government

Call for Government to create a minister for rail resilience for the South West

Council leaders across the region are calling for the Government to create a minister for rail resilience for the South West to ensure an immediate and effective response to the collapse of the sea wall at Dawlish.

Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans said: “We need to have a minister at a senior level who will do everything in their power to ensure all he agencies work together to...

Councillors call for more cash to tackle health issues

Plymouth councillors are calling on Government for a fairer amount of cash to tackle major public health issues in the city.

Despite the significant health challenges Plymouth faces, the city receives just £43 per person, £12 per person less than the Public Health England target figure of £55.

A Motion set to be discussed at today’s Full Council from Councillor Sue McDonald,...

490 South West businesses given exporting chance

490 businesses in the South West could receive free tailor-made advice to how to export their business overseas.

The new advice is open to all 8,900 UK businesses with a turnover of between £25 million and £250 million which the Government consider to be to be medium sized.

A pilot scheme had been launched in Yorkshire and the South East but is expected to see a full national...

Government reveal Modern Slavery bill

A new draft anti-slavery bill which could see human traffickers receive life sentences has been revealed in parliament yesterday.

Known as the Modern slavery bill it will see the maximum sentence for slavery offences rise from 14 years to life imprisonment, as well as introduce a range of measures to improve the detection of slavery operations.

Those with previous convictions...

Alison Seabeck MP expresses concern about support for those with Diabetes

Diabetes UK calls for Government action to end the postcode lottery of diabetes healthcare, which is fuelling a major health crisis.

Ms Seabeck attended Diabetes UK’s parliamentary launch of its State of the Nation 2013 report, which has highlighted huge regional variations in people’s ability to access quality diabetes healthcare. The report also shows that while there have been...

PCC and chief constable meet MPs

A fairer share of central government funding, the cost of alcohol related crime and mental health provision were on the agenda when Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Hogg and Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer met south west members of Parliament at Westminster on Tuesday (10 December).

A cross party group of eight of the regions MPs joined Mr Hogg and Mr Sawyer to look at the issues they...

Government caps parking charges to help high street

The government has capped all parking penalty charges and launched a consultation into aggressive parking policy as part of support package to help boost high streets and city centres.

The cap will come into immediate effect in all government parking enforcement ahead of further consultation into local authority parking policies.

The consultation announced by Communities...

Lower business rates and cap on welfare in Autumn statement

In the Autumn Statement today, George Osborne has revealed that the UK economy is growing but the job of recovery was “not yet done”.

The chancellor said growth is "significantly more than forecast" with expected growth more than doubling from 0.6% to 1.4%.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicts that with growth at current levels the country will no...

Rise in pension age brought forward

The date at which someone must be 68 to draw a state pension has been brought forward by around 10 years.

The change to be announced today as part of Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn statement will see the current scheduled date to be forward from 2046 to sometime in the mid-2030s.

Many commentators expect that the state pension age will rise again to 69 by the late 2040s and...

Wildlife Trusts urge Government to enforce bee-harming pesticides

Coalition of UK environmental organisations urges UK Government to enforce bee-harming pesticide bans.

Thirteen leading UK environmental organisations are today calling for the UK Government to show its commitment to reversing bee declines by fully enforcing the ban on neonicotinoid pesticides.

From Monday 2 December 2014, the EU-wide ban on three neonicotinoid pesticides...

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