Research Briefing
2015 Benefit uprating
State pension, benefit and tax credit increases in April 2015 - what the rates are and how are they are calculated.
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Research Briefing
Consumer Rights Bill – Lords amendments
This paper is designed to provide background information for Consideration of Lords Amendments of the Consumer Rights Bill, as brought from the House of Lords on 9 December 2014. This note, like the Lords Amendments themselves, refers to HL Bill 29, the Bill as first printed for the House of Lords. This note also refers to Explanatory Notes on Lords Amendments produced by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) in conjunction with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
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Research Briefing
Septic tanks: new regulations
This note explains the legislation relating to septic tanks in England.
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Research Briefing
Serious Crime Bill
This Bill would make changes aimed to strengthen the law on the recovery of the proceeds of crime. It would make amendments to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to update existing offences. It would also provide for a new offence of participating in the activities of an organised crime group and make changes to Serious Crime Prevention Orders and gang injunctions. The Bill would provide for the seizure and forfeiture of substances used as drug-cutting agents. It would also amend the offence of child cruelty, create a new offence relating to the possession of ‘paedophile manuals’ and amend the law on Female Genital Mutilation. The Bill would create a new offence of unauthorised possession of a knife or other offensive weapon in prison and confer extra-territorial jurisdiction on the courts in respect of certain terrorism offences.
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Research Briefing
In Brief: Progress against ISIS December 2014
A brief summary of the progress of the military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
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Research Briefing
Bahrain and the UK: 2014 controversies
The UK’s political and security relationship with Bahrain is disputed even though the protests that began in 2011 are subsiding. This briefing summarises the controversies
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Research Briefing
Unemployment by Constituency December 2014
This paper contains labour market figures for parliamentary constituencies, as well as a summary of the latest national and regional statistics.
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Research Briefing
Unemployment by Constituency: changes in methodology, 2014
The Library has updated the methodology used to calculate the headline count and rate of unemployed claimants shown in the monthly Unemployment by Constituency research paper. This note provides details of the changes.
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Research Briefing
The UK in the European Union: in brief
What has happended in the European Economic Community since the UK joined in 1973?
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Research Briefing
Pension Schemes Bill 2014-15 – House of Commons stages
A guide to debate in the House of Commons on a Bill to provide a new legislative framework for private pensions and make changes relating to the flexibilities for defined contribution pension savers to be introduced from April 2015
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Research Briefing
Small businesses and the UK economy
This note presents a statistical analysis of small businesses in the UK, the role of small businesses in international trade, small businesses and GDP, small businesses and tax receipts and information on government policy towards small businesses.
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Research Briefing
Main Treaty amendments since the UK joined the EEC
Many argue that the EU is a far cry from what the UK signed up to in 1973. This note looks at the major Treaty changes since the UK joined the EEC in 1973.
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Research Briefing
National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill [Bill 18 of 2014-15]
This Library briefing paper provides information on the National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill, which received its Second Reading on 21 November 2014. The Bill seeks to make changes to a number of provisions in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 relating to: ministerial responsibility for the NHS, competition and procurement policy, and the limits set on NHS hospitals' private income. The Bill also includes measures intended to exempt the NHS from the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Treaty.
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Research Briefing
Protocol No.15 to the European Convention on Human Rights: subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation
This note looks briefly at the Brighton reform conference in 2012 and reforms implemented before and since. It considers two of the reforms in Protocol 15 that the UK Government particularly wanted, in the light of the European Court of Human Rights judgments in Hirst and Abu Qatada, concerning subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation.
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Research Briefing
Infrastructure Bill [HL]
This is a ‘portmanteau’ bill, covering a number of separate but related areas.
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