3G – short for third generation – is a generic term for the next generation of mobile telecommunications systems.

Mobile phones today are predominantly ‘2G’, and use the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) or CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) digital systems. These protocols support high bit-rate voice communications and limited data communications, as well as various auxiliary services, such as SMS (short message service) text messages.

The key distinction between 2G and 3G services is the exponentially higher data rate, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). This will allow 3G mobile devices to support services such as video footage, conferencing, and full internet access.

The 3G system used in the UK is UMTS: universal mobile telecommunication system.

Background

The first generation of mobile phones used analogue radio and circuit-switched systems. This produced poor voice transmission, low capacity and non-existent security. 1G systems, such as AMPS (advanced mobile phone system), TACS (total access communication system) and NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone), are no longer in active development anywhere in the world, and in some areas, the spectrum 1G networks used is being re-auctioned.

The shift to 2G telecoms involved a shift from analogue to digital encoding and the introduction of time division multiple access (TDMA) transmission methods. 2G telecoms have been massively successful, with GSM becoming the dominant standard in Europe and much of Asia, and the Americas using CDMA and GSM jointly.

The immense popularity of mobile phones, particularly the success of SMS messaging services, and the simultaneous internet-based zeitgeist, led the industry to believe that the public wanted ever more data services from their handsets, and it began to develop a successor that would be able to support such services.

Efforts were made to develop GSM to support higher data rates, through the introduction of packet-switching GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) technology, but the industry enthusiasm for 3G and massive hype in the late 1990s was creating an apparently unstoppable bandwagon. At the height of the dotcom boom in March 2000, network operator Vodafone became by far the UK’s largest company, measured by stock market value, at £240 billion on sales forecasts of less than £20 billion.

That spring, the government auctioned five licences for the radio spectrum to be used by the emerging UMTS 3G system (2200 MHz or 2.2GHz). The results, announced on April 27th, astonished everyone by raising a colossal £22.5 billion Germany’s subsequent auction raised even more – £31 billion.

However, it was beginning to seem that the high-water-mark of business enthusiasm had passed, as Italy’s auction raised just £7.5 billion, rather than the expected £13 billion, when overstretched bidders pulled out completely.

NTT DoCoMo launched its 3G service, the first in the world using wideband CDMA technology, on October 1st 2001 in Japan.

The launch of 3G services in the UK didn’t go completely smoothly as when Hutchison’s 3 service officially launched on March 3rd 2003 (3/3/03), it was not easy for consumers to obtain the handsets.

Controversies

Massive popular and business enthusiasm for 3G seemed to peak at the spectrum auction, after which developers encountered technological problems in the design of the handsets and networks. Telecoms was also at the forefront of the dotcom boom and suffered heavily when the so called ‘dotcom bubble’ burst.

It was widely suggested that the industry had paid too much for the spectrum licences, and with the cost of producing a new 3G infrastructure estimated at around the same sum again (a consequence of Europe’s decision to develop its own UMTS system), the new economic climate led many networks to attempt to scale back their commitments to the technology and delay its roll-out. In September 2001, Vodafone announced that its new 3G service would be slightly slower than some had thought.

Furthermore, the failure of the 2G ‘mobile internet’ service Wap (wireless application protocol) to really take off, warned the industry that customers were not interested in data services for their own sake. Mobile phone users seemed unwilling to use services other than voice calls and SMS in anything like the predicted numbers.

As such, the industry was uncertain about how to price 3G services when they became available. 3’s launch price model was consumer-oriented – event-based – rather than aimed at business, which would favour a per-megabyte rate.

It was also suggested that the launch of 3G services as primarily entertainment applications was a mistake: GSM, PCs and fax machines were originally launched to the business market with the aim of ‘trickling them down’ to the general public.

Competing against cheaper and improved GPRS services that are on offer, and with high prices and a lack of ‘must have’ services (the most significant being football video highlights), 3G’s launch in Europe has so far been disappointing.

Continued uncertainty

The future may be 3G, but its growth remains uncertain. Mobile phone customers are increasingly signing up to 3G-enabled devices – by the end of 2006 Vodafone had well over 25 per cent of its new deals with 3G phones.

The simple fact that the enormously popular Apple iPhone, launched in late 2007, was not 3G-enabled appeared to demonstrate general scorn for its relevance. But there were signals of some growth. In a back-handed compliment regulator Ofcom added caps to cross-network call charges to 3G firms last year, while in 2007 the Skypephone offered free calls between Skype’s 246 million users.

Other mobile phone operators have not been willing to allow 3G users to make VoIP calls through their phones, not wanting to lose revenue. It remains to be seen whether Skype’s move will signal a wider growth of 3G use – or demonstrate the limited interest on the mobile market.

Statistics

• The UK auction issued five licences to: Hutchison 3G UK Limited (£4,385 million), Vodafone Limted (£5,964 million) BT (3G) Limited (O2) (£4,030 million), One2One Personal Communications Limited (T-Mobile) (£4,004 million) and Orange 3G Limited (£4,095 million)
• 2.5G GPRS phones permit a data transfer rate of around 20 or 30 Kbps (with a theoretical maximum of 171.2 Kbps). The first Japanese 3G phones had a rate of 384 Kbps. Today’s handsets have rates of around 2.2 Mbps

Statistic 1: (Source: DTI, 2000); Statistic 2: (Source: Symbian, 2004)

Quotes

“3G has the potential to transform everyday life, opening up full scale, multi- media access to millions of people. 3G users will be able to surf the net, download e-mails, music and high quality pictures and hold video conferences all on the move.”

• Stephen Byers MP, then trade and industry secretary, April 2000

“What happened in the UK was disastrous. It is the worst thing that could have happened to the consumer.”

• Nicholas Negroponte, commenting on the UK’s 3G spectrum auction, Financial Times, June 2000

The post 3G mobile telecommunications appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

The G system was first established in 1980, following the invention of the mobile phone which allowed analogue data to be transmitted via phone calls.

5G (fifth generation) wireless network technology was introduced in 2019 as a significantly faster and more capable upgrade of its forerunner 4G.  5G offers download speeds up to 100 times that of 4G.  It is said to have the power to revolutionise daily lives, industries and public services by powering game-changing technologies such as virtual and augmented reality services and autonomous cars.

5G operates through a combination of cutting-edge network technology and the latest high-spec devices. Therefore, 5G networks can only be reached on 5G-compatible devices, and when within range of a 5G phone mast or tower.

The growth of 5G masts

Mobile phones are  in essence small radio transmitters and receivers, which operate using radio wave networks. To send or receive calls, a handset must be within range of a mobile phone mast: this is a fixed radio receiver and transmitter, whose antennae maximise network signal within that vicinity.

The roll out of a 5G network in the UK is now underway

The antennas must necessarily be high above the ground to avoid connection interference from the likes of buildings or trees. The taller the mast, the wider the network coverage, and the more phones that can be provided with a fast mobile signal.

When a call is made within range of a mast, the mast relays the call to a switching centre, either by underground cable or by microwave, which routes it to the correct destination.

There are currently in excess of 80 million mobile phones in use in the UK, all of which need to be within the range of a mast to function. Therefore, more base stations are needed in areas of high mobile usage. Masts may be only a few hundred metres apart in large cities, for instance, but several kilometres apart in rural areas.

In 2020, 5G coverage was still limited across the UK due to a limited number of 5G masts. However, the network is increasing rapidly as carriers are working to expand their services. EE was the first UK carrier to launch its 5G network in May 2019 and, by the end of 2019, had expanded to 50 towns and cities across the UK.

5G does not set out to ‘replace’ previous generations of mobile inter-connectivity, rather, it works alongside 3G and 4G networks to maximise connection speeds. Mobile network operators across the UK are currently undergoing a process known as ‘network densification’ as part of their 5G rollout strategy.

• In May 2021, the Queen’s Speech contained details of the government’s new Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill designed to further extend 5G mobile coverage and introduce new safety standards for digital devices.

The benefits of 5G Networks

The overall performance rate of 5G networks is said to be up to 100 times faster than that of 4G.

When 4G made its debut in 2009, its peak download speed was around 10 megabytes per second. By comparison, 5G offers speeds of between 10 and 20 gigabytes per second. Applying these figures, it would take around 2 minutes to download a 3-hour film.

On 5G devices, network latency (delay) decreases from 30 milliseconds to 1 millisecond, generating optimum conditions for online streaming and video calling. 5G also provides more reliable, low-latency connection to sensors, computers, and other devices.

5G also boasts a significantly higher data capacity, due to its ability to access new frequencies and wave spectrums. This, in turn, makes the device much more capable of handling simultaneous requests at once. 4G devices often experience delays due to the high volumes of network traffic and their inability to access higher wave frequencies.

Further advantages of 5G networks include a significantly higher quality of voice and video calls, faster and smoother online streaming, and the expansion of high-tech features such as real-time language translation.

Issues around 5G Masts:

1. 5G Mast locations

In July 2020, the government announced a series of law changes to increase the speed and efficiency of 5G rollout across the UK. Despite widespread objection, new laws reduced existing limitations on the location and height of phone masts.

5G Masts are taller than conventional mobile phone masts

The construction of new 5G masts was now permitted significantly closer to highways and main roads, and at heights of up to 50m (subject to approval from the relevant planning authority) – double the previous limit of 25m.

Existing 4G masts could also be strengthened to support 5G infrastructure, without the approval of local authorities, so to share the network between mobile operators. Finally, changes to planning regulations made it easier for cabinets containing radio equipment to be installed alongside phone masts, in order to enhance 5G coverage.

The government defended these planning reforms as a means of improving reliable mobile phone coverage throughout the UK – specifically targeting remote and rural areas which have traditionally received slower connections than elsewhere in the country.

The new laws were designed to support the government in delivering its £1 billion deal with mobile operators to create a ‘Shared Rural Network’, boosting productivity and investment in rural areas.

In September 2020, the government faced a legal challenge over its decision to push ahead with reforms to phone-mast legislation. Civil servants were accused of holding back critical scientific data on the issue, while the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was said to have not conducted a proper consultation on the decision.

Driving the challenge, Phillip Watts, trustee of EM Radiation Research Trust said: “While there is so much concern around health issues associated with 5G infrastructure, it cannot be right to give telecommunication companies carte blanche to invade our cities, towns, communities and residential streets with controversial technology.”

In March 2022, the government announced plans to amend the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, in a way that would further support the roll out of 5G, particularly in rural areas.

These plans allowed existing mobile masts to be upgraded to 5G without prior approval.  These measures allowed the width of the mast to be increased by 50%, and the height to be increased up to a maximum of 25 metres.  New masts could now also be built up to the height of 30 metres in unprotected areas, with buildings able to host smaller masts (up to 6m above the building height) without prior approval.

With 5G said to be important for the driverless car revolution, the government appeared particularly keen to encourage the use of building based masts near public roads so to improve mobile coverage for road users.

2. Health Worries

What are the Stated Concerns?
Ever since the first introduction of 3G masts in the early 2000s, concerns have been raised around their possible threats to human health. Concerns typically lie with the radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitted from telephone masts which, some argue, hold the potential to damage human DNA, cause oxidative damage, and disrupt cell metabolism.

In 2011, the World Health Organization furthered concerns in this area by defining radiofrequency radiation as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. Campaigners express concern that with radio frequency radiation, the higher the frequency, the higher the associated risk. Given that 5G uses frequencies of up to 18 times that of 4G, it is suggested that the potential health hazard would logically be higher.

How are these health Concerns rebuffed?
Dr Novella, assistant professor of neurology at Yale University in America, has said that opponents of high-frequency radio wave networks show tendencies to confuse hazard with risk. He claims that, “A loaded pistol is a hazard because theoretically, it can cause damage. But if you lock it in a safe, the risk is negligible”.

Instead, it is suggested that an abundance of misinformation has led onlookers to align radiation from phone masts with ionizing radiation; the damaging kind which is released from nuclear explosions. However, 5G operates at wavelengths using non-ionising radiation. As has been clarified by scientists and medical experts, radiation which is non-ionising is too weak to break chemical bonds and, therefore, to cause damage to DNA or human cells.

Further to this, all mobile and WiFI networks in the UK conform to strict regulations based on advanced research, scientific literature and public consultation. The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) – a body scrutinizing the health risks of radio broadcasts – has declared 5G completely safe as long as all guidelines are followed.

The Commission has spent the past 7 years developing new guidelines into the safe use of 5G radio networks. It has stressed that previous guidelines – in force from 1998 – would have been sufficient for new 5G technologies, yet additional precautional measures  are now in place to acknowledge the higher frequency spectrums in operation.

In the words of Public Health England, ‘Independent expert groups in the UK and at international level have examined the accumulated body of research evidence. Their conclusions support the view that health effects are unlikely to occur if exposures are below international guideline levels’.

3. China and National Security

Amidst national security concerns, the government announced in 2020 that the phone company Huawei will be banned from the UK’s 5G network from 2027.

This decision was taken in response to the firmer actions being taken by the US, Australia and New Zealand, whose governments have issued a blanket ban on trade with this particular phone company.

These sanctions are founded in the fear that placing Chinese-operated technology in the heart of the UK’s 5G network could give China the capacity to ‘spy’ on, or gather data, from UK users .

The US authorities claim that China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, holds that organisations must “support, co-operate with and collaborate in national intelligence work”.   The US have said this could be used to justify intervention from state-sponsored hackers via the network. Speculations of state sponsorship have been denied by Huawei, which describes itself as a company “fully owned by its employees”.

Removing 5G equipment from existing networks is expected to delay the UK’s roll-out of 5G by 2-3 years while posing additional costs of up to £2 billion.

5G Conspiracy theories

Following the outbreak of coronavirus in 2020, a number of conspiracy theories circulated on social media, attributing the emerging covid 19 virus to 5G phone masts: a claim which remains unfounded and widely refuted.

The conspiracy theory was branded as “dangerous nonsense” by the Cabinet Minister, Michael Gove MP.

The body which represents the UK’s main mobile networks, Mobile UK commented: “There is no scientific evidence of any link between 5G and coronavirus. Fact. Not only are these claims baseless, they are harmful for the people and businesses that rely on the continuity of our services”.

Industry sources have suggested that these unfounded conspiracy theories resulted in vandalism and arson attacks on some 20 masts across the UK.

Quotes

“5G will be transformative for our country, but only if we have confidence in the security and resilience of the infrastructure it is built upon.” – Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden, 2020

“Ensuring as many people as possible, wherever they live in the country, have access to fast, reliable mobile coverage and digital connectivity is crucial to our levelling up vision” – Stuart Andrew, Housing Minister, March 2022..

“There are two types of radiation. Ionising is the kind that you get in hospital when you have radiotherapy. Non-ionising is what comes out of phone masts and TV towers. People get confused about adverse health effects. Cancer is not a recognised health effect as a result of exposure from masts, for example.” – Dr Richard Findlay, Society for Radiological Protection’s EMF and Optical Radiation Committee, 2020

“A considerable amount of research has been carried out on radio waves and Public Health England have concluded that exposures of radio waves to the public are well within the international health-related guideline levels that are used in the UK.” – Margot James, Former Digital Minster, 2019

“[The] government will support work to bust health myths over 5G, which WHO say poses the same risk as talcum powder and pickled vegetables. There is no credible evidence to back up concerns and huge evidence for the economic benefit of gigabit-capable networks.” -Matt Warman MP, UK Digital Minister, 2020

Statistics

Whilst 4G may have accounted for 66.6% of total mobile subscriptions in 2019; its share will decline over the forecast period to reach 50.9% by 2024 due to customer migration to 5G. GlobalData expects 5G subscriptions to account for 39.9% of all mobile subscriptions by 2024. [Source – Global Data, 2020]

By 2024, forecasts predict that there will be around 1.9 billion 5G subscriptions worldwide. [Source – Ericsson Mobility Report forecast, June 2019].

EE was the first network to launch 5G in the UK on May 30, 2019, followed by Vodafone on July 3 and O2 on October 17, 2019.

The post 5G Masts appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

A-Levels are properly referred to as the Advanced General Certificate of Education. They are one of the types of principal examination course studied by pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland immediately after the conclusion of compulsory education, usually between the ages of 17 and 18.  They are the principal entry requirements for most higher education courses.

Scotland has a different system altogether, with examinations called Higher grades and Advanced Higher grades.

A-Levels demand more individual, in-depth study than GCSEs and place greater emphasis on traditional academic and study skills.

A-Levels are typically studied for in Further Education Colleges, Sixth Form Colleges or school sixth forms, although adult learners can undertake A-Level courses in a variety of other settings. Most educational institutions set certain GCSE (or equivalent) qualifications as entry requirements to study for A-Levels.

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is the regulator of qualifications, examinations and assessments in England and vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland.

Between 2015 and 2018, the government in England introduced a series of reforms to A Levels. These reforms moved them from a modular structure to a linear structure with exams at the end of the course.

Specifically the reforms reduced the coursework aspect in A Levels. They also reduced the number of available A Levels, eliminating options such as archaeology and home economics. AS Levels became established as a fully separate qualification, although they still encompass the first year of the full A Level content.

A levels have become far more exam based following the government’s 2015 reforms.

The A-level system – Pros and Cons

A-Levels have, since the 1950s, been held up as representing the “gold standard” of school educational attainment. As with GCSEs, continually rising pass rates – topping 95 per cent in 2003 for the first time – have led to claims that that gold standard has been devalued and that courses are becoming easier.

It is also alleged in many quarters, that some courses are clearly easier than others, and that this has led to a migration of students away from “difficult” subjects, such as mathematics, physics and modern languages, towards subjects that are perceived as easier. Official figures certainly show a trend of fewer candidates taking those courses that are regarded as “harder”.

A further concern has been an apparent increasing gap which has emerged between students at state schools and private schools. The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance reported that A-Level results at comprehensive schools had remained relatively static, while private schools had made improvements. 15.7 per cent of all A-Level papers were awarded a grade A, but this rose to 31.7 per cent of private school entries. The controversy was fuelled further by the introduction of the new A* grade with exam results in 2010 suggesting that pupils in the independent sector were three times more likely to achieve an A* than their comprehensive counterparts.

Dumbed-down A-levels

The History of A Levels

Early Years
GCE A-Level and O-Level examinations were first sat in 1951, on the premise that students took one or the other. Until 1953, A-Level exams were graded only as a pass or fail, at which point a “distinction” grade was introduced. In 1963, a five grade scheme was introduced, with quotas for the allocation of grades: 10 per cent of candidates would receive an A grade, 15 per cent a B, 10 per cent a C, 15 per cent a D, 20 per cent an E, and a further 20 per cent would receive an O Level pass.

This arrangement persisted until the 1980s, with ongoing concern being voiced about the narrowness of many grade boundaries brought about by the quota system: in 1982, some subjects saw a B and a D separated by a margin of just 8 marks. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, a campaign to switch the system to a mark-boundary grading system was waged, which was finally successful in 1987. The O-Level pass grade was dropped this year, and replaced by the considerably narrower “N” grade, which signified a “near miss”.

1989 saw the introduction of the Advanced Supplementary or AS Level – not to be confused with the Advanced Subsidiary AS of today – in response to longstanding concerns that students were not receiving a sufficiently broad education in concentrating entirely on a few (typically three) A-Level subjects. AS was intended as a qualification of equal difficulty to A Level, taken at 18, but with half the content (and as such half the “value” for university admissions purposes). However, AS never really took off, a situation acknowledged in the 1996 Dearing Report, which proposed the current Advanced Subsidiary and A2 system.

A-Levels and the Labour Government (1997 to 2010)
In 2000, the new Labour Government published the outcome of its “Curriculum 2000” review programme, proposing a substantial overhaul of the existing A-Level system. In order to address concerns about the breadth of the curriculum, a new modular approach was introduced under which most students study four subjects with three “assessment units” each in their first year of study.

Completion of this AS stage can be a qualification in its own right, or else it constitutes 50 per cent of the marks towards the full A-Level. A2 units, undertaken in the second year of study, reflect the harder elements of the old A-Level syllabuses and contribute the remaining 50 per cent of the marks.

In 2002, it was alleged that exam boards had manipulated grades in order to ensure that the introduction of Curriculum 2000 was not seen to have led to “grade inflation”. A review, headed by Mike Tomlinson, the former Chief Inspector of Schools, ordered a review of grade boundaries – which required reconsideration of 90,000 students’ results.

At the time, Ron McLone of the OCR board complained that neither the DfES nor the QCA had given advice on how much harder A2 had to be than AS until the last minute. In the end, only a relatively small number of students had their results upgraded, but some did lose out on university places as a result of the problems, and confidence in the system was shaken. The crisis led to the sacking of the head of the QCA, Sir William Stubbs and the resignation of the Education Secretary Estelle Morris.

In response to the difficulties experienced with A-Levels in recent years, the Government set up the Tomlinson Review of 14-19 education. The final Tomlinson Report was published in October 2004 and recommended that A-Levels and GCSEs should be subsumed within a 14-19 diploma model education system. It proposed a four-level diploma system with students taking exams whenever they are ready. At the advanced diploma level there would be extra questions designed to stretch the very brightest and allow universities to distinguish between the top students.

Speaking immediately after the Tomlinson Report Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted that A-Levels were here to stay.

In November 2006, the government announced plans to introduce an A* grade for A-levels from 2010. The government said it would also provide funding to ensure that one state school in each education authority offered the International Baccalaureate.

The year 2007 marked a quarter century of improving A-Level grades – reopening the debate on grade inflation. The government rejected claims that exams were getting easier, insisting this devalued the hard work of teachers and students. Independent research, however, has found students’ core skills are failing to improve in-line with rising exam grades. Higher education institutions have also been increasingly vocal in criticising the poor quality of many first year students.

Subsequently new A2 exams were designed to “stretch and challenge” the brightest students and the new A* grade first awarded in August 2010 requires candidates to achieve both a grade A on the A-Level overall and at least 90% or more across the A2 units.

Balls delays A-Level review to 2013

A-Levels and the Conservative/Coalition Government (Since 2010)
In March 2012, Education Secretary Michael Gove wrote to Ofqual outlining his concerns about the structure of A levels and proposed certain changes. Ofqual launched a consultation in the summer on the structure and assessment arrangements of A-levels.

Subsequently, in January 2013, Mr Gove outlined future changes to be made to A-level structure, including the development of new AS levels as a standalone qualification. He also confirmed that leading universities would be more closely involved in developing the content of new A levels, beginning with the subjects most commonly required for undergraduate study.

In reforming A-Levels in recent years, the government has striven, in its mind, to improve the integrity of A-Levels. Defending the changes, Michael Gove as Education Secretary, said, “Current A-levels do not always provide the solid foundation that students need to prepare them for degree-level study and for vocational education”, adding, “The modular nature of the qualification and repeated assessment windows have contributed to many students not developing deep understanding or the necessary skills to make connections between topics”.

According to Mr Gove, there was “clear dissatisfaction” among leading university academics about the preparation of A-level pupils for advanced studies and nearly three-quarters of lecturers reported having had to adapt their teaching approaches for under­prepared first year undergraduates.  The governments reforms were met with some objections by the teaching unions.

A-Levels and the Coronavirus pandemic (2020/21)
A further adjustment to the administration of A-Levels was made for the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 academic years in response to the coronavirus pandemic. With schools in England physically closed between March and June 2020, and between December and March 2021, it was announced that traditional A-Level exams for those academic years would not go ahead.

In the spring of 2020, the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson detailed how an Ofqual algorithm would modulate teacher assessed grades. Williamson repeatedly defended the algorithm arguing it was the only way to stop grade inflation.

However, the release of ‘standardised’ A-Level grades on 13 August 2020 generated widespread criticism of this algorithm from schools and colleges across the country.  In some schools, the awarded A-Level grades were up to 40% lower than the predictions given by teachers, with 3% seeing a decrease of two grades. Because the algorithm used previous school attainment as part of its calculation process, one student from a traditionally ‘underperforming’ school was more likely to be downgraded compared to another student of equal intelligence from a high-achieving school.

The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson came under significant pressure to announce that unmodified teacher assessed grades would be accepted. After a delay, Williamson committed to this U-turn announcing that he was ‘incredibly sorry’ for the distress caused to pupils.

Quotes

“The ending of the modular structure of A-levels, the de-coupling of AS levels and A-levels and other changes announced previously, such as limiting resits, are all profound reforms that should not be contemplated lightly. The fact that these changes are being taken forward in a cavalier, evidence-lite fashion, which is the norm for this Coalition Government, should be of deep concern to all those who are interested in a high quality, 16 plus qualifications system.” – Chris Keates, Former General Secretary of the NASUWT – January 2013

“It is of paramount importance that new A-levels command the respect of leading universities. Together, these changes will enhance the reputation of A-levels, better prepare more students for higher education, and ensure that competition for university places is fairer.” – Education Secretary Michael Gove – January 2013

End A-level ‘monkey business’ – report

The post A-Levels appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

Born in London in 1953, Diane Abbott would go on to become the first black woman ever elected to Parliament, representing the diverse north London constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Abbott has for many years been an important voice on the left of the Labour Party.

In April 2023, she lost the Labour Party whip at Westminster following a controversial letter that she wrote to the Observer newspaper about racism.  The Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who is Jewish, described the letter “deeply offensive and deeply distressing”.

Diane Abbott’s letter was ‘deeply wrong, historically wrong, and offensive’, says shadow minister

In September 2023, Abbott claimed that Labour’s whips office is no longer conducting a formal investigation.

She said that the internal inquiry is “now run entirely out of the Labour party HQ, which reports to Keir Starmer – and there is no investigation”.

She added: “I am the longest-serving black MP. Yet there is widespread sentiment that as a black woman and someone on the left of the party, that I will not get a fair hearing from this Labour leadership.”

Abbott’s career in front line politics advanced most notably during Jeremy Corbyn’s time as Labour Leader.  A key-ally to Corbyn, Abbott was, consecutively, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development (2015-2016) and Shadow Home Secretary (2016-2020). Under Ed Miliband, Abbott served on the shadow health team (2010-2013).

Since Keir Starmer’s election as Labour leader, Abbott has been sidelined, and from her position on the back-benches, and at times, has been critical of the party’s new leadership.

Political Career

Having been elected as the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1987—a borough located in north-London, Abbott initially didn’t progress far within the Parliamentary Labour Party, particularly during the era of New Labour. Through much of the 1990s, Abbott served on the Treasury Select Committee of the House of Commons, after which she joined the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

In 2010, Abbott made a bid for the Labour Leadership. She limped through the contests’ first-round with the minimum 33 MP endorsements. Fellow leadership contender David Miliband was said to have lent Abbott his vote, reportedly in hope that she might subsequently deprive his brother, Ed, of left-wing support. Facing the Milibands, Andy Burnham and Ed Balls in the contest, Abbott described her opponents as ‘geeky men in suits’.

Abbott was an outspoken supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and served in his shadow Cabinet throughout his time as Labour leader.

Diane Abbott and Keir Starmer

Following the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s finding that the Labour Party broke equality law during the leadership of Corbyn, the former Labour leader was suspended from the party. Abbott was prominent in her opposition to Corbyn’s expulsion and she shared a petition on social media to demand Corbyn be reinstated.

Abbott tweeted, ‘He has always stood with us.  We must stand with him’.

Abbott has accused Keir Starmer of using his remain platform during his time in Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet as a project of his own so to become Labour Leader. The former Shadow Home Secretary told the BBC Newsnight that Starmer’s ambition was ‘apparent’.

Following the announcement of a police investigation into whether Sir Keir Starmer may have broken lockdown rules by having a beer and takeaway with staff at an event in Durham in 2021, Diane Abbott was one of the first Labour MPs to suggest Sir Keir should “consider his position” if he was fined by police.

Political Views and Controversies

A committed Socialist, Abbott is a long time member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs; Jeremy Corbynand John McDonnell are also members.

Diane Abbott: London shouldn’t have another white, middle-aged man as mayor

Abbott was criticised in 2003 for sending her son to private school—a move many felt was inconsistent with her socialist values. Abbott had previously criticised her Labour colleagues—including Tony Blair—of being ‘intellectually incoherent’ when they did the same.

When questioned about the controversy, Abbott has defended her decision saying,’I had to choose between my reputation as a politician and my son’.

As Shadow Home Secretary at the time, Abbott led the Labour response to the ‘Windrush Scandal’. Abbott repeatedly questioned then-Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, on the matter and called on him to publish the figures for people caught up in the affair.  Abbott continues to champion the Windrush cause.

Abbott apologises for ‘white people’ jibe

Background

How old is Diane Abbott?
Diane Julie Abbott was born on the 27thof September 1953.

What did Diane Abbott do before politics?
After graduating with a history degree from Cambridge University, Abbott became a Civil Servant at the Home Office.

Following this, Abbott went on to work for the lobby group the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), and became a journalist.

As a journalist, Abbott worked as a reporter for the breakfast television company TV-AM and for Thames Television. She also worked as a public relations consultant for various public sector clients.

Is Diane Abbott married?
Diane Abbott was married to David Ayensu-Thompson, a Ghanaian architect. The two divorced in 1993.

Diane Abbott – 3 Things you may not know

She turned down an invitation for Celebrity Come Dancing
In 2020, Abbott was invited to participate in Strictly Come dancing. Abbott refused the invitation, later telling BBC Radio Four’s ‘Today Programme that she thought about the decision for about ‘sixty seconds’.

She once had a romantic relationship with Jeremy Corbyn
In the early 1970s, Abbott was romantically involved with one Jeremy Corbyn, her future boss, while he was a Councillor in north London.

Diane Abbott and Michael Portillo
At neighbouring schools in their youth, Abbott and Michael Portillo have known each other since childhood. At a joint-school production, the two performed in a production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’—albeit not in the title roles.

Abbott would later reunite with Portillo on BBC One’s ‘This Week’ programme.

Social Media

Twitter Handle — @HackneyAbbott

Facebook Address — @Dianeabbott

Personal Website — http://www.dianeabbott.org.uk/

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Oldham East and Saddleworth is the more affluent of the two Oldham seats and spreads out from the centre of Oldham to include a number of Pennine villages and Saddleworth Moor.  The seat has been held by Labour since 1997, albeit was for a number of years a close Labour – Liberal Democrat marginal.  Some three fifths of the local electorate here backed Brexit in the 2016 Eu referendum.

Abrahams previously served in the Shadow Cabinet under Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, between 2016 and 2018.

Born in 1960, Abrahams was educated at Salford University, and worked as a public health consultant before being elected to Parliament.  She was Chair of Rochdale Primary Care Trust between 2002 and 2007 but resigned in protest at the use of private companies in the NHS.

Abrahams backed Sir Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour leadership election.  She backed Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 content, and Andy Burnham in the 2015 election.

She is married with two daughters, her husband John Abrahams, was once captain of Lancashire County cricket team.

Abrahams is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Kashmir; Health in all politics; Universal Credit; Women in the Penal System; Dementia; and Compassionate Politics.  She is Vice Chair of the Groups on Race Inequality; Unconscious Bias; Events; and the Green New Deal.

Email: abrahamsd@parliament.uk

Personal Website: http://www.debbieabrahams.org.uk

Twitter: @Debbie_abrahams

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Debbie-Abrahams

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In the English education system, academies are publicly-funded schools which operate independently of local authorities, doing so in a framework which the government claims is designed to promote innovation and raise school standards.

Academies have greater autonomy than traditional maintained state schools in areas such as the delivery of the curriculum, setting staff pay and conditions, changing the length of the school terms and the school day, and determining their own uniform policies.

An academy trust that runs more than one academy is called a multi academy trust (MAT). Member schools operate under a single governance structure. Roughly two-thirds of academies are part of multi-academy trusts. The majority of multi academy trusts oversee five schools of fewer, but around 30 multi academy trusts oversee 26 schools or more.

In January 2022, nearly 4.65 million pupils attended academies and free schools in England, equating to 79% of secondary pupils and 40% of primary pupils.

The majority of secondary school children are now educated at academies.

Types of academies

Academy schools come in a variety of different forms, albeit a distinction can be made between existing schools that move to academy status, and entirely new schools (free schools).

Existing Schools – Academies
Most academies are existing schools that have converted from a previously maintained status (under the auspices of the local education authority).

Sponsored academies have usually been set up to replace under-performing schools. Sponsors are responsible for establishing the academy trust, the governing body, and for appointing the head teacher. Sponsors can come from a wide variety of backgrounds including businesses, faith communities, universities and individual philanthropists. Outstanding schools and academies may now also become sponsors themselves.

Converter academies are successful schools that have chosen to convert to academies in order to benefit from the increased autonomy that academy status is said to bring. This option was introduced in 2010 as part of the then Coalition government’s plan to broaden the academy programme.

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are technical academies specialising in subjects such as engineering and construction. These are taught alongside traditional academic subjects, and ICT and business skills. UTCs are often sponsored by leading local businesses or local universities and strive to respond to local skills needs.

Studio schools are smaller schools that provide project-based practical learning alongside mainstream academic study. Students often work with local employers and follow a curriculum designed to equip them with specific skills and qualifications they will need for work or further education.

Free Schools
The academies programme also includes what are known as Free Schools. Free schools are actual whole new state schools, which operate in law, as academies.

The first Free Schools opened in September 2011. They are state funded, non-profit making, all-ability primary or secondary schools. Free schools are typically set up in response to demands from specific groups of local parents for better educational provision within their local community.

Free schools can be located in a variety of buildings, from offices to church halls. They have so far been set up by a wide range of groups including teachers, charities, universities, businesses, and faith groups.

The operation of academy schools

The ways in which academies operate, and how they typically differ from the maintained sector overseen by the local authority, are laid out below:

Curriculum
Where maintained mainstream schools must follow the national curriculum; academies don’t have to follow all aspects of the national curriculum and can chose to follow it in full or in part. Primary school academies do though still have to participate in national curriculum assessments (also known as SATs).

Since September 2020, all academies and free schools have been required by legislation to offer revised Relationships and Sex Education, and health education.

Management
Academies are run by individual charitable bodies called academy trusts. Local councils have little direct involvement in the management of academies.

Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) is responsible for inspecting the quality of education in all state-funded academies and free schools. It uses the same inspection framework as for maintained schools.

The operation of academies is further overseen by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) which is an executive agency within the Department for Education. Complaints about academies are handled by ESFA, once a complainant has been through a school’s own internal complaints procedure.

Academies are also overseen by a series of Regional Schools Commissioners appointed by the Department for Education. Regional Schools Commissioners cover eight separate regions within England. They monitor academy performance, approve some strategic and management decisions, and intervene when academies are deemed to be under performing.

Regional School Commissioners also decide on applications from maintained schools that wish to convert to academy status, review applications from sponsors, and advise on proposals for new free schools.

Admissions
Academies have to comply with the Department for Education’s School Admissions code and the law regarding school admissions. The Secretary of State does though have the power to vary this requirement where there is a “demonstrable need”.

New ‘free faith schools’ are currently able to offer half of their places based on religious selection, but they must keep at least half of places open to all children, irrespective of their religious or non religious backgrounds. As is the case for maintained faith schools, if a faith academy has fewer applicants than places (i.e. it is undersubscribed) it generally has to offer a place to any child that applies, without reference to faith.

Teachers
Academy Trusts employ their own staff, whereas in maintained schools the local authority is typically the employer.

As part of their funding agreement with the Department for Education, some academies and free schools do not have to employee teachers with formal ‘Qualified Teacher Status’ (QTS). The opposite is generally the case for maintained schools.

This approach to teacher recruitment for academies is designed to free up an academy to employ professionals, such as scientists, engineers, musicians, overseas teachers, and university lecturers, who may be well qualified with a wealth of useful knowledge, but who lack the specific Qualified Teacher Status.

Funding
Funding for academies typically comes in three forms. Initial grants that are available for the feasibility, planning and implementation stage in establishing an academy. Capital grants that are available in relation to buildings. And then, funding provisions for the running costs of the academy, once it is open.

The Government has stated that “becoming an academy should not bring about a financial advantage or disadvantage to a school”. Academies therefore receive the same level of per pupil funding that is available at a maintained school. All academies are required to abide by strict financial rules in relation to financial management, control and reporting, as laid down by the Education and Skills Funding Agency handbook.

Academy sponsors, as well as companies and individuals related to academy sponsors, are allowed to provide contracted services to their sponsored schools, as long as this is provided ‘at cost’ in the case of transactions over certain financial limits.

General Provisions
As with maintained state schools, academies are required to follow the law and guidance on special educational needs and exclusions, and to collaborate and share facilities with other schools and the wider community.

What are advantages and disadvantages of academy schools?

The academies programme was controversial when it was launched and continues to be so today.

Why do schools become academies?
The academy programme retains a large number of supporters.  The Labour Peer, Lord Adonis, the programme’s original architect, has claimed that academies are the best way to “breach the educational Berlin Wall between private and state education”. Whilst the Conservative government has suggested that the large volumes of schools which have chosen to move to academy status, shows schools voting with their feet, recognizing the benefits possessed by existing academies, and demonstrating the success of the programme.

The central argument put forward for academy schools is that they provide head teachers and school leaders with the freedom to take the decisions which they feel are in the best interests of their own school.

Academies are able to set their own targets, curriculums, class-sizes, adjust salaries, and decide where funds are allocated within their schools. This is presented as the managerial lifeline that a struggling school needs in order to be able to improve its fortunes. To their supporters, academies are presented as a means of driving up educational standards in disadvantaged areas.

It is suggested that making the switch to an academy status provides the opportunity for schools to operate more like a business. It is argued that the autonomous management structure of academies supports internal accountability and drives up standards.

The introduction of outside financial expertise, such as a sponsor or larger academy chain, is said to allow the school body to focus better on education standards, whilst the academy management keep an eye on the budget. It is further suggested that those Multi-Academy Trusts that prove successful, will be able to grow and spread the benefits of their expertise across the education system, whilst those that are less successful will shrink.

Free schools have also been advanced as one solution, to generating extra school places, in those local areas where there is a shortage of school places.

Disadvantages of Academy Schools?
At the same time, the academy programme has also faced criticism from some teachers, parents and politicians.

Where the academy programme was originally initiated by the Labour government of Tony Blair, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party moved to variously characterize the programme as representing a step towards privatisation, a waste of money, selective, and damaging to the surrounding schools.

Speaking to the Labour Party Conference in September 2018, the then shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, announced that a future Labour Government would “start by immediately ending the Tories’ academy and free schools programmes”. In contrast to the school based ‘autonomy model’ championed by academy supporters, Ms Rayner advanced the case for schools to be returned to democratic oversight of local councils.

In terms of specific criticisms, the academy programme has been said to create problems in terms of school places. For whilst local authorities retain the statutory responsibility to ensure there are enough school places for local children, they lack control over the number of places in academy schools.

It has also been argued that academies are specifically targeted by middle class parents, thereby denying access to the disadvantaged pupils they were intended to help. At the same time, it is suggested that academy schools possess the best facilities and attract the best teaching staff, something which in turn increases the chances of the remaining schools in a local area becoming so called ‘sink schools’.

Further concerns have also been raised around the ability of academies to employ teachers who are not formally qualified, and to vary teacher salary levels. Education unions have drawn attention to the remuneration levels of the Directors of several academy trusts, which they have suggested exceed those of some of the UK’s university vice chancellors.

Others have expressed reservations around the freedom of academies, particularly free faith schools, to disregard aspects of the national curriculum. This it has been suggested provides free rein to religious sponsors to teach topics such as creationism over biology.

The history of academies

Labour Government – 1997 to 2010
Academies were launched initially as City Academies by the Labour government in 2000. Andrew Adonis, who was a Downing Street education policy adviser at that time, and who subsequently became Lord Adonis and a Labour Cabinet Minister.  He is widely credited as the architect of the programme.

In a bid to tackle the high number of poorly performing schools, the Labour government had already established a Fresh Start scheme in which the weakest schools were closed and then re-opened under new management. This was not an unequivocal success and in May 2000 then Education Secretary David Blunkett said the Government had decided “a more radical approach” was needed and “substantial resources” would now be provided for the establishment of city academies.

The Labour leadership believed the experience of specialist schools and education action zones had shown that schools could benefit from involvement with non-governmental partners. Business, the churches and the voluntary sector were all courted as potential sponsors and partners for the new city academies, which would also “take account of the best lessons of City Technology Colleges and Charter Schools in the United States”.

The Education Act of 2002 provided for the prefix ‘city’ to be removed in order to enable schools in non-city areas to join the academy programme. The Act also provided for City Technology Colleges to become academies.

The first three academies opened in 2002; they were The Business Academy in Bexley, Greig City Academy and the Unity City Academy. The Business Academy, Bexley also became the first ‘all-through’ academy when a primary section was added in 2004.

By 2006 there were 46 academy schools in the UK. These included five former City Technology Colleges and five new schools. Of the 46 academies, 23 were in London. The National Audit Office reported that by October 2006, the academies programme, had cost £1.3 billion in capital and running costs.

The target at that time was for 200 academies to be open or in development by 2010. However, then prime minister, Tony Blair, announced that he wanted the programme to be accelerated and reach 400 academies – double the target – by 2010.

Despite speculation to the contrary, when Gordon Brown took over as prime minister in June 2007, he appeared equally enthusiastic, and pledged to continue the expansion of the academies programme. Writing in the Observer in 2008, Mr Brown said he had discussed with academy sponsors the possibility of “accelerating the expansion of our 400 planned academies as engines in disadvantaged areas for social mobility and social justice – not exclusive opportunities just for the few, but a new means of advancing opportunity for all”.

As it turned out, the number of academies rose from 83 in 2007 to 203 by 2010, just slightly over the original 200 target.

Government Policy – Since 2010
The new Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition government elected in May 2010 came into power with even more ambitious plans for the academy programme.

The newly appointed Education Secretary, Michael Gove, wrote to every head teacher in England saying he intended to open up the programme to all schools, including for the first time, primary and special schools.

Mr Gove said the Government was “genuinely committed to giving schools greater freedoms” and added, “We trust teachers and head teachers to run their schools. We think head teachers know how to run their schools better than bureaucrats or politicians.”

Schools rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted were to be fast-tracked through the system and the Academies Bill, included in the Queen’s Speech and subsequently passed in July 2010, enabled the first tranche of these academies to open in September 2010.

The academies programme then continued at pace under the Coalition. By January 2011 there were 407 academies open in England. Of these 204 had opened since September 2010. An additional 254 more schools had applied to become academies, and more applications were coming in every week.

In June 2011, the Government announced plans for “the weakest” 200 primary schools to become sponsored academies during 2012/13. This was in addition to the 1,200 schools which had now applied to convert to academy status. The Government said the rapid conversion of so many schools to academies meant there was now “a larger pool of great schools to build chains and improve under-performing schools”.

Following victory in the 2015 General Election, the Conservative government under David Cameron laid out plans for a yet another further rapid expansion of the Academy programme. However, in 2016 these plans were softened, and whilst the government said its aim was the ‘full academisation’ of the UK’s schools, it would not now pursue a policy of ‘blanket conversion’.

The then Education Secretary Justine Greening said the government’s focus was on, “building capacity in the system and encouraging schools to convert voluntarily”.

In 2019/20, the annual school census data showed there to be 9,041 academy schools responsible for educating 4.42 million children. This compared with 12,988 directly maintained local authority schools responsible for educating 4.65 million pupils.

Although still the minority model of operating amongst primary schools, the majority of secondary schools had now become academies.By November 2022, there were a total of 10,146 academies in England.

Statistics

Of the free primary schools that had been inspected by Ofsted in 2019, 37% had been graded as outstanding and 53% had been graded as good. Across all primary school types, 18% were outstanding and 69%, good.

Of the free secondary schools that had been inspected by Ofsted in 2019, 27% of secondary free schools were graded outstanding overall, and 55%, good. Across all secondary school types, 21% were graded outstanding, and 54%, good.

[Source – Ofsted, ‘State-funded schools inspections and outcomes as at 31 March 2019’, 13 June 2019. Free school figures excludes University Technical Colleges and Studio Schools.]

As of January 2020, 35% of primary schools are now academies or free schools, up from 32% in 2019. These schools account for 37% of the primary school population. 77% of secondary schools are academies or free schools, up from 75% in 2019. This accounts for 77% of secondary school pupils. [Source – Department for Education]

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This action programme is nothing like a party manifesto, however – given the lack of a coherent centre of political power in the EU, the Commission does not receive clear and consistent policy direction. In place of an 'EU prime minister', there is the ongoing but sporadic influence exerted variously by the Council of Ministers, the EP and the European Council formally, and member states, sectional bodies and other countries informally. These factors, along with the widely defined job descriptions given to EU civil servants, give the commission and the bureaucracy a great deal of freedom to innovate.

Like the British government, much of the Commission's programme will not actually require legislation. The Commission therefore proposes policy initiatives as well as legislative initiatives – the latter usually following the former when existing powers or the political will of the member states or institutions that are supposed to be implementing them prove insufficient.

In respect of legislation, the Commission has the sole right to draft legislative proposals. Although the council and the EP are empowered to request the Commission for legislation, they are not permitted to initiate or draft proposals themselves.

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The constituency of Selby and Ainsty is found in the southern part of North Yorkshire, and contains the towns of Selby and Tadcaster, in a rural belt between Leeds and York.   The John Smiths beer factory is found in this constituency at Tadcaster.

Adams has served as Minister of State at the Cabinet Office since September 2021 and attends cabinet. He was formerly Minister of State at the Foreign Office between 2020 and 2021.

He was Minister of State for Sport, Media and the Creative Industries (2019-2020), Under Secretary at the Welsh Office (2018-2019) and a one time government whip.

In late 2022, he detailed his intention to step down from Westminster at the next election.

Born in 1966, Nigel Adams grew up in this constituency and attended Camblesforth Primary followed by Selby High School from 1978 to 1984.

Adams left school aged 17 and started a telecommunications company in his twenties with a £20 a week Enterprise Allowance Scheme Government grant, and grew it until it was acquired by a PLC in 1999.

He was a supporter of Brexit and backed Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative leadership election.  He is a supporter of the Biomass industry.

He previously campaigned successfully to stop the use of secondary bots in the ticketing industry.

Nigel Adam is married with four children and likes cricket.   He captained the Lords and Commons Cricket team against MCC at Lord’s in 2013 where he managed to score an impressive 125 not out.

Email: nigel.adams.mp@parliament.uk

Personal Website: www.selbyandainsty.com

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/nigel.adamsmp

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Motions to adjourn are thus technical devices to allow for a discussion and debate around an issue to occur, without the actual issue in question normally being put to a vote.

Broadly, an adjournment debate can be on any subject. Back-bench MPs seek adjournment debates in order to raise specific issues and particular concerns with Ministers on the floor of the House. The MP initiating the debate is selected by ballot.

At least one adjournment debate a day takes place – after the Moment of Interruption. It normally lasts for 30 minutes (with time split between the initiator and the Minister responding) after which the House adjourns.

When debates on a motion for the adjournment take place other than after the Moment of Interruption, the order of speakers is similar to that for a debate on a substantive motion. The adjournment motion is said to lapse after the time allowed for the debate has expired, although very rarely a vote may be taken. The House then moves onto the next business, which may be another adjournment debate.

In Westminster Hall, all debates are on such a motion.

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Adoption is the term given for the permanent transfer of legal rights in relation to the parental responsibility of a child.

Foster care describes the temporary acquisition of guardianship rights in relation to a child. Foster care is often used when a child is waiting to be adopted or the courts are considering an adoption order.

As a legal condition, adoption is regulated by statutory provisions and administered through the courts in line with these principles. As a procedural matter, adoption is solely administered through adoption services and agencies approved by the secretary of state. Therefore, private adoption is prohibited in the UK.

A court may grant an adoption order for a variety of reasons, such as the failure of the biological parents to fulfil their parental responsibility, but at all times the interests of the child are the paramount consideration, in line with the provisions of the Children Act 1989. The complex interaction of conflicting rights and interests in adoption proceedings can make the law in this area intricate and unpredictable.

It should be emphasised that in the first instance parental consent for the process of adoption is always sought.

Adoption proceedings are complex, emotive and at times lengthy procedures conducted in closed court and with a variety of institutional representatives.

Background

Adoption was first introduced into the UK under the terms of the Adoption of Children Act 1926.

In the early days of adoption, the focus was on providing relief for unmarried mothers and to satisfy the needs of those couples unable to conceive themselves. Since this time however, the focus of the law has shifted to the interests and welfare of the adopted child.

The Adoption Act 1976 is the main piece of legislation regulating the adoption process in the UK.

The government carried out a review of adoption policy and process in 2000 and detailed the findings in a white paper entitled Adoption: A New Approach. The paper advocated reforming the existing system with a raft of new measures to make the adoption procedure more transparent and to harmonise the adoption legislation with the Children Act 1989.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 was the legislative outcome, with full implementation occurring in 2004.

There are a number of other pieces of legislation and government guidelines that also apply to the adoption procedure. Given the nature of adoption, human rights legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998 (which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights 1950) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 are important to any adoption proceedings.

The provisions of the Hague Convention on protection of children and cooperation in respect of intercountry adoption 1993 applies in intercountry adoption applications.

Controversies

There are a number of controversial issues surrounding the adoption process, such as the rights of the child to access information on their past, and the issue of parents’ rights in adoption proceedings. Recently these have been joined by the issue of overseas and internet adoption.

The issue of internet and overseas adoption was propelled into the public sphere following the widely publicised case of the attempts by the Welsh couple, Alan and Judith Kilshaw, to adopt twins from America over the internet. The case sparked a public debate on the morality of adoption when it interacts with commercial interests. Legislation followed shortly afterwards to try to close legal loopholes exposed by the Kilshaw case.

The way that local authority social services departments handle inter-racial adoptions has also been controversial. Some people have alleged that young people have had to remain in care because ‘political correctness’ has prevented children from minority ethnic backgrounds being adopted by white families.

In 2003, Lord Laming published a report into the death of eight-year old Victoria Climbie, who had been fostered by a distant relative in a private arrangement with her parents. Victoria was abused and later murdered by her foster carer and her partner. The Laming report recommended a review of the law relating to private fostering arrangements and for an approval system and register of private foster carers to be introduced.

The Children Act 2004 included measures that required private foster carers to register their arrangements with local authorities.

Provisions in the 2006 Equality Act banned discrimination in the provision of services on the basis of sexual orientation, and this quickly became a problem for the Catholic adoption agencies who handle a substantial proportion of the adoptions carried out in the UK.

Following intense public debate and what many opponents described as a rushed passage through parliament, regulations prohibiting discrimination were passed in the Commons with a majority of 210.

This meant Catholic adoption agencies had to allow homosexual couples to adopt children in their care, although many agencies claimed they would shut down before they submitted to the legislation. They were given a 21 month transition period from April 2007 to implement the changes.

In 2011, the Coalition government announced its intention to overhaul the care and adoption system and published performance tables for children in care for the first time; the tables showed a “huge variation ” in how well local authorities were looking after children in their care.

There was particular concern about the slowness of the adoption process, which was taking on average two years and seven months to complete an adoption, and the fall in the number of adoptions – down eight per cent from 2007.   In addition, the number of children not in education, employment or training when they left care was found to be 33 per cent compared to a national average of 18 per cent.

The Government published a new Adopters’ Charter in October 2011, setting out clear guidance for both adoption agencies and prospective adopters and called for “radical reform” of the family justice system, which was taking 13 months on average to process a child’s case through the family courts.

The Prime Minister said it was “shocking” that of the 3,600 children under the age of one in care, only sixty were adopted in the last year. “This is clearly not good enough,” he said. “We will publish data on how every local authority is performing to ensure they are working quickly enough to provide the safe and secure family environment every child deserves.”

A comprehensive report published in January 2012 by The Adolescent and Childrens’ Trust (TACT) and the Centre for Research on the Child and Family at the University of East Anglia, concluded that, contrary to many preconceptions about the care system, “going into care can prove effective and extremely beneficial in helping a young person deal with prior abuse and can protect against involvement in crime.”

The report, ‘Looked after children and Offending: Reducing Risk and Promoting Resilience’, is the result of a two year Big Lottery funded research project and makes over 30 recommendations for government, local authorities and agencies working in the criminal justice system.

These include that the Government should place obligations on local authorities to ensure children in care are not at risk from inappropriate criminalisation; that all children entering care should have a full developmental screening including mental health, learning difficulties and speech and language; and that care leavers in residential and foster care should have the option of remaining in supportive placements until the age of 21.

In the ealry 2020s, it was reported that although foster carer numbers were at an all-time high, the increase in demand for foster places has outpaced it. It is noted that from the level of enquiries received from prospective fostering households, the proportion that convert into applications is at an all-time low at around 6%.
Statistics

At the end of March 2021, there were 45,370 fostering households, some 425 fostering agencies in England, with some 76,640 approved foster carers looking after some 55,990 children [Source: Gov.uk]

• The minimum weekly allowance for foster parents depends on the location and the age of the child concerned.

Fostering payments are also subject to tax relief up to £10,000, alongside the potential for additional tax relief for every week (or part week) that a child is in your care.

Quotes

“Adoption transforms the lives of some of the most neglected and abused children in the UK.
“We need earlier identification of neglect and removal of children from that neglect. We need early identification of adoption – when it is clearly best for the child – and an administrative and legal system which completes the adoption much more quickly than at present. Finally we need an assessment process for prospective adopters which is welcoming, efficient and which balances the quite proper warnings about the challenges of adoption with a little more about the joy it so often brings.”

Martin Narey, the Government’s adoption adviser – October 2011

“The overriding message from this research is that the care system works. This report provides a powerful counterbalance to assumptions that entry in care leads to a life of crime. Children come into care through no fault of their own from backgrounds of abuse, neglect and chaos. This work shows that taking the right steps does transform lives.”

TACT CEO Kevin William, commenting on the report ‘Looked after children and Offending: Reducing Risk and Promoting Resilience’ – January 2012

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Biography:

Adrian Bailey was successfully re-elected as MP for West Bromwich West in May 2010 with a majority of 5,651 votes.

I was born in Salisbury and was educated at Cheltenham Grammar School before going on to university at the University of Exeter.

I graduated in 1967 with an Honours Degree in Economic History. I then went on to train at the Loughborough College of Librarianship and graduated in 1971 with a postgraduate diploma in Librarianship. From 1971-1982 I worked as a professional librarian with Cheshire County Council and from 1973 to 1982 I also worked as a librarian and teacher of study skills in a Cheshire Comprehensive school.

In 1982 I moved to the West Midlands to become a full time political organiser for the Co-operative Party covering the Midlands and the South Yorkshire region and I held this position until June 2000. In 1991 I was also elected as a Councillor for Sandwell Borough Council and was the Deputy Leader from 1997-2000. In 2000 I was chosen as the Labour candidate to succeed Betty Boothroyd, and on the 23rd of November I was elected as the Member of Parliament for West Bromwich West.

Since the 2005 general election I have been the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions, John Hutton MP, the Chancellor of the Duchy, Hillary Armstrong MP and successive Ministers of State for Armed Forces, Adam Ingram MP and Bob Ainsworth MP. I am currently serving on three House of Commons Committees: European Scrutiny Committee, Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Tripartite Committee.

I take an active interest in parliamentary issues ranging from the Cooperative movement to animal welfare and from manufacturing to the education of our children. I married a local school teacher in 1989, Jill, and we live in the Oakham area of my constituency.

I enjoy swimming and love following football and cricket.

Constituency: West Bromwich West

Constituency Address: Terry Duffy House, Thomas Street, West Bromwich, BR70 6NT

Constituency Tel: 0121 569 1926

Date of Birth: 11 December 1945

Email: baileya@parliament.uk; cromptonm@parliament.uk

Party: Labour

Personal Website: www.adrianbailey.org/

Westminster Address: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Westminster Tel: 020 7219 6060

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Biography:

Adrian Sanders was re-elected MP for Torbay in May 2010 with a majority of 4,078.

Adrian Sanders entered Parliament at his second attempt in 1997, gaining this seat from the Conservatives by just 12 votes.

Adrian attended Torquay Boys Grammar School and started work in insurance. He became Information/Campaigns Officer for Association of Liberal Councillors [1986-89], worked in the Liberal Democrats’ Whips Office [1989-1990], as Project Officer for Association of Social and Liberal Democrat Councillors [1990-92], in the office of Paddy Ashdown, as Policy Officer of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations [1993-94] and for the Southern Association of Voluntary Action Groups for Europe (SAVAGE). He is a member of the British Diabetic Association.

He was elected to Torbay Borough Council in 1984 and served for two years. He was the candidate for the Devon and East Plymouth constituency in the 1994 European Election, which he might have won had not a ‘Literal Democrat’ stood against him, taking 10,000 votes.

As an MP his work on local issues includes: a campaign for cheaper water bills, for the the Animal Welfare Bill, for coastal action zones and to keep cricket on free-to-air television; the campaign against the Council Tax.

In the 1997 Parliament, he was a member of the Local Government and Housing team; in 2001, he joined the Culture, Media and Sport team, speaking on tourism, and the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee; in 2006 he became deputy whip. From 1998 to 2005 he chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes; he is an office holders of the Groups on Charities and the Voluntary Sector and on Leasehold Reform.

Publications: Using Parliament for Local Campaigns (1989) and two publications on customer strategies in local government: Service with a Smile (1991) and Service beyond a Smile (1992).

Education:
Torquay Boys Grammar School

Experience:
Information/Campaigns Officer for Association of Liberal Councillors, Project Officer for Association of Social and Liberal Democrat Councillors 1990-92, Policy Officer of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations 1993-94

Council experience:
Torbay Borough Councillor 1984-86

Parliamentary experience:
2006- deputy whip, 2005- DCMS Select Committee, 2001-5 Tourism spokesman. Previously Shadow Ministerial Spokesman, Culture, Media and Sport and Spokesman for Local Government and Housing

Memberships:
British Diabetic Association

Constituency: Torbay

Constituency Address: 69 Belgrave Road
TORQUAY
TQ2 5HZ

Constituency Tel: 01803 200 036

Date of Birth: 25 April 1959

Party: Liberal Democrats

Personal Website: http://www.adriansanders.org/

Twitter: @adriansandersmp

The post Adrian Sanders appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

There is no absolute consensus on the definition of ‘affordable housing’.

The government defines it as ‘social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing provided to specified eligible households whose needs are not met by the market’.

Other definitions of ‘affordable housing’ focus more specifically on the relationship between household income and spending on housing. The housing charity Shelter says affordable housing should cost no more than 35% of your household income after tax and benefits.

However even the ratio between price and income has its limitations. It is do not take into account household borrowing costs to acquire housing and, because such figures are calculated at the aggregate level, they do not always reflect the distribution of housing affordability.

To further complicate this, affordability is more than just being able to buy or rent a property. Affordable housing is also said to involve the cost of maintaining a property over a long period of time, and how sustainable it is economically and environmentally.

Another accepted measure of affordable housing is ‘residual income measures’. This focuses on the level of income that a household has left, after paying for its housing costs. This is useful in indicating whether there is sufficient income left for non-housing expenses after paying for housing.

Affordable housing remains a major political issue in the UK.

The need for affordable housing

Driving the debate over affordable housing is the recognition that it is a necessary part of modern British society. Everyone should have the opportunity of a decent home – which they can afford – in a sustainable community.

The UK’s population has risen substantially in the first twenty years of the Twenty First Century. Demographic change in the form of population growth have created new a demand for housing. But house building numbers during this same period have remained low in historic terms, causing house prices and rents particularly in London, the South East of England and the South West of England to shoot up.

An affordable home is associated with rich social benefits.  It allows families to upsize their home, or move into a house for the first time, and offers an obvious solution to the UK’s housing and homelessness crises.

Affordable homes provide social stability, enabling families to ‘put down their roots’ and begin to look for, or hold down, employment in their local area. They support a spending boost in the local economy. And in a settled environment, children can be sent to local schools and this will make learning and, in turn, social advancement more likely.

What forms of affordable housing are available

Social Housing
The terms ‘social housing’ and ‘affordable housing’ are heavily linked.

Social housing schemes provide people in the UK with homes – and normally offer a cheaper renting alternative to that of privately renting.  Social housing schemes normally provide a long term tenancy and, because of this, stability. This is viewed as one key benefit of social housing.

Social housing is provided by a local council or housing association that acts as the landlord, with social housing let on the basis of need. The safety and quality of some social housing was propelled to the forefront of public attention following the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017

Shared Ownership
Shared ownership offers the ability to buy a share of a property (between 25% and 75% of the home’s value) and pay rent on the remaining share. This is useful for those who cannot afford the full mortgage on a property.

Home Ownership for People with Long-Term Disabilities (sometimes known as ‘HOLD’) helps disabled individuals buy property on a Shared Ownership basis.

With most shared ownership schemes, military personnel are given a priority over other groups. But councils with their own shared ownership programmes may have their own policy.

Affordable Rent
Affordable rents were introduced by the government to allow social housing providers to charge up to 80% of market rent levels within the local area for letting homes. This model replaced the capital grant supply subsidy for social housing with a revenue subsidy.

‘Affordable Rent’ is designed to ‘maximise the delivery of new social housing by making the best possible use of constrained public subsidy and the existing social housing stock’.

London Living Rent
London Living Rent is a part-buy, part-rent product for those taking their first step onto the property ladder in the capital. This can be either through shared ownership or outright purchase.

Through the scheme, houses are offered on tenancies of a minimum of three years. Tenants are supported to save and given the option to buy their home on a shared ownership basis during their tenancy.

The debate around affordable housing

With housing affordability considered to have worsened in Britain in the first part of the Twenty First Century, the issue has continued to rise up the political debate. The inability of many under the age of 40 to buy a house has become more difficult, leading to inter-generational inequalities and inter-regional level disparities.

House building and social house building
In their 2019 manifesto, the Conservative Party detailed a plan to build at least one million new homes (all tenures) in the lifetime of Parliament. This included a commitment to continue investment to deliver ‘hundreds of thousands’ of affordable homes; and to consider the potential extension of housing association right to buy schemes, and other ways of supporting home ownership.

The Labour Party promised one million new social homes over a decade, 150,000 a year by the end of next Parliament; and more low-cost homes reserved for first-time buyers in every area.

There remains some common political ground around plans for housing in England – all parties have proposals for substantial new house building, alongside greater rights for private and social tenants. The Conservative Party have though typically emphasized the importance of making actual home ownership more affordable, while Labour has focused more heavily on the construction of low-rental council and housing association homes.

Local Housing Allowance
Local Housing Allowance (LHA) was introduced in England, Scotland and Wales by the Labour government in 2008, and it introduced significant changes to the way Housing Benefit levels operate.

LHA did not replace Housing Benefit – it is just a different way of calculating entitlement under the existing Housing Benefit scheme. It is used to work out how much housing benefit or universal credit a person is entitled to receive, if they rent their home from a private landlord.

Local Housing Allowance has frequently been questioned for its fairness. As the Brown government acknowledged in the 2009 Budget, ‘Indications […] are that some claimants may be able to afford accommodation that is out of reach of working families on low incomes. Furthermore, costs of Housing Benefit have been rising above inflation despite static caseloads’. The transition from the old housing benefit system to Local Housing Allowance significantly increased payments available for larger houses in some areas.

Affordable housing around the world

By bringing together cross-national information from OECD countries, key partners and EU member states, the OECD Affordable Housing Database (AHD) helps countries monitor access to good-quality affordable housing and strengthen the knowledge base for policy evaluation.

The data shows that house prices have been increasing dramatically across OECD countries, especially for renters, and the supply of affordable housing has failed to meet demand.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, one third of OECD countries recorded increasing rates of homelessness, and although single men still tend to be overrepresented among the homeless population in some places, more women, families, youth and seniors are experiencing homelessness.

Furthermore, less than half of the OECD population, on average, is satisfied with the affordability of housing in the city or area where they live.

The history of affordable housing in the UK

The end of World War I was the beginning of the age of private home ownership. While as much as 80% of the population rented their homes from private landlords, the then Prime Minister David Lloyd George aimed to turn Britain into a ‘land fit for heroes’. In 1919, the government passed the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1919 (The Addison Act), providing subsidies for local authorities to build council houses.

The bombing experienced in WW2 decimated many urban areas and brought house-building to a standstill. Despite being strapped for cash in the five years following the conflict, health and housing minister at the time, Aneurin Bevan, insisted that council homes be built to high standards. 1 million new houses were built between 1945 and 1955 and approximately 900,000 people were moved out of slums and into quality affordable housing.

In the 35 years following the end of the Second World War, local authorities and housing associations built 4.4 million social homes. But by the 60s, with a rapidly expanding population, Britain experienced a housing crisis. This was punctuated by Ken Loach’s famous ‘Cathy Come Home‘ drama.

Following the 1980 Housing act, Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced the ‘right-to-buy’ housing scheme. This gave tenants the ability to buy their council homes outright. In 1982, Right to Buy sales hit an all-time peak of over 240,000. Those who took advantage of this offer saw the value of their property surge during the 1980s housing bubble. House prices rose by 16% in 1987, and a further 25% in 1988.

In his mission to modernise the Labour Party, Tony Blair identified home-ownership as something that was popular with voters. In 2004, then-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced plans to build homes for just £60,000.

In 2016, David Cameron announced an additional £1.2 billion of funding to build 30,000 affordable ‘starter homes’ on underused brownfield land.

There were 57,644 affordable homes delivered (completions) and 68,346 starts on site in England in 2019-20, increases of 1 per cent and 13 per cent respectively when compared to the previous year. Of these 57,644 homes, 92% were new build. 82% of this affordable housing delivery came from private registered providers.

In his October 2021 budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak earmarked £24 billion for housing, including the provision of £11.5bn for up to 180,000 affordable homes to be built where possible on brownfield land.

Quotes

‘When first-time buyers on a good salary cannot get a reasonable mortgage, the whole market grinds to a halt. And that ricochets around the economy, affecting builders, retailers, plumbers – all the people that depend on a housing market that is moving … If we don’t do something like this we are not going to get this vital market moving. We will restart the housing market and get Britain building again’. – David Cameron, 2011

‘Unless we act now, we face a future in which a generation of young families will be trapped renting privately for their whole lives, where more and more people will grow old in private rentals, where billions more in welfare costs will be paid to private landlords – and hundreds of thousands more people will be forced into homelessness’ – Housing Charity, Shelter.

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His rural Hertfordshire constituency is found to the north of St Albans running up to the border with Bedfordshire, and covers the towns of Hitchin and Harpenden, as well as a number of surrounding villages like Redbourn.  Once a safe Conservative constituency represented by the former Conservative Cabinet Minister, Peter Lilley, this area of Hertfordshire has been tracking towards the Liberal Democrats in recent years, and three fifths of the population backed Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.  It contains a  high number of London commuters.

Born in 1986, Afolami was educated at Eton and Oxford University. He worked as a corporate lawyer at Freshfields, and then as an executive at HSBC, before being elected to Parliament.

His father was a doctor who came to the UK from Nigeria, his mother was a pharmacist.

He is non-executive director of Apprentify, an organisation which helps provide apprenticeships to young people

Afolami opposed Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum, and worked previously as an advisor to George Osborne.  He supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative leadership election, but is regarded as sitting more on the centre left of the Conservative Party.

Afolami likes football, supports Arsenal, and himself played football for Oxford University.   He is married with three children.

Afolami resigned as a Conservative Party Vice Chair in July 2022 in protest at the continuing party leadership of Boris Johnson.

He is  Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Renewable and Sustainable Energy, and Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Group on International Conservation.

Email: bim.afolami.mp@parliament.uk

Website – www.bimafolami.co.uk/

Twitter – @BimAfolami

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The Windsor constituency in Berkshire contains the town of Windsor and a number of prosperous smaller settlements along the River Thames.  One of the most affluent seats in the United Kingdom, house prices are extremely high, and the seat contains a large number of London commuters.   The Ascot race course and Eton school are both found here.  It has been held by the Conservative ever since 1874, and is one of the party’s safest seats in the country.  This constituency is affected by noise from Heathrow airport, and the expansion of the airport is an important issue locally.

Born in 1965, Afriyie grew up in Peckham and was educated at Imperial College in Wye.  He was an  entrepreneur before being elected to Parliament.

Afriyie joined the Conservative Party in 1990, and later campaigned for Jeffrey Archer – when he attempted to be elected as Mayor of London in 1999.  He, was previously a member of the Science and Technological select committee and of the Children,

Having served as a Shadow Science Minister between 2005 and 2010, Afriyie was overlooked for Ministerial office when the Conservatives entered into coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010.

He came to prominence later in that Parliament as a potential stalking horse to challenge David Cameron, in a move that never generated much momentum.

In July 2022, Mr Afriyie announced that he plans to step down from parliament at the next General Election.

Adam Afriyie voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in 2013 and the Equal Pay (Transparency) Bill in 2014.

Afriyie supported Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum, and is generally considered to be on the free market wing of the party. He has called for the simplification of the tax system.

Born in 1965 from an English mother and a Ghanaian father, he was the first Conservative mixed-race MP. He defines himself not as black but as “post-racial”.  He is married with four children, and enjoys running.

In late 2021, a series of media articles reported that Afriyie was involved in an ongoing dispute with HMRC.

He is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on FinTech; and Freedom of Speech.  He Patron of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Space.

Email: adam.afriyie.mp@parliament.uk

Personal Website: http://adamafriyie.org/

Twitter: @AdamAfriyie

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adam-Afriyie/

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 Aidan Burley is no longer a Member of Parliament.  This page has not been updated since 2015.

Biography:

Aidan Burley was elected Conservative MP for Cannock Chase on 6th May 2010 with a majority of 3195.

Aidan was born in 1979 in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of British parents. He lived in New Zealand for a few months before returning to the UK, where he was educated at West House School in Birmingham and King Edward’s School, Edgbaston, before studying for a degree at St. John’s College, Oxford.

After leaving Oxford, Aidan worked for Philip Hammond MP before joining an international firm of Management Consultants, where he specialised in projects designed to improve the Criminal Justice System. In 2007 Aidan undertook a career break to work for Nick Herbert MP on David Cameron’s Police Reform Taskforce, looking at ways to reduce bureaucracy for the police.

Aidan joined the Conservative Party in 1997 after winning his school’s Mock Election and on going up to Oxford became Vice-Chairman of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) as well as sitting on the Standing Committee (Governing Body) of the Oxford Union.

After moving to London in 2001, Aidan worked as a Political Adviser and Speechwriter to Philip Hammond MP, who was then a Front Bench Spokesman on Trade & Industry and is now Secretary of State for Transport.

In 2004, he was selected as the Conservative Council Candidate for Fulham Broadway Ward, in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. In the Council elections on May 4th 2006, he achieved a 9% swing, and became a Councillor aged 27.

In June 2008 he was selected to be the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for the seat of Cannock Chase.

Constituency: Cannock Chase

Constituency Address: Unit 6, High Green Court, Newhall Street, Cannock, WS11 1GR

Constituency Tel: 01543 502 447

Date of Birth: 22/01/1979

Party: Conservative

Personal Website: www.aidanburleymp.org

Twitter: @AidanBurleyMP

The post Aidan Burley appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

As per its name, her constituency covers the very heart of London and includes the financial districts of London and Westminster itself.   Most of London’s major landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament, the Bank of England, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, London’s Theatre district, and Oxford Street are contained within this seat.

In a tightly fought three way contest  in 2019, Aiken won with‌ ‌a‌ ‌majority‌ ‌of 3,953‌ over‌ ‌the‌ ‌Liberal Democrats where the seat was contested by the former Labour MP turned Liberal Democrat, Chuka Umuna.  With over 71% supporting Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, the local electorate in this constituency were some of the most opposed to Brexit anywhere in England.

Aiken was appointed Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for women in late 2020.

Born‌ ‌in 1969, Nickie Aiken was‌ ‌educated‌ ‌at‌ Exeter University. She worked in Public Relations for Bradford and Bingley, and as Press Secretary to William Hague before being elected to Parliament.

First elected to Westminster City Council in 2006, she was elected Leader the Council in 2017 before stepping down in 2019.

At Westminster, she is Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups for the Short Lets Sector, and Vice Chair on the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Homelessness, Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, and Theatre.

She is married with two children, and lives in Pimlico.

Email – nickie.aiken.mp@parliament.uk

Website‌ ‌–‌ ‌ ‌ www.nickieaiken.org.uk

Twitter‌ ‌–‌ ‌ ‌@NickieAiken_MP

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Air passenger duty (APD) is a tax charged on passenger flights departing from UK airports.

From April 2024, airline passenger duty ranged from £7 to £202 on traditional flights, rising to up to £607 for the users of private jets (pending the mileage involved).

The rate of air passenger duty paid by a passenger depends on their class of travel and their destination.  Destinations are broken down into domestic travel in the UK, Band A where the capital city of the destination country is less than 2,000 miles from London, Band B where the capital city of the destination country is less than 5,500 miles from London, and Band C where the capital city is over 5,500 miles from London.

From April 2024, the rates of air passenger duty were £7 or £14 for domestic travel (pending the class of travel, either standard or non standard class), £13 or £26 for Band A destinations, £88 or £194 for Band B destinations, and £92 or £202 for Band C destinations.

Children under the age of 16 do not pay air passenger duty.

In his March 2024 budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt disproportionately increased the air passenger duty rates on non standard class seats above the rate of inflation.

Previously in the October 2021 budget, then Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that flights between airports in the UK would be subject to a new lower rate of Air Passenger Duty from April 2023. At the same time, from April 2023, a new ultra long haul band in Air Passenger Duty for flights of over 5,500 miles is being introduced.

• In 2011, the Treasury described the tax as “primarily a revenue raising duty which makes an important contribution to the public finances”. Its potential environmental benefits were considered secondary.

Since its implementation in 1994, the government’s charge on air passengers has undergone significant structural reform and risen by up to 539%.

Compared with the UK, the vast majority of European countries do not levy an air departure tax. Just six EU countries levy a similar charge, and at lower rates than the UK.

Passenger air duty rates in the UK are the highest in Europe.

Air passenger duty is paid upon booking, although not collected if an occupied seat doesn’t fly. If passengers are unable to take their flight, they reserve the right to claim back the tax that they have paid from the airline. This may though incur administrative fees from certain companies.

Children under the age of 16 are exempt from APD when travelling in Economy class. Passengers are also exempt when passing through a UK airport as part of a long-haul flight to another destination, provided that their stop over time does not exceed 24 hours.

The case for abolishing air passenger duty

Air passenger duty faces objection from the airline industry, which views the tax as socially regressive. The tax is said to hinder the viability of air travel in lower socio-economic brackets.

It is also considered to place pressures on immigrant communities who wish to visit their family overseas, families which are often located in the long haul destination categories.

In the past, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) has campaigned for the duty to be frozen at its existing levels. The Campaign group ‘A Fair Tax on Flying’ has sought reformed and reduced rates, while British Airways called on the Government to scrap the tax altogether.

Air passenger duty is also said to have an adverse impact on the UK economy, increasing international trading costs and presenting financial strains on businesses dependent on UK air travel.

It is claimed that abolishing air passenger duty would help drive inward investment and tourism into the UK. Airlines groups have suggested that this would include the creation of some 60,000 jobs through industries such as tourism. In 2017, tourism sustained over 3 million jobs in the UK and contributed £127 billion to the UK economy, with three quarters of these visits arriving by air.

These claims are reinforced by the experience of Ireland. After Ireland abolished its equivalent duty in 2014, there was an increase in air traffic at Dublin Airport, with Ryanair and Aer Lingus opening new routes.

A 2013 study by PwC found that abolishing the tax would result in a positive annual gain of £0.25 billion to the UK economy.

The case for taxing air travel

Those opposed to the reduction or abolition of air passenger duty point to the overall contribution that the charge makes in terms of a contribution to the UK exchequer.  This source of income supports the funding of public services. In response to industry calls to scrap the tax, the Labour Party has previously warned of the financial strain this would impose on the Treasury.

In 2019, air passenger duty raised an estimated £3.7 billion for the UK economy.

It is also noted how aviation remains relatively under taxed compared to other forms of transport like motoring. The Aviation Environment Federation wrote that the tax compensates for the “anomaly that aviation is otherwise tax-free, paying neither VAT nor fuel duty”. The Group disputes claims that increased aviation results in increased trade, and maintains that business travel is insensitive to price changes.

It is also pointed out that since its introduction, airline passenger duty has not negatively impacted on the growth of the aviation sector, with the sector having seen an average growth rate of 5% over the past 40 years.

Environmental campaigners have further suggested that air passenger duty should be increased to offset the environmental impact of aviation. Air pollution around Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, has regularly breached legal limits.

It is claimed that airline taxes can be a powerful policy weapon in tackling climate change. In 2007, the Treasury forecast that the rise in aviation tax would reduce CO2 emissions by around 0.3 million tonnes a year.

Over the years, there have also been persistent appeals for air passenger duty to be charged on the aircraft itself – a ‘per plane approach’ – rather than the passengers within it.  It is claimed that the emissions from an aircraft are significant, regardless of how many passengers are inside the plane.

History of air passenger duty

Airline Passenger Duty was introduced in 1994 with a set rate of £5 for domestic and EU air travel, and £10 for all other destinations. It has since undergone a number of reforms.

In 1997, the rates for airline passenger duty were doubled.

In 2001, the original set rates were divided into different rates for economy and first class. These rates remained frozen until 2006, when Chancellor Gordon Brown initiated plans for further reform.

In November 2008, it was announced that the government’s air traveler tax would be restructured to better reflect the varying length of flights. The new structure was enforced the following year and introduced four geographical bands based on their distance from London to the capital city of the destination country.

The new bands increased at intervals of 2,000 miles, ranging from 0-2,000 miles, all the way up to over 6,000 miles. This meant that passengers flying further from the UK would pay a higher tax rate. Each band contained a ‘standard rate’ and ‘reduced rate’; the latter applying to economy class travel.

This structure was criticised for placing disproportionately high tax rates on certain destinations. Following the four-tier system, flights to distant US states such as Hawaii would be taxed at lower rates than India and Caribbean Islands, based simply on where the country’s capital was based.

The bands were subsequently reduced to two, a standard rate, and a single higher rate for a long haul flight defined as one over 2,000-miles in length. In response to this change, a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman commented: “A two-band APD rate is a very welcome simplification to remove some of the biggest distortions of the current system.”

Air Passenger Duty originally applied only to aircraft carrying more than 20 passengers but, in 2013 this was amended to include private jets with lower capacities.

In 2020, it was controversially suggested that the airline FlyBe might be allowed to defer as much as £100 million of Air passenger duty payments as part of an agreement to try and secure the future of the ailing airline.  Competitors were angered at any such competitive advantage being made available to the then airline.

In the 2021 budget, new reforms were announced for Air Passenger Duty, which from 2023 will reduce the rate on shorter domestic flights, and increase the rate on long haul flights over 5,500 miles.

In the 2024 budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt further increased the rates of air passenger duty for those travelling in non standard class seats.

Legal questions over doubling of air tax

Quotes

“I need to raise revenue, but to do so in a way which does least damage to the economy” – Former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, in his 1993 Budget speech which introduced air passenger duty.

“The government has finally acknowledged what the industry and business knew all along – that the highest rates of aviation tax in the world were a brake on driving the UK’s economic growth with emerging markets” – Dale Keller, speaking on behalf of the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK.

Statistics

The UK is ranked 137th out of 138 when it comes to possessing high airline ticket taxes and charges according to the 2015 World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report. Only Chad ranks lower than the UK.

A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates the annual contribution to the UK economy of the leisure aviation industry to be £14.1bn.

Cuts to Air Passenger Duty will emit as much CO2 as 2.3m train journeys say Lib Dems

Sunak says govt on track to cut carbon emissions despite cuts to domestic air passenger duty

The post Air Passenger Duty appeared first on Politics.co.uk.

The European Environment Agency defined air pollution as “the presence of contaminant or pollutant substances in the air at a concentration that interferes with human health or welfare, or produces other harmful environmental effects.”

The main source of air pollution is fossil fuel combustion, the central process for most electricity generation, heating systems and motor vehicles.

There are a vast range of air pollutants, which cause a variety of effects on the environment and health. Amongst those most commonly cited are sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, and particulate matter.

Air quality is key to the health of humans and ecosystems. Air pollution can lead to a variety of respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, bronchitis, heart and chest diseases, stomach disorders, and cancers. There is also growing understanding of the links between atmospheric problems such as local air pollution, acid rain, global climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion.

Air pollution is worst in Latin America and Asia. In cities such as Seoul and Mexico City, the air quality is so bad that people have now long worn facemasks just to filter the air.

Air quality is now the responsibility of Parliament after Britain’s departure from the EU.

Background

Air pollution has historically been caused by industrialisation and the consequent proliferation in the use of ‘fossil fuels’ (and therefore sulphur dioxide emissions) in the industrial process.

However, in modern Britain, traffic is now the major air polluter, with traffic fumes accounting for just over half of the total domestic nitrogen emissions.

Petrol and diesel-engine motor vehicles emit a wide variety of pollutants, mainly carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulates (PM10), which have an increasing impact on urban air quality.

The Gothenburg Protocol which came into force in 2005, set targets for reducing pollutants and emissions which were to be met by 2010.

A new Air Quality Directive came into force in June 2008, to be transposed into national legislation by June 2010. The Directive allows Member States to request, under strict conditions, time extensions to meet the air quality standards for PM10 (until 11th June 2011) and NO2 and benzene (until 2015 at the latest).

The UK Government and the devolved administrations published the Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on 17 July 2007.  This set out a way forward for work and planning on air quality issues and air quality standards.

The EU National Emission Ceilings Directive later set ceilings for each Member State for emissions of ammonia, oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These four pollutants are primarily responsible for acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone. The ceilings had to be met by 2010.

The EU Air Quality Framework Directive (96/62/EC) then defined the policy framework for 12 air pollutants known to have a harmful effect on human health and the environment. The limit values for these specific pollutants were set through a series of Daughter Directives.

Air Quality – Post Brexit

Following Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2020, air quality became the responsibility of the British Parliament and government.

A number of EU directives relevant to air quality had already been transposed into UK law through the Air Quality Standard Regulations 2010, including the Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008 which set legally binding limits for concentrations in outdoor air of major pollutants that impact public health such as particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

These limits required a significant reduction of air pollution in towns and cities across the UK, many of which currently exceed the EU’s pollution limits, particularly for nitrogen dioxide, which is linked to thousands of deaths across the country.

As such the air pollution limits set by the European Union will technically remain in UK law after Brexit, having been enshrined in domestic law through the Air Quality Standards Regulation. However, the European Union no longer has a role in the enforcement of these standards.

Theoretically the UK government is therefore free to repeal the existing limits or review any deadlines for meeting them. It is also free to introduce tighter air quality requirements than those that previously existed under EU law.  Should it chose, it could though also increase the nature of the limits above those in existence in the EU.

The government currenrtly has two types of air quality target in the UK.  The first is the national emissions ceilings, which are breached if too much of one pollutant is emitted across the UK within a calendar year.   The second are local concentrattion limits, which are breached if the level of a pollutant in a specific area over a given period of time is too high.

Controversies

Concerns about air pollution range from the very local – many rural and suburban councils cite the nuisance caused by bonfires as their principal air pollution problem – to the truly global.

Pollution crosses national boundaries and international action, which is not always forthcoming, is required to address it. Moreover, evidence of climate change, caused by air pollution, suggests that pollution’s effects may be irreversible and catastrophic.

Environmental concerns have only become mainstream in the developed world’s political systems in the last 30 years or so, but many still claim that economic objectives are routinely given precedence over the environment. In the developing world, which is increasingly industrialising, the problem is becoming even more pressing.

Air pollution in the UK is cited as a contributing factor in a range of environmental and health problems, such as rising rates of childhood asthma, allergies and habitat loss, although its precise role is frequently vaguely defined.

Public Health England estimated in 2017 that reducing fine particulate matter concentrations by 1ug/m3 over 18 years could prevent 50,900 cases of coronary heart disease, 16,500 strokes, 9,300 cases of asthma and 4,200 lung cancers.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth claimed that air pollution in London breached legal limits in April 2011, despite commitments by both the UK Government and the London Mayor to bring it under control to avoid huge EU fines.

Statistics

Outdoor air pollution causes an estimated 40,000 deaths in the UK every year. Exposure to outdoor air pollution is estimated to lead to a loss of 15 minutes of life expectancy each day. In addition to the health implications, air pollution has a significant impact on business and our health services. In the UK, these costs add up to more than £20 billion every year.  [Source – Royal College of Physicians Briefing Paper. 2017]

Domestic combustion using wood as a fuel accounted for 38% of primary emissions of particulate matter 2.5 in 2019. There is an increasing trend in emissions from this source; annual emissions from domestic wood burning have more-than doubled since 2003. Burning of solid fuels for manufacturing and construction was also a main source of particulate matter emissions (18 per cent in 2019). [Source – National Statistics – Emissions of air pollutants in the UK – 2021]

Road transport activity is a significant source of emissions of nitrogen oxides, and to a lesser extent particulate matter. Road transport accounted for 28% of emissions of nitrogen oxides in 2020, with a further 13% attributable to other forms of transport (aviation, rail, and shipping). [Source – National Statistics – Emissions of air pollutants in the UK – 2021]

Levels and trends in emissions of ammonia are largely driven by activity in the agriculture sector, primarily linked to herd sizes and the extent of fertiliser spreading. This sector accounted for 87 per cent of emissions of ammonia in 2020. [Source – National Statistics – Emissions of air pollutants in the UK – 2021]

Energy production and transformation were still significant sources of emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in 2019 (23% and 18% of each pollutant respectively). [Source – National Statistics – Emissions of air pollutants in the UK – 2021]

Quotes

“Air pollution in the UK has declined significantly over recent decades through measures to reduce pollution from transport, industrial and domestic sources. However, the rate of reduction is now levelling off for some key pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen.” – Defra – 2011

“It’s outrageous that London is choking on air so dirty it’s illegal – air pollution contributes to thousands of premature deaths every year in the capital, particularly affecting some of its most disadvantaged people” – Friends of the Earth London Campaigner, Jenny Bates – April 2011

“Exposure to outdoor air pollution is associated with lifelong health implications, including: effects on foetal development (particularly in relation to lung and kidney development), and increases in heart attacks and strokes for those in later life. Air pollution is also linked to asthma, diabetes, dementia, obesity and cancer”. Royal College of Physicians Briefing Paper. 2017

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