independent review of terrorist asset freezing act 2010 December 15, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : transparency , add a commentDavid Anderson, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has published his first report. There’s a lot in this report, including a very clear description of the background and of the statute. Reading the report it isn’t very clear that there’s much clarity about what the freezing of assets is really achieving. The report notes, for example, that the Treasury’s list of designated persons “has a distinctly haphazard look” (para. 10.12).
The report makes a number of recommendations, including:
The Treasury should issue and present to Parliament a statement of policy regarding ts approach to designation under TAFA 2010, in order to ensure that the power is used in a consistent and principled manner. That statement should deal, in particular, with: (1) the factors that may lead the Treasury to conclude that the statutory tests for designation (in particular, the necessity test) are satisfied;(2) the factors that in a case where the statutory tests are satisfied may inform the Treasury’s exercise of its discretion to designate (or to retain a designation in force). It should also confirm that no designation will be made, or retained in force, without consideration of whether designation would be proportionate bearing in mind the anticipated effect on private and family life (Article 8 ECHR) and property rights (Article 1 of the First Protocol).
The report also makes recommendations about improving procedures for designation and review, and for licensing and compliance (for example to reduce the humiliation suffered by designated persons) and about increasing transparency.
public administration select committee on the big society December 14, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : governance , add a commentConclusions of today’s report:
The substantial change expected to result from the Big Society project, namely the devolution of power to communities and citizens will not occur overnight: if successful, as witnesses suggested, it will take a generation. The Government’s Big Society statements have, so far, failed to communicate this point effectively. There is public confusion with the policy agenda, eighteen months into this administration. Confusion also still exists among many service providers. Early examples, such as the Work Programme, have caused the charitable sector to express serious reservations about the implementation of the Government’s ambitions in practice.
To bring in charities and voluntary groups to deliver public services, the government must take steps to address the barriers they experience in the contracting and commissioning system, which means developing a plan to address roles, tasks, responsibilities and skills in Whitehall departments. We recommend:
a) A single Big Society Minister, who has a cross-cutting brief, to help other Ministers to drive through this agenda once they begin reporting progress against the aims of Open Public Services White Paper, from April 2012.
b) An impact assessment, applied to every Government policy, statutory instrument, and new Bill, which asks the simple question: “what substantively will this do to build social capital, people power, and social entrepreneurs?â€
Unless this is done, the Big Society project will not succeed
corporate jotwell: december 2011 December 12, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : jotwell , add a commentThis month I am recommending Kimberly Krawiec’s paper: Don’t ‘Screw Joe the Plummer’: The Sausage-Making of Financial Reform.
uk government consults on gender and insurance December 9, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : financial regulation, gender , add a commentThe UK is consulting on its proposed response to the Test-Achats decision. The announcement of the consultation states:
The Consultation document seeks views on the Government’s legal interpretation of the judgment and the accompanying draft regulations that amend the Equality Act. It also seeks comments on the Government’s impact assessment and requests additional data that would contribute to a better understanding of the impact on consumers and insurers. Finally, it asks for views on some of the key issues arising from the judgment, such as the scope of indirect discrimination.
what price corporate responsibility? November 30, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : truth , add a commentThe House of Commons International Development Committee has published a report which is quite critical of BAE Systems’ delay in making payments it promised to make as part of a settlement with respect to “improper book-keeping” with the Serious Fraud Office in 2010:
The Settlement Agreement did not require BAE Systems to make the ex gratia payment by a specified date. We recognise that the payment could not have been made before the conclusion of the Court proceedings on 21 December 2010. Nevertheless, we are concerned that the payment for the ‘benefit of the people of Tanzania’ remained outstanding more than eight months after the Court hearing and that BAE Systems envisaged spreading payment over a period of years, describing the payments as ‘our money’. Following our evidence session, we wrote to the Chairman of BAE Systems, urging the company in the strongest possible terms to pay immediately the full £29.5 million ex gratia payment to the Government of Tanzania in accordance with the proposals made by that Government and endorsed by DFID. Finally, the company agreed. We welcome this decision announced in a letter to the Committee Chair dated 19 August 2011 to make the payment to the Government of Tanzania and subsequent confirmation that it had made arrangements for the payment.
BAE of course believes in corporate responsibility:
Maintaining high standards of business conduct is essential to enhance our overall business performance, build trust, and maintain and improve our reputation with stakeholders.
Its Code of Conduct states that:
To be Trusted we must deliver on our commitments.
Just not all of them, apparently. Or at least not very speedily.
transparency and the public interest: the sec, citigroup, and judge rakoff November 28, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : lies , add a commentRefusing to approve the SEC’s and Citigroup’s settlement of proceedings Judge Rakoff affirms the court’s right to determine whether a n injunction is in the public interest and rejects the idea that the SEC is the sole determiner of the public interest in the context of consent judgments. He goes further:
when a public agency asks a court to become its partner in enforcement by imposing wide-ranging injunctive remedies on a defendant, enforced by the formidable judicial power of contempt, the court, and the public, need some knowledge of what the underlying facts are: for otherwise, the court becomes a mere handmaiden to a settlement privately negotiated on the basis of unknown facts, while the public is deprived of ever knowing the truth in a matter of obvious public importance….Finally, in any case like this that touches on the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives, there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth. In much of the world, propaganda reigns, and truth is confined to secretive, fearful whispers. Even in our nation, apologists for suppressing or obscuring the truth may always be found. But the S.E.C., of all agencies, has a duty, inherent in its statutory mission, to see that the truth emerges; and if fails to do so, this Court must not, in the name of deference or convenience, grant judicial enforcement to the agency’s contrivances.
high pay commission final report November 22, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : markets , add a commentCheques with Balances: Why Tackling High Pay is in the National Interest.
pre-announcement of uk’s call for evidence on pfi November 15, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : consultation , add a commentThe UK plans to make a call for evidence on December 1 with a view to amending the private finance initiative. Here’s what the pre-announcement says:
The Government will expect a new delivery model to draw on private sector innovation but at a lower cost to the taxpayer, offering better value for our investment in public services. The Government’s approach to reform will be guided by the following principles, to create a model that:
is less expensive, and that uses private sector innovation to deliver services more cost effectively;
can access a wider range of financing sources, including encouraging a stronger role to be played by pension fund investment;
strikes a better balance between risk and reward to the private sector;
has greater flexibility to accommodate changing public service needs over time;
maintains the incentive on the private sector to deliver capital projects to time and to budget and to take performance risk on the delivery of services;
delivers an accelerated and cheaper procurement process; and
gives greater financial transparency at all levels of the project so that the public sector is confident that it is getting what it paid for, and that the taxpayer is sure it is getting a fair deal now and over the longer term.
Do they really want to encourage pension funds to invest in pfi projects while making investment in such projects less profitable and riskier?
eu food additive video November 14, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : food, multilingualism , add a commentVideo for a multilingual community:
debit card fees: consumer pressure November 3, 2011
Posted by Bradley in : markets , add a commentSometimes consumers can have an impact on the behaviour of financial institutions. But it takes a lot of effort to energise citizens around financial regulation and this was one very immediate issue of obvious direct relevance to bank customers. Other more fundamental, larger or more technical issues are much harder to deal with, and there’s a danger that citizens will just disengage from these issues. Molly Katchpole writes:
Despite this huge victory, there’s no way I’m ever going back to Bank of America, or any of the other big banks. The debit card fees were a tipping point for me, though I know that these fees aren’t the worst of the banks’ transgressions. Big banks are still behind the merciless wave of foreclosures rocking the country and providing virtually no help to struggling homeowners. They’re not lending enough to get the stagnant economy moving again; consequently, people like me can’t find full-time work. And they’re still spending millions upon millions to corrupt our government with their influence.