On 19 July 2017, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens announced £325 million of capital investment for local projects that will help the NHS to modernise and transform care for patients.

Local capital investment schemes in 15 areas of the country have been given the go ahead, with the largest sums being used for urgent care in Dorset, surgery in Greater Manchester and cancer care in Cumbria.

The projects receiving funding include the following:

• in Greater Manchester, hospitals will deliver significant improvements in urgent and emergency care by concentrating services in 4 hub sites across the city, expected to save around 300 lives each year in general surgery alone

• in Bedfordshire local doctors and nurses are developing a primary care hub on the site of Bedford Hospital, which is expected to improve access to same-day appointments for around 50,000 patients and reduce the number of patients attending the hospital’s A&E department unnecessarily

• in Derbyshire an ‘Urgent Care Village’ will be created at the Royal Derby with GP services, a frailty clinic and mental health services, to ensure patients receive the right care in the right place, first time, and avoid going to A&E unnecessarily

This initial funding has been targeted at the strongest and most advanced schemes in the STP categories based on an assessment of leadership and service performance. All plans have been developed locally in consultation with the public.

The funding was secured in the Budget in March when the government also committed to make further capital investment available in the forthcoming Autumn Statement.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:

This funding will support strong local plans to help the NHS modernise and transform care for patients.

A measure of success of these transformation partnerships is that people can see and feel improvements being made in their local area – there are already excellent examples of this across the country and this money will allow them to go further and faster.

NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens said:

Today we’re firing the starting gun on the first wave of major service upgrades and care redesign which will benefit people living in counties, towns and cities across England. For patients it’ll mean easier GP appointments, modern A&Es, and better cancer and mental health care. For staff, we’re putting our money where our mouth is in backing these practical plans developed by doctors, nurses and local NHS leaders.

This is the first down payment of much needed investment in modern equipment and NHS facilities, with more promised in the autumn and beyond. Today is proof positive that when you back the NHS with investment, both patients and taxpayers see the practical benefits.

The strongest STPs have performed well across indicators in 3 broad areas: hospital performance, patient-focused change, and transformation.

Having scrutinised over 300 submissions last year, from government departments and regulators the RPC still finds much of their analyses wanting when considering the impact of their actions on wider society. “Following the tragic events at Grenfell Tower, it is important more than ever, that the risks to and impacts on society should be rigorously scrutinised on an equal footing with business costs and benefits, as we have previously recommended. The RPC believes it should be able to “Red rate” inadequate appraisals of both sets of impacts,” says Michael Gibbons CBE, Chairman of the Regulatory Policy Committee.

Equally concerned about the direction of travel is Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC said: “we welcome this report, once again the RPC is showing that the issue is not about what we regulate or deregulate, it’s about how we can make the system work for all of society. That means that we need to gain a consensus for strong, effective regulation that is enforced appropriately and having a body such as the RPC to oversee the process is invaluable”.

Michael Gibbons CBE says “the independent Regulatory Policy Committee stands ready to scrutinise the evidence base for regulatory changes associated with Brexit. The RPC’s recent Opinion on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, notes that there are likely to be various forms of regulatory change as a result of EU exit, for example as to freedom of movement of goods, services, labour and capital, and such changes are likely to have significant impacts on business and wider society. The RPC emphasises that all such regulatory changes should be subject to impact assessment and independent scrutiny.”

Also urging caution in this period of significant transition and change is Dr Adam Marshall, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), who says “it is vital that any regulatory changes which impact the UK’s business communities are justified and rational. Government departments must be extremely careful in making and implementing regulatory changes which may have unintended consequences. In this time of uncertainty, businesses need as much regulatory continuity as possible to sustain confidence and investment.”

In addition as the system shifts to domestic regulatory oversight, Terry Scouler Chief Executive of EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said: “the critical work of the RPC is particularly important as we prepare to leave the EU and as the effectiveness of regulatory regimes come under greater scrutiny.”

The RPC’s annual report (highlights listed below) states there is concern at the fitness for purpose of departmental impact assessments. The RPC is at the same time mindful of the need to review the framework itself and aims to work closely with the government to ensure it is proportionate yet robust moving forward. Martin McTague, Policy Director of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), said: “The FSB continues to be the leading voice in championing the great work the RPC does. In particular, its efforts to hold those Government Departments, which produce new regulation, to account by improving the quality of Regulatory Impact Assessments. We hope that Government continues to value the role of the RPC by ensuring that it is sufficiently resourced and at the heart of improving the regulation agenda.”

NOTES TO EDITOR

1. The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) is the independent advisory body set up to provide external, transparent, real time scrutiny on the quality of evidence and analysis supporting regulatory changes affecting business and civil society.

2. We give Ministers opinions in advance, to help ensure decisions on legislative proposals are based on a robust evidence base, which provides businesses and the public with confidence that the government’s claims on regulatory reform are credible.

3. KEY REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

• We scrutinised 324 proposals; 231 from government departments and 93 from regulators. • It is of concern that only 69% of government impact assessments were fit for purpose at first submission. • The numbers of Post Implementation Reviews (PIRs) being conducted are still too low. We are still waiting for and remain concerned that we have yet to see PIRs for some of the most significant measures from the pre 2015 parliament, e.g. relating to pensions. • RPC took over the Chairmanship of RegWatchEurope this year– an EU wide group of like-minded national independent scrutiny bodies.

For further information or interview requests please contact; Comms Adviser Sara Coakley 07956 233 167

Last week the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigation into the award of the franchise to FirstGroup and MTR raised concerns because FirstGroup already operates the Great Western Railway (GWR) franchise, which runs the only other train service between London and Exeter.

As the only operator running rail services between the 2 cities, the CMA found that FirstGroup could potentially take advantage of the reduction in competition to increase fares for the half a million passengers a year who use the route.

FirstGroup and its joint venture partner MTR were given the opportunity to avoid an in-depth (‘phase 2’) investigation by offering proposals (known as ‘undertakings in lieu of reference’) to the CMA to address the concerns identified.

The companies have now offered to cap unregulated fares between London and Exeter on both South Western and GWR services by linking these to prices on a number of other comparable routes. They have also proposed to maintain the availability of cheaper advance fares on both services – again by comparing with similar routes.

The CMA has decided that there are reasonable grounds for believing that these proposals, or a modified version of them, might be acceptable to remedy the competition concerns it has identified by protecting passengers using both London-Exeter rail services.

The CMA has until 20 September 2017 to consider whether to accept the undertakings, although it may decide to extend this deadline to 15 November 2017 if it decides that there are special reasons for doing so.

As part of its process, the CMA will now undertake a public consultation, which will commence shortly. Details on this consultation will be found on the case page along with full text of the decisions and all other information about the investigation.

The CMA’s decision to consider the proposals comes in advance of the start of the franchise, due on 20 August 2017.

The government is unveiling new rules that will mean card-charging in Britain – where people can be charged 20% extra for purchases like a flight just for paying with a credit card – will come to an end in January.

‘Surcharging’ is common practice across the country – with businesses ranging from takeaway apps to global airlines charging people to make card payments or for other services such as Paypal. While many industries have acted to absorb the cost and not pass these on to consumers, these rules will bring an end to the practice entirely.

The rules will also tackle surcharging by local councils and government agencies.

In 2010, the total value of surcharges for debit and credit cards was an estimated £473 million.

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Barclay, said:

Rip-off charges have no place in a modern Britain and that’s why card charging in Britain is about to come to an end.

This is about fairness and transparency, and so from next year there will be no more nasty surprises for people at the check-out just for using a card.

These small charges can really add up and this change will mean shoppers across the country have that bit of extra cash to spend on the things that matter to them.

The government has previously capped the costs that businesses face for processing card payments, and will engage with retailers to asses if there is any more that can be done to help.

This action forms part of our wider help for families with the cost of living by helping to raise their incomes and keep more of what they earn.

MAIB’s report on the investigation of the girting and capsizing of tug Domingue while assisting the UK-registered container vessel CMA CGM Simba resulting in 2 fatalities on 20 September 2016, is now published.

The report contains details of what happened and the subsequent actions taken.