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Consultations
FRC: The Financial Reporting Council has responded to criticism that auditors’ reports are uninformative by issuing a Consultation Paper: Revision to ISA (UK and Ireland) 700. The FRC will be holding a public meeting to discuss the proposals on the morning of Thursday 28 March 2013 in London (further details will be published on the FRC's website). Consultation period ends on 30 April 2013.
Press release & links.
Press release & links.
NICE: The Department of Health has launched a consultation to gather views on the topics for NICE's new quality standards & guidance for social care. From April 2013 NICE will start producing guidance & standards on social care in adults and children. To reflect the move into social care, NICE will become known as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Ministers are seeking ideas from care users, their families & carers, service commissioners, care providers and front line staff to help decide on future topics. The aim is to establish a full set of NICE quality standards & guidance in order to improve the quality of social care. The consultation ends on 26 April 2013.
EU News: The European Commission has recently adopted a European Retail Action Plan (ERAP) and a Green Paper on unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food & non-food supply chain. A number of barriers remain that hinder the smooth functioning of cross-border sourcing, consumer access to cross-border retail services & market entry for retailers and the actions in the ERAP relate to 5 key priorities.
One of the main actions is a Green Paper launching a consultation on unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food & non-food supply chain, which has been adopted simultaneously with the ERAP. All interested parties are invited to submit their views in response to the questions raised by the Green Paper by 30 April 2013.
Defra: New plans to improve the quality of paper, card, metals, plastic and glass recycling have been announced recently by Resources Management Minister, Lord de Mauley. The proposals set out in a new code of practice for recycling facilities will improve the quality of recycling collected from homes & businesses and will also promote a stronger market for recycled materials.
As part of the drive to increase the quality of recycling, Lord de Mauley launched a consultation asking for local authorities & industry’s views on government proposals to measure the quality of recycled materials being processed at Material Recovery Facilities (MRF). Consultation closes on 26 April 2013.
NICE: Dementia, stroke, cancer and end-of-life care are among 32 new indicators put forward for inclusion in the Clinical Commissioning Group Outcomes Indicator Set (CCG OIS). Formerly known as the Commissioning Outcomes Framework, the CCG OIS aims to support clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and improve the quality of patient care across England. Patients, the public and anyone with an interest in health have until 1 March 2013 to comment on the potential indicators for the 2014/15 CCG OIS.
In addition to the public consultation, NICE, together with the Health & Social Care Information Centre, will test & further refine the indicators. Results of this process will be presented to the CCG OIS Committee in May 2013, which will then recommend a set of indicators for consideration by the NHS Commissioning Board, and for publication on the NICE website. The NHS Commissioning Board will be responsible for deciding the final set of indicators in autumn 2013.
WAG: Regulating fizzy drink & portion sizes could have a real impact in tackling Wales’s rising obesity rates, the country’s top doctor said last week. Dr Ruth Hussey, the Chief Medical Officer for Wales, also said requiring restaurants, cafes & takeaways to detail calorie counts on menus could help tackle the issue.
The Welsh Government is asking whether new legislation should be introduced to address the big health challenges facing Wales, such as obesity, high rates of smoking and alcohol consumption and low levels of exercise. It also wants to ensure that the health gap between those who are well off and not so well off is closed. Consultation closes on 20 February 2013.
Ofsted: Plans to introduce a new framework for inspecting the school improvement functions provided by under-performing local authorities have been published. Under the proposed framework, Ofsted will evaluate how effectively local authorities discharge their school improvement functions, particularly in areas where schools are not yet good or are not improving quickly enough.
Ofsted seeks the widest possible range of views from those who have an interest in, or expertise relating to, local authority support services to ensure that the framework takes proper account of the needs & circumstances of all interested parties. The closing date for the consultation is 19 March 2013 and inspections are planned to begin on 1 May 2013.
DSA: A consultation on the use of foreign language voiceovers & interpreters on theory tests and practical driving tests has been launched. Currently people whose first language is not English or Welsh can request pre-recorded voiceovers for the computer-based car & motorcycle theory tests in 19 different foreign languages.
SFA: Community Learning Trust (CLT) providers have been invited to participate in the FE Choices Learner Satisfaction Survey Community Learning Pilot. The survey is currently live & available to complete online until 31 May 2013. A paper based version of the survey is also available & applications will be accepted until 15 March 2013.
