• Research Briefing

    Local Government Finance Settlement 2015/16 – initial analysis

    Settlement funding assessments for local authorities will decrease by 13.9% and the overall reduction in Spending power, a measure of The total funding available to local authorities (excluding the GLA), was confirmed as 1.8%. The Government will again be offering Council Tax Freeze Grant to those authorities that freeze their council tax in 2015/16. Local authorities raising their council tax by 2% or more will have to hold a local referendum on the proposal.

  • Research Briefing

    Update on Somalia: the road to recovery or the road to nowhere?

    In June 2014 President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared that Somalia was in a “political crisis”. In May, UN Special Envoy to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, said that Somalia was approaching “a danger zone”. How far have these fears come to pass? Government in-fighting During the second half of 2014 relations between the president and his prime

  • Research Briefing

    State Pension top up

    Looks at the provisions in the Pensions Act 2014 to allow people who reach State Pension age before 6 April 2016 to pay voluntary class 3A National Insurance Contributions to increase their entitlement to the additional State Pension

  • Research Briefing

    Credit Unions (2015)

    This briefing covers the UK credit union landscape and policy development up to 2015. This briefing has been superseded by a new briefing CBP-10306.

  • Research Briefing

    Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill [Bill 17 of 2014-15]

    This House of Commons Library briefing paper provides information on the Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill, which received its Second Reading on 7 November 2014. It is a Private Members Bill containing measures intended to improve patient safety. It was introduced by Jeremy Lefroy MP, who came fifth in the Private Members’ Bill ballot.

  • Research Briefing

    Resettling Syrian refugees in the UK

    The United Nations estimates that more than 191,000 people have been killed in Syria. More than 12 million Syrians need help in the country, 7.6 million of whom are internally displaced. Well over 3 million Syrians have fled abroad. Millions of children cannot go to school. In June the UNHCR estimated that there would be

  • 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).

  • 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.

Total results (page 369 of 642)