Research Briefing
Taxis: quantity restrictions
This note looks at the issue of quantity restrictions on taxis and proposals for their removal. Taxi regulation is a devolved matter; this note deals only with England and Wales.
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Research Briefing
Pensions: income drawdown
Looks at the development of income drawdown arrangements as an alternative to buying an annuity
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Research Briefing
EU bibliographies: Food safety legislation: review package
This Note brings together documents relevant to the proposals to strengthen and simplify health and safety standards for the whole agri-food chain and their scrutiny in the UK and EU, published on 6 May 2013. It is not an attempt to define policy in this area. For information on policy developments contact Emma Downing on extn 6787.
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Research Briefing
Queen’s Speech 2014
This Standard Note gathers together announcements from ministers and speculation from commentators on the issues that might be included in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech.
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Research Briefing
Pre-election contacts between civil servants and opposition parties
By convention, opposition parties are entitled to enter into confidential discussions with senior civil servants in the run-up to a general election. This note outlines the current arrangements and also provides a brief history of the convention.
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Research Briefing
EU Bibliographies: Proposed reform of the Common Agricultural Policy
This Note brings together documents relevant to the proposals to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and its scrutiny in the UK and EU. It is not an attempt to define policy in this area. For information on policy developments contact Emma Downing on extn 6787
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Research Briefing
EU bibliographies: Proposed reform of the Common Fisheries Policy
This Note brings together documents relevant to the proposals to reform the Common Fisheries Policy and its scrutiny in the UK and EU. It is not an attempt to define policy in this area. For information on policy developments contact Oliver Bennett on extn 2263.
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Research Briefing
The National Minimum Wage: historical background
This note provides an overview of the historical background to the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.
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Research Briefing
European Parliament elections 2014
Voting in the 2014 European Parliament elections takes place across the EU from 22 to 25 May. In the United Kingdom, voting will be on Thursday 22 May 2014.
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Research Briefing
National Insurance Fund: 1975 to 2014
The National Insurance Fund had been in healthy surplus, but this has been declining sharply in recent years to the extent that without Treasury finance the balance on the Fund is projected to fall below the recommended minimum in 2014/15.
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Research Briefing
Egypt: May 2014 update
Egypt goes to the polls on 26 and 27 May to elect a new president amid concerns about repression
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Research Briefing
The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition
US President Obama launched the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition at the May 2012 G8 summit at Camp David. It aims to address years of underinvestment in agriculture, and to meet the financing gap for global food security, in order to help pull 50 million people out of chronic poverty over 10 years. Critics of the New Alliance question whether it will help poor farmers. and charge that the New Alliance represents a “new form of colonialism”. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) supports the scheme and has committed £600 million to it.
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Research Briefing
A ‘democratic asteroid’: India’s elections
As so often in the past, India’s electorate has sprung a surprise. The count on 16 May gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its presidential candidate, 62 year-old Narendra Modi, a convincing victory in the elections to India’s lower house, the Lok Sabha. On a 66.38% turnout, the BJP won a majority of the seats – the first party to do so since 1984. Author and academic Sunil Khilnani described the outcome as “a democratic asteroid.” For the Congress Party, the result is a disaster.
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Research Briefing
Negotiation with Iran: update May 2014
An impoortant second stage of negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme started in May.
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Research Briefing
Marriage of same sex couples across the UK: What’s the same and what’s different?
Legislation in England and Wales (the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013) and in Scotland (the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014) introduces marriage for same sex couples. The legislation will also enable civil partners to convert their civil partnership into marriage, and transsexual people to change their legal gender without necessarily having to end their existing marriage.
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