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Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. European Scrutiny Committee
Publisher:
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 52
ISBN-13: 9780215032928
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEleventh report of Session 2006-07 : Documents considered by the Committee on 28 February 2007, report, together with formal Minutes
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2007-11-13
Total Pages: 68
ISBN-13: 9780215037275
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDeveloped as an alternative to the American and Russian military systems, the Galileo programme is an independent European navigation satellite system designed specifically for civilian applications, primarily funded and controlled by the European Union and the European Space Agency. Galileo has potential uses across many sectors, though transport applications such as road and rail traffic monitoring, road pricing systems and air traffic control have been considered key areas of benefit. An earlier Committee report on the topic (HCP 1210, session 2003-04, ISBN 9780215020550), published in November 2004, recognised the potential benefits of the programme for the UK and Europe, but raised concerns over its cost and funding sustainability unless rigorous cost-benefit analyses were undertaken. The programme is currently in its development phase, with the second of two experiemental satellites due to be launched at the end of 2007. It is not expected to be fully operational until 2013-14 (originally this phase was meant to have commenced in 2008), and until Galileo becomes operational, Europe is largely reliant on the American and Russian systems. The Committee's report examines i) the costs, funding and value for money of the programme, including the delays encountered, the UK share of costs, the collapse of the public-private partnership (PPP) negotiations and the governance and procurement strategy; and ii) the impact of the complexity of the EU decision-making process on the programme's future funding and management.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. Joint Committee on Human Rights
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 60
ISBN-13: 9780104013038
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe main purpose of this Report is to comment on the adequacy of the additional safeguards which the Government has indicated it intends to bring forward to meet the human rights concerns about its proposal to extend the maximum period of pre-charge detention to 42 days. The report explains the Committee's conclusion that the additional safeguards are inadequate to protect individuals against the risk of arbitrary detention. The Committee recommends that the Government provide Parliament with the evidence on which it relies when it says that the threat from terrorism is growing. It also calls for information about the use made of the extended power to detain without charge for up to 28 days since it was last renewed in July 2007. No amount of additional parliamentary or judicial safeguards can render the proposal for a reserve power of 42 days' pre-charge detention compatible with the right of a terrorism suspect to be informed "promptly" of the charge against him under Article 5(2) ECHR. The Government has not included in the Counter-Terrorism Bill a provision to improve the existing arrangements for parliamentary review of the operation of extended pre-charge detention, and the report puts forward amendments to the Bill to improve such arrangements. In the Committee's view the recent examples of questionable information sharing by the intelligence services, which risk making the UK complicit in torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment, show that there is a need for substantive legal safeguards to guarantee against the arbitrary and disproportionate use of the power to disclose and use such information. The Committee proposes amendments to strengthen safeguards.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: European Scrutiny Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2010-02-16
Total Pages: 94
ISBN-13: 9780215544018
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEleventh report of Session 2009-10 : Documents considered by the Committee on 9 February 2010, including the following recommendations for debate, EU pre-accession funding for Croatia; EU enlargement: pre-accession finance, report, together with formal Mi
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Defence Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 24
ISBN-13: 9780215542809
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis report is in response to the Government's reply to the Committee's May 2009 Report on the Defence contribution to national security and resilience. The Committee is disappointed with the content of the Government's response to its earlier Report, and challenges the Ministry of Defence to be more open in setting out its role in contributing to the nation's security. In this Report, the Committee: calls upon the Government to provide regular updates on national security to appropriate select committees; deplores the Government's failure so far to establish a Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy following the announcement of July 2008; and stresses the importance of the forthcoming defence Green Paper and Strategic Defence Review in making the necessary and important connections between national security and strategic defence capabilities. The next Government must spell out more clearly the role of the UK's defence assets in our national security.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Defence Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2007-07-05
Total Pages: 106
ISBN-13: 0215034856
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Ministry of Defence needs the capability to transport personnel, equipment and stores from the UK to operational theatres across the globe. This capability, known as Strategic Lift, can by delivered by sea, land or air, and its annual cost to the MoD is almost £800 million a year. The Committee's report examines the progress of the MoD in delivering the Strategic Lift requirements set out in the Strategic Defence Review and whether these requirements need to be revisited given the experience of the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Findings include that good progress has been made in improving strategic sea-lift, particularly in relation to Ro-Ro ships and the acquisition of Landing Platform Dock (Auxiliary) vessels. However, strategic air-lift is a particular concern given the age of many of the aircraft, and the report looks at the progress of two major equipment programmes designed to deliver new transport aircraft (the A400M transport aircraft) and new tanker aircraft (the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft).
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2007-08-03
Total Pages: 136
ISBN-13: 9780215035813
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe draft Local Transport Bill consists of a package of measures intended to promote stronger joint working between local authorities and bus operators, to support the introduction of local road pricing schemes and to enable changes to be made to local transport governance. This report follows the structure of the draft Bill. Although the remarks are related to specific clauses some of the recommendations have a more general application. Included with the report is consideration of the Transport Innovation Fund, which is closely linked to congestion and the draft Bill. The Committee is however unhappy that at the end of their inquiry the Secretary of State announced further consultation on parts of the Bill related to the powers and status of the traffic commissioners on reform of the Bus Service Operators' Grant and transitional arrangements for quality contract schemes.
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 96
ISBN-13: 9780215525383
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe draft Apprenticeships Bill published as Cm. 7452 (ISBN 9780101745222)
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Children, Schools and Families Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2010-02-09
Total Pages: 92
ISBN-13: 9780215543882
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMajor reforms must be introduced to help newly qualified teachers make the transition from their initial training to their first teaching post. The pressures on teachers at the start of their careers are considerable and the Committee calls for measures that reduce the front-loaded nature of teacher training. Much greater space and incentives for early career teachers to supplement initial training with a relevant masters qualification are vital. Mentoring support for these teachers must be improved and extended. The Committee urges radical changes to teacher professional development, including the introduction of a single overarching framework for the management of teachers' career progression. It says the 'Chartered Teacher' framework would encompass a licence to practise and link pay and progression to the completion of a masters qualification and, thereafter, to completion of further accredited training. Entry requirements for much initial teacher training provision are too low and the bar must be raised. Reforms should include discontinuing undergraduate programmes for those wanting to be secondary school teachers which attract the poorest qualified candidates and requiring postgraduate trainees to have a lower-second degree or above. The Committee also says that supply teachers must be brought into the mainstream of the profession, that, in the context of the 14-19 reforms, school and further education teachers should have much greater mobility across the two sectors, and that the training of early years, school and further education teachers should be harmonised through generic standards.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 84
ISBN-13: 9780215521132
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe EU's common Energy Policy commits the EU to generating 20 per cent of total energy consumption from renewables by 2020. The European Commission proposed national renewable energy targets for each Member State, and it was suggested that 15 per cent of UK energy be derived from renewables by 2020. Renewable energies comprise three sectors: heating and cooling, transport and electricity. In order to meet the EU Mandated Target of 15 per cent renewable energies by 2020, it will be necessary to generate approximately 35-40 per cent of electricity from renewable sources. This represents a considerable challenge, for which the Government's targets for renewable electricity generation are wholly inadequate. Presently, UK targets require 10 per cent of electricity to be sourced from renewables by 2010 rising to 20 per cent by 2020. It is essential that the Government revise these targets, and align them with the UK's EU Mandated Target. Developers of renewable electricity generation projects have to negotiate a crowded funding landscape, a protracted-and often costly-planning system, and a poorly conceived regime for accessing the UK electricity transmission system. The Government should work to remove current barriers to technology deployment. It is still feasible to meet the 2020 renewable energy targets, but time is running out. The Government must take steps to support the widespread deployment of renewable electricity-generation technologies as a priority, both at the level of macro and microgeneration. But the Committee has been consistently disappointed by the lack of urgency expressed by the Government-and at times by the electricity industry-in relation to the challenge ahead.
