Industry News

Due to the continuing economic downturn many of our clients are faced with the decision to sell (all or part of) their business, or are suffering from the loss of contracts to cheaper service providers. In these circumstances TUPE legislation applies – Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment Regulations 2006.

BIFM has appointed Bill Wright as an energy advisor to the Institute. Wright, who has extensive experience in managing energy, will provide advice across a range of BIFM activities, including public affairs, events and education.

Any renewable energy source is only eligible for Feed in Tariff payments if both the product and the installer are MCS registered.

Warwick District Council has awarded Lovell a contract worth £1.2 million over four years to carry out disability adaptation work. The contract, which is renewable annually, was awarded following a competitive procurement process.

Recolight, the specialist WEEE compliance scheme for the lighting industry, has announced a partnership with multi-award winning recycling scheme, CoBRA (Community Bulb Recycling Alliance) to increase consumer access to collection facilities for low-energy light-bulbs.

Following its move in April to new larger premises in Rugby, industry specialists Clairoy Maintenance Chemicals Ltd (www.clairoy.co.uk) have recently announced the  launch of a new website and online store to present its largest ever range of advanced maintenance chemicals.

Honest Law Employment are introducing a monthly health check aimed at giving you reminders of areas of employment law you should familiarise yourself with. This month we are looking at Issuing Warnings – using the disciplinary procedure.

As the 2012 Olympics approaches Midland Property Solutions Limited has branched out into the world of Track and Field Facilities Maintenance.  At the request of Birmingham City Council and following new specifications laid down by advisers to the 2012 Olympics, the hammer and discuss circles were refurbished to a suitable standard for both events. 

Honest Law Employment are sure you are all interested to know how the new coalition government will impact on you business from an employment law perspective. As you will be aware there has been so much new law over the past years that it is encouraging to see the new government planning to reduce it – finally!

What is likely to change?

Coolwater Direct Ltd is based in Huddersfield , and is one of the leading specialists in mains filtered water coolers. They have extensive experience supplying systems to educational, commercial and industrial premises, and have a long standing reputation for quality service.
 

Archive and Document Scanning is proud to announce it has just successfully completed the first stage of a document scanning project with River Clyde Homes Housing Association.

An investigation is under way after a laptop containing secret data was stolen from the Ministry of Defence

It was taken from the ministry's headquarters in Whitehall, central London in late November, along with a key used to decode encrypted files.

A spokesman said an investigation by MoD police was ongoing.

Shadow defence cecretary Liam Fox said the theft was "extremely worrying". The incident is the latest in a string of thefts involving MoD laptops.

Figures from the department earlier this year showed that 28 had been lost or stolen between 1 January and 11 May.

Groupcall selected by Manchester City Council to provide its 167 schools with its parental communication system, Groupcall Messenger.

Currently used by more than 2000 schools throughout the UK and Europe, Groupcall Messenger has been introduced by Manchester City Council due to its ability to improve attendance figures and enhance parental relationships. Proven to reduce unauthorised absences, improve parental engagement and lower costs, Groupcall Messenger enables schools to contact parents via text, multi-lingual voice calls and email, to mobile phones, landlines or computers.

Today 300 delegates from across government, industry, law enforcement and the third sector will attend the UKCCIS Summit in London for the launch of the first Child Internet Safety Strategy and a Digital Code for internet safety.

The ability of the construction industry to develop low-carbon technologies will be undermined if the next government cuts public spending on building projects, the new chief construction adviser has warned.

Paul Morrell, the former senior partner of Davis Langdon, was speaking to Building after being confirmed in the role last week.  Morrell's task will be to act as a liaison between the industry and government, to advise Whitehall on formulating policy and to help the industry to carry it out.

Government 10 year plan includes cloud computing, app store and common desktop services

The government’s IT strategy for the next 10 years includes plans for cloud computing, a public sector

app store, unified communications, open source and new desktop services.

According to the plan, which was leaked by the Conservative Party on a web site called Make IT Better, a government cloud – or G-Cloud – would deliver significant savings by making it quicker and cheaper for public sector bodies to switch suppliers if they face service or delivery issues.

Passengers returning to Manchester International Airport are being encouraged to use our new facial recognition gates when crossing the border.

The state-of-the-art gates, which were recently launched at Terminal 2 after their successful installation at Terminal 1 last year, provide legitimate travellers with an automated, secure route through the border. More than 300,000 people have already used them at the airport.

Sessions will cover Christmas shopping online and social networking.

Social landlord Riverside is working with Everyone Online to give residents a free taste of the internet and show the benefits of surfing the web.

Riverside has pledged to pay £1,300 for the taster sessions at the Tenants Resource Centre in Picton. The sessions will be themed, such as how to cut fuel bills online, Christmas shopping online and social networking.

Lumension®, the global leader in operational endpoint security, has been selected by NHS National Services Scotland to enforce security policies governing the storage of data on portable storage devices such as laptops, USB sticks and CDs or DVDs. NHS National Services Scotland procures IT software on behalf of the 22 Scottish Health Boards. The organisation is responsible for delivering the best value for public money when new information security products are sourced.

Lumension™, Inc., the global leader in security management, today announced it has received CESG Claims Tested Mark (CCTM) accreditation for Lumension Device Control 4.3.2, formally Sanctuary Device Control which assures public bodies in the UK validity of its security functionality. Lumension Device Control enforces organisation-wide usage policies for removable devices, removable media and data.

Just 5% of workers questioned said that they are more environmentally conscious at work compared to at home, where recycling and energy efficiency is common practice, and only 48% believe that protecting the environment during office hours is their responsibility. 33% feel that company bosses should shoulder the burden and only 9% even went as far as saying that it should be the government, not them, which should be held accountable for polluting practices.

The digital age has transformed the way we communicate.  In the past decade the use of email and the web, along with mobile phones, has grown to be almost universal throughout the world. 

The next 10 years could well see Digital Signage (DS) enjoy the same growth and ubiquity as public sector organisations (PSOs) realise the opportunity of better, more effective communication to ever wider – but targeted – audiences. 

The Family Fund gives grants to lower income families with severely disabled children for things that make life easier and more enjoyable. It is the largest charitable sector grant-maker to families, giving around £29 million to about 48,000 families each year. All funding comes from the governments of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. 

There are over 770,000 disabled children and young people across the UK and the Family Fund want to help all of those children, but until now they were constrained by their annual budget.

Improving public confidence in the motor industry by formally recognising the skills and ethical competence of motor technicians in the UK is the objective of the ATA (Automotive Technician Accreditation) scheme, which has been launched to the public this year.

Governed by the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), the motor industry’s professional association and Sector Skills Council, ATA is the first voluntary accreditation scheme of its kind, recognising professional motor technicians who:

Having worked succesfully with Cardiff City Council for 8 years Complete Weed Control has developed a pesticides reduction strategy for local authorities that arguably matches anything that the legislative process might enforce.

A Yorkshire company based in Whitley Bridge, near Doncaster, is revolutionising future care thanks to assistance from Regional Development Agency Yorkshire Forward.

Tunstall, which specialises in telecare, a range of products which enables older people, people with physical & learning disabilities and chronic conditions to live independent lives, has developed ADLife which monitors activities of daily living.