Research Briefing
The Habitual Residence Test is applied to people (unless they are exempt categories) who have recently arrived in the country and who make a claim for certain means-tested social security benefits, or seek housing assistance from a local authority.
Research Briefing
Housing: construction defects. By Wendy Wilson. SN/SP/2030. This note outlines assistance available for owners of homes that are of a defective construction type.
Research Briefing
This article provides statistics on the 2011/12 New Homes Bonus scheme grants. Approximately £200m has been allocated to local authorities through the scheme in its first year.
Research Briefing
This is an account of the House of Commons Committee Stage of the Education Bill. It complements Research Paper 11/14, prepared for the Commons Second Reading debate, which examines the range of matters covered by the Bill. As originally presented, the Bill sought to make provision relating to the National Assembly for Wales’ framework powers. However, these clauses were removed from the Bill following the ‘yes’ vote in the Welsh Devolution Referendum. A Government amendment to clause 13 (reporting restrictions on alleged offences by teachers) was agreed to without a vote. This inserted new schedule 11B into the Education Act 2002, and was introduced to secure compliance with a European Electronic Commerce Directive. Several minor and technical Government amendments were also made to the Bill. The Opposition tabled many amendments, a considerable number of which were pressed to a division, but none was successful.
Research Briefing
This note sets out the definition and causes of obesity, the health problems caused by obesity, recent government policy on the issue and related statistics.
Research Briefing
The purpose of this note is to outline the current debate on funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses and to summarise changes in policy in this area. ESOL funding has been subject to a series of changes since 2007 when automatic fee remission was removed. This note provides background on these changes, comments on the relevance of proposed changes with regard to the ongoing debate on social cohesion and integration and highlights Parliamentary debate on this issue.
Research Briefing
This paper covers the Commons Committee Stage of the Bill, and complements Research Papers 11/02 and 11/03, prepared for Second Reading. The Bill covers a wide range of topics in local government, planning, housing and the governance of London. It was not substantially amended in Committee, although there were some minor technical Government amendments. However, at several points, Ministers agreed to look again at certain issues and consider whether to introduce amendments at Report Stage.
Research Briefing
The Health and Social Care Bill had its Second Reading in the Commons on 31 January 2011. The Bill was considered in Public Bill Committee in 28 sittings, between 8 February and 31 March 2011. A large number of Government amendments were made, mainly minor and technical changes, although significant alterations were made to clauses 103 and 104 in Part 3 of the Bill, to prevent competition on price. No Opposition amendments were agreed. This Paper summarises the Commons Second Reading debate and Committee stages and supplements the House of Commons Library Research Paper Health and Social Care Bill (RP 11/11), which was produced for the Bill’s Second Reading.
Research Briefing
This note describes the Government programme of new settlements based on ecological principles, along with comment and criticism.
Research Briefing
During the Committee stage, several Government amendments were made to the provisions on police reform. Some (for example, on police complaints, police and crime plans and disqualifying people convicted of imprisonable offences from becoming or being police and crime commissioners) were on matters of substance. By contrast, there were only minor amendments to the provisions of the misuse of drugs and no substantive amendments to the parts of the Bill covering licensing, protests in Parliament Square or universal jurisdiction.
Research Briefing
This note outlines the arrangements for contracting out of the State Second Pension
Research Briefing
The Welfare Reform Bill provides for the introduction of a 'Universal Credit' to replace a range of existing means-tested benefits and tax credits for people of working age, starting from 2013. The Bill follows the November 2010 White Paper, Universal Credit: welfare that works, which set out the Government’s proposals for reforming welfare to improve work incentives, simplify the benefits system and tackle administrative complexity.
Research Briefing
This paper has been prepared for the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons. For information on the provision in the Bill relating to the introduction of Universal Credit, please see the complementary Library Research Paper, 11/24. Besides Universal Credit, the Bill proposes a number of other significant welfare reforms, including replacement of the current Disability Living Allowance, restriction of Housing Benefit entitlement to social housing tenants whose accommodation is larger than they need, time-limiting the payment of contributory Employment and Support Allowance to twelve months, and capping the total amount of benefit that can be claimed.
Research Briefing
A number of commentators have raised concerns about the implications of animal cloning for food safety, food supply and animal welfare. Others stress that animal cloning has the potential to improve animal welfare and farming productivity. It may even be used in the conservation of endangered species. This note sets out background information on the different arguments and the regulatory controls on the use of this technology in food production.
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