General Reports and Other Publications
IfG: With 12 months to go, political parties and government bodies need to urgently address key challenges to ensure the election of the 41 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are a success.
CBI: A major new report, Winning overseas: boosting business export performance, urges the Government to set out a clear exports strategy with ambitious, achievable performance targets.
IISS: A report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies highlights how clashes between protesters and security forces in Kuwait have intensified the tense political stand-off.
As the Emir orders authorities to take all necessary measures to secure the country, opposition MPs have said that they will oppose any attempt to establish a police state or undermine the country’s democracy.
As the Emir orders authorities to take all necessary measures to secure the country, opposition MPs have said that they will oppose any attempt to establish a police state or undermine the country’s democracy.
IISS: Comment from the International Institute for Strategic Studies on a recent speech by British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, which set out how the work of Britain's intelligence agencies contributes to wider policymaking.
This followed October's Green Paper on Justice and Security, which is intended to identify ways for safely using secret intelligence in civil litigation and coroners' inquests; and to revise existing mechanisms for the democratic oversight of the intelligence agencies.
This followed October's Green Paper on Justice and Security, which is intended to identify ways for safely using secret intelligence in civil litigation and coroners' inquests; and to revise existing mechanisms for the democratic oversight of the intelligence agencies.
FSA: The Food Standards Agency has published the results of a survey looking at levels of mycotoxins in food. Mycotoxins are chemicals produced by certain moulds.
CEBR: The Centre for Economics and Business Research’s (Cebr’s) report, ‘The 50p tax - good intentions, bad outcomes’, examines how the revenue maximising rate of Income Tax has changed since the 1980s.
DH: A recent major international study shows that NHS is performing well for patients in many areas including some aspects of mental health care, vaccinations & preventative care, such as the number of unplanned hospital admissions for people with diabetes.
BHF: A new study has highlighted the long-term benefits & safety of cholesterol-busting statins. The research involved an 11-year follow-up study on people taking statins and showed that the drug was safe, with no increase in cancer cases or deaths from other, non heart-related causes.
NIA: Spending on criminal legal aid has spiralled out of control over the last 10 years with no comparable increase in the number of cases dealt with. That’s the stark message from the Northern Ireland Assembly Public Accounts Committee which recently published its report entitled Managing Criminal Legal Aid.
TUC: Making public sector pensions like those in the private sector would mean taking all pensions away from 2 in 3 public sector workers and giving a huge increase to the pension pots of a small number of senior public sector staff, says a new TUC report.
Private sector workers with no pension should be livid that they see none of the nearly £30bn spent on tax relief on pensions each year, two thirds of which goes to the less than 1 in 4 taxpayers who earn enough to pay higher rates of income tax.
CR: Major savings for taxpayers and benefits for the national economy could be unlocked by reforming the Government's management of England's motorways & trunk roads, says the independent Cook review published last week.
WWF: 25 UK-based companies are amongst many in Europe, Australia & Japan that are buying more certified sustainable palm oil than ever before, but urgent action is still needed to avoid the irreversible loss of tropical forests, according to WWF’s latest assessment of the industry that buys palm oil.
NO: Investigation by 2 Ombudsmen has highlighted significant failings in the care provided to a man in Newcastle who had Down’s syndrome. A recent report describes how Mr J’s basic human rights were ignored after he was detained unnecessarily in hospital for months and was then moved into inappropriate locked accommodation until his death.
NAO: Financial management at the Ministry of Justice has improved considerably since the National Audit Office last examined this subject in 2010. However, in some important areas, such as income collection, the Ministry still has a great deal to do.
NAO: The Equality and Human Rights Commission has made significant improvements in its financial management leading the Comptroller & Auditor General to issue an unqualified audit opinion on its 2010-11 accounts. This is the first clear audit opinion on the Commission's accounts since it was formed in 2007.
IfG: A panel including former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, Nick Boles, MP, and former Permanent Secretary for Government Communications, Matt Tee have discussed their first-hand experiences of the transition of power following last year’s General Election.
It comes as an Institute for Government report warns that the run up to 2015 could be fractious with tensions growing amongst the Coalition partners as they step up campaigning.
CH: Famine, piracy & terrorism in the Horn of Africa are of increasing concern for international policy makers. A new Chatham House report, Hostage to Conflict: Prospects for Building Regional Economic Cooperation in the Horn of Africa, says that greater efforts to build economic integration and regional growth could tackle the root causes of the region’s troubles. To be successful, this approach needs to harness the power of informal trading markets and avoid a security dominated 'state-centric' approach.
Unfortunately current efforts risk taking the opposite approach and fuelling the very problems they seek to address.
Unfortunately current efforts risk taking the opposite approach and fuelling the very problems they seek to address.
