Download or read book Government responses to the Committee s eighth and ninth reports of session 2009 10 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-10-21 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Responses to 8th report HC 330 (ISBN 9780215544612) and 9th report HC 457 (ISBN 9780215544872)

Download or read book HC 428 Security on the Railway written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-09-05 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crime on Britain's railways decreased year-on-year over the past decade. That trend shows the effectiveness of the specialist rail policing provided by the British Transport Police (BTP). The Committee were impressed by the BTP's commitment to tackling crime while minimising delays for the travelling public. Despite the welcome decline in overall crime, we identified areas where the BTP could improve its performance. The British Transport Police Authority (BTPA) is the body with responsibility for setting the BTP challenging but achievable targets to tackle crime on the railway. The BTPA must fulfil its remit and avoid any perception that it is too close to the people whom it should be holding to account. The Committee concluded that the BTP model of developing specialist policing skills and securing funding from transport providers might usefully be applied to other transport modes, such as aviation. Such an approach could minimise delays, maximise security and reduce the cost of policing to taxpayers. In the course of the inquiry, the Committee heard that vulnerable children and young people are often found in and around railway stations and were surprised to learn that the BTP currently has no targets in relation to child protection. The Department for Transport, the BTPA, the BTP and the charity sector should work together to tackle this emerging issue by examining the available data and reviewing current practice.

Download or read book HC 287 Government Motoring Agencies the User Perspective written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's motoring agencies are undergoing reorganisation and are introducing digital services; both changes have potential to bring welcome improvements. The Government has a mixed approach to organisational change in the agencies with different emphasis on efficiency savings, restructuring, and private sector involvement across the agencies. It needs to do more to explain the future direction for all the motoring agencies and how it will create a more unified service. The agencies could do more to recognise and respond to the needs of business users. There are a number of specific areas that require action by the Government and its motoring agencies: the driver Certificate of Professional Competence may not be delivering all the benefits expected of it and the Government should negotiate changes at a European level; the agencies need to have effective assisted digital strategies in place to help those who cannot or are unwilling to use the internet to access services; the agencies need to work with the Government Digital Service and others to address the problem of misleading copycat websites; the DVLA needs to do more to explain how it is required to share personal data with private parking companies and the safeguards that are in place to protect such data; the DVLA needs to adjust it's fees to ensure costs are covered and do more to explain it's calculations; and data sharing needs to be effective, if revenue collection, action on safety and work by enforcement agencies are to be effective, and new services need to be planned with data sharing in mind

Download or read book Public Trust in Government Statistics written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-25 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this report the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) concludes that, despite the positive steps implemented by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (the Act), there remain issues and concerns about the way government statistics are produced and disseminated which remain a genuine risk to public confidence in the statistical system and must be addressed. The Act was intended to ensure that statistics are produced to the highest professional standards and that effective governance structures are in place to protect transparency and accountability and the Committee found the Act had helped to improve the operation of the statistical system. However, the Act needs to have greater clarity and transparency in the way it operates and in the functioning of the UK Statistics Authority (the Statistics Authority). Those who regulate the quality of National Statistics are in the same organisation as those officials who produce data: the two groups should have a clear separation in practice, but this is hard to demonstrate when they work in the same building and share support services. It is also not appropriate that ministers should have lengthy prior access to certain statistics but other interested parties do not. The Statistics Authority does not seem to have sufficient control over the quality and integrity of the different data sets and statistical products produced by departments and their agencies. Planning and improving data access both within Government and for users outside Government should be given greater attention by the Statistics Authority, as well as by Government departments.

Download or read book The administration of examinations for 15 19 year olds in England written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Education Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-07-03 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report from the Education Committee looks at the administration of examinations for 15-19 year olds in England. The Committee expresses serious concerns about incentives in the exam system and about competition on syllabus content. Incentives in the system should be changed so the downward pressure through the competition of exam boards is mitigated. The Committee considers a number of options to change incentives, including: (i) A single board. This offers a simpler system, with no risk of competition, but the Committee believes the cost, risk and disruption outweigh the benefits; (ii) Franchising of subjects to exam boards. This removes syllabus competition, but again has downsides; (3) Or the current system of multiple boards. The Committee sees no benefit in competition on syllabus content, but the setting and marking of exams and associated administration, if properly regulated, could generate incentives and drive quality up, offering value for money to schools and colleges.The Committee also recommends the development of national syllabuses, accredited by Ofqual. The syllabuses would be developed by exam boards in conjunction with learned bodies and employer organisations and could therefore retain the benefits of competition on quality and the incentive for exam boards to innovate.

Download or read book Engineering in government written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-04-30 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 2009, the predecessor Science and Technology Committee published the findings of its wide-ranging inquiry into engineering, "Engineering: turning ideas into reality" (HCP 50-I, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780215529268). The Committee examined four case studies: (i) nuclear engineering; (ii) plastic electronics engineering; (iii) geo-engineering; and (iv) engineering in Government. Through the case study on engineering in Government, the Committee made a number of recommendations to improve the Government's use of engineering advice and expertise in policy processes, which were supplemented further by the 2009 report "Putting Science and Engineering at the Heart of Government Policy" (HCP 168-I, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780215540348). In this report, the Committee states that Government and the engineering community have made progress in integrating engineering expertise and concerns into the formulation of policy. The formation of the Engineering the Future alliance as a coordinated voice for the professional engineering community and the ongoing efforts of the Government Chief Scientific Adviser in raising the profile of engineering advice are commended. The Government needs to ensure that engineering continues to have a high profile in policy, and particularly in policy development.

Download or read book Malware and cyber crime written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-02-02 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Malicious software - designed to infect computers to steal bank details and identity information - poses a growing threat in the UK as more people use the internet and an increasing proportion of economic activity takes place online. The Science and Technology Committee say the Government must do more to help the public understand how to stay safe online. It calls for a prolonged awareness raising campaign to increase public understanding of personal online security. Eighty per cent of protection against cyber-attack is routine IT hygiene, yet currently there is no single first point of advice and help for consumers and much of the online information about internet security is often technical or jargon filled. Television exposure is crucial to gain the widest possible exposure to the safety message, and more should be done to promote and resource the existing Government website Get Safe Online. Advice from Get Safe Online should be provided with every device capable of accessing the internet and all Government websites should link to the website and highlight the latest security updates. The provision of Government services by the 'digital by default' policy will increasingly require those in receipt of Government benefits and services to access these online. The Committee raises concerns that the scheme will be of greater use in protecting the Government against welfare fraud than the individual user against crime. The Government should investigate the potential for imposing statutory safety standards if the industry cannot demonstrate that voluntary self-regulation can improve security.

Download or read book Alcohol guidelines written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-01-09 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report raises concerns about the Government's advice on sensible drinking and recommends that alcohol guidelines are reviewed. In 1987, the "sensible limits" for drinking were defined as 21 units of alcohol a week for men and 14 for women. By the early 1990s, scientific evidence suggesting that alcohol consumption might reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, prompted a review of the guidelines, and the drinking guidelines were then couched in daily terms: men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day and women no more than two to three units a day. The Committee is sceptical about using the purported health benefits of alcohol as a basis for daily guidelines for all the adult population, particularly as any protective effects would only apply to men over 40 years and post-menopausal women. Evidence suggests that the guidelines should not be increased and that people should take at least two drink-free days a week. While public awareness of the existence of guidelines is high, a deeper understanding of what the guidelines were and of what a unit of alcohol looked like is lacking. Through the Public Health Responsibility Deal, the Government is working with the drinks industry to ensure that over 80% of alcoholic products on shelf will have labels with alcoholic unit content and the drinking guidelines by 2013. But the Government should remain mindful that sensible drinking messages may conflict with the business objectives of drinks companies and exercise proper scrutiny and oversight.

Download or read book Special Advisors in the Thick of it written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-10-14 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Public Administration Select Committee says special advisers (SpAds) should be 'men and women of standing and experience' with a legitimate and valuable function to play in government, but they need better training and support to prevent future problems and misunderstandings about their role and conduct. Ministers must recognise that they have responsibility, not just accountability, for the conduct of their special advisers, and actively ensure that they are fully aware of what their advisers are doing in their name. The Committee says that it remains concerned that this responsibility has 'proved to be more theoretical than actual' and says it cannot recall any minister ever resigning over the conduct of a special adviser, despite some astonishing cases. PASC says that the special advisers' role protects the impartiality of the Civil Service, by performing tasks which it would be inappropriate for permanent, impartial officials to perform, and helping to ensure that the Government's policy objectives are delivered, but that ministers must be able to justify that the tasks they undertake are in the public interest. Despite concerns raised by PASC's predecessor Committee more than ten years ago, the training and support for new special advisers remains inadequate. The Committee makes a number of recommendations including that the PM's Adviser on Ministers' Interests should be empowered to instigate his own investigations of potential breaches of the Ministerial Code, so that the Prime Minister is not able to protect his ministers from appropriate investigation of the conduct of their advisers, and that the PM's Adviser should himself be independently appointed and subject to a pre-appointment hearing

Download or read book Pre appointment hearing with the Government s preferred candidate for chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The preferred candidate is Dr Paul Golby and the Committee recommends the appointment proceeds

Download or read book The Committee s Response to Government s Consultation on Permitted Development Rights for Homeowners written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-12-20 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's plans to extend planning permission exemptions are based on an inadequate impact assessment, warns the CLG Committee in a report published today. By failing to take account of the social and environmental effects, the same proposals also ignore two essential requirements of the sustainable development policy set out in the National Policy Planning Framework, say the MPs. The report responds to the Government's consultation on permitted development rights for homeowners, published on 12 November (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/11188/permitted.pdf). The Government's proposals would double the exemption from planning permission for extensions to certain kinds of housing - for a period of three years the size limits for the depth of single-storey extensions for detached houses would increase from 4m to 8m and from 3m to 6m for all other houses in non-protected areas. The Committee found the Government's rationale for these changes unconvincing and asked it to reconsider. The Committee also has concerns that the relaxation in the planning rules would be far from temporary.

Download or read book Business appointment rules written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-07-25 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACoBA) lacks adequate powers and resources; does not have appropriate membership for its function; and should be abolished. Instead, the Committee says, Government should legislate to establish statutory ethics regulation with a code of conduct and enforceable statutory penalties, overseen by an independent ethics Commissioner. The new Commissioner would also take over the role of the Prime Minister's Adviser on Ministers' Interests - who advises on ministerial conduct. PASC also renews their call for the power to initiate investigations into the Ministerial Code on his or her own initiative. Enforceable statutory penalties should be introduced for failing to comply with the Commissioner's recommendations. Government reforms are implementing increasingly close working between public servants and the private and voluntary sectors. Changes to public service delivery - including the outsourcing of public sector functions and the active promotion of "interchange" between sectors-are blurring the boundaries between the public sector and other organisations. This could present greater opportunities for public officials to use their position for personal gain, and may give rise to public concern about the probity of former, and serving, public officials. The Committee says that ACoBA's procedures are "opaque" and not helpful to departing public officials who may need guidance about what appointments may be regarded as inappropriate for them to take up and does nothing to deter misleading and damaging mis-reporting of individual cases

Download or read book Science in the Met Office written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Met Office currently operates as a Trading Fund within the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The Committee welcomes the move to BIS, particularly given the potential for closer links with the research base and the opportunity to develop further its commercial activities. Core services though for the public service must be maintained. The Met Office generates a significant proportion of its revenues from Government contracts and Customer Service Agreements, in addition to its' commercial services and the Government should provide clearly defined funding commitments. This would allow the Met Office to take a longer-term perspective on scientific and operational development. The Government has no plans to privatise the Met Office, which the Committee saw as putting at risk the strong partnerships built with international partners and the sharing of crucial meteorological data. Also the Committee welcomes the Government's initiative of Public Data Corporation. Some concern though is expressed that scientific advances in weather forecasting and the associated public benefits (particularly in regard to severe weather warnings) are available but are being held back by insufficient supercomputing capacity. The Met Office should attempt to streamline the scrutiny of science under one committee and develop a strong customer relationship with key government departments.

Download or read book The Honours System written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-08-29 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evidence is still that honours are more likely to be awarded to civil servants and celebrities than to people who volunteer in their local community. The Committee heard that the process of awarding honours remains opaque, even to the Queen's representatives in the counties, the Lords Lieutenant. PASC calls for an increase in the proportion of people receiving honours for work in their local community, rather than to those who are awarded for their work as civil servants and in the wider public sector. This report sets out proposals to increase accountability and transparency and strengthening the link to the Monarch. These include: the introduction of an independent Honours Commission to consider nominations (a repeat recommendation from the last parliament); that the Prime Minister's "strategic direction" over the honours system be removed; a rebalancing of the proportion of honours awarded to civil servants and public sector workers, and volunteers in their local communities; that longer citations should be published, explaining the reason for awarding an honour; that the Lords Lieutenant should have an opportunity to consider and comment on all nominations for an honour within his or her lieutenancy; and that the Cabinet Office set out proposals for broadening the range of people who take up roles as independent members of the honours committees. The Committee also recommends, considering the decision to strip Fred Goodwin of his knighthood, that the Honours Forfeiture Committee be made independent and transparent, with clear and expanded criteria for forfeiture, chaired by an independent figure, such as a retired high court judge

Download or read book Strategic thinking in Government written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the light of recent concerns about a strategic vacuum at the centre of Government, this Report explores the capacity of Ministers and officials to carry out long-term strategic thinking to tackle the complex, diverse and unpredictable domestic and global challenges the country faces. It finds that an absence of clear and precise definition of terms meant that policy and different levels of strategy became muddled, leading to unintended and unwelcome outcomes. Drawing on the evidence it received, the Report sets out clear definitions for national or 'grand' strategy, operational strategy and policy. PASC have produced a number of recommendations to overcome the barriers to working strategically in Government. Central to these recommendations is that the Government should publish an annual 'Statement of National Strategy' in Parliament which reflects the interests of all parts of the UK and the devolved policy agendas. The report states that the Cabinet and its committees are accountable for decisions, but there remains a critical unfulfilled role at the centre of Government in coordinating and reconciling priorities across departments, and of long-term and short-term goals. The report concludes that the government's six strategic aims as provided to PASC are "too meaningless to serve any useful purpose". The strategic aims of the Government, informed by public opinion, should reflect the UK's national character, assets, capabilities, interests and values, and provide an indication of the objectives which policies must achieve

Download or read book Pre legislative scrutiny of the draft Gambling Licensing and Advertising Bill written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee and published by Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Around 80% of online gambling in the UK is conducted with operators which are not licensed here. In December 2012 the Government published a very short draft Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill to require overseas gambling operators to obtain a Gambling Commission licence. The overseas-based remote gambling operators generally opposed the Bill, on the grounds it was unnecessary for consumer protection, might drive consumers to cheaper unlicensed operators and was principally intended to bring overseas operators within the UK's tax regime. Much of the UK-based gambling industry, sports bodies and organisations working to combat problem gambling supported the principle of the Bill. Almost all those who gave oral or written evidence to the Committee raised the issue that the enforcement regime would have to be rigorous in order to provide any of the benefits to consumers. The Committee supports the principle that gambling should be regulated on a ’point of consumption' basis. The Committee also notes the concerns raised about taxation of the online industry. The Government stated that the ability to bring all operators serving UK consumers within the tax net is a consequence, but not the prime motivation, of the draft legislation. The Committee notes in this regard that, in setting a tax rate for remote gambling, the Treasury should bear in mind that too high a rate would be liable to drive customers and companies into the unregulated, black market.

Download or read book Devil s bargain written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Science and Technology Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-07-09 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK Government's position as an advocate for nuclear power makes it difficult for the public to trust it as an impartial source of information. Technically competent public bodies that are independent of Government - such as the Health & Safety Executive and Office for Nuclear Regulation - are in a much better position to engender public trust and influence risk perceptions. The Committee calls on these regulators to make greater efforts to communicate risk to the public and develop their role as trusted sources of information for lay people, in addition to providing risk information for technical audiences. There is also a lack of strategic coordination across Government when it comes to risk communication. A senior individual in Government should lead a Risk Communication Strategy team, drawing together existing expertise within Departments and public bodies - and be visibly responsible for overseeing risk communication. Furthermore, the decision to class the Fukushima incident at the same 'Level Seven' magnitude as Chernobyl - despite there being significantly lower levels of radioactive material released into the atmosphere and no deaths directly attributable to the accident - demonstrates the need to revise the scale used to communicate the magnitude of nuclear accidents. The global body responsible for the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) should review the scale. This report also calls on sources to emphasise to the public that exceeding recommended minimal radiation exposure levels may not pose any risk to people or the environment