Annual Reports
ScotParl: The Scottish Parliament has published its annual report detailing the work of the Parliament from 9 May 2007 to 8 May 2008. This year saw the 1.5 millionth visitor to the Parliament, as well as visits from over 100 delegations from all over the world.
Three Government bills introduced since 9 May 2007 have completed their parliamentary passage and become Acts of the Scottish Parliament:
* Abolition of Bridge Tolls (Scotland) Act 2008
* Graduate Endowment Abolition (Scotland) Act 2008
* Budget (Scotland) Act 2008
* Graduate Endowment Abolition (Scotland) Act 2008
* Budget (Scotland) Act 2008
SGC/SAP: A busy and productive year is highlighted in the 4th joint annual report published by the Sentencing Guidelines Council and the Sentencing Advisory Panel, which are responsible for promoting clear, effective and consistent sentencing.
The report reveals that they are a long way towards achieving the goal of producing a guideline for the majority of offences that are regularly sentenced in the courts in England and Wales, by the summer of 2009.
DH: Health Profiles for every local authority and region across England have been published by the Department of Health and the Association of Public Health Observatories. The Profiles use key health indicators to capture a picture of the nation's health down to local level, providing areas across England with valuable information to improve their population's health. This year's data also includes new information on child health inequalities.
The Association of Public Health Observatories, with the DH, have also published a companion ‘Health inequalities Intervention tool’, that enables every English local authority to model the effect of four high impact interventions on their life expectancy gap:
* smoking cessation
* treating undiagnosed high blood pressure
* statin prescribing to reduce blood cholesterol and
* reducing infant mortality
Press release ~ APHO - Health Profiles ~ The Health Inequalities Intervention tool ~ Health Inequalities: Progress and Next Steps ~ PSA target for Health Inequalities ~ Tackling Health Inequalities: A Programme for Action (2003) ~ DH – Health Inequalities ~ The Contribution of the NHS to Reducing Health Inequalities: Written Evidence to the House of Commons Health Select Committee submitted by Unite (Amicus Section) ~ ‘Community engagement to improve health’ ~ Healthy Communities - Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA) ~ Healthy communities resource pack ~ Planning for healthy communities ~ The Beacon Scheme - Healthy communities ~ Healthy communities, healthy partnerships - a learning symposium ~ DH: Healthy Living Centres
HC: Updated survival rates for surgery at 37 heart units across the UK have been published by the Healthcare Commission (the national survival rate for all types of heart operations is 96.6%). The data has been adjusted to take into account the age and lifestyle of patients, which affect chances of survival.
Previously, the international EuroSCORE benchmark was used as a way of taking account of the risks involved in the surgery. However, as more people are now expected to survive in the UK than when EuroSCORE was first introduced, the benchmark for the UK introduced last year is a tougher measure. When measured against the UK model, there were no units with survival rates that were ‘worse than expected’. 32 units’ survival rates are ‘as expected’ and 5 are ‘better than expected’.
Press release ~ Heart Surgery mini-website ~ Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery ~ EuroSCORE ~ Royal College of Surgeons ~ Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry
UK IPO: The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) has published its latest Corporate Plan, which this year focuses on the major strategic challenges and on the steps the UK-IPO will take to ensure it is properly equipped to meet those challenges over the next three years.
The plan is in a different form to previous years, reflecting the development of the Government's thinking on IP over the past two years as well as a different approach to planning our activities.
Press release ~ IPO corporate plan 2008 ~ 'Innovation Nation' White Paper ~ World Intellectual Property (IP) Day ~ Survey of IP awareness(1.9Mb) ~ My IP (3.4Mb) ~ My Idea – is it a business? (3Mb) ~ IP Health Checks ~ IP Insight ~ Innovation Support Strategy ~ Andrew Gowers' Review of Intellectual Property
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