Cherry Willingham, Dunholme, Fiskerton, Nettleham, Saxilby, Sudbrooke & Welton Conservatives

Lincolnshire's Pupils Better National Averages in Maths and English

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000Z

More Lincolnshire pupils reached the expected Level 4+ in both English and maths compared to the national average and that of comparative local authorities.

Figures released today on the 2011 Key Stage 2 National Curriculum Assessment results show:

The percentage of pupils leaving primary school with expected levels of attainment in English and Maths rose by 1% from 2010, which is higher than the provisional national average.
In Maths, Lincolnshire children have matched the national improvement in Level 4+ and outperformed the average for statistical neighbours.
In English overall, levels have improved from last year.
There has been a significant improvement in the number of children achieving a Level 4+ in writing, increasing by 5% from 2010 and this represents a bigger increase than seen nationally.
The percentage of children making at least the expected two levels of progress from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 in English has increased by 4% and in maths by 3% over the last three years.

Cllr. Mrs. Patricia Bradwell, Executive Councillor for Children's Services, praised the efforts of school staff and children in Lincolnshire:

"The hard work and determination of schools has once again been rewarded by results which see Lincolnshire children achieving better than their contemporaries across the country. During the current year we have a heavy focus on improving reading even further, in line with the requirements of the new Ofsted guidelines."

New Technology Delivers More Parking Options

2012-01-10T12:00:00.000Z

All West Lindsey District Council car parks have the technology to allow charges to be settled by a simple phone call.

Conservative Chairman of the Prosperous Communities Committee, Cllr. Malcolm Parish said:

"Gainsborough is a progressive town so we are delighted to be able to offer this facility to local residents and visitors.

"The days of drivers searching for loose change and then having to battle through the wind and rain to find a pay and display machine will be a thing of the past."

An added benefit of the scheme is that customers who discover that their shopping or maybe an appointment is taking longer than they expected do not have to return to the car park to get another ticket – you can just call in and extend the time.

Conservative Leader of the Council, Cllr. Burt Keimach also welcomed the scheme. He said:

"From our point of view it means that we don’t have to handle as much cash, our pay and display machines will last longer because they will get less use and we will use fewer tickets which is good for the environment."

Displays in the car parks give details of how users can join the mobile scheme or alternatively people can call 020 3003 2523, download the free App or visit www.parkmobile.co.uk.

Registration is free and only takes a few minutes. Parkmobile will require your payment card details and vehicle registration.

People who use the mobile facility will be charged 20 pence each time they park, in addition to the normal tariff.

Conservatives Are Helping With The Cost of Living

2011-12-02T11:00:00.000Z

Conservatives understand that times are hard and that family budgets are being stretched but we are doing what we can to help whilst staying on the safe course to economic recovery. Unlike Labour we are taking the tough decisions needed to sort out our nation’s finances to ensure that our generation’s debt is not left for our children and grandchildren to pay off.

Council tax freeze. We have extended our council tax freeze for a second year saving residents up to £70 for the year on an average Band D Bill.
Keeping interest rates low. Our clear and credible plan is keeping interest rates low to help you with the cost of your mortgage.
Helping with the cost of your commute. We are putting in £105 million to limit the rise in your rail fares.
Cutting Fuel Duty. We have cancelled Labour’s fuel escalator and cut duty. This means that from April petrol duty will be a full 10 pence lower than it would been without our action.

Edward Leigh Welcomes Eric Pickle's Visit

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000+01:00

Mrs. Suzanne Scott, Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP,
Edward Leigh MP and Cllr. Burt Keimach.

Edward Leigh, who represents the Gainsborough Constituency, welcomed the Rt. Hon. Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to the Gainsborough Constituency on Thursday, 13th October 2011 together with fellow Conservatives, Leader of West Lindsey District Council, Cllr. Burt Keimach and Cllr. William Parry, the authority’s Chairman.

The Secretary of State visited the Hemswell Cliff Primary School to open the community’s new ‘Room of Requirement’ – named with the Harry Potter books in mind. Head teacher Mrs. Suzanne Scott said:

Eric Pickles MP is shown Marshall's Yard
in Gainsborugh flanked by Cllr. Keimach
(Left) and Edward Leigh MP (Right)

“It's a great honour to welcome the secretary of state to our school.

“We are looking forward to using this facility along with our community.”

After opening the facility, The Secretary of State, Edward Leigh, Councillors, council officers and other stakeholders were briefed on the need to regenerate dilapidated former RAF bases into thriving communities. Mr Pickles said:

“I will rattle the MoD's cage on this as this is a place we should celebrate.”

Later Edward Leigh together with Councillors Keimach and Parry escorted Mr. Pickles around Marshalls’ Yard, Gainsborough to demonstrate what can be achieved when Councils, communities and businesses work together. At the council offices there were presentations on the entrepreneurial council and eco towns and an opportunity for local councillor to talk to the Secretary of State. Edward Leigh said:

Edward Leigh MP, Mark Dransfield
and Eric Pickles beneath the iconic
Marshall's Yard Gates.

“We are very fortunate to have had this visit from the minister. The important work of regenerating former RAF bases in the constituency is a priority for me and something I championed when I was Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. “The work done by West Lindsey District Council in spearheading regeneration of Gainsborough is a credit to previous and present administrations. I know that Gainsborough is going to continue to change, grow and improve – it a community that I have enormous respect for – the challenges in regenerating the town that are ahead will be worth overcoming for the better, bolder Gainsborough that will emerge.”

Local Election Results

2011-05-06T07:00:00.004+01:00

Nettleham & District Branch Conservatives were celebrating the re-election of the majority of local Conservative candidates in local elections held to elect councillors to West Lindsey District Council yesterday.

For the first time since 1999 all council seats were up for election, owing to a change to 'all out', whole council elections.

In the branch's area Conservative candidates polled just shy of fifty percent, whilst the Liberal Democrats recieved just over thirty percent.

In all six Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats and two Independents were elected in the contest.

However, despite successes in Cherry Willingham, Dunholme, Saxilby, Sudbrooke and Welton there was considerable disappointment, and dumbfound disbelief at the Count itself, that Meg Davidson, the branch Chairman, lost her seat in the Fiskerton Ward to an Independent candidate.

Local Election Results in the Branch's area:

Cherry Willingham Ward

Wendy Dawn Beckett, Labour 368 (11%)
Brian Ellis Gulliver, Labour 349 (11%)
Stuart Miller, Liberal Democrat 309 (10%)
Irmgard Parrott, Conservative 980 (30%) Elected
Stephen Trevor, Liberal Democrat 392 (12%)
Anne Welburn, Conservative 821 (26%) Elected

Dunholme Ward

Melanie Jane Susann Jackson, Liberal Democrat 260 (32%)
Sue Rawlins, Conservative 565 (68%) Elected

Fiskerton Ward

Christopher John Darcel, Independent 370 (45%) Elected
Meg Davidson, Conservative 351 (43%)
Ian Neilson, Liberal Democrat 44 (5%)
Carol Pearson, United Kingdom Independence Party 49 (6%)

Nettleham Ward

Malcolm Geoffrey Leaning, Liberal Democrat 1,108 (30%) Elected
Giles Patrick McNeill, Conservative 804 (22%)
Eleanor Ruth Ramsey, Conservative 559 (15%)
Ray Sellars, Liberal Democrat 1,238 (33%) Elected

Saxilby Ward

Jackie Brockway, Conservative 1,155 (35%) Elected
David John Coton, Liberal Democrat 921 (28%) Elected
Carly Lisette Sharples, no description 827 (25%)
Chris Walker, Liberal Democrat 369 (11%)

Sudbrooke Ward

Stuart Curtis, Conservative 860 (75%) Elected
Melanie Louisa Tointon, Labour 286 (25%)

Welton Ward

Adam Matthew Duguid, Conservative 691 (21%)
Peter James Heath, Liberal Democrat 543 (16%)
Malcolm Parish, Conservative 1,102 (33%) Elected
Diana Meriel Rodgers, Independent 997 (30%) Elected

New Branch Committee

2011-03-03T00:01:00.002Z

Following the Branch's Annual General Meeting, held on Wednesday, 2nd March 2011, the following persons were elected as Officers of the Branch:

Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson - Chairman
Mr. G. McNeill - Deputy Chairman (Political)
Mrs. Stephanie Rouse - Deputy Chairman (Finance & Membership)
Mr. Hugh Thomson - Treasurer
Mr. Peter Heath - Secretary

The following persons were elected to the Branch Committee:

Mrs. Susan Harland
There are four vacancies which will be filled by Co-option.

Mrs. Harland and Mr. Thomson were re-elected to be the Branch Representatives on the Gainsborough Constituency Conservative Association's Executive Council.

Branch Annual General Meeting 2011

2011-02-08T08:00:00.001Z

The Nettleham & District Conservatives’ Annual General Meeting will be taking place on the evening of Wednesday, 2nd March 2011 at 7:30pm at the home of Mrs. Stephanie Rouse, 19 North Street, Nettleham. members of the Conservative Party, resident within the branch’s area, are very welcome to attend and participate.

Giles McNeill, Branch Secretary said:

"The current Officer Team have served four years on the committee and therefore can not stand for re-election. Many of the existing committee will consider standing, but we are also looking for new people to join our team – could that person be you? If you would like to know more please get in touch"

The agenda for the meeting can be viewed here.

Giles McNeill: Labour’s Two Trillion Pound Debt

2011-01-25T07:00:00.001Z

Today official figures have revealed that the national debt has risen above £2 trillion for the first time in our history.

According to the Office for National Statistics the national debt, including the cost of bailing out the banks, now stands at £2,323,000,000,000. That works out at over £37,600 for every man, woman and child in the country.

This terrible debt is Labour’s legacy. They thought that they had abolished boom and bust and so ran large deficits even before the financial crisis.

Because of this, we are currently paying £43 billion per year, over £120 million per day, in debt interest. This is money that could otherwise be spent on frontline services like schools and hospitals. The average earner in Gainsborough has to work for 152 days just to pay the interest on Labour’s debts.

Commenting, Giles McNeill said:

"These are shocking figures. Labour maxed out the nation's credit card with over £1 trillion of government debt. The longer it is left the worse it will get. If we don’t take steps now to live within our means we’ll end up paying higher taxes and face deeper cuts just to pay off our debt"

Giles McNeill: Improving discipline in our schools

2010-12-06T12:00:00.000Z

Giles McNeill, local campaigner, has welcomed the Conservative-led Government’s plans to improve discipline in schools, as new analysis of government figures reveals how unacceptable behaviour became entrenched in Lincolnshire's schools over the last thirteen years.

Under Labour, 2,121children in Lincolnshire were excluded every school day for abuse and assault, both physical and verbal, against their teachers and fellow pupils. Across the country as a whole, almost 1,000 children were excluded every day for abuse and assault.

The Conservative-led Government is planning to introduce a series of tough new measures to improve discipline in schools in Lincolnshire, including:

Removing the power of appeals panels to send pupils back to schools where they have been permanently excluded by the head teacher.
Abolishing the requirement on teachers to give 24 hours’ notice for detention.
Making it easier for teachers to search pupils for items that cause disruption.
Giving clear guidance to schools that ‘no-touch’ rules are unnecessary.
Legislating to give anonymity to teachers facing allegations from pupils.

Giles McNeill said:

"I am very pleased the Government is introducing tough but fair new measures to improve school discipline. There are disturbing levels of abuse and assault in our schools and not enough was done about it over the last thirteen years.

"Teachers should not have to deal with this kind of unacceptable behaviour so frequently. With the Government’s new measures, we can really get to grips with the problem and improve behaviour in schools for everyone’s benefit."

Giles McNeill: A Stronger Britain Starts Here

2010-10-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

Local campaigner Giles McNeill has welcomed the Government’s Spending Review, saying it brings Britain back from the brink of bankruptcy and makes sure a stronger Britain starts here.

Since coming to power the new Government has set about dealing with Labour’s legacy that left Britain with the biggest deficit in its peacetime history and the biggest deficit in the developed world.

Dealing with this problem is unavoidable. But the decisions about how to do it are not.

This is why today the new Government has chosen to prioritise the NHS, schools, security and the infrastructure that will help the economy grow. To do so it has cut welfare and waste.

These decisions have meant that:

The broadest shoulders bear the greatest burden - those on the highest incomes contribute more towards cutting the deficit, not just in cash terms but also as a proportion of their income and consumption of public services combined.
Spending on the NHS will rise every year.
Schools spending for 5-16 year olds will rise every year.
Free bus passes, free eye tests, free prescription charges, free TV licences, and winter fuel payments for older people have all been protected.
Local authorities will be able to freeze council tax in 2011-12, meaning local taxpayers living in an average Band D home in the West Lindsey District could save up to £72.00.
15 hours a week of free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds will be maintained.
Free childcare for all disadvantaged 2 year olds will be extended to 15 hours per week.
The Government will be abolishing 192 quangos; merging a further 118, and implementing substantial reforms to 171.
Hard shoulder running and variable speed limits between junctions 25 and 30 on the M1 will be supported, relieving congestion.

Commenting, local campaigner Giles McNeill said:

"Labour left Britain with the largest deficit in its peacetime history, meaning we spend £120 million a day just to pay off the interest on the debt. Now, two parties have come together in the national interest, to bring us back from the brink.

"But while dealing with the deficit is unavoidable, the decisions about how to do it are not. That is why, by cutting welfare and waste, the new Government has prioritised the NHS, schools, security, and the infrastructure that will help our economy grow. By doing this, they’ve made sure that a stronger Britain can start here."

Standing Up For Taxpayers: Giles McNeill Welcomes Cancellation of Labour’s Council Tax Revaluation

2010-09-23T12:00:00.001+01:00

Homes to be protected from wave of council tax hikes and ‘Big Brother’ inspections

Local campaigner, Giles McNeill has welcomed the new Government’s announcement that it is cancelling Labour’s plans for a council tax revaluation in England. An independent review will also, for the first time, seek to rein in intrusive snooping by council tax inspectors, defending civil liberties.

Tax hikes on homes cancelled: No council tax revaluation will take in place in England in this Parliament. The Labour Party was actively planning to use a revaluation to increase tax bills on England’s homes, with computer technology to target ‘nice neighbourhoods’, patios, gardens and scenic views. A revaluation would also be expensive to administer, costing up to £180 million.
Less well-off to benefit most: In Labour’s 2005 council tax revaluation in Wales, four times as many homes moved up one or more bands as down. Labour politicians have admitted that it was used “hugely to increase the total [tax] take”. The less well-off were hit the hardest, with two-thirds of the hikes in homes that were originally in council tax Bands A to C (the lowest three bands).
Reining in the snooper state: The intrusive ‘Big Brother’ council tax database and snooping activities that Labour had planned for the council tax revaluation will be scaled back. An independent data audit will be undertaken to take the necessary steps to protect privacy and civil liberties. This is part of the new Government’s agenda of dismantling the ‘database state’, which includes scrapping Identity Cards.
Stopping state intrusion in your home: The Welsh revaluation by Labour Ministers was followed by a revaluation in Northern Ireland under direct rule. The law was changed to allow tax inspectors to fine households £1,000 to they failed to ‘co-operate’ with tax inspectors, or if they attempted to hinder or obstruct tax officials from entering their home. In England, council tax inspectors have legal powers of entry into your home, on pain of a £500 fine.

Giles McNeill, Deputy Chairman (Political) of the Nettleham & District Conservatives branch, said:

"I welcome the new Government’s cancellation of Labour’s plans for a council tax revaluation which would have hiked up taxes on people’s homes. Hefty council tax bills are a constant financial worry for many people. This move will set their minds at ease, and will protect the interests of the less well-off in particular, the hardest hit from Labour’s council tax revaluation in Wales.

"The Conservative-led Government will protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens from intrusive spies-in-the-sky and halt state inspectors from barging into people’s bedrooms and gardens. We are standing up for the people who have pride in their home, and are calling time on Labour’s state snoopers and surveillance state."

A local government resource review will also examine ways of making councils less vulnerable to the whims of Whitehall funding, which was a key driver in forcing up council tax in many local authorities under Labour due to so-called ‘gearing’ effects.

Blair Memoirs Back the Coalition Government on Deficit Reduction

2010-09-01T08:00:00.001+01:00

Speaking after the publication of Tony Blair's memoirs, Conservative Party Co-Chairman, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said:

"The Coalition Government is winning the argument on cutting the deficit to get the economy moving. Now even Tony Blair has backed it. As he says in his book, taxpayers foot the bill if Governments don't tackle deficits because a lack of confidence would stop the recovery in its tracks.

"Today, Tony Blair has also revealed the full extent of the last Labour Government's failure - they failed to tackle the deficit, they failed to reform welfare and they failed to reform the NHS. Labour knew they were spending too much before the financial crisis but failed to do anything about it.

"While the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have come together to deal with Labour's legacy, all the Labour Party can do is fight amongst themselves. Until Labour politicians can admit to the mess that they left the country in and come up with ideas about how to fix it, they will never be fit to run the country again."

Labour Must Apologise for the 3,500 Pubs They Helped Close

2010-08-27T08:00:00.001+01:00

Ministers today called for Labour to apologise for all the community pubs that closed their doors thanks to the Labour Government's policies. Official figures show there was a net closure of 3,530 pubs across England under Labour from 1997 to 2010.

Southwark lost a net 110 pubs, Liverpool has lost 100 of its pubs and Birmingham 90 pubs.

Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Southwark and Newham lost a third of their pubs since 1997.

Kings Lynn, Lewisham, Salford, Oswestry, Knowsley, Corby and Greenwich saw a quarter of their local pubs close down.

Minister for Local Government, Grant Shapps said:

"We should take no lectures from former Labour Ministers who presided over the closure of 3,500 pubs when they were in government. Labour hiked taxes on pubs and did nothing to stop unfair loss-leading by supermarkets. They only people they helped were the yobs who benefited from the 24 hour licensing laws which fuelled a surge in alcohol-fuelled violence in our high streets. Labour must apologise for the harm they did to community pubs across the country.
"The new Coalition Government has scrapped Labour's unfair cider tax, will give local residents a community right to buy to save local pubs, will stop unfair selling by supermarkets and is cutting red tape on live music in pubs. Pub landlords don't want state handouts. They want a level playing field and less government regulation getting in the way."

The new Government is defending local pubs:

Through the Localism Bill, to be introduced in November, the Government will allow communities to bid to take on local assets and facilities, including community pubs, where they are up for sale.
Expert advice is being given available to communities seeking to take over their local pub through the Government-funded Asset Transfer Unit (http://www.atu.org.uk/).
More help will be given to firms to help them with business rates: making small business rate relief automatic; introducing a more generous small business rate relief scheme for a year from October; and giving councils powers to levy discretionary business rate discounts - which could, for example, be used to support local pubs.
There will be a ban the sale of alcohol below cost price, helping protect local pubs from unfair 'loss leading' by some supermarkets.
The Government is reforming licensing rules to make it easier to play live music in local pubs.
The new Government has already scrapped the planned 10% rise in cider duties - the so-called "cider tax".

Notice of Resignation

2010-08-26T07:00:00.002+01:00

At the Branch Committee Meeting held on Wednesday, 25th August 2010 at 7:30pm at 19 North Street, Nettleham the committee resolved to accept the tendered resignation of Mr. Chris Hall as a member of the Committee who the Committee were pleased to hear has taken up a post in London with Martin Vickers MP for the Cleethorpes Constituency.

Edward Leigh MP: Does Anybody Like A VAT Rate of 20%?

2010-06-29T12:00:00.000+01:00

Speaking yesterday in the House of Common on the Budget, local parliamentarian, Edward Leigh MP said:

"I welcome this Budget because I believe that it is an honest Budget. I have now sat through nearly 30 Budgets, and it is often a profoundly depressing experience, because there is great excitement during the Budget statement only for us to receive a let-down the next day when we actually start to read the Red Book. There is a lot of difficulty and pain in this Budget, but what you see is what you get. What we heard on Budget day was the essence of this Budget, which is the need to try to resolve the desperate financial crisis in which we find ourselves, with a potential debt of £20,000 on every man, woman and child, and £1 out of every £4 spent being borrowed.

"I accept that there are many things in the Budget that many of us do not like. Does anybody in this Chamber like a VAT rate of 20%? We are in the desperate position of having to impose that rate on everything that we buy, apart from essentials-I am not sure why newspapers are zero-rated, considering all the rubbish that they put out, but it applies to some useful things like food-because we are faced with this financial crisis. However, contrary to what Yvette Cooper said, the pain is shared. I agree that a VAT rise is regressive, and we did not want to do it, but we have increased personal allowances, and in doing so ensured that is not the rich who benefit."

The Foundations For A More Prosperous Future

2010-06-25T19:00:00.000+01:00

George Osborne outlines the Emergency Budget

Chancellor George Osborne has presented the Government's first Budget - a five year plan to rebuild the economy based on responsibility, freedom and fairness. Mr. Osborne said

"This emergency Budget deals decisively with our country's record debts."

After the longest and deepest recession since the Second World War, the Emergency Budget shows how the Government will make the tough choices required to tackle Britain's record deficit.

The Budget focuses on getting the public finances back under control, and providing a springboard for a private sector-led recovery with balanced growth across sectors and regions.

Mr. Osborne expressed regret that 'this unavoidable budget' had to include an increase in taxes, saying 'we've had to pay the bills of past irresponsibility'. But he emphasised that the burden is fairly shared.

"Today we have paid the debts of a failed past and laid the foundations for a more prosperous future."

Click here to read his speech in full. You can click here to download the document in PDF format.

Local Conservatives Announce Victory Ball

2010-05-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

Nettleham & District Conservatives are pleased to be joining our colleagues from the Gainsborough & District Branch to deliver the Gainsborough Constituency Conservative Association Victory Ball.

The Victory Ball, to be held at The White Heather, Caenby Corner, Lincolnshire, on the evening of Friday, 2nd May 2010 will be an opportunity to celebrate local successes in the recent Parliamentary and Local Elections. Chairman of the Nettleham & District Branch, Mrs. Stephanie Rouse said:

"We have all worked so hard these past few months and this will be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the success which we have had."

Ball tickets are £37.50 and include a drink upon arrive, three course dinner - Starter: Trio of baby deep-fried Camembert on a bed of baby salad with cranberry dressing. Main: Succulent Loin of Pork with Apricot & Herbs served with a redcurrent & thyme sauce. Dessert: Wild Strawberry and Champagne Liqueur Torte - coffee, cheese and buscuit table available throughout the evening, live music from band Re-Branded in the company of guests Edward Leigh MP for the Gainsborough Constituency.

For further information please visit the Event page (here).

Conservative Leader David Cameron Becomes Prime Minister

2010-05-11T21:30:00.000+01:00

Rt. Hon. David Cameron has become Prime Minister following the resignation of Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown earlier this evening. Mr. Cameron entered No. 10 Downing Street tonight as the first Conservative Prime Minister in thirteen years.

The Conservative Party Leader said he intended to form a 'proper and full' coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.

Arriving in Downing Street with his wife, he announced:

"Her Majesty the Queen has asked me to form a new Government and I have accepted."

Mr. Cameron paid tribute to Mr. Brown for his 'long record of dedicated public service'' and said that after more than a decade of Labour rule, Britain was 'more open at home and more compassionate abroad'.

Looking ahead to the coalition he will form with the Liberal Democrats, he said:

"We have some deep and pressing problems – a huge deficit, deep social problems, a political system in need of reform.

"For those reasons, I aim to form a proper and full coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

"I believe that is the right way to provide this country with the strong, the stable, the good and decent government that I think we need so badly."

"Nick Clegg and I are both political leaders who want to put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and for the national interest.

"I believe that is the best way to get the strong Government that we need, decisive Government that we need today.

"I came into politics because I love this country, I think its best days still lie ahead and I believe deeply in public service, and I think the service our country needs right now is to face up to our really big challenges, to confront our problems, to take difficult decisions, to lead people through those difficult decisions so that together we can reach better times ahead."

Conservatives Strengthen Control on West Lindsey District Council

2010-05-07T15:00:00.002+01:00

The Conservatives have retained their grip on West Lindsey District Council.

Following today's elections the composition of the authority is: Conservatives 21 seats, Liberal Democrats 14, Independents 1, Independents (unaligned) 1.

Before the election the Conservatives had 20 seats, the Liberal Democrats 13, there were 2 Independents, 1 Independent (unaligned) and one vacancy.

Unfortunately, Leader of the Council since January, Mr. Adam Duguid, Conservative (Market Rasen Ward), lost his seat in a closely contested battle for the Market Rasen Ward. Town Mayor, Cllr. Ken Bridger, Liberal Democrat (Market Rasen Ward) won the seat. Conservatives were celebrating their win in the Hemswell Ward when Cllr. Paul Howitt-Cowan defeated Mr. Scott Pritchard.

In the closest contest of all, Cllr. Mrs. Heather Shore took the Scampton seat by just one vote from Conservative contender Mr. Roger Patterson.

Deputy Chairman (Political), Mr. Giles McNeill, of the Nettleham & District Branch, said:

"We are very pleased with this result. We have managed to hold all the district council seats in the branch area that we held before the contest. It is good to see Cllr. Ian Fleetwood (Bardney Ward), Cllr. Mrs. Irmgard Parrott (Cherry Willingham Ward) and Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson (Fiskerton Ward) all re-elected.

"We are also pleased with the result in the Nettleham Ward, despite it being retained by incumbent Liberal Democrat, Cllr. Alf Frith, local conservatives increased our poll of votes by 341, which is very positive."

Full results are:

Bardney: Ian Fleetwood (Con) elected 604, Robert Smith (Lib Dem) 321, Sharon Spicer (UKIP) 169. Turnout 66.53%
Cherry Willingham: Irmgard Parrott (Con) elected 1,204, Brian Gulliver (Lab) 534, Steven Pearson (UKIP) 143, Trevor Stephen (Lib Dem) 1018. Turnout 73.19%
Fiskerton: Margaret Davidson (Con) 502, Christopher Darcel (Ind) 240, Clare East (Lib Dem) 180, Carol Pearson (UKIP) 129, Melanie Tointon (Lab) 154. Turnout 71.47%
Gainsborough East: Melvyn Starkey (Lib Dem) 1,019 elected, Timothy Davies (Con) 597, Richard Doran (Lab) 606, Thomas Johnson (UKIP) 224. Turnout 49.21%
Gainsborough North: Thomas Brown (Lib Dem) 1,457 elected, Nigel Bowler (Lab) 608, Julian Myers (Con) 854. Turnout 55.78%
Hemswell: Paul Howitt-Cowan (Con) 599 elected, Scott Pritchard (Lib Dem) 536, Anthony Wells (UKIP) 113. Turnout 65.52
Market Rasen: Ken Bridger (Lib Dem) 1,292 elected, Adam Duguid (Con) 1,120, Deborah Theobald (Ind) 276. Turnout 64.11%
Nettleham: Alf Frith (Lib Dem) 1,763 elected, Giles McNeil (Con) 1,098. Turnout 75.83%
Scampton: Heather Shore (Lib Dem) 815 elected, Roger Patterson (Con) 814. Turnout 71.6%
Thonock: Lesley Rollings (Lib Dem) 889 elected, Keeley Henderson (Con) 592. Turnout 67.72%
Waddingham and Spital: Jeffrey Summers (Con) 1,014 elected, John Beaver (UKIP) 355. Turnout 72.61%
Wold View: Thomas Regis (Con) 555 elected, David Kitchen (Lib Dem) 480, Bernard Theobald (Ind) 228. Turnout 65.56%

Cameron Wins Second Televised Leaders' Debate

2010-04-23T07:00:00.002+01:00

David Cameron has won the second televised election debate held between leaders of the three main political parties.

The YouGov snap poll as it ended showed that people thought David Cameron performed best overall: David Cameron 36%, Nick Clegg 32%, Gordon Brown 29%. Another poll by Populus showed him ahead of Clegg, and 9% ahead of Brown.

This debate was held in Bristol from 8pm to 9.30pm. Broadcast by Sky News, the first half was focused on foreign affairs.

David Cameron showed passion, conviction and leadership throughout the debate. It was an even stronger performance than last week, and he again looked like a Prime Minister.

He clearly won on the big foreign policy issues - Afghanistan, terrorism and Europe. He stood up for the people on expenses, and had the strongest argument on the hung parliament.

Cameron also challenged Gordon Brown over Labour's leaflet lies designed to scare older people. Brown denied authorising them but now has to explain who did.

After all the damage done to our politics, Cameron called for the leaders' debates to happen as they offer a new way for politicians to connect with the public.

The first debate was last Thursday and focused on domestic issues, the third and last debate before the election will be on Thursday 29th April and focus on economic issues.

Conservatives Launch General Election Manifesto

2010-04-13T11:00:00.001+01:00

A country is at its best when the bonds between people are strong and when the sense of national purpose is clear. Today the challenges facing Britain are immense. Our economy is overwhelmed by debt, our social fabric is frayed and our political system has betrayed the people. But these problems can be overcome if we pull together and work together. If we remember that we are all in this together.

Click HERE to download the Manifesto.

Some politicians say: ‘give us your vote and we will sort out all your problems’. We say: real change comes not from government alone. Real change comes when the people are inspired and mobilised, when millions of us are fired up to play a part in the nation’s future.

Yes this is ambitious. Yes it is optimistic. But in the end all the Acts of Parliament, all the new measures, all the new policy initiatives, are just politicians’ words without you and your involvement.

How will we deal with the debt crisis unless we understand that we are all in this together? How will we raise responsible children unless every adult plays their part? How will we revitalise communities unless people stop asking ‘who will fix this?’ and start asking ‘what can I do?’ Britain will change for the better when we all elect to take part, to take responsibility – if we all come together. Collective strength will overpower our problems.

Only together can we can get rid of this government and, eventually, its debt. Only

Together can we get the economy moving. Only together can we protect the NHS. Improve our schools. Mend our broken society. Together we can even make politics and politicians work better. And if we can do that, we can do anything. Yes, together we can do anything.

So my invitation today is this: join us, to form a new kind of government for Britain.

New Committee Member Co-Opted

2010-04-08T08:00:00.000+01:00

Nettleham & District Conservatives is pleased to welcome a new member on to the committee.

Mr. Chris Hall of Saxilby was co-opted on to the Branch's committee at a meeting of the Branch Committee held last night, Wednesday 7th April 2010, and will be joining the other four committee members and three officers.

Deputy Chairman (Political), Giles McNeill said:

"I warmly welcome Chris as an active member of the Branch Committee, following Jackie Brockway's re-election as a Conservative for the Saxilby Ward last June, we are beginning to build our capacity. I think Chris will make a fine addition to our committee and I look forward to working with him."

Further information about the branch committee can be found here.

Ministry of Defence: Treating Injury and Illness Arising on Military Operations

2010-03-29T00:01:00.001+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Conservative (Gainsborough), Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"We recognize the good work the MOD has done up to now in caring for servicemen and women seriously injured on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department and its medical staff are providing a level of care which compares favourably with that provided by the best NHS hospitals.

"What concerns us is the extent to which the MOD would continue to be able to provide that high standard of care if the casualty rate were to increase significantly. Selly Oak Hospital, where returning casualties are first treated, offers injured troops a military culture and environment, expertise in dealing with serious battlefield injuries and wider support for families. The Department needs detailed and robust plans for how it would replicate these important elements in other NHS hospitals and provide the same high standard of care if Selly Oak became full.

"The MOD is planning to expand the capacity of Headley Court where troops with serious and complicated injuries go after Selly Oak for rehabilitation. Given that the facilities at Headley Court are likely to come under increasing pressure, the Department must make sure that the extra beds to be provided are enough."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 27th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Defence (the Department), examined its treatment of injuries and illnesses arising as a result of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A total of 565 service men and women have been seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001. Over the same time, some 125,000 troops who were based in Iraq and Afghanistan have sought medical help for minor injuries and illnesses, and a further 1,700 for mental health conditions. Medical care for troops injured or ill on operations is first provided by medical officers in the field. More serious conditions are treated at the field hospital at Bastion. Nearly all seriously injured troops who return back to the UK for medical treatment go first to the NHS hospital at Selly Oak and then to Headley Court for rehabilitation.

The Department’s care of the seriously injured to date has been highly effective and the Committee welcomes the efforts of the Department in this area. The Department has developed a number of new medical techniques which have contributed to this. The Department’s success is demonstrated by the rates of unexpected survivors, which are favourable compared to major trauma victims treated by the NHS. The Committee also commends the good work of the Department to support the families of seriously injured troops.

The main challenge the Department faces, should casualties increase significantly, is to ensure that all military patients will receive the same standard of care they currently experience at Selly Oak and Headley Court.

Some soldiers have suffered severe life changing injuries and will require specialist care for many years. This presents a further long term challenge not only for the Department who provide specialist care for them and support for their families while they remain in the Services, but also for the NHS and other government departments who will become responsible for the medical care and support of seriously injured soldiers after they leave the Armed Forces.

Minor injury and illness are a lesser issue but still have the potential to impact on the fighting strength and morale of our Armed Forces in Afghanistan and the increase in rates from 4% to 7% since 2006 is of concern. The Department believes that increased reporting is in part responsible for this rise but cannot quantify the significance of any one individual factor.

David Cameron Responds to Labour's Empty Budget

2010-03-24T17:00:00.000Z

Mr. David Cameron, Conservative (Whitney), Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, has responded in the House of Commons to the Chancellor's presentation of the last Budget before the general election.

He said Labour

"have made a complete mess of the British economy and they are totally failing to clean it up."

Mr. Cameron set out the big argument in British politics: Labour say 'don’t do anything before the election, let’s just sit tight and keep our fingers crossed', and the Conservatives say 'we need real action to get our economy moving – and urgently'.

Highlighting new policies that copied existing Conservative proposals, such as the stamp duty cut and new university places, he said the "

only new ideas in British politics are coming from this side of the House" and that "the only thing Labour bring are debt, waste and taxes."

The figures that stands out above any other, he said, was that Labour have 'doubled the national debt, and they’re going to double it again'.

Outlining the Government's failure Mr. Cameron criticised 'all those schemes that they launched with great fanfare' for failing to help enough people. He also drew comparisons on the state of the economy when Labour came to power to the present – including the huge increase in the debt and deficit, and a falling down the global league tables in terms of competitiveness, tax and regulation.

We need a credible plan to deal with Britain’s record debts", he said, criticising the Chancellor’s repeated hope to halve the deficit by 2014 as giving us a deficit "almost as big as when Denis Healey went to the IMF in the 1970s".

Moving on to the delay in dealing with the deficit, he said 'the risk to recovery is not in dealing with the deficit now, it’s in not dealing with the deficit now". Mr. Cameron said that 'every family knows that when your debts mount up, you need to start paying them off or things will only get worse', and that it is time for the Government to learn the same lessons.

"The Prime Minister and Chancellor faced a choice – between bold action in an election year or playing politics. Once again, they chose politics."

Mr. Cameron also emphasised the need 'to show the world that we are back open for business', saying that because Labour 'flunked the difficult decisions on spending, they are raising tax after tax after tax – all after the election'. 'These are the ticking tax bombshells timed to go off the day after the election and that will destroy our recovery.'

He said that the greatest risk to Britain's economic recovery was another Labour government. He said:

"No one has yet thought of a question to which the answer is five more years of this Prime Minister.

"We need a credible plan to cut the deficit. We need an unleashing of enterprise across the nation. We need a plan to boost employment through radical welfare and school reform. If ever there was a time when this country needed a radical change of direction it is now."

Mr. Cameron concluded that Britain needs a Conservative government 'to clean up the mess made by this Labour Government'.

"Britain needs new energy, leadership and values to get this country moving again. That’s the argument we’ll take to the country the moment the Prime Minister has been forced by the law of the land to call the election he has avoided for so long."

The Sale of the Government's Interest in British Energy

2010-03-24T00:01:00.002Z

Mr. Edward Leigh MP, Conservative (Gainsborough), Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"The Department of Energy and Climate Change has no guarantee that EDF, the company to whom it sold its stake in British Energy, will build new nuclear power stations without public subsidy. Given that there is a clear risk that EDF will not build them, with or without such subsidy, the Department needs to say sooner rather than later how the country's increasing energy demands would be met under those circumstances.

"It is of concern, to say the least, that the Department does not know how much nuclear generating capacity will be needed to meet our future energy needs. This Committee is not convinced by the Department's reliance on the market and a rapid acceleration in renewable energy to fill any gaps in future energy supplies.

"This highlights a systemic weakness in the approach of the Department and the Shareholder Executive to monitoring and managing risk. When selling strategically important assets, like its stake in British Energy, the Department should carry out systematic and timely assessments of risk - particularly where residual, and serious, liabilities might fall to the public purse."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 22nd Report of this Session. The Committee had taken evidence from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (the Department), which was responsible for the sale objectives, and the Shareholder Executive. The Shareholder Executive works with departments to improve the Government's capabilities and performance as a shareholder, and managed the sale of the Government's interest on the Department's behalf.

In January 2009, the Government sold its 36% interest in British Energy, as part of EDF's purchase of the Company. The sale had potentially important implications for future energy security as British Energy, though not financially strong enough to invest in new nuclear power stations itself, owned land viewed by industry as being in the most suitable places for them.

The Government had identified new nuclear power stations as having an important contribution to make to future energy security when existing power stations close and it therefore wanted to open up British Energy's sites to a new owner.

The Department's primary objective was to ensure nuclear operators would be able to build and operate new nuclear power stations with no public subsidy. The Department did not, however, secure a binding commitment from EDF to build new nuclear power stations. It also failed to establish whether EDF had previously built any new nuclear power stations without public subsidy.

A number of factors, including planning decisions, could result in EDF abandoning its plans to build new nuclear powers stations, with or without public subsidy.

This Committee is not convinced the Department's reliance on a rapid acceleration in renewable energy to fill any gaps in future energy supplies is adequate, but note the Department is working with the Treasury to determine whether the current configuration of the United Kingdom's energy market is fit for purpose for the longer term.

The Shareholder Executive hired investment bankers UBS at a cost of £4 million, equivalent to a monthly payment of around £400,000, to advise on sale tactics, assist with negotiations and provide valuations of British

Energy. We consider it unacceptable that the Shareholder Executive considered it necessary to spend so much on external advice when it is supposed to possess expertise in these areas. Its explanation of why this was necessary was unconvincing, and we are particularly concerned that it agreed to pay UBS a success fee when UBS had significantly under-estimated what EDF was willing to pay for British Energy. The Government was, however, fortunate in selling its interest in British Energy when energy prices were at a peak, and this was reflected in the price.

The £4.4 billion sale proceeds were allocated to the Nuclear Liabilities Fund, to put towards the future cost of decommissioning British Energy's existing power stations. As required by the Treasury, proceeds were invested

in the National Loans Fund, which carries a lower risk of capital losses compared to equity investments but, in the longer term, may offer lower returns. This could affect the ability of the Fund to cover British Energy's liabilities. We found, just as the Committee concluded in its three previous reports on British Energy, that there are still weaknesses in the monitoring and management of the risks relating to these liabilities.

Ministry of Defence: Major Projects Report 2009

2010-03-23T00:01:00.001Z

Edward Leigh MP, Conservative (Gainsborough), Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"Britain's defence budget is fundamentally unaffordable. The MOD estimates it at £6 billion over the next ten years but that figure depends on the assumption (surely optimistic) that there will be a year-on-year increase in funding of 2.7 per cent. According to the NAO, even if cash spending on defence remains flat, then the projected deficit will be of the order of £36 billion. The deficit could be even higher than that.

"Matters have worsened to the point where the Department will have to take difficult decisions, such as to cancel whole equipment programmes.

"That the MOD has got itself into such a mess is an indictment of its current governance and budgetary arrangements. It has hitherto reacted to cost pressures by arbitrarily taking decisions to delay projects or reduce the amount or capability of the equipment on order. The problem is that such measures are often economies in the short-term only, leading to higher overall costs and poor value for money in the longer term. In future, they must not be implemented without a proper quantified assessment of the impact on military operations and their overall value for money.

"The Treasury has also been remiss, up to now focusing purely on whether the MOD's books were balanced in each year and ignoring the fact that the major projects programme was becoming unaffordable. It must now seek assurance on whether new projects can be afforded within the overall defence budget."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 23rd Report of this Session which examined whether the Department's governance and budgeting arrangements were fit for purpose and whether it understood the serious implications of re-prioritising projects after committing to them.

The Major Projects Report 2009 is the latest in a long running series of reports examining the record of the Ministry of Defence (the Department) in meeting cost, time and performance targets for its top military equipment projects which are expected to cost more than £60 billion.

Our hearing identified the serious consequences of failings in the Department's governance and budgetary processes. Even using the Department's own, over-optimistic estimates the defence budget is unaffordable by some £6 billion. The exact size of the gap is dependent on the assumptions one makes about future funding, but the gap could easily be £36 billion and potentially even more.

Intentional decisions to delay some projects have increased total procurement costs and represent economies of the short term, and overall are poor value for money on the specific projects affected. The decisions were taken by the Department as part of a wider package to try to make the defence programme affordable over the next few years. They account for two thirds of the £1 billion of cost increases on projects in the last year.

Crucially, they mean the Armed Forces will not get the operational benefits of new capabilities as quickly as expected and some equipments will only be delivered in reduced numbers.

The decisions to delay projects, change requirements and reduce the numbers of equipments being procured adversely affect the Department's ability to secure value for money from its commercial partners. Yet the Department continues to do so. The Department is in the strongest negotiating position with industry before it places a contract. Slowing projects down once started almost inevitably increases their costs and takes pressure off contractors to become more efficient.

After years of reporting on the poor performance of individual projects, we note that this year there are some tentative signs that projects are better managing the costs over which they have control. In practice, the programming decisions taken to deliberately slip projects make it difficult to assess the performance of individual projects and we will be looking for evidence that the improvements can be sustained in future years.

The Decent Homes Programme

2010-03-18T00:01:00.007Z

Edward Leigh MP, Conservative (Gainsborough), Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"Huge amounts of money are being spent on the Decent Homes Programme without anywhere near enough information available on the impact of the Programme and precisely how much is being spent.

"The initial estimate by the DCLG that the cost to the social housing sector of the Programme would be £19 billion was unreliable. The Department had failed to take into account key factors such as the cost of the Programme not only to local authorities but also to Social Registered Landlords. This is indicative of a generally weak approach to financial control and project management. The Department still does not possess reliable statistics on the number of homes made decent or not.

"There has been progress. Over a million homes have been improved, with many vulnerable families benefiting from new kitchens, bathrooms and central heating systems. But, despite these achievements, the target that, by December 2010, all social housing should be of a decent standard will not be met. According to the Department's estimate, over 300,000 properties will fall short of the standard at the target date, with work on the last of the non-decent housing taking until 2018-19 to be completed.

"The Department must get a grip on the Programme and introduce improvements in almost every aspect of its management of the project. We are particularly concerned that the Department will not do enough to make sure that landlords can complete the outstanding improvement work and that improved properties will not fall back into disrepair."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 21st report of this Session which examined the extent to which the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Homes and Communities Agency are effective in overseeing the Decent Homes Programme.

Under the Decent Homes Programme, over a million homes have been improved since 2001. The living standards of vulnerable households will have been greatly improved by the installation of, for example, 810,000 new kitchens, 610,000 new bathrooms and 1,140,000 new central heating systems. There have also been wider benefits such as more tenant involvement in housing decisions and jobs created in deprived areas.

We welcome the improvements made and the substantial progress towards the original target of all social housing being of a decent standard by December 2010. However, despite this progress, the target will not be met. By the Department for Communities and Local Government's (the Department) own estimates, 305,000 homes will still be non-decent at that date and the last of these will not be decent until 2018-19. The Department needs to do more to ensure that landlords can complete this outstanding work and that properties are not allowed to fall back into disrepair.

Full accountability for public money is not optional and the Department needs to improve its financial control over this Programme. It is still not clear how much the Department itself has actually spent on the Programme and we are not convinced that the Department has secured best value from the funds given to Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs). Before asking local authorities and Registered Social Landlords to bring their social housing stock up to a reasonable standard, the Department should have prepared a proper estimate of how much it would cost them. According to the best information available to the Department, it will have cost local authorities and Registered Social Landlords approximately £37 billion by 2010-11. The Department has also not done enough to identify and share good practice with social landlords.

The Department lacks some basic management information on the Programme, such as reliable statistics on the number of homes made decent or not. The Department needs to address its information deficiencies in order to evaluate properly the impact of the Programme. It should also ensure that it builds in adequate arrangements for monitoring and evaluation from the start on any other programmes.

The Department also needs to improve its evaluation of the private sector element of the Programme. It does not know how much local authorities have spent on this element, and it will need to review the performance of individual authorities if good practice is to be identified and disseminated.

Management of Benefit Overpayment Debt

2010-03-17T00:01:00.001Z

Mr. Edward Leigh MP, Conservtaive (Gainsborough), Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"An immense amount of money, currently £1.85 billion, is owed to the Department for Work and Pensions by claimants who have been paid too much benefit. The size of the debt is increasing, moreover, as the amount of overpaid benefit being clawed back is outstripped by the amount referred for recovery action. The current economic malaise is only likely to make worse the rate at which debt can be recovered.

"If the Department is to deal with this rising trend in benefit debt, then it has to improve the way it approaches the prevention of debt. It should also review its procedures for validating claims for Income Support, a benefit which is particularly susceptible to big overpayments. It needs to set targets to reduce the debt owed by claimants with multiple and high-value debts, as well as targets for the difficult process of recovering money from claimants who regularly move on and off benefits.

"The Department needs to equip itself with more up to date methods for recovering debt. It is currently trying to recover money without the sophisticated information it needs on the respective risks posed by different groups of debtors, together with data on the respective rates of return from these groups and ways of monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of different kinds of recovery strategy."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 20th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions, examined the action it was taking to tackle overpayment and stem the rising trend in benefit debt; improve its knowledge of its client base; and set realistic targets to improve debt collection and improve write-off.

The Department has been successful in improving the effectiveness of its debt identification, referral and recovery procedures, increasing cash recoveries from £180 million in 2005-06 to £281 million in 2008-09. However, yet again, evidence proves that the Department needs to significantly improve how it makes benefit payments. The total amount of money owed to the

Department as the result of benefit overpayments is now £1.85 billion and is rising as recoveries are not keeping pace with the increase in referrals. As the rate at which debt can be recovered is limited by the financial circumstances of many of the Department's customers, the current economic downturn may place further pressure on the debt stock.

Helping customers avoid getting into debt is important for both the Department and its customers in managing their finances, and the increasing total level of debt reflects the difficulty of recovering money once overpayments have occurred. Overpayments arising from Income Support accounted for over 70% of all debts at 31 March 2008. It is therefore

critical that the Department improves its debt prevention procedures and intervenes more directly to check that the circumstances of customers have not changed. It should also increase its knowledge of customers, such as by risk profiling.

In 2007-08, some £9.3 million of small overpayments below £65 were written off because the Department considered them too small to justify the cost of recovery action. But the Department does not distinguish between different types of debtor or different recovery routes in assessing whether the costs of recovery are likely to outweigh the benefits. Moreover, the Department does not have a reliable means of verifying what level of repayment its debtors can afford and this process is open to abuse. It has begun to assess the feasibility of selling off some or all of its debt but would need to safeguard the welfare of vulnerable customers in any future sale.

The Department has been slow to improve the quality of its management information. It needs to benchmark performance more actively with the private sector and assess the relative cost effectiveness of different recovery processes.

Improving Dementia Services in England - An Interim Report

2010-03-16T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"There is a wide gulf between what the Department of Health keeps saying it is going to do about dementia services and what it actually does. This Committee feels badly let down by the Department's failure to act on the commitments it gave to us in 2007.

"Just over a year ago, it published a five-year national strategy to raise the quality and priority of dementia care. But the strategy lacks the tools to ensure effective implementation and make change happen. At an earlier hearing, the Department left us in no doubt that it was going to make dementia a national priority, in the same way that cancer and stroke are national priorities. But it still hasn't.

"This cannot continue. If dementia services are to improve at the rate required and better value for money is to be achieved from the £8 billion or so that is spent each year on direct health and social care costs, then implementation of the national strategy must be pursued with urgency and commitment. Good performance information, robust performance management and strong local leadership are all essential.

"Great progress would be made towards earlier diagnosis of dementia - a crucial factor in improving care - if swift action were taken to make good quality memory services available around the country to all who need them. Another highly significant step would be to require generalist health and social care staff, whose awareness of dementia is often poor, to undertake training and continuing professional development in dementia care."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 19th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department of Health (the Department), examined understanding and responding to the scale and urgency of dementia; driving and monitoring change in services for people with dementia; and delivering the Strategy at local level.

Dementia covers a range of progressive, terminal brain conditions which affect an estimated 600,000 people in England and this number is rising rapidly. People with dementia require a complex mix of health and social care with patients regularly moving across organisational boundaries. The effectiveness of care depends on co-ordination and co-operation between the

NHS; social services; care homes; and the voluntary sector. Stigma and negative attitudes towards mental illness and old age further exacerbate the problem. Dementia costs £8.2 billion a year in direct health and social care costs but much of this spend is in response to crisis, in the later stages of the disease.

We first took evidence on this important subject in October 2007 and raised serious concerns about the status of, and approach to, this Cinderella service. The Department assured us that dementia would become a national priority and that it would be developing a National Dementia Strategy.In February 2009 the Department launched an ambitious and comprehensive five-year National Dementia Strategy aimed at helping people to live well with dementia. The Department estimated that the Strategy would cost £1.9 billion to implement over 10 years, and that this would be funded largely through efficiency savings. National and regional leadership was put in place and initial seed funding of £150 million was allocated to Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to assist implementation over the first two years.
However, in practice, the Department has failed to match its commitments to raise the quality and priority of dementia care with a robust approach to implementation. It has failed to ignite passion, pace and drive or to align leadership, funding, incentives and information to help deliver the Strategy. It also delayed the appointment of a national clinical director, a role that has proved very effective in developing and implementing other national strategies, until January 2010. Furthermore, improvements that we identified in 2007 as urgently needed, some of which could have been adopted straight away, have not been afforded the urgency and priority that we had been led to expect. Whilst the Department now states that improving dementia services is the greatest health and social care challenge it faces, we feel badly let down by the Department's lack of urgency. Despite stating at least 10 times at our earlier hearing that Dementia would be a national priority-it still isn't.

Meg Davidson's Joint Statement to Resident's of the Chapel Rise Estate, Fiskerton

2010-03-11T12:00:00.000Z

In a joint statement to residents of the Chapel Rise Estate in Fiskerton, Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson, Conservative (Fiskerton Ward), together with Cllr. Ian Fleetwood, Conservative (Cherry Willingham & Bardney Division) have made the following statement, by letter, regarding road and sewerage adoption.

"In view of the continued concerns about the unfinished work on Chapel Rise, we thought that it would be helful to give you an update on what is being done to get the roads on the estate adopted and explain the process involved.

"Adoption is the process whereby responsibility for maintenance and repair is transferred from the developer to the public authorities. In the case of Chapel Rise the adoption of the road is by means of a 'section 38 agreement' between Morris Homes (the Developer) and Lincolnshire County Council; The adoption of the sewers is by means of a 'section 104 agreement' between Morris Homes and Anglian Water.

"These agreements require the developer to construct roads and sewers to approved standards prior to them being adopted and maintained at public expense. Once the roads/seweres have been completed to a satisfactory standard, the developer remains responsible for them for a further twelve months (known as the Maintenance Period) after which they are agina inspected and any remedial work completed before adoption takes place.

"It is important to note:
The adoption of the roads and sewers are a seperate process.
The sewers must be adopted by the water authority (Anglian Water) before the roads can be adopted.
It is the developer's responsibility to apply to get the roads and sewers adopted; the County Council does not have powers to make developers apply.
The County Council will put in road markings and fill the grit bins only after the roads have been adopted.
"Both the County Council Highways Department and Anglian Water have been working closely with Morris Homes for many months. The twelve months maintenance periods have been completed and there remains some minor remedial work which Morris Homes needs to complete on both the sewers and the roads. Once the County Council recieves notification from Anglian Water that the sewers have been adopted, they will be able to proceed to adopt the roads.

"There remains one outstanding issue concerning the two areas of open space (West Lindsey District Council's responsibility). These were cleared and grassed some years ago and Morris Homes paid a sum opf money to Fiskerton Parish Council as a contribution to the play area at the Village Hall. One of the open spaces should have been landscaped and planted with shrubs. WLDC has contacted Morris Homes about this and will chase them up if necessary.

"As your District and County Councillors, we will continue to do all that we can to help resolve the issues Chapel Rise. If we can be of any further assistance do please contact us."

Details of how to contact your Conservative Councillors can be found by clicking here.

Vehicle and Operator Services Agency: Enforcement of Regulations on Commercial Vehicles

2010-03-11T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"It is welcome news that the Agency has in recent years increased by over a quarter the number of dangerous vehicles and drivers it annually removes from the roads. But more can be done to modernize the Agency’s working practices and technology, to enable it to tackle more effectively the vehicles, drivers and operators who pose the greatest risk to road safety.

"We are concerned, in particular, that the Department for Transport and the Agency have not done enough to address the risks posed by foreign HGVs. These constitute only 3 per cent of lorries on our roads but cause 10 per cent of the accidents involving lorries. The worst of these accidents are down to the poor mechanical condition of the foreign lorry or driver fatigue brought on by driving for too long without a break.

"The Department and Agency have not done enough to give the Agency access to critical data held by HMRC on vehicles carried onboard vessels which would aid the identification of known high risk lorries and drivers as they enter Britain. It is also quite unacceptable that there are British port authorities which bar Agency inspectors from coming in to inspect high risk vehicles. And there is no mechanism currently in place requiring EU Member States to share information about their own dodgy operators whose lorries may be travelling outside their country of origin.

"We look forward to the Department’s forthcoming new HGV compliance strategy which it should share with the National Audit Office as early as possible."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 18th Report of this Session which examined the extent to which the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (the Agency) is effective in targeting high risk vehicles and whether its approach to enforcement is appropriate for today’s world.

The Agency has successfully increased by over 25% the number of dangerous vehicles and drivers that it removed from the roads in recent years. This is welcome news to this Committee which has already noted its concerns about safety on our roads this year. While welcoming the Agency’s work to target its efforts more at the riskiest operators, we consider that there is scope to do better by bringing the Agency’s working practices up to date to reflect current road traffic patterns and the opportunities afforded by technology and working with others.

More needs to be done to address the significant risk to road safety posed by foreign commercial vehicles. They appear to contribute little in the way of revenue and pose a particular challenge in terms of enforcing regulations. The Department for Transport (the Department) and the Agency have increased the number of inspections of foreign vehicles and have put in place stronger sanctions in the form of fines. But they must not lose focus on the need to address a number of important barriers to the effectiveness of their enforcement activities. In particular, we do not consider that the Department and the Agency have done enough to secure access to HM Revenue and Customs’ Freight Targeting Database which would allow the Agency to target non-compliant vehicles and drivers as they enter the country and so prevent them from travelling on Britain’s roads. Moreover, it is unacceptable that three ports have barred the Agency from carrying out enforcement activities within their premises.

The Agency seeks to target its inspections of British operators on those which present the greatest risks, but it needs to develop its systems further so that they reflect better the known risks to road safety. Likewise the location of staff and checksites needs to reflect more closely current traffic patterns. The Agency is also unable to obtain as much information about high risk British operators as it would like as there is currently no fully effective mechanism for sharing data between Member States in the European Union. The Department’s new Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) compliance strategy is under development and provides an opportunity to make better use of data to analyse risk and to target resources more effectively.

Regenerating the English Coalfields

2010-03-10T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"It is extremely doubtful whether the three initiatives by the Department for Communities and Local Government to regenerate the former coal mining areas are achieving value for money.

"The challenge is undoubtedly enormous. The closure of 124 pits since 1981 has left a legacy of derelict land, some of it highly contaminated, which is low in economic potential; and of high unemployment allied with a weak culture of enterprise. But, despite spending £630 million so far, and 13 years after the launch of the initiatives, the Department still does not really know what improvement it has made to the lives of the people living in these areas.

"Taxpayers will want to know how the Department could spend many hundreds of millions of pounds without having sophisticated measures of the direct effects of that expenditure: such as the number of jobs that would not otherwise have been created and the business occupancy rates on redeveloped sites.

"The Department still has £450 million to spend under the initiatives. It must start afresh, with a proper assessment of the needs of the former coalfield areas in 2010 and the articulation of a clear and time-bound objective, with sophisticated means of measuring progress, and an overarching strategy. It must also start to do what it has failed to do so far and take the lead in coordinating the efforts of all government departments to ensure a concerted approach to revitalising coalfield communities."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 16th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Communities and Local Government (the Department)and the Homes and Communities Agency, examined the lack of coordination demonstrated by the Department, information the Department collected to judge performance, and the need to consider future direction in the light of the economic downturn.

Reviving the former English coalfields is one of the largest regeneration challenges to face the country over the last 30 years. Between 1981 and 2004 over 190,000 people lost their jobs in coal mining. The speed and extent of pit closures resulted in severe economic, social and environmental deprivation in many communities. In response, the Department developed three specific initiatives to regenerate coalfield areas, involving a commitment of almost £1.1 billion of public money.

As at July 2009, the three initiatives had spent £630 million and had brought 54 former coalfield sites back into working use, and enabled private development of 2,700 houses and 1.1 million square metres of employment space, and provided financial support to around 3,000 community projects. Despite the initiatives, 37% of coalfield areas continued to be ranked amongst the most deprived in England in 2007.

Thirteen years after the start of the initiatives, the Department still lacks a clear vision and has no overarching strategy for the regeneration of these areas, has not sufficiently coordinated the three strands of the regeneration, and has failed to coordinate wider Government activity. In consequence, training and support to help former coalfield communities find employment has rarely been linked to job opportunities created on coalfield sites.

We have serious concerns about the value for money of the coalfield initiatives. The Department does not know what improvement the initiatives had made to the lives of people living in the coalfield areas, as it does not have a robust assessment to prove to us the true number of additional jobs created. Nor does it know the business occupancy rates for employment space on the redeveloped sites, or the number of people from former coalfield communities who have benefited. The number of jobs the initiatives had helped to create could be anywhere between 8,000 and 16,000. We are concerned that public money has been invested to create jobs that would have been created anyway. While progress has been made, coalfield regeneration has cost the taxpayer much more than originally expected, and it has taken much longer than planned. The Department needs to develop more sophisticated benchmarks that take into account the different levels of contamination on a site and allow separate evaluation of the incremental costs to develop housing and employment space.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Venture Capital Support to Small Businesses

2010-03-09T00:01:00.000Z

Local parliamentarian, Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"Since 2000 the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and its predecessors, have spent £338 million on venture capital funds, with the aim of providing equity finance to small young businesses with strong prospects of growth. This was a risky and experimental initiative and yet, for ten years, the departments made investments without putting in place a robust framework for measuring and evaluating the impact of the funds. Whether the investments represent value for money is entirely unclear. The departments in question were remiss in failing to place vital information about the funds in the public domain.

"When the National Audit Office published its report on how the funds were performing, late last year, it transpired that the performance of the early investments had been poor. Current financial projections for the Department’s earlier investments are disappointing and suggest that a large part of taxpayers’ investment is at risk.

"Among the many causes for concern in this story are the substantial cumulative fees being paid to the private sector fund managers who manage the funds, even though the performance of the funds has been poor. This has been tantamount to rewarding failure."

Mr. Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 17th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Capital for Enterprise Limited, examined how the funds established since 2000 had been managed and what actions had been taken to improve the programme and design of funds.

Since 2000 the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (the Department) and its predecessors have invested public money, alongside private investors, in a series of funds managed by private sector fund managers. The funds provide support to small businesses unlikely to receive support from other sources. The programme currently comprises 28 funds. By December 2009 taxpayers had contributed £338 million, alongside £438 million from private investors.

Businesses receiving support say it has enabled them to get started more quickly and attract funding alongside other investors. But the distribution of funding from national funds has been concentrated in London and the South East, reflecting the location of many fund managers.

The Department’s intervention in the venture capital market was experimental and risky, yet it did not set clear, prioritised objectives for the funds, including the expected economic benefits, and did not set targets at the outset for expected rates of return. There is evidence that the Department has learned some lessons over time but it did not begin to properly evaluate the progress of its early funds until late 2008 and did not publish a report until December 2009.

The Committee was surprised and concerned that, until December 2009, the Department had published no information on the performance of these funds. While recognising that many individual investments would fail, the Department expected that any losses would be outweighed by the gains made on successful investments. The evidence so far suggests that the funds supported by the Department are underperforming. As at December 2008 the Regional Venture Capital Funds, the largest category of early funds, showed negative returns and the average rate of return was minus 15.7%. In comparison, private European venture capital funds of a similar size but with fewer investment restrictions had an average rate of return of minus 0.4%.

We are also concerned that the Department has not done enough to curtail the high costs of managing the funds. Fees for the Regional Venture Capital Funds, for example have totalled £46 million compared to the £130 million invested, and substantial fees have been paid to fund managers even though the performance of the funds has been poor.

Local Conservatives Visit Hill Holt Wood Social Action Project

2010-03-05T07:00:00.000Z

Yesterday, the Conservative Leader of West Lindsey District Council, Cllr. Adam Duguid, Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson Branch Deputy Chairman (Membership & Finance) & Treasurer and Giles McNeill, Branch Deputy Chairman (Political) & Secretary, paid an impromtu visit to Hill Holt Wood to see how West Lindsey District Council's support was training young people in new skills and leading them into work.

Right: Cllrs. Duguid and Davidson inspects plans a student is following to construct wooden bollards with Co-Founder Nigel Lowthrop.

Hill Holt Wood is a small, 34 acre woodland operating as an environmental social enterprise and controlled by a voluntary board of directors representing local communities and councils as well as local and national businesses.

At Hill Holt Wood the approach of the management of the woodland is in a traditional sense, as a habitat to be conserved but we also look to the future and utilise the natural resources to achieve employment, education and training goals. Hill Holt Wood is a centre for learning for a diverse range of learners of all ages and abilities.

Through support from projects such as Hill Holt Wood and the Future Jobs Fund, 150 unemployed young people will be trained in the green building industries of the future.

Left: Cllrs. Duguid and Davidson in the almost complete Community Hall and beyond, through the doors, the 'rammed earth' meeting hall.

We saw the building work that is afoot on the new Community Hall, Refectory and Meeting Room - made from rammed earth, a technique not seen on these shores since the Romans. The building is being created using entirely sustainable materials sourced locally where possible and utilising many innovative building techniques. We saw how plastic-slate tiles are being used which are partly-made from recycled plastic and were given an invaluable insight into the many possibilies that eco-developement will potentially afford West Lindsey in the future.

Initially the Community Hall will be heated by split-log boiler the logs for which we will source locally. This energy will be stored in the form of hot water and released into the underfloor heating system - very Roman.

Right: Cllr. Duguid and Giles McNeill at the Hill Holt Wood sign.

An excellent project really demonstrating the very best of what can be achieved by Social Enterprise.

It's Official - West Lindsey Still In Growth Despite Recession

2010-02-22T12:00:00.001Z

The latest figures recorded by Conservative-led West Lindsey District Council on business rates show an increase of 1.23% which equates to thirty-two additional businesses that have begun trading in the last financial year.

Chairman of the Economic and Regeneration Committee, Conservative, Cllr. Malcolm Parish, (Welton Ward), said:

"The whole country has suffered a down turn during the recession and West Lindsey has been no exception to that.

"However, these figures show that overall our district is still growing and that is a tremendous feat which really does bode well for the future as trading conditions begin to ease."

Cllr. Parish was optimistic that growth would continue throughout the district - and particularly in Gainsborough.

"A £3 million facelift for the town centre is already underway which will make Gainsborough an even more attractive proposition for businesses and retailers.

"Key features of the plans are the use of York stone paving on the footpaths and in the pedestrian areas, timber seating, a performance area in front of the old Town Hall, improved lighting and signage, 'pop up' electricity supplies for the market and events, and new canopies for the market stalls.

"The project will reinstate the Market Place as a key focal point and provide a vital link between Marshall Yard and Riverside Walk and make the whole town even more attractive."

Gainsborough has been granted Growth Point status by the Government and the town is set to double in size over the next 20 years.

£100,000 Flood Scheme For Fiskerton

2010-02-19T12:00:00.001Z

A £100,000 project could soon be underway to relieve Fiskerton of a flooding problem that has dogged the village for more than 20 years.

An open meeting has been called for Thursday 4th March 2010 to discuss innovative plans to intercept water from the north of the village and then divert it through existing pipes under the village - rather than through it - to the drains to the south and then out to the North Delph.

The meeting, in the village hall at 7.30pm, will seek support from the local community. If this is forthcoming the work could take place over two weeks in August later this year.

Conservative-led West Lindsey District Council together with the Third Witham Internal Drainage Board, developer Morris Homes and the parish council have been working on a scheme to reduce the amount of ground water getting into the sewage and drainage systems to reduce the risk of flooding all over the village.

West Lindsey's Public Protection Manager, Mr. Chris Allen, said:

"There is still detailed design work to be done and some finance has yet to be secured.

"But if something is not done the problems will only get worse and the public meeting will be a chance for local people to get answers to their questions and be reassured about the project."

The new scheme is designed to resist a six hour storm with an additional 30% capacity built in to allow for climate change.

Mr. Allen added:

"The resilience of this proposed scheme far exceeds anything else being planned in the district with the period 2085 to 2115 being the storm event size, including climate change, that is being planned for.

"We believe the scheme will relieve at least six known problem areas in the village by allowing the existing systems to function normally. In turn this will allow us to focus our attention on repairs and upgrades that are actually needed."

New Branch Committee

2010-02-13T09:00:00.001Z

Following the Branch's Annual General Meeting, held on Friday, 12th February 2010, the following persons were elected as Officers of the Branch:

Mrs. Stephanie Rouse - Chairman
Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson - Deputy Chairman (Finance & Membership) & Treasurer
Mr. G. McNeill - Deputy Chairman (Political) & Secretary

The following persons were elected to the Branch Committee:

Mrs. Susan Harland
Mr. Peter Heath
Mrs. Christine Spencer~Binns
Mr. Hugh Thomson

Mr. Thomson and Cllr. Mrs. Davidson were re-elected to be the Branch Representatives on the Gainsborough Constituency Conservative Association's Executive Council.

Promoting Participation with the Historic Environment

2010-01-12T00:01:00.003Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"The Department for Culture, Media and Sport gave English Heritage unrealistic targets to increase the number of visits to historic sites by people from three specific underrepresented groups. With no clear evidence of how the target levels might be achieved, English Heritage opted instead to focus on increasing its income from visitor attractions, at the expense of activities to increase participation.

"The truth is that the proportion of the UK population visiting historic sites is already some 70 per cent, an impressive total, and most of the people who don't visit say that they are not interested in doing so. It is hard to see what useful purpose was achieved by setting targets to increase visits from this or that underrepresented group.

"There was certainly no point in the Department's setting targets to widen participation when it did not know how achievable they were, had little understanding of the different factors affecting participation and had no way of measuring the impact of its own actions or those of English Heritage.

"This Committee supports the principle that the nation's heritage should be accessible to all. A crucial factor in developing a lifelong interest in historic sites is to be taken to see them as a child. English Heritage should aim to reverse the decline in free educational visits by children to its own sites, establish a way of measuring progress and report back to this Committee by April 2010 on what has been done."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 5th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from Department for Culture, Media and Sport and English Heritage, examined the actions taken to achieve the Department's objective to get more people interested in heritage.Many people care deeply about and value the nation's heritage. Widening opportunities for people to interact with the historic environment has been a policy objective of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (the Department) for a number of years. In 2005, the Department agreed targets to increase the numbers of people who visit historic sites from three priority groups-those with a limiting disability, those from lower socio-economic groups and those from black and minority ethnic groups. The Department missed its targets to increase visits from two of the three priority groups but has no idea why. It has not conducted research into how achievable the targets were, or how they would be met, and the survey for measuring visits to historic sites does not allow the Department to evaluate the impact of its own activities or those of its main delivery agent, English Heritage. English Heritage is the Government's statutory adviser on the historic environment and has a critical role to play in increasing public support and interest in heritage. But in recent years it has been faced with a decline in public funding, coupled with an increase in its responsibilities, and has therefore prioritised increasing the money it makes from visitors to its sites. The Department reached agreement with the English Heritage on what it would do to support the department's objectives for participation in the future only just in time for our hearing, and over half way through the current funding period. Such weak accountability creates serious risks to value for money.

The Department did not convince us that having a target focussed on increasing visits from those in underrepresented groups to historic sites served a useful purpose. The proportion of the population visiting historic sites is already high and most of those who do not do so say they are not interested in heritage. Furthermore, the historic environment can be experienced and enjoyed by walking down the street, visiting a local church, watching television or using the internet. Building stronger public support will depend on taking an inclusive approach to what constitutes our heritage and in particular on developing an interest in heritage in children of all backgrounds. English Heritage has assured us that it will reverse the concerning downwards trend in educational visits to its own sites.

Edward Leigh Discusses The Big Issues: 'Social Security'

2010-01-08T20:00:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP for the Gainsborough Constituency in the first of a series of regular articles, published on his website, in which he will talk about the issues that matter leading up to the election, Mr. Leigh presents his views on the topic of social security.

Social Security

If I am going to ask the people in my constituency to vote for me over the next four or five months, I think they have a right to know what I believe in and what I would like to see a Conservative government achieve.

I am delighted that the Party is focusing on aspiration and responsibility. Years ago during the last Tory government I wrote a paper entitled Responsible Individualism. I know that this is an untidy phrase but by it I meant empowering the individual not to be selfish and self centred, and by improving his lot to help society at large, particularly in education and social security.

I am a Tory because I believe in our history, our traditions. Some may argue that it was the eighteenth century rational enlightenment that was the cause of our liberal tolerant democratic society, but in my opinion so many of our institutions and our society as a whole grew slowly over centuries. It is important therefore to place an emphasis on our history and traditions if we are to keep developing as a nation.

I believe that reason, science and progress can march side by side with the personal reassurance given by religious belief and that religious participation (although worryingly in decline) and ethics has contributed to the undeniable advances against poverty. And it is the decline of religion that has made Western society a less happy place in terms of personal fulfilment and supportive family, despite the immense advances made against poverty. The point here is that despite the huge economic advances and the population being better off why aren’t people happier?

Despite this however, there has been a decline in the supporting structure of the family. Of course, families can take many forms and any one of them can be valid in itself, but for most people the model of a man and a woman making an honest attempt at commitment to each other for life is best. Tax and benefit policies should reflect this.

In truth tax and benefit policies on their own are not going to make people stay together, but they send out a message.

One thing is certain. Benefits can influence behaviour enormously for lower income groups.

If you are faced with marginal tax rates, greater than anything faced by the very rich, and you increase your earnings but end up receiving fewer benefits, leaving you less well off overall, then that is a powerful disincentive to work and aspire to self reliance.

For many years I have argued for a much simpler tax and benefits system.

One of the most successful benefits is child benefit. The level of fraud and error is minimal. This is because it is modest and non-means tested.

During the years of which I have been the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee we have published numerous reports outlining the worrying cases of fraud and error in the current system.

What a Conservative government must do is gradually simplify the system and reduce means testing. It will take enormous political will to implement and carry this out but given the £100 billion bill from social security, the harmful effects to the economy of not doing so would be harder to bear in long term.

Next week I shall share my views and beliefs on the subject of education.

Acknowledgement: Edward-Leigh.net | Edward's Ramblings | 07/01/10

Nettleham & District Conservatives Announce Fiskerton Event

2010-01-04T12:00:00.001Z

Nettleham & District Conservatives have started the New Year and hit the ground running.

Giles McNeill, Branch Secretary, said:

"Today I am pleased to announce that we will be holding a 'Shepherd's Pie and Bubbly' night in late March.

"I am also very pleased to announce that we will be back in Fiskerton, holding our event at the splendid Village Hall.

"Our local member of parliament, Mr. Edward Leigh will be our very special guest and Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson, who represents Fiskerton, Fulnetby, Holton-cum-Beckering, Langworth, Stanton-by-Langworth and Rand on West Lindsey District Council has agreed to give a short, ten minute, talk on her role as a district councillor."

Tickets to this event are £7.50 and are available from Nettleham & District Conservatives via e-mail or by calling Giles McNeill on (01522) 751564.

Meg Davidson's New Year's Message 2010

2010-01-01T00:01:00.000Z

May I wish all of you a Happy New Year.

When I was first elected as your District Councillor back in 2002, someone told me, “It’s mostly rubbish and drains!” Both have featured prominently in my workload over the past year.

The new “triple bin system” is working well. We are now recycling more than ever before. This all helps to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill which is excellent news. Some residents expressed concern that they had paid their annual green bin charge shortly before green bins became free. I raised this with WLDC and am pleased to say that a refund system has now been introduced.

The recent floods in Cumbria brought back memories of the 2007 floods. I have been working hard to make sure that our area gets the flood protection it needs. There is progress: a lot of work has been done to improve flood defences in Langworth, there are plans for a flood mitigation scheme for Fiskerton and the highway drains are being cleaned more regularly.

Above: Meg’s chapter on Welton oilfield was published in a book on underground gas storage

I am now Vice Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee. This keeps an eye on health services in the county. Now that the microbiology laboratory at Lincoln County Hospital has closed, we are keeping a close watch on the service being provided from Scunthorpe.

West Lindsey’s Planning Department has come under the spotlight in recent months. A number of problems have been identified. These are now being put right and a new manager is being recruited. I am optimistic that the service provided will be greatly improved in 2010.

It is a blow that Fiskerton and Langworth no longer have full-time post offices, but at least outreach post office services are being provided in their respective village halls.

2010 is going to bring significant challenges. There will be cuts in public spending whichever party wins the general election.

I am encouraged by the strong community spirit in our area. For my part, I will do my best on your behalf in the months to come.

Wishing you all the best for 2010,

Meg Davidson
West Lindsey District Councillor (Fiskerton Ward)

District Councillor’s Surgery

Saturday 15th January 2010 10.30am – 12:00noon Fiskerton Village Hall
No need to make an appointment, just drop in.

Lincolnshire's Conservative Prepare to Welcome Special Guest in 2010

2009-12-19T07:00:00.000Z

Lincolnshire Conservatives will welcome a very special guest to the county in February 2010.

As an early Christmas present to members and activists throughout Lincolnshire the Conservatives' County Committee has announced:

"A surprise worth waiting for; we were given the go-ahead today. With your helpwe are going to give this our best shot toboost your campaign funds"

The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH will be the very special guest of Lincolnshire's Conservatives at a Dinner to be hosted at the Epic Centre, Lincolnshire Show Ground, North Carlton, on the evening of Thursday, 18th February 2010. Further details to follow.

A second progress update on the administration of the Single Payment Scheme by the Rural Payments Agency

2009-12-16T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"A large part of the responsibility for this public administration debacle lies with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It has consistently failed to spot continuing problems with this scheme for paying EU grants to farmers and to get to grips with issues previously raised by this Committee. But this lack of attention has been compounded by poor leadership and management information in the Rural Payments Agency.

"It is an extremely serious charge from this Committee that negligible attention has been paid to taxpayers' interests. The £350 million IT systems underlying the scheme are cumbersome, overly complex and at risk of becoming obsolete and they continue to soak up huge sums of money. The information held is riddled with error and efforts to recover overpayments have been woefully slow, haphazard and ineffective, causing anxiety and concern to farmers.

"The Department is still unable to come to terms with its failure, first having confirmed the validity of the National Audit Office calculation of some £1,700 for the average cost of administering each claim and then offering an alternative cost of £700. The Committee's confidence in the Department's ability to cut costs in future was hardly boosted by its unconvincing explanation why its interpretation was more reliable than that of the NAO.

"The truth is that the Department has either not grasped the seriousness of what has been happening or been reluctant to face up to problems. We have now insisted, and the Department has agreed, that it provide us with clear evidence of what progress has been made and explain how it is meeting the NAO's recommendations."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 1st Report of this Session. This is the third time in three years that the Committee has taken evidence on the £1.6 billion Single Payment Scheme in England administered by the Rural Payments Agency (the Agency) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (the Department). On the basis of a follow up report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Committee examined the progress made in addressing our previous concerns and the capacity of senior managers in the Agency and the Department to resolve matters.

Oversight of the Single Payment Scheme is a singular example of comprehensively poor administration on a grand scale. The paucity of good management information in the Agency and the complacent oversight by the Department have acted to obscure the true situation for far too long. A focus over the last two and a half years in bringing forward payments to farmers has enabled the Agency to bring its deadline forward by nearly seven weeks, but this is still six weeks off the deadline it had planned and a long way short of the standards set in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In the meantime, there has been negligible attention to the protection of taxpayers' interests. Despite all the assurances previously given to this Committee, the Agency has spent £350 million on a cumbersome IT system that can only be supported at huge cost and which is increasingly at risk of becoming obsolete. The data held in the system remains riddled with errors and efforts to recover overpayments have been slow, disorganised and haphazard.

The root cause of this debacle has been poor leadership within the Agency and a lack of attention by the Department. Each claim costs over six times more to process in England than Scotland and yet the Chief Executive received a performance bonus in 2008-09. The Department was not able to demonstrate an adequate grasp of the costs of administering the scheme.

There has been a high turnover of expensive senior management appointments in the Agency and it appears to have been reluctant to face up to the problems by taking the firm action required to turn the organisation round.

Responsibility rests with the Accounting Officers to resolve this misadministration. The Committee is very concerned at the absence of progress to date and looks to the Departmental Accounting Officer to take personal responsibility for this scheme, develop an action plan and to report back to us regularly on progress. The Committee expects to receive the first progress report by the end of January 2010 and to see clear evidence that its concerns are being properly addressed.

Coffee Morning: Photo Journal

2009-12-14T08:00:00.000Z

Photographs from Coffee and Carols: A Coffee Morning with a festive flavour (December 2009)

Above: Members of Our Lady of Lincoln Carollors perfoming a festive tune.

Below: local people enjoy a cup of coffee or a mulled wine with a warmed mince pie.

Above: Branch Chairman, Mrs. Stephanie Rouse and Giles McNeill Branch Secretary

Below: Local residents listen to carols near the Fairtrade stall.

Coffee & Carols Event is Successful

2009-12-12T15:30:00.000Z

Nettleham & District Conservatives today hosted a Coffee Morning in the Large Hall of the Old School, Nettleham.

Local Member of Parliament, Edward Leigh was in attendance and gave a rousing speech calling local activists to be ready for a general election at any time.

An excellent selection of carols was provided by Our Lady of Lincoln Carollers who collect for local charities.

Giles McNeill, Branch Secretary, said:

"We've had a bit of a difficult time in recent weeks in West Lindsey, but here on the Lincoln fringe we are continuing to pull together to get David Cameron into Number 10, Edward Leigh re-elected and local councillors and more local candidates elected to the district council."

Above: Mrs. Stephanie Rouse - Branch Chairman, Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson - Branch Deputy Chairman, and Mr. Giles McNeill - Branch Secretary (left), with members of Our Lady of Lincoln Carollers together with Mr. C. Darcel, Mr. Peter Heath, Mr. H. Thomson (Branch Committee Members) and Mr. Edward Leigh MP in front of All Saints Church, Nettleham.

Notice of Resignation

2009-10-30T09:00:00.000Z

At the Branch Committee Meeting held on Thursday, 29th October 2009 at 7:30pm at 19 North Street, Nettleham the committee resolved to accept the tendered resignation of Mr. Keith Deeley from his post as Deputy Chairman (Political).

Assessment of the Capability Review Programme

2009-09-15T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The introduction by the current Cabinet Secretary of a programme of published, external assessments of the capability of individual government departments is a significant advance. The programme has encouraged changes in the way departments operate. What cannot yet be demonstrated, however, is a link between such changes and actual improvements how public services are delivered.

“Assessments currently rely too much on qualitative and subjective measures. A wider range of objective quantitative measures is required. There must be quantitative comparisons with the best private and public sector organizations. And the culture within the civil service of managing the performance of individual staff, with incentives to reflect success and sanctions to tackle failure, must be greatly strengthened. Senior leaders in poorly performing government departments seem proof against dismissal in a way that leaders in local government are not.

“Where departments differ conspicuously from many private sector organizations is in having a much poorer understanding of what their customers want. Without a culture than focuses consistently on the needs of the user, improvements to performance in delivering services will simply not happen.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 45th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Cabinet Office, examined taking forward Capability Reviews to link more clearly with demonstrable improvements in performance, improving leadership and management throughout the delivery chain, and changing the culture of the civil service.

In 2005, the Cabinet Secretary launched a programme of two-yearlyCapability Reviews. They involve published external assessments of departments with the aim of achieving a major improvement in civil service capability. The programme is a significant step forward in how government departments are assessed. To have publicly available commentary, sometimes critical, of important aspects of departments' capability is an initiative of great value, with real potential as a driver for improvement. It is vital that the programme becomes permanently embedded and is developed in line with this report's recommendations. We intend to return to this subject after two years to review progress.

The first-round reviews, in 2006-07, showed that departments had a long way to go. Overall, departments were rated as less than 'well placed' in two-thirds of the assessed elements of capability. In response, departments have made changes in the way they are run, particularly in terms of board and senior executive team visibility and leadership. The 11 departments that have had second-round reviews have achieved significantly higher assessments. However, the recession and a tighter budgetary context will increase future challenges by requiring departments to achieve more with less.

The link between Capability Review scores and delivery performance is not clear because assessments are based largely on qualitative and subjective evidence. The close involvement of the Cabinet Secretary has provided a valuable challenge and check of reasonableness. But it will be essential, in order to achieve sustained improvements in departments' ultimate delivery, for there to be more objective and quantified metrics to link assessments to demonstrable improvements in performance. It will also be necessary to introduce a strong element of external benchmarking to drive greater improvement.

The second-round Capability Reviews show that staff confidence in senior management is improving but is still too poor. Alongside the need for further improvements to senior leadership, Capability Reviews do not yet give sufficient attention to middle management, front-line staff and departments' delivery partners and agencies. And unlike local government assessment, which includes political leadership, Capability Reviews do not consider how well Ministers and senior management work together to achieve desired outcomes.

The Cabinet Secretary intends to use Capability Reviews as a catalyst to change civil service culture so that it is more collaborative, dynamic, customer focused and innovative. We applaud this aim but note that there is a long way to go. Departments need much more robust staff performance management, better insight into their customers' needs and preferences and greater use of innovation.

Saxilby Ward By Election Result

2009-08-21T01:00:00.000+01:00

Result from the By-Election held in Saxilby Ward on Thursday, 20th August 2009.

722 (60.51%) Jackie Brockway (Conservative)
407 (34.12%) Dean Woolley (Liberal Democrat)
62 ( 5.27%) Steven Pearson (UKIP)

CONSERVATIVE GAIN

Turnout 28.3%

Reducing Alcohol Harm: health services in England for alcohol misuse

2009-07-30T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said: "Too many people are drinking too much. In England, nearly a third of all men and a fifth of all women are regularly drinking more than the official guidelines say they should. In doing so, many are on course to damaging their health and general well-being.

"The burden on local health services is of course huge, with the rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions climbing sharply and A&E departments flooded on weekend nights with drink-associated injury cases."

The responsibility for addressing alcohol harm has been handed to the Primary Care Trusts. But many have neither drawn up strategies to tackle alcohol harm in their areas nor even have much idea what they are spending on the relevant local services. These services are often ill-coordinated, increasing the risk that dependent drinkers, after immediate medical care, will simply relapse into their former drinking habits. Each PCT should have to demonstrate what progress it has made towards reducing the number of alcohol-related hospital admissions in its area.

"None of this is helped by poor coordination between Whitehall departments on such relevant matters as licensing, taxation and glass sizes. The Department of Health should look across all departments, identify all the initiatives and policy areas bearing on alcohol misuse and determine the extent to which each is helping or hindering the Department's objectives. Where the latter are being stymied, the Department should communicate its concerns to senior officials in the relevant departments."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 47th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department of Health (the Department), examined the current performance of the National Health Service in addressing alcohol harm; the Department's influence on local commissioners, and the Department's work to encourage sensible drinking. Alcohol misuse is a significant and growing problem in England, with more than 10 million people now regularly drinking above the guidelines set by Government. Alcohol misuse places a considerable burden on the National Health Service (NHS), costing an estimated £2.7 billion per year. In 2006-07, there were some 811,000 alcohol-related hospital admissions, representing a 71% increase in four years. Between 12 and 5am on weekend nights, nearly three-quarters of all attendances at accident and emergency (A&E) departments are alcohol-related.

In 2004, alcohol harm became subject to a national government strategy, which was updated by the Department and the Home Office in 2007. Since April 2008, the Department has also been responsible for delivering against a Public Service Agreement (PSA) indicator on the rate of increase of alcohol-related hospital admissions.

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are responsible for determining local health priorities and have control over the majority of NHS spending. PCTs are free to decide for themselves how much to spend on services to address alcohol harm. Many PCTs, however, do not know what they spend on such services and across England there is little correlation between need and expenditure. Where services are commissioned there is frequently a lack of performance monitoring and examination of whether what is provided represents value for money.

In 2008, the Department introduced a number of new measures designed to help address alcohol harm: providing extra funding for GPs to screen new patients; increasing alcohol-specific training for doctors, and creating 20 pilot sites designed to improve specialist treatment services. The Department has, however, yet to demonstrate its ability to effectively influence local commissioners, the drinks industry, and people's drinking behaviour. The Department also needs to work more closely with the other government departments which are responsible for policies affecting alcohol consumption, such as taxation and licensing. Achieving this will be necessary if the Department is to reduce levels of alcohol harm and succeed against the PSA indicator.

Saxilby By-Election - Candidates

2009-07-28T12:01:00.002+01:00

The names of the Candidates for the By-Election in Saxilby have now been released. They are:

Jackie Brockway, The Conservative Party Candidate, 72 Sykes Lane, Saxilby

Steven Pearson, United Kingdom Independence Party, 'Castaway', Highthorpe, Southrey

Dean Woolley, Liberal Democrat, 57 Church Road, Saxilby

--------
Documents (from West Lindsey District Council)

> Notice of Election

> Statement of Persons Nominated

Brussels Petition for Truckers

2009-07-24T09:00:00.000+01:00

A petition protesting against French blockades of the Channel ports was handed in to the European Commission in Brussels on yesterday, by the Federation of Small Business, backed by Conservative MEP Roger Helmer.

French trade unions frequently seek to stop cross-channel traffic, which imposes huge costs on hauliers. The four day stoppage caused by French fishermen in April is estimated to have cost the average British haulier around £800. The blockages force the Kent police to arrange for lines of lorries to park up on the M20 to Dover - an operation known as "The Stack", which turns large parts of the motorway into a car-park, resulting in congestion across the local road network.

The petition, which also calls for £6 million compensation from the French government, demands that the Commission put pressure on the French government to ensure that traffic moves freely, in line with the fundamental principle of free movement of goods and people in the EU. East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer, who accompanied the FSB delegation along with Conservative Kent County Councillors Julie Rook and Alan Marsh, commented:

"It is scandalous that the French government is ignoring its obligations in this way, and British hauliers are paying the prices - not just in the South East, but up and down the country."

There are further problems on the French side, where delayed British truckers are seeing illegal immigrants desperately trying to board their lorries, and some truckers have been attacked and robbed by groups of would-be immigrants, and are in fear of their lives.

Neville Baxter, Chief Executive of RH Transport in Nottingham, said

"We know all too well the serious congestion problems and delays caused by French inaction. I am delighted to see that our regional MEP is taking action on this issue."

Bernard Howard of P.C. Howard, a trucking company with depots in Corby and Kings Cliffe, East Northants, said

"It's time we told the French where to get off. We've put up with this behaviour for long enough."

East Midlands MEP youngest to be sworn in

2009-07-14T00:01:00.003+01:00

East Midlands Conservative MEP, Emma McClarkin, is the youngest MEP (at the age of just 30) in the country to be sworn into office today.

Miss McClarkin was elected in June to the European Parliament, and despite being the youngest member to represent the UK she is determined to sort Europe out from the inside. Speaking about being sworn in Miss McClarkin said;

“I feel very privileged to be representing the views of my constituents in the East Midlands in the Parliament, and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead.”

Miss McClarkin is going into this with a strong idea of what she would like to see changed for the East Midlands as well as for the UK. She will be campaigning tirelessly for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty as well as reducing red tape in business, to enable small businesses in the East Midlands to develop even through the recession.

Miss McClarkin would like to see more investment into the East Midlands and has already started to work with the East Midlands European Office to see where more funding can be secured. Emma commented;

“It’s about encouraging less bureaucracy, less interference and better regulation where required.”

Emma is also hoping that being the youngest MEP will help re-connect young people in the east Midlands with the political process;

“I hope that young people will begin to see that it is something that they can get involved in, I feel this is especially important with European politics, as it is very difficult to get people engaged in something which appears to be happening so far away from their everyday lives and experiences.”

The Conservatives in the Parliament have created a new grouping, which is supported by both Emma and her colleague Roger Helmer. The new grouping will be providing for the first time a non-federalist opposition. Emma says;

“I believe the new group will provide us with great opportunities to reflect the views of the great many people across the East Midlands who think that less Europe, not more, is the answer.”

DEFRA: Natural England's role in improving Sites of Special Scientific Interest

2009-07-07T00:01:00.001+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"All those who love England's wildlife and natural habitats will welcome the news that the reported condition of England's Sites of Special Scientific Interest has improved markedly against the government's target. But the news is not as good as it sounds. The target allows for sites simply to be in a 'recovering' condition which can be far short of a 'favourable' condition. The Department and Natural England must do more to manage and monitor the progress of recovering sites.

"It hardly inspires confidence that Natural England's performance in anaging sites is based on out of date information and incomplete records. There are inconsistencies between sites in the information recorded. And, at June last year, the condition of a quarter of all sites had not been checked for a full six years.

"What is needed now is for the Department and Natural England to establish a programme and detailed plan for moving all sites into a favourable condition. That plan should be used to produce reliable financial forecasts and to prioritise actions annually based on the available funding.
"The natural environment is changing and so Natural England must also review its classification of existing sites to find out whether they still provide the most valuable conservation opportunities; to declassifying them where necessary; and to finding and designating new sites."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 34th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (the Department) and Natural England, examined the steps taken to conserve sites and raise public awareness of SSSIs, and the related costs of bringing sites into target condition.

A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of land containing habitats and wildlife which are of national or international importance. There are over 4,000 SSSI sites in England, many of which were first designated over 60 years ago. SSSIs have been afforded legal protection since 1949, mainly through restrictions on activities and development which would adversely affect the sites. This protection has helped conserve habitats and wildlife in England, which would otherwise be at risk of extinction. Natural England, a non-departmental public body of the Department, is responsible for identifying and overseeing SSSIs, within the Department's overall responsibility for conserving and enhancing the natural environment.

In 2000, the Department agreed a Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to bring 95% of SSSI land area into a 'favourable' or 'recovering' condition by December 2010. The reported condition of sites has increased from 52% of land area in target condition in December 2002 to 86% in February 2009. Sites in recovery may take many years to reach favourable condition. The programme of SSSI condition assessments is not up-to-date and there is
insufficient quality control to ensure that all assessments have been undertaken in accordance with national guidance. Natural England has put in place a programme of work to address the backlog of assessments by 2010, and has introduced quality assurance systems and guidelines to improve the consistency of its record keeping.

Until 2007, the Department did not have an estimate of how much it would cost to deliver the PSA target on SSSI condition. Between 2003 and 2006, Natural England developed a national database to record the condition of sites and the work required to bring them into favourable condition. Public expenditure on SSSIs has more than doubled over the past eight years, from £35.6 million a year in 2000-01 to £85.4 million in 2008-09. There has been no assessment of the cost of conserving SSSIs beyond 2010, although estimates by the Department anticipate an ongoing commitment of around £96 million a year. The estimates may, however, be inaccurate as around a third of sites do not have complete descriptions of the works required to bring them into good condition.

Financial incentives to encourage private landowners to conserve sites account for some 58% of public expenditure. Some sites, however, continue to decline and Natural England has not been proactive in exercising its powers to take legal action against those landowners who persist in managing their land in a way which damages the habitat and wildlife.

Many sites are open to the public, but the public is often unaware of the recreational and environmental benefits of SSSIs. There is also low awareness of the statutory obligations in place to protect SSSIs and Natural England's decisions in respect of planning permissions and other actions to conserve SSSIs are not widely understood.

There is scope to improve the processes for identifying new sites and declassifying existing ones which are no longer of special interest. The changing natural environment means that some sites may no longer contain important habitats and species, while new sites may need protection. In the future it may be important to provide natural corridors along which species can move between habitats as the climate and the environment change.

Financial Management in the European Union

2009-06-30T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“Despite a measure of progress in the financial management of the EU, since this Committee last reported, many of the same old difficulties remain unresolved. These serve only to undermine public confidence in financial management within European institutions and Member States.

“Prominent among these unresolved difficulties is the persistent high level of error in some key budget areas. This has led to what should be an exceptional audit procedure, qualification of the accounts, being applied for fourteen years in a row.

“A major factor leading to error is the inherent complexity of programme expenditure in some areas. The only solution is to simplify the rules, not – as the Commission has proposed – to tolerate higher levels of error in the more complex areas of expenditure. That would weaken the accountability of EU funds.

“The published figures on levels of fraud and irregularity in the European budget have so far been pretty useless because there is no consistent arrangement between Member States for recording and reporting these figures. These and other barriers to budget modernization need to be addressed in the current review of the EU budget. This review gives the Commission a rare opportunity to make the long term improvements to financial management which have eluded the EU for so long.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 32nd Report of this Session. In March 2009 the Committee had visited the European Commission, the European Court of Auditors and the European Anti-Fraud Office to discuss financial management and to examine progress made since its last visit in March 2005. The Committee was grateful to all those it met for their help and openness.

In 2007, European Union expenditure totalled €114.0 billion and revenue was €117.6 billion. In that year, the United Kingdom’s net contribution was €6.1 billion, the highest after Germany. The sums involved emphasise the need for sound financial management and control within European Union Institutions and the Member States.

For the first time the Court did provide a positive Statement of Assurance on the reliability of the accounts because the accounts accurately recorded the underlying transactions. But for the 14th successive year, the European Court of Auditors did not provide a clear audit opinion (known as a Statement of Assurance) on the legality and regularity of expenditure. It found that an unacceptably high level of the account’s underlying transactions did not comply with the rules and regulations. The lack of a clear opinion year on year significantly damages the Union’s reputation for financial management and action urgently needs to be taken.

Since the Committee last reported on this subject, in 2005, the Commission has reduced the level of errors across the budget. But a major barrier to improving financial management in some areas of expenditure is the continued complexity of the regulations which applies particularly to Cohesion policy. This policy aims to remove disparities in economic performance across the European regions and continues to be the biggest source of error, with an estimated 11% of irregular spending.

The Court considers errors as material if in total they exceed 2% of total expenditure in each of the main policy areas. A Commission paper, published in December 2008, suggested different levels of error might be tolerable within different policy areas. It proposed that the more complex the policy, the higher the level of error that would be tolerated as there comes a point where the costs of control required exceed the value of the likely errors prevented. We are concerned about such a proposal because it would remove the incentive to simplify the rules for the European expenditure regimes which is essential to improve financial management.

The fundamental review of the European Union budget, currently underway, offers the Commission the opportunity to modernise the budget and strengthen its financial management. If the Commission does not take this opportunity, a positive Statement of Assurance is extremely unlikely and European Union citizens will continue to think that their funds are badly managed.

In 2007, Member States reported irregularities to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) totalling €1,425 million, including suspected frauds of €316 million. (An irregularity is a failure to comply with the Commission’s regulations and fraud is an irregularity committed intentionally which constitutes a criminal offence.) OLAF warned that its figures should be interpreted with caution as they depend on the timely and accurate reporting by Member States, making trends and progress in tackling irregularity and suspected fraud difficult to assess.

2009-06-23T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"The Type 45 destroyer is an impressive and sophisticated piece of air defence naval weaponry, based largely on new technology. Our Committee saw for itself just how advanced the ship is in terms of manoeuvrability and speed. But the risks to the successful delivery of the Type 45 were poorly judged.

"Persistent over-optimism and underestimation of the technical challenge, combined with inappropriate commercial arrangements, led to burgeoning costs and serious delays.

"It is encouraging though to hear that the Department appears to be applying the lessons from the Type 45 project and its actions to turn the project around to its programme to procure the two aircraft carriers.

"HMS Daring, the first of the six Type 45s, will not now enter service until the end of 2009, over two years late and £1.5 billion over the original budgeted cost. What is disgraceful is that it will enter service with not one of its main anti-air missiles having been fired from the ship - and it will not be fully operational until 2011. The fleet of Type 45s will not have their full capability until well into the next decade. As a result, the existing Type 42 destroyers are having to be patched up and kept in service for longer.

"In the Committee's view, there are two deeply worrying implications for the UK's air defence capability. One is our having to rely for a number of years on ageing vessels designed and built for the Cold War. The other is that, even when the full complement of six Type 45s is fully operational, this number of new destroyers falls short of the 12 originally planned and then eight subsequently proposed, making it very difficult for the MOD to meet its requirement of having five ships at sea at any one time."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 30th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Defence, examined capability provided by the Type 45 Destroyer, the reasons for the cost increases and delays on the project, and the lessons learnt for the Carrier project and support contract.

The Type 45 Destroyer is being procured to form the backbone of the Royal Navy's air defence capability for the next 30 years, and will provide a very impressive capability compared to the Type 42 Destroyers which is it designed to replace. There have been a number of problems on the project, meaning it will enter service over two years late and £1.5 billion over its original budget.

The Department has had to extend the life of the Type 42 Destroyers for longer than originally planned as a result of the delays to the Type 45. These ships are increasingly expensive to maintain, provide a more limited capability than the Type 45 and are more vulnerable to the most up to date threats from a modern enemy.

The Department originally planned to buy 12 ships. However, because of reduced threat, revised planning assumptions and an intended improved network capability, this number shrunk to eight and eventually just six. Despite this, the Department's requirement to have five ships at sea at any one time remains unchanged. It will be more challenging for the Department to meet this requirement with only six ships.

The problems on the Type 45 project result from the Department's failure to take sufficient account of the technical risks involved in such a complex project in its estimates of the likely costs and timescales to deliver, or in the commercial construct which it agreed, which led to a poor relationship with industry. Following a far-reaching review of the project, the contract was renegotiated in 2007, and there have been no further cost increases or delays since then.

Although the Type 45 will enter service in 2009, it is a disgrace that it will do so without a PAAMS missile having been fired from the ship, and will not achieve full operational capability until 2011. Other equipments and capabilities which will enhance the ship's ability to conduct anti-air warfare operations will not be fitted until after the ship enters service in some cases.

It is essential that the Department learns the lessons from both the failures and successes on this project, and applies them to its other programmes such as the Carrier, if it is to avoid a repeat of the cost overruns and time delays that have been a feature of so many of its major Defence projects. The Department also needs to apply the lessons in taking forward its longer-term support arrangements for the Type 45, which have yet to be finally agreed.

Management of Asylum Applications

2009-06-16T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"It is in the interest of neither applicants for asylum nor the taxpayer that applications for asylum take a long time to be concluded. The new programme for managing applications, the New Asylum Model, has brought a lot of improvements to the management of new cases. But the process of coming to decisions on whether to grant asylum is still too slow. Following a surge in applications in 2007, the backlog of cases where a decision had not yet been made doubled in a year, to 8,700 in the second quarter of 2008.

"Over and above this backlog, there is the one of existing 'legacy' cases which predated the New Asylum Model. It is welcome that the Home Office has given a firm commitment to this Committee that it will meet its target of concluding all of these legacy cases by 2011, especially since some of these old cases might be difficult to resolve.

"Giving priority to the removal of foreign national prisoners has reduced the amount of detention space available for failed asylum applicants. The result is that few failed asylum applicants are yet being removed from the UK under the New Asylum Model. The Home Office is certainly finding it difficult to achieve the tipping point, where more failed applicants are removed than there are unfounded applications.

"In order to free up detention spaces, the Home Office must review all foreign national prisoner cases at the start of their sentences, to prepare for the immediate removal of those recommended for deportation on their release from custody. The enforced removal of a failed asylum applicant is also often made very difficult by obstacles outside the Home Office's control. The Department needs to work with the Courts, foreign government and other bodies to make the process of enforced removal more tractable."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 28th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Home Office, examined its progress to date, and on the obstacles to faster, more accurate completion of cases. In 2006, our predecessors published a critical report on the shortcomings in the removals system, making wide-ranging recommendations.

Revisiting the subject of asylum applications and removals some three years on, we are pleased to note that the Home Office (the Department) has responded positively and progress has been made. The Department has implemented the New Asylum Model, whereby a Case Owner manages all new asylum cases from application to conclusion, at which stage the applicant is either allowed to stay in the UK or returned to their country of origin. We are also pleased to note that, as a direct result of implementing our recommendations, the Department also established a separate process to clear the backlog of 400,000-450,000 legacy cases unresolved at the introduction of the New Asylum Model. The New Asylum Model has resulted in the Department reaching an initial decision more quickly and in cases being concluded faster than in 2006. We also have the Department's firm assurance that the legacy cases will be cleared by 2011. Amongst the many cases awaiting completion, there are undoubtedly many people who genuinely need humanitarian protection because they are fleeing oppression, as well as those with more tenuous claims to asylum.

The Department still faces significant challenges, however, in bringing these cases to a prompt conclusion. Faster, more accurate completion of cases reduces both uncertainty for the applicant and the cost to the tax payer. The Department is halfway through its programme of stepped improvements in the time taken to conclude cases. Removal poses a challenge. It will be another four years before the Department has the total of 4,000 detention spaces that it needs to increase removals to optimum levels, and before its new IT system is fully operational. The Department also needs to work with the Courts, foreign governments and other bodies to bring about the legal changes and diplomatic solutions needed to resolve obstacles to removal that lie outside its control.

HM Revenue & Customs's Management of tax debt

2009-06-09T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"Nearly a third of all tax payments are late and the amount of money owed to HMRC is enormous - over £17 billion at the last reckoning. The number of tax debts also increased over 2007-08 by 22 per cent. The department must try every means it can to tackle what is likely to become a growing problem of tax debt, while making allowance for people and businesses in temporary financial difficulties.

"HMRC has been slow to take advantage of the key techniques used by other organizations to manage debt owed to them. It has started to make more methods of payment available to taxpayers - such as credit cards and direct debits - but it could take advantage of the latest developments in payment technology. Its debt collection activities also tend to be conducted on a 9 to 5 basis which is not always the best way of contacting tax debtors.

"The department has decided that it cannot afford a new IT system to link all the tax records of an individual taxpayer. But linking of debts is crucial to effective debt management and HMRC should introduce a staged programme towards that end.

"The arrangement by which the contractor EDS would pay compensation for its underperforming tax credits computer system - on the basis of installments contingent on winning new business from the government - was always highly unsatisfactory and in practice did not work. It should never be repeated."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 26th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from HM Revenue & Customs, examined getting taxpayers to pay on time, improving debt recovery and managing tax debt in a recession. The Committee also considered the Department's recent settlement with EDS on the compensation for the Tax Credit computer problems.

In 2007-08, HM Revenue & Customs (the Department) collected around £450 billion in tax and National Insurance contributions from 35 million taxpayers. At 31 March 2008 the Department was owed £17.3 billion in outstanding tax, interest and penalties, £4.5 billion of which was more than a year old. Debts arise when people or businesses forget to pay, do not understand the need to pay or deliberately try to avoid or delay payment. Most tax payments are made on time, but during 2007-2008 30% of tax payments were made after they were due. In 2007-08, the number of tax debts increased by 22%, and the level and age of debt increased on some taxes. The Department has improved the quality of information provided to taxpayers about arrangements for payment and debt recovery, and has provided more ways for taxpayers to settle their tax debts. But the Department needs to change the behaviour of taxpayers who persistently pay late.

The Department could do more to encourage prompt payment, for example, by offering newer methods of payment used by other organisations. It also lags behind best practice in recovering debt. For example, it does not risk score its debtors. Risk scoring would allow it to tailor the help it gives to those who do not understand their obligations or are in financial crisis, while dealing promptly with debtors who deliberately pay late. Other organisations and tax authorities have significantly improved their performance by using risk profiling.

The Department is also unable to automatically link debts owed on different taxes by the same taxpayer, which is a barrier to effective and efficient debt management. The Department estimates that it would cost more than £250 million to develop IT systems which would link all of a taxpayer's records, which are currently held on its different tax systems.

In managing tax debt, the Department must balance the need to maximise revenue for the Exchequer with that of offering support to individuals and businesses in temporary financial difficulty. Balancing these objectives becomes more difficult in a recession. Since launching the Business Payment Support Service in November 2008, the Department had-by February 2009-agreed over 60,000 'time to pay' arrangements with individual businesses, worth £1 billion in deferred tax.

Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces

2009-06-02T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not have a firm grip on its responsibilities for maintaining the upkeep of the Occupied Royal Palaces. The Royal Household, to whom day-to-day responsibility has been delegated, thinks that it would cost £32 million to address the backlog of maintenance work that has built up. But no rigorous analysis has been carried out and, in truth, neither the Household nor the Department really knows how big the problem is or what to do about it.

“It is a scandal that the condition of the Victoria and Albert Mausoleum has deteriorated to the point where this monument of national importance is on the Buildings at Risk Register – but the Household’s resources are constrained.

“What is needed, by the end of 2009, is an agreed basis for determining the maintenance backlog across the whole estate and a plan for managing it.

“Each year hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the Palaces that are open to the public. You would think that income generated from entrance fees could be used to top up the resources available to maintain these buildings. In fact, the body which receives the visitor income, the Royal Collection Trust, has so far passed over only a small fraction to the Household. This inequitable arrangement should be sorted out by the Department.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 24th Report of this Session. The Committee had taken evidence from Department for Culture, Media and Sport (the Department) and the Royal Household (the Household). In addition, the Committee had visited Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle to see a selection of the Household’s maintenance projects.

The Occupied Royal Palaces Estate (the Estate), which includes Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, is held in Trust for the Nation and used to support the official duties of The Sovereign. The Department is accountable to Parliament for the upkeep of the Estate, but has delegated day to day responsibility to the Household. The Department gives the Household an annual grant to maintain and run the Palaces, which has remained at around £15 million since 2000–01 (a 19% real terms reduction). An increase in running costs over the same period means there has been a 27% fall in maintenance expenditure to £11.1 million in 2007–08.

The Department has set the Household an objective which focuses on the condition of the Estate, but none of the key indicators measures performance against it, and the Household does not have a comprehensive analysis of the condition of the Estate. In addition, despite our warning in 2001, the Household has reported that a £32 million maintenance backlog has built up. As a result, important work such as the repairs to the Victoria and Albert Mausoleum has been deferred. The Department and the Household have yet to agree criteria for assessing the backlog and develop a plan for managing it. In addition, the Household does not have a strategy for managing its Estate.

The Royal Collection Trust (the Trust) is responsible for the works of art held in Trust for the Nation, but is not accountable to Parliament. The Trust manages visitor admission to the Palaces and receives the income generated, which in 2007–08 totalled £28 million. The Trust shares some of the Windsor Castle income with the Household (£1.8 million in 2007–08), and, eight years after we first recommended it, the Trust plans to share income from visitors to Buckingham Palace with the Household from April 2009. In contrast to Windsor Castle, which is open to the public virtually all year, Buckingham Palace is open for 63 days because of the number of official engagements and the costs involved. Other buildings such as the White House and Houses of Parliament manage to open for most of the year, despite similar obligations and security concerns.

The Household uses the Estate to accommodate some members of the Royal Family, 139 current and 32 former staff, and has 36 properties available to let. Since 2001, the Household has increased the rent received from £418,000 to £1 million. In the absence of a strategy the Household assesses the suitability of properties to let on a case by case basis. Despite our recommendations eight years ago, the Household has only moved one member of staff to within the secure perimeter, although there are 28 vacant properties within it.

Summer Event: Chocks Away!

2009-05-11T10:00:00.001+01:00

An Evening of Pimms, Strawberries & Cream and Air Force Nostalgia.

7:00pm, Saturday 13th June 2009

Sudbrooke Village Hall

Tickets Only: £5.00

Complimentary Drink upon Arrival - Canapes - Bar Available

Guest Speaker: Charlie Brown, Spitfire Pilot

Contact:

Chris Darcel: 01522 750411
Stephanie Rouse: 01522 753033

Email:
nettleham-conservatives@hotmail.com

Investing for Development: the Department for International Development's oversight of CDC Group

2009-04-30T00:01:00.001+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"CDC Group, whose role is to help reduce poverty by investing in private businesses in poor countries, has shown that it is very good at turning a profit. And the Group built up its uninvested cash deposits to £1.4 billion by mid-2008, a far higher level than expected. We need to know, however, how effective it is at reducing poverty and so far there is limited evidence.

"CDC is government-owned but its obligations to report to the Department for International Development have been weak. Oversight by the department of how
CDC operated agreed remuneration arrangements was ineffective. These arrangements led to extraordinary levels of pay in a small, publicly owned organization aimed at fighting poverty. The Chief Executive earned £970,000 in 2007. The pay arrangements place too much emphasis on financial performance and too little on success in reducing poverty. "DFID needs to steer CDC to invest more in those poor countries with less well-known and less developed capital markets, rather than in countries such as China and India which are already successful in attracting foreign investors."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 18th Report of this Session which examined how effectively DFID has exercised its oversight of CDC to maximise its development impact.

CDC Group Plc, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation, is the United Kingdom's Development Finance Institution. It is wholly owned by the Department for International Development (DFID), which views it as a means to help reduce poverty by supporting private sector development. CDC is self-financing, having received no Government funding since 1995. It does not donate aid. Rather, it invests equity in private enterprises in developing countries in order to demonstrate to other investors that it is possible to make money in such countries, while at the same time creating sustainable jobs, paying taxes and following good social and environmental policies. It now faces the new challenge of investing effectively during a global recession.

DFID restructured CDC in 2004 in order to invest indirectly, through private fund managers. CDC invests largely in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asian enterprises in sectors as diverse as retail, financial, agricultural and manufacturing. Since 2004, CDC has grown rapidly, more than doubling the value of its assets to £2.7 billion by mid-2008. DFID's oversight of certain elements of business efficiency needs to be improved. High profits have led to CDC accumulating some £1.4 billion of uninvested cash, far higher than expected. And management of rising levels of executive pay has been weakened by misunderstandings, particularly as to when CDC should have consulted DFID.

DFID does not interfere in individual investment decisions but sets the overall framework for CDC's investment policy, which targets poor countries.
As a result, CDC invests over 70% of its resources in poor countries, a far higher proportion than for similar institutions in other donor nations. CDC has limited influence, however, where its fund managers invest within these broad criteria. Only 4% of its resources are invested in small and medium enterprises, which suffer a shortage of finance. And it has only recently reduced new investments in China, which has been relatively well served by other investors.

For DFID, financial performance is the principal indicator of CDC's development impact, but this information is not sufficient to assess CDC's effect on poverty reduction. In 2004, DFID and CDC set out plans to evaluate wider development results and to monitor compliance with ethical investment principles. But it is not doing enough to measure and report these aspects of performance, and work to remedy this situation is only now getting underway.

The level and nature of CDC executive remuneration are also relevant to business efficiency and management incentives. The Chief Executive's remuneration increased from £383,000 in 2003 to £970,000 in 2007, reflecting in part CDC's exceptional financial performance. Advisers concluded that CDC executives were paid below the median for this group. However, CDC does not compete for cash to invest, offers high job satisfaction, and has, since 2004, successfully recruited and retained talented staff.

Protecting the public: the work of the Parole Board

2009-03-20T11:24:00.001Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The consequences for public safety of a wrong decision by the Parole Board about when it is safe to release an offender can be catastrophic. A full assessment of the risks is essential and Board members cannot do that without access to all the relevant facts.

“It is good that the Board is now demanding harder evidence on which to base its decisions. But the key parts of the criminal justice system responsible for providing this information about offenders, HM Prison Service and the probation service, must work to do so on time and in full. Where the relevant reports are being held up, the result is deferred hearings and delayed decisions.

“With the prisons bursting at the seams, it is important that prisoners who should be released are released. It is also of great concern to the public that prisoners might be being released who should not be. There has been a significant fall in release rates, ascribable to a greater emphasis by Board members on public protection. But public confidence in the parole process requires increased scrutiny of serious further offence cases and of the original decisions to release the offenders in question.

“The Board is now labouring to deal with an sharp increase in the number of cases requiring oral hearings, a fifth of which are being held more than a year late. It cannot help that its data records are held on three separate and unconnected databases. A new unified database is needed without delay.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 9th Report of this Session which was based on evidence from the Parole Board, the Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service.

The decision whether an offender is suitable for release from custody on parole must be made in the interest of the public and of the offender. The Parole Board (the Board), a Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, is responsible for making these decisions. The Board’s administrative performance is undermined by a lack of capacity to hear cases and a variety of other difficulties, such as obtaining complete and timely data for its hearings, some of which are outside its immediate control.

The Board’s workload of cases to assess has more than doubled in a five year period. The balance has also shifted from more straightforward paper based hearings to more resource intensive oral hearings, where the offender attends and is questioned. Both the rise in workload and the change in its nature have placed additional pressure upon the Board’s resources. This increase in workload stems from the rising prison population and new sentencing regimes.

Assessing the risk of harm posed by offenders is central to a strong parole process. However, for the most serious offenders the Board often does not receive the key information required to make their assessment. The Prison and probation services have been unable to provide the timely and complete information necessary for the efficient and effective running of the parole process.

The increase in workload and the difficulties in accessing timely data and reports have also impaired significantly the Board’s ability to hold oral hearings as planned. Two-thirds of oral hearings have not been held in their planned month and 20% of hearings have been held more than 12 months late. As the Board acknowledges, these delays are unacceptable and costly. Between September 2006 and June 2007, the Board incurred direct costs of £1 million due to the delays. Keeping offenders who should have been released or transferred to open conditions cost HM Prison Service nearly £2 million over that period. These costs are significant when set against the Board’s net expenditure in 2007–8 of £7.4 million, and the Board needs to administer hearings more effectively.

The Court of Appeal has judged that the Board’s position as a Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the National Offender Management Service within the Ministry of Justice is not sufficiently independent. The Ministry of Justice has moved sponsorship of the Board to another part of the Ministry as a temporary solution. The Board’s preferred option would be for it to become part of HM Courts Service, which would increase its independence and enable the Board to secure more time from judges to chair oral hearings. The Board acknowledges that it needs to make the best possible use of its existing membership, but also needs to ensure that the make up of the Board’s membership more accurately reflects the composition of society.

Thumbs up for Triple Bin waste service

2009-02-17T15:23:00.000Z

Local residents across West Lindsey have given a resounding thumbs up to a triple-bin waste collection scheme being introduced throughout the district.

More than 1,200 replies were received to a questionnaire distributed to homes in the district asking for views on how the Council could achieve a recycling target of 55%.

Chairman of the Community and Waste Committee, Cllr. Mrs. Irmgard Parrott, said:

"4.8% of people said they would strongly support a Triple Bin waste collection service if it meant a garden waste collection service was provided free to everyone in the district. And 16.8% of people said they would tend to support this system. This is a real endorsement of our proposals."

A Triple Bin scheme is one where residents still receive a weekly collection service. In week one blue recycling bins and green garden waste bins are emptied and in week two black bins containing residual waste that cannot be recycled will be emptied.

The following week reverts to week one collections and so on.

Evidence from around the country proves that when black bin waste is collected once a fortnight people recycle and compost more which is what the Council is trying to achieve.

Some people who are currently not on the wheeled bin service are not included in the proposals and their refuse collection arrangements will not be changed when the new system is introduced – possibly in the Autumn. The Council is considering alternative proposals for these properties.

Coun Parrott added: "

As well as consulting through the Council magazine - West Lindsey News - we have also met 350 people at roadshows across the district and 70% of those who attended and filled in a questionnaire were again strongly in favour of our proposals.

"We have also explained our plans to parish councils and if any council or organisers of a community event would like our staff to attend to explain the scheme in more detail we will be happy to come along. Please contact Steve Leary on (01427) 675176 or email steve.leary@west-lindsey.gov.uk."

Residents have been assured that no changes will be made to the way their refuse and recycling services are provided without advance notice and they should make no changes until they are asked to do so.

· Free green bin collections for Over 65s are being introduced from April. To express an interest in joining this service please call Customer Services on (01427) 676676. Free green bin collection for everyone will be introduced as soon as possible.

Curry Night: Photo Journal

2009-02-01T12:00:00.000Z

Nettleham & District Conservatives held a Curry Night at Sudbrooke Village Hall on Saturday, 31st January 2009. Below are a number of photographs taken at the event.

Above: Guests arriving enjoy preprandial drinks in the Bar in Sudbrooke Village Hall.

Above: Members of the branch committee, together with volunteers, busy themselves preparing food in the kitchen.

Above: Guests enjoy home-made chicken or vegitable curry or chicken and mushroom supreme at the sell out event.

Below: Local, Member of Parliament, Edward Leigh, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, talks to a guest.

Above: (Left to right) Meg Davidson, Branch Deputy Chairman (Membership & Fundraising) and Treasurer, together with Stephanie Rouse, Branch Chairman help serve desserts.

Above: John Ivory talks about the Knight's Templar.

The National Programme for IT in the NHS: progress since 2006

2009-01-27T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The risks to the successful delivery of the National Programme for IT are as serious as ever. Essential systems are late or, when deployed, do not meet expectations of clinical staff; estimates of local costs are still very unreliable; and, despite action to secure their commitment, many NHS staff remain unenthusiastic. It is also worrying that, if Trusts decide not to deploy the patient care records systems, the taxpayer can still be obliged to make payments to the suppliers concerned.

“The original aim was for the systems to be fully implemented by 2010. The truth is that, while some are complete or well advanced, the major ones such as the care records systems are way off the pace. Even the revised completion date of 2014-15 for these systems now looks doubtful in the light of the termination last year of Fujitsu’s contract covering the South. By the end of 2008, the Lorenzo care records software for the North, Midlands and East had not gone live throughout a single Acute Trust.

“The risks to this massive health information technology project, the biggest in history, have been heightened by the departure from the Programme of two out of the original four Local Service Providers. The Department of Health must determine what this means for the strength of its negotiating position and whether the remaining two suppliers can continue to meet their substantial commitments.
“Trusts should not be expected to deploy care records systems that aren’t working properly. If there is no improvement to this situation within six months, then the Department should consider allowing Trusts to apply for funding for alternative systems.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 2nd Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department of Health and Fujitsu, examined the progress being made in delivering the Programme, including the termination of Fujitsu’s contract as the Local Service Provider for the South. The Committee first reported on the Programme in March 2007.

The National Programme for IT is designed to reform the way the NHS in England uses information, and hence to improve services and the quality of patient care. The Programme’s aims are ambitious, and its scale and complexity make delivery more challenging than similar projects elsewhere in the world. The Programme requires substantial organisational and cultural change to be successful and it is dependent on the deployment of systems in an increasingly devolved NHS.

The Programme is managed at national level by NHS Connecting for Health, part of the Department of Health, and the Chief Executive of the NHS is the Senior Responsible Owner for the Programme. Responsibility for delivery is shared with the local NHS, with the Chief Executives of the ten Strategic Health Authorities responsible for implementation and the realisation of benefits in their part of the NHS.

Some systems are being deployed across the NHS. The Care Records Service, however, is at least four years behind schedule, with the Department’s latest forecasts putting completion at 2014–15. At 31 August 2008, new care records systems had been deployed in 133 of the 380 Trusts. Trusts in the North, Midlands and East have been receiving an interim system and will have to go through a further deployment in due course to implement Lorenzo, the care records software for the North, Midlands and East, which has suffered major delays. By the end of 2008, Lorenzo had not been deployed throughout any Acute Trust and in only one Primary Care Trust.

The Programme started with four Local Service Providers—the main suppliers responsible for implementing systems at local level—covering the whole of England, but two have left the Programme. Only two remain, both carrying the responsibility for major components of the Programme. The Programme’s high dependence on just two major suppliers has implications for the Programme’s capacity and capability, and for the Department’s leverage.

Fujitsu’s contract covering the South of England was terminated in May 2008. Negotiations to reset the contract had failed because the two sides were unable to agree on the price and commercial terms. The future arrangements for the South remain under discussion, but the Department’s intention is allow those Trusts which have not yet implemented a new care records system to choose between those offered by the two remaining Local Service Providers, BT and CSC.

The estimated cost of the Programme is £12.7 billion, including £3.6 billion of local costs, although this figure remains uncertain. In the event that Trusts decide not to deploy the Programme’s systems, the Department is nonetheless obliged to make payments to the suppliers concerned. While the Department can direct NHS Trusts and Primary Care Trusts to take the systems, it has no such power over Foundation Trusts.
The Programme is intended to generate substantial benefits for patients and the NHS. The aim is for the care records software to be delivered in a series of releases with increasing functionality. Delivering the clinical functionality will be key to convincing NHS staff of the benefits of the Programme because what has been provided to date has not met their expectations.

Keeping patient data secure is crucial to the reputation and success of the Programme, and the Department is confident that the mechanisms it is putting in place will provide a high level of security. Access to the Care Records Service will be controlled through Smartcards and passcodes, and access will be auditable. The security of the IT systems themselves is the responsibility of suppliers, with NHS organisations and their staff responsible for keeping secure the data they access. The Department is notified of serious security breaches, but less serious incidents are handled at local level.

Defence Department Infrastructure

2009-01-15T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The Ministry of Defence’s ambitious new £7 billion IT system, designed to replace hundreds of ageing existing systems, was badly planned in important respects. No proper pilot for this highly complex programme was carried out and entirely inadequate research led to a major miscalculation of the condition of the Department’s buildings in which the new system would be installed.

“In addition, the ATLAS consortium implementing the project - led by EDS, a company whose track record of delivering government IT projects has not been exemplary - underestimated the complexity of the software it had agreed to create. For over two years, it was unable to deliver a system that could safely handle Secret material.

“All of these factors contributed towards major delays to the project. There has been recent progress but the rate at which terminals are being rolled-out must improve rapidly if the Department’s latest deadlines are to be realistic.

“Given the scale of delay, the Department must head off the risk that existing IT systems, upon which MoD staff and military personnel rely, will fail. Detailed plans on the cost and timing of work to keep existing systems going must be developed, this planning to be funded from the management fee paid to ATLAS. And if the number of errors in the initial software design increases again, the Department must increase its scrutiny and not hesitate to turn down any claims from ATLAS for higher costs as a result.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 1st Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Defence, examined the difficulties experienced on the DII Programme in the past and the measures put in place to deliver improvement in future.

The Ministry of Defence (the Department) needs high quality information technology to achieve its goals, both on operations and in the United Kingdom. It is currently replacing hundreds of existing computer systems with a single new system, called the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII). The Programme to design, install and run this is being led by the ATLAS consortium. Ultimately, the Department intends to have some 150,000 terminals supporting 300,000 users at more than 2,000 sites, with additional capability on deployed operations and Royal Navy ships. DII must be able to handle material classified as Restricted, Secret and Top Secret. The Programme began in March 2005 and will cost an estimated £7.1 billion by 2015, if fully implemented.

The implementation of DII has suffered from major delays. Whereas 62,800 terminals should have been installed by the end of July 2007, only 45,600 were in place at the end of September 2008. The main causes of delay were the Programme’s over-optimistic assumptions about the condition of the buildings into which DII would be fitted, and the consequent selection of an inappropriate and unresponsive methodology for installing terminals.

The DII Programme also provides a range of core software such as word processing, email, internet access and security to run on the new system. This should all have been available in June 2006, but less than half of the requirement had been delivered two years later in June 2008. The slow pace of software design has been caused primarily by the ATLAS consortium’s inability to meet the Department’s requirements.

As a result of these problems, the Department’s existing computer systems have had to be used for longer than intended, with the increased risk that one or more of them will fail. The forecast cost of the DII Programme has also increased by an estimated £182 million. The Department has been able to protect benefits of the Programme, totalling an estimated £1.5 billion in due course, although some benefits will materialise later than planned.

In recent months, the performance of the DII Programme has improved somewhat, with some new software having been tested and 3,400 terminals being rolled out on average each month. However, rapid improvement to 4,300 terminals a month will be needed if the Department’s latest deadlines are to be met.

The Department has had a number of significant security breaches of personal data in recent years. An independent review of its data handling was held in early 2008 and the Department is in the process of implementing the recommendations.

A Message from David Cameron

2009-01-07T12:00:00.000Z

We face a very difficult time in 2009. Unemployment is rising, people are struggling to pay the bills, repossessions are going up, businesses can't get hold of credit. The situation is critical, so it is vital that any political decisions made now meet two vital tests.

First, we need to be sure that what we're doing is really related to what is wrong with our economy. The Conservative Party's biggest proposal - the National Loan Guarantee Scheme - is absolutely related to the core problem of this recession; the drying up of credit that is denying businesses cash flow. By making sure money can flow from banks to businesses again, our scheme directly addresses that.

The second test for politicians is that any action taken must be right for the future as well as for right now. What Labour have done is both short-term foolish and long-term foolish. The pointless VAT cut hasn't offered immediate help - in fact it's been condemned by both Next and M&S - and worse, it will add an eye-watering £12.5billion to our national debt.

Contrast that with our plan to abolish income tax on savings for everyone on the basic rate of tax. It's short-term wise - helping the forgotten victims of Labour's recession now - and long-term wise because it sends out the much-needed signal that saving is good. That's exactly the sort of practical, lasting help this country needs right now.

David Cameron
Leader of the Conservative Party

“Working hard for you” - Meg Davidson’s New Year Message January 2009

2008-12-31T00:01:00.000Z

May I wish all of you a very happy New Year. It is a privilege and a pleasure to serve as your representative on West Lindsey District Council.

A sad point in the year was when Langworth Post Office closed its doors for the last time. The people of Langworth can hold their heads up high: they put up a very good fight. I think that we can take comfort from the recent announcement that the Post Office Card Account is going to continue. For a long
time, it seemed certain that this was going to go, bringing with it
the prospect of yet more post office closures. I am convinced
that the government could not face another Langworth!

Thank you party for sub-postmaster John Handley and his wife Megan, arranged by the villagers of Langworth, September 2008

Another closure battle has been raging during 2008: the microbiology laboratory at Lincoln County Hospital is set to close and all samples are to be sent to Scunthorpe, over 30 miles away. This is of such concern that the Health Scrutiny Committee, which I rejoined this year, has used its ultimate power and referred the matter to the Secretary of State for Health.

2008 saw a change in political control at West Lindsey District Council. At the local elections on 1st May Conservatives gained 4 seats from the Liberal Democrats and took control of the Council. Since then, the new Conservative administration has been working hard to deliver on its election promises.
• Concessionary bus passes: in July the restriction on using bus passes before 9.30 am was lifted and all day use restored.
• Flood prevention grants: a scheme has been put in place for victims of the 2007 floods to obtain up to 50% of the cost of flood protection devices for their homes.
• Green bins: charges are scheduled to be scrapped for pensioner households from April 2009.

This year my Councillor’s Initiative Fund grant went to help pay for play equipment at Fiskerton. I am delighted to see the play area installed and in use. This is a much needed amenity for the village.

My next two Saturday morning surgeries will be on 24th January and 21st March 2009 at Fiskerton Village Hall, 10.30 am – 12 noon. If you have an issue you would like to raise, come along and I will do my best to help. No appointment needed, just drop in.

Wishing you all the best for 2009,
Meg Davidson
West Lindsey District Councillor (Fiskerton Ward)

The Challenge Now for the Conservative Party

2008-11-26T08:00:00.000Z

Commenting on the Pre-Budget Report, Gainsborough Constituency MP, Edward Leigh says:

"Thank God, David Cameron and George Osborne renounced Labour’s spending plans last week. We were like passengers who had to decide what’s more dangerous: stay on the runaway coach or leap off and risk a broken leg?

"Well, now we know. The coach is careering full-tilt over the cliff, and if we had not jumped off and been given a few bruises by the establishment commentariat, we would now be heading for political oblivion. The scale of Government borrowing projected for next year is staggering, more than we’ve ever let ourselves in for in history: £118 billion, or around £4,680 for every household in the country.

"What point would the Conservative Party have had if we had endorsed this? What purpose would we serve? For months, no, years, we on the Tory Right have begged our leadership to steer our own course. Ours is a party of fiscal rectitude or it is nothing. As for the cut in V.A.T., we can argue that’s the worst thing to do. We must oppose it. Who can argue against the fact that high marginal tax rates have destroyed the working-class culture of thrift and work?

"If tax cuts are needed now, thresholds should have been raised to take people out of paying tax altogether and encourage them back into work, to spend their money as they have to.

"How will it help the poor to give them a few pence more off consumer items they don’t need?

"As for the promised tax rise for the “rich” – i.e. people who create wealth – this all adds up to a picture of a return to the Callaghan years.

"I firmly believe the corner is turned and the Conservatives are on the way to victory. We now have to work out how we’re going to achieve the same outputs for a lot less spending. This is an enormous challenge for an incoming Conservative government. We need to work on it now."

Spelman welcome defection of Labour Councillor

2008-11-13T12:00:00.000Z

Caroline Spelman has welcomed the former Labour Councillor Lindsey Cawrey to the Conservative Party.

The Lincoln City Councillor decided to defect to the Conservatives after becoming disillusioned with the Labour Party under Gordon Brown’s leadership.

She said,

“My decision was based on my inability to reconcile my conscience with the ‘leadership’ of Gordon Brown, the current Government’s lack of direction, its lack of positive leadership and its refusal to listen to the people of the country.”

Caroline, the Chairman of the Conservatives, described Lindsey as a “strongly committed” councillor, and praised her work on environmental matters.

“Local Government forms the backbone of our political campaigning operation and I am sure that Lindsey will make a valuable contribution to the campaign of our local candidate for Lincoln, Karl McCartney.”

The supervision of community orders in England and Wales

2008-11-04T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"Community orders, which are intended to deliver both punishment and rehabilitation, can be a tough option and, in the right circumstances, a real alternative to locking offenders up. But there is a long way to making them as effective as they could be, everywhere in the country.

"It is welcome that the Ministry of Justice has endorsed the findings and conclusions of the January 2008 National Audit Office report. A key task ahead for the Ministry will be to amass badly needed robust, national information on just how good orders are in stopping different types of offender from reoffending. As findings on this emerge from the Ministry's planned research, they should be used to inform the everyday work of probation officers.

"There is a chronic lack of information about community sentences. It does nothing for confidence in community orders, among both sentencers and the public, if no one knows how many have been completed by offenders. It does not help if the most widely used measure of reoffending, the reconviction rate, does not include all offences committed in the two-year monitoring period. And confidence is undermined by the fact that offenders are treated differently in different local probation areas."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 48th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry), examined increasing the effectiveness of community orders; building the confidence of both the court and the community in community orders; improving the funding formula; and tightening adherence to the requirements of orders through compliance and enforcement procedures.

Sentences served in the community offer the courts a credible alternative to custody, taking account of the offence committed, the risk posed by the offender and their needs. Since their introduction under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, community orders have offered courts the ability to impose a range of 12 possible 'requirements', including accredited programmes such as anger management courses or alcohol and drug rehabilitation), unpaid work in the community and supervision by the National Probation Service. There is little information available nationally on the effectiveness of community orders. On the key measure of reconviction, figures from the Ministry of Justice responsible for the National Offender Management Service and the National Probation Service, showed that for those sentenced to community orders, their actual reconviction rate was lower than those sentenced to custodial sentences for similar offences (3.6% below predicted rates as opposed to 3.1% below-a statistically significant difference).

The Ministry does not have basic information on the effectiveness of community orders such as national data on whether offenders have completed their community orders, nor on why offenders have failed to complete them. The National Probation Service has set national standards for absences from, or breaches of, community orders, but these are applied inconsistently across the 42 local Probation Areas. There are marked differences between Probation Areas in their interpretation of acceptable and unacceptable reasons for an offender being absent. Delays in starting programmes impact adversely on an offender's ability to
complete an order.

A key feature of the community order is that courts should be able to sentence offenders to requirements that address their underlying problems, such as alcohol or drug treatment programmes. However, sentencing options for courts are sometimes limited, as not all requirements are available in all local areas. The use of requirements relating to alcohol or drug misuse is low. Despite alcohol misuse being shown to cause a quarter of offenders to commit offences, only 2% were given an alcohol treatment requirement.

The Ministry's current method of funding Probation Areas is unsatisfactory and slow to respond to changes in demand from the courts. There is a need for a more flexible system of allocating funding and moving resources between Areas in accordance with need.

Nettleham & Saxilby County Candidate Selected

2008-10-31T15:00:00.000Z

Prospective Candidate for the Nettleham & Saxilby Division County Council Seat Selected

Giles McNeill has been selected as the Conservative Party’s prospective candidate for the Nettleham & Saxilby Division’s for the County Council elections scheduled to take place in June 2009.

Giles said:

“I am delighted to have been selected as your prospective County Council candidate for the Nettleham & Saxilby Division. I want to know what issues are important to local residents. My job in the coming months is to listen to the views of local residents and then ensure that those views will be heard in the council.

“A strong economy is the foundation of everything that we want to achieve. Ensuring that we have responsible management of public money in Lincolnshire will be a top priority. I want safe communities; it isn’t enough to treat the symptoms of social failure, we have got to tackle the causes. Social mobility under Labour has stalled. I want to ensure that everybody is given the opportunities they deserve: I want to help those who are willing to help themselves, I want families and the voluntary sector to be stronger so that we can create a more cohesive, compassionate society by empowering people to be responsible.

I hope that when polling day comes, local residents will support me. In Broadholme, Broxholme, Burton, Burton Waters, Grange-De-Lings, North Carlton, North Greetwell, Nettleham, Riseholme, Saxilby-With-Ingleby and South Carlton: it is time for change. I want to be that change – change that will strengthen our communities.”

The procurement of the National Roads Telecommunications Services

2008-10-28T00:01:00.000Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"The Highways Agency's case for using a PPP contract to deliver the improved motorway communications system was doubtful, because it failed to take full account of the possibility that costs under a conventional public procurement route might have been lower than expected. It did, however, transfer a number of substantial risks to the private sector and the project was delivered on time.

"The procurement process itself was conducted with great attention to detail, contributing to a fall in the bid price paid by the selected bidder, GeneSYS, and no ground was given on the balance of risks. But the process dragged on for five years, rather than the two originally expected. An early casualty was competitive tension when well-qualified potential bidders opted out of the competition.

"Public bodies taking forward projects as large and complex as this should learn lessons from the lack of effective control which the Highways Agency exercised over its external advisers. Agency staff had no time to check what the advisers were doing to earn their money. And the advisers had no
performance incentives applied to their work. They ended up costing £15 million, five times more than expected at the outset.

"The National Road Telecommunications Services promises great things in terms of giving drivers detailed, real-time information about traffic jams and delays. The Highways Agency must use the system to improve its management of motorway traffic, while keeping a close eye on the costs and benefits of the system and associated projects. Our Committee recommends that the Agency conduct a review halfway through the 10½-year life of the contract."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 46th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Highways Agency, examined the procurement of, and potential benefits from, the National Roads Telecommunications Services.
The strategic road network in England, consisting of 4,800 miles (7,700 km) of trunk roads and motorways, is managed by the Highways Agency (the Agency), an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport. Since 1998, the objective of the Agency has been to reduce traffic congestion through improved traffic monitoring and travel information.

In September 2005, the Agency signed a 10½-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract for the National Roads Telecommunications Services (NRTS) with GeneSYS Telecommunications Ltd. The contractor agreed to upgrade, operate and maintain the telecommunications systems along the English motorway network. The deal was structured so that upgrading and operating the systems were part of a PFI type contract, but the Agency could also order changes to the systems from a pre-priced schedule of additional services. The eventual life time cost of the contract therefore depends on the number and value of additional services ordered from GeneSYS. At contract award, the Agency expected that the contract would cost £385 million (present value in 2004 prices). The Agency aimed to complete the procurement in 21 months for a cost of £3 million. The actual procurement took over five years to complete and cost £15.5 million in advisers' fees. Most of the additional time and cost was incurred in meeting the Agency's requirements for high quality bid
documents.

Following a false start to the tendering process, subsequent loss of interest by good potential bidders and the early withdrawal of two out of the four short-listed bidders, the Agency had just two bidders interested in the project. One of these bidders, however, consistently bid considerably more than the other, and after prompting by the Agency withdrew just before selection of preferred bidder. The Agency managed to avoid deal drift during negotiations with the remaining bidder, and secured contractual arrangements close to the terms it wanted. At contract award, the Agency's estimate of the cost of the Public Sector Comparator (PSC) (£415 million) was marginally more than the PPP deal (£385 million). The PSC included an allowance of £85 million for risks, but the calculations underpinning this allowance did not follow best practice. The Agency also justified the PPP approach because it transferred the risks of major cost and time overruns inherent in large
telecommunications projects, which are not a core Agency expertise.

From October 2007, following a two-year upgrade of the telecommunications systems, the new services became operational and benefits for road users from other Agency projects dependent on the NRTS are beginning to be realised.

2008 Annual Dinner

2008-10-25T09:00:00.003+01:00

Nettleham & District Conservatives once again held their Branch Annual Dinner on 24th October 2008 at Alexanders Restaurant at the Carlton Centre in Lincoln with the very special company of Roger Helmer MEP.

Above (from left to right): Giles McNeill (Secretary), Stephanie Rouse (Chairman), Roger Helmer MEP and Cllr. Meg Davidson (Deputy Chairman Finance & Membership).

Branch Chairman, Stephanie Rouse introduced Roger reminding guests of the achievements of the previous twelve months - being finalists in the National Excellence Awards, receiving the Association Cup, gaining control of West Lindsey District Council and the number of very successful events held throughout the year.

Roger spoke eloquently about his role in the European Parliament and following some local press his views on Climate Change. He mentioned that elections for the European Parliament would be taking place next June. Following his comments he took a number of questions from the guests.

The evening was very successful and thoroughly enjoyed.

Management of large business corporation tax

2008-10-21T00:00:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“The amounts that large businesses pay in Corporation Tax vary greatly. It is very telling that, of the 700 largest businesses in the UK in 2005-06, just 50 companies paid two-thirds of the Corporation Tax raised and 181 of them paid not a penny. How much tax is paid also heavily depends on the industry sector that the company belongs to. HMRC should analyse these variations annually and publish a report explaining the trends.

“The fact that nearly 60 per cent of the Department’s enquiries into compliance turn out to produce less than one per cent of the additional tax raised constitutes very poor targeting. It is extraordinary that there is no correlation between the resources HMRC commits to each enquiry and the amount of Corporation Tax in question.

“The Department has introduced a new approach in which high risk businesses will be singled out for extensive investigation. That’s good but it must publicise this new approach. It should also robustly apply new penalties for those companies engaged in serious tax avoidance activities.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 30th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (the Department), examined the level and distribution of Corporation Tax receipts, its performance in managing large business Corporation Tax, tackling tax avoidance, and its staff skills and training.

In 2006–07, HM Revenue & Customs raised a total of £23.8 billion in Corporation Tax from large businesses. There are some 700 of these businesses, and in 2005–06, just 50 of them paid 67% of the large business Corporation Tax, whilst 181 businesses paid none. Two thirds of the tax comes from the banking, oil and gas and insurance sectors. Businesses pay little or no Corporation Tax because, for example, they have made a loss, or had losses in previous years, or they are using tax reliefs, or engaging in tax avoidance.

In 2006–07, the Department’s large business Corporation Tax enquiry programme raised nearly £2.7 billion. Many of these enquiries were poorly targeted, with nearly 60% producing less than 1% of the additional tax raised. The enquiries also take too long: in January 2008, 42% of its enquiries were over two years old, and 10% over four years old.

In February 2007, based on initial review of tax returns from the previous 12 months, the Department estimated that the potential Corporation Tax at risk was £8.5 billion. It is currently using these estimates to develop a measure of the tax gap—the difference between the amount of tax it collects and the theoretical tax liability if all taxpayers were fully compliant.

Recent legislation requires ‘promoters’ to disclose, and ‘users’ to declare, their tax avoidance schemes. By February 2007, the Department had received 900 disclosures of avoidance schemes, with 350 schemes closed through legislation.

Large businesses are often multinational organisations, whose operations may involve trade and financing across national boundaries. Around half the growth in global trade is from intra-company trade between related companies within large multinationals. These features add to the complexity of their tax assessments, and the Department faces similar issues to tax authorities in other countries in handling their tax affairs.

There has been a widening gap between the skill set of large business tax staff and that of the Large Business Service. The Department is bringing in external recruits, including retired tax advisers, to help to train its staff and to deal with the more complicated technical work.

Time to end Gordon Brown’s regime of bin taxes, bin cuts and bin fines

2008-10-17T12:00:00.001+01:00

Conservative proposals to increase recycling and improve frontline services

West Lindsey District Councillors have today welcomed new Conservative proposals to end Gordon Brown’s unpopular and damaging policies of bin cuts, bin fines and bin taxes. In a major national policy announcement, Conservatives have unveiled plans to help the local environment and improve services to family homes.

• A Conservative Government will change Whitehall policy, restoring the expectation that councils should offer full weekly collections – ending and reversing the Labour policy of bin cuts, which are harming public health and the local environment in many parts of the country.
• Central funding will be offered to all councils so they can have full weekly collections, on top of a comprehensive recycling service. This will be funded by scrapping a host of unelected quangos and local government red tape. Based on the current rate of cuts, weekly bin collections will disappear completely from Britain by 2013.
• Councils, subject to the ballot box, will still have the final decision on what services to offer – but they will no longer be bullied into cutting services due to Whitehall diktats.
• Gordon Brown’s plans for new bin taxes will be scrapped. Labour’s stealth taxes threaten to harm the environment by fuelling fly-tipping and backyard burning.
• Conservatives will champion green incentives – from trials for free green compost bins, water butts, green cones and garden wormeries, to the ‘Recyclebank’ scheme, used in America, where householders are paid for recycling.
• New powers will be given to councils, allowing them to cut local council tax bills in return for recycling and green behaviour.

Cllr. Mrs. Meg Davidson (Fiskerton) said:

“Gordon Brown is making it ever harder for families to dispose of their waste responsibly. Despite soaring levels of council tax, local people are being hit by cuts to collections, over-zealous use of bin fines and the prospect of expensive new bin taxes which will push up the cost of living. Councils are getting the blame for policies imposed by Whitehall. That must change.”

Cllr. Stuart Curtis (Sudbrooke) said:

“Conservatives believe that regular rubbish collections are a vital frontline council service to help protect the local environment and public health. We reject Labour’s approach of state bullying, cutting services and higher taxes. We will provide funding for those councils that want to provide proper weekly rubbish collections, on top of comprehensive recycling services.”

Cllr. Mrs. Di Rodgers (Welton) said:

“We will make it easier for families to go green and increase recycling by working with households, not punishing them with heavy-handed bin taxes, bin cuts and bin fines.”

A Two Year Freeze on Council Tax

2008-09-29T15:00:00.000+01:00

Conservatives will freeze Council Tax for two years.

Under Labour council tax bills have more than doubled.

In 1997 the average Band D bill was £688. This year the average bill is £1,374.

It’s time the Government tightened its belt like the rest of the country. Conservatives will slash wasteful spending on Government advertising and expensive private sector consultants – and with the co-operation of local councils, use the money to freeze your council tax bill.

Instead of rising council tax bills under Labour, millions of families
will get help at the time they need it most.

Conservatives policies to help families cope with the rising cost of living:

HELP AT THE PUMPS
We will introduce a Fair Fuel Stabiliser − when fuel prices go up, fuel duty would fall.

HELP FOR FAMILIES
As we save money on wasteful welfare, we will abolish Labour’s couple penalty in the tax credits system – giving 1.8 million couples an extra £2,000 a year.

HELP FOR FIRST-TIME BUYERS
We will permanently abolish Stamp Duty for first-time buyers on purchases up to £250,000 − nine out of ten first-time buyers will pay no Stamp Duty at all, saving an average of £2,000 each.

HELP WITH YOUR BILLS
We will cut the energy and gas bills of up to four million people by £100 by reforming Post Office Accounts to allow families without bank accounts to access cheaper tariffs.

HELP FOR MOTORISTS
We will oppose Labour’s new tax on family cars, which will hit 1 million owners of family cars bought up to 7 years ago with tax rises of up to £250.

Action needed to help less well-off families with soaring energy bills

2008-08-26T12:00:00.000+01:00

Call to tackle unfairness and help protect the Post Office network

Giles McNeill, Nettleham Parish Councillor gave his strong support today to new proposals to help less well-off families with their energy bills. Conservatives have pledged to reform Post Office Card Accounts so that families without bank accounts can benefit from the lower energy and water tariffs offered to customers paying by direct debit.

This could cut the energy bills of up to 4 million Post Office Card Account (POCA) holders by up to £100 a year. There are 8 million people in the UK who do not have a bank account or are effectively without a bank. Many of them use Card Accounts instead. But because they cannot pay their bills by direct debit, they face higher prices for gas, electricity and water.

• A Conservative Government will reform Card Accounts so that they can be used for the first time to pay utility bills by direct debit. This proposal, which is supported by leading utility companies, will bring significant savings to energy companies through lower collection costs, which can be passed onto consumers in the form of lower bills.

• In addition, because state benefits are automatically paid into Card Accounts each week, customers will benefit from a more convenient way of managing their finances and paying their bills.

• This policy could also generate up to £20 million a year in additional revenue for Post Offices, which could help keep Post Offices from going to the wall as a result of Labour cuts. By contrast, the Labour Party is planning to take the Card Account away from Post Offices, which will lead to more Post Office closures.

Giles McNeill explained:

“It is totally unfair that many of the poorest households across West Lindsey end up paying more for their energy and water bills because they do not have bank accounts and cannot pay by direct debit. Under Labour, it is the poor who suffer most.

“These new Conservative proposals will help people struggling with rising household bills by letting them use their Post Office Card Account to pay their utility bills. Energy and gas bills of up to four million people could be cut by £100, helping many families at a time when the cost of living is rising fast.

“These plans will also bring in additional revenue for Post Offices, helping maintain our important network and stave off more Labour cuts.”

New figures expose Government failure on knife crime – Giles McNeill

2008-07-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

Action needed to tackle worrying rise of young people carrying and using knives

Giles McNeill, Nettleham Parish Councillor, expressed deep concern today about new local knife crime statistics published by the Government, and called for action to tackle the growing menace.

The official figures published by the Home Office show that across Lincolnshire, there were 71 serious offences last year involving knives.18% of all wounding, grevious bodily harm or robberies were committed with a knife in Lincolnshire. Nationally, the figure is 19%.

Conservatives are calling for a series of urgent measures to reduce knife crime, which include:

· Anyone convicted of carrying a knife should expect to receive a custodial sentence. Currently, the Government is planning to allow offenders carrying a knife to be let off with a fine in some circumstances.

· Making it easier for police officers to stop suspects and search them for knifes and other weapons, and increasing use of mobile knife scanners on the streets and on public transport (as already being successful trialled in London by Boris Johnson).

· Providing more custodial places for young offenders, and increasing support for drugs and education programmes, and tackling the causes of knife crime such as family breakdown, lack of school discipline and welfare dependency.

Giles McNeill commented:

“I am very concerned about these new figures showing the the menance of knife crime on our streets. This is a shocking indictment of Labour’s failure to tackle crime and its causes.

“Our police have been tied up in so much red tape that they can only spend 14 per cent of their time on the beat fighting crime. At the same time our unprotected borders have allowed too many weapons and hard drugs to flow into our country. Labour have also failed to address family breakdown which sets too many young people on a path of crime.

“Conservatives would start tackling this crime crisis by freeing our police from red tape and targets so they can be deployed on our streets to catch and deter criminals. We need stronger deterrent sentences such as a presumption of prison for those convicted of knife crime. And we will address the fundamental causes of crime like drugs and family breakdown.”

Latest from Giles McNeill for Nettleham

2008-07-10T09:00:00.001+01:00

One year on: higher taxes, services cut and communities gagged
Giles McNeill comments on end of year report for Gordon Brown

Giles McNeill, Nettleham Parish Councillor, this week delivered his verdict on Gordon Brown’s first year as Prime Minister, highlighting Government policies which are adding to the rising cost of living, bringing about the closure of local services and silencing the voice of local communities.

Giles said:

“One year on from Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister, the country is going in the wrong direction – with looming cuts to local services, a soaring cost of living fuelled by higher taxes and local people consistently ignored by Whitehall.

Click here for the complete post.

A Fair Fuel Stabiliser

2008-07-06T17:49:00.001+01:00

The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, has unveiled a radical new plan to soften the impact of future fuel price rises on families.

The proposed Fair Fuel Stabiliser would reduce duty when fuel prices go up, and raise it when fuel prices go down.

If a Fair Fuel Stabiliser had been introduced at the 2008 Budget, fuel would now be 5p per litre cheaper, shaving £3.50 off a tank of fuel for a Ford Mondeo.

But if, instead of rising, oil prices had fallen below the $84 forecast in the Budget, then fuel duty would have risen.

In either case, forecast government revenues would have been unchanged.

George described the stabiliser as, "A common sense plan to help families, bring stability to the public finances and help the environment by making the price of carbon less volatile."

This plan has been opened for consultation, and any interested parties are invited to respond. Please click here for details of how to contribute.

No means No?

2008-06-23T20:18:00.000+01:00

On 12 June, voters in Ireland rejected the EU Lisbon Treaty by 46.6% to 53.4% in a national referendum. Turnout was relatively high, at 53%.

However, despite the resounding no vote, EU leaders meeting in Brussels last week decided to press ahead regardless, agreeing that ratification of the Treaty should continue in other countries. They also agreed that Irish voters should eventually be asked to vote again, until they say 'yes'.

Despite claiming that they want to "respect" the Irish no vote, EU leaders across the whole of Europe have no intention of doing so. They are determined to press ahead with the Lisbon Treaty.

Here are just some of the extraordinary reactions to the Irish vote from Europe's leaders:

"They [the Irish] are bloody fools. They have been stuffing their faces at Europe's expense for years and now they dump us in the s***." - Nicolas Sarkozy, French President (Times, 20 June)

"The Lisbon Treaty is not dead... It is imperative that they vote again." - Valery Giscard d'Estaing, former French President and author of the EU Constitution (RTL, 19 June)

"I don't think you can say the treaty of Lisbon is dead even if the ratification process will be delayed." - Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French Europe Minister (Reuters, 16 June)

"I am convinced that we need this Treaty. Therefore we are sticking with our goal for it to come into force. The ratification process must continue." - Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Foreign Minister (Reuters, 14 June)

"Of course we have to take the Irish referendum seriously. But a few million Irish cannot decide on behalf of 495 million Europeans." - Wolfgang Schaeuble, German Interior Minister (Deutsche Welle, 15 June)

"We think it is a real cheek that the country that has benefited most from the EU should do this. There is no other Europe than this treaty. With all respect for the Irish vote, we cannot allow the huge majority of Europe to be duped by a minority of a minority of a minority." - Axel Schäfer, SPD leader in the German Bundestag (Irish Times, 14 June)

The Treaty "will be applied, albeit a few months late." - Lopez Garrido, Spanish Europe Minister (Forbes, 15 June)

"The Treaty is not dead. The Treaty is alive, and we will try to work to find a solution." - Jose Barroso, European Commission President (Press Conference, 14 June)

This is an extraordinary refusal to accept the democratic will of the people. Ireland has been the only country allowed to have a referendum on the Treaty, and has said no. By the EU's own rules, the Treaty can only enter into force if all 27 member states have ratified it. Therefore, the Treaty should now be dead. It is completely unacceptable that other countries are continuing to ratify the Treaty in the hope of forcing Ireland to vote again, under pressure from the prospect of 26 other countries having ratified it. EU leaders are proving once again that they are simply unable to take 'no' for an answer.

New figures expose harmful effect of binge and under-age drinking

2008-05-23T19:13:00.000+01:00

Alcohol misuse fuelling yob behaviour and hospital admissions soar

Giles McNeill, Nettleham Parish Councillor, this week expressed his concern over new official figures that have revealed a soaring number of hospital admissions due to alcohol misuse, and the effect of alcohol in pushing up crime and disorder.

According to research by the NHS Information Centre:

· The number of admissions to NHS hospital due to alcohol has soared by 52 per cent over the last decade.
· 1 in 10 of all these incidents now involves those under 18 – the legal drinking age.

· Across the East Midlands, there were16,016 hospital admissions due to alcohol last year.

· 1 in 3 of all 15 year olds think it is acceptable to get drunk at least once a week.

· Half of all violent attacks are committed by those under the influence of alcohol.

Growing alcohol misuse has coincided with new 24 hour licensing laws imposed by the Government, and a failure to enforce effectively the laws, which exist against under-age drinking. The Government has also raided budgets for the promotion of healthy living to meet NHS deficits.

Giles McNeill said:

“There’s nothing wrong with adults having a good night out, but under-age and binge drinking fuels crime and anti-social behaviour. Labour Ministers talk endlessly about cracking down on alcohol-related violence, but these new figures expose Gordon Brown’s complacency and the knock-on effect on the NHS.

“The Labour Government’s failure to enforce the law sends totally the wrong message about under-age drinking. We need greater social responsibility, more powers for local communities over licensing, and an end to some parents turning a blind eye to their children’s drinking.”

Improving the efficiency of central government's use of office property

2008-05-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"Government departments are under pressure to increase the value for money of their office property - by reducing accommodation costs and improving the efficiency with which they use their space. There is big room for improvement, given the markedly poor performance of government buildings in these respects compared with the private sector, with a potential £326 million to be saved each year.

"Not unexpectedly, there are marked variations between departments, showing that substantial savings are indeed possible. The Department for Children, Schools and Families is one of the better performers, with in 2005-06 an accommodation cost per square metre of £123 and a cost per person of £2,592. Compare that with the Treasury, the worst performer, with a cost per square metre of £529 and a cost per person of £12,041. The Treasury should be setting an example to the other government departments, not bumping along in bottom place.

"The relocation of staff to cheaper areas outside London, while it can give rise to costs, can save money. The assumption that staff have to be in London should always be challenged."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 22nd Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Office of Government Commerce, examined the performance of the government estate and individual departments' office property, the lack of good performance data, and its own role in improving government property performance.

In 2005-06, the public sector spent approximately £6 billion on the running costs of the non-military estate, with central government's office property estimated to cost around £1 billion. Compared to private sector benchmarks, departments' office property is between 14 and 50% less efficient, and there is the potential for savings of £326 million.

Departmental performance varies significantly. In 2005-06, costs per square metre ranged from £123 to £636, accommodation costs per person ranged from £2,000 to over £12,000 and allocation of space per person ranged from 13.3 square metres to 21.9 square metres. Regional accommodation costs also vary widely. The highest costs are in London and the lowest are in the North East. Despite the high costs, a quarter of central government's office staff are located in London.

The main efficiency drivers in the use of office accommodation are the location of the property, its age and general state of repair, its configuration and the way that the space is used. All organisations face
these problems but the public sector, with its legacy of listed buildings, and poor record on building maintenance, is not well placed to improve value for money. Departments need to improve the quality of their management information to understand how their buildings are performing and implement action to improve efficiency. Many departments do not have basic information to enable them to assess building performance such as the number of people that use them and whether buildings are open plan or cellular. Most departments know very little about the environmental performance of individual buildings such as whether buildings have recycling schemes and the amount of energy each building consumes.

The Office of Government Commerce's (OGC) objective is to deliver annual efficiency savings of £1 billion to £1.5 billion from the whole government civil property estate by 2013. While OGC's benchmarking service should help to improve the quality of management information on office property, much relies on the success of other aspects of its High Performing Property programme in joining up departmental strategic thinking and co-ordinating efficient use of property resources across government. Two key milestones have already been missed, which raises questions about the likely success of this programme.

Grand Summer Ball

2008-05-20T13:53:00.003+01:00

Nettleham & District Conservatives together with the Gainsborough & District Branch is pleased to announce the Gainsborough Conseratives Grand Summer Ball will be held in the Grand Marquee at the White Heather, Caenby Corner.

We are pleased to announce that the evening will go with a swing with the Tony Stephen's Swing Band. Doors will open from 7:30pm on Friday 25th July 2008 and dining will commence at 8:15pm. Reservations can be made by contacting the Association Office (01673) 844501 or email. Tickets remain at the same great price of £37.50 and will include a drink upon arrival, three course menu, cheese table (following dining). The dress code is black tie.

Summer Event 2008

2008-05-19T13:30:00.003+01:00

With Pimms, Strawberries & Cream and Canapes

Nettleham & District Conservatives is pleased to announce that our Summer Event for 2008 will be again held at the Fiskerton Village Hall following the success of our previous events held in Fiskerton.

The event will be open from 7:30pm on Saturday 21st June 2008, with tickets available on the door at the same low price as previous years of just £5.00 and will include a drink upon arrival, strawberries & cream and a selection of canapes.

Cordelia McCartney will be the branch's guest speaker and will talk about 'Antiques of the Future' - so do feel free to bring any items along that you would be of general interest.

2008-05-02T01:00:00.002+01:00

The following are the results of the elections held in the West Lindsey District Council election held on Thursday 1st May 2008 which took place within the area covered by the Branch's remit.

Cherry Willingham Ward

879 Anne Welburn - Conservative Party (Elected)
728 Stephen Robert Trevor - Liberal Democrat Party
102 Carol Pearson - United Kingdom Independence Party

Dunholme Ward

574 Susan Rawlins - Conservative Party (Elected)
156 Timothy David Wallis - Liberal Democrat Party
54 James David Allison - United Kingdom Independence Party

Nettleham Ward

757 Giles Patrick McNeill - Conservative Party
766 Malcolm Geoffrey Leaning - Liberal Democrat Party (Elected)
46 Steven Pearson - United Kingdom Independence Party
279 Nigel Geoffrey Kingston - Independent

Saxilby Ward

635 Roger Alan Pilgrim - Conservative Party
1,027 David John Cotton - Liberal Democrat (Elected)

Sudbrooke Ward

790 Stuart Curtis - Conservative Party (Elected)
204 Clare Michelle East - Liberal Democrat

Welton Ward

1018 Diana Meriel Rodgers - Conservative Party (Elected)
852 Roger Everard Hiscox - Liberal Democrat

David Cameron Launches "Vote Blue, Go Green... and Save Money' campaign

2008-04-17T10:20:00.000+01:00

David Cameron will today launch our Local Election campaign.

The launch document, entitled Vote Blue, Go Green - and Save Money, highlights how Conservative councils deliver better services and better value.

And it gives examples of Conservative councils across the country being greener, cleaner and safer.

David will say, "This election is a chance to vote for change and to send a message to this failing Labour Government."

He will be joined at the launch by Caroline Spelman, the Party Chairman, and Eric Pickles, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Give teachers the powers they need to sort out discipline – Giles McNeill

2008-04-12T11:50:00.000+01:00

Growing concerns over violence and disruption in schools and on the streets

Giles McNeill, Conservative Candidate for West Lindsey District Council, today welcomed new policy proposals announced by Conservative leader, David Cameron, to restore classroom discipline and raise standards of behaviour in schools.

Life in local communities is being marred by violence and disruption in schools - and on the streets as well from children playing truant. These social problems hit the poorest areas the hardest. Bureaucratic rules imposed by the Labour Government have made it harder for teachers to keep order, while false allegations and assaults on teachers have never been higher.

Since 1997, across Lincolnshire, the number of permanent exclusions from secondary schools has fallen by 3% as a proportion of the school population – not because of better discipline, but because it has become more difficult to exclude troublemakers.

Conservative proposals include:

· Restoring the authority of headteachers, by ending the right to appeal against exclusions to external panels. Parents would still have a right of appeal to school governors – who are the people who should decide such matters.

· Changing the law so that teachers can physically restrain violent pupils if they need to.

· Establishing new protections for teachers from false and malicious allegations.

· Giving headteachers the freedom to pay bonuses to teachers who do a good job.

· Allowing headteachers to ban any items they think may cause violence or disruption in schools.

Giles McNeill said:

“In too many of our schools, good education is ruined by bad behaviour. The problem doesn’t lie with teachers – but with the Labour Government’s rules and regulations that stop teachers instilling proper discipline. Conservatives will give teachers and heads the powers they need to tackle disruptive kids, improve standards and ensure parents have a real choice over where to send their child.”

Local Election Candidates Announced

2008-04-04T14:51:00.006+01:00

The following is the list of candidates who have submitted valid nomination papers for the District Council Elections to be held on Thursday 1st May 2008 and are standing for election within the area covered by the Branch's remit.

Cherry Willingham Ward

Anne Welburn - Conservative Party
Stephen Robert Trevor - Liberal Democrat Party
Carol Pearson - United Kingdom Independence Party

Dunholme Ward

Susan Rawlins - Conservative Party
Timothy David Wallis - Liberal Democrat Party
James David Allison - United Kingdom Independence Party

Nettleham Ward

Giles Patrick McNeill - Conservative Party
Malcolm Geoffrey Leaning - Liberal Democrat Party
Steven Pearson - United Kingdom Independence Party
Nigel Geoffrey Kingston - Independent

Saxilby Ward

Roger Alan Pilgrim - Conservative Party
David John Cotton - Liberal Democrat

Sudbrooke Ward

Stuart Curtis - Conservative Party
Clare Michelle East - Liberal Democrat

Welton Ward

Diana Meriel Rodgers - Conservative Party
Roger Everard Hiscox - Liberal Democrat

Good luck to all the Conservative Candidates who are standing in this election within the Branch's Area. If you feel you could volunteer some time to help our candidates please email us at nettleham-conservatives@hotmail.com.

The Map above shows West Lindsey District Council Wards; those in blue have a contested election on Thursday 1st May 2008.

New Branch Bulletin available now

2008-04-02T08:59:00.003+01:00

The latest edition of the Nettleham & District Branch bulletin in now available. You can download a copy here.

It has plenty of interesting articles about what the branch has been upto in recent months.

Conservative MEP team chosen

2008-04-01T13:11:00.003+01:00

The Conservative Candidates for the East Midlands European Elections in 2009 have been chosen by a postal ballot of all Party Members. The team is led by Roger Helmer MEP, supported by Emma McClarkin, Rupert Matthews, Fiona Bulmer and George Lee.

Retiring MEP,Chris Heaton-Harris, says

"This is a fantastic team to represent the East Midlands with a real depth of talent and wide range of experience".

The List on the ballot paper will be:

1. Roger Helmer
2. Emma McClarkin
3. Rupert Matthews
4. Fiona Bulmer
5. George Lee

Lansley: Labour’s plans to close small maternity units undermined as new statistics show nearly half of hospitals shut their doors to women in labour

2008-03-20T15:41:00.002Z

New information uncovered by the Conservatives under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that 42 per cent of NHS Trusts providing maternity services had to turn away women in labour last year because they were full.

• Almost one in ten Trusts reported closing more than ten times. One Trust reported closing 28 times and another 39 times.

• Large maternity units closed more often. Of those Trusts that closed, 74 per cent had more than 3,000 births last year, the minimum for an ‘efficient’ service, according to the Government. Of the Trusts that closed more than ten times, 78 per cent had more than 3,000 births.

• Small maternity units reported few closures. Of those Trusts that did not close, 45 per cent had less than 3,000 births last year.

• One Trust specifically linked a high number of closures with its high number of deliveries.

• A number of Trusts where maternity units have been under threat failed to respond at all.

• Two Trusts which are set to concentrate services at one centre, downgrading another, experienced significant capacity problems last year.

Commenting, Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said:

“The Government’s plans to close maternity units when services are already overstretched fly in the face of common sense.

“Labour are fixated with cutting smaller, local maternity services and concentrating them in big units. But women don’t want to have to travel miles to give birth. And they certainly don’t want to have to travel even further because they’re turned away by the hospital of their choice.

“Conservatives are committed to supporting smaller maternity units because the evidence shows they do better”.

Making Britain more family-friendly

2008-03-17T08:33:00.002Z

David Cameron outlined his ambition to make Britain more family-friendly in the closing speech of the 2008 Spring Forum.

He set out the Conservatives' plans to make the country a better place to bring up children. Amongst the measures he promised were:

- Supporting couples by ending the couple penalty in the benefits system and rewarding marriage in the tax system

- Ensuring businesses act responsibly

- Extending parental leave and giving parents 12 months to divide between them as they choose

- Providing an extra 4,200 NHS health visitors to create a universal health visiting service for all parents.

David ending his speech by telling a packed hall:

"Yes, our country can change. Yes, we can build a better future for ourselves and our children. Yes, we can get the change we really want."

Coal Health Compensation Schemes

2008-03-04T11:45:00.001Z

Publication of the Committee's 12th Report, Session 2007-08

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"I welcome the fact that many former coal miners suffering from work-related lung disease and hand injuries have received payments under the two compensation schemes.

"The Department seriously mismanaged, however, the early stages of the implementation of the two schemes. Its attempt to implement the schemes swiftly, combined with its underestimation of how many claims would be made and how complex some would be, resulted in many claimants having to wait a very long time for the compensation they were owed.

"Some of these were elderly and ill and in no position to wait for years for compensation - in some cases ten years or more. Some claimants even died while waiting. The taxpayer has also taken a big hit, with the cost of just administering the schemes expected to total nearly £2.3 billion.

"There are lessons aplenty here for other parts of government planning and implementing new compensation schemes. These include getting actuarial advice in advance on the likely volume of claims and being a lot tougher with solicitors on the conditions attached to their fee tariffs. Far too much money went into the solicitors' pockets and our Committee expects the Department to be vigorous in pursuing them for the money they have been ordered to repay."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 12th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, examined its management of the two compensation schemes.

In January 1998, the Department of Trade and Industry (now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) took responsibility for the accumulated personal injury liabilities of the British Coal Corporation. In the same year, the courts found the Corporation negligent in respect to lung disease caused by coal dust (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or COPD) and hand injuries caused by using vibrating equipment (Vibration White Finger or VWF). Under the courts and in negotiation with claimant's solicitors the Department established two schemes to pay compensation. Both schemes are now closed to new claimants.
The Department received over three quarters of a million claims from former miners, their widows, or their estates for COPD (592,000) and VWF (170,000). By the time all the claims have been settled, the Department estimates that it will have paid some £4.1 billion in compensation.

The schemes posed a formidable challenge. Many claimants were elderly, ill and anxious to receive their compensation. The number of claims greatly exceeded the Department's initial forecasts of 173,000 COPD and 45,000 VWF claims. It was ill prepared for the number, and in some cases complexity, of claims made. Consequently some claimants have had to wait as long as ten years or more. In 2005, to address significant backlogs the Department, in negotiation with solicitors, introduced a fast track arrangement to process COPD claims. By September 2007, there were around 116,000 COPD claims and 12,000 VWF claims remaining to be settled. The Department is seeking to process most of the remaining VWF claims by March 2008 and COPD claims by February 2009.

The schemes were costly to administer. By completion, administration costs, including contractor and medical costs, are expected to total almost £2.3 billion. Claimants' solicitors and other representatives' fees account for
just under £1.3 billion of this total. The Department's negotiation of the fees with solicitors was weak, with the result that it paid fees significantly in excess of costs. Some solicitors have also levied additional fees on successful claimants.

Sustainable Employment: Supporting people to stay in work and advance

2008-02-27T18:14:00.005Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“Far too many people bounce back and forth between short-term employment and being on benefits. Some 40 per cent of those recipients of Jobseeker’s Allowance who get a job are back on welfare within six months. It becomes extremely difficult for individuals in this situation to find the enduring jobs which can raise them and their families out of poverty.

“Those most likely to be in this position tend to have the lowest skills and the jobs they move into tend to be the least likely to provide any training. Improving their skills will increase their chances of securing jobs that last. Government initiatives to increase the involvement of employers in training their low-qualified staff have shown signs of success. The lessons learned must be applied more widely and to business sectors short of staff.

“The two key departments – the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills - must work together more systematically if they are to help into long-term employment those of our citizens for whom employment is a brief interlude between a morale-sapping existence on benefits.”

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 13th Report of this Session. On the basis of evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Jobcentre Plus and the Learning and Skills Council, the Committee examined their efforts to deliver sustainable employment, focusing on the reasons why people are unlikely to stay in work; the contribution which education is making to improving employability; and whether employment programmes reflect the needs of business and local markets.

Although the United Kingdom is experiencing high employment levels, many people still have difficulty staying in work. Of the 2.4 million Jobseeker’s Allowance claims made each year over two-thirds are repeat claims. While some turnover is a natural feature of the labour market around 40 per cent of people moving from Jobseeker’s Allowance into work will make another claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance within six months.

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills have been slow to develop suitable shared objectives and targets for sustained employment. To date, the Department for Work and Pensions has used 13 weeks in work as a yardstick for sustained employment, but it now accepts that this measure is too short. The Departments have a commitment to develop shared performance measures that reflect how training contributes to sustained employment, but current data systems do not allow this information to be measured for each individual client.

People increasingly need better skills and qualifications to compete in today’s labour market. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has successfully achieved its interim targets for boosting the basic skills of 1.5 million adults between 2001 and 2007 and increasing the number of adults in the workforce with Level 2 qualifications by 1 million between 2003 and 2006. But the Government has now set more challenging targets to be achieved by 2020: 95 per cent of adults to achieve functional literacy and numeracy skills (the levels needed to get by in life and at work) and 90 per cent to achieve a first full Level 2 qualification (equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C). The Departments hope to achieve these goals by introducing skills screening for benefits recipients, relaxing rules that restrict access to training provision for people on benefits, promoting better integration and take-up of pre-work and in-work training, increasing government funding for basic skills training, and launching a new Skills Account to give adult learners greater choice and control over learning. Through Skills Accounts, learners will be able to purchase, using public money, relevant learning at an accredited, quality assured provider of their choice.

The difficulties that low-skilled employees face in competing in today’s labour market are compounded by people with the lowest skills being the least likely to be trained by their employers. Around a third of employers do not invest in training, although the number of employers who say that they are training their staff has increased from 900,000 (65 per cent) to 978,000 (67 per cent) in the last two years.

Staying the course: The retention of students on higher education courses

2008-02-20T15:11:00.003Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"It is five years on from our last report on student retention but the
percentage of students dropping-out from their original universities has not budged from 22 per cent. This is despite some £800 million being paid to universities over the same period to help retain students most likely to withdraw from courses early.

"To be fair to the universities, they are expected to improve retention figures while increasing and widening participation. More students are being recruited from backgrounds and schools where university was not previously thought to be an option. But these are the very students who are more likely to leave early. Universities must get better at providing the kind of teaching and support services that students from under-represented groups need.

"There is also still a great disparity in the performance of individual universities in the rate at which students continue to a second year of study. What is missing in many institutions is the kind of comprehensive and reliable management information, including data on the reasons why students leave, upon which decisions on how to improve retention can be based. Personal tuition and pastoral care should also be given a higher priority and appropriate resources, especially as many universities are large and can be impersonal."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 10th Report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, examined their role in improving retention, progress by Universities and at a national level, and variations in the retention of different groups of students.

Around 28,000 full-time and 87,000 part-time students who started first-degree courses in 2004-05 were no longer in higher education a year later. Among the full-time students, 91.6% entered a second year of study, and 78.1% were expected to complete. There has been little improvement in retention since 2001-02, though participation in higher education has increased from around 40% to nearly 43% of 18-30 year olds. To help improve retention and participation, over the last five years universities (for this report, 'universities' means all higher education institutions) have received around £800 million as part of their teaching funding to help retain students who are the most likely to withdraw early.

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has overall responsibility for public spending on higher education in England. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (the Funding Council) promotes and funds teaching and some research to help the higher education sector meet the diverse needs of students, the economy and society.

The Committee reported on widening participation and improving retention in higher education in 2002. It concluded there was a need for improvement in several areas relating to student retention: reducing the wide variation in universities' retention rates; funding to support students from low-income backgrounds; tackling skills gaps; supporting students with disabilities; and information for potential students. The National Audit Office has examined the progress in improving retention since 2002.

In 2004-05, the performance gap on retention rates between universities remained as wide as it was in 2002. Five universities achieved a continuation rate in excess of 97% for full-time, first-degree students, whereas 12 had continuation rates below 87%. Because of difficulties in interpreting data there are no indicators for part-time students, though there are increasing numbers of such students, only half of whom obtain a qualification within six years. Published performance indicators for universities can provide an incentive to perform well because they affect universities' reputations and their ability to recruit students.

There is much that universities can do to improve retention. They need good quality management information including on the reasons for leaving. They can provide additional academic support for students, for example for those struggling with the mathematical elements of their course. Student access to tutors who can provide pastoral and academic support is important, especially as the numbers of students entering higher education institutions increases.

Tax Credits and PAYE

2008-02-19T14:03:00.001Z

Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

"The tax credits situation is as serious as ever. HMRC's attempts to bring the system under any measure of control have so far not been crowned with conspicuous success.

"The amount of tax credit being lost to fraud and error is still running at some £1 billion each year. The Department has accepted our Committee's recommendations on the need to set targets to reduce fraud and error. It has still not put any targets in place.

"Another great cause for concern is the scale of overpayment to claimants. The tax credits system was, of course, designed to incorporate a degree of overpayment since the initial awards are provisional. It was not meant to generate overpayments of £6 billion in three years. This money is supposed to be recovered from claimants but £2.3 billion worth has been written off or is unlikely to be returned.

"About two million families a year have been placed in debt to the government in this way since the scheme was launched. Some regret ever having become involved. Certainly, the vulnerable ones face a future of trying to repay the money they owe, with all the hardship that involves.

"It was always a very bad idea for the Government to have to commission new work from the contractor EDS in order to recover compensation for the poorly performing tax credits computer system. In the event, EDS has stumped up very little of the £26.5 million of the settlement to be paid under this arrangement. If the full amount of the settlement, £71.25 million, is not paid over by the end of 2008, then HMRC must be prepared to return to the courts."

Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 8th Report of this Session.

HMRC has paid £65 billion to tax credit claimants since the scheme was introduced in 2003. Awards are made on an annual basis and payments are initially made on provisional data; a final assessment is made once the claimant's actual circumstances are known after the end of the year, which can change the final value of the award. The Department overpaid £6 billion in the first three years of the scheme. By the end of March 2007 it had collected £2 billion of this debt and written off £0.7 billion. £3.3 billion of these overpayments remain to be collected. It is unlikely to recover £1.6 billion of the debts.

This is the Committee's fifth report on the current tax credits system. Although the administrative cost has increased from £406 million in 2003-04 to £587 million in 2006-07, there is little evidence the Department has the scheme under control. Many claimants continue to struggle to understand tax credits and why they are overpaid. There have been many complaints about the process for recovering overpayments and the Ombudsman continues to receive and to uphold a large number of complaints.
Tax credits continue to suffer from the highest rates of error and fraud in central government. HMRC estimates that claimant error and fraud led to incorrect payments of between £1.04 billion and £1.30 billion in 2004-05. This level of error led the C&AG to qualify his opinion on the HMRC Trust Statement for the fifth year running. The Department still has no targets for reducing error and fraud.

In November 2005, the Department concluded a settlement of £71.25 million with EDS in respect of the computer problems during the introduction of Tax Credits. Of the sum, £26.5 million depends on EDS winning future work from the Government, but the flow of payments from EDS has been extremely small, and it is highly unlikely that new business to EDS will generate the full payment.
Progress in addressing many of the Committee's previous recommendations on tax credits has been disappointing, and the Committee will wish to return to this subject in the future to establish the extent to which these difficulties have been addressed.

On a separate issue, the Department has not been collecting income tax on certain small pensions since the early 1980s, with a potential tax loss of some £135 million per annum. It will not recover tax due from previous years, but will start to collect tax on these pensions from 2008-09.

Latest from Giles McNeill for Nettleham

2008-02-16T11:07:00.004Z

· 16th February 2008
Growing concern over spread of under-age binge drinking across Lincolnshire
New figures show children at harm, with drink fuelling yob behaviour

· 10th February 2008
More Lottery funding for West Lindsey – and less Whitehall interference
Giles McNeill backs plans to increase funding for local good causes

· 2nd February 2008
Concern raised over tax collectors snooping on local homes in West Lindsey
Secret deal between tax inspectors & estate agents must be cancelled – Giles McNeill

More Lottery funding for West Lindsey – and less Whitehall interference

2008-02-10T16:40:00.000Z

Giles McNeill backs plans to increase funding for local good causes

West Lindsey could benefit from an extra quarter of a million pounds in Lottery funding every year, under new proposals launched by Conservatives. Giles McNeill, Nettleham Parish Councillor, today gave his backing to plans to reform the National Lottery, restoring its independence and increasing money for the good causes of sport, the arts, heritage and the local community. The Labour Government has diverted Lottery money away from these causes, including pouring £544 million of Lottery funds into the Millennium Dome.

Under the plans launched by David Cameron:

· A National Lottery Independence Bill would free the Lottery from ministerial inference, return it to good causes and make it accountable to Parliament rather than the Government.
· End the waste of Lottery funds going to dubious projects which undermine public confidence. All Lottery distributors would be required to take into account the reputation of the Lottery as a whole when deciding grants.
· National Lottery distributors’ administration costs would be capped, and the savings ploughed back into good causes.
· The way that Lottery tickets are taxed would be changed, moving away from a per-ticket tax to a gross profits tax on the Lottery operators. This would allow the operator more freedom to increase sales and therefore returns to good causes.

This package of measures could see an extra £182 million per year for grassroots sports, arts projects and the voluntary sector – equivalent to £280,000 per Parliamentary constituency, every year. This is enough money to pay for four grass pitches, two flood-lit outside tennis courts, or save an arts organisation which has experienced funding cuts by the Arts Council.

Giles McNeill said:

"Under Gordon Brown, Lottery money has been snatched from good causes by bureaucrats. The arts, sport, heritage and charities have all suffered. We need to give money back to local grassroots initiatives, and stop politicians in Whitehall interfering. I welcome these reforms, which could mean an extra quarter of a million pounds every year in West Lindsey to improve quality of life.”

National Excellence Awards: Branch success in being named Finalists

2008-02-05T09:36:00.000Z

Nettleham & District Conservatives were yesterday announced as worthy finalists of the party's National Excellence Awards.

Without local associations' hard work, commitment and energy the Conservative Party would not be able to accomplish everything that it does. The National Excellence Awards are the Party's chance to say thank you to those who have excelled and to reward and recognise their endeavours. By sharing ideas we can inspire each other and promote local success stories in the wider national arena.Introducing the Award, in the category of Membership and Affiliations, Jeremy Middleton, Vice-President, National Conservative Convention, Said:

"We had three outstanding finalists in the Membership and Affiliation section of the National Excellence Awards.

"At one end of the scale we have Nettleham & District Conservatives, a branch of Gainsborough Association. They did what in our wildest dreams we would hope every branch would do. They delivered thousands of leaflets, they canvassed hundreds of homes, they found new deliverers, new poster sites, new members and new donors. They are a model branch – well done.

"Our second finalist is very different. The Conservative Women’s Organisation has always had a high profile. In 2007, they mounted one of the most professional programme of events in their history. They relaunched, renamed and reinvigorated the Conservative Women’s National Council. They embraced David Cameron’s agenda of reaching out and engaging with a much wider audience of women and organisations than ever before. In the words of David Cameron, “The organisation is really growing, really succeeding”. That is why today they are a model of what a national organisation can achieve – well done.

"Our third finalist is Exeter University Conservative Future. In two years they grew Exeter CF from 70 members to 350 members. They did it by making their product attractive. Lots of social events, lots of campaigning events, lots of social action projects, lots of political training events. They did it by reaching out to their local Association and to CF centrally. They are our third worthy finalists.

"However, there can only be one winner and when the votes were all in and counted, that was Exeter University Conservative Future. I would now like to ask Christian May, the Chairman of Exeter CF, to come forward and collect his award."

Every relationship or affiliation that the Party builds with the electorate is equally important and the party recognises the need to cater for all types and levels of affiliation that people might want from us. Some people may want to become members; others will want to make a donation, become registered supporters, get involved in a local Social Action project or even simply receive a regular newsletter. Whatever level of involvement people want in the Party, every Association will offer relevant choices.The Membership and Affiliations Award recognises achievements in building these kinds of relationships. to be successful in this category our branch had to demonstrate that we have reached out to a hitherto untapped section of the electorate; have run a successful membership drive; organised a series of discussion forums for a wider and new audience; or have recruited lots of extra volunteers to help with canvassing and leaflet drops.