Tuesday 8 January 2013

Building a Better Society : Coalition Promises in Mid Term Review

http://midtermreview.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/building-a-better-society/

Families and Children

  • We will, for the first time, ensure that all 2 year olds from low income households can access 15 hours per week of early education – starting with the poorest 20 per cent in 2013 before extending it to 40 per cent in 2014.
  • We will implement our named midwife policy.
  • We will legislate to promote shared parenting and flexible parental leave during the first months of a child’s life.
  • We will make it easier for loving parents to adopt children.
  • We will issue revised statutory guidance on child protection to free up professionals, slash bureaucracy and refocus the attention of children’s services on the needs of children, in line with the recommendations of the Munro Report.
  • We will reform family law to reduce delays in care proceedings and to reinforce the principle that a child benefits from the involvement of both parents, provided that it is safe and in the best interests of the child.
  • We will ensure that 4,200 extra health visitors are in post by April 2015.
  • We will, in line with the Coalition Agreement, ensure that provision is made for Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain on proposals to introduce transferable tax allowances for married couples.

  • Pensions and Older People

  • We will continue to roll out automatic enrolment into workplace pensions to help people make proper provision for their retirement, while ensuring that small businesses (with fewer than 50 employees) are not required to start enrolling employees until 2015.
  • We will take forward legislation to put public sector pensions on a fair and affordable footing.
  • We will put in place a new mechanism to ensure that the state pension age reflects future changes in life expectancy so that the state pension system continues to be sustainable and affordable.
  • We will continue to protect the state pension through the operation of the triple lock guarantee for the duration of this Parliament.
  • We will continue to keep our Coalition Agreement commitment to protect key benefits for older people throughout this Parliament.
  • We will make it easier for people to use their pension savings by increasing the ‘drawdown limit’ to 120 per cent.

  • Social Action and the Big Society

  • We will train 500 senior community organisers and recruit 4,500 volunteer community organisers in the most deprived communities by 2015 through our Community Organisers programme.
  • We will further encourage charitable giving by distributing the remaining £7.5 million of the £10 million Innovation in Giving Fund; expanding the ‘ATM Giving’ scheme; providing more match funding to new charities and causes; and working to improve and expand Payroll Giving to enable more regular donations from the workplace, with a consultation to be published shortly.
  • We will improve the administration of Gift Aid through the introduction of online filing for claims, expected to be available from April 2013.
  • We will continue to support public sector workers who want to establish mutuals, and provide service commissioners with the information they need to support the creation of mutuals and co-operatives. We will continue to develop ‘Right to Provide’ policies that will enable mutual and co-operative organisations to deliver a wider range of public services.

  • Communities and Local Government

  • We will continue to devolve responsibility to local government and will work with departments across Whitehall to progress Lord Heseltine’s recommendation that local areas should have single funding pots.
  • We will back proposals from Local Authorities to share services and to integrate their services with other local providers.

  • Immigration

  • We will continue to reduce net migration while welcoming those with the skills we need, great business ideas or investments to make.
  • We will continue to encourage the brightest and best experts, scientists, artists and performers from around the world to come to the UK through the Exceptional Talent route.
  • We will not limit immigration by entrepreneurs or high net worth individuals who want to invest in the UK, or by senior executives earning more than £150,000.
  • We will conduct more interviews to crack down on bogus visa applicants.
  • We will place no cap on the number of genuine students coming from across the world to study in this country, but will extend in-country interviews rapidly to crack down on bogus students.
  • We will provide 1,000 places a year for MBA graduates who want to stay in Britain and start up businesses, and allow all PhD students who have completed their studies to stay here for longer (up to 12 months) to find skilled work or set up as an entrepreneur.
  • We will continue to support businesses which use the Tier 2 Intra-Company Transfer scheme, which businesses tell us is one of the most user-friendly in the world. There is no limit on intra-company transfers.
  • We will keep the shortage occupation list under review with a view to ensuring that employers do not become over-reliant on foreign workers but instead invest in training the resident workforce.
  • We will apply transitional controls to all new accession countries.
  • We will introduce a new ‘Life in the UK’ handbook and test, with British culture and history at their heart, and will also require settlement applicants to hold an intermediate level English language qualification.

  • Equalities

  • We will introduce a bill to allow same-sex couples to marry through civil ceremonies or through religious ceremonies for those religions which want to opt in.
  • We will introduce a system of equal pay audits that will compel companies found to have unequal pay practices to amend their systems.

  • Civil Liberties

  • We will work to ensure that the Defamation Bill, which protects freedom of expression, passes through Parliament and receives Royal Assent in this Parliamentary session.
  • We will legislate to ensure that the security services are properly monitored through increased Parliamentary oversight and that proper balance is struck in trials involving highly sensitive matters of national security.
  • We will consider the report of the Commission on the Bill of Rights.

  • Political Reform

  • We will complete the necessary legal and Parliamentary steps to provide for a legal, fair and decisive referendum on independence for Scotland and work across government to ensure the maintenance of the United Kingdom in that referendum.
  • We will implement the measures in the Scotland Act, respond to the recommendations of the Silk Commission on devolution in Wales and consider the case for devolving corporation tax to Northern Ireland.
  • We will publish a Civil Service Reform Plan ‘one year on’ report. We will publish for the first time a five year Capabilities Plan for the Civil Service to identify which skills and capabilities are in deficit, and how to address these shortcomings; and we will implement rigorous performance and talent management.
  • We will review each public body once every three years to ensure that it can justify to Ministers its existence and structure.
  • We will regulate lobbying through introducing a statutory register of lobbyists and ensuring greater transparency.
  • We will pursue a detailed agreement on limiting donations and reforming party funding in order to remove big money from politics.
  • We will bring forward legislation to introduce a power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP is found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing and having had a petition calling for a by-election signed by 10 per cent of his or her constituents.
  • We will establish a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament to consider the proposals in our Green Paper on preventing the misuse of Parliamentary privilege by MPs accused of serious wrongdoing.
  • We will complete the passage of the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill through Parliament early in 2013 so that individual voter registration is in place before the 2015 general election.
  • We will provide for a vote in the House of Commons on the Boundary Commission’s proposals for changes to constituencies.

  • Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

  • We will achieve universal broadband across the UK, including rural areas, at a minimum speed of 2Mbps by 2015 and improve mobile coverage in hot-spots.
  • We will plant a million trees by 2015 and put English forestry on a more sustainable footing, building on the report by the Independent Panel on Forestry headed by the Bishop of Liverpool.
  • We will implement EU regulations to prevent the trade in illegal logging.
  • We will implement the Biodiversity Strategy and build natural capital through local nature partnerships.
  • We will designate Marine Conservation Zones in 2013 and reduce the regulatory burden of marine licensing while maintaining a high level of protection of the marine environment.
  • We will invest more than £2.3 billion in flood risk management and we expect to exceed our target to improve protection for 145,000 homes by 2015, while also supporting flood-prone communities to access insurance.
  • We will continue to fund a range of projects designed to reduce levels of air pollution in our towns and cities.
  • We will implement a carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control as part of a balanced package of measures to control bovine TB and to support the cattle industry.
  • We will implement the Ash Dieback Control Strategy and consider the findings from the Tree Health and Plant Biosecurity Expert Taskforce.

  • Culture, Media and Sport

  • We will ensure that the legacy of London 2012 is greater access to, and participation in, sports of all kinds across the UK.
  • We will maintain funding for elite athletes to enable the British Olympic and Paralympic teams to build on their success at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
  • We will support a new plan to attract and train volunteer Sport Makers to facilitate sport in communities, increasing the capacity to meet the enormous new demand for sports participation from people of all generations.
  • We will work with the Scottish Government to hold a successful Commonwealth Games in 2014.
  • We will continue to work on a cross-party basis towards the implementation of the Leveson Report on press regulation.
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