Home Office sets out anti-terror strategy
This Command Paper, 'The United Kingdom's Strategy for Countering International Terrorism' (Cm. 7547), sets out the United Kingdom's strategy - known as CONTEST - for countering the threat from international terrorism.
The aim of CONTEST is to reduce the risk to the United Kingdom and its interests overseas from international terrorism, so that people can go about their lives freely and with confidence.
'Distressing failures' in health and social care services
The Health Service Ombudsman and the Local Government Ombudsman investigated complaints made by Mencap on behalf of the families of Mark Cannon, Warren Cox, Edward Hughes, Emma Kemp, Martin Ryan, and Tom Wakefield, who died whilst in NHS or local authority care between 2003 and 2005.
This eight volume Report, 'Six Lives: The Provision of Public Services to People with Learning Disabilities' (HC 203 I-VIII), reveals significant and distressing failures in service across health and social care.
A Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for the UK?
This Green Paper, 'Rights and Responsibilities: Developing our Constitutional Framework' (Cm. 7577), addresses the central constitutional question of the relationship between the citizen and the state.
It considers how this relationship might best be defined in the context of rights, responsibilities and values, and examines a range of options for drawing up a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.
Pre-Budget Report green investment 'too small'
This Report, 'Pre-Budget Report 2008: Green Fiscal Policy in a Recession' (HC 202), examines the Treasury's response to recession and also looks at the subject of green taxation.
31% of Service families dissatisfied with housing
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has over 50,000 properties across the United Kingdom, providing housing for around 42,000 Service personnel and their families. A survey has revealed that, while 52% of Service families feel their accommodation is in a good condition, 31% are dissatisfied with the condition of their property.
Cost of parole hearing delays 'significant'
The Parole Board (the Board), a Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, is responsible for deciding whether an offender is suitable for release from custody on parole. The Board's workload of cases to assess has more than doubled in a five year period.
The Laming Report on child protection in England
Following the death of 17-month-old "Baby P" in Haringey, north London, Lord Laming was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families to report urgently on the progress being made across the country to implement effective arrangements for safeguarding children.
This Report, 'The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report' (HC 330), presents Lord Laming's findings and recommendations.
Offender database 'has not delivered value for money'
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) initiative - begun in 2004 - to build a single offender management IT system for the prison and probation services has not delivered value for money, according to this Report from the National Audit Office.
Committee calls for closer EU and NATO relations
In this Report examining crisis management in the European Union (EU), 'Civil Protection and Crisis Management in the European Union' (HL 43), the Committee calls for a closer working relationship between the EU Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) and NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response and Coordination Centre (EADRCC).
Committee concerned by Flexible New Deal budget
The design and delivery of employment programmes are critical to the success of welfare reform and fundamental to the Government's aspiration of an 80% employment rate.
The new Flexible New Deal (FND) programme will be part of the revised Joint Services Agreement (JSA) regime and will be delivered by large prime contractors who will work with subcontractors at a subregional level.
Intelligence & Security Committee's Annual Report
The focus of the 'Intelligence and Security Committee Annual Report 2007-2008' (Cm. 7542) is the administration, policy and finance of the three Agencies - the Security Service, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) - and issues concerning the wider intelligence community.
Work of the Office of Fair Trading examined
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has improved its operations following recommendations on maintaining competition in markets made by the National Audit Office (NAO) and Committee of Public Accounts in 2005 and 2006, respectively.