The main purpose of the Bill is to offer protection to tenants of rental properties whose landlord has both defaulted on his mortgage and not notified his lender that the property was being let (an 'unauthorised tenancy'). The Bill gives courts power to postpone the delivery of a possession order, and to stay or suspend the execution of an existing possession order. It also ensures the tenant is given notice of a possession order before its execution.
This note sets out financial support available to domestic energy consumers, including grants for central heating, insulation, microgeneration equipment and social security measures. It also explains how to seek advice or information about gas and electricity problems from Consumer Direct and the Energy Ombudsman.
The Government plans to develop a new approach to school accountability that includes a School Report Card (SRC). The idea is that the SRC will provide a short summary of a school's performance, published at least annually, so that it will be easier for parents to understand the information available. This Standard Note provides background on the SRC proposals, and relates to England only.
This note gives a brief account of statutory maternity pay and leave entitlements. It also sets out some proposed changes to this from the UK Government and European Commission
Details of online sources of historical statistics across all subject areas other than the economy. These sources are either long-term time series or snapshots of a range of data from a specific point in the past.They allow comparisons between the present day and the start of data collection and any intervening period and give an understanding of patterns -have trends been smooth, random, cyclical etc? Snapshots cover a wider range of data and help us make more general comparisons between 'then' and 'now'.
Most of the series go back to around the 1920s or earlier. . This note does not include links to economic data or anything to do with family history.
This Bill would repeal and immediately revive, without amendment, the Video Recordings Act 1984. Its purpose is to rectify a procedural error made during the passage of the Act, thereby to make the latter enforceable in UK courts. It would also allow the Act to be subsequently amended by the Digital Economy Bill 2009-10.
A brief outline of the law regulating abortion in the UK. A list of Bills related to abortion is provided in Standard Note PC/03657 and abortion statistics can be found in Standard Note SG/4418.
This Bill provides ‘guarantees’ for pupils and parents in the school system, underpinned by new Home School Agreements, and makes provision for parental satisfaction surveys. It also makes changes to the powers of governing bodies of maintained schools; extends the remit of School Improvement Partners; provides greater powers for local authorities and the Secretary of State in relation to failing schools; paves the way for the introduction of School Report Cards; and makes provision to introduce a licence to practise for teachers. The Bill also seeks to implement the recommendations of several major reports. These changes affect the school curriculum; provide a registration system for home educators; and provide an additional right of appeal for parents of children with special educational needs. The Bill would also make changes to the reporting of information relating to family proceedings. Other provisions relate to Local Safeguarding Children Boards, Youth Offending Teams, the charitable status of academies, and the fees system for the inspection of independent schools.
In September 2009, the Government announced that it would be introducing free personal care for people living in their own home with the highest care needs. The Bill follows proposals announced earlier in the year in the Shaping the Future of Care Together green paper to create a National Care Service for social care. It is intended that the introduction of free personal care will be the first step in setting up the National Care Service.
This note examines measures of hospital standards and patient safety published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Dr. Foster Research Limited and critically appraises the methodology underpinning their assessments. Concerns have been raised about the lack of consistency between the CQC and Dr. Foster ratings; in the final section, a comparison is made between the two, and some explanations for the discrepancies are offered.
The Bill fulfils the Government’s commitment made in September 2008 to enshrine the 2020 child poverty target in legislation. It establishes four separate child poverty targets to be met by 2020/21, requires the UK Government to publish a regular UK child poverty strategy, requires the Scottish and Northern Irish Ministers to publish child poverty strategies, establishes a Child Poverty Commission to provide advice, requires the UK Government to publish annual progress reports, and places new duties on local authorities and other “delivery partners”’ in England to work together to tackle child poverty.
The purpose of this note is to provide an update on the tobacco control provisions and, in particular, the treatment of Commons Amendment 11 in the Lords.