Download or read book Work of the Committee in 2008 09 Second Report of Session 2009 10 Report Together with Formal Minutes and Written Evidence written by Great Britain. Parliament. Joint Committee on Human Rights and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A report that provides an overview of the Committee's work during the 2008-09 parliamentary session and draws attention to improvements to the human rights landscape in the UK which it has commended in reports during the year. It also mentions a number of continuing areas for concern.

Download or read book Second report of session 2012 13 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-05-29 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Report of the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee today publishes its report on the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland Report (HCP 171, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780215542687). This report concludes the Committee's inquiry into the feasibility of implementing the proposals made in the Report of the Consultative Group on the Past in Northern Ireland. The Committee reached the following conclusions, including: that Northern Ireland has not yet reached a consensus on how to move on from its recent past; also, it is not clear that Northern Ireland needs a Legacy Commission when bodies such as the Victims and Survivors Commission and the Historical Enquiries Team are already dealing in different ways with aspects of the legacy of the Troubles; that healthcare services, particularly mental health services, for those affected by the Troubles are under strong pressure; that any future Legacy Commission should be chaired, or co-chaired, by figures from Northern Ireland rather than by a foreign figurehead; that the Northern Ireland Assembly, rather than the UK Government, should ultimately be responsible for decisions on how to fund a Legacy Commission - and therefore on the width of its remit; and that clarification is required on what role the Irish Government would play in setting up such a Commission, and in particular on what financial contribution it would be expected to make.

Download or read book Second report of session 2010 11 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Second report of Session 2010-11 : Documents considered by the Committee on 15 September 2010, including the following recommendation for debate, financial management, report, together with formal Minutes

Download or read book Communities and Local Government s Departmental Annual Report 2008 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its report of last year on the Communities and Local Government's Departmental Annual Report 2007 (HC 170, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215037978) the Committee commented on the particular nature of the Department's work: on its unusual reliance for the achievement of the goals Government has set it on a plethora of other Departments, agencies, non-departmental bodies, local authorities and other stakeholders; on the long, devolved delivery chains by which those goals therefore have to be delivered; and on the skills of influence, brokering and negotiation which are required to achieve them. In this Report the Committee assesses the progress made since last. The most recent Cabinet Office Capability Review concludes that there has been a positive "direction of travel" for CLG in that period, but the Committee concludes that there is still some way to go before CLG can be said to be performing at the highest achievable level of effectiveness. The Department's overall performance against its Public Service Agreement targets is likewise moving in the right direction but still short of full effectiveness. Achievement of efficiency targets is applauded. Finally, the report considers examples of particular policies which highlight some of the Department's strengths and weaknesses, and follow up some issues in earlier inquiries. These issues include: eco-towns; the Decent Homes programme; Home Information Packs; Fire Service response times; Firebuy; the FiReControl programme. The report also considers the Department's response to the serious flooding of summer 2007, and to the reviews which followed; and the mismanagement of European Regional Development Fund monies.

Download or read book Pre budget Report 2008 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines, firstly, the Treasury's response to recession. The fiscal stimulus measures intended to pull the economy out of recession represent an invaluable opportunity to transform the UK into a low carbon economy. But meeting climate change and renewable energy targets will require a step-change in environmental investment. This year's Pre-Budget Report announced a £535m package of green fiscal stimulus measures designed to tackle economic and environmental problems simultaneously. This investment is welcome, but the scale too small- most of this funding was already committed, and will be offset by reduced spending in 2010-11. Extra funding announced for the Warm Front programme will not deliver the scale and speed of change that is needed. Programmes aimed at improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings should be the number one priority for green fiscal stimulus. It is disappointing that the wider fiscal stimulus package contains hundreds of millions of pounds for road building and widening. The Treasury should publish an assessment of the net impacts of its fiscal stimulus package on the environment. The second part of the report looks at green taxation. In real terms, revenue from green taxes has gone down slightly since 1998, while revenue from all taxation has increased by around 30 per cent. On aviation taxes, the Committee criticise the Treasury's backtracking on replacing Air Passenger Duty with a 'per plane' charge, and exhorts the Government to seek reform of the Chicago Convention so as to allow taxation of international aviation fuel. On motoring taxes, it calls for re-examination of the merits and practicalities of a 'car scrappage' scheme to pay people to trade in their existing, older cars, for newer, more efficient models.

Download or read book Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2008 09 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The FCO departmental report and resource accounts 2008-09 published as HC 460-I,II (ISBN 9780102961614)

Download or read book Public Services and the Third Sector written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the 11th report from the Public Administration Select Committee (HCP 112-I, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215521545) and focuses on public services and the third sector. Third sector organisations include charities and not-for-profit organisations as well as social enterprises. Government has been commissioning more public service deliveries from such organisations and the Committee, in this report, seeks to assess the impact of that policy approach, looking at the effects both on government and the service users as well as the public at large. The main claim for the use of third sector delivery service is that they can deliver a distinctive service that will improve the outcomes for service users. The Committee could not find evidence to corroborate that claim and believes that the Government's priority ought to be a greater understanding of the needs of the users of particular services and then identifying the organisation best placed to fulfil such services. The Committee believes such appointments should be based on merit as established through the tendering process but that importance lies with the commissioning authorities designing service specifications which play to the strengths of the best placed organisations. The Committee further states that "intelligent commissioning" is key, and that judgements about the use of a contract or grants, the importance of price on who wins the contract and whether there is scope for innovative methods of service delivery are important in getting the best result. The Committee also identified risks, and that it is important users of such services should not be affected whether a service is provided directly by the State or contracted out and that the Human Rights Act (PGA 1998. Chp. 42, ISBN 9780105442981) and the Freedom of Information Act (PGA 2000 Chp. 36, ISBN 9780105436003) should be extended to cover all organisations providing public service. For Volume 2, oral and written evidence, see (HCP 112-II, ISBN 9780215521552).

Download or read book Demonstrating Respect for Rights written by Great Britain. Parliament. Joint Committee on Human Rights and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrating respect for Rights? : A human rights approach to policing protest, seventh report of session 2008-09, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

Download or read book Sustainable development in a changing climate written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-03 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change threatens to destroy gains made in poverty reduction in many developing countries. Substantial funding will be needed to help poor countries tackle climate change. This funding must be additional to pledges already made for development assistance because developing countries are not responsible for the emissions which have caused climate change and the estimated costs cannot be met from existing development assistance or national budgets. The current economic crisis could derail efforts to tackle climate change or it could provide an opportunity to chart a new "greener" growth strategy in developing. Climate change should be central to the Department for International Development's (DFID's) work in developing countries and it needs to start establishing comprehensive climate change programmes. Sustainable management of the natural resource base is vital. DFID has focussed on water resources management and it should now consider the creation of marine and forestry management strategies to ensure that these sectors can continue to contribute to economic growth, in a sustainable manner. Developed countries should ensure that actions taken to reduce emissions do not impact negatively on developing countries. Tourism and export horticulture are important contributors to poverty reduction in many poor countries and these sectors should be supported to increase their pro-poor benefits and reduce their climate change impact. There is a need for more research into low carbon options which are appropriate for poor countries and for mechanisms to facilitate knowledge and technology transfer. The Copenhagen Conference to decide the successor to the Kyoto Agreement must agree stringent emission reduction targets or increase the risk of more severe climate change impacts.

Download or read book Engineering written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engineering is a critical component of the national economy and of society in general. The Committee is convinced that the strength of the UK's engineering base means that the UK can play a major part in solving global problems such as climate change, food and water supply, energy security and economic instability. Engineering involves skills, higher education and innovation, and encompasses research and development, design, production, distribution and services. The Committee takes a case study approach in this report, exploring key themes through the lenses of nuclear engineering, plastic electronics engineering, geo-engineering and engineering in Government. It notes concerns about the UK's capacity to deliver a new generation of nuclear power stations, and there are significant skills shortages. The plastic electronics case study highlighted the potential opportunity afforded to the UK through the support of emerging, innovative industries, but we are likely to miss out on the economic return associated with translating the findings of research into commercialised technologies. The global nature of many engineering challenges was highlighted during the discussion of geo-engineering research, and it is essential that the views of the science, engineering and social science communities be seen as complementary sources of expertise in policy-making. Engineering in government demonstrated that engineering advice and scientific advice offer different things, and that this should be recognised in the policy process. Government does not have sufficient in-house engineering expertise and engineering advice is frequently not sought early enough during policy formulation (for example on eco-towns, renewable energy and large IT projects). There should be a greater level of engineering expertise in the generalist civil service as well as more engineering policy specialists.

Download or read book Free Speech after 9 11 written by Katharine Gelber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although there has been a lot written about how counter-terrorism laws impact on human rights and civil liberties, most of this work has focussed on the most obvious or egregious kinds of human rights abrogation, such as extended detention, torture, and extraordinary rendition. Far less has been written about the complex ways in which Western governments have placed new and far-reaching limitations on freedom of speech in this context since 9/11. This book compares three liberal democracies - the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, in particular showing the commonalities and similarities in what has occurred in each country, and the changes in the appropriate parameters of freedom of speech in the counter-terrorism context since 9/11, achieved both in policy change and the justification for that change. In all three countries much speech has been criminalized in ways that were considered anachronistic, or inappropriate, in comparable policy areas prior to 9/11. This is particularly interesting because other works have suggested that the United States' unique protection of freedom of speech in the First Amendment has prevented speech being limited in that country in ways that have been pursued in others. This book shows that this kind of argument misses the detail of the policy change that has occurred, and privileges a textual reading over a more comprehensive policy-based understanding of the changes that have occurred. The author argues that we are now living a new-normal for freedom of speech, within which restrictions on speech that once would have been considered aberrant, overreaching, and impermissible are now considered ordinary, necessary, and justified as long as they occur in the counter-terrorism context. This change is persistent, and it has far reaching implications for the future of this foundational freedom.

Download or read book Air quality written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-22 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report concludes that poor air quality reduces the life expectancy of everyone in the UK by an average of seven to eight months and up to 50,000 people a year may die prematurely because of it. Air pollution also causes significant damage to ecosystems. Despite these facts being known, air quality is not seen as a priority across government and the UK is failing to meet a range of domestic and European targets. The quantified costs of poor air quality that are used to develop policy are out-dated. They do not take account of all the known health effects, treatment costs, and environmental damage, nor do they take account of fines that could be imposed by the EU for failing to meet air quality targets. Many Government departments do not seem fully to understand how their policies affect air quality, the impact poor air quality has, and its cost to the economy. Awareness of the issue needs to be raised at all levels of government, and policies need to take greater account of air quality impacts. Transport causes the most exposure to harmful air pollutants, and air quality targets will not be met without a significant shift in transport policy. Local authorities need to do more to tackle poor air quality, and they must be given information on how to develop local air quality strategies.

Download or read book The 2007 comprehensive spending review written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-12-03 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is in five main sections: overall spending issues; efficiency and value for money; the new performance management framework; child poverty; and individual spending settlements. The planned rate of growth of public spending is set to be considerably slower than the rate of growth of recent years. This could lead to cost pressures on departmental spending as there will be a greater proportional growth in the Annual Managed Expenditure. There will also be cost pressures from public sector wage settlements, population growth and needs in particular sectors. The efficiency programmes are highly ambitious but the Committee recommends that savings should only be recorded if it could be shown that service standards have been maintained. There is a welcome for the decision not to impose explicit targets for reduction in Civil Service numbers. On child poverty the Committee note a possible tension between the target to halve child poverty by 2010-11 and that of eliminating child poverty by 2020. There is a concern that the Government has drawn back from a whole-hearted commitment to meet the 2010 target. They want the Government to either initiate a debate on the trade-off between the two targets or rededicate itself to the 2010-11 target, making it clear that the resources are available within the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Download or read book Policing of the G20 Protests written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-29 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The policing of the G20 Protests in April 2009 was a remarkably successful operation; more than 35,000 protesters demonstrated in the centre of London with a police presence of several thousand, yet there was a minimum of disruption. Aside from a few high-profile incidents, the policing of the G20 Protests passed without drama. However, these incidents and the tactics that led to them caused considerable adverse comment and have the potential to damage the public's faith in the police. The use of containment (detaining people in a confined area for a sustained period of time), and distraction tactics (the controlled use of force against those who appear hostile) while legitimate according to the police rule-book, shocked the public. Whether they should continue to be used must form the basis of a wide-ranging discussion on the future policing of public protests. Police communications with the media and the protesters must also improve. This would require the police, media and protesters to engage better with one another both before and during the protest. There are no circumstances in which it is acceptable for officers not to wear identification numbers and urgent action must be taken to ensure that officers have the resources to display identification at all times; those officers found to be consciously removing their identification numbers must face the strongest possible disciplinary measures. While the vast majority of officers on duty performed very well, the Committee is concerned that untrained and inexperienced officers were placed in such a highly combustible atmosphere. It cannot condone the use of untrained, inexperienced officers on the front-line of a public protest and feel that an element of luck must be attributed to the success of the operation.

Download or read book Work of the Committee in 2007 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Culture, Media and Sport Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-01-21 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Work of the Committee In 2007 : Third report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal Minutes

Download or read book Social care written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-12 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Health Committee calls for fundamental reform of the social care system in England and says political point-scoring must stop. Instead of indulging in pre-election politicking, all the parties should come together to map out sustainable reform. Consensus on the details of reforms must be achieved early in the new Parliament and a failure to do so will betray current and future generations. The report says the current social care system is chronically underfunded, severely rationed, locally variable, too often of poor quality and discriminates against older people. The Committee is highly critical of the Government's Free Personal Care at Home Bill which it says smacks of policy-making on the hoof and risks creating perverse incentives and being substantially underfunded. Free care funded from taxation has many supporters but has been ruled out as an option by the Government. The Committee urges debate on this issue. It also acknowledges the widespread concern about the proposed reform of disability benefits for older people, noting the lack of clear information from the Government on who the winners and losers will be. To mitigate significantly the worst aspects of the existing funding system, as an interim measure, the Committee recommends raising the capital thresholds in the means test. The Committee strongly supports giving people more choice and control over their care and support, but emphasises that vulnerable people must be properly protected.