General Reports and Other Publications

PC&PE: In a report released recently, the Home Affairs Select Committee highlighted concerns over a lack of an evidence based approach to student visas policy. The committee is concerned that an impact assessment which highlights the cost of the student visas policy had been published 12 weeks after the policy had been announced.
 
The assessment, which states that the policy could cost the economy as much as £3.6bn, has led to the committee concluding that the Government is failing to establish a solid evidence base before embarking on policy changes which could damage Britain's economic recovery.
Press release & links
 
PC&PE: The conclusion of a report published recently by the Work and Pensions select committee is that ‘the Government's aims for the incapacity benefit (IB) reassessment process, which began nationwide in April, are not yet being properly communicated to claimants, leading to fear and anxiety amongst vulnerable people’.
 
The report, ‘The role of incapacity benefit assessment in helping claimants into employment’, supports the Government's objectives for the IB reassessment, but it argues that that the Government should be more proactive in explaining its aims for the process and in emphasising the range of support which will be available to claimants.
Press release & links
 
IPPRCommunity-based alternatives to prison should be used to punish the majority of people convicted of minor offences, according to a new report published by Institute for Public Policy Research.  The research focussed on the London borough of Lewisham in order to assess the alternatives to prison.  It found that these alternatives could cut crime, reduce re-offending and save the tax payer money.
Press release & links
 
PC&PE: The Science and Technology Committee has recently concluded that in order to allow others to repeat & build on experiments, researchers should aim for the gold standard of making their data fully disclosed & made publicly available.
 
In the report examining the current peer-review system as used in scientific publications and the related issues of research impact, data management, publication ethics & research integrity, the MPs say that it should be a fundamental aim of the peer-review process that all publications are scientifically sound. The Committee found that the integrity of the peer-review process can only ever be as robust as the integrity of the people involved.
Press release & links
 
LSN: The Bournemouth & Poole 14–19 Team is a joint Bournemouth Borough Council and Borough of Poole Team, and it commissioned the Learning and Skills Network in February 2010 to conduct some research on the views, learning experiences & aspirations of young people in order to be able to tailor provision accordingly.
Press release & links
 
LSN: An article published in the Evening Standard recently again highlights poor locum screening and induction processes are continuing to put patients at risk. The article ’Baby had meningitis but locum said he was teething’ shows fears continue to grow about such incidents of unqualified locums treating patients, despite Government calls for enhanced procedures and uniformity in screening standards across the health service.
 
To maintain patient safety, employee inductions should always be paired with skills screening, which assesses locums & clinical staff on their appropriate language skills & clinical competencies. At Learning and Skills Network, they have developed a solution which allows HR staff to organise the induction & screening of all new NHS clinical staff through a central system.
Press release & links
 
WWF: New research reveals that the benefits of mandatory carbon reporting for large businesses are much greater - and the costs lower - than the Government has suggested. A new report has found that Defra’s impact assessment (IA) of mandatory greenhouse gas reporting overestimated the total costs of MCR for large companies by up to £4,600m (over 420%), and underestimated the benefits by  £980m (at least 230%).
Press release & links
 
UKOC: New research from the London School of Economics (LSE) has found that there is still a digital underclass forming in Britain. Gaps based on education & employment persist independent of age or other characteristics, and it’s therefore ‘a problem unlikely to go away even with better infrastructure or as younger generations grow up’.
Press release & links
 
PC&PE: The Treasury Committee's report into the administration & effectiveness of HM Revenue & Customs has found there is considerable dissatisfaction among the public & tax professionals with the service provided by the Department.  The committee is concerned that if this continues it may undermine respect for the tax system.
 
The report identifies serious concerns in a number of areas, including:
* Unacceptable difficulties contacting HMRC by phone during peak periods
* Endemic delays in responding to post
* An increasing focus on online communication that may exclude those without reliable internet access
Press release & links
 
PC&PE: The Commons Home Affairs Committee has published a report on implications for the justice and home affairs areas of the accession of Turkey to the European Union. In the report, the Committee says that it has real concerns about the implications of Turkish accession to the EU for the security of the EU external border, noting that Turkey’s membership would extend this up to Iran, Iraq and Syria.  Turkey must be required to ‘clearly and objectively’ demonstrate that it has met stringent criteria set by the EU for border management prior to accession.
 
However, the committee also believes that the risks posed in relation to organised crime are ‘considerably outweighed’ by the potential benefits - partly in terms of the standards that Turkey will be required to meet to become an EU Member, but largely owing to the opportunities it will bring for increased co-operation.
Press release & Links
 
TUC2,215 charities are facing budget cuts as local authorities reduce their funding - or in some cases completely withdraw it - according to new research published by the union backed anti-cuts campaign website False Economy.
 
The research shows that charities face net funding reductions of more than £110m this year, though the final figure is likely to be far higher given that some large authorities have not yet finalised where the cuts will hit.
Press release & links
 
TKF: The prospect of a more competitive marketplace for health care providers including short-term contracts for fledgling social enterprises presents significant risks for their survival, according to a new report on social enterprise in health care published by The King’s Fund.  Legal, financial & other support is needed to develop & grow the social enterprise sector and some start-ups will need to develop more robust business models.
 
Crucially, the report recommends that NHS commissioners need to offer longer-term contracts to enable social enterprise providers to establish themselves in a more competitive environment.  The report found early evidence to suggest that health care providers that have adopted the social enterprise model have benefited by reducing bureaucracy, speeding up decision-making and by allowing the reinvestment of surpluses, an effective motivator for staff.
Press release & links
 
MO: 2 research papers shed new light on why the upper layers of the world's oceans have seen a recent pause in warming despite continued increases in greenhouse gases. Climate model simulations from KNMI show that such pauses in upper-ocean warming occur regularly as part of the climate system's natural variability.
Press release & links
 
Civitas: Green economic policies mean more pain than gain for Britain according to a new Civitas report (The Green Mirage), which finds claims that the low-carbon economy can deliver so-called 'green collar' jobs are staggeringly far-fetched and unsupported by official measures.
 
The report concludes that, far from re-energising Britain's economy, the 'green economy' will drain investment from other sectors, making Britons pay more for electricity indefinitely and live less productive lives with access to fewer jobs.
Press release & links
 
CBI: The Government needs to act swiftly to ensure the global competitiveness of the UK’s most energy-intensive manufacturers is not undermined by rising costs & climate change and energy policies, the CBI says.

In a new report Protecting the UK’s foundations: a blueprint for energy-intensive industries, the CBI argues that the carbon floor price is making it increasingly uncompetitive for the most energy-intensive users to remain in the UK and the CBI is calling on the Government to consider exempting these firms from the tax.
Press release ~ Protecting the UK’s foundations: a blueprint for energy-intensive industries
 
DECC: A council by council area breakdown of how many British homes have been insulated by the Government’s energy saving scheme has been published. Lagging lofts & filling cavity walls can save households over £100 in fuel bills every year.
Press release & links
Free, Secure, Compliant UK Public Sector IT Recycling Service