General Reports and Other Publications

LBRO: A 3-point strategy for helping councils and fire services improve protections for consumers & workers and provide better regulatory support to business has been published by the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO).  It outlines actions planned to:
* support services in making improvement
* enhance the regulatory system
* delivery greater consistency
 
As well as making direct investments in individual authorities and regional co-ordination, LBRO will be publishing & promoting best practice in regulatory services, including on tackling issues that concern communities, such as illegal alcohol sales to children.  It will also launch projects to give regulators greater insight into business and how to cut unnecessary burdens on retailers.
Press release ~ Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) ~ LBRO Strategy 2008-11 ~ LBRO General Leaflet ~ LACORS
 
DHPrimary angioplasty is set to become the nation's first line of treatment for heart attacks, saving hundreds of lives each year, according to the National Infarct Angioplasty Project (NIAP) final report launched by the Department of Health. The study has concluded that is both feasible & cost-effective to offer angioplasty as an emergency treatment (within 120 minutes from call for professional help to treatment) for 97% of the population of England.
 
Currently, thrombolysis, the injection of life saving clot busting drugs, is the most common treatment for heart attack patients.  Angioplasty is the procedure of inserting, then inflating, a small balloon in the blocked coronary artery, leaving a rigid support to restore blood flow.
Press release ~ National Infarct Angioplasty Project (NIAP) – Final report ~ British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) ~ British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS) ~ National Service Framework for CHD
 
NAO: According to the National Audit Office (NAO), under the management of the Department for Transport, the process for awarding passenger Rail Franchises in England & Wales has delivered better value for money, with subsidies expected to fall.  But some fares will rise above inflation and crowding for many commuters will increase in the short term until investment delivers more carrying capacity.

The Department plans to increase capacity on the rail network, mainly from an additional 1,300 carriages.  In the 8 franchises they examined this would lead to increased capacity of 22%.  Many passengers – particularly on routes serving London – will, however, face increased crowding at peak periods until the planned improvements can be carried out.
Press release ~ The Department for Transport - Letting Rail Franchises 2005-2007 ~ Executive Summary ~ Delivering a Sustainable Railway ~ DfT - Railways ~ Rail Technical Strategy ~ Railway Forum ~ The Association of Train Operating Companies ~ The Railway Industry Association ~ Network Rail ~ Passenger Transport Executives ~ Rail transport: The sustainable alternative for air travel in Europe ~ Energy Efficiency Technologies for Railways ~ ICE report - The Missing Link ~ Commission for Integrated Transport ~ Factsheets - No.15: High-speed Rail
 
NAO: The Security Industry Authority, the body which licences security guards, door supervisors and vehicle immobilisers, has secured a high level of compliance by people working in the industry with the requirement to be licensed, the National Audit Office has reported.
 
As at the end of May 2008, the Authority had issued over 248,000 licences and compliance is over 90%.  Its efficiency has, however, been hampered by poor forecasting of licensing demand & costs and difficulties with the computerised systems procured to process licence applications.
Press release ~ Regulating the security industry ~ Executive Summary ~ Security Industry Authority ~ Private Security Industry Act 2001 ~ Approved Contractor Scheme
 
HEFCE: The future of science and other key vulnerable subjects, which have seen declines in the past in the number of students, is now far healthier than it was three years ago, Professor David Eastwood, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, said when launching a report on the Council’s approach to strategically important and vulnerable subjects.
Press release ~ Final report of the 2008 advisory group ~ HEFCE: Strategically important subjects: science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) ~ Strategically important subjects: area studies and related languages ~ Quantitative social science ~ Modern foreign languages
 
CLG: Major recommendations to improve the Private Rented Sector for both tenants and landlords have been published as part of an independent review into the Private Rented Sector (PRS), headed by Julie Rugg of the University of York.
Press release ~ Review of Private Rented Sector Housing
 
MO: Changes in the salinity of our oceans are being brought about by man's influence on our climate, suggests new research conducted by the Met Office Hadley Centre and the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at the University of Reading, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters next month.
 
Using data from the Atlantic Ocean and Met Office climate model simulations, the study reveals increasing salinity in the sub-tropical zone - an indication of less rainfall and increased evaporation.  This mirrors decreased rainfall over land areas in the same latitudes identified in previous research in 2007, attributing this to human activity. Saltiness of the oceans can help us to understand what the likely drying and droughts on land might be in the future.
Press release ~ Met Office Hadley Centre ~ Walker Institute for Climate System Research - University of Reading ~ UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) ~ World Climate Research Programme ~ Atlantic-European Climate Group ~ NERC ~ World Climate Research Programme - CLIVAR Atlantic Panel
 
DIUS: An independent report which makes recommendations to the Government on improving regulation and reducing bureaucracy in England's higher education sector has been welcomed by Lord Tony Young. The Government has accepted the recommendations from the Higher Education Regulation Review Group (HERRG) which produced the report and the group's work will now be taken forward by the sector itself.
 
HERRG Chair, Steve Bundred, has recommended that HERRG should not be reconstituted as it has accomplished what it was set out to do.  Further progress will be made by universities & colleges working together under the leadership of Universities UK and Guild HE, working with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Press release ~ Final report ~ Government’s full response to Steve Bundred’s report ~ Higher Education Regulation Review Group (HERRG) ~ DIUS – Better Regulation in HE ~ Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) ~ Universities UKGuild HE
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