General News
TfL: A multi-million pound safety improvement programme for cyclists at major junctions across the Capital will begin this autumn as part of a review of major junctions in the Capital by Transport for London (TfL).
PA: A Department of Health Consultation has raised new doubts over Government plans for scrutiny of NHS competition. Chief Executive of The Patients Association, Katherine Murphy, has recently written to Andrew Lansley asking for clarification on whether or not competition law will be applicable to the NHS or alternative providers. The letter also points out seemingly contradictory accounts of the role of NHS regulator, Monitor.
WAG: A new course to help parents & families learn Welsh with their children has been launched. The specially tailored Welsh for Families course will be run by Welsh for Adults Centres and its development was funded by the Welsh Government.
Socitm: Socitm Insight has announced a number of important changes to the way Better connected, its annual survey of all local authority websites, will be run in 2012/13.
MoD: The Ministry of Defence has signed a multi-million pound contract for new boots for the Army, Royal Navy and RAF.
DCMS: From Ben Nevis to Dartmoor, distinctive landscapes, the length & breadth of the UK, have been earmarked for Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) investment. The 13 areas have passed the first round of the organisation’s Landscape Partnerships (LP) programme, meaning they could receive a share of £20m. The funding will help to conserve the landscapes by supporting schemes that provide long-term social, economic & environmental benefits for rural areas.
FSA: Cambridge
FSA: Prompt Thai 2000 (Wholesale) has recalled all jars of a range of Lady’s Choice spreads & sachets of Knorr soups manufactured in the Philippines. The products contain meat, egg & dairy ingredients that do not have the necessary import approvals. If you've bought the products don’t eat them. The Food Standards Agency has issued a Product Recall Information Notice.
FSA: The Food Standards Agency is warning people not to eat a certain batch of Italian olives sold in jars after one person became ill with botulism poisoning after eating them. It has issued a Food Alert for Action.
Investigations are continuing to establish where the jar of olives was bought, as well as other places they may be on sale. However, it has been confirmed that the implicated batch of olives was labelled I DIVINI di Chicco Francesco with the 'best before date' 10/06/2014 and lot number 161/11.
MoD: 5 years ago, Private Derek Derenalagi lost both legs when he was injured in Afghanistan. Now he's been selected to compete with Team GB at the Paralympics in the F57 Discus event.
ESRC: Continuing access to the UK’s most valuable collection of social & economic data has been secured with a £17m investment over 5 years for the UK Data Service. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) the new service which will start on the 1 October 2012 is structured to support researchers in academia, business, third sector and all levels of government.
The new service will provide a unified point of access to the extensive range of high quality economic & social data, including valuable census data. It is designed to provide seamless access & support to meet the current & future research demands of both academic & non-academic users, and to help them maximise the impact of their work.
Socitm: Socitm has launched an updated version of its Cookie Management Service for local authorities and other public service website owners.
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 have been announced. The overall winner was the ‘cutpurse wasp’, hitherto known only as Aporus unicolor – a wasp that breaks into the burrow of the purse web spider, paralyses it and uses the still-living body as a host for its own eggs.
Other winners included the solar-powered sea slug, corrugated scarab and semaphore fly, previously known as Elysia viridis, Brindalus porcicollis and Poecilobothrus nobilatus respectively. It’s hoped that their more memorable (and easier to pronounce) new names will find them places in the popular imagination alongside species such as the kingfisher, dormouse and bee orchid.
DWP: From last week newly diagnosed victims of mesothelioma will receive help through a new support scheme, the Minister for Welfare Lord Freud and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) have announced. T
he new scheme will allow around 3,000 mesothelioma victims across the UK who are unable to claim compensation because they cannot trace a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer to receive approximately £300m in payments in the first 10 years.
he new scheme will allow around 3,000 mesothelioma victims across the UK who are unable to claim compensation because they cannot trace a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer to receive approximately £300m in payments in the first 10 years.
TfL: Air-conditioned trains are now running on the Metropolitan line and station cooling works completed ahead of the London 2012 Games at Green Park and Oxford Circus
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