Download Free Seventeenth Report Of Session 2010 11 Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Seventeenth Report Of Session 2010 11 and write the review.

Seventeenth report of Session 2010-11 : Documents considered by the Committee on 2 February 2011, including the following recommendations for debate, contractual relations in the milk sector; sexual abuse and exploitation of children and child pornography
Crime on Britain's railways decreased year-on-year over the past decade. That trend shows the effectiveness of the specialist rail policing provided by the British Transport Police (BTP). The Committee were impressed by the BTP's commitment to tackling crime while minimising delays for the travelling public. Despite the welcome decline in overall crime, we identified areas where the BTP could improve its performance. The British Transport Police Authority (BTPA) is the body with responsibility for setting the BTP challenging but achievable targets to tackle crime on the railway. The BTPA must fulfil its remit and avoid any perception that it is too close to the people whom it should be holding to account. The Committee concluded that the BTP model of developing specialist policing skills and securing funding from transport providers might usefully be applied to other transport modes, such as aviation. Such an approach could minimise delays, maximise security and reduce the cost of policing to taxpayers. In the course of the inquiry, the Committee heard that vulnerable children and young people are often found in and around railway stations and were surprised to learn that the BTP currently has no targets in relation to child protection. The Department for Transport, the BTPA, the BTP and the charity sector should work together to tackle this emerging issue by examining the available data and reviewing current practice.
This report is a follow-up to the Committee's report on Accountability for Public Money (HC 740, session 2010-11 (ISBN 9780215559029)) an issue at the core of the relationship between Parliament and government. Accounting Officers remain accountable to Parliament for funds voted to their departments but the policy intention is that local bodies will have significant discretion over the services they deliver. In the Government's response, 'Accountability: Adapting to Decentralisation', Sir Bob Kerslake drew a distinction between those services that government delivers directly and those that it may fund but are delivered in more decentralised arrangements. He proposed that Accounting Officers set out, in Accountability System Statements, the arrangements they have in place to provide assurance about the probity and value for money of funds spent through devolved systems. All departments are expected to produce Statements by summer 2012. Departments have made a genuine effort to develop arrangements which reconcile accountability and localism but the Statements so far are unwieldy and considerably more needs to be done to improve their clarity, consistency and completeness. There is concern that accountability frameworks must drive value for money and, critically, are sufficiently robust to address the operational or financial failure of service providers. Departments are placing increasing reliance on market mechanisms such as user choice to drive up performance and value for money, but there are limits to what these mechanisms can achieve. The Treasury needs to take ownership of the system and ensure that the Comptroller and Auditor General has the necessary powers and rights of access to examine the value for money of funds spent through devolved systems
In this report looking at policy for improving road and rail access to ports, the Transport Committee urges the Department for Transport (DfT) to become a keener advocate for UK ports. The Government should contribute to significant improvements to strategic networks which also deliver wider benefits - rather than simply expect port operators to pick up the entire bill for measures required to mitigate increased traffic due to port expansion. If the Government chooses to apply European Commission state aid rules in this area more strictly than other EU countries it should explain why it does so. Policy in this area should be applied consistently across the country. While some ports have contributed towards transport schemes to improve access, others have not and the differences in approach have not been explained or justified. Ports should also continue to contribute to local transport infrastructure improvements, following discussions with relevant local bodies. The Department for Transport should demonstrate whether port master plans have had any impact, highlighting good examples of such plans and of how they have influenced decision makers. Finally, the Government should devise a more effective successor to the Waterborne Freight Grant, to stimulate coastal shipping.
The use of parking charges and fines specifically to raise revenue by local authorities is neither acceptable nor legal. Annual parking accounts would allow the public to see how much local revenue is derived from the enforcement of fines, and what proportion of this come from on or off street parking charges. It's right that parking charges be determined locally, but hard to justify fines that substantially exceed penalties for more serious offences like speeding. DfT's statutory guidance should stipulate that local authorities implement a 'grace period' of 5 minutes after the expiry of paid-for time on any paid parking before enforcement officers issue a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN). The Guidance should be clarified and updated, particularly in relation to rules for loading and unloading. A 25% penalty charge discount should also be introduced for motorists who pay within 7 days of losing any appeal to a parking tribunal. Local authorities currently offer a 50% discount if motorists pay their penalty charge within 14 days, but this is not available to motorists who appeal to a tribunal. Motorists should also not have to appeal against PCNs where tribunal adjudicators have repeatedly identified a problem such as poor signage. Adjudicators should also be given powers to allow appeals where local authorities fail to follow statutory guidance concerning the use cameras. While businesses cannot be completely exempt from parking restrictions, local authorities must also ensure that the need to restrict parking and manage congestion does not stifle the ability of businesses to trade and help grow the economy
In the UK some 11.5m people already live with a recognised disability and more than a fifth of them experience some difficulty when using transport networks. So it's essential that the Department for Transport delivers an ambitious Accessibility Action Plan. Changes made ahead of the 2012 Paralympic Games delivered access for disabled people to significantly more parts of the public transport network for the first time and highlighted the immense value of such improvements for all. Yet a year later, there is a risk that some of the momentum from London 2012 is being lost because further key accessibility improvements planned have been watered-down or abandoned. The Committee's recommendations include: imposing penalties on bus operators who claim to offer accessible routes but then fail to provide accessible buses; the phased introduction of audio-visual information systems on all buses over the next ten years; phasing out the need for disabled travellers having to book organised assistance in advance; financial incentives to encourage investment in fully accessible vehicles by taxi and private care hire vehicle operators; and a change to EU rules so that in future airlines are required to allow carers to travel free of charge when the airline judges a disabled person incapable of travelling independently. The Cabinet Office should convene a working group of ministers and officials to improve cross-government working on accessibility in order to secure the full benefits to be gained from widening disabled people's access to employment and training, healthcare and wider participation in all parts of society
The last few years have seen a number of periods when severe weather has led to widespread travel disruption, exposing a lack of preparedness across all modes of transport in terms of infrastructure, resources, and looking after the interests of passengers. Pro-active decision-making by rail and aviation operators to reduce or cancel services ahead of a major event has reduced disruption. However there is scope for further improvement. The Highways Agency should review the barriers to providing comprehensive realtime information to drivers. The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) should ensure that train operating companies develop more robust procedures to identify how long a period of disruption is likely to last and to communicate this clearly to passengers. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) should set out how it will evaluate the impact of the new airport licence conditions on passenger welfare, by Spring 2015. The CAA must also ensure that best practice on the provision of information and on passenger welfare is shared across all UK airports. The availability of salt for gritting roads has improved with the establishment of the strategic salt reserve. More, though, should be done to keep pavements clear of ice and snow. However, winter weather is about more than just snow, as illustrated by the 'St Jude' storm across southern England and the more recent storm stranding thousands at Gatwick. The transport sector must continue to work closely with the Met Office and other forecasters. Finally, embedding a culture of continuous review and improvement must remain a priority.
The European system of human rights protection faces institutional and political pressures which threaten its very survival. These institional pressures stem from the backlog of applications before the European Court of Human Rights, the large number of its judgments that remain unimplemented, and the political pressures that arise from sustained attacks on the Court's legitimacy and authority, notably from politicians and jurists in the United Kingdom. This book addresses the theme which lies at the heart of these pressures: the role of national parliaments in the implementation of judgments of the Court. It combines theoretical and empirical insights into the role of parliaments in securing domestic compliance with the Court's decisions, and provides detailed investigation of five European states with differing records of human rights compliance and parliamentary mobilisation: Ukraine, Romania, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. How far are parliaments engaged in implementation, and how far should they be? Do parliaments advance or hinder human rights compliance? Is it ever justifiable for parliaments to defy judgments of the Court? And how significant is the role played by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe? Drawing on the fields of international law, international relations, political science, and political philosophy, the book argues that adverse human rights judgments not only confer obligations on parliamentarians but also create opportunities for them to develop influential interpretations of human rights and enhance their own democratic legitimacy. It makes an authoritative contribution to debate about the future of the European and other supranational human rights mechanisms and the broader relationship between democracy, human rights, and legitimate authority.
Implementation of the Government's modernisation programme risks damaging the coastguard. Confusion about the role of the new national Maritime Operations Centre (MOC) and mixed messages about local knowledge and coastguard station closures has undermined staff morale across the service and caused great concern that the vacancy rate for skilled staff has doubled since 2010. There is a worrying lack of information about what coastguards at the MOC will actually do from day to day or how these new staff will work with local coastguards. The MCA's stance in respect of the local knowledge which coastguards in co-ordination centres must have is also confusing and contradictory. The MCA needs to set out its strategy for staff training and articulate its vision of why coastguards in MRCCs need to gain and retain local knowledge. MCA management must schedule and remunerate staff to pursue this expertise, not leave them to organise themselves when they are off duty. The Committee also expresses concern about arrangements for Emergency Towing Vessels and plans for fire fighting at sea now that the Maritime Incident Response group has been withdrawn. The Government is called to provide statistics on the age profile and length of service of coastguards at each MRCC and to set out its strategy for retaining experienced coastguards, particularly in terms of recruitment to positions based at the MOC