General News
IPO: The Intellectual Property Office has launched two new patents databases on its web site, which will help businesses identify opportunities they might otherwise not have found:
* One contains all patents in force in the UK which are endorsed Licence of Right, and are therefore open for licensing
* The other contains all UK patents which are no longer in force and therefore contains inventions which are no longer protected here
The databases are based on the design of the successful E-Patents Journal available on the Intellectual Property website and will be updated weekly. Each provides a searchable sub-set of data from the Patents Register, and provides links back to the Register and to esp@cenet (which is the web database service for viewing patent specifications).
UK OC: Around 12,000 people made the second national ‘Get online day’ their excuse to get onto the internet and try something new online. The day, which is run by UK online centres, took place at the end of October as part of Family Learning Festival and targeted the one in three adults in the country who still don’t use computers and the internet.
There were more than 500 events running at UK online centres up & down England, offering techno-phobe parents, grandparents and carers – and even aunts and uncles – the chance to find out how getting online could help them and the rest of the family in everyday life. Whether it was a very first taste of the internet, a first email or a first online shopping trip, families of all shapes & sizes took up the Get online day challenge.
NA: The service registers of some 110,000 seamen who joined the Royal Marines between 1842 and 1936 are now available to search & download. You can search under surname, forename, register number & date of enlistment and may uncover the names of ships & shore stations served on, details of conduct, medal entitlement and much more.
NA: Records from the 1911 census are now available online after an ambitious project undertaken by findmypast.com owned by brightsolid, in association with The National Archives. 36m people were recorded in the census taken on the night of Sunday 2 April, 1911.
It was the most detailed census since UK records began and the first for which the original census schedules have been preserved, complete with our ancestors' own handwriting. It was also the first time in a British census that full details of British Army personnel & their families in military establishments overseas were included.
Over 27m people's census entries – 80% of the English records - are now online. A further 9m records of people from the remaining counties of England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as the naval and overseas military records, will be made available over the coming months.
FDA: Terry Cook, President of ARC - the union which represents senior staff in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - has responded to Digby Jones' attack on civil service numbers by calling on the government to invest in more, not fewer, tax professionals in the public service.
"Digby Jones thinks that the Civil Service could manage with half as many people," said Cook, "But even now ARC members in HMRC are struggling to contain the tide of tax avoidance and evasion………. Senior staff in local offices typically bring in additional yield of at least 20 times the costs of employing them……. HMRC's autumn 2008 report shows that for staff dealing with large business, the equivalent figure is 60 times.
Press release ~ FDA ~ Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC) ~ HMRC 2008 Autumn Performance report
LLUK: The search is on to find England's top apprenticeship employers and top individual apprentices as the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) launches its prestigious sixth annual National Apprenticeship Awards.
Sponsored by City & Guilds, the Apprenticeship Awards are designed to recognise employers who are successfully using apprenticeships to improve their businesses' performance and champion the key role apprentices play in today's business world. The deadline for entries is Friday 27 February 2009.
MoD: Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Argus is to be upgraded with state of the art medical equipment in an extensive refit worth over £23m that will see the ship renovated for her crucial role in providing hospital facilities to troops in war zones. Work began at A&P Group's Falmouth facility this week on the first major refit under a contract awarded by the MOD to A&P Group last year to support five RFA vessels.
New medical equipment to be installed includes the latest advances in CT scanning equipment, used to assess casualties by 3D X-ray imagery, as well as new sterilising kit. As a Primary Casualty Receiving Facility, Argus can accommodate 100 casualties at any time ensuring wounded service personnel of all nationalities can receive swift primary care.
A flight deck more than two thirds of her length can accommodate any of the Royal Navy's helicopters. Her flexible design means she is also able to fulfil additional roles such as a logistic ship, as she can be very quickly adapted to transport large amounts of equipment.
Ofgem: Ofgem’s (Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets) panel of domestic energy consumers have told the regulator they think energy suppliers should focus as strongly on keeping their existing customers as they do on attracting new ones. They also suggested that suppliers could reward loyal customers with bonuses or help with energy saving measures.
Press release ~ Ofgem - Consumer First Panel ~ Research findings from first Ofgem Consumer First Panel event
CIOB: The closing date for this year's Chartered Institute of Building’s (CIOB) International Innovation and Research Awards is Friday 20 February 2009.
The awards play an important role by bringing together practitioners, education & training providers and policy makers. This interaction helps to develop, promote and implement new ideas & methods, which enables entrants to be on the forefront of excellence and innovative working.
Press release ~ Chartered Institute of Building’s (CIOB) International Innovation and Research Awards
DECC: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has confirmed that it expects Sellafield, together with Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell to be nominated as potential sites for new nuclear power stations. Each station could bring 9,000 jobs during construction, 1,000 skilled workers when operational and be worth £2bn to each region.
The announcement comes as the Government prepares to launch the next step towards new nuclear, when on Tuesday it calls for potential sites to be nominated, and publishes the criteria it will use to assess the suitability of sites. This follows the recent £12.5bn investment by EdF in British Energy.
Press release ~ Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) ~ DECC ~ EdF ~ British Energy ~ Nuclear Development Forum ~ Office for Nuclear Development ~ Government response to the consultation on Funded Decommissioning Programme guidance ~ Consultation on the Strategic Siting Process and related documents ~ Infrastructure Planning Commission ~ Nuclear White Paper Meeting the Energy Challenge: A White Paper on Nuclear Power ~ Generic Design Assessment (GDA) ~ HSE: UK Nuclear Regulators New Reactor Assessment ~ Health and safety in the nuclear industry ~ Nuclear Directorate of the Health and Safety Executive ~ Office of Civil Nuclear Security ~ Dedicated public information website on nuclear waste ~ United Kingdom Radioactive Waste Inventory (UKRWI) ~ Nuclear Power - BERR ~ Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM)
ScotGov: One of the world's largest wave stations will be constructed off the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles, creating up to 70 jobs and advancing Scotland's claimed lead in renewable energy. Ministers have granted consent for npower renewables application to operate a wave farm with a 4MW capacity at Siadar, Isle of Lewis, Western Isles.
It is one of the first marine renewable energy projects to be approved in the UK and follows the recent launch of the £10m Saltire Prize. The Scottish Government granted consent in September 2007 for a 3 MW array comprising 4 Pelamis machines at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.
Press release ~ ScotGov energy ~ Siadar wave energy station ~ Pelamis wave energy converters ~ European Marine Energy Centre ~ Saltire Prize ~ European Commission's Second Strategic Energy Review ~ Pre-Scoping Study to Determine Grid Requirements to Connect Renewable Energy off the Coasts of Northern Europe ~ Energy Policy: An Overview ~ Scotland's Energy Future ~ Scottish Renewables
STFC: The C1XS X-ray camera, jointly developed by the UK’s STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has successfully detected its first X-ray signature from the Moon. This is the first step in its mission to reveal the origin & evolution of our Moon by mapping its surface composition.
In orbit around the Moon on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, C1XS detected the X-ray signal from a region near the Apollo landing sites on December 12th 2008. The solar flare that caused the X-ray fluorescence was exceedingly weak, approximately 20 times smaller than the minimum C1XS was designed to detect.
Press release ~ UK’s STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory ~ British Interplanetary Society (BIS) ~ British National Space Centre ~ Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) ~ C1XS Investigators ~ STFC Space Science and Technology Department ~ European Space Agency’s (ESA) Smart-1 mission to the Moon
Socitm: The Society of IT Management has published its latest ‘IT Trends in Local Government 2008/9: Uncharted waters’, which is based on responses to a comprehensive questionnaire sent to heads of ICT in the 600 local public service providers in the UK. The report, published on CD-ROM with or without the data upon which it is based, analyses technology, budgets, manpower, product ratings and market share, together with views & opinions about the future.
Findings included:
* Local authorities will spend more than £3.2bn on IT in 2008/9
* Access to information, security & privacy has leapt up the management agenda since 2007
* ICT is too often regarded as a utility rather than a means to transform public services
* A range of initiatives are being pursued to deliver efficiencies both at the tactical & strategic level
* New technologies could offer opportunities to deliver more radical changes in public service provision
* Staff turnover & recruitment difficulty has increased again since 2007
Press release ~ ‘IT Trends in Local Government 2008/9: Uncharted waters’ ~ John Serle, IT Trends Editor - Tel: 07867 907372 - john.serle@socitm.gov.uk
