• Research Briefing

    Disability Living Allowance mobility component for people in care homes

    The October 2010 Spending Review announced that the DLA mobility component would be withdrawn from people in care homes whose place was funded by a public body. The proposal was dropped by the Government during the passage of Welfare Reform Bill 2010-12. This note gives background to the original proposal and summarises initial reactions to it.

  • Research Briefing

    The Act of Settlement and the Protestant Succession

    This note sets out the legal background to the rules surrounding the succession and then considers the historical background and context for the limitations on religious beliefs of the monarch and their spouse before looking at how the legislative restrictions could be removed. Lastly, it sets out recent attempts to change the laws of succession.

  • Research Briefing

    Unemployment by Constituency, January 2011

    This paper presents labour market data for Parliamentary Constituencies. A summary of the latest national and regional labour market data is given, along with a selection of relevant constituency-level indicators including the latest Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimant count data. The latest data show: JSA claimant count unemployment fell by 4,100 in December 2010 to 1.46 million. The wider ILO-based measure of unemployment was 2.50 million in the period September-November 2010, a rise of 49,000 from the last quarter. The unemployment rate was 7.9. This edition of Unemployment by Constituency contains a special section on how unemployment and employment vary by age

  • Research Briefing

    Scotland Bill [Bill No 115 of 2010-11]

    The Scotland Bill was published on 30 November 2010, and is scheduled for second reading on 27 January 2011. The Bill contains provisions to give the Scottish Parliament greater responsibility for raising its own revenue, in addition the borrowing powers of the Scottish Government are extended. The Bill also changes the boundary of devolved powers by amending some of the reserved matters in the Scotland Act 1998. Some new matters are devolved, some are reserved. The Bill also proposes small changes to provisions concerning the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government.

  • Research Briefing

    Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Bill

    The Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Bill is a Private Member’s Bill introduced by Greg Knight under the ballot procedure. The Ministry of Justice has indicated to Greg Knight that it will support the Bill and has assisted with drafting the Bill and the Explanatory Notes. The Bill would protect the inheritance rights of the descendants of people who have: • forfeited their inheritance by killing the deceased; or • decided not to accept their own inheritance. It would give general effect to the recommendations of the Law Commission in its 2005 report, The Forfeiture Rule and the Law of Succession, which were accepted by the Labour Government in 2006. Similar provisions to those contained in the Bill were included in the Draft Civil Law Reform Bill which the Labour Government published in December 2009. The Coalition Government is not proceeding with that draft Bill.

  • Research Briefing

    Seasonal flu statistics

    Seasonal flu statistics by Rachael Harker. Social indicators topical page covering seasonal flu statistics for the winter of 2010/11

  • Research Briefing

    Data protection and the police

    The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), including its exemptions, applies to the police. Section 29 of the Act details the "crime and taxation" exemption which allows personal data either to be processed or withheld from the data subject for the purposes of the prevention or detection of crime or the apprehension or prosecution of offenders.