This note examines funding for the arts across Great Britain from 1955 to the present. The Arts Council of England (ACE), Creative Scotland (CS), Arts Council of Wales (ACW), as well as the historic Arts Council of Great Britain (ACGB), receive individual examination.
Southeast Asia is home to a range of complex territorial disputes, but the most intractable and combustible is the South China Sea dispute. Tensions between the rival countries have been on the rise in recent years. An Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has ruled in favour of the Philippines in a case brought by that country against China.
Contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance is a benefit for unemployed people with a sufficient record of National Insurance contributions. It is not means-tested as such, but the amount of contribution-based JSA payable is reduced on a pound for pound basis by any regular income the claimant receives from an occupational or private pension in excess of £50 a week.
This House of Commons Library briefing paper looks at controversial proposals put forward at the March 2016 Budget to change the criteria for Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The proposals were subsequently abandoned and the Government said it would not be seeking to make alternative offsetting savings, or further savings from the welfare budget not already legislated for.
How is Russian foreign policy made, and what are the motive forces behind it? How does that play out around the world and in Russian relations with the West?
This House of Commons Library briefing paper looks ahead to the NATO Summit in Warsaw on 8-9th July 2016. Topping the agenda is NATO's response to Russia, instability in the Middle East and North Africa, and defence spending.
The Iraq Inquiry, set up in 2009 and chaired by Sir John Chilcot, was originally expected to report within months. It will now be published on 6 July 2016
The House of Lords Reform (No. 2) Bill 2013-14 was a private Members’ bill, which received Royal Assent on 14 May 2014. It allows members of the House of Lords to retire or resign permanently. It also provides that members who did not attend and those convicted of serious offences should cease to be members of the House of Lords.
In line with the provisions of the House of Lords (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015, the House of Lords has made Standing Orders that enable a suspension to run beyond the end of a Parliament and enable the House of Lords to expel members for reasons other than non-attendance or being sentenced to over a year in prison (as provided for in the House of Lords Reform Act 2014).
Now that the UK has voted to leave the EU, what will happen next? This Commons Library briefing paper looks at the immediate consequences of the vote and some of the longer term implications. This paper considers various questions about UK withdrawal from the EU and what is likely to happen in the coming weeks and months. The issues include the method of leaving the EU, continuing parliamentary scrutiny of EU business and the withdrawal negotiations, and the implications of Brexit for Scotland and Gibraltar.
This paper has been written for the House of Commons Second Reading debate on the Higher Education and Research Bill 2016. The Bill brings forward a range of measures to increase competition and choice in the higher education sector, raise standards and strengthen capabilities in UK research and innovation. The Bill implements the legislative proposals in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) White Paper, Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching, Social Mobility and Student Choice and in Sir Paul Nurse’s report, Ensuring a successful UK research endeavour: A Review of the UK Research Councils by Paul Nurse, November 2015. The Bill will establish a new body the Office for Students, create a single route into the higher education sector, create alternative payments for students and make changes to UK research infrastructure.