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Legislation / Legal
DfES: New powers giving teachers' clear & unequivocal authority to discipline badly behaved pupils became law last week. Designed to combat disruptive, bullying or offensive behaviour, they are intended to give teachers a clear statutory right to:
- restrain, detain & remove unruly pupils
- confiscate mobile phones that are being used in a malicious or disruptive way and
- punish pupils for poor behaviour not just in school, but also on the way to and from school
The core principles of the new right to discipline include a legal duty on schools to make provision for measures to tackle all forms of bullying
Press release ~ DfES – Behaviour and Attendance ~ School discipline and exclusions : Directgov ~ Behaviour and discipline - ParentsCentre ~ Improving School Discipline in Scotland ~ Parenting contracts ~ Social & emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) curriculum ~ Teachernet - Behaviour ~ Education and Inspections Act 2006 ~ Ofsted: Improving Behaviour ~ Evaluation of the impact of learning support units ~ DfES: Improving Behaviour in Schools ~ L earning Support Unit (LSU)
HSE: Following extensive consultation with the construction industry, the new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) came in to force on 6 April 2007.
Construction remains one of the highest risk sectors, with over one fatality occurring each week despite the improvements made in recent years. The revised CDM Regulations aim to improve the level of health & safety performance in the construction industry by clarifying the responsibilities of each duty holder and focusing on effective planning and risk management.
Press release ~ Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC) ~ Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) ~ Health and safety in the construction industry
RCPO: Prosecutor charging has been extended to all cases investigated by HM Revenue and Customs from 3rd April 2007 and from that date, Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) prosecutors will decide what & whether criminal charges should be preferred and against whom. Under traditional arrangements, HMRC investigators have taken these decisions.
RCPO prosecutors already make the charging decisions in cases of drug importation and money laundering investigated by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) cases. They also provide advice at the earliest stages of large scale, long-term HMRC operations, such as MTIC fraud; these arrangements will stay the same.
However RCPO will now also provide Duty Prosecutors to give charging advice 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the year, on the full range of HMRC cases.
Press release ~ Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office ~ Guidance on charging ~ Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
