Author: Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215078500
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Extractive companies contribute directly to the UK in a number of ways. Both domestic companies and global companies listed in London contribute through taxes, dividends, licenses and the employment of British workers. The size of the UK's domestic extractive sector is well below its historical peak. However, the Government has expressed support for the enlargement of the UK's domestic extractive and the United Kingdom Trade and Investment is doing good work to promote the United Kingdom as a base for extractive companies to do business with the rest of the world. However, the extractive sector is not without controversy, particularly when one considers reports of poor practice around the world. The UK is at risk of being associated with some of the negative practices often reported alongside the sector. To counter this, more needs to be done to improve to social and environmental performance, transparency and reputations of the companies it hosts and both industry educational institutions and Government must promote and excite the next generation of extractive workers. This should be done by encouraging more British students to study STEM-related subjects, engage with industry to encourage and promote mining as a rewarding and exciting career and encourage large mining companies to support the UK as a base for mining through funding and resources.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215062277
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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On cover and title page: House, committees of the whole House, general committees and select committees. On title page: Returns to orders of the House of Commons dated 14 May 2013 (the Chairman of Ways and Means)

Author: Yann Aubin
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
ISBN: 904115468X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
The importance of export control laws and regulations in international trade continues to grow, not only because of the increase in world trade and technology dispersion, but also due to concerns surrounding national and regional stability and the risk of terrorism. Accordingly, familiarity with export control laws and regulations around the world has become extremely important for those involved in the international trade of dual-use or military goods, technology, and services. In this preeminent handbook, now in its third edition, two experienced professionals have gathered contributions from expert practitioners and academics. The third edition adds three new country chapters (Brazil, Israel, and Sweden) and a new separate chapter on sanctions and embargoes. In addition to chapters on the international regime in general, the book provides a practical overview of the export/import control regimes covering defence and dual-use goods and services in fourteen key jurisdictions. Country reports each follow the same structure for easy comparison. Issues and topics covered include the following and much more: • import/export legal and regulatory requirements for controlled goods and services; • sanctions for breach of such requirements (civil, administrative, or criminal); • licence application processes; • arms, dual-use and other products embargo (including chemical and biological materials and technology); and • enforcement measures. The Handbook also makes available, through an online application, all important standard export control–related forms, templates, and other related documents, all of which readers can use to draft their own documents. The Handbook is invaluable to any professional (such as lawyers, compliance key players, procurement, logistics, finance and customs practitioners) working in relation to an organisation with a need to know the specific requirements to be followed for the efficient - and legally compliant - import or export of controlled military or dual-use goods, technologies or services.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215075854
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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The Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI) is an independent commission which reports to the House of Commons International Development Committee, not to the Department for International Development (DFID). The Committee ensures its accountability to Parliament in two main ways: through a sub-Committee, which takes evidence on the reports published by ICAI; and through an inquiry each year carried out by the full Committee into ICAI's Annual Report. 2013-14 has been a busy year for ICAI, with 12 reports published on a wide range of DFID's activities. ICAI's Annual Report contained three headline findings for DFID this year. Firstly, tighter management of multilateral partners is needed. Secondly, DFID needs to continue to improve its aid programme management capacity, especially where contractors are implementing programmes. Thirdly, DFID's corporate results agenda - and in particular its use of 'reach indicators' - is distorting programming choices. The Committee shares ICAI's concerns on these issues and intend to follow up its recommendations in two forthcoming inquiries this autumn: Beyond Aid; and DFID's Departmental Annual Report 2013-14. DFID spends a large amount of money - at least £200 million - on self-evaluation. However, it cannot provide an exact total. The Committee question this large expenditure, especially given that an ICAI evaluation recently found that DFID staff struggle to use self-evaluation material in their work. The contracts of the current ICAI commissioners, contractor consortium and staff all end in May 2015. While staff contracts may be renewed, new commissioners and contractors must be recruited. Planning is underway for the transition to the next phase of ICAI: all possible efforts must be made to ensure this goes as smoothly as possible.

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215081722
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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The cuts imposed on the FCO since 2010 have been severe and have gone beyond just trimming fat: capacity now appears to be being damaged. If further cuts are imposed, the UK's diplomatic imprint and influence would probably reduce, and the Government would need to roll back some of its foreign policy objectives. The FCO's budget is a tiny element of Government expenditure, but the FCO makes disproportionate contribution to policy making at the highest level, including decisions on whether to commit to military action. The next Government needs to protect future FCO budgets under the next Spending Review.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215056849
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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The Foreign Affairs Committee publishes a wide-ranging report on the work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and two of its sponsored bodies, the BBC World Service and the British Council. It makes key recommendations on language skills for top diplomats, BBC World service funding and priorities, and funding for the British Council. For the FCO, the exclusion of foreign language skills and reliance purely on general management competencies creates the risk of credibility in respect of key diplomatic postings. The Committee finds it unacceptable that the World Service will not know its budget, priorities or objectives before the transition to licence fee funding and the new arrangements for oversight by the BBC Trust from April 2014. The British Council will struggle to deliver the UK's foreign policy objectives if cuts to grant funding from the FCO continue at a similar rate. The Committee recommends that the FCO should shield the British Council from the effect of any further cuts to the FCO budget in 2015-16.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215065902
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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The rapid expansion of the payday loan sector has been accompanied by a significant increase in the number of people experiencing serious debt problems which suggests people should think carefully before taking out such loans. Furthermore the number of payday loan adverts seen by 4-15 year olds has increased from 3 million in 2008 to 596 million in 2012. The Committee's recommendations include: all payday loan companies should be required to resubmit their affordability tests to the FCA for approval before they can continue in the sector and the FCA should make clear that if real-time data sharing has not been established by July 2014 it will mandate its use as a condition of trading in the sector; a limit should be set of one roll-over per payday loan; Payday lenders should be required to give 3 working days notice before using a continuous payment authority [CPA] and each notice should set out the right of a customer to cancel the CPA; the FCA should discuss with the Information Commissioners Office how texts on payday loans could be disaggregated to identify the extent of bad practice and if this evidence base demonstrates inappropriate targeting or marketing, the FCA should move to ban all brokering of payday loans through email, texts and other personal mobile devices; when payday loans come under the authority of the FCA, they will be subject to a levy which should be ring fenced by the Money Advice Service solely for the funding of front-line debt advice services

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215080742
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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In July 2014, the Committee launched an inquiry into the UK's relations with Hong Kong, 30 years after the signing of the Joint Declaration. As part of this inquiry, they planned to visit Hong Kong to speak to a wide range of interlocutors about the UK-Hong Kong relationship. The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities informed the Committee that they considered this to be interference in China's internal affairs and they urged a halt to the inquiry. On 28 November, the Chinese Deputy Ambassador informed the Committee that the Chinese government would take any necessary measures to prevent the Committee from visiting Hong Kong, forcing the postponement of the visit. It was made clear that the Committee would be prevented from entering Hong Kong, despite the fact that, as UK nationals, no visa for entry was required. The Committee considers the ban by China to be unprecedented, and sees it as an obstruction to the conduct of the Committee's parliamentary duties.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215062703
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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The FCO was timid and inconsistent in the discussions which led to the decision to award to Sri Lanka the right to host the 2013 CHOGM. It should have taken a more robust approach since, in the light of continuing human rights abuses in the country. In 2009 the FCO objected to Sri Lanka hosting the 2011 CHOGM but did not obstruct a proposal that it might do so in 2013, nor did it insist that Sri Lanka's right to host in 2013 should be conditional on improvements in human rights. The Committee took evidence from the BBC World Service on jamming and denial of access to its broadcast and internet services, particularly in Iran and China. The Committee calls on the BBC to recognise in future funding plans the need to provide the resources necessary to afford protection. All providers of satellite services have a commercial interest in defeating jamming. The report considers Government policy on human rights in Burma and concludes that the EU's decision to lift economic sanctions in April 2013 was the right one, given the remarkable progress made in Burma. But it warns that the UK should be prepared to advocate re-imposition of sanctions if undertakings on human rights are not followed through. The Government should also urge condemnation of those responsible for violence in Rakhine State in 2012. The Committee does not support suggestions that the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games should be boycotted in protest against human rights abuses in Russia