General Reports and Other Publications
IPPR: Wind power is an important form of low carbon electricity and could be a source of significant comparative advantage for the UK, according to a new report published by the thinktank IPPR. But, the report argues that false claims about wind power technology are putting this potential at risk and could result in higher energy bills for consumers.
The report, Beyond the Bluster, debunks claims from a group of more than 100 MPs that wind power is not an effective technology. It shows that the UK has the greatest potential for wind power of any European country, both onshore & offshore and that the global market for low carbon technologies is continuing to grow rapidly.
PC&PE: The EU must do more to get UK consumers a better deal on sugar, says the Lords Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy EU Sub-Committee in their new report published last week. The report (Leaving a bitter taste? The EU Sugar Regime) is the conclusion of the Committee’s short, follow-up inquiry following 2005’s 'Too Much or Too Little? Changes to the EU Sugar Regime', published when reform of the regime was imminent.
The Committee wanted to examine the progress of reform and what measures will be necessary in future, prior to the EU finalising its position on this issue in autumn 2012.
PX: Think tank Policy Exchange says that rebalancing the pay and pensions of public sector workers so that they are in line with that of equivalent workers in the private sector would save £6.3bn a year in public spending. This money would be better spent on tackling local unemployment and could create at least 288,000 private sector jobs – or the equivalent salaries of 332,000 more nurses or 252,000 more teachers - in some of the areas of the country suffering most from the impact of the recession.
The report – Local Pay, Local Growth - recommends abolishing national pay bargaining and enabling local public sector employers to choose systems of pay that reflect local living conditions and vary pay awards by the performance of employees. The report also recommends a permanent freeze on annual pay scale uplifts and the abolition of automatic pay progression points.
PC&PE: The Commons Public Accounts Committee has published its 7th Report of Session 2012-13, 'Immigration: Points Based System-Student Route'.
PC&PE: In a report published last week – ‘Overseas Students and Net Migration’ - the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has called on the Government to record overseas students under a classification that does not count against the overall limit on net migration in order to allow the UK to continue to expand its share of the overseas student market.
PC&PE: Zambia is a long way from eliminating extreme poverty despite an improving economy and the benefits of copper resources, according to a report by the International Development Committee which examines the UK Government’s development programme in the country. UK support should be focused on reproductive health services, secondary education and rural poverty, the MPs argue.
IoE: Academics have identified a new ‘squeezed middle’ – some 40% of 14-19 year olds who are getting a raw deal from their education. The prospects of these ‘middle attainers’ were ‘half-served by New Labour’ but have ‘worsened considerably under the Coalition Government as it focuses on high ability students’, delegates to the British Educational Research Association conference in Manchester heard last week.
TUC: Stronger regulation & enforcement is needed to weed out sub-standard apprenticeship schemes and raise quality standards, the TUC said in its submission to the Richard Review into the future of apprenticeships. The TUC is concerned that a minority of employers are providing poor quality schemes, which risk tarnishing the much-improved reputation of apprenticeships. Worse still, some companies are able to do this while still claiming government subsidies, says the TUC.
NIA: A new report (Safeguarding Northern Ireland Listed Buildings) by the Assembly Public Accounts Committee has called on the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) to make better use of its powers to protect listed buildings.
NO: The London Borough of Hounslow delayed in assisting a homeless man with mental health issues finds Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin. In her report she says the Council did not take a homelessness application from him as it should have done because it considered he was not ‘in priority need’. But she points out that “this was irrelevant: the issue was whether it had reason to believe he was homeless or threatened with homelessness”.
TNA: The new edition of Tracing Your Caribbean Ancestors by The National Archives' Guy Grannum provides anyone interested in researching their family's connections to the British West Indies with everything they need to know to get started.
IPPR: Improving school performance, through academy & free schools status, will not be enough to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils in England’s schools, according to a new report (A long division: closing the attainment gap in England’s secondary schools) published by the think tank IPPR. The report urges Michael Gove and Nick Clegg to reform the Pupil Premium, expand personal tuition and invest more in early years education.
ESRC: A unique approach to early literacy work with families where children develop their language skills and their ability to read & write from an early age has had a huge success. Researchers from the University of Sheffield funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) initially planned to use the approach with around 60 families, but discovered that around 6,000 had actually benefited from their work.
TWF: Changes to careers guidance which came into effect last week as part of the Education Act risk severely compromising the quality & availability of support for young people, and could exacerbate the problems they face when first entering the labour market, according to a report published by The Work Foundation. The paper warns that the changes represent a false economy which could leave young people at greater risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training).
NHS Confed: NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar said last week ‘challenging and fundamental changes are needed to the health and social care system’, following publication of a King's Fund report on the current delivery system’.
