General News
NE: Emerging from obscurity, 10 previously unnamed British species are now enjoying some long-awaited limelight as the results of the competition to give them popular names were announced recently. Thousands of people submitted entries in response to the 2011 Name a Species competition organised by Natural England and The Guardian. The competition invited the public to give popular names to 10 British species that have until now been listed only in Latin.
Press release & links
DECC: Householders across the country could get up to £1,250 of government funding to help towards the cost of installing renewable heating systems such as biomass boilers, air & ground source heat pumps and solar thermal panels.
The Government’s new £15m ‘Renewable Heat Premium Payment’ scheme – which is open for applications until March 2012 - will support up to 25,000 installations. The scheme will be mainly focused at around 4m households in Great Britain not heated by mains gas, who have to rely on higher carbon forms of heating which also tend to be more expensive than gas, such as heating oil & electric fires to keep warm.
Press release & links
SI: A Survival International investigation has uncovered alarming evidence that some of Ethiopia’s most productive farmland is allegedly being ‘stolen’ from local tribes and leased to foreign companies to grow & export food – while thousands of its citizens starve during the devastating drought.
The region’s worst drought in 60 years has left millions starving. The
Press release & links
PCS: The PCS union has called on the government to abandon proposed cuts to public sector pensions after a senior cabinet minister said the planned changes are ‘unrealistic’. A leaked letter from health secretary Andrew Lansley to the Treasury is a 5-page demolition of the pension proposals.
The missive, revealed by the Daily Telegraph, says the plan will discriminate against women workers and cause people to drop out of pension schemes – leaving the social security budget to pick up the pieces. Mr Lansley also said that unless the proposals are changed ‘it is difficult to see how a negotiated agreement could be reached with the trade unions’ – See ‘In the News’ section for more information.
Press release & links
NE: Natural England met recently with Professor Bob Watson, Chief Scientific Adviser at DEFRA and members of the SAC evidence review panel to discuss the findings of the Independent Review of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) that Professor Watson and his team have conducted.
Natural England is pleased that the Review has confirmed that the evidence base that they have supplied to inform the designation of 3 candidate/possible candidate SACs is robust and has been given a ‘clean bill of health’. NE hope this Independent Review allays the concerns expressed by some stakeholders.
Press release & links
NA: The National Archives is working with local authorities to pilot a web archiving model which will ensure important online information is preserved for future generations. Currently, The NA works in partnership with the Internet Memory Foundation (IMF) to archive central government websites, but its remit does not extend to cover all the local government or community websites.
The pilot will run in 7 local authority archives (covering more than 20 local authorities) where staff will be trained in how to develop a ‘curated’ web archive for their area and will be provided with free support from The NA and the IMF for the duration of the pilot.
In parallel with this work, The NA is conducting an automated web crawl of local authority & NHS sites in the next 2 years to capture a wide variety of locally-held information, including datasets which are not currently preserved by data.gov.uk.
Press release & links ~ Internet Memory Foundation (IMF)
FSA: Sainsbury’s is recalling a batch of its Taste the Difference Melting Middle 2 Smoked Haddock with Cheddar and Leek Fishcakes because they might be contaminated with small pieces of metal. The Food Standards Agency has issued a Product Recall Information Notice.
Press release & links
FSA: Sainsbury’s has withdrawn its own-brand freefrom Stem Ginger Cookies with a ‘best before’ date of 23 December 2011, because the product has incorrectly been packed with Sainsbury’s freefrom Chocolate Chip Cookies that contain soya. The Food Standards Agency has issued an Allergy Alert advising anyone with an allergy to soya not to eat this product.
Press release & links
FSA: Booker Ltd has recalled a batch of its own brand Euro Shopper Milk Chocolate because, due to a packaging error, the batch may contain nuts. The presence of nuts that are not mentioned on the label poses a health risk to those allergic to nuts. The Food Standards Agency has issued an allergy alert.
Press release & links
MoD: RAF Chinook helicopter crews recently travelled to the to train for in the heat and high-altitude terrain of southern
Press release & links
C4L: Change4Life’s latest campaign is The Really Big Summer Adventure – a 6-week-long summer holiday initiative designed to help families get active whilst school’s out. The campaign provides parents & carers with loads of ideas, offers and competitions to get the family up and about – without breaking the bank.
And when families are at home they can still keep busy with the online ‘Fun Generator’ – an interactive tool available on the Change4Life website. The generator will provide over 100 free, entertaining indoor & outdoor activity ideas for groups of all sizes. Inspiration for some of the games has come from real life parents & kids via the ‘activity collector’ application on the Change4Life Facebook page.
Press release & links
MoD: The final phase of the MOD's pelvic protection system will be issued to troops on the front line in
Press release & links
IfG: Professor Robert Cialdini was interviewed on the Today programme last week about new Influence at Work research using MINDSPACE techniques to reduce no-shows for GP appointments. A simple commitment device reduced non-attendance by 30%.
Press release & links
HPA: A multi-agency investigation has established a link between a batch of imported eggs and an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis Phage Type (PT) 14b infection in England & Wales. 174 cases of Salmonella Enteritidis PT 14b infection have been reported since the beginning of this year, the majority being in North West England (77 cases) and the
Press release & links
NA: The National Archives have added 8 new datasets to its collection on Labs, to give web developers a taste of the incredible range of data available within The National Archives and encourage them to experiment with new applications, online tools and ways of visualising data.
