HC 713 - Smaller Airports

HC 713 - Smaller Airports PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215084071
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
Smaller airports are economic and social enablers. They facilitate vital national and international connections for people and businesses in the UK. The Committee found that Air Passenger Duty (APD) is the principal threat to the smaller airports sector. APD cannot be amended to support people, businesses and regional economies because of the operation of European competition law, while proposals to devolve it to the regions would serve only to spread a patchwork of market distortions across the UK. It was disappointing that the concerns the Committee raised about APD in their First Report of Session 2013-14 on Aviation strategy were ignored by the Treasury. The Committee urges Transport Ministers to pursue those recommendations and the important concerns raised by smaller airports with the Treasury. The Airports Commission will publish its final report on expanding hub airport capacity in the south-east shortly after the general election. The whole country will only be able to share the economic benefits if airlines secure slots to provide services to UK airports outside London. The DfT needs to assess how new slots might be allocated and whether slots could be ring-fenced for domestic services

HC 713 - Smaller Airports

HC 713 - Smaller Airports PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215084071
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
Smaller airports are economic and social enablers. They facilitate vital national and international connections for people and businesses in the UK. The Committee found that Air Passenger Duty (APD) is the principal threat to the smaller airports sector. APD cannot be amended to support people, businesses and regional economies because of the operation of European competition law, while proposals to devolve it to the regions would serve only to spread a patchwork of market distortions across the UK. It was disappointing that the concerns the Committee raised about APD in their First Report of Session 2013-14 on Aviation strategy were ignored by the Treasury. The Committee urges Transport Ministers to pursue those recommendations and the important concerns raised by smaller airports with the Treasury. The Airports Commission will publish its final report on expanding hub airport capacity in the south-east shortly after the general election. The whole country will only be able to share the economic benefits if airlines secure slots to provide services to UK airports outside London. The DfT needs to assess how new slots might be allocated and whether slots could be ring-fenced for domestic services

HC 257 - Investing In The Railway

HC 257 - Investing In The Railway PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215081153
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
The Transport Committee welcomes record investment committed to the 'classic' rail network but calls for greater regional balance in spending. Network Rail must also regain the confidence of passengers following recent disruption. The Committee calls for the Government to take responsibility for rolling stock, to address general shortages and ensure there will be sufficient trains to run on newly-electrified lines. The Committee also concluded: (i) Record levels of funding show a welcome commitment to ’classic' rail but this should be set in a longer-term strategic plan for the rail network, which ties into a wider transport strategy; (ii) The overrunning Christmas engineering works were unacceptable; (iii) Network Rail must have adequate contingency plans. They must also work with Passenger Focus and train operating companies to improve communication with passengers when engineering works fail; (iv) In the light of the change of status of Network Rail the ORR must reconsider whether fining a public sector body remains an effective means for the regulator to exert control; (v) Greater transparency is essential around rail spending. Criteria used to allocate spending should be published.

House of Commons: Sessional Returns - HC 1

House of Commons: Sessional Returns - HC 1 PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215062277
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
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)

HC 1140 - Local Transport Expenditure: Who Decides?

HC 1140 - Local Transport Expenditure: Who Decides? PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215072863
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Transport infrastructure in some parts of the UK may get left behind under the new system to be used from next year (2015) to share out central government money for local major transport schemes. The Government has again changed the system for distributing money to local areas for major transport projects, with much more emphasis now on competition for funding. This will not necessarily help regions get a fairer share of transport funding and could make the situation worse. The Government's focus on using competition to bring in private sector funding for projects could disadvantage the regions, where there tends to be less private sector money available compared with London. Those Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) which are well organised and resourced will have an advantage in bidding for funds. Other areas may lose out as a result. In addition, with greater reliance on competitive bidding for funds, there will see more money wasted on failed bids. Strategically significant schemes such as access to ports must not get overlooked. The changes are set against a backdrop where far less money is spent on transport projects outside London than in the capital. Transport infrastructure spending is £2,500 per head in London compared with £5 per head in the north east. This inequality must change. The Committee calls for the new funding arrangements to be reviewed by the end of the next Parliament to ensure that they are efficient and effective in providing funding for the most urgent transport priorities.

HC 401 - Managing the Care of People with Long-Term Conditions

HC 401 - Managing the Care of People with Long-Term Conditions PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215073274
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
15 million NHS patients in England with long-term conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and asthma account for 70% of the annual expenditure of the NHS in England. One projection estimating that the bill for treatment of long-term conditions will require the NHS to find £4 billion more each year by 2016. Increasingly, patients do not have a single long-term condition but live with two or more conditions, complicating treatment and adding to its cost. The Committee strongly supports the development of individual care planning for people with long-term conditions, based on the principles successfully demonstrated in the NHS House of Care programme. Care planning approaches will involve GPs, community health services and specialists sitting down with the patient to draw up a personalised plan for the care required, which includes the support needed to help the patient manage his or her own condition. The challenge, though, of introducing personalised care planning for 15 million people is substantial. The Committee looked at the prevailing view that services to treat long-term conditions should be moved out of hospitals and into primary and community care. To provide effective care for these conditions, services have to be maintained across all settings, from support in the home through to acute specialist care, and many conditions will continue to require specialist services delivered in hospital. Effective management of long-term conditions also requires collaboration with other government providers, such as housing and transport services.

2013 Accountability Hearing with the General Medical Council - HC 897

2013 Accountability Hearing with the General Medical Council - HC 897 PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215070577
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
GMC's fitness to practise successfully produces outcomes that protect patients from sub-standard doctors but failures to communicate the reasons for decisions and poor investigative practices have undermined a small number on investigations. The GMC should review its fitness to practice procedures to prevent such mistake. The Committee also found that while it is still too early to judge whether revalidation has been effective there is a worrying approach to the oversight of revalidation. Each designated body has a responsible officer for revalidating their medical staff, but the degree to which the responsible officer will be held to account is unclear. It is imperative that the GMC clarifies the personal responsibility and accountability of responsible officers. There is also concern over the number of responsible officers available to oversee the revalidation of doctors working in primary care. GPs are revalidated not by their own employers but by one of the 27 NHS England local area teams that oversees Clinical Commissioning Groups in England. Just 27 responsible officers will be tasked with overseeing revalidation for approximately 45,0000 GPs in England. The Government's intention had been to give the GMC the power to allow it to appeal decisions made by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in 2014 by using a mechanism in secondary legislation called a section 60 order. The Government now plans to introduce the reform in primary legislation as part of a proposed Law Commission Bill thus meeting with even further delay

HC 714 - Strategic River Crossings

HC 714 - Strategic River Crossings PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Transport Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215084217
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
The Committee examined a number of case studies during its inquiry including the Mersey Gateway Project, the Tyne Tunnels and proposals for new crossings in East London and the Lower Thames. The Transport Committee says a short-term approach to planning key infrastructure projects has left many estuary areas in the UK with inadequate transport capacity and poor connectivity: "A lack of cross-river capacity limits local and national economic growth so we call upon the Government to take a far more long-term approach when planning new bridges and tunnels. The Government must rectify that weakness as soon as possible. Important infrastructure projects, such as the Mersey Gateway Bridge, have the potential to generate economic growth by linking workers to jobs and consumers to retailers." The Committee welcomes proposals to build a package of new river crossings in east London and believes these developments are "long overdue."

House of Commons - Health Committee: 2013 Accountability Hearing with Monitor - HC 841

House of Commons - Health Committee: 2013 Accountability Hearing with Monitor - HC 841 PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215069795
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
This year's inquiry into the work of Monitor concludes that the model of care provided by the health and care system is not changing quickly enough with the result that pressures continue to build, threatening the financial stability of individual providers, and therefore the quality of care provided The pressures are likely to be particularly marked in the acute sector as plans are prepared and implemented to achieve the resource transfer required by the introduction of the Better Care Fund from April 2015. Continuing this theme, the Committee argues that as the NHS financial situation tightens, the challenge for Monitor in supporting trusts in financial difficulty is likely to increase. The MPs emphasise the importance of addressing pressures within individual providers in the context of the local health economy. The requirement for major change in the care model can only be delivered if individual providers, and Monitor as their regulator, look beyond preserving existing structures and address the need to develop different structures to meet changing needs. The Committee also expresses concern that Monitor has not done enough to reform the system of tariff payments for providers, arguing that the current tariff arrangements often create perverse incentives for providers and inhibit necessary service change. It recommends that Monitor and NHS England should initiate a formal joint process for a prioritised review of the NHS tariff arrangements with the objective of identifying and eliminating perverse incentives and introducing new tariff structures which incentivise necessary service change

HC 739 - Linking Emissions Trading Systems

HC 739 - Linking Emissions Trading Systems PDF Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Energy and Climate Change Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0215081544
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
Carbon pricing is a necessary element in spurring climate change mitigation action. In this report it's argued that emissions trading, as an established and well recognised policy instrument for controlling greenhouse gas emissions, is increasingly popular and spreading around the world. As they develop, emissions trading systems should be designed so that they are compatible with each other. Aligning design elements early on will help improve the prospects of linking different systems in future and, therefore, maximise opportunities for cost-effective emissions reductions. As the world's oldest and largest market, the EU Emission Trading System will play a critical role in facilitating linking between different markets. Before it can do this, however, it must be seen as a credible market. The issue of surplus allowances must be addressed urgently and there should be moves to remove these from the system as soon as possible. Any new climate agreement must crucially allow parties to meet their Intended Nationally Determined Contribution's (INDCs) by transferring parts of their contributions to other parties and financing emissions reduction activities in other countries. The use of carbon markets will greatly improve the prospects of keeping global average temperatures below 2êC. Any agreement reached at the UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris at the end of 2015 should promote the use of carbon markets and facilitate the future linking of emissions trading systems. The UNFCCC could also play a critical role in providing basic standards including monitoring, reporting and verification.

House of Commons - Treasury Committee: Autumn Statement 2013 - HC 826

House of Commons - Treasury Committee: Autumn Statement 2013 - HC 826 PDF Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215069474
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
Around 43% of departmental expenditure limits are ring-fenced. As a consequence, public expenditure control - on the scale required to address the deficit - will be increasingly difficult. While ring-fencing reflects public priorities, those preferences are not equally strongly held for all ring-fenced areas. Support for the 33.5% cumulative real increase in aid over the course of this Parliament, for example, appears to be lower than for health and schools. The Committee also remains concerned about the impact of the Government's Help to Buy: Mortgage guarantee scheme. An abrupt end to the scheme could distort the market, as could announcements which radically alter people's expectations. Forecasts of additional revenue from many anti-avoidance measures are inherently extremely uncertain. The Committee warned in its report on the Autumn Statement 2012 that the forecast revenues from the UK-Swiss agreement - at £5.3 billion - were subject to uncertainty and that the proceeds may not meet expectations. These concerns appear to have been justified. Even after the event it is often very difficult to establish how much a particular measure has raised. The OBR should look again at how the Government accounts for projected revenues, based on previous experience. Even after the event it is often very difficult to establish how much a particular measure has raised. The more transparency about the yield, and therefore each proposal's effectiveness, the better