Read Books Online and Download eBooks, EPub, PDF, Mobi, Kindle, Text Full Free.
New Dimension Enhancing The Fire And Rescue Services Capacity To Respond To Terrorist And Other Large Scale Incidents
Download New Dimension Enhancing The Fire And Rescue Services Capacity To Respond To Terrorist And Other Large Scale Incidents full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online New Dimension Enhancing The Fire And Rescue Services Capacity To Respond To Terrorist And Other Large Scale Incidents ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!
Book Synopsis New Dimension, Enhancing the Fire and Rescue Services' Capacity to Respond to Terrorist and Other Large-scale Incidents by : Great Britain. National Audit Office
Download or read book New Dimension, Enhancing the Fire and Rescue Services' Capacity to Respond to Terrorist and Other Large-scale Incidents written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The £330 million New Dimension programme has enhanced the 46 English Fire and Rescue Services' capacity to respond to terrorist attacks and other catastrophic incidents such as major flooding. But better value for money could have been secured in the procurement of the specialist vehicles and equipment. The programme was introduced following the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. It involved procuring specialist vehicles and equipment, training 10,000 fire fighters, and helping to prepare Fire and Rescue Services to tackle terrorist and other major incidents. The equipment has already been used successfully at three major incidents to date: the Buncefield fire, the 2007 summer floods, and at the Warwickshire warehouse collapse in November 2007. Funding uncertainty and poor programme, project and financial management in the early days of the project resulted in delays in introducing the equipment and significant cost overruns. A fraud of £867,200 within the programme remained undetected for 9 months and in procuring one vehicle type, for example, poor contracting and record keeping resulted in a delay of a year and unnecessary costs of between £3 and £8 million. Improvements in programme and financial management have since been made. But more still needs to be done to address weaknesses which might hamper future incident response. In particular the department need to address uncertainties over the respective roles of national co-ordinating bodies and develop a strategy for national and regional multi-agency practice exercises.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215529022 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (29 download)
Book Synopsis New Dimension - Enhancing the Fire and Rescue Services' Capacity to Respond to Terrorist and Other Large-scale Incidents by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee
Download or read book New Dimension - Enhancing the Fire and Rescue Services' Capacity to Respond to Terrorist and Other Large-scale Incidents written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 1184-i, session 2007-08 previously unpublished
Author :Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts Publisher : ISBN 13 : Total Pages : pages Book Rating :4.:/5 (614 download)
Book Synopsis New Dimension by : Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book New Dimension written by Great Britain. Parliament House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis When This Is Over by : Amy Cortvriend
Download or read book When This Is Over written by Amy Cortvriend and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound and persistent impact – a tragic loss of life, changes to established patterns of life and social inequalities laid bare. It brought out the good in many and the worst in others, and raised questions around what is truly important in our lives. In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember, and to reflect on, the pandemic. What lessons should we learn? How can things be different when this is over? Sensitive to inequalities of gender, race and class, the book highlights the experience of marginalised and minority groups, and the unjust and uneven spread of violence, deprivation and death. It combines academic analysis with personal testimonies, poetry and images from contributors including Sue Black, Led By Donkeys, Lara-Rose Iredale, Michael Rosen and Gary Younge. This truly inclusive commemorative overview honours the experience of a global disaster lived up close, and suggests the steps needed to ensure we do better next time.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215544360 Total Pages :196 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (443 download)
Book Synopsis Communities and Local Government's departmental annual report 2009, and the performance of the Department in 2008-09 by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee
Download or read book Communities and Local Government's departmental annual report 2009, and the performance of the Department in 2008-09 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-03-05 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating HC 1038-i-ii, session 2008-09. The DCLG departmental annual report 2009 was published as Cm. 7598 (ISBN 9780101759823)
Book Synopsis Terrorism and the Olympics by : Anthony Richards
Download or read book Terrorism and the Olympics written by Anthony Richards and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book aims to outline the progress, problems and challenges of delivering a safe and secure Olympics in the context of the contemporary serious and enduring terrorist threat. The enormous media profile and symbolic significance of the Olympic Games, the history of terrorists aiming to use such high-profile events to advance their cause, and Al Qaeda's aim to cause mass casualties, all have major implications for the security of London 2012. Drawing on contributions from leading academics and practitioners in the field the book will assess the current terrorist threat, particularly focusing on terrorist targeting and how the Olympics might feature in this, before addressing particular response themes such as transport security, the role of surveillance, resilient designing of Olympic sites, the role of private security, and the challenge of inter-agency coordination. The book will conclude by providing an assessment of the legacy of Olympic security to date and will discuss the anticipated issues and dilemmas of the future. This book will be of interest to students of terrorism studies, security studies, counter-terrorism and sports studies.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215540492 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (44 download)
Book Synopsis Renewing the physical infrastructure of English further education colleges by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Renewing the physical infrastructure of English further education colleges written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-28 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2001, the newly established Learning and Skills Council (the Council) took over a programme of capital works in the further education sector, to renew an estate that was too large, with much of it in poor condition and no longer fit for modern educational purposes. By March 2008, a total of £4.2 billion of projects had been approved 'in detail', including grant support from the Council of £1.7 billion, and about half of the estate had been renewed. Since April 2008, there has been a very serious failure in the management of the programme. It approved 'in principle' 79 colleges' projects, which required nearly £2.7 billion of Council funding more than it could afford. Before the current problems arose, the programme had achieved some successes, enabling the estate to be reduced in size, and the buildings are generally of good quality and are contributing to increased learner participation. The economic downturn could affect colleges' ability to fund projects by restricting their access to loan finance or their ability to sell surplus assets. The indebtedness of the sector is rising. The Council needs to monitor closely the financial health of some colleges, particularly those that have borrowings that exceed 40 per cent of their annual income. In 2010, the Council is expected to be dissolved and its functions taken over by the Skills Funding Agency and the Young People's Learning Agency. There needs to be clarity about responsibilities for the capital programme, and additional administrative burdens on colleges must be avoided.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215532701 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (327 download)
Book Synopsis DEFRA by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book DEFRA written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of land containing habitats and wildlife which are of national or international importance. There are over 4,000 SSSI sites in England, protected through restrictions on activities and development which would adversely affect the sites. In 2000, the Department agreed a Public Service Agreement (PSA) target to bring 95 per cent of SSSI land area into a 'favourable' or 'recovering' condition by December 2010. The reported condition of sites has increased from 52 per cent of land area in target condition in December 2002 to 86 per cent in February 2009. The programme of SSSI condition assessments is not up-to-date and Natural England has put in place a programme of work to address the backlog of assessments by 2010, and has introduced quality assurance systems and guidelines to improve the consistency of its record keeping. Public expenditure on SSSIs has more than doubled over the past eight years, from £35.6 million a year in 2000-01 to £85.4 million in 2008-09. Financial incentives to encourage private landowners to conserve sites account for some 58 per cent of public expenditure. There is scope to improve the processes for identifying new sites and declassifying existing ones which are no longer of special interest.
Author :House of Commons Public Accounts Committ Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215529763 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (297 download)
Book Synopsis Central Government's Management of Service Contracts by : House of Commons Public Accounts Committ
Download or read book Central Government's Management of Service Contracts written by House of Commons Public Accounts Committ and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007-08, central government spent over £12 billion on service contracts, primarily in the areas of information and communication technology, facilities management and business process outsourcing, and an estimated £240 million on managing these contracts. In most cases central government monitors the performance of its suppliers, but it makes limited use of financial incentives to encourage suppliers to improve performance and does not always apply financial penalties where suppliers under-performed. Testing of value for money of ongoing services and contract changes is variable. Planning and governance is one of the weaker areas of contract management. Less than half the organisations surveyed had an individual with overall responsibility for contract management, and there was no documented plan for managing 28 per cent of contracts. In addition, many contracts do not have in place some or all of the elements of good practice risk management. No commercial director/head of procurement rated the level of resources allocated to the management of their major contracts as 'good', and 22 per cent of contract managers considered they did not have time to perform their responsibilities well. Most contract managers had undertaken relevant training, although 60 per cent of organisations did not provide a structured training programme for their staff. The Office of Government Commerce is to issue further guidance on contract management in April 2009, building on the good practice framework it published jointly with the National Audit Office, and it is working to improve the provision of training on contract management. It is also extending its monitoring of major suppliers to government, and is reviewing recent examples of service failure where contractors failed to perform to identify lessons for the future.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530288 Total Pages :52 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (32 download)
Book Synopsis The Department for Transport by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book The Department for Transport written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2005, the Department for Transport took over responsibility for passenger rail franchising from the Strategic Rail Authority. Eight franchises, half of the 16 franchises currently in operation across the country, have been re-let, with the train operator on six out of the eight franchises being changed. The Department specifies the minimum levels and quality of passenger services and agrees annual levels of subsidy or premium which it will pay to, or receive from, each train operator for franchise terms of typically 7-10 years. It has announced plans to add a total of 1,300 additional rail carriages to operator fleets across all 16 franchises to reduce overcrowding. In January 2009, the average increase of unregulated fares was 7 per cent, with some as high as 20 per cent. Special low fare offers are available, often through the internet, but those without access to a computer may need help to identify and book these fares. The Department projected that taxpayer support for the eight franchises would reduce and, in five cases, turn into payments from the train operators. If the projections are realised, a direct subsidy of £811 million to train operators in 2006-07 would be replaced by a £326 million receipt from train operators in 2011-12. Grants to Network Rail, if kept at the 2005-06 level, would mean passenger services receiving £926 million of support from the taxpayer in 2011-12, reduced from about £2,063 million in 2005-06. This reflects a policy of rebalancing service costs, with a higher proportion for the passenger and an overall reduction in subsidy. This outcome depends more on continued rail passenger growth than on fare increases.
Author :Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215529282 Total Pages :36 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (292 download)
Book Synopsis Department for Work and Pensions by : Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee
Download or read book Department for Work and Pensions written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines recording and acting on complaints, and on the adequacy and costs of the complaints process, in the Department for Work and Pensions (the Department) and Jobcentre Plus and the Pensions, Disability and Carers Service (the Agencies). The Agencies provided services to over 22 million customers in 2007-08 and around 70,000 complaints were recorded (down from 103,000 in 2003-04). A three-tiered process has been introduced, and Agencies aim to resolve most complaints at frontline staff or manager level, so as to minimise the number reaching Chief Executive level. Additionally, dissatisfied customers have two independent resolution routes if internal processes fail: the Independent Case Examiner and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Whilst only about 200 cases reach the Ombudsman, the proportion upheld at that stage is around two thirds, suggesting that there is scope for improvement in handling the most difficult cases. Staff attitude is the most common cause of complaints. Another common complaint is the cost of calling the Agencies, particularly from mobile phones. The Department has no consistent system across its operations for recording complaints, although it is currently piloting a simplified system with the intention of moving to a common system. There is also limited central monitoring of the quality of replies to customers. The cost of handling complaints is estimated by the National Audit Office to be between £4.7 million and £6.2 million, although the Department does not monitor such information. Resolving at the front line a third of the cases which currently reach 'tier three' (Agency Chief Executive level) could save the Department around £700,000.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530639 Total Pages :44 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (36 download)
Book Synopsis Management of tax debt by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Management of tax debt written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007-08, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) collected around £450 billion in tax and National Insurance contributions from 35 million taxpayers. At 31 March 2008 the Department was owed £17.3 billion in outstanding tax, interest and penalties, £4.5 billion of which was more than a year old. Debts arise when people or businesses forget to pay, do not understand the need to pay or deliberately try to avoid or delay payment. Most tax payments are made on time, but during 2007-2008 30 per cent of tax payments were made after they were due, the number of tax debts increased by 22 per cent and the level and age of debt increased on some taxes. HMRC needs to change the behaviour of taxpayers who persistently pay late. HMRC could do more to encourage prompt payment and it also lags behind best practice in recovering debt. For example, it does not risk score its debtors. Risk scoring would allow it to tailor the help it gives to those who do not understand their obligations or are in financial crisis, while dealing promptly with debtors who deliberately pay late. HMRC is also unable to automatically link debts owed on different taxes by the same taxpayer. In managing tax debt, HMRC must balance the need to maximise revenue for the Exchequer with that of offering support to individuals and businesses in temporary financial difficulty. Balancing these objectives becomes more difficult in a recession. Since launching the Business Payment Support Service in November 2008, HMRC had - by February 2009 - agreed over 60,000 'time to pay' arrangements with individual businesses, worth £1 billion in deferred tax.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530011 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (3 download)
Book Synopsis Mathematics Performance in Primary Schools by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Mathematics Performance in Primary Schools written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007-08 the National Strategy to improve performance in primary mathematics cost some £104 million to implement. The Strategy aims to raise performance through extensive teaching and learning resources, supported by professional development programmes for teachers. In 2006-07 some £2.3 billion was spent on teaching mathematics in primary schools, out of a total expenditure of £10 billion on primary teaching and teaching support staff. Yet improvements in the mathematics results of primary school pupils have levelled off since 2000. In 2008, 79 per cent of pupils met the Government's expected standard at Key Stage 2 (age 11). This means that over one in five children are starting secondary school without a secure foundation in mathematics. There are persistent gaps in the mathematics performance of primary school pupils from different backgrounds and with different characteristics. In contrast to other subjects, boys are making more progress than girls. The biggest attainment gap-18 percentage points-is related to deprivation. Performance varies across England and between local authorities, with the percentage of pupils achieving the expected standard at KS2 ranging from 70 to 87 per cent. The Primary National Strategy has contributed to improvements in primary mathematics teaching and learning but weaknesses persist in vital areas such as the use and application of mathematics to real-life situations and the assessment of pupils' progress. The lack of depth in subject knowledge of many primary school teachers, and the lack of take-up of continuing professional development in mathematics, are major concerns which the Department has only recently begun to address through a ten year programme to train 13,000 specialist teachers.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530714 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (37 download)
Book Synopsis Building Schools for the Future by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Building Schools for the Future written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-11 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Children, Schools and Families' Building Schools for the Future Programme (BSF) plans to renew every secondary school in the country, by rebuilding half of them, structurally remodelling 35 per cent, refurbishing 15 per cent and providing Information Communication Technology to all. Its aim is to use capital investment in new buildings as a catalyst to improve educational outcomes. The Department estimates that the programme will cost £52-£55 billion over its lifetime. The Department was over-optimistic in its original planning assumptions for BSF: of the 200 schools originally planned to be completed by December 2008, only 42 had been by that date. The Department now expects the programme to take 18 years, with the last school completed in 2023. Local authorities are responsible for the local delivery of BSF. They plan, procure and manage the BSF school buildings. In 2004, the Department established Partnerships for Schools to manage the national delivery of the programme. The Department and Partnerships for Schools encourage local authorities to procure their schools through a Local Education Partnership. These are 10-year partnerships to procure a flow of projects, structured as joint ventures between the local authority, a consortium of private companies that build, finance and maintain schools, and Building Schools for the Future Investments. It is too early to conclude whether BSF will achieve its educational objectives. To date, over-optimism has meant the programme could not live up to expectations. Establishing Partnerships for Schools to manage the programme centrally has helped local authorities to deliver more effectively, but while Local Education Partnerships have potential advantages, their value for money is yet to be proven. And it will be very challenging to deliver all schools by 2023.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530592 Total Pages :36 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (35 download)
Book Synopsis The efficiency of radio production at the BBC by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book The efficiency of radio production at the BBC written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-04 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The BBC, in 2007-08, spent £462 million on its 16 radio stations. The BBC has set these 16 stations a combined target of efficiency savings of £69 million over the five year period to March 2013, representing an annual saving of 3 per cent. The BBC proposed unacceptable constraints on the Comptroller and Auditor General's access to information and his discretion to report to his findings to Parliament. The situation arose because the Comptroller and Auditor General does not have statutory unrestricted rights of access to the BBC, which he does with all other publicly funded bodies. The BBC has wide ranges of costs for similar programmes within and between its radio stations. The average cost for an hour of comparable music programmes on Radio 2 is more than 50 per cent higher than on Radio 1. For most breakfast and 'drivetime' slots, the BBC's costs are significantly higher than commercial stations, largely because of payments to presenters. The BBC has not used cost comparisons across its own programmes, or against commercial radio, to identify scope for efficiencies. The BBC uses its principal value for money indicator-cost per listener hour-to justify the cost of presenters on the basis of audience size, but the indicator does not provide assurance that programme costs are the minimum necessary to reach the required quality and intended audience. For most radio programmes, presenters' salaries represent the majority of programming costs, but the BBC is paying more than the market price for its top radio presenters. The BBC has prevented full public scrutiny of the value for money of expenditure on presenters by agreeing confidentiality clauses with some presenters.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215530493 Total Pages :56 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (34 download)
Book Synopsis Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Occupied Royal Palaces Estate (the Estate), which includes Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, is held in trust for the nation and used to support the official duties of The Sovereign. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is accountable to Parliament for the upkeep of the Estate, but has delegated day to day responsibility to the Royal Household. The annual grant to maintain and run the Palaces has remained at around £15 million since 2000-01 (a 19 per cent real terms reduction). An increase in running costs over the same period means there has been a 27 per cent fall in maintenance expenditure to £11.1 million in 2007-08. The Department has set the Household an objective which focuses on the condition of the Estate, but none of the key indicators measures performance against it, and the Household does not have a comprehensive analysis of the condition of the Estate. In addition, a £32 million maintenance backlog has built up and important work has been deferred. The Department and the Household have yet to agree criteria for assessing the backlog and develop a plan for managing it. In addition, the Household does not have a strategy for managing its Estate. The Royal Collection Trust (the Trust) manages visitor admission to the Palaces and receives the income generated, which in 2007-08 totalled £28 million. Buckingham Palace is open for 63 days because of the number of official engagements and the costs involved. Other buildings such as the White House and Houses of Parliament manage to open for most of the year, despite similar obligations and security concerns.
Author :Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts Publisher :The Stationery Office ISBN 13 :9780215532633 Total Pages :40 pages Book Rating :4.5/5 (326 download)
Book Synopsis Planning for homes by : Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Download or read book Planning for homes written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009-07-02 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Housing developments require the approval of planning applications by local planning authorities (Authorities) before they can proceed. The Department for Communities and Local Government has implemented a number of measures in recent years to improve the performance of the development management stage of the planning process, in which applications are considered by Authorities, and to boost planning capacity. The measures include the setting of national targets for the speed of Authority decision-making, and the allocation of £68 million a year in Planning Delivery Grant (the Grant) to Authorities as a reward for meeting targets. The Grant, together with the setting of a 13 week target for decisions, has provided Authorities with an incentive to determine applications more quickly. Between 2002-03 and 2007-08, the percentage of major residential planning applications decided within 13 weeks almost doubled to 67 per cent. The Department's measures to improve the application process have met with mixed success. The Department has encouraged Authorities to hold pre-application discussions with developers, but there is a lack of clarity across Authorities about the purpose of these discussions. Some Authorities have not deployed sufficiently senior and experienced staff in the discussions, and Authorities have also taken different approaches to charging. Authorities' monitoring of developers' discharge of the conditions attached to planning permissions has been given a low priority, partly because of the focus on meeting the 13 week decision target. Authorities have spent about 95 per cent of Planning Delivery Grant on their planning functions, although the extent to which it has resulted in extra expenditure on planning is unclear.
