General Reports and Other Publications
CLG: The most senior fire & rescue service expert in the country, Sir Ken Knight, has published his report on the service's operational response to the floods of summer 2007. He concludes that ‘the service responded magnificently - working tirelessly in difficult conditions to rescue countless people trapped in their homes, and successfully deploying new high volume pumps to help protect vital infrastructure. However, there are aspects that can be improved upon, including responding to 999 calls from the public’.
In his review, 'Facing the Challenge', Sir Ken makes 28 recommendations, including covering co-ordinating responses, sharing of information co-ordination, resources, training and health issues.
Press release ~ 'Facing the Challenge' ~ CLG – Flood recovery ~ Sir Michael Pitt's Review on the floods
TfL: Transport for London (TfL) has published two road safety reports that explore the relationship between deprivation, ethnicity and road safety. Findings show that the situation regarding road accidents involving London's BME communities has improved greatly since 2000, with the casualty rate for black child pedestrians falling slightly faster than for white children over the last five years.
The new research shows that there is strong evidence of a link between deprivation & child injury rates and this differs by ethnic groups. However, regardless of their levels of wealth, the injury rate for black child pedestrians is one and a half times greater than for white children. While the causes for this are not yet clear, TfL is focusing on the issue by funding a number of pilot projects that work directly with local communities.
Press release ~ Road Safety of London's Black and Asian Minority Ethnic Groups ~ Deprivation and Road Safety in London ~ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine ~ DfT – Child Road Safety
NAO: The National Audit Office has reported that UK Sport has developed a strategy to achieve the Government’s ambitions for the GB teams to finish fourth in the Olympic medal table and to maintain second in the Paralympics table at the London 2012 Games.
Although the achievements of athletes at recent elite international events suggest performance levels are improving, the NAO’s report identifies a number of risks to be managed if those ambitions are to be realised, in particular the fact that plans depend on raising £100m of funding from the private sector, which has yet to be identified.
DCMS has met the Committee of Public Accounts’ recommendation to draw on specialist fundraising expertise to help raise the £100m from the private sector, though it did not put out to tender for a fundraising partner until November 2007, 16 months after the Committee identified the need for expertise!
Press release ~ Preparing for Sporting Success at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Beyond ~ Executive Summary ~ UK Sport ~ London 2012 Games ~ Team GB
BERR: The Government has announced the start of a prioritisation process to select no more than three nuclear reactor designs to proceed to the next stage of Generic Design Assessment (GDA). The objective of this is to allow the nuclear regulators to focus their resources on those designs which are most capable of being licensed & operational in the UK within a 2016-2022 timeframe.
The nuclear regulators, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA), recently announced the findings from the first step of GDA carried out on the four eligible designs submitted for new nuclear power stations. The next steps of GDA encompass the majority of the detailed assessment work on the designs and is expected to run until 2011.
Press release ~ Nuclear White Paper Meeting the Energy Challenge: A White Paper on Nuclear Power ~ Generic Design Assessment (GDA) ~ Environment Agency - GDA Preliminary reports ~ HSE: UK Nuclear Regulators New Reactor Assessment ~ Health and safety in the nuclear industry ~ Nuclear Directorate of the Health and Safety Executive ~ Office of Civil Nuclear Security
