Download or read book National Audit Office Department of Business Innovation and Skills HM Treasury Improving Access to Finance for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises HC 724 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite a renewed focus by government on the financing challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), there is scope for the range of funding initiatives currently in place to work as a more unified programme, according to the National Audit Office. Preparations for the Business Bank, which was publicly launched in October 2013 but will start operating as an independent entity in 2014, prompted the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) to re-examine the nature of the finance problems facing SMEs. These include a possible need by SMEs by 2017 for an additional £22 billion over and above the finance available to them. BIS and HM Treasury are able to draw on an increasingly strong body of data to inform decision-making, including Bank of England reports on credit conditions, the SME business barometer and aggregated information from the British Bankers' Association on loan applications and approvals. At present, although BIS and HM Treasury both have teams dealing with 'enterprise' policy, there is no formal research programme joining the Departments with other departments, such as HMRC, with an interest in SMEs. One of the Treasury's priorities is to support the development of new routes to finance for SMEs, while BIS schemes target specific parts of the market. To date, the Departments have not articulated clearly enough what the various schemes are expected to deliver as a programme. The NAO found that BIS-led schemes such as the Enterprise Finance Guarantee and Start-Up Loans provided direct support to around 5,900 firms in 2012-13, and the current schemes are generally performing positively in terms of meeting the largely activity-based success measures set for them. BIS has also taken steps to provide better explanations to SMEs on the options available to them for financing their business, but raising the profile of the help available will be a challenge for the Business Bank.
Download or read book International Convergence of Capital Measurement and Capital Standards written by and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2004 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Guidelines for Public Debt Management Amended written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2003-09-12 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NULL
Download or read book Meeting the aspirations of the British people written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-09 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's objective is to build a strong economy and a fair society, in which there is opportunity and security for all. The 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review, 'Meeting the aspirations of the British People' (Cm 7227), presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances, describes reforms that the Government is making and sets out the Government's priorities and spending plans for the years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, including: maintaining macroeconomic stability; investing in the future with total public spending rising from £589bn in 2007-08 to £678bn in 2010-11 including an additional £2bn for capital investment in public services; continuing the sustained investment in the NHS, with resources rising from £90bn in 2007-08 to £110bn by 2010-11 and with value for money savings of at least £8.2bn contributing to the funding of the conclusions of the Darzi Review 'Our NHS, our future'; further sustained increases in resources for education, science, transport, housing, child poverty, security and international poverty reduction and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; simplifying the tax system to make it fairer, simpler and more efficient; modernising the tax system through major reforms to inheritance tax and capital gains tax; steps to protect the environment, including reforms of the tax regime for aviation and a new Environmental Taxation Fund to support the demonstration and deployment of new energy and efficiency technologies. For related publications, see 9780102944556 (2007 Budget Statement), 9780101698429 (2006 Pre-Budget), and for the Darzi Review see (http://www.ournhs.nhs.uk/files/283411_OurNHS_v3acc.pdf)
Download or read book The Insolvency Service written by House of Commons Business and Enterprise and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-05-06 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the economic downturn there has been an alarming increase in the number of companies entering liquidation and unprecedented numbers of people are being made bankrupt. So the Committee decided to review the work of the Insolvency Service and found it to operate in a generally efficient and effective way. The investigation, though, uncovered concerns about the insolvency regime. Public confidence in the insolvency regime will be damaged unless prompt, robust and effective action is taken to ensure that pre-pack administrations (when a company's business and assets are sold on terms that were negotiated between the buyer and the administrator before the company formally entered administration) are transparent and free from abuse. This causes particular outrage where the existing management buy back the business and continue to trade clear of the original debts ("Phoenix pre-packs"). Pre-packs of this kind fuel concerns about illegitimate, self-serving alliances between directors and insolvency practitioners. The interests of unsecured trade creditors must take a higher priority, especially in "phoenix" pre-pack administrations. The Committee welcomes the new practice statement, Statement of Insolvency Practice 16, which aims to increase the transparency of pre-packs. Monitoring of its implementation, in the recession, becomes a matter of considerable urgency. Insolvency practitioners' remuneration is perceived as unduly high by many creditors: the Insolvency Service should publicise the results of it monitoring to see whether insolvency practitioners are complying with the current practice statement governing the approval of their fees. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform must ensure the Service's funding arrangements are sufficiently robust to handle the very high levels of insolvency.
Download or read book The Regional Growth Fund written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-05-11 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report on the government fund to support private sector jobs and growth in places that rely on the public sector, the Regional Growth Fund, finds that the initial £1.4 billion investment could result in some 41,000 more full-time-equivalent private sector jobs in the economy than without the Fund. However, there was scope to have generated more jobs relative to the amount of grant awarded. The Fund has not optimised value for money because a significant proportion of the funds were allocated to projects that offer relatively few jobs for the money invested. The report concludes that applying tighter controls over the value for money offered by individual bids and then allocating funding across more bidding rounds could have created thousands more jobs from the same resources. Rigorous evaluation will be required to quantify precisely the Fund's overall employment impact. More than two thirds (28,000) of the 41,000 additional jobs are expected to be delivered indirectly, for example through knock-on effects in companies' supply chains or the wider economy. The average project will last at least seven years. However, it is not clear how much of the Fund's boost to the private sector will be sustained in the longer term. It has also taken longer than expected to turn conditional offers of grants for projects into final offers. Therefore, despite the government's intention to get projects up and running quickly, only around a third have so far received final offers of funding
Download or read book Impact Assessment in the EU written by Andrea Renda and published by CEPS. This book was released on 2006 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of ex ante and ex post impact assessment in streamlining the regulatory environment and improving the legislative process has been stressed by scholars and testified to by international best practices. The potential benefits of regulatory impact assessment are also being rediscovered by EU officials, who lose no chance to recall that the Commission's ambitious "growth and jobs" strategy heavily depends on the pervasiveness of impact assessment in the regulatory process at EU and member state level. This study, conceived for scholars and policymakers, provides an overview of the state of the art on impact assessment. It focuses on the latest developments in the United States, UK, and EU, and presents a scorecard analysis of the Commission's extended impact assessments. The author concludes with a road map for improving the transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness of the EU Integrated Impact Assessment model.
Download or read book Mapping research and innovation in the State of Israel written by Lemarchand, Guillermo A. and published by UNESCO Publishing. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pre budget Report 2008 written by Great Britain. Treasury and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2008 Pre-Budget Report presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances, and reports on how in the face of major global economic shocks the Government intends to support the economy, businesses and households through these uncertain times while delivering its long-term goals. Measures announced include: temporarily reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate to 15 per cent from1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009; bringing forward £3 billion of capital spending from 2010-11 including introducing a green stimulus supporting low carbon growth and jobs; introducing a new additional higher rate of income tax of 45 per cent for those with incomes above £150,000 from April 2011; increasing national insurance contributions by 0.5 per cent from April 2011; increasing alcohol and tobacco duties; a two pence per litre increase in fuel duty from 1 December). Immediate action to help those individuals and businesses most affected by the economic downturn include: increases in the income tax personal allowance; bringing forward the increase in Child Benefit; increases of the Child Tax Credit and a payment of £60 to all pensioners; help through mortgage rescue and Support for Mortgage Interest schemes for eligible homeowners in difficulty and a commitment from major mortgage lenders not to initiate repossession action within at least three months of an owner-occupier going into arrears; an additional £1.3 billion to support for the unemployed to find a new job; measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises facing credit constraints; a new HMRC Business Payment Support Service to allow businesses in temporary financial difficulty to pay their HMRC tax bills on a timetable they can afford; and more generous tax relief for businesses now making losses and the modification of a number of planned tax reforms, including vehicle excise duty, air passenger duty, and the deferral of the increase in the small companies' rate of corporation tax.
Download or read book The Challenge of Obesity in the WHO European Region and the Strategies for Response written by World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2007 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a brief, clear and easily accessible way, this summary illustrates the dynamics of the obesity epidemic and its impact on public health throughout the WHO European Region, particularly in eastern countries. It describes how factors that increase the risk of obesity are shaped in different settings, such as the family, school, community and workplace. It makes both ethical and economic arguments for accelerating action against obesity, and analyses effective programs and policies in different government sectors, such as education, health, agriculture and trade, urban planning and transport. The summary also describes how to design policies and programs to prevent obesity and how to monitor progress, and calls for specific action by stakeholders: not only government sectors but also the private sector - including food manufacturers, advertisers and traders - and professional consumers' and international and intergovernmental organizations such as the European Union.
Download or read book National Oil Companies and Value Creation written by Silvana Tordo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-07-13 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approximately two billion dollars a day of petroleum are traded worldwide, which makes petroleum the largest single item in the balance of payments and exchanges between nations. Petroleum represents the larger share in total energy use for most net exporters and net importers. While petroleum taxes are a major source of income for more than 90 countries in the world, poor countries net importers are more vulnerable to price increases than most industrialized economies. This paper has five chapters. Chapter one describes the key features of upstream, midstream, and downstream petroleum operations and how these may impact value creation and policy options. Chapter two draws on ample literature and discusses how changes in the geopolitical and global economic environment and in the host governments' political and economic priorities have affected the rationale for and behavior of National Oil Companies' (NOCs). Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of the philosophical reasons for creating aNOC, this chapter seeks to highlight the special nature of NOCs and how it may affect their existence, objectives, regulation, and behavior. Chapter three proposes a value creation index to measure the contribution of NOCs to social value creation. A conceptual model is also proposed to identify the factors that affect value creation. Chapter four presents the result of an exploratory statistical analysis aimed to determine the relative importance of the drivers of value creation. In addition, the experience of a selected sample of NOCs is analyzed in detail, and lessons of general applicability are derived. Finally, Chapter five summarizes the conclusions.
Download or read book Financial Accounting and Reporting written by Barry Elliott and published by Financial Times/Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2011 with total page 897 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Financial Accounting and Reporting is the most up to date text on the market. Now fully updated in its fourteenth edition, it includes extensive coverage of International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This market-leading text offers students a clear, well-structured and comprehensive treatment of the subject. Supported by illustrations and exercises, the book provides a strong balance of theoretical and conceptual coverage. Students using this book will gain the knowledge and skills to help them apply current standards, and critically appraise the underlying concepts and financial reporting methods.
Download or read book Legislative Oversight and Budgeting written by Rick Stapenhurst and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In most countries, parliament has the constitutional mandate to both oversee and hold government to account. In light of the increased focus on good governance, academics and legislative strengthening practitioners are re-examining parliament's oversight function with a view to increasing public financial accountability, curbing corruption, and contributing to poverty reduction. This volume brings together research from many different perspectives and many different legislative settings worldwide. As the country case studies in section III demonstrate, the accountability mechanisms or oversight tools available to the legislature vary based on constitutionally defined powers of the legislature, institutional arrangements between the branches of government, divisions of authority between national, regional, and local governments, the degree of legitimacy conferred on the legislature, and the resources available to it. The budget process provides critical opportunities. Section II of this volume is devoted to examining budget oversight from the formulation and approval of the budget, to implementation and the ex post examination of the public accounts. Special attention is also paid to mechanisms to assist parliaments such as Public Accounts Committees and independent parliamentary budget offices. This title will be of interest to parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, legislative strengthening practitioners, and students of legislative development.
Download or read book A Guide to Biotechnology Finance written by Minnesota. Department of Employment and Economic Development and published by Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. This book was released on 2005 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Guide to Bank Underwriting Dealing and Brokerage Activities written by Robert L. Tortoriello and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Practice and Procedure of Parliament written by M. N. Kaul and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 1041 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Innovation Across Central Government written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government faces increasing pressure to do more with fewer financial resources and, with challenges such as climate change and an ageing population, will require innovation in public services. Departments have started to implement some of the recommendations of the National Audit Office's 2006 report on innovation (HC 1447-I, session 2005-06, ISBN 9780102942330), but are still not maximising the opportunities to innovate. The majority of cases of innovation originate with senior management within departments. There is potential to encourage more innovation from front line staff and service users. At the front line, public servants can be reluctant to put forward ideas where they do not appreciate how innovation relates to the goals of the organisation and can resist change they feel is forced upon them. Other barriers include risk-averse attitudes within departments and a concentration on targets, budgets and high-profile national initiatives. Departments should develop strategies for encouraging and developing innovation. It is not possible to identify exactly how much central government spends on developing innovation, but estimates by the NAO suggest that departments have allocated at least £3 billion in the form of innovation budgets, and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills announced a further £2.5 billion to be spent encouraging and supporting innovation from 2008-9 to 2010-11. There are no measures in place to assess the impact of this expenditure. Government should make use of the survey work done by the NAO for this report and develop it further to determine how effective this expenditure is.
