Author : Great Britain: Department of Health
Publisher : Stationery Office
Page : 40 pages
File Size : 33,5 MB
Release : 2013-07-18
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780101863827
Response to HCP 694, session 2012-13 (ISBN 9780215055439). Dated July 2013
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 102 pages
File Size : 37,41 MB
Release : 2013-10-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780215062741
The Assembly's main job is to hold the Mayor to account. But he can appoint Assembly Members to his cabinet while they continue to sit in the Assembly. The Report asks how the public are supposed to disentangle a situation in which an Assembly Member can hold the executive to account in one area while working on behalf of the executive in another. As a further example of inconsistency, the Report questions why Assembly Members can sit on some GLA London-wide executive bodies but not others. For example, eight Assembly Members can sit on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority but no Assembly Member is entitled to join the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime. The Mayor must be held to account for the substantial powers invested in him and the London Assembly is the right vehicle to do this, but not in its current form. The Report recommends that the Assembly should be given the power to: call in mayoral decisions; amend the Mayor's capital budgets as it can his revenue budgets; reject the Mayor's Police and Crime Plan on the same basis as it can other mayoral strategies; review and, if necessary, reject the Mayor's appointment of any Deputy Mayor. In addition Assembly members who join the Mayor's cabinet or sit on GLA boards should be required to give up their Assembly membership and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority should be reconstituted along the lines of the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 78 pages
File Size : 25,17 MB
Release : 2013-12-19
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780215065834
In pursuing unpaid tax, HMRC has not clearly demonstrated that it is on the side of the majority of taxpayers who pay their taxes in full. Last year the Department collected less tax in real terms than it managed to collect in 2011-12. This was despite the stated ambition to crack down on tax avoidance. The tax gap as defined by HMRC did not shrink, but in 2011-12 grew to £35 billion. Furthermore, this figure does not include all the tax revenue lost. HMRC pursues tax owed by the smaller businesses but seems to lose its nerve when it comes to mounting prosecutions against multinational corporations. It predicted that it would collect £3.12 billion unpaid tax from UK holders of Swiss bank accounts and this figure was built into budget estimates, but in 2013-14 it has so far secured just £440 million. HMRC aims to make the UK more attractive to business but the incentives to international corporations may also enable them to avoid tax. HMRC needs to strike the right balance between support and enforcement. The implementation of the Real Time Information system has been encouraging overall though some small businesses are continuing to struggle. It is of concern that HMRC is planning from April 2014 to fine companies even though some face continuing challenges. The successful implementation of Universal Credit depends on RTI continuing to work properly but the system does not have full disaster recovery arrangements. System failures could have serious consequences for payments to individuals
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 37,20 MB
Release : 2013-03-27
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780215055439
From 1 April 2013 local government will have a responsibility to improve the health and wellbeing of local people. Councils are well placed to make the most of a move away from a medical model of health, based on clinical treatment, to a social model, based on health promotion, protection and disease prevention. Central to the new system will be Health and Wellbeing Boards, whose members include councillors, GPs, directors of local services and community groups. They will need to focus on health promotion among all age groups. With few powers and no budget to commission services themselves, they will have to display leadership, build relationships and use their influence locally to turn their health and wellbeing strategies into reality. Health and Wellbeing Boards will be part of a complex new structure, and it is still unclear who will be in charge locally in the event of a health emergency. New arrangements for screening and immunisation services lack a local dimension. These services, along with public health services for children up to five years old and childhood immunisation services, could be devolved to public health staff within local government under Directors of Public Health. The Committee points to weaknesses in the grant formula and the Health Premium and calls on the Government to provide local authorities with community budgets to direct resources at people and places, rather than organisations. The Government also needs to address concerns about local authority and NHS access to each other's data.
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 28 pages
File Size : 13,74 MB
Release : 2012-12-20
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9780215052179
The Government's plans to extend planning permission exemptions are based on an inadequate impact assessment, warns the CLG Committee in a report published today. By failing to take account of the social and environmental effects, the same proposals also ignore two essential requirements of the sustainable development policy set out in the National Policy Planning Framework, say the MPs. The report responds to the Government's consultation on permitted development rights for homeowners, published on 12 November (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/11188/permitted.pdf). The Government's proposals would double the exemption from planning permission for extensions to certain kinds of housing - for a period of three years the size limits for the depth of single-storey extensions for detached houses would increase from 4m to 8m and from 3m to 6m for all other houses in non-protected areas. The Committee found the Government's rationale for these changes unconvincing and asked it to reconsider. The Committee also has concerns that the relaxation in the planning rules would be far from temporary.
Author : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 69 pages
File Size : 28,28 MB
Release : 2015
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0215084535
The purpose of the report is to distil experience from this parliament and to assist the new committee in the next parliament. It considers how the Committee approached its work, the way it has used research and how this might be strengthened, and its own assessment of performance against the core tasks set by the Liaison Committee. It then suggests some matters the new committee might consider examining in the next Parliament. These include both 'unfinished business', topics the Committee looked at over the Parliament to which the successors might wish to return, and new developments, which the Committee considers will emerge as major issues over the next five years.
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 100 pages
File Size : 16,52 MB
Release : 2013-09-11
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9780215061768
Despite acknowledging that a 'handful' of providers give him concern, the Regulator is reluctant to give them lower financial viability ratings, fearing that doing so might trigger an upward re-pricing of their debt. Instead, the Regulator uses governance ratings to signal concerns about financial viability. This practice lacks openness and should stop and accurate financial viability ratings should be published. The fear of triggering a re-pricing also prevents the Regulator from using many of his statutory powers, preferring to adopt informal approaches instead. This lacks transparency and risks too close a relationship developing between the Regulator and providers. The devolved administrations' housing regulators, not to mention regulators in other sectors, must encounter similar dilemmas. The Regulator should work with them to see how they have addressed his concern that the use of statutory powers could prove counter-productive. The Committee's concerns are underlined by the case of Cosmopolitan Housing Group, which came close to insolvency in 2012. The Regulator only lowered its financial viability rating for Cosmopolitan in December 2012, despite the fact that he had been monitoring the situation for months and the possibility of insolvency had been raised in the media two months previously. The report also raises concerns about how effectively the Regulator is discharging his remit for consumer regulation. Noting that of 111 complaints related to consumer standards referred to the Regulator no case of serious consumer detriment was found, the Report calls for an annual external check to be carried out to provide assurance that the Regulator is discharging his duties effectively
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 44 pages
File Size : 34,43 MB
Release : 2014-03-06
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780215069351
The Communities and Local Government Committee note that the quality of domestic electrical work has improved since some of it was brought within building control eight years ago. But much more needs to be done to protect people in their homes. The main mechanism for checking electrical work covered by Part P of the building regulations is satisfactory is certification by a qualified supervisor operating under a Government-approved competent persons scheme. As long as the qualified supervisor meets competence standards, the person carrying out the work does not necessarily have to be a qualified electrician. The report calls for competence requirements to be rolled out within five years for all those actually doing electrical work to which Part P applies. In the interim, it is recommended that there be a limit on the number of notifications that a single qualified supervisor can authorise in a year in order to ensure that they devote enough time to checking each job. The Government should aim to double public awareness of Part P within two years and aim for an awareness level similar to that of Gas Safe within five years (45%). Additionally, the report calls for more proactive enforcement against those who breach Part P.
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 40 pages
File Size : 18,84 MB
Release : 2013-11-15
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780215064424
The Department for International Development is committed to tackling malaria, which affected 219 million people in 2010 and led to 660,000 deaths. However, there is concern that spending by DFID on measures to combat the disease, rising each year to £500 million a year by 2015, may not provide good value as the Department does not have good enough infrastructure everywhere to manage the expenditure effectively. About half of the total number of malaria cases worldwide occur in just two countries - Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo - but the Department has been spreading its resources across 17 countries. It now agrees it should do more work in these two countries but has yet to complete an analysis which would ensure well-informed decisions on where to focus resources. Cuts in funding carry their own risks. On the other hand, long-term commitments can create an equally long-term dependence on UK funding. DfID need to plan and support long term sustainable programmes to combat malaria for which developing countries can take responsibility themselves. DfID must ensure their actions do not have unintended consequences. The Department, for example, the mass distribution of free or subsidised bed nets can damage local businesses selling locally produced nets. It is also essential that the Department make the most of quick, cheap and easy diagnostic tests to increase the number of people who can be quickly diagnosed and effectively treated. This could lead to a halving of the current expenditure on drugs.
Author : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher : The Stationery Office
Page : 40 pages
File Size : 14,53 MB
Release : 2013-12-12
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780215064868
The Whole of Government Accounts for 2011-12 presents the combined financial activities of some 3,000 organisations. It provides vital data on which Government needs to act. Key issues have been identified, such as the £19.4 billion liability for clinical negligence claims. But it is frustrating to see other issues seemingly ignored in long-term policy making and spending decisions. In one year, the public sector was defrauded of over £20 billion and the tax gap rose to £35 billion. The financial liabilities for dealing with nuclear waste also keep growing. There is room for improvement in the document itself and how it is used. Users find it hard to understand, for example, why the Government debt and deficit highlighted in the WGA differ from those reported in the ONS's National Accounts. Also, by changing definitions in its commentary published alongside the WGA, the Treasury makes it difficult to track changes over time. The Treasury's introduction in the commentary of a new concept of so-called 'direct' expenditure leaves out key costs such as the interest paid on the National Debt. The publicly owned and controlled bodies - such as Network Rail and the taxpayer owned banks - are still being excluded, in defiance of normal accounting rules. The usefulness of the WGA is also being limited by the length of time it takes to produce the document and by poor quality data from some of the bodies. The accounts have again been qualified over the completeness, timeliness and accuracy of the information supplied for schools and academies
