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| Author | : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 40 |
| Release | : 2009 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 9780215529022 |
Incorporating HC 1184-i, session 2007-08 previously unpublished
| Author | : Great Britain. National Audit Office |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 40 |
| Release | : 2008 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 9780102954340 |
The £330 million New Dimension programme has enhanced the 46 English Fire and Rescue Services' capacity to respond to terrorist attacks and other catastrophic incidents such as major flooding. But better value for money could have been secured in the procurement of the specialist vehicles and equipment. The programme was introduced following the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. It involved procuring specialist vehicles and equipment, training 10,000 fire fighters, and helping to prepare Fire and Rescue Services to tackle terrorist and other major incidents. The equipment has already been used successfully at three major incidents to date: the Buncefield fire, the 2007 summer floods, and at the Warwickshire warehouse collapse in November 2007. Funding uncertainty and poor programme, project and financial management in the early days of the project resulted in delays in introducing the equipment and significant cost overruns. A fraud of £867,200 within the programme remained undetected for 9 months and in procuring one vehicle type, for example, poor contracting and record keeping resulted in a delay of a year and unnecessary costs of between £3 and £8 million. Improvements in programme and financial management have since been made. But more still needs to be done to address weaknesses which might hamper future incident response. In particular the department need to address uncertainties over the respective roles of national co-ordinating bodies and develop a strategy for national and regional multi-agency practice exercises.
| Author | : Amy Cortvriend |
| Publisher | : Policy Press |
| Total Pages | : 360 |
| Release | : 2023-03-14 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 144736807X |
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound and persistent impact – a tragic loss of life, changes to established patterns of life and social inequalities laid bare. It brought out the good in many and the worst in others, and raised questions around what is truly important in our lives. In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember, and to reflect on, the pandemic. What lessons should we learn? How can things be different when this is over? Sensitive to inequalities of gender, race and class, the book highlights the experience of marginalised and minority groups, and the unjust and uneven spread of violence, deprivation and death. It combines academic analysis with personal testimonies, poetry and images from contributors including Sue Black, Led By Donkeys, Lara-Rose Iredale, Michael Rosen and Gary Younge. This truly inclusive commemorative overview honours the experience of a global disaster lived up close, and suggests the steps needed to ensure we do better next time.
| Author | : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 196 |
| Release | : 2010-03-05 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 9780215544360 |
Incorporating HC 1038-i-ii, session 2008-09. The DCLG departmental annual report 2009 was published as Cm. 7598 (ISBN 9780101759823)
| Author | : Anthony Richards |
| Publisher | : Routledge |
| Total Pages | : 267 |
| Release | : 2010-11-23 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1136854975 |
The book aims to outline the progress, problems and challenges of delivering a safe and secure Olympics in the context of the contemporary serious and enduring terrorist threat. The enormous media profile and symbolic significance of the Olympic Games, the history of terrorists aiming to use such high-profile events to advance their cause, and Al Qaeda's aim to cause mass casualties, all have major implications for the security of London 2012. Drawing on contributions from leading academics and practitioners in the field the book will assess the current terrorist threat, particularly focusing on terrorist targeting and how the Olympics might feature in this, before addressing particular response themes such as transport security, the role of surveillance, resilient designing of Olympic sites, the role of private security, and the challenge of inter-agency coordination. The book will conclude by providing an assessment of the legacy of Olympic security to date and will discuss the anticipated issues and dilemmas of the future. This book will be of interest to students of terrorism studies, security studies, counter-terrorism and sports studies.
| Author | : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 52 |
| Release | : 2009-07-28 |
| Genre | : Education |
| ISBN | : 9780215540492 |
In 2001, the newly established Learning and Skills Council (the Council) took over a programme of capital works in the further education sector, to renew an estate that was too large, with much of it in poor condition and no longer fit for modern educational purposes. By March 2008, a total of £4.2 billion of projects had been approved 'in detail', including grant support from the Council of £1.7 billion, and about half of the estate had been renewed. Since April 2008, there has been a very serious failure in the management of the programme. It approved 'in principle' 79 colleges' projects, which required nearly £2.7 billion of Council funding more than it could afford. Before the current problems arose, the programme had achieved some successes, enabling the estate to be reduced in size, and the buildings are generally of good quality and are contributing to increased learner participation. The economic downturn could affect colleges' ability to fund projects by restricting their access to loan finance or their ability to sell surplus assets. The indebtedness of the sector is rising. The Council needs to monitor closely the financial health of some colleges, particularly those that have borrowings that exceed 40 per cent of their annual income. In 2010, the Council is expected to be dissolved and its functions taken over by the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. There needs to be clarity about responsibilities for the capital programme, and additional administrative burdens on colleges must be avoided.
| Author | : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 40 |
| Release | : 2009-07-07 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 9780215532701 |
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of land containing habitats and wildlife which are of national or international importance. There are over 4,000 SSSI sites in England, protected through restrictions on activities and development which would adversely affect the sites. In 2000, the Department agreed a Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to bring 95 per cent of SSSI land area into a 'favourable' or 'recovering' condition by December 2010. The reported condition of sites has increased from 52 per cent of land area in target condition in December 2002 to 86 per cent in February 2009. The programme of SSSI condition assessments is not up-to-date and Natural England has put in place a programme of work to address the backlog of assessments by 2010, and has introduced quality assurance systems and guidelines to improve the consistency of its record keeping. Public expenditure on SSSIs has more than doubled over the past eight years, from £35.6 million a year in 2000-01 to £85.4 million in 2008-09. Financial incentives to encourage private landowners to conserve sites account for some 58 per cent of public expenditure. There is scope to improve the processes for identifying new sites and declassifying existing ones which are no longer of special interest.
| Author | : House of Commons Public Accounts Committ |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 40 |
| Release | : 2009-04-28 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 9780215529763 |
In 2007-08, central government spent over £12 billion on service contracts, primarily in the areas of information and communication technology, facilities management and business process outsourcing, and an estimated £240 million on managing these contracts. In most cases central government monitors the performance of its suppliers, but it makes limited use of financial incentives to encourage suppliers to improve performance and does not always apply financial penalties where suppliers under-performed. Testing of value for money of ongoing services and contract changes is variable. Planning and governance is one of the weaker areas of contract management. Less than half the organisations surveyed had an individual with overall responsibility for contract management, and there was no documented plan for managing 28 per cent of contracts. In addition, many contracts do not have in place some or all of the elements of good practice risk management. No commercial director/head of procurement rated the level of resources allocated to the management of their major contracts as 'good', and 22 per cent of contract managers considered they did not have time to perform their responsibilities well. Most contract managers had undertaken relevant training, although 60 per cent of organisations did not provide a structured training programme for their staff. The Office of Government Commerce is to issue further guidance on contract management in April 2009, building on the good practice framework it published jointly with the National Audit Office, and it is working to improve the provision of training on contract management. It is also extending its monitoring of major suppliers to government, and is reviewing recent examples of service failure where contractors failed to perform to identify lessons for the future.
| Author | : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 52 |
| Release | : 2009 |
| Genre | : Business & Economics |
| ISBN | : 9780215530288 |
In 2005, the Department for Transport took over responsibility for passenger rail franchising from the Strategic Rail Authority. Eight franchises, half of the 16 franchises currently in operation across the country, have been re-let, with the train operator on six out of the eight franchises being changed. The Department specifies the minimum levels and quality of passenger services and agrees annual levels of subsidy or premium which it will pay to, or receive from, each train operator for franchise terms of typically 7-10 years. It has announced plans to add a total of 1,300 additional rail carriages to operator fleets across all 16 franchises to reduce overcrowding. In January 2009, the average increase of unregulated fares was 7 per cent, with some as high as 20 per cent. Special low fare offers are available, often through the internet, but those without access to a computer may need help to identify and book these fares. The Department projected that taxpayer support for the eight franchises would reduce and, in five cases, turn into payments from the train operators. If the projections are realised, a direct subsidy of £811 million to train operators in 2006-07 would be replaced by a £326 million receipt from train operators in 2011-12. Grants to Network Rail, if kept at the 2005-06 level, would mean passenger services receiving £926 million of support from the taxpayer in 2011-12, reduced from about £2,063 million in 2005-06. This reflects a policy of rebalancing service costs, with a higher proportion for the passenger and an overall reduction in subsidy. This outcome depends more on continued rail passenger growth than on fare increases.
| Author | : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee |
| Publisher | : The Stationery Office |
| Total Pages | : 36 |
| Release | : 2009 |
| Genre | : Social Science |
| ISBN | : 9780215529282 |
This report examines recording and acting on complaints, and on the adequacy and costs of the complaints process, in the Department for Work and Pensions (the Department) and Jobcentre Plus and the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service (the Agencies). The Agencies provided services to over 22 million customers in 2007-08 and around 70,000 complaints were recorded (down from 103,000 in 2003-04). A three-tiered process has been introduced, and Agencies aim to resolve most complaints at frontline staff or manager level, so as to minimise the number reaching Chief Executive level. Additionally, dissatisfied customers have two independent resolution routes if internal processes fail: the Independent Case Examiner and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Whilst only about 200 cases reach the Ombudsman, the proportion upheld at that stage is around two thirds, suggesting that there is scope for improvement in handling the most difficult cases. Staff attitude is the most common cause of complaints. Another common complaint is the cost of calling the Agencies, particularly from mobile phones. The Department has no consistent system across its operations for recording complaints, although it is currently piloting a simplified system with the intention of moving to a common system. There is also limited central monitoring of the quality of replies to customers. The cost of handling complaints is estimated by the National Audit Office to be between £4.7 million and £6.2 million, although the Department does not monitor such information. Resolving at the front line a third of the cases which currently reach 'tier three' (Agency Chief Executive level) could save the Department around £700,000.
