Research Briefing
The 2015 Government has moved quickly on the devolution of power to local authority areas, introducing the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill into the House of Lords on 29 May 2015. The Chancellor, George Osborne, has made clear that this Bill forms part of the Government’s stated intention to create a ‘Northern powerhouse’, rebalancing
Research Briefing
Analysis of the latest key UK and international economic indicators.
Research Briefing
Term-limit blues? Controversy over presidential term-limits is a recurring theme in sub-Saharan Africa. And nowhere is this more so at the moment than in the African Great Lakes region, which comprises Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. When two terms are not enough… In Burundi, in mid-May President Jean-Pierre Nkurunziza narrowly
Research Briefing
An overview of pension reform issues at the start of the 2015 Parliament
Research Briefing
In the run up to polling day last Thursday, a large number of opinion polls were carried out, all aiming to estimate the public’s voting intention. The exact wording of the questions posed by polling companies varied, as did their approaches to weighting the responses, but in essence they all attempted to estimate the share
Research Briefing
UK higher education institutions have a statutory duty to uphold freedom of speech in their institutions as far as is practical within the law. This duty has come under pressure recently from the Government’s Prevent Strategy and provisions in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015. This note sets out legislation in this area and gives an overview of debate.
Research Briefing
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, earlier this year warned that net neutrality—“a key element of the openness that underpins the Web and the broader Internet”—is under threat. And while internet activists cheered the announcement in February this year that the US telecommunications regulator had approved a plan to govern the internet
Research Briefing
This book examines the key issues facing the House of Commons over the course of the 2015 Parliament - from the public finances to the UK’s membership of the EU and from school places for children to climate change.
Research Briefing
The system of Parliamentary Questions in the House of Commons. Background material, developments and issues studied over the last ten years.
Research Briefing
The debate on the Queen's Speech is on motion for an Humble Address thanking Her Majesty for the Gracious Address. Under Standing Order No 33, the Speaker can select up to four amendments to the motion.
Research Briefing
Net neutrality is the concept that all information and services should have equal and open access online without regard to content, destination or source. Both net neutrality—and the associated concept of the ‘open internet’—are considered to be founding principles of the World Wide Web. Concerns that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are looking to circumvent net neutrality principles—deciding how fast data will be transmitted and at what quality—have led to campaigns to explicitly legislate for net neutrality. Without net neutrality campaigners fear a two-tiered service with fast and slow lanes could develop. In the past few years, the EU and other countries have attempted to explicitly legislate to ensure Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operate in a net neutral fashion.
Research Briefing
This briefing surveys developments in Hong Kong since August 2014 and the UK's response. The Hong Kong Government is seeking approval for its proposals to elect the Chief Executive by universal suffrage in 2017. Critics argue that they are a sham.
Research Briefing
This paper provides an overview of the transport commitments given by the main political parties in the run up to the 2015 General Election; a broad summary of transport trends over the course of the 2010 Parliament; and looks at some of the possible transport ‘hot spots’ post-2015, specifically devolution; local bus services; cycling provision; rail franchising; and airport expansion.
Research Briefing
This note outlines community budget initiatives - local agreements to pool strategic planning and budgets between public bodies in a given area. It also discusses City Deals, negotiated between large city councils and the Government.
Total results (page 356 of 638)