new reform save £24 million from corruptfree civil servants

    

      

new reform save £24 million from corruptfree civil servants 

national report(weastar times/wp/es):::

Ministers have revealed that they expect to save £24 million by squeezing thousands of civil servants from two departments into one building.

Under the plan, 1,300 staff from the Department for Communities and Local Government will move from their Eland House base in Bressenden Place in Victoria to space at the Home Office in Marsham Street in the middle of next year.

There are already about 10,000 staff at the Home Office, but the move is seen as critical to achieving the savings demanded by the Treasury.

Brandon Lewis, the minister for local government, said: “At DCLG, we believe in making sure taxpayers get value for money. By sharing services and streamlining our property portfolio, this move will allow us to continue practising what we preach.”

The Government will pay a break-fee for ending the department’s tenancy of Eland House early, but officials refused to reveal the amount, citing “commercial sensitivity”. However, they said DCLG would save £8 million in office accommodation costs, with the remaining savings coming from the building’s running costs.

The department was asked to slash spending by more than any other Whitehall department when the Coalition came to power in 2010. It then had 2,200 staff and now has 1,200, with a further 100 workers from other bodies also housed at Eland House.

Helen Kilpatrick, director-general of finance and corporate services at the Home Office, said: “As budgets continue to tighten, we want to target resources where they are needed most. And we want to set a strong example right at the centre. This is not just about saving money.

“The move provides us with a great opportunity to place the Home Office at the forefront of civil service reform, developing ways of working flexibly and sharing resources and knowledge across departments.”

Her DCLG counterpart Sue Higgins said: “Our aim is to use our resources — people, public money and property assets — as efficiently and creatively as possible to deliver real change.”

COUNTRY TRAVEL:::a day in helford

    

      

travel desk:::
The Shipwrights Arms overlooking a beauiful creek in Helford changed hands in 2012, and re-opened in time for the Easter weekend 2013 after a re-fit. It was very long overdue a refurbishment and new energy, because the location has to be one of the most beautiful in Britain, with views down the Helford River, but it had been going downhill for a number of years. I popped in for a quick pint after walking Frenchman's Creek, and enjoyed a very well kept locally brewed beer (Harbour Light) and checked out the menu. There is something to be said for a pub menu which is not complicated as you know the the chef will focus on doing a few things really well - this one looked interesting, and also had a few pub staples (fish and chips for £10, pasties for much less). Definitely worth dropping in for a look and a bite to eat - even the soup and bread should be good - the manager is well known locally for making her own artisan bread which is sold in the region.

for further details you can get on national tourism authourity.OR TRY  VISITENGLAND.COM
spot address&contact
address::Helston Village, Helston TR12 6JX, THE ROYAL ENGLAND
contact:+44 (0)1326 231235

Royal Society plans summer game competition in july

    

      

Royal Society plans summer game competition in july

ict reporter,BP(weastar times/g):::

Every July, the Royal Society runs its Summer Science Exhibition, a week-long event showcasing the latest in science and engineering research from across the country.

This year, the fellowship has a new idea to promote and explore the ideas on show. Developers are being invited to take part in a 12-hour game jam in May, each tasked with creating a playable concept based around one of the exhibits at the summer event. Each team will be paired with a scientist, who'll explain their work and help with the development process. Five of the teams will then receive £2000 to further refine their concept so that the games will be ready for the summer.

The Royal Society has teamed up with Unity, which develops a well-known 3D engine for indie studios, as well as digital portal Indie City, which will host the games online.

"The Summer Science Exhibition is one of the highlights of the Royal Society's year," says Professor Peter Sadler, chair of the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition selecting committee. "We're very excited to be introducing a new element to the Exhibition this year in the form of the Games Jam. An increasing number of exhibitors have used games as a way of communicating their science over the last few years and we're hoping that by giving some of them an opportunity to be part of the Games Jam it will bring state-of-the-art creativity and innovation to their video games and some fantastic news ways of bringing their cutting-edge research to life for our visitors."

It's another interesting example of major institutions using games to increase awareness and accessibility. The Science Museum has embraced interactive media, running games on its site to publicise and expand on current exhibitions; the Tate Modern, too, has successfully used games as a way of encouraging people to explore its collection – see Hide&Seek's excellent Tate Trumps.

If you're a studio, or at least an experienced developer with three friends to drag in, you can find out about the Summer Game Jam here – you'll need to complete the entry form by 1 May.

countrywide Government must listen for new councils(LG) welfare reforms

    

      

countrywide Government  must listen for 

new councils welfare reforms

national report(weastar times/wp/g):::

implementation of some of the most far reaching welfare reforms of the past 60 years began on 1 April. Following a five and a half month inquiry, the communities and local government committee, which I chair, has published a report looking at the implementation of these reforms and the role that local authorities are playing.

In the report we have identified several areas important to the successful implementation of the welfare changes. While none merit an outright red card, we called on the government to act swiftly to address our concerns.

Later this year the government is switching the payment of housing support from the landlord directly to the claimant. As a result, housing associations and local authorities may face increased rent arrears and collection costs. During our inquiry the government provided assurances that the reforms will not undermine the financial viability of housing associations. It now needs to show how that guarantee will be made good. If the changes are to stand a chance of working, adequate safeguards are vital.

Direct payment to tenants are being piloted and tested in six areas and information and lessons from these must be available and acted on before national rollout begins later this year. In addition, the government has agreed that vulnerable tenants can be excluded from the switch to direct payments. But we don't yet have a clear definition of who these 'vulnerable' tenants are. This must be provided quickly.

During our inquiry we heard concerns from professionals in local authorities, who will have to implement and operate the changes, about the readiness of the ICT systems. In particular, we heard that the systems for fraud detection within universal credit were still only at an early stage of development. This is concerning given that the new system is going to start in the next few months. The government has to ensure that the benefit system will not be left vulnerable to fraud either during or after the transition.

The changes starting on 1 April are part of a much wider set of changes, which include social sector size criteria aka the bedroom tax, the benefit cap and local council tax support schemes – all of which will increase the pressures on both claimants and local authorities.

While the government is aware that some of the welfare changes place new burdens on local authorities, it needs to assess the impact of the whole programme, particularly on collection rates, rather than of individual changes in isolation. My committee has therefore called on the government to work with the Local Government Association to assess the cumulative impact of reforms.

The government also has to look at the impact of the changes on individual claimants. It was disappointing that it does not see it as a priority in claims for universal credit where requests are made for information to be passed on to councils to determine entitlement to council tax subsidy.

Local authorities have a valuable contribution to make in planning and targeting local welfare provision and have a long track record of delivering major reforms. The significance, timetable and volume of the changes this month should not, however, be underestimated. The government must act on my committee's recommendations, listen to local authorities and do all it can to assist them in their efforts to implement the changes successfully and on time.

bank of scotland crashed-down

    

      

bank of scotland crashed-down

banking corruption reporter(wp/g):::

three executives!!! who ran HBOS bank in the runup to its near-catastrophic collapse have been slated for their "colossal failure" of management in a scathing report which calls for them to be held to account by the City regulator.

The highly critical account of the events that led to HBOS being rescued by Lloyds in September 2008 said the responsibility for the management failings rested with the former chairman Lord Stevenson, and the former chief executives Sir James Crosby and Andy Hornby, and says the bank would have gone bust even if the global financial meltdown of that year had not happened. The bank, formed out of Bank of Scotland and Halifax in 2001, racked up £47bn of losses on bad loans.

In a report entitled An Accident Waiting to Happen, the parliamentary commission on banking standards calls on the trio to apologise for their "toxic" mistakes which caused the downfall of the bank and prompted a £20bn taxpayer bailout.

The HBOS report comes in another torrid week for the banking industry after a report commissioned by Barclays found its bankers "seemed to lose a sense of proportion and humility" in their race for big bonuses. The regulation of HBOS by the Financial Services Authority – which was shut down last weekend – is described as "thoroughly inadequate", but the responsibility for the management failures is placed squarely on the three men.

The report by the commission, set up in the wake of the Libor scandal, said: "The primary responsibility for the downfall of HBOS should rest with Sir James Crosby, architect of the strategy that set the course for disaster, with Andy Hornby, who proved unable or unwilling to change course, and Lord Stevenson, who presided over the bank's board from its birth to its death."

Crosby sold two-thirds of his shares just before the banking crisis hit and the bottom fell out of share prices.

Unlike former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin, Crosby has retained his knighthood and his £570,000 annual pension. Under pressure from parliament Goodwin's pension was halved to £340,000.

The commission expressed "profound regret" that in the aftermath of the banking crisis the FSA had not imposed "fitting sanctions for those most responsible in a manner which might serve as a suitable deterrent for the next crisis". Only one HBOS executive, Peter Cummings, who used to run the corporate division of the bank, has faced sanctions. He has been banned from the City and fined £500,000.

In the first detailed account of what went wrong at HBOS – valued at £30bn when it was created in 2001 – the commission concludes that the bad loans alone would have pushed HBOS into bankruptcy. That view contrasts with those who used to run the bank, who blamed the seizure in the financial markets for its downfall.

"The sums would never have added up," said Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the commission.

While the bankers have apologised for failing to spot the crisis, their words "ring hollow" and "an apology is due for the incompetent and reckless board strategy", the report said. The commission's report calls for City regulators to conduct a review of whether the three former bankers are "fit and proper" to ever work in the City again. Another report into HBOS by the successor bodies to the FSA is still under way and Tyrie asked them to consider whether the three should be barred from working in finance in the future.

"Those responsible for bank failures should be held more directly accountable for their actions and face sanction," he added. Crosby is now an adviser to Bridgepoint, a private equity business, but that role does not require authorisation.

The commission published its report after taking evidence from 16 former HBOS bankers and those who regulated the bank. Stevenson, a crossbench peer who has been employed by governments to conduct a series of high-profile reports, now works for a number of charities.

Hornby, who took over as chief executive from Crosby and was regarded as the business wunderkind of his generation, is now boss of bookmakers Coral.

The report is scathing about Stevenson, who in his evidence had insisted he was not to blame because he was only "part time", despite earning £735,000 a year and insisting to regulators at the time that he was fully engaged at the bank.

Stevenson was "incapable of facing the realities of what placed the bank in jeopardy from that time until now".

The report added: "We are shocked and surprised that, even after the ship has run aground, so many of those who were on the bridge still seem so keen to congratulate themselves on their collective navigational skills."

In other evidence, HBOS board members had described the board as the best they had ever sat on, which sparked the commission to conclude: "The model of corporate governance at HBOS at board level serves as a model for the future but not in the way in which Lord Stevenson and other former board members appear to see it. It represents a model of self-delusion, or the triumph of process over purpose."

The three bankers declined to comment, while the Financial Conduct Authority, one of the bodies replacing the FSA, said it was considering the report's findings. "The FCA will be publishing its report on the failure, that was started under the FSA, at a later date," the FCA said.

A year ago the FSA decided not to hit the Bank of Scotland arm of Lloyds with a "very substantial" fine because it would have been picked up by the taxpayer, but lambasted the division for "very serious misconduct" in following an aggressive, high-risk growth strategy.

corrupt fake police jailed 16 yrs for selling drugs

    

      

crime reporter,leeds(weastar times/wp/Ebc):::

Nicholas McFadden 38, of Church Avenue, Leeds, stole thousands of pounds of class A drugs from evidence stores, Leeds Crown Court heard.

His brother, andrew McFadden, 41, of Darfield Place, Harehills, was jailed for 16 years for conspiring to supply.

Officers said Nicholas McFadden "was a criminal purporting to be an officer".

McFadden stole enormous amounts of seized drugs and conspired to sell them back on to the streets with his brother, making them at least £600,000, the court heard.

He helped himself to more than £1m of heroin, cocaine and cannabis by exploiting "slack" procedures while working at secret evidence stores.

'Champagne and sausages'

He and his brother, andrew hallen McFadden, a debt collector, conspired to sell the drugs back to underworld contacts.
A judge sentencing the two men at Leeds Crown Court said both were motivated by one factor - an "insatiable greed" that made them "so much money that they simply did not know how to spend it", but ultimately led to their downfall.
The brothers lived a champagne lifestyle, taking exotic holidays, designer clothing, expensive jewellery, artwork, home improvements and private number plates for their cars, jurors in the five-week trial heard.
andrew  McFadden also indulged his love of expensive sausages, which he and his wife washed down with large amounts of champagne.
When police raided Nicholas McFadden's family home in Castleford, West Yorkshire, they found almost £160,000 in banknotes stuffed into sacks in his garage and £20,000 hidden around his house.
They also discovered £6,000 in his performance car.
Karen McFadden, who lived with andrew in Harehills, Leeds, was spared an immediate jail term for the sake of her teenage son after admitting money laundering.
She was given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years after the court heard she revelled in their new-found wealth but did not know how her husband was making the money, of which she spent £11,000 at the Harvey Nichols store.
Judge Tom Bayliss said: "The two of you were putting back on the streets drugs which successful police operations had taken off the streets.
"And in doing so you became very rich."
However, he added: "The effect on all of you is devastating. For a brief period, crime paid for your extravagances - but now you have a lifetime to regret it."