• Research Briefing

    Education Bill: Committee Stage Report

    This is an account of the House of Commons Committee Stage of the Education Bill. It complements Research Paper 11/14, prepared for the Commons Second Reading debate, which examines the range of matters covered by the Bill. As originally presented, the Bill sought to make provision relating to the National Assembly for Wales’ framework powers. However, these clauses were removed from the Bill following the ‘yes’ vote in the Welsh Devolution Referendum. A Government amendment to clause 13 (reporting restrictions on alleged offences by teachers) was agreed to without a vote. This inserted new schedule 11B into the Education Act 2002, and was introduced to secure compliance with a European Electronic Commerce Directive. Several minor and technical Government amendments were also made to the Bill. The Opposition tabled many amendments, a considerable number of which were pressed to a division, but none was successful.

  • Research Briefing

    Energy Bill [HL]

    This briefing on the Energy Bill has been prepared for the Second Reading Debate in the House of Commons. The flagship policy in the Bill is the “Green Deal”, a scheme whereby homes would be given finance upfront to make energy efficiency improvements, which would then be paid for by energy bill savings. The Bill would also set up a new obligation on energy companies to help certain groups of consumers with saving energy, who need extra support. The Bill also introduces a range of other measures designed to improve energy efficiency; such as facilitating the roll-out of smart meters, widening access to energy performance certificates and making information on energy bills clearer. The Bill also provides measures designed to help improve energy security, to encourage low carbon generation and to grant additional powers to the Coal Authority to charge for certain services.

  • Research Briefing

    Economic Indicators, May 2011

    This Research Paper series summarises the main economic indicators currently available for the UK, along with comparisons with other major OECD countries. The ONS’s first estimate of Q1 2011 GDP showed that the economy grew by 0.5% compared with the previous quarter. Growth in Q1 came from the manufacturing sector (up by 1.1%) and the services sector (up by 0.9%). However, overall GDP growth was reined in by a steep decline in construction output (down by 4.7%). The Q1 outturn followed a 0.5% decline in GDP in Q4 2010 when bad weather was blamed for the contraction in activity. Taking the two quarters together, economic output remained unchanged over the six month period October 2010-March 2011.

  • Research Briefing

    Obesity

    This note sets out the definition and causes of obesity, the health problems caused by obesity, recent government policy on the issue and related statistics.

  • Research Briefing

    Changes to funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses

    The purpose of this note is to outline the current debate on funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses and to summarise changes in policy in this area. ESOL funding has been subject to a series of changes since 2007 when automatic fee remission was removed. This note provides background on these changes, comments on the relevance of proposed changes with regard to the ongoing debate on social cohesion and integration and highlights Parliamentary debate on this issue.

  • Research Briefing

    British Waterways

    This note gives the present and previous governments' policies towards British Waterways; information on Defra's 2004-05 policy review of BW in which concluded that it was largely doing a good job; and summarises the pressing issues of recent years - the funding of BW, the effect of cuts to its budget, and its future institutional status.

  • Research Briefing

    Japanese quake: nuclear power

    This note sets out official information from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the nuclear power plants in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami, 11 March 2011, with comments about what is happening and why.

  • Research Briefing

    London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill

    This Bill makes a small number of technical amendments to the advertising and trading, ticket touting and traffic management provisions of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006. These amendments cover the seizure of articles which contravene advertising and trading regulations; the parliamentary procedure and notice periods required when new advertising and trading regulations are introduced; the penalty for unauthorised sales of Olympic tickets; and traffic regulation and enforcement during the Games.

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