Search Results for: government

February 19, 2015

Government making progress in flexible working and green tech

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Flexible working, News, Public Sector, Technology

The Government has published the latest edition of its ‘Greening Government ICT Strategy’ report, which looks at how central public sector bodies in the UK are addressing environmental issues directly associated with hardware as well as related issues such as travelling to work, the use of property, working cultures and the delivery of services. For the first time the report includes details of energy consumption. The main commitments of the strategy are the ongoing shift to cloud based ‘digital by default’ operations and a focus on the flagship the Way We Work (TW3) flexible working programme which aims ‘to ensure that civil servants have the modern tools they need to enable them to work effectively together and with customers. New greener digital technologies and working practices will help do just that.’

February 19, 2015

UK Government announces plans to increase access to wi-fi on trains

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Public Sector, Technology

The UK Government has announced that it is to invest £50 million in providing free Wi-Fi on a number of regional rail networks across England and Wales. The rollout will extend to Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN); Southeastern; Chiltern and Arriva Trains Wales. In addition, all future bids for new rail franchises will have to include provisions for Wi-Fi infrastructure. The government has said it is focusing on those operators that currently have limited plans to invest in Wi-Fi infrastructure to give the greatest benefit to customers, which may explain the absence of long distance carriers. The plan is to offer greater access to free wi-fi on the country’s rail network by 2017. The money is equivalent to the amount Network Rail has returned to the Government for missing punctuality targets.

February 16, 2015

Government launches scheme to attract US tech sector to UK

by Mark Eltringham • News, Property, Technology

The Government has launched a scheme to attract US tech firms to set up or ramp up their businesses in the UK. The tech sector is already worth around £120 billion to the UK and the Government hopes the HQ-UK programme will offer investors a chance to tap into a well-established pool of talent and a business-friendly and low tax economy. The initiative is a joint venture between Tech City, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. HQ-UK will simplify and quicken processes for visa applications and setting up UK bank accounts. The programme will also highlight the UK’s high skilled tech savvy workforce, the Government’s commitment to the development of programming skills in schools and the second largest labour market in the EU.

February 5, 2015

Rural areas overlooked by Government’s broadband rollout

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology

The disjointed approach of the UK Government to the rollout of fast broadband is evident with the publication of a new report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. In true The Thick Of It fashion, the report appeared just as the head of the Cabinet Office Francis Maude was speaking at this week’s Slate 15 event praising the Government’s successes in the development of digital services. While progress is being made in many areas, it’s also clear that the patchy roll-out of fast rural broadband is holding back rural businesses and workers. The new report claims that people in rural areas are largely overlooked by the government’s £1bn Broadband Delivery UK project which aims to have broadband in all UK properties by 2017, including superfast broadband in 95 percent.

February 3, 2015

Government publishes details of UK’s digital infrastructure for first time

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Public Sector, Technology

The UK government has today published new information about over 13,000 miles of publicly owned digital infrastructure and outlined steps to ensure that these networks are used to improve connectivity for users and businesses across the country. Each year the government claims to spend around £1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money on public sector networks, including signal masts, fibre optics, and cables but had no comprehensive database of the details of the current infrastructure. The Government now hopes that the publication of the details of the nation’s public digital infrastructure will allow its spare capacity to be used effectively, to minimise the chance that a lack of knowledge will lead to unnecessary duplication and to allow more parts of the UK to enjoy better digital coverage and enhance the benefits of flexible working.

February 3, 2015

UK Government lays out its plans and hopes for Internet of Things

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Technology

Ofcom, the UK Government’s regulatory body for the telecoms industry, has published its strategy to establish the ways in which the UK can have a leading role in the development of the Internet of Things. The technology, which links objects to each other wirelessly, is already installed in some 40 million devices in the UK and Ofcom predicts this number will grow in to the hundreds of millions by 2022 with more than a billion daily transfers of information. The report is calling for a collaborative programme of work led by the private sector and government to create a regulatory and business environment that encourage the uptake of the technology and drives investment and innovation. The report lays out the key criteria needed to make this a reality and presents a range of scenarios in which the technology yields discernible benefits.

January 6, 2015

Government should accept that self employment is the new normal for many

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The Government should develop more policies that meet the needs of the growing numbers of self-employed in the UK and across Europe. That is the message of a new report from think tank The Institute for Public Policy Research which points out that while 40 percent of the rise in job levels since 2010 has been in self-employment, the Government should accept this is not a blip but a structural change in the way many people work and develop appropriate policies to meet their needs. The report argues that self-employment is already the new normal for some 4 million UK workers and the Government should take steps to ensure their pensions, training and earnings are in step with the rest of the workforce.

December 29, 2014

Employers far more positive about flexible working, claims Government report

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News

Positive attitudes towards flexible working are increasing amongst UK employers, according to a new survey from the Government. The latest edition of the Work–Life Balance Employer Survey, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, claims that over half (56 percent) of employers consider flexible working good for their business. The survey reports other major attitudinal shifts since the last edition was published in 2007, including the fact that the proportion of employers who agree with the statement ‘employees should not be able to change patterns if it disrupts the business’ has dropped from 73 percent to just 49 percent. The survey of just over 2,000 employers also found that the adoption of one particular form of flexible working – job sharing – had decreased in the intervening period while most others had increased markedly.

December 23, 2014

Government report highlights radical potential of Internet of Things

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, Knowledge, News, Technology

According to a report published this week by the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, by taking the lead in developing the internet of things, the UK could transform the way the country lives and deliver huge benefits to the economy. The internet of things – in which digital networks are connecting everyday objects so data can be shared – creates enormous opportunities for both the private sector and government. It also has the potential to be applied in many areas of everyday life, transforming the way we use energy, how we travel and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The number of connected devices could potentially reach up to 100 billion globally by 2020 and industry estimates also suggest that these technologies could have a global value of nearly £10 trillion by then.

December 9, 2014

Government must beef up the way it manages outsourced contracts

by Gary Watkins • Briefing, Comment, Facilities management, Public Sector

Any poorly-performing facilities management contract can result in financial and reputational loss, but where a government contract has been mismanaged, and there is a thirst for information on how the public purse has been spent, the repercussions can be major and the casualties high. The UK Government is the biggest spender on FM services, with £40 billion of outsourced contracts each year. However, in a recent report from the Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office, contract management came in for stinging criticism. Evidence of overbilling, capacity issues, and poor governance and recordkeeping led to a very clear message that the Government must beef up its contract management. Procurement and contract management have been viewed traditionally as low-status in the civil service and, as a result, have been at the mercy of administration cuts and lack of investment.

December 2, 2014

Green manifesto challenges next government to deliver low-carbon economy

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News

On the eve of the Autumn Statement, an influential business-led coalition of businesses, NGOs, industry associations and cross-party politicians has called on the next Parliament to tackle a range of environmental challenges affecting the UK economy and the built environment. The Aldersgate Group Manifesto identifies six target areas it says the next government must meet to build a growing, sustainable and resilient UK economy. It must accelerate the move to a competitive low carbon economy; prioritise energy and resource efficiency; improve our understanding and the state of our natural capital; equip the UK’s workforce with the right skills to benefit from the opportunities offered by the transition to a sustainable economy; increase financial flows towards low carbon and other environmental projects; and ensure the UK continues to benefit from progressive European environmental standards whatever the UK’s future relationship with the EU. More →

November 28, 2014

We should welcome the Government’s evidence based approach to wellbeing

by Justin Miller • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace, Workplace design

The UK Government is very big on evidence based design these days and it is applying this approach in a number of new areas of policy, including wellbeing. Invariably the outcomes of its research and analysis are first refracted through a political prism on their way to becoming legislation, but the approach is very welcome and we should greet it without cynicism. At the end of October of this year The Cabinet Office announced the launch of The What Works Centre for Wellbeing including a dedicated website. The centre has the support of 17 founding partners including Public Health England, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Office for National Statistics, a number of other central government departments, the Local Government Association and the BIG Lottery Fund which means it enjoys wide ranging buy-in from the people best able to shape policy making and is chaired by Lord Gus O’Donnell.