The cancellation of Bicester Accommodation Centre PDF Download

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102951288
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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This NAO report examines the Government's decision in June 2005 to cancel plans for a new purpose-built accommodation centre at Bicester, which was to have been built as part of a pilot accommodation programme for people seeking asylum in the UK. This programme, announced in October 2001, was seen as a way of making the asylum process more efficient, by housing asylum seekers onsite during the whole application process from initial arrival through to decision and possible appeal. The decision was taken in light of significant local opposition to the centre which delayed the planning process, the success of other initiatives to speed up the processing of asylum applications and a fall in the number of people claiming asylum in the UK. By the end of March 2007, the Home Office had spent about £33 million on the accommodation project, of which £28 million related to Bicester. The NAO report makes a number of recommendations for departments planning similar projects in order to identify key risks to successful delivery and project management. These include the need for departments to identify in the business case the impact of a range of planning delays on cost and delivery for schemes that require planning permission using a range of scenarios; to ensure the necessary co-ordination of the process takes place at a sufficiently senior level to effect proper control; and to include only realisable benefits in cost benefit analyses.

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215520890
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Between 2001/02 and 2005/06, the Home Office spent £29.1 million planning and designing a purpose-built accommodation centre for asylum seekers at Bicester. It was a pilot project and formed part of a wider Home Office initiative to cope with rising numbers of asylum applications by speeding up the processing of asylum claims and reducing the social tensions and the risk of fraud inherent in the way that asylum seekers were dispersed around the UK. Falling numbers of asylum applicants, a rise in the projected net cost of the planned facility at Bicester, and a general improvement in the speed of processing asylum applications under the existing system, led to the cancellation of the Bicester Centre and the shelving of the wider accommodation centre policy in June 2005. As the project was cancelled before building work began, the only benefit to the taxpayer is the semi-derelict site, valued at some £4.6 million, which remains in the Home Office's ownership. The strength of opposition to the proposed accommodation centres from national refugees groups and local resident groups, which was identified during the passage of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, was not fully reflected in the business case for Bicester. The business case also did not take into account the potential adverse impact on cost and delivery arising from a protracted planning delay. The decision by the Home Office to sign the contract with its preferred bidder before completing the outline and detailed planning processes increased the risk of nugatory expenditure. The lessons to be learnt from Bicester have wider application to government bodies planning innovative projects. These lessons include: the need to strengthen corporate governance arrangements where consultants are engaged at an early stage, to co-ordinate policy changes in different parts of an organisation together with consideration of external events, and to increase the effectiveness and scope of consultation with the local community and other stakeholders. On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the committee examined the Home Office on the reasons why the cancellation of the wider accommodation centre policy resulted in nugatory expenditure of £29.1 million being noted in the Home Office's financial statements. It also examined the potential future use of the Bicester site.

Author:
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215520890
Category : Asylum, Right of
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215524294
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Since their introduction under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, community orders have offered courts the ability to impose a range of 12 possible 'requirements', including accredited programmes (such as anger management courses or alcohol and drug rehabilitation), unpaid work in the community and supervision by the National Probation Service. There is little information available nationally on the effectiveness of community orders. On the key measure of reconviction, figures from the Ministry of Justice showed that for those sentenced to community orders, their actual reconviction rate was significantly lower than those sentenced to custodial sentences for similar offences. There is, though, no basic information such as national data on whether offenders have completed their community orders, nor on why offenders have failed to complete them. The National Probation Service has set national standards but these are applied inconsistently. The Ministry's current method of funding Probation Areas is unsatisfactory and slow to respond to changes in demand from the courts and it is felt that there is a need for a more flexible system. On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Committee examined the Ministry of Justice on increasing effectiveness of community orders; building the confidence of both the court and the community in community orders; improving the funding formula; and tightening adherence to the requirements of orders.

Author: Nick Gill
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444367056
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking new study, Nick Gill provides a conceptually innovative account of the ways in which indifference to the desperation and hardship faced by thousands of migrants fleeing persecution and exploitation comes about. Features original, unpublished empirical material from four Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded projects Challenges the consensus that border controls are necessary or desirable in contemporary society Demonstrates how immigration decision makers are immersed in a suffocating web of institutionalized processes that greatly hinder their objectivity and limit their access to alternative perspectives Theoretically informed throughout, drawing on the work of a range of social theorists, including Max Weber, Zygmunt Bauman, Emmanuel Levinas, and Georg Simmel

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215525468
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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This report (HC 814, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215525468) looks at the work of the British Council and what impact the Council has working with whole societies, how it makes best use of resources and their efforts to increase consistency across the British Council network. It follows an NAO report (HCP 625, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102954173), on the same topic. The British Council is a Registered Charity and an executive Non-Departmental Public Body as well as a Public Corporation. It aims to build relationships between people in the UK and other countries, through teaching English and running cultural projects. It operates in over 110 countries and engages with over 15 million people a year worldwide. The Committee has set out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that the British Council should be congratulated for its achievements in promoting the English language and culture overseas; the Committee believes though that the current teaching model, based on premium prices and concentrated mainly in capital cities, severely restricts its reach; that the Council's recent programme of change has had a negative effect on staff and their view of the Council's leadership; the Council is without a single customer relationship management system, which it is now going to address; that sponsorship and partner income has fallen year on year since 2000-01, and the Council should do more to reverse this trend; the Committee has identified a lack of consistency across the network.

Author: Yseult Marique
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1781004552
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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This timely book examines the legal regulation of Public_Private Partnerships (PPPs) and provides a systematic overview of PPPs and their functions. It covers both the contractual relationships between public and private actors and the relationships be

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215523884
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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In 2006-07, Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (the Department) raised a total of £23.8 billion in Corporation Tax from large businesses. There are some 700 of these businesses, and in 2005-06, just 50 of them paid 67 per cent of the large business Corporation Tax, whilst 181 businesses paid none. Two-thirds of the tax comes from the banking, oil and gas and insurance sectors. Businesses pay little or no Corporation Tax because, for example, they have made a loss, or had losses in previous years, or they are using tax reliefs, or engaging in tax avoidance. In 2006-07, the Department's large business Corporation Tax enquiry programme raised nearly £2.7 billion. Many of these enquiries were poorly targeted, with nearly 60 per cent producing less than 1 per cent of the additional tax raised. The enquiries also take too long: in January 2008, 42 per cent of its enquiries were over two years old, and 10 per cent over four years old. In February 2007, based on initial review of tax returns from the previous 12 months, the Department estimated that the potential Corporation Tax at risk was £8.5 billion. The tax assessments are very complicated and there has been a widening gap between the skill set of large business tax staff and that of the Large Business Service. The Department is bringing in external recruits, including retired tax advisors, to help to train its staff and to deal with the more complicated technical work.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215522092
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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The Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and UK Sport have responsibility for elite sport in the UK. To support goals for London 2012, the Government has agreed a package of funding of over £700 million, while the DCMS will be required to raise £100 million from the private sector. This report follows up recommendations in the Committee's previous report on supporting elite athletes published in July 2006 (HC 898, session 2005-06. ISBN 9780215029768). It was found then that many funded sports had not met their medal targets at the Athens games in 2004. In particular concerns were raised about the way UK Sport measured and reported its own performance and the need for greater clarity about the level of performance required from individual sports in order to secure future funding was highlighted. UK Sport continues to plan on the basis that it will receive all of its funding up to 2012. However there remains a risk that the £100 million from the private sector will not all be raised.On the basis of a report by Comptroller and Auditor General (HC 434, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102953084) the Committee took evidence from the DCMS and UK Sport on their fudning strategy for medial success at London 2012; their setting of targets and monitoring of progress towards the Games; and their approach to securing wider and long term benefits from elite sporting success.

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215523556
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Between 2002 and 2008 the Department for Work and Pension replaced over 1,500 jobcentres and social security offices across Great Britain with a network of just over 800 modernised Jobcentre Plus offices. The aim was to improve significantly the job-seeking experience and the delivery of benefits by providing a service similar to that offered by a bank or modern retailer. To achieve such a radical shift the Department merged the Employment Service and the Benefits Agency into a new integrated service Jobcentre Plus. This roll-out was one of the largest public sector construction programmes undertaken in the UK in recent years. Having learnt lessons from early difficulties, the project was successful in delivering nearly all the planned offices, while making savings against the original budget of £2.2 billion. The estate rationalisation generated savings of £135 million a year, and the Department estimates that the roll-out will ultimately lead to cumulative benefits of £6 billion. The successful delivery of the programme can be attributed to sound governance, intelligent use of existing guidance and external advice, strong support from the leadership of the organisation and, critically, the consistent senior management team. The successful implementation of the project has important lessons for other major government programmes.