Archive for January, 2011

A million people, an annual budget of £4bn – yet an unemployment rate of 10 per cent and among the highest concentrations of poverty in the country.

Almost everyone who took part has had their say (apart from Gordon Brown) and there has been growing debate on the lessons to be learnt. The Cabinet Office has produced its own view of the implications as part of the draft Cabinet Manual, whilst the Commons’ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee is the first...

On Monday, the Times led with ‘Big Society in crisis as economy weakens‘. On Tuesday, Sir Stuart Etherington, NCVO chief executive, warned that the Big Society risks being ‘one Big Disappointment‘ if charities aren’t given the funding they need as a new survey revealed that nearly three quarters of supported housing charities face ‘disproportionate’...

The Government will soon publish a white paper that will set out its direction on delivery of public services.

That is the challenge the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) now faces. Its recently elected chair Margaret Hodge, Institute Senior Fellow Lord Bichard and the House Magazine’s Political Editor Sam Macrory addressed this at a lively debate at the Institute on 19 January.

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) have been causing a “frenzy” of interest in Whitehall over the past few months. Hardly surprising given the current fiscal challenge and their apparent ability to attract external investment to our public services.

At face value my offer is fantastic news. The more sceptical amongst you might ask how certain is that future payment. For example, if it is only 50% likely then the deal is only break even (ignoring inflation). Any worse than that and you’ll lose money.

John Bercow has been very active in his year and a half as Speaker of the Commons in leading a debate on strengthening the House – though his efforts have got much less public and media attention than the controversies he has become embroiled in with some, mainly Conservative, MPs.

On 13 Jan, Professor Margaret Wilson spoke at the Institute on New Zealand’s experience of proportional representation and the impact on the diversity of their parliament, joined by Trevor Phillips, Baroness Parminter and Lord Adonis.

We’ve produced our report, Read Before Burning. We had in the autumn the results of the Government review. Today, we heard coruscating criticism from the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) of the way the government carried out its review.