Policy

A tiered approach to tackling young people drinking alcohol in public places.

Alcohol-related crime and disorder by young people is currently estimated to cost society £1 billion per year. According to a schools survey, whilst the proportion of pupils who have never had an alcoholic drink has increased gradually in recent years, pupils who are drinking, are drinking a lot. Those who drank alcohol in the last week had a mean intake of 14.6 units. The proportion drinking on the street, in a park or somewhere else is also continuing to rise reaching 34% in 2008.

More than 3,500 young people were successfully targeted by the summer 2009 crackdown on teenage binge drinking and 15,000 were signposted to positive activities and received treatment where necessary. Nonetheless, there is more to be done and that is why The Home Office is introducing a tiered approach to dealing with young people drinking alcohol in public places, and a new offence of persistently possessing alcohol in a public place.

The guidance explains the offence of persistently possessing alcohol in a public place as contained in Section 30 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009, which received Royal Assent on 13 November 2009. Section 30 establishes a new offence of persistently possessing alcohol in a public place, making it illegal for a person under the age of 18 to be in possession of alcohol on 3 or more occasions within a period of 12 consecutive months.

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DFT: Building our capacity together

This action plan outlines the Department for Transport's priorities for the future, coming out of the department's Capability Review assessment.
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Cutting bureaucracy in public services: DfES

The Cabinet Office is today launching its public sector better regulation strategy, which aims to identify and reduce the bureaucratic burden on the front line. The aim is to find practical ways to lessen the main administrative and regulatory burdens on the front line, without creating more bureaucracy in order to do so.

The strategy follows up some major initiatives to reduce bureaucracy already underway, and also focuses on what’s next. In the HE sector, for example, a recently agreed Concordat is significantly simplifying data collection and quality assurance. Next steps will extend the Concordat to more organisations and professional bodies; seek to address issues of health education regulation; and, ensure that the implementation of Sandy Leitch’s recommendations in the HE sector is consistent with principles of good regulation.

In the schools sector, the New Relationship with Schools (NRwS) was formulated in response to a review of unnecessary bureaucracy. It aims, within the context of delivering school improvement and the five Every Child Matters outcomes, to: lift bureaucratic burdens that schools feel add nothing to their core purposes; remove confusion and irritation in schools as a result of the number and separateness of the initiatives coming at them (‘initiative overload’); improve accountability by helping schools identify priorities according to their needs, based on the evidence of their self-evaluation; and, restore schools’ sense of responsibility for their own actions.

And in FE, there have been a number of recent major reforms - a focus on simplification; the creation of a single inspectorate for FE and of an Information Authority, which sets standards and organises how information about FE is collected, managed and disseminated; the Managing Information Across Partners Programme, which is securing efficiencies by improving how information about learners and learning is shared across the whole education sector; the creation of a communications gateway for the FE System and the establishment of a Practitioner Panel to advise on the timing and content of publications – LSC has reduced by over 60% the number of its publications between January and March this year compared with the same time last year. The Department recognises and values the commitment shown by the members of the gatekeeping groups to helping the DfES and its delivery partners make a real difference for those at the frontline.

For the future, the big thing that will make a difference in FE is the move to self regulation. This offers the opportunity to further streamline and challenge.
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Does leadership matter?

This paper aims to inform the policy debate about political management and governance reforms in English local government. It draws on research evidence about the experience of reform following the passing of the Local Government 2000 Act and looks at the possible implications of the proposals outlined in the 2006 Local Government White Paper.
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'What Works' in Community Cohesion

This research investigates 'what works' in terms of cohesion policy, by investigating policy and practice in six case study areas. The research was commissioned to contribute to the on-going work of Communities and Local Government and the Commission on Integration and Cohesion.
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Securing the Future Through Partnership and Innovation in the English Regions

This publication looks at some of the innovative, ambitious and practical work being done by regional partnerships to further sustainable development.
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Informing Healthier Choices: Information and Intelligence for Healthy Populations

The strategy sets out the Department's vision for information and intelligence to support implementation of the public health white paper Choosing Health: making healthier choices easier. It includes a framework and an overview of plans for delivery.
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Environment and Energy

From: HM Government - Policy Review

The origin of the UK's energy supplies is changing. By 2020, the UK will be importing the majority of its gas and more than half its oil. Like other major energy-using countries, the UK is also set to become more dependent on a small number of suppliers in less stable parts of the world. Around a third of the country's electricity generation capacity will need to be replaced by 2025. At the same time, it is increasingly apparent that there is an extra cost to the exploitation of fossil fuels and natural resources and the changes in land use from which much of the global economy has drawn its income. The scientific advice is clear - human activity is altering our climate and, with it, the systems that support life on Earth. Read More...
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