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In the News

CQC:  Yes, but can the public ‘trust’ the CQC to ensure the providers comply and what is Monitor’s role? - Plans to change the way health & social care is regulated have been published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

It is inviting people to give their views on its plan to ensure health & social care providers give people safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.  This consultation focuses on hospital care with a further consultation on adult social care & general practice going out later this year.  

The principles that will guide CQC’s work are set out in 5 questions that will be asked when inspecting services; are they safe, are they effective, are they caring, are they well-led and are they responsive to people’s needs?

The consultation will enable CQC to finalise methods for longer, more thorough inspections of NHS & independent acute hospitals, which will start in October 2013.  The approach will be extended to mental health & learning disability services after it is established in acute care. The consultation closes on 12 August 2013.
Press release ~ Consultation ~ CQC’s strategy:  Raising standards, putting people first ~ The Telegraph: Speaking out cost NHS whistleblower his job ~ TKF: New Commission launched on the future of health and social care ~ Demos calls for action to prevent ‘hit and miss’ end of life care ~ CQC publishes Independent report into its registration & oversight of University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust ~ Grant Thornton report: University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust ~ Monitor takes enforcement action to ensure continuity in regulatory regime ~ MPs publish report on 2012 accountability hearing with Monitor ~ Monitor introduces improvements to assessment process ~ CQC:  Another rotten apple in the NHS barrel? ~ CQC issues two warning notices to University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust following investigation visits ~ Monitor intervenes again at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust ~ Maternity services at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust must improve says regulator ~ WAG:  Ensuring Nursing Care is ‘fit for purpose’ (4th item) ~ RCN:  Bring back State Enrolled Nurses? ~ RCP:  Time to move on from primarily treating people in hospital? (4th item) ~ CQC:  Can anyone still believe the NHS doesn’t need to change how it delivers its services? ~ TKF:  Time for a new model NHS? (6th item)

NAO:  A ‘Rolls Royce’ Civil Service is not cheap, but could provide long-term value - The leadership of the civil service needs the skills to meet today’s challenges if it is to deliver value for money, according to the National Audit Office.  There has recently been progress in developing a new approach. The Government now accepts the urgent need for a leadership group that can think across departmental boundaries & lead change, and there is action in hand, but there is still a long way to go to change the long-standing culture of the Senior Civil Service.

The spending watchdog earlier this year welcomed the ambition of the Civil Service Reform Plan and emphasized the urgent need to make progress, given that the plan underpinned the Government’s chances of achieving further efficiency savings.

The Government’s 5-year plan for improving skills & performance describes a new corporate approach that is coherent, innovative & ambitious, but there are challenges.  The 24 professional networks in the civil service lack influence across departmental ‘silos’ and may not be the right groupings to meet the needs of the modern service.
PC&PE:  Can Bankers ever ‘change their spots’? - The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards has published its Final Report – ‘Changing banking for good’, which outlines the radical reform required to improve standards across the banking industry. The recommendations cover several main areas including:
* making senior bankers personally responsible (including a new criminal offence for Senior Persons of reckless misconduct in the management of a bank, carrying a custodial sentence)
* reforming bank governance
* creating better functioning & more diverse markets
* reinforcing the powers of regulators and making sure they do their job
BIG:  Why should their children also be punished? - A project aiming to improve the lives of families affected by fathers in prison has been given almost £300,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.  Hampshire-based Spurgeons will work to strengthen relationships with the aim of reduce offending among prisoners on release (fathers are 6 times less likely to re-offend if they have strong family relationships) and also reduce the risk of their children entering the criminal justice system (being statistically 3 times more likely to commit anti-social behaviour than their peers).

Around 200,000 children every year experience a parent being sent to prison.  Particularly among boys, these children represent a vulnerable group who are also at risk of offending as they grow up.  Families often experience stigma & social exclusion as a result of a family member’s imprisonment and are therefore less likely to seek the help and support they need.
CLG:  ‘And on Newsnight tonight we have Councillor ……’ - Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, recently published a new guide for local people explaining how they can attend & report their local council meetings.   The how-to guide gives practical information for the public to attend meetings of a council’s executive and how to obtain council documents.

However, many Councils across the country are still refusing to allow people to film public council meetings.  The guidance explicitly states that councillors & council officers can be filmed at council meetings, and corrects misconceptions that the Data Protection Act somehow prohibits this.  The Health & Safety Executive has also ‘shot down’ the suggestion that ‘health & safety ‘regulations’ also bar filming, which Wirral Council used to justify a filming ban last year.  The new rules do not apply to Wales.
NAO: Do compromise agreements ‘hide’ management incompetence’s & failures? - There is a lack of transparency, consistency & accountability in the use of compromise agreements in the public sector and little is being done to change this situation, an investigation by the National Audit Office has found.

Collaborative Procurement: Increasing Public Sector ‘Buyer Power’ -  Collaborative procurement has long been recognised as a method of cost reduction; with the aggregation of resources enabling  economies of scale, giving even the smallest public sector bodies improved ‘buyer power’ when it comes to purchasing negotiations.

 

Public sector procurement teams are able to combine their requirements and compare unit costs on projects with consistent specifications. The cost reductions are generated by utilising economies of scale and improving supplier margins via increased pricing knowledge.

 

With less tendering exercises, administration costs are reduced enabling procurement teams to focus on the specialised projects that are more specific to their organisations. The ability to set the scale of collaboration, whether it be national, regional or at a very small local level mean that other key criterion cited by central government are adhered to, such as supporting local SMEs and cutting expensive, environmentally harmful logistics costs.

 

Click here to access a selection of recent exemplar collaborative procurement case studies including the AGMA, a collaboration involving 10 local authorities as well as Fire and Rescue, Police, Waste and Transport Authorities of Greater Manchester.


 

Please note that previously published newsletters can be accessed from the Newsletter Archive

General News

MoD: As the drawdown of UK forces continues apace in Helmand, a senior officer talks of the unprecedented redeployment of equipment taking place.
 
MoD: Army personnel have been notified if they have been selected for the third tranche of the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme. 4,480 Army personnel, of whom 3,763 (84%) are applicants, have been notified of their selection for redundancy.  Personnel selected for redundancy will be told face-to-face by their commanding officer, or by telephone. Applicants will serve up to 6 months’ notice before leaving the Armed Forces while non-applicants will serve up to 12 months’ notice.
 
Those selected for redundancy will be encouraged to apply for a transfer to other areas of the Army, and the other Services, if they meet the selection criteria, where a manning shortfall is forecast in the future.  

Every year around 24,000 personnel leave the Armed Forces and around 85% of Service leavers are employed within 6 months of leaving the Armed Forces.  All Service leavers, not just redundees, are being encouraged to consider a part-time military career in the Reserves.
 
DH: Armed Forces personnel are being urged to talk about issues that are worrying them via a social media website. bigwhitewall.com is a free online space where serving personnel, veterans and their families can talk about what’s troubling them and get help & support in a safe environment whenever they need it.
 
TfL: 2 competitions have been launched to mark the RideLondon cycling festival taking place in the Capital later this summer. You could get creative and win a bike by designing your own London-themed t-shirt.  To enter, visit the website, download the t-shirt template and email your design back before 30 June 2013.
 
Alternatively, why not take on the challenge of training with the best and do a spin class with double Olympic champion Laura Trott. As well as putting you through your paces on the bike, Laura will share her top training tips.  The closing date is 8 July2013.
 
TfL: A mentoring service helping disabled Londoners make the most of the Capital's bus network has launched in Sutton. It aims to make the Capital's transport system more accessible to disabled people and improves their ability to reach jobs & leisure opportunities.
 
The first 'bus day' took place in Sutton recently on a planned route starting in the town centre.  Passengers were able to get on & off along the way and were accompanied by Transport for London (TfL) travel mentors and members of the Metropolitan Police's Safer Transport Team. 
 
GPS: The Government Procurement Service’s Financial Analysis Services framework agreement allows you to make informed decisions on the financial viability of potential suppliers.
 
HEFCE: The South East Physics network (SEPnet) and Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE) have announced investment of more than £13m in physics teaching & research at higher education institutions in the South East over the next 5 years.
 
IoE: The Institute of Education has signed an agreement with the International Baccalaureate (IB), recognising the quality of the IOE's MA awards. This initiative will provide students on the IOE's MA Education and the MA AELM programmes with the opportunity to apply for an IB Advanced Certificate in Teaching and Learning Research or the IB Advanced Certificate in Leadership Research.
 
LSIS: As per their press statement of 31 January 2013, Learning and Skills Improvement Services can confirm that it is closing at the end of July 2013.  This as a result of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announcing in November last year, that they would cease to fund LSIS from July 2013.  
 
CO: Following a recruitment campaign, the Commissioning Academy has formally ‘opened the campus gates’ for its first intake of commissioners.   It brings together senior commissioners from across the public sector to learn from the example of the most successful commissioning organisations - developing a growing cadre of professionals skilled in best practice.
 
In total 67 senior commissioners from more than 23 public sector organisations will be participating - split into 3 separate ‘cohorts’.  

The focus is on:
* practical peer-led learning covering key commissioning issues, such as outcome-based commissioning
* working with the voluntary & community sector
* market engagement & development
* joint commissioning across organisational boundaries
* behavioural insight
* new models of delivery such as mutual and joint venture companies
 
Ofcom: Ofcom has begun the second phase of local TV licensing, inviting applications for new channels in 7 locations across the UK (Bangor, Cambridge, Middlesbrough, Mold, Scarborough, Swansea & York).  These are the initial locations in the second phase of licensing.
 
Monitor: Health sector regulator Monitor has given the Trust Special Administrators (TSAs) an additional 30 working days to ‘come up with a solution for making health services currently provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust clinically and financially viable’.
 
DH: People will now find it easier to make healthier choices about the food they eat with the new consistent front of pack nutritional label launched last week by Public Health Minister, Anna Soubry. The consistent system will combine red, amber, green colour-coding and nutritional information to show how much fat, saturated fat, salt & sugar, and calories are in food products.

Policy Statements and Initiatives

DCMS: Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, has announced that the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) will be asked for the first time to actively seek out illegal images of child abuse on the internet, working closely with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.  
 
At a summit of major internet service providers (ISPs), search engines, mobile operators and social media companies, an agreement was reached that the IWF should, for the first time, work with CEOP to search for and block child sexual abuse images.
 
WAG: The Minister for the Economy, Transport & Science, Edwina Hart has launched Partnership for Growth: The Welsh Government Strategy for Tourism 2013-2020 and action plan.  The strategy will ‘set the vision for the industry and Welsh Government to work in partnership to increase visitor spend to Wales’.
 
ScotGov: Housing Minister Margaret Burgess recently set out the Scottish Government’s plan to tackle fuel poverty & reduce Scotland’s carbon footprint.  Scotland’s Sustainable Housing Strategy sets out the work the Scottish Government is doing to help people reduce household energy bills, while highlighting its plans for the future.
 
By 2020, all homes are to have loft & cavity wall insulation where this is possible and every home with gas central heating will have an energy efficient boiler with appropriate controls.
 
CLG: Communities Minister, Don Foster, has announced that towns across England will benefit from £91m to refurbish & bring back into use over 6,000 empty & derelict homes & commercial premises, particularly in the Midlands & North where the problem is most acute.  

The funding will be spent on refurbishment in areas where empty properties have commonly led to problems such as squatting, rat infestation and collapsing house prices, driving remaining residents away.
 
CLG: The government has offered up to £10bn in loan guarantees to get Britain building and deliver ‘tens of thousands of homes to rent’. Through these new schemes, the government will offer up to £10bn worth of guarantees on loans to housing providers - enabling them to borrow money to invest in new housebuilding on more favourable terms.
 
ScotGov: A plan to protect & restore Scotland’s environment was launched last week by Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse. The 2020 Challenge for Scotland’s Biodiversity aims to:
* protect & restore biodiversity on land & in our seas, and to support healthier ecosystems
* connect people with the natural world, for their health & wellbeing and to involve them more in decisions about their environment
* maximise the benefits for Scotland and of a diverse natural environment & the services it provides, contributing to a sustainable economic growth

Consultations

WAG: People from across Wales with an interest in the Welsh language are being asked to take action on its future in a national online conversation. People can express their views, share their ideas & experiences and make a difference to future policy on the Welsh language by using a number of online tools, including an online forum, completing an online survey or through social networking on Facebook & Twitter using the #iaithfyw.
 
The online campaign is part of a wider national conversation on the Welsh language, A Living Language: Have your say, which was launched by the First Minister at the Urdd Eisteddfod at the end of May and involves a number of community group discussions across Wales, culminating in a one-day conference, Y Gynhadledd Fawr, to be held in Aberystwyth on the 4 July 2013.
 
DWP: The Department of Work & Pensions has announced a further consultation on the mobility component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) to be launched late June 2013.
 
The new PIP assessment has been designed to target support on those who need it most – those individuals who face the greatest barriers to participating in society. However, the department has received significant feedback from disabled people and their organisations that they want a further opportunity to comment on the finalised assessment criteria rules around the mobility component.
 
Ofsted: Ofsted has recently launched a consultation on the way it inspects services for vulnerable children. Inspection of services for children in need of help & protection, children looked after & care leavers proposes a single framework for inspecting local authority child protection & services for looked after children, including those leaving or who have left care.
 
The single framework replaces previous plans to implement separate inspections for child protection and services for children looked after.  It proposes an evaluation of help, protection & care for children including the arrangements for local authority fostering & adoption services.
 
Two other consultations, also launched last week, are Good voluntary adoption provision and Good independent fostering provision.  The frameworks evaluate adoption & fostering services provided by voluntary & independent providers respectively. All 3 consultations close on 12 July 2013.
 
MoJ: New national standards to raise the quality of experts used in family courts and ‘get rid of time-consuming evidence which adds little value in helping judges reach a decision’ were announced by the Government recently.
 
This consultation is being jointly led by the Family Justice Council and follows the independent Family Justice Review by David Norgrove which identified weaknesses in the quality of evidence being put forward by experts at family proceedings involving children. The consultation closes on 18 July 2013.
 
WAG: The Commission on Public Service Governance and Delivery (the Commission) has recently launched a programme of activities to gather views on public services in Wales and how they may be improved. The Commission will report to the Welsh Government by December 2013.

People will be able to contribute to the consultation, which is open until the end of August 2013, in writing, online or face to face with the Commissioners at several events throughout the summer.  Details of these sessions will be available on the Commission’s website and will be publicised locally. Separate questionnaires for the public and for organisations who provide services have also been published on the Commission’s website.
 
Ofgem: Ofgem has published detailed rule changes to deliver a simpler, clearer & fairer energy market.  The proposals are grounded in 2 years of extensive engagement with consumers & industry.  Suppliers will be required to give all their customers personalised information on the cheapest tariff they offer for them.  Ofgem is also looking at ways in which the stickiest and most vulnerable consumers can be given better information on the cheapest deal across the market.   Consultation closes on 23 July 2013.
 
OFT: The OFT has announced a market study on competition in banking for SMEs and is seeking views on its scope. The study is part of the OFT's continuing planned programme of work in retail banking, of which the first stage was a review of personal current accounts, concluded this January.  The OFT is now bringing forward its review of banking for SMEs.  It also coincides with the final report of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards and continuing public interest in this area.
 
CQC: Plans to change the way health & social care is regulated have been published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It is inviting people to give their views on its plan to ensure health & social care providers give people safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care. This consultation focuses on hospital care with a further consultation on adult social care & general practice going out later this year - See ‘In the News’ section for more information.
 
Additional Consultations: Readers should be aware that many consultations are never publicised with a press release, so do not appear in either the email alerts or Wired - GOV Plus. Many of these consultations can be found at the following links:

Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides

CLG: Eric Pickles has set out plans to tackle the use of heavy-handed bailiffs by councils to protect people from unfair treatment. New guidelines for councils set out that they should no longer be collecting ‘contractual kickbacks’ from bailiffs or employing those seeking to exploit residents through ‘phantom visits’ or excessive fees.  
 
ScotGov: A leaflet stressing the importance of horse passports will be available for horse owners at events in Scotland throughout the summer. It will list the ‘6 Golden Rules’ and offer advice on how to obtain a horse passport.
 
CLG: Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, recently published a new guide for local people explaining how they can attend & report their local council meetings.   The guidance explicitly states that councillors & council officers can be filmed at council meetings and corrects misconceptions that the Data Protection Act  or H&S ‘regulations’ somehow prohibits this – See ‘In the News’ section for more information.

Annual Reports

PC&PE: The Public Accounts Committee haspublished its Report, which examined the response to change in jobcentres.
 
LGA: Building homes from nappies, running tracks from old shoes & sleeping bags from garden furniture could soon be widespread practices as councils across the country trial a range of recycling innovations. 

Over the last decade the amount of tin cans, glass bottles & waste paper recycled in the UK has more than tripled.  Joining this list of recyclables are now disposable nappies, old mattresses and even old cassette tapes.  Thanks largely to the efforts of residents taking the time to sort through their rubbish, the UK recycled 43% of household waste in 2011/12, compared to 13% in 2001/2. 

To mark the 10th annual National Recycling Week (17 - 23 June), the Local Government Association pulled together a list of 10 common but previously unrecyclable household items which we could all easily be recycling over the next decade thanks to new council-run initiatives.
 
HMT: The government has published the second annual report of the 3-year Infrastructure Cost Review programme launched in March 2011 to radically transform the way the UK delivers infrastructure. Building on the success of last year, which identified examples of savings of £1.5bn, there has been further progress towards embedding good practice & reducing the cost of delivering the infrastructure the UK needs to compete in the global race.
 
PC&PE: The Environmental Audit Committee has recently published reports on the Outcomes of the UN Rio+20 Earth Summit, and Embedding sustainable development: An update.
 
Ofsted: The Chief Inspector of Ofsted has put forward a series recommendations to make a lasting difference to the prospects of thousands of ‘unseen children’ from low income backgrounds who are being let down by the education system.
 
The recommendations, aimed at closing the attainment gap between England’s poorest children & those from better off backgrounds, were contained in a recent lecture by Sir Michael Wilshaw and an accompanying report, entitled Unseen children, and marked 20 years since Ofsted first published a report into the achievements of the poorest children in the education system and 10 years since a follow-up study in 2003.
 
IPPR: Improving school performance through academy & free schools status is important, but it will not be enough to close the attainment gap between rich & poor pupils in England’s schools, according to a new collection of essays published by the think tank IPPR.
 
The report argues that the additional £1.25bn over the next 2 years from the pupil premium should be focused on primary schools, while the pupil premium in secondary schools would be held at its current level. 

The report shows that around 1 in 5 children left primary school without having reached a sufficient standard in reading & writing.  It shows that these children then struggle to catch-up and fall further behind at secondary school.

General Reports and Other Publications

TfL: If you're new to cycling or want to build up your confidence in the saddle, order a London Cycle Guide from Transport for London. There are 14 guides containing cycling leisure routes running through parks, forests, waterways & quiet residential streets.  They are perfect for pleasant pedalling rather than speed riding, many are car-free and several take you through the open spaces of the Royal Parks.
 
NO: LB of Southwark Council left a vulnerable family in cramped, temporary accommodation for 18 months with little contact – then tried to evict them with only 9 days’ notice. The finding comes after an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), which upholds a complaint from the mother of the family.
 
The investigation also uncovered that Southwark Council took 15 months to respond to the mother’s complaint she made to the council about its decision that the family should return to its permanent address. The complainant and her 4 children fled her council flat in September 2010 after threats of violence and fear for the safety of her sons from being recruited by local gangs.
 
IEA: New research published recently by the Institute of Economic Affairs finds that the introduction of a voluntary pricing mechanism for road usage would have a sizeable impact on traffic & congestion. In this new report, Moving the Road Sector into the Market Economy, leading transport economist Gabriel Roth highlights important lessons for UK policymakers in tackling chronic road congestion through the introduction of road pricing.  

The research calls for customers, not governments, to determine the amounts and locations of infrastructure expansion.
 
PX: The government has been urged to shut more than 30 run-down & poorly-located prisons and replace them with 12 state of the art ‘Hub Prisons’, containing up to 3,000 inmates.  The new prisons would lead to huge costs savings, a reduction in re-offending rates and a better quality of life for prisoners & prison staff.

A new report, Future Prisons, by think tank Policy Exchange says that the Ministry of Justice could meet its entire 2015/16 spending commitment by ‘swapping old for new’ and financing the construction of new, large prisons to replace expensive, hard-to-maintain and poorly-located older prisons.  

In operational costs alone, this plan would save more than £600million a year on completion – fully 20% of the prison budget.  This is equivalent to around 9% of the MoJ’s entire departmental budget.
 
PC&PE: In a report published recently the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee calls for fewer ministerial reshuffles.
 
HMIC&P: HM Inspectorates of Constabulary & Prisons, the Care Quality Commission, and the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales call for changes to ensure fewer people with mental disorders are detained in police custody.
 
UKOC: New research from OCF - the organisation behind the national network of UK online centres - shows the huge power technology can have in opening up non-formal learning to those traditionally reluctant to engage with it. The report evaluates the unique eReading Rooms pilot - funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - and is helping to shape the future of community learning.
 
Nef: New Economics Foundation research finds the £33bn earmarked for HS2 would be better spent elsewhere on the rail network, including:
* £10bn – could transform rail infrastructure in the North & Midlands, creating new & faster east-West rail links, redeveloping stations and electrifying regional rail lines
* £10bn - could overhaul the East & West coast mainlines, increasing the speed, capacity & reliability of North-South rail travel with less environmental damage than HS2
* £6bn – could upgrade mass transport in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester & Liverpool, including investments in large light rail schemes and bus networks
 
Socitm: With public service organisations under huge pressure to do more things more quickly and at less cost, Agile methodologies cannot be ignored says Socitm's new guide. Planting the Flag: pocket guide 6 - Agile is the final guide in the Socitm series covering strategic capabilities required for public service reform.

The 5 other capabilities - leadership, governance, shared services, strategic commissioning and organisational change - have already been covered by similar guides.

Legislation / Legal

WAG: The Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Bill, which aims to improve democratic processes concerning Local Government, has been approved by the National Assembly for Wales.   The Bill will be enacted after it has received Royal Assent and has been sealed.
 
HO: All long-term undercover policing operations will be independently authorised under government plans announced last week. Minister for Policing, Damian Green, unveiled the proposals for new secondary legislation at the Home Affairs Select Committee.
 
It means the Office for Surveillance Commissioners (OSC) will be notified at the start of all undercover police deployments - and must approve any lasting beyond 12 months. The new legislation will also ensure the same long-term operations must be authorised internally by a chief constable.
 
OFT: The OFT has suspended, with immediate effect, the consumer credit licence of Staffordshire-based Donegal Finance Limited (DFL) - trading as Donegal Finance, Donegal Investigations and Donegal Recovery. This is the first time the OFT has used its new power to suspend a credit licence.  It concluded that suspending DFL's licence is urgently necessary to protect consumers.
 
DFL was licensed to offer consumer credit, credit brokerage & debt collecting services. The suspension means it is now a criminal offence for DFL or any of its directors, employees or agents to engage in any of these activities using DFL's licence. This press notice has been issued to inform consumers and other consumer credit businesses.
 
Civitas: Burdensome regulation is preventing credit unions providing a widespread affordable alternative to loan sharks, a report by the independent think tank Civitas warned last week. Restrictions on their fees and the size of deposits are also curbing the role the non-profit organisations could play in supporting finance-starved small business, it says.
 
MoJ: Families will be given extra help to cope when a loved one goes missing under new plans announced by Justice Minister Helen Grant. The proposals are to create a new power of ‘guardianship’ for relatives of missing people. This would allow families to deal with the legal & financial issues that arise in the initial months when someone vanishes – for example being able to suspend direct debits for mobile phone & utility bills.  A consultation with detailed proposals is due to be launched later this year with a view to taking a final decision in 2014.
 
This latest announcement follows the recent creation of new laws which, once they are introduced in April 2014, will enable bereaved families to deal with the affairs of someone who is missing & presumed dead.  

EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.

EU News: As of 20 June 2013, credit rating agencies (CRAs) have to follow stricter rules which will make them more accountable for their actions.  The new rules also aim to reduce over-reliance on credit ratings while at the same time improving the quality of the rating process. Credit rating agencies will have to be more transparent when rating sovereign states.
 
EU News: To help mitigate the consequences of serious road accidents across the EU, recently the European Commission adopted 2 proposals to ensure that, by October 2015, cars will automatically call emergency services in case of a serious crash.
 
The ‘eCall’ system automatically dials 112 - Europe's single emergency number - in the event of a serious accident.  It communicates the vehicle's location to emergency services, even if the driver is unconscious or unable to make a phone call. It is estimated that it could save up to 2,500 lives a year.
 
EU News: The Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee ‘stood by its guns’ last week in supporting the Commission's proposal for a wide-scope financial transaction tax, with stocks & bond trades taxed at 0.1% and derivatives trades taxed at 0.01% in 11 EU countries.
 
The committee proposed lower rates until January 2017 for trades in sovereign bonds and the pension fund industry's trades.  A new legal ownership principle was also inserted to make tax avoidance more costly.

Charity and Voluntary Sector

ScotGov: Teenage Cancer Trust will extend free cancer awareness sessions in schools, colleges and universities across Scotland, thanks to a £70,000 funding boost. The funding is part of the Scottish Government’s Detect Cancer Early programme, which aims to raise awareness of the early signs & symptoms of cancer and encourage people to seek help earlier. 
 
Teenage Cancer Trust's free cancer awareness sessions cover a range of topics including the signs of cancer, its treatments and tips for healthy living to reduce future cancer risks.   The cancer awareness sessions are designed to not only help young people spot the signs of cancer in themselves & others, but also empower them to be persistent at the doctors if they are worried.  Young people are also encouraged to pass on their knowledge to friends and family.
 
BIG: A project supporting women experiencing perinatal depression – which can occur from the time of conception to one year after childbirth - has been awarded almost £500,000 funding from the Big Lottery Fund to deliver its vital work across 3 areas of England.  The announcement came as a report from the NSPCC, calls for action to plug the gaps in mental health services for pregnant & new mothers.
 
The NSPCC says 1 in 10 new mothers experience perinatal mental illnesses.  The Lottery award will enable the charity Family Action to continue to deliver the Perinatal Support Project Plus in 3 target areas (Hackney, Swaffham in Norfolk, and Mansfield).
 
HMRC: More than 12,000 charities have registered with HMRC to claim gift aid online since a new online service was introduced in April, makes claiming gift aid repayments faster for charities & sports clubs.
 
From 30 September 2013, HMRC will stop accepting Gift Aid repayment claims on R68i forms and users will be required to use the Charities Online service to make claims.
 

Business and Other Briefings

BIS: Business Minister, Michael Fallon, has named 6 new projects that ‘will pioneer new ways for regulators and businesses to work together to support growth’.  The pilot projects will each receive a share of the £120,000 Regulatory Innovation for Growth fund, following a competitive application process launched in April 2013.  
 
BIS: Information relating to the Start-up Loans scheme including partners of the scheme, loans and the evaluation.
 
BIS: A new strategy that will generate fresh growth opportunities for some of the UK’s most innovative technology businesses was published recently. Developed in partnership with industry, the Information Economy Strategy will make it easier for businesses to access public services online, for example, by providing a single digital view of their tax affairs.  It will also help 1.6m SMEs grow their online presence and allow them to exploit new technologies.

Industry News

STFC: A novel process for selecting & examining protein microcrystals, which can be essential for understanding biological functions, is expected to save precious research days & resources and lead to faster breakthroughs in healthcare.  Protein microcrystals enable researchers to analyse the structure of molecules and how they behave, for example in disease, but can take a long time to prepare & analyse.
 
A new process for using laser ‘tweezers’ developed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory will help streamline crystal selection.  The technique allows researchers to select & place microscopic protein crystals on customised sample holders for crystallographic analysis. Studying protein crystals through X-ray crystallography enables researchers to understand the structure & function of a molecule.
 
STFC: Technology designed to measure water vapour on Mars is poised for use in a whole host of everyday applications here on Earth from monitoring food production or industrial gas emissions, to surveying volcanic ash clouds and even giving a farmer a health check on their crops.
 
KEIT Ltd is a new spin out company from the Science and Technology Facilities Council which grew from the need for an extremely compact (but highly accurate spectrometer) to measure gases in planetary atmospheres, that was also robust enough to withstand the harsh conditions in space (it has no moving parts).
 
The versatility, stability & simplicity of a KEIT spectrometer means that it could sit on any food or pharmaceutical production line to check, for example, the fat content of milk, or the origin & quality of whisky.

Environmentally, the spectrometers could play a key role in monitoring gaseous emissions from industrial chimney stacks, helping industries adhere to environmental regulations.  A KEIT spectrometer could also provide an invaluable analytical tool for any industrial or academic laboratory-based R&D facility.

Forthcoming Event

ACE: In April 2013 the Family Arts Campaign was launched at a conference held in Birmingham.  The 18 June 2013 saw the public launch of the Family Arts Festival, the biggest family arts festival ever seen in the UK, which runs from 18 October - 3 November 2013 and 17 October - 2 November 2014.
 
The festival, the first UK-wide festival of exciting theatre, dance, music & visual arts events designed to increase family participation in the arts, will involve over 500 partners delivering quality programming across the country.  
 
STFC: The Science and Technology Facilities Council is pleased to announce the awarding of £1.5m to fund 7 multidisciplinary projects under the challenge led CLASP Programme to meet specific challenges in the Environment sector.  These projects plan to produce tangible results in a 3-5 year period and bring STFC researchers together with other academic disciplines and industry through new collaborations to solve real environmental challenges:
 
A new CLASP Energy call for 2013 with a £1.5m fund has been announced and STFC is holding an Information & Networking day on 2 July 2013 at the Science Museum allowing potential applicants to find out more on the focus for the call and meet new collaborators.
 
NE: The National Association of Agricultural Contractors (NAAC) and Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) have teamed up to host a series of workshops on the topical issue of Pesticides: maximising crop production while minimising environmental impact.
 
The FREE, half-day sessions offer essential information for professional contractors that will provide them with the latest on best practice when using pesticides.  The next workshop, run in conjunction with the Voluntary Initiative, will take place taking place on Thursday 27 June 2013 at The Wheel Inn Pub, Westwell, Kent  TN25 4LQ. BASIS and NRoSO points are available.
 
GPS: The Government Procurement Service are holding 2 training events for suppliers interested in bidding for the Allied Health Professionals & Health Science Services Staff framework (RM959) on 28 June 2013 at 10:30 and 3 July at 2:30. To attend either of these sessions please register on the eSourcing suite.
 
You can also register for two Government Procurement Service tools – eSourcing Suite and Dynamic Marketplace.

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