£1bn package to back city’s
bid for Game
Sector: Scotland
Date: 18/08/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Glasgow yesterday backed its 2014 Commonwealth Games bid
with £1 billion in pledged transport improvement, which
could be critical in enabling the city to win the right to
host the event.
Glasgow already has most of the facilities that it needs
to host the Games, but better transport could help it to
clinch the event from rival cities including representations
from Canada and Nigeria – if they can be delivered
on time.
Cost of reopening old railway line doubles to £60m
Sector: Central Government
Date: 19/08/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.com
The cost to the Scottish Executive of a major new rail project
has doubled to nearly £60 million.
Two years ago, Scottish Ministers earmarked £30 million
for reopening the old railway line between Stirling, Alloa
and Kincardine.
The Transport Minister, Tavish Scott, disclosed that the
cost to the executive had gone up by £27.6 million
in advance of work on the project beginning next month.
Secret report shows Olympics shortfall to reach £3bn
Sector: Central Government
Date: 21/08/05
Source: The Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Hosting the 2012 Olympic Games may boost Britain's gross
domestic product by just £1.9bn over the next 15 years
against a projected cost to the taxpayer of £4.9bn,
according to confidential figures presented to the government.
Although the government is challenging the figures in the
belief that its advisers may have underestimated the benefits
from tourism, the early findings are expected to prompt ministers
to redouble their efforts to keep a tight rein on costs.
Tessa Jowell, the minister in charge of preparations for
the Olympics, is expected to draft in a project manager from
the private sector in an attempt to avoid cost overruns.
Construction companies such as Bechtel, KBR and Amec would
be expected to bid for the contract, which is likely to be
advertised in the autumn.
Aid staff flying first class as bill for flights
soars past £9m
Sector: Central Government
Date: 22/08/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Britain’s overseas aid department was last night
urged to review its policy of allowing staff to travel first
and business class after it emerged that officials spent
more than £9 million on flights last year.
Figures obtained by The Times show that the Department for
International Development (Dfid) spent £900,000 on
air travel within the UK alone and a further £8.3 million
on flights overseas in 2004-05.
This is the equivalent of about £6,000 for every UK-based
Dfid civil servant. Development charities said that they
would always send their staff by economy class.
'Unsuitable' firm won huge MoD contract
Sector: Central Government
Date: 22/08/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Defence ministers awarded a huge nuclear contract to a
company even though officials had had serious doubts about
the competence of the firm, internal documents obtained by
the Guardian reveal.
The estimated cost then nearly doubled to more than £900m.
The Ministry of Defence said one of the main causes of this
was the "poor performance" of the company.
The project to build docks to refit nuclear-powered submarines
at Devonport, Plymouth, is crucial for maintaining Britain's
nuclear arsenal.
Firms abuse information laws to win extra chance
of NHS work
Sector: Central Government
Date: 23/08/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Private companies competing for hospital contracts are abusing
freedom of information laws to obtain commercial details
from NHS trusts.
Trust managers, who argue that this goes against the spirit
of the legislation, claim that up to one in three demands
under the legislation comes from private firms.
“Information is now being used for commercial gain
rather than public good,” one NHS manager said. There
is also growing concern in hospitals about the time and resources
needed to process demands.
Many of the requests concern information about services
that the hospital has contracted out and details about supplies
and equipment.
But some managers suspect that firms are trying to obtain
information from hospitals to sell to national suppliers.
In many cases NHS trusts are reporting similar inquiries
from the same company.
Police rely on 6,000 cameras across Tube network
to cut crime
Sector: Central Government
Date: 23/08/05
Source: The Independent
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk
London Underground has installed more than 6,000 CCTV cameras
across the network, some of them at stations and some on
trains.
Plans are in place to double the number in use by 2010 as
part of its campaign to minimise petty crime, but also to
deal with the increasing threat of terrorism. All but 15
of the cameras use traditional analogue technology involving
tapes.
The small number of newly installed devices use the digital
system. A spokesman said the new technology would be employed
from now on wherever Tube stations were being refurbished.
Home Office ad seeks ID card firms
Sector: Central Government
Date: 17/08/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
The Government is inviting companies to say if they want
to bid for a lucrative contract to print millions of national
identity cards months before MPs have had a chance to vote
on the controversial legislation.
An advertisement in the Official Journal of the European
Union on August 9 states: "The Home Office anticipates
that once relevant legislation, now before Parliament, has
received Royal Assent, it would embark upon procurement exercises
for the establishment of a National Identity Cards scheme.
Health centres to be given extra £65m
Sector: Health
Date: 16/08/05
Source: The Herald
Link: http://www.theherald.co.uk
Scotland is to get a further £65 million to improve
health centres across the country.
The money will be invested over two years in a programme
that has already seen £78 million spent on upgrading
and modernising health centres, clinics and other primary
care facilities.
Executive to debate arts shake-up
Sector: Culture
Date: 16/08/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
The Cultural Commission's call for an extra £100 million
of spending on the arts and a sweeping overhaul of bureaucracy
faces a full parliamentary debate in September, the Scottish
Executive said yesterday.
Patricia Ferguson, the culture minister, said MSPs' views
would help shape her response to the commission's 500-page
report. She said she would "respond formally" to
its recommendations by the end of the year.
The executive is aiming for a mid-September debate but no
date has been fixed, aides said yesterday.
Executive lines up behind bid for Commonwealth Games
Sector: Scotland
Date: 16/08/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
The Scottish Executive is to support Glasgow’s bid
to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Jack McConnell, the First Minister, is scheduled to announce
that the Executive is convinced of the feasibility of the
city’s plans.
In an early boost yesterday, Patricia Ferguson, the sports
minister, announced nearly £1.4 million in support
from Sportscotland towards the nation’s quest for Commonwealth
Games success in 2006 and beyond during their visit to the
Commonwealth Boxing Championships in Glasgow.
Warning for Scots councils as pension hole sees
Fife £246m in need
Sector: Scotland
Date: 16/08/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
A Scottish local authority is a quarter of a billion pounds
in the red because of a looming black hole in its pensions
scheme, it has emerged.
Fife Council's liabilities have exceeded its assets by a
massive £246 million. 
Councillor Tim Brett said the problems could be traced to
the council's pension scheme, and yesterday he warned that
the Fife picture was likely to be repeated across all 32
of Scotland's local authorities.
Audit Scotland last year revealed that in March 2003 councils
faced a £2.2 billion pensions deficit. Fife's deficit
alone currently stands at £863 million, suggesting
the crisis has deepened considerably in the last two years.
Mr Brett, who serves for Newport on Tay and Wormit, said
the authority's head of finance and asset management, Brian
Lawrie, revealed in its draft financial report that the council's
budget had been "significantly diluted as a result of
accrued pension liabilities".
£65m to bring health-care nearer to communities
Sector: Scotland
Date: 16/08/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
Health centres, clinics and other primary care facilities
will receive £65 million in extra funding, the First
Minister announced yesterday, pledging to bring care out
of hospitals and closer to home.
Jack McConnell made the announcement at the opening of a
state-of-the-art health centre in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian.
After touring the new facilities and chatting to patients,
Mr McConnell said he wanted more health-care in the community
so patients do not have to travel into hospitals.
The money will be invested over two years in a programme that has already seen £78
million spent on upgrading primary care facilities.
Nuclear clean-up cost may top £60bn
Sector: Central Government
Date: 12/08/05
Source: The Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
The bill for cleaning up the UK's ageing nuclear power
plants is likely to top £60bn and the process could
take the best part of a century, the body responsible for
the task warned on Thursday.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, formed in April
after a shake-up of the government's nuclear bodies, on Thursday
launched a public consultation on how best to handle the
closure of the UK's 20 remaining sites.
EU change ends need for CalMac tendering, says Ewing
Sector: Scotland
Date: 11/08/05
Source: The Herald
Link: http://www.theherald.co.uk
A leading critic of the Scottish Executive's decision to
put Caledonian MacBrayne's ferry routes out to tender claimed
yesterday that the move could be unnecessary under new EU
regulations.
Fergus Ewing, the SNP's shadow transport spokesman and
MSP for Inverness East, Nairn, and Lochaber, said the guidelines
issued last month lifted the threshold for tendering exemption
from 100,000 to 300,000 passengers a year.
Golden rule rethink ‘will not avoid tax rises’
Sector: Central Government
Date: 11/08/05
Source: The Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, said
the prospect for tax rises was not changed by the Treasury's
reinterpretation of the economic cycle over the past eight
years.
Speaking at the news conference launching the Inflation
Report, Mr King delivered a rare direct rebuke to the Treasury
over the way it changed the calculation of the economic cycle
last month, relaxing its golden rule, only to borrow to invest
over the economic cycle.
Nuclear clean-up cost may top £60bn
Sector: Central Government
Date: 12/08/05
Source: The Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
The bill for cleaning up the UK's ageing nuclear power plants
is likely to top £60bn and the process could take the
best part of a century, the body responsible for the task
warned on Thursday.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, formed in April
after a shake-up of the government's nuclear bodies, on Thursday
launched a public consultation on how best to handle the
closure of the UK's 20 remaining sites.
EU change ends need for CalMac tendering, says Ewing
Sector: Scotland
Date: 11/08/05
Source: The Herald
Link: http://www.theherald.co.uk
A leading critic of the Scottish Executive's decision to
put Caledonian MacBrayne's ferry routes out to tender claimed
yesterday that the move could be unnecessary under new EU
regulations.
Fergus Ewing, the SNP's shadow transport spokesman and
MSP for Inverness East, Nairn, and Lochaber, said the guidelines
issued last month lifted the threshold for tendering exemption
from 100,000 to 300,000 passengers a year.
Golden rule rethink ‘will not avoid tax rises’
Sector: Central Government
Date: 11/08/05
Source: The Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, said
the prospect for tax rises was not changed by the Treasury's
reinterpretation of the economic cycle over the past eight
years.
Speaking at the news conference launching the Inflation
Report, Mr King delivered a rare direct rebuke to the Treasury
over the way it changed the calculation of the economic cycle
last month, relaxing its golden rule, only to borrow to invest
over the economic cycle.
Prescott plans new council tax
bands
Sector: Local Government
Date: 10/08/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
John Prescott is considering creating two new bands for
top-rate council tax payers, the Tories revealed yesterday.
They released a document showing that the Government was
also contemplating increasing the gap between the amount
paid by top-rate payers and bottom-rate payers, as well as
creating regional council tax bands.
The £60,000 flatpack house
Sector: Central Government
Date: 10/08/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
John Prescott has announced that house prices were far
too high “unless you’ve bought one” as
he announced the winning nine teams chosen to build his £60,000
homes.
The Deputy Prime Minister selected nine building consortiums
which will compete to construct two-bedroom developments
which could become the template for affordable housing for
first-time buyers.
One thousand ultra-cheap homes made from timber, steel,
glass and brick and guaranteed to last 100 years will be
built next spring on ten sites around Britain.
Council sells land to cut mowing costs
Sector: Local Government
Date: 9/08/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
A council is selling off patches of grassland to homeowners
to avoid having to cut the grass.
The strips of amenity land bordering properties are being
snapped up, raising hundreds of pounds per plot for Basildon
council in Essex.
Malcolm Buckley, the council leader, said: “These
strips of grass are very small and it is the council’s
duty to cut them. Doing so is disproportionately expensive.”
NHS puts aside £8bn for negligence
Sector: Health
Date: 9/08/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
The NHS has set aside nearly £8 billion over the next
10 years to cover an expected rise in compensation claims
and legal bills for medical negligence cases.
The "worst case" figure of £7.8 billion
is based on claims being assessed - alleged negligence that
may result in a claim within the next 10 years - and the
rising level of pay-outs to successful litigants. Last year,
the NHS Litigation Authority paid out £503 million
in claims and legal costs.
Services cut after £1.5m drop at NHS trust
Sector: Health
Date: 9/08/05
Source: The Herald
Link: http://www.theherald.co.uk
More hospital services were axed by a health board yesterday
as official documents revealed that the trust is £1.5
million behind in its recovery plan.
The children's ward at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock and the intensive
care unit at the Vale of Leven in Dunbartonshire are to be closed by NHS
Argyll and Clyde amid staffing pressures.
Disputes hold up £2.2bn city PFI contract
Sector: PPP/PFI
Date: 8/08/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Internal wrangling at the country's largest city council
has caused serious delays to a landmark PFI contract. Birmingham
council intends to hand over the running of all of its roads,
pavements and street lighting to the private sector in a
deal worth at least £2.2 billion over 25 years.
The council has drawn up a shortlist of four consortia
to bid for the contract. But, according to both bidders and
council insiders, the plan has been dogged by delays and
disagreements between central and local government.
Quarter of NHS trusts record deficits
Sector: Health
Date: 8/08/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
NHS hospitals and primary care trusts that failed to balance
their books overspent by a total of more than £650m,
figures from the Healthcare Commission, the NHS inspectorate,
have revealed.
Although others underspent, leaving the NHS as a whole with
a deficit of about only £140m, a mere 0.2 per cent
of the budget according to the department of health, latest
unaudited figures for individual NHS organisations show some
with serious financial problems.
Minister admits ID cards ‘oversold’
Sector: Central Government
Date: 5/08/05
Source: The Herald
Link: http://www.theherald.co.uk
The government on Thursday night faced down calls for the
scrapping of its controversial £6 billion identity
card scheme after the minister responsible for it apologised
for having oversold the policy and admitted legislation to
introduce it was flawed.
Tony McNulty told a private meeting of the Fabian Society,
a left-wing think-tank: "Perhaps in the past the government,
in its enthusiasm, oversold the advantages of identity cards.”
Foreign Office fails the efficiency test
Sector: Central Government
Date: 4/08/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
An independent report on the Foreign Office that was commissioned
as part of the government’s attack on bureaucracy has
identified management shortcomings and a culture of over-spending
with no incentive to reduce costs.
The report, which the FCO said on Wednesday night it broadly
accepted, found a department regarded in Whitehall as one
of the elite destinations for civil service high flyers to
be saddled with a poor management structure that stifled
innovation.
Inquiry into firm’s asylum contracts
Sector: Central Government
Date: 3/08/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
The Home Office is investigating allegations of financial
irregularities by a private property company which earns
millions of pounds annually through government contracts
for housing asylum seekers around the country.
The investigation, prompted by inquiries by the Guardian,
focuses on claims that the London-based Angel Group charged
the Home Office and Leeds city council for the same properties.
Company records, internal emails and testimony from former
Angel employees also suggest the company was paid for accommodation
that was unfit for habitation or for which it had no keys.
Records further suggest Angel claimed discounts on council
tax to which it was not entitled in Leeds and Newcastle upon
Tyne.
Global funds calls in WHO auditors over contract
claims
Sector: International
Date: 3/08/05
Source: The Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria,
the world's largest co-ordinator of finance to tackle disease
in developing countries, has called in auditors from the
World Health Organisation to investigate allegations that
it violated its own procedures.
According to an internal memo written last month and obtained
by the FT, it was responding to claims concerning "contracts,
recruitment and involvement of a family member" at its
secretariat in Geneva.
Brown’s burden of debt could grow by £60bn
Sector: Central Government
Date: 3/08/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
The Office for National Statistics yesterday classified
over £4 billion of obscure liabilities as government
borrowing – the first step in a move which could see
Gordon Brown forced to add £60 billion to his official
borrowing numbers.
The two schemes affected yesterday are a £1.25 billion
bond issued by London & Continental, which operates the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link; and the Chancellor's International
Finance Facility, which will use bonds to fund a massive
immunisation programme in Africa.
Sexist bosses could lose public contracts
Sector: Central Government
Date: 31/07/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Sexist employers will be denied lucrative public sector
contracts under proposals being drawn up by the Prime Minister's
advisers to stamp out prejudice against women at work.
The move follows evidence that the City only began to take
its reputation for crude machismo seriously when corporate
clients, alarmed by the number of women bankers suing for
sexual harassment, threatened to withhold business from leading
banks because of the negative publicity.
Brown ‘will have to raise another £10bn’
Sector: Central Government
Date: 29/07/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Gordon Brown will have to raise taxes by an additional £10bn
a year to balance the public finances, a leading thinktank
warned yesterday.
The chancellor has promised to keep to his "golden
rule", which states the government will only borrow
to invest over the course of the economic cycle.
Last week the chancellor said new data showed that the
current cycle began in 1997-1998 rather than 1999-2000, as
previously assumed. This means Mr Brown gained £9bn
in surplus from the strong 1998 fiscal year to help counterbalance
the current deficit.
OFT investigations bid-rigging by Midlands building
firms
Sector: Central Government
Date: 28/07/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
The Office of Fair Trading has said it had raided 22 unnamed
companies across the East Midlands in the past two months
after expanding its investigation into alleged bid-rigging
by construction firms on tenders for public and private contracts.
The raids are a dramatic expansion of inquiries into the
construction industry after a smaller, ongoing investigation
into refurbishment contracts awarded to a Derby-based contractor
by the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.
Raise your game, tube PPPs told
Sector: PPP/PFI
Date: 28/07/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
London Underground yesterday delivered a ‘must do
better’ message to the companies charged with maintaining
and upgrading the tube under a 30-year public-private partnership
programme (PPP).
In the first real assessment of the PPP project, London
Underground said the infrastructure companies (infracos)
concerned, Metronet and Tube Lines and their shareholders,
were "earning significant sums of money ... which are
not consistent with the improvements being delivered.”
It acknowledged that improvements had been made but said
many of the big renewal projects were behind schedule with
Metronet coming in for particular criticism.
New lottery game to help Olympics reach £2.3bn
finishing line
Sector: Olympics
Date: 28/07/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
The first step towards raising the £2.375 billion
cost of staging the 2012 Olympics in London took place recently
with the launch of an official lottery game, with exactly
seven years to go before the opening ceremony.
The Go for Gold scratchcard will go on sale today, the first
of several dedicated National Lottery games which aim to
raise £750 million.
Calls for inquiry as £180m PFI contract goes
to sole bidder
Sector: PPP/PFI
Date: 28/07/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
The handling of a £180 million private finance deal
to rebuild two Glasgow hospitals should be the subject of
a parliamentary inquiry, health experts said yesterday.
The calls from public health policy experts, hospital campaigners
and politicians comes after the Scottish Executive confirmed
it had backed Balfour Beatty as the ‘preferred bidder’ for
the contract, despite the fact there were no other tenders.
The engineering firm has been appointed through PFI concession
company, Canmore, to replace Stobhill Hospital and the Victoria
Infirmary with new buildings. It is the first time a health
board in Scotland has awarded a PFI contract where there
has been only a single bidder and the move has raised concerns
it could breach European procurement rules.
Cash-strapped health board is ordered to put patients
first
Sector: Health
Date: 28/07/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Scotland ’s Health Minister yesterday ordered an
NHS board to take better care of its patients and demanded
reassurances that it was sticking to guidelines on waiting
times.
Andy Kerr made the demand while chairing NHS Grampian’s
annual review in Aberdeen. It comes after it was revealed
that the board had contacted cardiac patients who were nearing
the nine-month waiting limit and given them the option of
postponing their operation or having surgery outwith the
area.
The minister, who also questioned officials about dentistry
provision in north-east Scotland, said he wanted reassurances
that patients were being given enough choices over treatment.
Speed cameras earn £21m a year
Sector: Transport
Date: 26/07/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Motorists caught on camera speeding or jumping traffic lights
made a £21.7 million donation to the Treasury last
year.
Statistics for the 2003-4 financial year, released by the
Department of Transport under freedom of information legislation,
showed that total receipts from fines were £113.5 million,
of which £91.8 million was reinvested in road safety
and covered the cost of the safety camera partnerships.
Pension changes will cost UK billions
Sector: Central Government
Date: 25/7/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Amendments to the rules covering occupational pension schemes
could cost British taxpayers an extra £1 billion a
year, according to estimates by government actuaries.
The Occupational Pension Schemes (Equal Treatment) Regulations
deal with part-time workers who were refused the right to
become part of their employer's occupational pension schemes
that were available to full-time colleagues. The European
Court of Justice ruled that could amount to indirect sex
discrimination in cases where more of the part-time workers
in an organisation are female than male.
Free books for children ‘a £27m gimmick’
Sector: Education
Date: 25/07/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Giving every child under four a free bag of books as part
of a £27 million project to encourage early reading
was criticised yesterday as a ‘waste of taxpayers'
money’.
Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, will launch the Bookstart
programme tomorrow.
Nine million books will be sent to children aged from eight
months to four years to get parents more involved in their
education.
SMEs unwilling to report price-fixing
Sector: SMEs
Date: 21/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
A third of small and medium-sized businesses are aware
of anti-competitive practices in their sectors, but few are
prepared to report them to the authorities, according to
research from the Office of Fair Trading.
Almost a quarter of smaller companies believe they have
been the victims of unfair behaviour, such as cartel price-fixing
and collusion to set tender prices. More than half said their
industry could be more competitive, while 16% of SMEs overall – and
21% in construction – said they could not compete freely
and fairly for contracts.
£100m PPP for schools under fire over sports
cutbacks
Sector: PPP/PFI Date: 21/07/05
Source: The Herald
Link: http://www.theherald.co.uk
A privately financed £100 million schools project
has come under fire over plans to downgrade sports facilities
for pupils.
Sportscotland has joined hundreds of parents who have expressed
concerns over the scheme, which comes at the same time that
the Scottish Executive has recognised physical education
as a key way to tackle the country's worrying levels of childhood
obesity.
As part of a plan to build six schools in East Dunbartonshire,
Douglas Academy, in Milngavie, would lose its swimming pool,
athletics facilities and at least two of five outdoor pitches.
Under the Public Private Partnership deal, the local authority
would sell off part of the site where the school's tennis
courts are situated to make way for about 25 homes. Douglas
Academy would then be rebuilt on its playing fields.
Brown has ‘fiddled’ Golden Rule of finances
Sector: Central Government
Date: 20/07/05
Source: The Independent
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Gordon Brown has been accused of putting off unpalatable
tax increases or cuts in public spending until 2007 by "fiddling" his
own cherished Golden Rule.
Opposition politicians and independent economists criticised
the Chancellor for "moving the goalposts" over
the way the public finances are assessed. The Chancellor's
manoeuvre, which was accompanied by hints of a move to 10-year
spending plans, was seen by Labour MPs as part of Mr Brown's
timetable to take over from Tony Blair.
Government delays report on pension compensation
Sector: Central Government
Date: 20/07/05
Source: The Independent
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/
The Government has been accused of deliberately stalling
the publication of a controversial report into its handling
of the occupational pensions crisis, delaying what is believed
to be a call to pay £4bn to 80,000 workers who were
misled by its guidance.
In private correspondence to one of the victims of the scandal,
the Ombudsman admitted the Government had succeeded in delaying
the publication of its report by asking to submit new evidence
to the inquiry at the eleventh hour.
Spending deal shifts control to Brown
Sector: Central Government
Date: 20/07/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have agreed a far-reaching
spending deal which could pave the way for a handover of
power between them late in 2007, it emerged last night.
After lengthy talks with Mr Blair the Chancellor has instigated
a root-and-branch review of all Whitehall spending designed
to reset Labour’s priorities for the next ten years.
EU orders the Executive to put ‘lifeline’ island
routes out to tender
Sector: Scotland
Date: 19/07/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
Ministers were ordered by the European Commission yesterday
to put out to tender the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry services
to the Hebrides.
Tavish Scott, Holyrood's new transport minister, had hoped
to persuade the commission to make an exception of the "lifeline" services
to the islands and allow them to remain as a single block
run by CalMac – a state-subsidised company.
But Jacques Barrot, the Commission's vice-president, made
it clear that Europe expects the Scottish Executive to put
the routes out to tender, or risk breaching European law.
Asylum rejects cost taxpayer £300m
Sector: Central Government
Date: 19/07/05
Source: The Telegraph
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
The taxpayer picked up a bill of more than £300 million
last year to support failed asylum seekers who should have
been removed from the country, spending watchdogs report
today.
The National Audit Office says most of this sum was spent
looking after an estimated 18,500 families with dependent
children who are entitled to continuing support until they
leave the country.
A further £285 million was spent to support the voluntary
repatriation of some failed asylum seekers or to enforce
the deportation of others.
Brown set to delay spending review
Sector: Central Government
Date: 18/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Chancellor Gordon Brown is set to announce on Tuesday that
he is postponing next year's planned review of government
spending to the summer of 2007, tightening his grip on public
expenditure over the next two years.
In a decision that is understood to have been agreed in
close consultation with Tony Blair, Mr Brown will call on
Whitehall departments to stick to existing public expenditure
plans up to the end of financial year 2007-08.
NHS 24 to launch ‘mini call centres’ hiring
local nurses
Sector: Health
Date: 18/07/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
The troubled helpline NHS 24 is to set up a series of "mini
call centres" across the country in a drive to improve
nurses' local knowledge and boost recruitment.
In a major shake-up to the beleaguered service, satellite
centres will be set up in Inverness, Tayside, Lanarkshire
and Ayrshire and Arran to run alongside the three larger
centres in South Queensferry, Clydebank and Aberdeen. Plans
to set up centres in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway
are also under discussion.
Time for Executive to hand over spending power to
the citizen with income tax cut
Sector: Scotland
D ate: 18/07/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
Contrary to popular myth, the tax-varying powers of the
Scottish Executive could make quite an impact on people's
wallets.
Under the 1998 Scotland Act, the Executive was granted the
right to vary the basic rate of income tax by 3p in the pound,
up or down. Put another way, the Executive could cut the
basic rate of income tax from 22p in the pound to just 19p.
In percentage terms, that is a whopping 13.6 per cent cut.
Energy-saving targets scrapped
Sector: Central Government
Date: 18/07/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Pledges made by Tony Blair to force housebuilders to improve
the energy efficiency of homes to cut Britain's greenhouse
gas emissions are to be ditched, the Guardian has learned.
Proposed building regulations due to be announced this week
have been watered down and some provisions dropped altogether
as “unnecessary gold plating”.
When the prime minister introduced the government's energy
white paper in 2003 he promised that new building regulations,
to be brought in during 2005, would be 25% tougher than the
ones produced in 2002. New regulations for older, refurbished
homes were also to be introduced at the end of this year.
His aim was to bring Britain closer to the standards of the
rest of northern Europe.
Chancellor seeing red in struggle
to meet Golden Rule
Sector: Central Government
Date: 18/07/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Gordon Brown is in the red on the key measure of his Golden
Rule for the first time since the start of the economic cycle
in 1999, economists say.
They expect that this week’s public-sector finance
figures for June finally will remove the last shred of room
for manoeuvre on the rule, which the Chancellor has made
a crucial test of his economic credibility.
If the forecast is accurate, the Chancellor will be obliged
to spend less than he receives in taxes between now and the
end of the economic cycle if he hopes to meet the Golden
Rule.
The rule requires that “current spending” — Government’s
spending less investment — is balanced or in surplus
over the cycle, which is expected to run from April 1999
to March next year, and not paid for with borrowing.
Over the past six years the Chancellor has run a slim surplus
of 0.68 per cent of GDP.
Public sector pay growth soars
above private sector
Sector: Central Government
Date: 15/07/05
Source: The Independent
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk
Workers in the state sector earn 17 per cent more for every
hour they work than their colleagues in the private sector,
according to research published yesterday.
Public sector pay growth has outstripped corporate pay rises
for each of the past four years, the Chartered Institute
of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said.
Britain’s
total food miles bill put at £9bn a year
Sector: Central Government
Date: 15/07/05
Source: The Independent
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk
The transportation of food across the country and around
the world is costing Britain £9bn a year, a damning
government report today shows.
The average Briton travels 898 miles a year by car to shop
for food, and the importation of food is impacting on road
congestion, accidents, climate change, noise and air pollution.
Surging costs put more pressure
on manufacturers
Sector: Manufacturing
Date: 12/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Pressure on the ailing manufacturing sector was highlighted
yesterday as data showed the cost of raw materials surging
at the fastest annual rate for 20 years.
Manufacturers' input prices were 12.1 per cent higher in
the year to June compared with a 7.4 per cent rise in the
year to May. Higher crude oil prices accounted for more than
half of the increase.
June's annual inflation rate was the highest since March
1985, according to the Office for National Statistics.
NHS day surgery units accused of inefficiency
Sector: Health
Date: 11/7/05
Source: The Guardian
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Day surgery units at NHS hospitals in England are wasting
nearly half their operating time through poor management,
the health inspectorate warns today.
If the least efficient units adopted the practices of the
best, the NHS could perform an extra 74,000 operations a
year, the Healthcare Commission says.
Its report follows a decision by Patricia Hewitt, the Health
Secretary, to spend £2.5 billion over the next five
years on a further round of contracts with the private sector
to perform fast-track day surgery on NHS patients in independent
treatment centres. The Commission did not have the authority
to examine the first wave of independent centres to establish
whether they were more efficient.
England gaining more out of NHS reforms
Sector: Health
Date: 8/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Patients have benefited from the sustained increase in
National Health Service spending but the money appears to
have bought better results in England than in Scotland or
Wales, an independent assessment of the service has concluded.
"Improvement in a range of quality measures across
the NHS has been considerable," says a Nuffield Trust
report by Sheila Leatherman, a US public health specialist,
and Kim Sutherland, senior researcher at the Judge Institute
at Cambridge University.
Government pays £25m over market rates to
put up refugees
Sector: Central Government
Date: 7/07/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
THE Home Office is paying millions of pounds over the odds
to house asylum seekers, the government spending watchdog
warned yesterday.
The National Audit Office said contracts to accommodate
asylum seekers were costing at least £25 million more
than market rates.
Advisor plays down council tax reform
Sector: Local Government
Date: 6/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
The government’s advisor on the future of the council
tax is playing down expectations of radical reform after
calling for debate about the direction of local government
and the amount the public is willing to pay for it.
Computer watchdog problems likely to delay ID cards,
says watchdog
Sector: Central Government
Date: 6/07/05
Source: Independent
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk
The Government fears it may have to delay the date at which
all Britons will be issued with identity cards because of
growing alarm over the computer system that would run the
scheme.
As MPs delivered a scathing verdict on other Whitehall computer
bungles, the Home Office conceded that the ID card scheme
might not happen until 2014 - the previous official target
date was 2013.
Official’s £4m Dome fraud
Sector: SME
Date: 5/07/05
Source: The Times
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk
A senior official at the Millennium Dome faces jail after
admitting taking part in a £3.95 million fraud which
funded a life of luxury.
Simon Brophy, 38, used his position as head of lighting
at the New Millennium Experience Company to award a contract
to one of his own companies. He channelled money into foreign
bank accounts, spending it on luxury foreign travel, property
in the US, a helicopter and yachts.
Queen’s physician hits out at funding shortage
in NHS
Sector: Health
Date: 5/07/05
Source: The Scotsman
Link: http://www.scotsman.com
The Queen’s physician in Scotland yesterday launched
an astonishing attack on the lack of NHS funding in the North
East of Scotland. Professor Ashley Mowat, a senior consultant
in gastroenterology at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, claimed
that too few patient beds meant worsening waiting times and
warned that funds would have to be raised locally to counter
a growing funding crisis.
First three NHS foundation trusts begin to flex
their financial muscles
Sector: Health
Date: 4/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
The first three NHS foundation trusts have used their borrowing
powers to raise a total of slightly less than £35 million
for new facilities.
All three - Stockport, Moorfields Eye Hospital and the
Homerton in East London - say it has brought them new facilities
more quickly than under the traditional NHS capital funding
regime.
In the case of Stockport, it also shows that foundation
trusts may rely more in future on conventional borrowing
for progressive redevelopment of their facilities, rather
than on ‘big bang’ PFI schemes. The private finance
initiative has recently been criticised by both the NHS Confederation
and Health Department officials for creating inflexible buildings
and projects unsuited to rapidly changing health technology
and services.
Labour denies ‘stealth’ council tax
rises
Sector: Local Government
Date: 4/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
The government has denied Tory claims that it is planning
a £200m "stealth tax" on English households.
"Any speculation that the government is planning a
council tax shake-up that will lead to huge rises in council
tax bills is untrue," the Office of the Deputy Prime
Minister said yesterday.
Electrical goods required to meet energy efficiency
standards
Sector: Environment
Date: 4/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Manufacturers selling electrical goods in the UK will be
asked from later this week to ensure that their appliances
meet energy efficiency standards.
The European Union's eco-design directive will come into
force on July 6, applying standards to household equipment
from boilers and washing machines to commercial electrical
equipment and component parts. The standards are voluntary
at present, but may become mandatory in the future.
NHS borrowing demands to test Blair reforms
Sector: Health
Date: 4/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
Tony Blair's commitment to radical reform of the public
services is set to be tested this week when a flagship group
of NHS hospitals demands more freedom to borrow for investment.
The Foundation Trust Network is to call for their borrowing
to be taken off the government's balance sheet - potentially
reigniting a three year old dispute between the Prime Minister
and Gordon Brown.
Good timing all-important for Brown
Sector: Central Government
Date: 4/07/05
Source: Financial Times
Link: http://www.ft.com
The system of public expenditure control introduced by Gordon
Brown is one of his proudest achievements.
The chancellor
regularly boasts of the greater certainty the three-year
public spending plans have brought since they were introduced
in the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review.
Now the Treasury is thinking about fixing spending plans
for three years in the future.
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