Annual Reports
IPPR: New figures published recently by the Office for Budget Responsibility reveal the long-term pressures on the public finances caused by Britain’s ageing population & technological advances.
IPPR analysis quantifies the tough political choices on tax & spending needed to ‘ensure that the public finances remain sustainable over the long-term and that key policy priorities can be delivered’.
IPPR analysis quantifies the tough political choices on tax & spending needed to ‘ensure that the public finances remain sustainable over the long-term and that key policy priorities can be delivered’.
ACE: Arts Council England has published its annual review 2011/12.
NAO: The National Audit Office has given an update on the financial support provided by the Treasury to the UK banking sector – how much support has been provided, how much is still outstanding and how much it is costing the taxpayer.
CC: The Competition Commission (CC) has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2011/12.
NAO: A report published by the National Audit Office has found the UK Border Agency and Border Force has achieved both cost reductions & performance improvement since 2010, but insufficiently coherent planning and delayed delivery of key projects have hampered faster progress.
ONS: The population of England & Wales on census day (27 March 2011) was 56.1m. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the first results from the 2011 Census recently. In the last 10 years the population of England grew by 7% to 53m and Wales by 5% to 3.06m.
EHRC: The Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued its Annual Report & Accounts for 2011/12.
ONS: The Office for National Statistics has recorded a significant downwards trend in employee membership of private sector defined benefit (DB) pension schemes – down from 34% 1997 to 9% in 2011.
DfE: The Department for Education has published new data showing how many students progressed to further or higher education or training for each school, college and local authority in England. It is also the first time that the number & proportion of young people in a school, college & authority who attend Oxbridge or a Russell Group university is being published.
PC&PE: In a new report, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee calls on the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) to raise its game significantly. CLG Committee chair Clive Betts said:
"First and foremost, the LGO must implement the changes identified by the recent Strategic Business Review, so that it can live within its means while providing the service to the public that is required by the legislation and expected by taxpayer. LGO has been taking far too long to determine some cases. ………….. The organisation needs to apply strict deadlines to all the cases that it handles”.
FRC: The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published the Report from the Professional Oversight Board (POB) to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on its oversight of the regulation of the audit, accountancy and actuarial professions, for the year to 31 March 2012.
PC&PE: The Government's Alcohol Strategy is a welcome attempt to address the problems alcohol causes in a coherent way, but its focus on public order overshadows health issues, warn MPs on the Health Committee in a new report.
CQC: The Care Quality Commission has told Serco Ltd that it must take action to improve its out of hours GP services in Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly. In a report published recently CQC says that Serco was not meeting 4 of the essential standards of quality & safety. Providers have a legal responsibility to make sure they are meeting all the essential standards.
PA: 1 in 4 doctors think handover procedures between healthcare professionals during changes of shift are either 'informal' or 'not in place', according to a new General Medical Council survey. 51,000 trainee doctors have responded to a GMC survey in which serious concerns are raised about the impact of poor training on patient care.
Whilst 80% reported that their training was either 'good' or 'excellent', 1 in 3 described the introduction they received about their role, responsibilities & objectives within the organisation they work in as 'fair', 'poor' or 'very poor'.
MoJ: Work needed to address & change offenders' attitudes and behaviour is not happening to any meaningful extent in many prisons. As a result, the opportunity to help them reform before release is being missed.
