Download or read book The Stationery Office Annual Catalogue written by Stationery Office (Great Britain) and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Financial management in the Home Office written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Home Office has made good progress in improving its financial management since 2009 when the National Audit Office last evaluated its financial capability. However, while financial control is good, the Home Office could do more to integrate its financial and operational planning and thereby understand better the link between resources and performance. In addition, many of the strengths which the Department demonstrates in its core business are much less apparent in its 'change programmes'. The Department is starting to benefit from its new governance structures but there still challenges. The Department has clear plans to reduce costs in its core activities but business areas have not fully considered efficiency and effectiveness when evaluating where cuts should be made. The Department will need to achieve further savings of £1.1 billion a year by 2014-15 but a third of this sum remains uncertain. Reductions in funding from the Home Office mean that police forces must make savings worth around £1.5 billion by 2014-15 through efficiency improvements; but, in 2011, around two-thirds of forces had shortfalls in their cost reduction plans, amounting to £500 million in total. The Department will shortly be in a position to confirm how far this savings gap has been covered in the plans. There are risks to the successful delivery of the Department's change programmes, specifically in respect of the development of the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the phasing out of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA)

Download or read book HC 238 Her majesty s passport Office Delays in Processing Applications written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applications for a passport are administered by Her Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO). This executive agency of the Home Office was established on 13 May 2013. At the beginning of June 2014, it became apparent that there were delays in the processing of passport applications. Members of the public who did not contact their MPs were held in queues and their cases were not dealt with a sufficient level of service. All applicants should be able to receive details of their applications, regardless of whether they follow it up themselves, or if it is followed up by their constituency MP. A number of people have ended up out of pocket due to HMPO's inability to meet its service standard. HMPO should compensate all those people who made an initial application on or after 1 May 2014, who subsequently upgraded to the fast-track service and who met the criteria for the free upgrade which was later offered and the Home Office should remove the agency status from Her Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) bringing it back under the direct control of Ministers.

Download or read book Departmental annual report 2010 11 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-04-13 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the impressive performance of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in representing the UK's interests across the globe with what is, in Governmental terms, a particularly small budget, the Foreign Affairs Committee believes that the FCO is under-funded. This situation has been exacerbated by the Spending Review 2010 and the lack of detail provided by the FCO and the BBC World Service as to exactly how the spending reductions target will be met is disappointing. There are concerns about the steps taken by the FCO to adjust to its reduced budget: reductions in the deployment of UK-based staff overseas and the optimistic planned programme of property sales will have a detrimental impact on the ability of the UK to protect its interests overseas. The establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS) will place a further strain on the FCO's resources. The Committee welcomes the appointment of Lord Williams of Baglan to the post of "International Trustee" with responsibility for the BBC World Service, but reiterates its belief that a formal concordat governing the World Service's budget and output should be drawn up setting out the World Service's independence from budgetary pressures elsewhere in the BBC. The budget cuts faced by the British Council will lead to the Council becoming a substantially different organisation by the end of the Spending Review period. The greater emphasis that the British Council will place on commercial activity risks a diminution of the UK's influence and soft power.

Download or read book Annual Report written by Samoa. Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Parliamentary Debates Hansard written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions 2012 written by International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2012-09-14 with total page 3148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published since 1950, this authoritative annual reference is based on a unique IMF database that tracks exchange and trade arrangements for 187 IMF member countries, along with Hong Kong SAR, Aruba, and Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions (AREAER) draws together information available to the IMF from a number of sources, including during official IMF staff visits to member countries. There is a separate chapter for each of the 189 countries included, and these are presented in a clear, easy-to-read tabular format. A summary table allows for simple cross-country comparisons of key features of their exchange and trade regimes. The report's introduction summarizes recent global trends and developments. It discusses such topical issues as exchange rate arrangements, current or capital transactions, or prudential regulations. The individual country chapters outline exchange measures in place, the structure and setting of exchange rates, arrangements for payments and receipts, procedures for resident and nonresident accounts, mechanisms for import and export payments and receipts, controls on capital transactions, and provisions specific to the financial sector. The report now provides more detailed information on the operations of foreign exchange markets and exchange rate mechanisms and better describes the regulatory framework for current and capital account transactions.

Download or read book Growing the Productivity of Government Services written by Patrick Dunleavy and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Carrera and Dunleavy provide a crystal clear and comprehensive account of the complex issues involved in how best to improve the productivity of government services. They offer a nuanced but powerful explanation of productivity puzzles, conundrums and dilemmas in the public sector. But they also offer solutions to many of these problems. Finally, I have found a text on public economics that makes sense, gives genuine management insights and offers real suggestions to practitioners as to what to do next.' – Barry Quirk, Chief Executive, London Borough of Lewisham, UK 'This book presents a welcome and sobering analysis of productivity performance in UK central government – a subject that has received remarkably little serious academic attention up to now, in spite of decades of general commentary on managerialism.' – Christopher Hood, All Souls College, UK 'Leandro Carrera and Patrick Dunleavy have performed an amazing feat in this book through their rigorous examination of a thorny topic that has dogged pundits and academics alike. Just how efficient is government and how well does it do its job? As a result of an impressive – but accessible – set of data analyses, the authors make an authoritative attack on the proponents of the New Public Management, and offer some clear recommendations for reform based on better use of new technology.' – Peter John, University College London, UK Productivity is essentially the ratio of an organization's outputs divided by its inputs. For many years it was treated as always being static in government agencies. In fact productivity in government services should be rising rapidly as a result of digital changes and new management approaches, and it has done so in some agencies. However, Dunleavy and Carrera show for the first time how complex are the factors affecting productivity growth in government organizations – especially management practices, use of IT, organizational culture, strategic mis-decisions and political and policy churn. With government budgets under stress in many countries, this pioneering book shows academics, analysts and officials how to measure outputs and productivity in detail; how to cope with problems of quality variations; and how to achieve year-on-year, sustainable improvements in the efficiency of government services.

Download or read book Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007 08 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is the Committee's annual review of how the FCO is managing its resources, examining the departmental annual report for 2007-08 (Cm. 7398, ISBN 9780101739825). Chapters cover: new strategic framework; performance measurement; global network; essential services; FCO Services; personnel issues; transparency and openness; financial management; public diplomacy and communication; the British Council; the BBC World Service. The Committee is concerned that the FCO is facing serious financial pressures in this financial year due to the Treasury's withdrawal of its support for the Overseas Pricing Mechanism (OPM) which used to protect departments from the weakening of sterling. There is a risk that the FCO may not be able to meet higher international subscriptions over the next two financial years, causing its performance against Public Service Agreement targets to suffer. The likely increase in the UN Regular Budget and other international subscriptions will push this figure even higher. The FCO should have to shoulder the financial burden from within its already tight budget to pay for subscriptions which also benefit other Government departments. The Committee recommends that additional nondiscretionary costs should properly be met by the Treasury.

Download or read book Work of the Permanent Secretary April December 2011 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-05-29 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee identifies significant savings made through improved procurement practices, which rose to £75 million in the first three quarters of the 2011-12 financial year. It welcomes the fact that the Home Office is acting on its earlier recommendation to extend the use of the compulsory national framework for police procurement, however expresses concern about the progress of the e-borders programme and the lack of clarity over plans to introduce privatisation into policing. The Committee found that the costly joint procurement exercise being undertaken by Surrey and West Midlands Police lacked clarity. The Committee were not convinced that the Forces fully understood, or were fully able to articulate the process they were undertaking. With the overall costs of exploring this process set at £5 million, the Committee called on the Home Office to take responsibility for ensuring the public and stakeholders were aware of the process and to postpone the exercise till after the election of the Police and Crime Commissioners. Also, despite the letting of new contracts to Serco and IBM in preparation for the London Olympics, the Committee remains concerned about the progress of the e-Borders programme. The Committee also found that an unacceptable level of claims under the Riot Damages Act were still outstanding and recommends that the Home Office work with police authorities to publish a timetable for the payment of all outstanding claims. All those who made a legitimate claim should receive their payments by the first anniversary at the latest

Download or read book The future of the Newport Passport Office written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Welsh Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-02-03 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newport Passport Application Processing Centre serves the whole of Wales and south west England. It deals with 47,000 passport applications annually-around 10 per cent of the national total. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) proposes to close the Passport Office at Newport, with a loss of over 300 jobs, although the Home Office announced that a customer service centre would be retained in Newport to service South Wales and the South West of England. The piecemeal nature of the announcements suggests the lack of a co-ordinated strategy regarding the future of the IPS in Wales. The Office's significance to Wales and its value to the Welsh economy have not been truly appreciated by the Government. No economic impact assessment of the proposal has been completed, and the criteria on which the decision was based should be re-examined. The Newport Passport Office is the second largest employer in the city centre. Its closure would have a significant economic impact on the city and would be a further blow for the Welsh economy. The Committee is not convinced that long-term savings will be made by reducing the size of the Office. The IPS should, on the contrary, provide a detailed appraisal of the costs and benefits of consolidation and expansion as opposed to a reduction of services. Without the retention of the office in Newport, the Government's duty to provide a Welsh-language service to users may not be properly discharged.

Download or read book Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions 2013 written by International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-12-15 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the 64th issue of the AREAER. It provides a description of the foreign exchange arrangements, exchange and trade systems, and capital controls of all IMF member countries. It also provides information on the operation of foreign exchange markets and controls on international trade. It describes controls on capital transactions and measures implemented in the financial sector, including prudential measures. In addition, it reports on exchange measures imposed by member countries for security reasons. A single table provides a snapshot of the exchange and trade systems of all IMF member countries. The Overview describes in detail how the general trend toward foreign exchange liberalization continued during 2012, alongside a strengthening of the financial sector regulatory framework. The AREAER is available in several formats. The Overview in print and online, and the detailed information for each of the 191 member countries and territories is included on a CD that accompanies the printed Overview and in an online database, AREAER Online. In addition to the information on the exchange and trade system of IMF member countries in 2012, AREAER Online contains historical data published in previous issues of the AREAER. It is searchable by year, country, and category of measure and allows cross country comparisons for time series.

Download or read book Surveillance and Identity written by David Barnard-Wills and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2012 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveillance and Identity analyses the discourse of surveillance in the contemporary United Kingdom, drawing upon public language from central government, governmental agencies, activist movements, finance and banking and the news media. Examining the logics of these discourses and revealing the manner in which they construct problems of governance in the light of the insecurity of identity, this book shows how identity is fundamentally linked to surveillance, as governmental discourses privilege surveillance as a response to social problems.

Download or read book Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 written by Mrs.Sage De Clerck and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2007–09 international financial crisis underscored the importance of reliable and timely statistics on the general government and public sectors. Government finance statistics are a basis for fiscal analysis and they play a vital role in developing and monitoring sound fiscal programs and in conducting surveillance of economic policies. The Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 represents a major step forward in clarifying the standards for compiling and presenting fiscal statistics and strengthens the worldwide effort to improve public sector reporting and transparency.

Download or read book The Rights of Refugees under International Law written by James C. Hathaway and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 1453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only comprehensive analysis of international refugee rights, anchored in the hard facts of refugee life around the world.

Download or read book Work of the UK Border Agency August December 2011 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Home Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-04-11 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this Home Affairs Committee's report into the Work of the UK Border Agency, it criticises the Agency for failing to deport more than 600 foreign national prisoners who were released between 1999 and 2006 and are still in the country and for failing to clear the "controlled archive" of lost applicants. At the current rate it will take a further 4 years to close all cases. The Committee found that the Agency has still not resolved all of the asylum 'legacy' cases first identified in 2006. Instead, there are 17,000 ongoing cases still awaiting a final decision and the Agency appears to be discovering more cases. The Committee remains uncertain over the feasibility of the Government's e-borders timetable. It finds it difficult to see how the scheme can be applied to all rail and sea passengers by December 2014. It acknowledges that the Government must have a comprehensive e-border system if it is to be effective. However, it needs clarity on policy and practicalities for achieving this. The Committee makes a series of specific recommendations aimed at improving the working of the Agency, concerning: appeals, bogus colleges, data provided and use of statistics. It calls on the Home Office to act immediately to deal with the public scepticism over the effectiveness of the UK Border Agency and to require clarity in the information produced for both the public and Parliament.

Download or read book Asset Recovery Handbook written by Jean-Pierre Brun and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2021-02-08 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developing countries lose billions each year through bribery, misappropriation of funds, and other corrupt practices. Much of the proceeds of this corruption find 'safe haven' in the world's financial centers. These criminal flows are a drain on social services and economic development programs, contributing to the impoverishment of the world's poorest countries. Many developing countries have already sought to recover stolen assets. A number of successful high-profile cases with creative international cooperation has demonstrated that asset recovery is possible. However, it is highly complex, involving coordination and collaboration with domestic agencies and ministries in multiple jurisdictions, as well as the capacity to trace and secure assets and pursue various legal options—whether criminal confiscation, non-conviction based confiscation, civil actions, or other alternatives. This process can be overwhelming for even the most experienced practitioners. It is exceptionally difficult for those working in the context of failed states, widespread corruption, or limited resources. With this in mind, the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative has developed and updated this Asset Recovery Handbook: A Guide for Practitioners to assist those grappling with the strategic, organizational, investigative, and legal challenges of recovering stolen assets. A practitioner-led project, the Handbook provides common approaches to recovering stolen assets located in foreign jurisdictions, identifies the challenges that practitioners are likely to encounter, and introduces good practices. It includes examples of tools that can be used by practitioners, such as sample intelligence reports, applications for court orders, and mutual legal assistance requests. StAR—the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative—is a partnership between the World Bank Group and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that supports international efforts to end safe havens for corrupt funds. StAR works with developing countries and financial centers to prevent the laundering of the proceeds of corruption and to facilitate more systematic and timely return of stolen assets.