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Sun Apr 24 04:22:05 EDT 2011
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DCLG Appoints Consulting Firm To Support The Transition Of Local Government Audit Into The Private Sector - The Communities and Local Government Department has appointed FTI as consultants to help the department transfer local government audit into the private sector.

Innovation Launch Pad: Top Business Leaders To Help Innovative SMEs Win More Government Contract Says Francis Maude - SMEs who have subimitted successful innovative ideas to help government save money on the Innovation Launch Pad would receive mentoring from top entrepreneurs to help them persuade government officials, the Cabinet office Minister Francis Maude has announced.

Government Pledges New "Payment By Result" Scheme To Treat Addiction To Reduce Dependency On Incapacity Benefits - More than 80,000 people are claiming incapacity benefits for obesity and alocohol and drug addiction, according to new figures revealed by the DWP. Among them more than 20,000 have been on the incapacity benefit for more than a decade which has cost the taxpayers more than £1 Billion.

Spamming Could Lead To ICO Imposing Fines Of Upto £500K On Organisations Under New Powers - Organisations, including charities, that spam people with unwanted emails, live or recorded phone calls could face fines upto £500,000 under new powers granted to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) which come into effect on 25 May 2011.

Digital Economy Act: Government Is Within Its Right To Tackle Copyright Infringement Rules High Court - Talk Talk And BT had challenged the copyright infringement parts of the Digital Economy Act arguing Parliament had overstepped its authority and violated "basic rights and freedom".  However, the High Court rejected the challenge.

European Commission Introduces Stricter Ethics Rules For Both Incumbent And Past Commissioners - European Commissioners would now have to wait for 18 months after leaving office before they become lobbyists, according to new rules unveiled by the European Commission earlier today.

MEPs Go Further Than European Council On Enforcing "Debt Brakes" On Member State Budgets - The European Parliament's Economic Committee voted for tough measures to monitor and enforce debt limits in member state finances.  In fact, the MEPs went further than the finance ministers of the member states.

EU Budget: Commission Seeks 4.9% Increase In Annual Budget - UK Says Its Unacceptable - While Europeans are struggling with inflation and low growth and member states are being forced to cut public spending - the European Commission has proposed a 4.9% increase in the EU budget today.  The UK government has already come out strongly against these "unacceptable" proposals.

Scottish Elections: Party Leaders Pledge To Maintain Police Numbers As Rank And File Vote Against Police Merger - All four major Scottish party leaders appeared before rank and file police officers and pledged to maintain police numbers in Scotland following Holyrood elections on 5 May. The Scottish Police Federation Chair, Les Gray, on behalf of the rank and file police officers told the senior politicians that if they maintain police numbers crime rates in Scotland would remain low.

Funding Squeeze And Scrapping Of Targets Push NHS Waiting Times To Three Year High - Statistics for February 2011 shows that NHS waiting times have reached a three year peak, according to a new quarterly update on NHS performance published by the influential health think tank Kings Fund. The think tank also interviewed 26 NHS finance directors on efficiency targets.

Cross Party MPs Criticise Taxpayer Funded Bank Bonuses And Lack Of Lending To SMEs - British banks must reduce their reliance on the public purse which is estimated to be around £512 Billion as of December 2010, the influential House of Commons cross party Public Accounts Committee has said.

Tuition Fees: Confusing Rhetoric Is Discouraging Disadvantaged Students From Applying To University Says Charity - The unintended consequence of flawed debate on tuition fees is leading to many disadvantaged students not applying for university, the Helena Kennedy Foundation has warned.

Energy ethics: the biofuels debate gets some clarity - All biofuels used and imported into Europe should have to meet a set of ethical conditions, and there should be more support for research into new, more sustainable biofuels technologies.

Following the Money: Creating a New Local Government Audit Regime - The New Local Government Network attempted to answer some of the questions regarding the future of local government audit in its report "Show Me The Money" - this piece discusses the report.

Self-help housing is a real opportunity to tackle local disadvantage - The Third Sector Research Centre used a number of case studies to produce its report on Self Help Housing - Naomi Landau from the Centre discusses the report