) ~ AWAC – Boeing ~ RAF
Waddington ~ German Police
World Cup ~ Security
measures – German Federal Ministry of the Interior ~ NATO ~ Ministry of Defence
Defra: The
Government has opened a new front in its campaign to change public attitudes to
tackling climate change.
As part of the Climate Change Communication
Initiative, 53 projects from across
A further 32 projects submitted to
Defra's Climate Challenge Fund worth in the region of an additional
£4m have been provisionally accepted subject to further
negotiation.
Press release ~ Climate Challenge ~ Climate Change - Defra ~ Full list of approved projects ~ Energy Saving Trust ~ UK Climate
Impacts Programme
Defra: Major water
industry players have emphasised that strategic long term thinking is
essential to protect the sustainability of the water supply in
The Water Saving Group has met for their six month review to analyse
progress against its Action Plan, which outlines work in a number of areas to
encourage the efficient use of water and so help protect the long term
sustainability of supply.
The Group is undertaking a number
of initiatives, including an effort to engage with customers and
better understand their perceptions and needs, developing incentives to
companies for improving the promotion of water efficiency, new
regulations to improve water efficiency in buildings and
opportunities for greater penetration of metering in areas of water
stress.
Press release ~ Water Saving Group Action Plan ~ Water Savings Group (WSG) ~ Water conservation ~ Water Strategy: Directing the Flow - priorities for future water
policy ~ Consumer Council for Water ~ Water UK ~ Waterwise
DfES: Education
Secretary Alan Johnson has announced new measures to tighten
record keeping in schools and colleges in response to a government
requested Ofsted investigation into whether schools and colleges were carrying
out appropriate recruitment checks and record keeping.
The Chief Inspector made clear that
it is highly likely that the appropriate checks have been made
but that all schools needed to keep proper records to demonstrate that had been
the case.
DfES Press release ~ Ofsted Press release ~ Safeguarding children: an evaluation of
procedures for checking staff appointed by schools – Ofsted report ~
Guidance on safer
recruitment - teachernet ~ Criminal
Records Bureau ~ Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups
Bill
Defra: Government
ministers have met with eleven of the major
The initiative, announced in this
year's Budget, will look to set up a voluntary partnership for
retailers to commit, from next year, to sell energy efficient consumer
electronic products, with the aim of significantly reducing carbon
emissions from these products by 2010.
Defra Press release ~ HM Treasury Press release ~ Market Transformation
Programme ~ International Energy Efficiency in Lighting and Domestic
Appliances (EEDAL) conference ~ Energy Savings
Trust ~ EU
Renewable Energy Unit ~ Intelligent Energy Europe ~ Climate
change ~ Consumer Products and the
Environment
DH: GP practices
will face tougher tests on waits for appointments from
July as part of a drive to ensure all NHS patients can see a family
doctor within two working days.
Primary care trusts (PCTs) will telephone surgeries on a random day
every month to ensure that the two-day access target, which has
allowed more patients to book a GP appointment within 48 hours, is a true
reflection of patient experiences.
Practices will also be asked when their third free
appointment slot falls, as well as the first, to better judge the depth of
access.
The new tests will address
concerns that GPs, who currently know the survey date in advance,
are able to prepare their bookings to deliver a success on just one day a
month.
Press release ~ PCT patient survey
2005 ~ NHS waiting times ~ <
FONT color=#800080>NHS what waiting times tell you ~ Royal College of
GPs ~ British Medical Association
DH: Drug
treatment services across the country will receive an extra £95.2m
this year, an increase of over 30%, in a move that will provide Drug Action Teams with £394.6m
SPAN>.
The funding will be used to invest
in personnel, day-to-day running of services, and building and
refurbishment of premises.
Drug Action Teams will also be able to bid for a portion of a further
£54.9million, for the development of inpatient and residential
rehabilitation services in 2007/08.
Press release ~ Drug Action
Teams ~ HO
Drugs ~ DrugScope ~ Drug and Alcohol Action Programme ~ Crime reduction tool kits – Communities against drugs
~ Talk to
Frank
APA: The Association of Police Authorities (APA)
and the Association of Chief Police
Officers (ACPO) have issued a joint statement calling on the House of Lords
to significantly revise the Police and Justice
Bill.
The joint APA and ACPO statement recognises that there is much in the Bill to commend
it but highlights significant concerns - shared by both bodies - that the
Bill will further centralise control over policing and erode local
policing accountability.
Press release ~ APA/ACPO statement
~ Police and Justice Bill ~ Association of Police
Authorities (APA) ~ Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) ~ UK Police Service ~
Home Office:
Police website
DH: The
Government is set to eliminate the 'postcode lottery' for
NHS continuing care by creating one national system for
everyone in
They will also abolish
different nursing bands for free nursing care - ending the need for
over 130,000 nursing assessments a year, freeing up more time for nurses
and cutting down on repeated patient
assessments.
A consultation has been launched
(closing date
Press release ~ Consultation:
National framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS funded nursing care in
England ~ White paper: Our health, our care, our say: a
new direction for community services ~ NHS funding for long term care - Health
Service Ombudsman for England ~ Long-term Conditions National Service
Framework (NSF)
HSE: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is
holding a series of events to debate the content of a proposed new on-line tool
(referred as a route map), which is aimed at helping employers and workers manage
workplace transport risk.
The events, to be held in early
July at
A public consultation exercise on the proposals also runs until
Every year workplace transport
claims 66
lives and over 6300 injuries, costing the British
taxpayer over £200 million with the cost to industry
considerably more.
Press release ~ Consultation document ~ Events website
~ Keep it moving: do it safely ~ Vehicles at Work - HSE ~ Free HSE
Workplace Transport leaflets ~
DH: A new drive
to modernise mental health services has been launched in a
document outlining ten key changes that mental health providers should make to
improve
quality of care for patients and drive better service efficiency.
10 High Impact
Changes for Mental Health Services, produced by the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP), charts high impact
changes in 10 areas of service improvement in mental health that have the greatest
positive impact on service user and carer experience, service
delivery, outcomes, staff and organisations.
The document aims to show mental
health professionals that by following this guidance, they can make a real
difference to how they provide services for
patients.
Press release ~ 10 high impact changes for mental health services publication
(executive summary) ~
10 high impact changes for mental health services publication
(full version) ~ 10
High Impact Changes for Mental Health Services Website ~ Care Services Improvement
Partnership (CSIP) ~ National Institute for Mental Health in England
(NIMHE)
Pensions Regulator: The Pensions Regulator has issued additional
guidance for pension scheme trustees and their professional advisers
on summary funding statements.
Under the new scheme specific
funding regime, trustees must issue regular summary funding statements to all
scheme members and beneficiaries providing them with information about the
funding of their scheme.
The regulator's guidance clarifies
the need for summary funding statements issued before a scheme has
had its first actuarial valuation under the new funding regime to include an
explanation of any changes to the scheme's funding
position.
Initial summary funding statements must be issued before
Press release ~ Additional guidance: ‘Summary funding statements’
FONT> ~ Code of Practice ~ Scheme Specific Funding website ~ Scheme Funding - DWP ~ The Pensions
Regulator
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence (NICE) has published draft guidelines which set out
recommendations on good quality care during labour.
The guidelines support choice for
women in deciding where to have their baby and set out the information they
should be given to help them choose.
They aim to make birth as normal as
possible, by reducing unnecessary medical interventions, and as safe as
possible for mother and baby, by making sure that all the risks are understood
and properly managed.
Press release ~ NICE draft
guideline on care during labour ~ RCM Press release response ~ Royal College of Midwives ~ National Child Birth Trust
(NCT) ~ Every Child Matters ~ BirthChoiceUK ~ Association for Improvements
in the Maternity Services ~ Having a baby: Birth Options -
BBC.co.uk
DH: New guidance
has been launched to better equip NHS staff to identify and support victims of
domestic and sexual violence and abuse.
A publication ‘Tackling the Health and Mental Health
Effects of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse’ has been launched setting out what the Government intends
to do for staff in primary care, acute services, ante-natal and mental health
services.
Press release ~ Tackling the Health and Mental Health Effects
of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse ~ Respect ~ National Institute for
Mental Health in England (NIMHE) ~ Hidden Hurt abuse
information and support site ~ Woman’s Aid
~ Refuge ~
The Hideout (aimed
at young people) ~ NSPCC
AO: Dame Barbara
Mills, the Adjudicator for complaints about HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the Valuation Office Agency, the
Public Guardianship Office and The Insolvency Service, has published her
2005/2006 Annual Report today
The Adjudicator acts as an impartial
referee when people are not satisfied with the way the organisations
have dealt with their complaint.
During the past year Dame Babara
Mills has continued to receive a large and increasing number of
complaints about tax credits. 74%
of such complaints that were investigated were fully, or partially,
upheld.
Press release ~ Annual Report 2006 ~ Adjudicators
Office ~ HM
Revenue & Customs (HMRC) ~ Valuation Office
Agency ~ Public Guardianship Office ~ The Insolvency
Service
DCLG: The
Government has launched an independent assessment (to report in the autumn) of social housing to look at the role of
social housing in the 21st century, in particular examining if the
system is flexible enough to cope with people's
changing circumstances.
In addition, it will take a
detailed look at the Social Homebuy scheme to question if there are barriers for housing
associations, local authorities or tenants, to the take-up of Social
Homebuy.
Press release ~ Social Homebuy ~ London Housing Magazine ~ <
FONT color=#0000ff>The Housing Corporation document ~ The Housing Corporation ~ Housing Options
Cabinet Office: An independent report has been published on the review of
the Charter Mark Scheme and the measurement of customer
satisfaction with public services
Entitled 'The Customer Voice in Transforming
Public Services', the report recommends a number of steps with the aim
of increasing the effectiveness of the Charter Mark scheme,
leading to an increased thoroughness of framework for measuring
customer satisfaction across all public services.
Press release ~ 'The Customer Voice in Transforming Public Services'
report ~ Charter
Mark Scheme ~ Charter Mark FAQ ~ UK Accreditation
Service ~ Public Service Reform Unit
DCLG: The Ethnic Minorities Innovation Fund
(EMIF) will provide £3 million of financial support to voluntary and
community groups working in partnership with local authorities, to
help deliver innovative projects that aim to reduce levels of homelessness
amongst ethnic minority groups.
Ethnic minority households
represent 21% of households accepted as homeless by local authorities
(in 2004-05) but comprise only 8%of the
Press release ~ Ethnic Minorities Innovation Fund (EMIF) ~ Sustainable
Communities: settled homes, changing lives - Government's homelessness
strategy (summary) ~ Sustainable Communities:
settled homes, changing lives - Government's homelessness strategy (full
report) ~ List of successful projects ~ Tackling homelessness amongst ethnic minority households – a
development guide ~ Homelessness amongst ethinic minority
populations
DTI: Secretary of
State for Trade and Industry Alistair Darling has urged countries to stand up
to calls for protectionism and to take action to make trade fairer
as well as freer.
In the speech to the US Chamber of Commerce, Alistair
Darling told American politicians and business leaders that globalisation did not
mean that one country's benefits must come at the expense of
another's, but that developing countries provided new
markets into which to trade a wider range of products and provide a
chance for developing countries to trade their way out of
poverty.
Press release ~ Department of Trade and
Industry ~ UK Trade & Investment ~ U.S Chamber of
Commerce ~ World
Trade Organisation ~ Protectionism: Tariffs, Subsidies, and Trade Policy -
aWorldConnected.org ~ Briefing paper – Oxfam
Dcms: A Lottery
'tick boxes' pilot voting scheme has been announced, which
it is claimed will give the public more of a say in where Lottery grants
go.
In the 'Your Pound, Your Choice'
trial, the public will, for the first time, be able to tick
boxes on voting slips at participating lottery retailers to vote for which
local projects should get Lottery money.
Camelot and the Big Lottery Fund
have identified two regions to pilot the scheme, which is expected to run in
August, with up to five projects in the two regions competing for Lottery
grants of up to £50,000.
Press release ~ National Lottery Shares
consultation results ~ Big Lottery
Fund ~ National Lottery Good Causes ~ National Lottery
grants search ~
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