News round-up – January 30

15 Jun 09
A disk containing sensitive personal details of about 2,000 British Council staff was mislaid in December by TNT, the courier firm has revealed. The disk contained names, salaries, National Insurance numbers and bank account numbers — but the British Council said the data was securely encrypted. A British Council spokesman said: ‘It was sent according to our agreed process with the usual secure TNT courier service but was not received by our human resources team. TNT has informed us that they are still taki

A disk containing sensitive personal details of about 2,000 British Council staff was mislaid in December by TNT, the courier firm has revealed. The disk contained names, salaries, National Insurance numbers and bank account numbers — but the British Council said the data was securely encrypted. A British Council spokesman said: ‘It was sent according to our agreed process with the usual secure TNT courier service but was not received by our human resources team. TNT has informed us that they are still taking steps to find the disk.’ The spokesman added that the system for transferring data was being reviewed.

Universities might be financially penalised for taking on too many students in the next two years, Universities’ Secretary John Denham has warned. Writing to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Denham said the number of accepted applicants to full-time undergraduate courses had risen by 7% between 2007 and 2008. There were 442,443 accepted applications in 2008, up from 413,430 in 2007. Denham said universities should eliminate ‘over-recruiting’ in 2009, and seek to make other value-for-money savings. Denham added he was reducing funding for the coming year by £19m from the previously forecast sum. Despite this, overall funding for the sector would rise by 3.2% for teaching and 4.5% for research.

The government is inviting councils and primary care trusts to bid to run pilots for free school meals starting in September. The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health have jointly allocated £20m to the scheme, which will run for two years in three local authority areas. Two of the pilots will offer free school meals to primary school children, while a third is to test extending eligibility to secondary school children. ‘The pilots can help us to have a better understanding of the value for money of free school meals for all, and test whether we have the current rules for free school meals eligibility right,’ said Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls.

A record number of police officers have been suspended in Northern Ireland, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The 42 officers face disciplinary proceedings for reasons that include alleged threats to kill, drink driving, possession of drugs, alleged possession of indecent images and assault. A PSNI spokesman said the number should be viewed in the context of the overall size of the force, which currently stands at more than 8,500 full and part-time officers. Ulster Unionist policing board member Basil McCrea said he was encouraged that that the police were taking action and seen to be taking action.

Professor Keith Willett has been appointed the national clinical director for trauma care at the Department of Health. Willett will take up the newly created three-days-a-week position on April 1. The DoH said he would lead in the development of national clinical policy for trauma care, working closely with the NHS, professional bodies and the voluntary and independent sectors. The role follows Lord Darzi’s report on the NHS, High quality care for all.

Welsh Assembly Government permanent secretary Dame Gillian Morgan has announced the appointment of two new director-generals to the Welsh service’s senior management board. Director of finance Christine Daws becomes director-general for finance. Morgan said: ‘Chris Daws has extensive experience across public sector finance which has proved invaluable to us in her current role.’ Clive Bates, currently head of the United Nations Environment Programme in Sudan, has taken over as director-general for sustainable futures.

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