30 May 2008
Fire minister Parmjit Dhanda has announced a new equality and diversity strategy for the fire service, which includes what he described as 'the toughest ever recruitment targets for women and people from ethnic minority communities'. Currently just 3.2% of staff are from an ethnic minority background, and just 3.1% of firefighters are women. Only one chief fire officer is a woman, and none is from an ethnic minority community. In the police, one in 20 officers is now from an ethnic minority background and more than one in five are women. Only 12% of fire and rescue staff are graduates, according to figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The European Union has announced a plan to reform the Common Agricultural Policy. The proposals are aimed at making farmers more responsive to market forces and also to save on the CAP's annual €40bn (£32bn) cost. EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the reform would gradually abolish milk quotas and give farmers incentives to look after the countryside rather than produce unnecessary food. The draft policy requires approval by all 27 member states.
One in four older people in the UK is so worried about the future that it is making them ill, according to a report from Help the Aged. Its annual Spotlight report said 11% of UK pensioners — 1.2 million people — were living in severe poverty on less than half of typical earnings in 2005/06. Almost double that number were classed as living in poverty, with an income of less than 60% of average earnings. Help the Aged accused the government of reneging on its promise to end fuel poverty by 2010. Paul Cann, director of policy and external relations, said: 'It is appalling that we live in a society where older people feel sick with worry about the future.'
The Ministry of Defence is set to sign a £4bn deal to build two aircraft carriers, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and the HMS Prince of Wales. They will be built by a consortium of BAE Systems and its rival the VT Group, and work will be carried out in Portsmouth, Barrow-in-Furness, Glasgow and Rosyth. The 65,000-tonne carriers, each of which could carry 36 jet fighters, are due to enter service in 2014 and 2016 and could generate up to 10,000 jobs.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced £5m to tackle knife crime in known hot spots across the country. 'I hope communities will welcome the increased use of knife arches and stop and search to protect their young people,' she told a conference in Birmingham on May 22. Smith also said she would be providing witnesses with certainty that their identity would be protected so they could give evidence safely, as well as stepping up efforts to stop guns coming into the country and providing safe education and housing opportunities for young people leaving gangs.
A £10m-a-year research fund to improve public health and reduce health inequalities was announced by the Department of Health on May 23. The Public Health Research programme will evaluate a wide range of health interventions, with possible examples being social marketing to promote safe sex or the use of speed bumps to prevent road traffic accidents. The PHR programme is designed to provide new knowledge on the benefits and costs of policies. Public health minister Dawn Primarolo said the programme would provide policy-makers, frontline professionals and members of the public with the information they needed to improve health and reduce health inequalities.
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