Sentencing reforms aim to stabilise prison population
‘Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill’ (HCB 205) sets out reforms to sentencing, legal aid and the prison service in the UK.
This Bill implements proposals set out in 'Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid in England and Wales’ (Cm. 7967) and is believed to be representative of the Coalition Government’s aim to stabilize the prison population.
Education Committee calls for youth policy
In ‘Services for Young People’ (HC 744), the Education Committee concludes that the National Citizen Service (NCS) cannot be sustained or developed in its current form.
The Committee applauds the Government’s aspiration to offer the National Citizen Service to all 16-year olds but suggests this is untenable as it would produce costs of over £350 million each year if only 50% of young people take part.
Cuts to Coastguards opposed by Transport Committee
‘The Coastguard, Emergency Towing Vessels and the Maritime Incident Response Group’ (HC 948) reports the Transport Committee’s consideration of three interrelated modernization proposals put forward by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
The MCA propose to close ten of the existing 14 Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres and to leave three that remain open on a 24-hour basis and five that will operate in "daylight" hours only.
Plans for financial system reform outlined
In 'A New Approach to Financial Regulation: The Blueprint for Reform’ (Cm. 8083), the Government outlines ambitious plans to reform UK financial regulation through the creation of specialist regulatory bodies.
Following on from consultation in February and with continuing policy development by the Treasury, the Bank of England and Financial Services Authority, the Government intends to promote the role of judgement and expertise with new regulators.
UK aid in India reviewed for future funding
According to the International Development Committee, UK aid in India is practically insignificant and whilst it should continue for the next four years, change is required thereafter.
In 'The Future of DFID's Programme in India’ (HC 616), the Committee examines how effective the Department for International Development’s (DFID) programme of aid has been in reducing poverty in India and suggests that funding be redistributed to tackle key problem areas.
Consumers must be protected against unfair treatment
The unfair treatment of consumers by businesses is not successfully regulated as responsibility is widespread among numerous departments and is irregularly examined, a report has found.
The National Audit Office (NAO) report 'Protecting Consumers - The System for Enforcing Consumer Law: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Office of Fair Trading and Local Authority Trading Standards Services’ (HC 1087) details that consumer detriment is costing billions of pounds each year but the system for enforcing consumer law is not delivering value for money.
Restriction urged on sexualised content available to children
An independent review calls for the media and businesses to take more care to prevent children from being exposed to parts of adult culture that could damage the innocence of childhood.
'Letting Children be Children: Report of an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood' (Cm. 8078) details that nine out of ten parents believe children are forced to mature too quickly as a result of sexual and commercial content readily available for young people to view.
Government sets out new counter-terrorism strategy
The Government plans to protect the nation from terrorist attacks by working with organisations at risk and providing support to people who could be influenced by extremist ideologies.
The report ‘Prevent Strategy’ (Cm. 8092) reviews the Prevent programme launched in 2007, which seeks to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism in the UK and overseas. It is the preventative strand of the Government's counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST.
Justification of localism scrutinised by Committee
Government plans to devolve power to communities are neither supported consistently across Whitehall nor consistently applied by departments, an inquiry concludes.
The report 'Localism’ (HC 547) examines the interpretation and implementation of the Localism Bill throughout Government and finds that the approach to the principle of localism has been marked by inconsistency and incoherence.
Excess asylum cases cleared as applicants remain in the UK
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) expects to meet its deadline of clearing a backlog of asylum cases by increasing the number of candidates given permission to stay in the UK.
The Report 'The Work of UK Border Agency (November 2010-March 2011)’ (HC 929) details the UKBA’s efforts to reach its target of clearing its backlog of over 400,000 asylum cases by summer 2011 through employing temporary staff so that caseworkers could concentrate on decision-making.