Policy Statements and Initiatives
Defra: A review of the target to reduce the UK's CO2 emissions by at least 60% by 2050 will become a statutory duty under the Climate Change Bill, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has announced. He announced the decision alongside other amendments to strengthen the Bill as it moves towards completing its passage through the House of Lords.
The Government has committed to ask the independent Committee on Climate Change to consider whether the 2050 target should be tightened up to 80%, as the Committee considers its advice on the first three five-year carbon budgets.
The Government proposes to strengthen compliance with the 2050 target by requiring the Secretary of State to bring forward proposals & policies that will enable the carbon budgets to be met, and to consider the duty to meet the 2050 target in developing those policies and measures.
A new requirement will see the Government setting out an annual indicative range (AIR) for the carbon account over the five-year budget. This AIR, combined with greater clarity about the timescales for policies to take effect, is meant to ensure that the Government can be held to account for progress during each year of the budget period.
Press release ~ Summary of new proposals ~ Defra - Climate Change Bill ~ Climate Challenge ~ UK Climate Change Programme ~ Office of Climate Change ~ Independent Committee on Climate Change ~ WWF-UK: Get on Board Climate Change Campaign ~ Scientists call for higher targets ~ WWF’s 80% Challenge
Home Office: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has unveiled a new action plan focusing on serious violence. It sets out what the Government, together with police and local agencies, will do over the next three years to cut homicide, knife crime, gun and gang-related crime and sexual and domestic violence.
Press release ~ Government's Saving Lives, Reducing Harm Protecting the Public: Tackling Violence Action Plan 2008 ~ Home Office - Violent crime ~ Victims Advisory Panel ~ Our vision for cutting crime 2008-11 and key public service agreements ~ Cutting crime: A new partnership 2008-11 ~ Be Safe project
DCSF: Schools Minister Jim Knight has announced that speaking assessments for GCSE modern foreign languages will change to ‘make them a more accurate reflection of pupils' ability and their capacity to respond to real life situations’. From September 2009 students will be assessed on different occasions during Key Stage 4, rather than face a single 'oral' examination at the end of the course.
The new assessments are supposed to test a broader range of linguistic skills, such as taking part in an interview or making a presentation to a group. They will take part in debates, make presentations to their peers, explain, describe and explore topical issues that interest them. Students might get involved in basic business-style negotiations or product pitches.
Press release ~ Languages Review ~ Grade standards in GCSE modern foreign languages ~ Investigation into the assessment of speaking for GCSE MFL ~ Teachernet, Languages Strategy ~ DfES, Modern Foreign Languages ~ Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment ~ CILT, the National Centre for Languages
Defra: The first policy and action plan to help local communities manage feral wild boar populations where they live has been announced. Wild boar died out in the UK at least 300 years ago, but following escapes and illegal releases from farms in Britain, small populations of feral wild boar have been found in a small number of areas.
The Defra consultation on making it an offence (under schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) to release or allow wild boar to escape into the wild without a licence closed on the 31 January, and they are currently considering responses.
Two risk assessments also published show that feral wild boar do not pose a national threat to the environment, farming or public safety.
Press release ~ Action plan ~ Defra – Wild Boar ~ Wild Boar in Britain ~ BBC - Science & Nature - Wild boar
ScotGov: A Scotland-wide campaign urging people to speak out & help stop the abuse or neglect of young people, by reporting their concerns through a national phone line - 0800 022 3222, has been launched by the Scottish government.
A national eight week campaign will run to raise awareness of the Child Protection Line. Targeted adverts on phone boxes will form part of the campaign, supported by posters & stickers in busy community sites such as GP surgeries, libraries and sports centres.
Press release ~ They can't tell anyone. But you can. - National Child Protection Line ~ "It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright" - Report of the Child Protection Audit and Review ~ ScotGov: Child Safety and Wellbeing - Child Protection
DH: Health Secretary Alan Johnson has called for all employers to do more to promote the health and well-being of their staff. He also launched Professor Louis Appleby's report 'Mental Health and Ill Health in Doctors', containing recommendations on how the NHS can support doctors to look after their own mental health.
Recommendations in 'Mental Health and Ill Health in Doctors' include:
* Doctors who are ill to be treated first & foremost as patients not colleagues
* Rules on confidentiality should be strictly observed with additional safeguards in place to ensure privacy
* Medical schools & Medical Royal Colleges to encourage the use of mental health services for doctors in training
Press release ~ Alan Johnson's speech ~ Professor Louis Appbleby's report 'Mental Health and Ill Health in Doctors' ~ DH – Mental Health ~ Healthcare Commission - Surveys of NHS staff ~ National Clinical Assessment Service ~ DSN - the Doctors' Support Network
WAG: The number of training places available for registered nurses who provide care in the community will more than double this year. Some 98 nurses will be able to access training from September, compared with 45 in 2007, in an effort to meet the Welsh Assembly Government’s objectives of providing more care in the community.
This forms part of a package that will also see an increase in the number of training places available for students wishing to enter nursing (and other healthcare professions) including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, healthcare science, clinical psychology and pharmacy.
Press release ~ WAG – Health and Social Care ~ WAG – NHS Wales ~ Welsh Partnership Forum ~ RCN Wales
Home Office: Changes to the way newcomers are able to ‘earn their stay’ in Britain have been proposed by the Government in a Green Paper: 'The path to citizenship', which proposes:
* a new probationary period of citizenship
* full access to benefits being delayed until migrants have completed the probationary period
* migrants having to improve their command of English to pass probation
* anyone committing an offence resulting in prison being barred from becoming a citizen
Press release ~ Green Paper: 'The path to citizenship' ~ Border & Immigration Agency - British citizenship
Defra: Setting out details of Defra's 2008/09 budget settlement, Hilary Benn has announced an increase in funding for clean energy technologies, investments & enterprises to over £400m over the next 3 years. As part of the domestic Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF), the Carbon Trust will receive £47.4m to bring forward new energy technologies such as offshore wind, third-generation photovoltaic power, marine energy and biomass heating.
In addition, over the next three years the government will also provide around £10m for a new anaerobic digestion demonstration programme. Up to four commercial-scale facilities will show the potential of this technology to create renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions & avoid waste being sent to landfill.
Press release ~ Environmental Transformation Fund (ETF) ~ Carbon Trust ~ ACT on CO2 ~ Funding for Defra delivery bodies for 2008/2009
DCMS: The government has published its plan to provide support for the creative industries. The strategy - 'Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy' - makes 26 key commitments for Government and industry across every stage of the creative process.
It is designed to turn talent into jobs and help creative businesses thrive in the international market. It recognises the growing success story that is Britain's creative economy and seeks to provide the industries with an unrivalled pool of talent to draw on, and the same formal, structured support associated with other industries.
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