Policy Statements and Initiatives
BIS: A new initiative of up to £125m is being set up to improve the global competitiveness of UK advanced manufacturing supply chains, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced. The competitive fund will invite applications early in the New Year.
DfT: Transport Secretary Justine Greening has announced a £16m investment in third rail heating as part of a £38m programme to make sure the rail network is better prepared for severe bad weather this winter.
MoD: British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has said that a blueprint for the international community's long-term engagement with Afghanistan beyond 2014 has been established at the recent International Afghanistan Conference held in Bonn, Germany.
HO: Plans are on track to restore common sense to employment vetting processes while ensuring public protection, Criminal Information Minister, Lynne Featherstone, said as the government responded to the independent Mason review.
The response sets out which of the recommendations from the first part of the review are now before parliament in the Protection of Freedoms bill. These changes will improve the proportionality & efficiency of employment vetting by overhauling the work of the criminal records bureau (CRB).
The government also set out how it will respond to the second part of Mrs Mason's review, which addresses what defines a criminal record, how records are managed, and the international exchange of information.
BIS: Plans to change the way that businesses experience ‘frontline enforcement’, such as business inspections have been set out, including a full scale review of UK regulatory bodies and moves to cut the number of inspections for ‘compliant’ firms.
BIS: A £75m boost for high tech SMEs is part of a package of measures announced in the Government’s new Innovation and Research Strategy for Growth.
DEFRA: Britain faces a future of water shortages, and lasting environmental damage, with some rivers running dry, unless attitudes to water use change, Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, has cautioned after the recent publication of the white paper Water for Life.
DCMS: Nearly 170 responses to Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt’s, Communications Review open letter have been published recently.
WAG: A pilot Digital Development Fund has been launched to support & boost the growth of creative industries in Wales.
MoD: Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond has restated the need for reform in Defence in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute.
