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Annual Reports
Newswire – EA: Water quality in England & Wales has improved for the 19th year in a row the Environment Agency has claimed. As a result, more rivers are becoming home for species that were once thought to be in terminal decline in them, such as salmon, eel and otters.
The improvement has been achieved mainly through investment by water companies, tougher action on polluters, changing farming practices and thousands of local projects. The Environment Agency also published new plans to revitalise & transform over 9,000 miles of river by 2015.
Press release ~ Association of Rivers Restoration Trusts ~ Thames Rivers Restoration Trust ~ London Rivers Action Plan ~ Environment Agency - Water for life and livelihoods: draft River Basin Management Plans ~
ScotGov: The Scottish Health Survey published last week shows that three-quarters of adults in Scotland rate their health in general to be 'very good' or 'good', while 7% rate it as 'bad' or 'very bad'.
This is the first report of the Scottish Health Survey since a major review & redesign. The survey is now run on an annual basis and has adopted a core and modular structure. The previous Health Education Population Survey run by NHS Health Scotland is now incorporated as a module of this survey. Results from this module will be published at the end of the year.
HSE: The number of employees being killed or injured at work is at its lowest level since the inception of the modern health & safety system 35 years ago. The Health & Safety at Work etc Act was introduced on 1 October 1974, a year in which 651 people were killed in work related incidents.
Last year, statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed 180 people died as a result of work based activity. The most recent statistics from 2006 show Britain had the lowest rate of fatal injuries in the EU While Europe averaged 2.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers the UK figure was just 1.3.
Defra: In 2008-09 there were 1.16m fly-tipping incidents dealt with by local authorities. A 9.3% decrease from the 1.28m reported in 2007-08. 50% of all fly-tips occurred on highways and the estimated cost of clearance of illegally dumped waste reported by local authorities in this period was £54.9m.
OGC: Nigel Smith, the Chief Executive of the OGC (Office of Government Commerce), has praised Whitehall Departments for their progress in driving forward improvements in procurement capability. These improvements are detailed in an overview report published by the OGC summarising the findings of the first wave of the Procurement Capability Review (PCR) programme.
