General Reports and Other Publications
Newswire – TUC: Britain's Livelihood Crisis, the latest TUC touchstone pamphlet authored by Stewart Lansley, shows that while the recession is often cited as the cause of today's tough income squeeze, a livelihood crisis has been brewing in Britain for three decades, held off only by an unsustainable rise in personal debt.
The pamphlet shows that wages have been falling sharply as a share of the national wealth since the mid-70s, while a rich minority have been taking an ever larger slice of the UK's dwindling earnings cake. The top 10% of earners are the only group whose incomes have risen in line with GDP since 1978, seeing their pay increase almost twice as fast as median incomes, and nearly 4 times faster than the lowest 10% of earners.
Newswire – AS: The Scottish Government, NHS & councils need to show stronger shared leadership & support for community health partnerships to improve people’s health and move more services into the community. An Audit Scotland report - Community Health Partnerships - looks at their impact in improving people’s health & quality of life by joining up health & social care services and moving more services from hospitals into the community.
This is a challenging & important role but few CHPs have the authority to influence how resources are used in their area. A joint approach involving all partners is needed to make the significant changes needed to tackle Scotland’s complex and long-standing health and social care issues. The report also calls for a fundamental review of partnership arrangements to ensure they focus on meeting individuals’ needs.
This is a challenging & important role but few CHPs have the authority to influence how resources are used in their area. A joint approach involving all partners is needed to make the significant changes needed to tackle Scotland’s complex and long-standing health and social care issues. The report also calls for a fundamental review of partnership arrangements to ensure they focus on meeting individuals’ needs.
Civitas: The government's green taxes will spell the end for Britain's chemical industry, which employs 200,000 directly, an additional 400,000 indirectly, and accounts for 15% of UK exports. Think tank Civitas claims that the sector, much of which is found in North East England, will be the victim of the race to cut emissions by 34% from 1990 levels by 2020: more than any other country's target.
DWP: The Department for Work and Pensions has published a report of qualitative research into customer and staff views & experiences of trial incapacity benefits reassessment for Employment & Support Allowance, which commenced in October 2010 in the Aberdeen and Burnley areas. 90 customers were interviewed, as well as Jobcentre Plus and Atos Healthcare staff working on trial reassessment.
Press release & links ~ Trial incapacity benefits reassessment: customer and staff views and experiences
OFT: The OFT has published an evaluation of its 2001 abuse of dominance case against Napp Pharmaceuticals (Napp). The report finds increased competition in the sustained release morphine (SRM) market over the past decade, following the OFT's intervention. Sustained release morphine is used to manage severe pain and commonly used in the treatment of cancer-related pain.
Amelia Fletcher, OFT Chief Economist, said: 'Today's evaluation reveals that our action against Napp has already resulted in cost savings for the NHS, and therefore the taxpayer, in excess of £13 million.'
Press release ~ Evaluating the impact of the OFT's 2001 abuse of dominance case against Napp Pharmaceuticals ~ case page ~ Final Judgement ~ OFT's evaluation programme
NAO: The National Audit Office has prepared a briefing for the Home Affairs Select Committee to support the Committee’s inquiry into the new landscape of policing.
ESRC: Around one third of voluntary & charitable organisations in England receive public money to support their work and over 20,000 organisations say that the public sector is their most important source of income according to initial findings of research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
“It is very clear that public funding is more important to voluntary organisations than previously thought,” says Professor John Mohan of the Third Sector Research Centre, who led the study. “And this is particularly true for those organisations working in deprived areas and with disadvantaged people.”
PAC: The Commons Public Accounts Committee has published a report which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and representatives from three institutions, examines the introduction of new funding arrangements for higher education.
Newswire – CBI: The CBI has published its assessment of the first year of the coalition Government, against 12 priorities the business group set out before last year’s general election.
