Download or read book Mrs Caroline Spelman written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee on Standards and Privileges and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 9 June 2008, Mrs Caroline Spelman, MP for Meriden, asked the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate the circumstances of the employment of a member of her staff from 1997 to 1999, following press reports that parliamentary allowances may have been misused. The allegation is that Mrs Spelman subsidised the cost of nannying services out of her parliamentary allowances and that her administration assistant (Mrs Haynes) did not undertake secretarial or administrative duties to the extent for which she was paid. The Commissioner conducted a most thorough investigation and has concluded that the arrangements entered into by Mrs Spelman with Mrs Haynes had the unintended effect of misapplying some of Mrs Spelman's parliamentary allowances for non-parliamentary purposes. In effect there was an element of cross-subsidy. The Commissioner has reached this conclusion on the basis of the high standard of proof adopted by him for this inquiry, i.e. that it is significantly more likely to be true than not to be true. The Committee agrees with the Commissioner's conclusion that for two years from June 1997 Mrs Spelman paid Mrs Haynes from her parliamentary allowances a salary as her part-time administration assistant that enabled Mrs Haynes to work also as her nanny without additional or separate financial reward. This had the effect of misapplying part of Mrs Spelman's parliamentary allowances. This breach, which occurred at a time when both the Rules and expectations were less stringent than they are now, was unintentional. Mrs Spelman has accepted the Commissioner's findings and has agreed to pay back the misapplied sums.

Download or read book A green economy written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-05-21 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government has pledged to reduce over 10,000 pages of regulatory guidance, following its 'Red Tape Challenge', to help businesses comply with environmental laws. But the MPs point out that regulations have an important role in safeguarding our health and the environment. The Government's strategy to create a green economy - 'Enabling the Transition to a Green Economy' - is too focused on voluntary action and fails to set a clear trajectory or any time-bound milestones for businesses to achieve. There is concern that introducing mandatory emissions reporting for big business has been delayed and Ministers are urged not to go back on their promise to do so. The recent financial crisis has demonstrated the clear risks from such a market-led approach, particularly when markets do not reflect the value of the services provided by nature - such as clean fresh water, pollination of crops, etc. This report urges the Government to: develop minimum sustainability standards; set out how data on natural capital in the National Accounts will be used; develop targets for improving the state of the environment and establish transparent reporting against such targets; and use the Natural Capital Committee's work on a 'natural asset stock check' as one of the basket of indicators used to measure the green economy. The Government should fully incorporate the principles of 'Enabling the Transition' into future revisions of the 'Plan for Growth'. Expenditure involved in making the transition to a green economy should be seen as an investment, not simply a cost.

Download or read book Embedding Sustainable Development written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government response to HC 504, session 2010-11 (ISBN 9780215555816)

Download or read book Greening the Common Agricultural Policy written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The European Commission proposes that 30% of 'direct payments' made to farmers under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would be conditional on compliance with three new 'greening' measures. While supporting the Commission's desire to improve the environment, the EFRA Committee rejects the approach proposed. Instead it calls for the EU to set high-level objectives for the CAP that provide for flexibility to apply the right measures for local conditions through 'decentralising' environmental protection under the CAP to Member States. This report highlights the huge benefit that UK 'agri-environment' schemes have brought to biodiversity, food production and the countryside. The Committee also urged Defra to ensure that the UK's tenant farmers should not be excluded from these schemes. The Committee concludes that Defra must ensure the balance of funding between mandatory and voluntary aspects of the CAP should not leave UK farmers at a competitive disadvantage relative to their counterparts in the rest of Europe. MPs also warn that measures proposed by the Commission would be even more complex than the current system - adding costly bureaucracy and generating more errors in the system. Likewise, the committee concludes that the Commission's crop diversification measure would in the UK have perverse consequences that are far less environmentally beneficial than crop rotation. Of the three 'greening' measures offered, the Commission's proposal for Ecological Focus Areas (EFA) has the potential to deliver the greatest environmental benefit. However, the lack of definitions within the proposals make it difficult to assess what, if any, such benefits would actually be delivered

Download or read book House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee Trith to Power How Civil Service Reforem Can Succeed HC 74 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Public Administration Select Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-09-06 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) has concluded a year-long inquiry into the future of the Civil Service with only one recommendation: that Parliament should establish a Joint Committee of both Houses to sit as a Commission on the future of the Civil Service. It should be constituted within the next few months and report before the end of the Parliament with a comprehensive change programme for Whitehall with a timetable to be implemented over the lifetime of the next Parliament. The Report considers the increased tensions between ministers and officials which have become widely reported, and places the problems in Whitehall in a wider context of a Civil Service built on the Northcote-Trevelyan settlement established in 1853 and the Haldane principles of ministerial accountability set out in 1919. The government's Civil Service Reform Plan lacks strategic coherence and clear leadership from a united team of ministers and officials. The Northcote-Trevelyan Civil Service remains the most effective way of supporting the democratically elected Government and future administrations in the UK. Divided leadership and confused accountabilities in Whitehall have led to problems: a low level of engagement amongst civil servants in some departments and agencies, and a general lack of trust and openness; the Civil Service exhibits the key characteristics of a failing organisation with the leadership are in denial about the scale of the challenge they face. There is a persistent lack of key skills and capabilities across Whitehall and an unacceptably high level of churn of lead officials, which is incompatible with good government.

Download or read book HC 212 Action on Air Quality written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK Government has been found guilty of failing to meet EU air quality targets in our cities, some of which will not meet the required limits until 2030. However, meeting EU standards should be the minimum requirement. Regardless of EU rulings it is unacceptable that UK citizens could have their health seriously impaired over decades before this public health problem is brought under control. The Government must act urgently to: The Government must act urgently to: update the 2007 Air Quality Strategy, adopting a cross-Government approach with clear demarcation of responsibilities between departments and between central and local government; meet EU nitrogen dioxide targets as soon as possible; engage with local authorities to establish best practice in tackling air pollution across the UK; introduce a national framework for low emission zones to help local authorities reduce air pollution; adjust planning guidance to protect air quality in local planning and development; build in air quality obligations to transport infrastructure; examine fiscal and other measures to gradually encourage a move away from diesel vehicles towards low emission options; close legal loopholes to end the practice of removing filter systems from existing vehicles; apply pressure at European level to ensure effective EU legislation and emission standards backed up by a robust testing regime; and Institute a national public awareness campaign to increase understanding, publicising the UK-AIR forecast website and encourage measures to reduce air pollution.

Download or read book Review of past ACA payments written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Members Estimate Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-02-04 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A report that includes the final report from Sir Thomas Legg on the review of past payments to Members of Parliament of Additional Costs Allowance (the 'second home allowance'), and the report from Sir Paul Kennedy on his decisions on appeals from MPs against Sir Thomas' rulings.

Download or read book Persecuted by MI5 Security Service Volume 1 written by Tadeusz Szocik and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2009-03-30 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of MI5's persecution of a British citizen across various countries since 1990. First the TV newscasters watched me while they read the news. Then co-workers were subverted which continued throughout my working life. MI5 sent people in the street to stalk me. On 17 November 2001 they ordered Americans to shoot me, and their plot failed. Finally in August 2005 began the Mind Control Torture which has continued ever since whereby security service agents read my thoughts and repeat them interspersed with swearing and sexual abuse.

Download or read book HS2 and the Environment HC 1076 written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government needs to show real commitment to dealing with the impact that HS2 will have on our countryside and wildlife. It is imperative that an infrastructure project on such a large scale implements proper environmental safeguards and ensures that impacts are minimised. That won't happen if HS2 Ltd can avoid implementing safeguards if they consider them to be 'impracticable' or 'unreasonable'. There needs to be a separate ring-fenced budget for these safeguards and for compensation, separate from the rest of the HS2 budget, to prevent the environment being squeezed if HS2 costs grow. The Government's aim of 'no net biodiversity loss' on HS2 is not good enough - it should aim for environmental gains that the Government promised in its white paper on the Natural Environment. In any case, the Government can't demonstrate it will cause no net harm because it has still not surveyed 40% of the land to be used. Ancient woodland should be treated with particular care. HS2 will damage some woodlands, and where that happens, compensation measures should be much higher than the level indicated in the calculation that HS2 Ltd will use. The HS2 Hybrid Bill will be given its second reading on 28 April, after which it will be referred to a dedicated select committee to examine 'petitions' against it. The Committee criticises the procedure's failure to fully address the requirements of EU and national directives on environmental assessments, which it wants to be at least partly rectified in the forthcoming Parliamentary proceedings

Download or read book HC 885 A 2010 15 Progress Report written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book HC 215 An Environmental Scorecard written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emissions of a number of airborne pollutants increased in 2013, after being steady between 2010 and 2012 and in a longer term decline before that. The UK failed to meet targets for nitrogen dioxide pollution in 34 of the 43 zones specified in the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive in 2012, resulting in the European Commission launching infraction proceedings against the UK in February 2014 in regard to 16 zones that would not be compliant by 2015. The Committee's report recommends an overarching Environmental Strategy be implemented, to set out strategic principles and good practices; facilitate discussion between central and local government and identify how they can work together and with the wider community; encompass clear environmental assessments; identify work required to fill data gaps in assessments; map appropriate policy levers to environmental areas; and set out how environmental and equality considerations will be addressed in policy areas across Government. The report concludes that the Government should set up an independent body-an 'Office for Environmental Responsibility'-to (i) review the Environment Strategy we advocate; (ii) advise Government on appropriate targets; (iii) advise Government on policies, both those in Government programmes and new ones that could be brought forward to support the environment; (iv) advise Government about the adequacy of the resources (in both central and local government) made available for delivering the Strategy; and (v) monitor and publish performance against the Strategy and its targets.

Download or read book HC 59 Well Being HC 59 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government's ’Natural Capital Committee', set up to check how far the Government bases its policies on the cost the benefits the UK derives from its natural environment - such as clean air, water, food and recreation - should be put on a permanent statutory footing, the Environmental Audit Committee recommends. The NCC was set up in May 2012 with a three-year remit that ends just before the General Election. It has produced 2 progress reports so far, highlighting gaps in the available data on these factors and calling for a 25-year plan to plug the gaps and start using the information in Government decisions. But the Government has yet to respond in detail to those NCC reports. The environment is just one strand of a wider view of people's well-being, which also addresses people's economic and social circumstances, as well as their view of the satisfaction they get from their lives. In November 2010, the Prime Minister launched a programme to measure well-being to complement economic statistics like ’GDP' in - "measuring our progress as a country". However, more than three years since then, the Committee note, our quality of life is not yet receiving the same attention as those economic metrics. The Committee highlight the links being uncovered in the statistics between people's view of their well-being and their background and circumstances - for example the link between well-being and people's health, marital status or religion. But the MPs warn that the data are not yet sufficiently robust to support a single metric that could encompass well-being and which could be set alongside GDP.

Download or read book House of Commons Envirionmental Audit Committee Green Finance HC 191 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Environmental Audit Committee points out that there is a large green finance gap. Investments are currently running at less than half of the £200 billion needed in energy infrastructure alone by 2020 to deliver national and international emissions reduction targets. And stock markets could be inflating a 'carbon bubble' by over-valuing companies with fossil fuel assets that will have to be left unburned in order to limit climate change. The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee should seek advice from the independent Committee on Climate Change to help it monitor the systemic risk to financial stability associated with a carbon bubble. To address the green finance gap, the Government must provide a joined-up, stable and certain policy framework that maintains investor confidence and helps markets price in the cost of carbon. The Green Investment Bank has made a good start but does not currently have the power to borrow in order to leverage and enlarge its investments - limiting its potential to fill the green finance gap. Take up of the Green Deal has been poor and the Government must make it simpler and more attractive to households. The European Commission's (EC) proposed new rules for State Aid in the energy sector could limit the finance available to support community owned energy schemes. The Government must play a central role in agreeing ambitious and binding international commitments on climate change, both in the EU and in the run up to the UN climate talks in Paris 2015.

Download or read book HC 858 Local Nature Partnerships written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where LNPs have been successful, they have demonstrated the benefits of local engagement, harnessing enthusiasm in finding solutions to local priorities. Where they have not been successful, the solution is not to impose additional tasks but to re-energise the unfocussed local commitment. Many LNPs are starved of funding and resources, meaning much of the good work in getting them up and running, is being undone. The whole country-urban as well as rural-need the natural environment protections that LNPs can provide. Rather than leave under-performing LNPs to wither away, the next Government should urgently review LNPs and their funding, and re-energise the initiative.

Download or read book HC 856 Environmental Risks of Fracking written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploratory drilling for shale gas has begun in the UK and the Government is encouraging fracking. It has introduced tax concessions and is seeking through its Infrastructure Bill to ease the process for fracking operations, including through proposals for an automatic right of access to "deep-level land" for exploratory drilling and extraction. Extensive production of unconventional gas through fracking is inconsistent with the UK's obligations under the Climate Change Act and its carbon budgets regime, which encompasses our contribution to efforts to keep global temperature rise below two degrees. Shale gas, like 'conventional gas', is not low carbon, and the objective of government policy should be to reduce the carbon intensity of energy whatever its source. Shale gas cannot be regarded as a 'transitional' or 'bridging' fuel. Any large scale extraction of shale gas in the UK is likely to be at least 10-15 years away, and therefore cannot drive dirtier coal from the energy system because by that time it is likely that unabated coal-fired power generation will have been phased out to meet EU emissions directives. It is also unlikely to be commercially viable unless developed at a significant scale, to be able to compete against a growing renewable energy sector, but large-scale fracking will not be able to be accommodated within still tightening carbon budgets. There is in any case little evidence to suggest that fracking could be undertaken at the scale needed to be commercially viable in the UK or that it will bring gas prices down significantly.

Download or read book HC 222 Sustainability in the Home Office written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-09-12 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report assesses the Government's progress in embedding sustainable development in the Home Office. It follows on from a similar inquiry last year on Sustainability in BIS. The Home Office appears to be on track to meet the Government's sustainable operations targets for departments, in part by reducing the size of its estate, but also by effective use of payment-by-result contracts. It has achieved the reductions set for water, paper and waste. It is making good progress on reducing carbon emissions, despite emissions from travel increasing significantly. The Home Office uses a 'CAESER' tool to highlight sustainability to suppliers and encourage them to improve their performance. The Government should widely adopt this tool for all major suppliers. The Home Office needs to ensure that all contracts include specific sustainability criteria and that performance on these is actively monitored and managed. It should address energy efficiency in its contracts for asylum accommodation. Crime prevention is an important part of sustainable policing, as it reduces future social and environmental costs. Whilst the Home Office is taking steps to understand the carbon impact of crime, the Government's policies to remove housing design standards risk less sustainable outcomes. It should ensure that the full environmental and social costs of such decisions are analyzed in policy appraisal. The Government has led international efforts to tackle wildlife crime. It needs to commit long-term funding for these efforts, and further improve the quality of data on recorded and reported offences.

Download or read book HC 221 Marine Protected Areas written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-06-21 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marine Conservation Zones can protect our seas from over-fishing and give species and habitats space to recover, ultimately benefiting people whose livelihoods depend on healthy seas. But the Government has been too slow in creating these Zones, and it has failed to get coastal communities and fishermen on board. It is now well over four years since the launch of the programme, yet only 27 of the 127 sites recommended by independent project groups have been designated. Budget reductions at DEFRA mean the Government is currently unable to demonstrate that the Marine Management Organisation - the public body charged with managing the zones - will have the resources needed to manage and enforce the MCZs. The Government must set out a strategy for the management of the 27 MCZs and management plans for individual Zones to demonstrate that they can be enforced. MPs are calling on the Government to bring forward the MCZ programme, so that more Zones are designated in the next phase, due in 2015. Ministers should follow a precautionary principle approach to designating new Zones, according to the Committee, and use the 'best available' data rather than applying the more stringent evidence standards recently introduced by the Government - which require data that is much harder and more expensive to obtain