Download or read book Delivery Chain Analysis for Bus Services in England written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-12-09 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government targets are increasingly concerned with the outcome of services instead of the inputs. These targets can involve partnerships between national, regional and local bodies as well as private companies, which is known as the delivery chain. The Audit Commission, and National Audit Office have combined to look at the local and national aspects of three targets: Bus services; affordable housing; childhood obesity. This report looks at bus usage, which is likely to meet its target of a 10% increase by 2010. However this is mainly due to the increase in London, where there is a much clearer delivery chain and tighter regulation.

Download or read book First Report from the Foreign Affairs Committee Session 2005 06 written by Great Britain: Foreign and Commonwealth Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-05-02 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication sets out the Government's response to the Committee's report (HC 574, session 2005-06 (ISBN 0215027590) on the eighth annual report by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ('Human Rights Annual Report 2005', Cm. 6606, ISBN 0101660626). Issues discussed in the report include: the international legal framework and the work of international institutions; the war against terrorism and treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition and the use of information derived from torture, the situation in Iraq and the trial of Saddam Hussein; the arms trade and military assistance, and corporate social responsibility. Amongst the Government's responses, it disagrees with the concerns the Committee raised over i) the fact that the Minister responsible for human rights issues is also the Minister of State for Trade, roles that the Committee found to be often contradictory; and ii) the decision to subsume human rights work into the more general category of sustainable development.

Download or read book The draft Local Transport Bill and the Transport Innovation Fund written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-08-03 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HCP 564-i, session 2006-07

Download or read book Crown Prosecution Service written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from a NAO report (HCP 798, session 2005-06, ISBN 0102936978) published in February 2006, the Committee's report concludes that the handling of cases in magistrates' courts has in recent years become complex and protracted to the extent that it no longer amounts to summary justice. 55 per cent of the £173 million cost of delay in the magistrates' courts is attributable to the defence, but the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) account for another 14 per cent (£24 million) each. The CPS needs to review its organisational structure, revise its system for preparing for magistrates' court cases by adopting current best practice, and address the cultural resistance within the organisation to more modern working practices.

Download or read book Good government written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 983-i-iv, session 2007-08

Download or read book Personal Carbon Trading written by Tina Fawcett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personal carbon trading is rapidly moving up the political agenda as recognition grows of its potential to address urgent issues of climate change and natural resource use. Under personal carbon trading schemes a carbon allowance would be allocated to each individual, to be used and traded in the same way as in national and international carbon trading schemes. This volume presents the latest research on personal carbon trading at different scales - from the effects on the individual, communities and organisations, to its place in national, EU (including the EU ETS) and global policy landscapes. It presents key research on the economic and policy barriers and implications, and will be essential reading for anyone involved in emissions trading research or policymaking.

Download or read book Bus Services Across the UK written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-10-26 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buses are a key local service, but usage has been in decline since the 1950s. The Transport Act 1985 introduced deregulation, but that has failed to reverse that decline. The report examines the particular problems local authorities face in developing and implementing effective bus strategies. It is clear to the Committee that, for many areas, including all major metropolitan areas outside London, the current regime is not working. The Committee recommends more flexibility, and is particularly attracted by Quality Contracts. These would replace open competition with a licensed regime. Operators bid for exclusive rights to run bus services on a route or group of routes, on the basis of a local authority service specification. Independent Traffic Commissioners are another development that the Committee welcomes, and would like to see them have a higher profile and more resources and powers, especially to enforce Quality Contracts and penalise operators who do not meet their obligations. Others areas covered in the report are: securing socially necessary services outside the PTAs; congestion and bus priority; concessionary fares; and the image of the bus.

Download or read book The Official History of Privatisation Vol I written by David Parker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book National Offender Management Service written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-06-06 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prison population in England and Wales has been increasing since the 1990s and by November 2005 it reached a record level of 77,800, resulting in increased levels of overcrowding and stretched resources. Following on from a NAO report (HC 458, session 2005-06 (ISBN 0102935696) published in October 2005, the Committee's report examines how the Home Office, the Prison Service and the National Offender Management Service (which has responsibility for managing and accommodating prisoners) are dealing with the challenges involved in accommodating this record number of prisoners, the construction and use of temporary accommodation and the impact on the delivery of education and other training for prisoners. The Committee makes a number of conclusions and recommendations including in relation to: the deportation of foreign nationals, the use of alternatives to remand such as electronic tagging, contingency planning to ensure greater flexibility in accommodation plans including pilot testing new accommodation to identify possible problems early on, the application of best practice in anti-suicide monitoring measures, and the impact of moving prisoners around the prison estate on their training needs.

Download or read book New Accountabilities New Challenges written by John Wanna and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2015-04-08 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important and challenging volume of essays draws on insights from leading academics and public servants from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and elsewhere. It provides an excellent series of critiques of both the systemic accountabilities and the policy processes of government by drawing on meticulously researched, topical and real-world case studies of governance. Its contribution to the understanding of the applied processes of government in this way is exemplary. Topics covered include: restoring trust in government, parliamentary scrutiny of the APS, administrative law and FOI, budgetary reforms, implementation issues, competition policy, indigenous administration, collaboration with the NGO sector, educational reforms and the changes to the Auditor- General’s mandate.

Download or read book Corporation Tax written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-06-29 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Companies resident or conducting business in the UK are liable to pay corporation tax on their profits, and since 1999 corporation tax is a self-assessed tax. Companies are required to submit tax returns each year along with any tax due, and these tax returns are then checked for non-compliance. In 2004-05, HM Revenue and Customs collected about £33 billion in corporation tax, and it expects receipts to increase to £42 billion in 2005-06. Following on from a National Audit Office report (HC 678, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936641) published in January 2006, the Committee's report examines the management of Corporation Tax and sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations. Given an estimated 40 per cent error rate in tax returns, the Department should improve its targeting of enquiries into tax returns for non-compliance and its use of risk assessment techniques in order to increase the tax yield. Plans to restructure the local area office network should help reduce local variations in performance and improve efficiency in enquiry work. All companies will be required to file their tax returns electronically by 2010, and this system should realise a number of benefits, including greater convenience for companies and a reduction in Department's costs and errors in keying-in data.

Download or read book Reducing Brain Damage written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-07-11 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strokes are one of the top three causes of death in England and a leading cause of adult disability. There are 110,000 strokes each year in England, with a quarter occurring to people under 65 years. Some 300,000 people in England are living with moderate to severe disabilities as a result of a stroke. As the NAO report on this subject pointed out (HCP 452, session 05/06 NAO ISBN 010293570X), it costs the economy in total about £7 billion a year, with the direct cost to the NHS about £2.8 billion. This Committee of Public Accounts report takes evidence from the Department of Health and sets out a number of recommendations. The cost of stroke, in both economic and human terms, could be reduced by re-organizing existing services more effectively. Brain scans of many stroke patients are being delayed, everyone who suffers a stroke should be scanned as soon as possible after arrival in hospital, and should not wait more than 24 hours. Stroke patients should spend longer in hospital on a stroke unit, this could reduce the number of deaths. There needs to be an increase in the number of consultants who have training in dealing with strokes, as well as therapists and other specialist staff with expertise in stroke care across the primary and secondary healthcare sectors. The Department of Health should improve provision of information to stroke survivors and carers, so they are made more aware of the support services available. The Department should run an awareness campaign to improve public knowledge about strokes

Download or read book A Safer Place for Patients written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-07-06 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyday the NHS successfully treats over 1 million people. However there are risks and treatments can go wrong. A report by the Chief Medical Officer in 2000, ('An organisation with a memory', ISBN 0113224419) estimated that one in ten patients admitted to hospital were unintentionally harmed and that a blame culture and lack of a national system for sharing experience were key barriers to reducing the number of patient safety incidents. In Government's response included plans, timetables and targets to promote patient safety and the establishment of the National Patient Safety Agency. This report finds that insufficient progress has been made. In particular there is a question mark over the National Patient Safety Agency because of cost over-runs and delays in its National Reporting and Learning System and the limited feedback it has so far provided to trusts.

Download or read book Ministry of Defence written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-06-27 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from the NAO report (HCP 595-I, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936250) published in November 2005, the Committee's report examines the recommendations made to improve the MoD's procurement of defence equipment focusing on time, cost and performance data for 30 defence projects in the year ended March 2005. This covers the 20 largest projects where the main investment decision has been taken and the 10 largest projects still in the assessment stage. The Committee's report focuses on three main issues: options for enhancing programme and project management of defence acquisition; the impact of older projects on overall acquisition performance; and value for money from the Defence Industrial Strategy. Findings include: i) the MoD has reduced the forecast costs of its top 19 projects by some £700 million, but these cuts were needed to bring the Defence Equipment Plan under control rather than the result of better project management; ii) some of the latest capability cuts are short-term expediencies which may result in an erosion of core defence capability or in higher costs throughout the life of individual projects; and iii) despite previous assurances that it had restructured many of its older projects to address past failures, the MoD still attributes much of its historic poor performance to so called "toxic legacy" projects which continue to accumulate considerable time and cost overruns, and it is now time that such projects were put on a firm footing with realistic performance, time and cost estimates against which the MoD and industry can be judged.

Download or read book NHS Local Improvement Finance Trusts written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-07-04 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Health launched the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) in 2000 to address long-standing under-investment in primary care facilities. It is a form of Public-Private Partnership with a national joint venture, Partnerships in Health, that oversees and invests in it. The total capital value of the first tranche of buildings was £711 million and the average cost of a building was £5 million. 90% of the capital is provided by debt and the properties are owned by the LIFTCo, with income being generated by rent payments from tenants such as GPs, Primary Care Trust, pharmacies and the local authority. This report examines whether the programme has been implemented effectively.

Download or read book Place shaping written by Michael Sir Lyons and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-03-21 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir Michael Lyons was commissioned to consider the case for changes to the present system of local government funding in England and make recommendations, including on the reform of council tax. The remit was extended to cover questions relating to the function of local government and its future role as well as how it is funded, and also to consider the implications of the Barker (ISBN 0118404857), Eddington (ISBN 0118404873) and Leitch (ISBN 0118404865) reports. His overall conclusions are as follows: (1) local government is an essential part of our system of government; (2) central and local government needs to work more closely together as part of a single system, and local people should have a greater say in setting local priorities to enable authorities to manage pressures on public expenditure and improve satisfaction; (3) a mosaic of reforms is needed in the short term to address the most urgent problems, paving the way for more radical reforms in the medium- and longer-term. Recommendations include: automated council tax benefit; an end to capping; revaluation of properties for council tax; new bands with higher bills for those in more expensive properties and lower bills for those in the cheapest; consider reserving a fixed proportion of income tax for local government; longer term options should include local income tax and relocalisation of the business rate. Sir Michael concludes that council tax is not 'broken', but that it is under too much pressure, is seen as unfair, and has some limitations in that it is not a naturally buoyant source of revenue.

Download or read book Delivering Efficiently written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-03-10 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This joint report by the National Audit Office and the Audit Commission examines the different ways in which public services are delivered, the nature of the links between partners in public service delivery chains, and how these can be made more efficient and effective. The report draws its conclusions in part from analysis of reports regarding three major Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets relating to affordable housing, increasing bus use, and halting the rise in child obesity. It recommends that government departments and their delivery partners use a self-assessment list of 12 strategic questions to help them understand their capacity to deliver efficient and effective public services, covering issues such as risk management, strategic funding plans and the need for a robust evidence base.