Public Finance July/August 2018 Taster

PublicFinance P UBLICFINANCE .CO.UK

Issue 07/08 July / August 2018

HOWARD’S WAY

TA ST E R E D I T I O N

CIPFA’s next president talks about the art of the audit BIRTHDAY BONANZA

Will the NHS funding boost make it fit for the future?

REBOOTS ON THE GROUND

JULY / AUGUST 2018 • ISSUE № 07/08

How digital is disrupting the finance profession

AIMING HIGH

.or LIN E g.u E

DI G M CO IT NF A AP cip ER L PI fa EN F an CE U N nu G al co N PRO TU A nf OW G RA R er en O M E ce N M

Rishi Sunak on data dynamism and life as a local government minister

news Westminster move for NHS England CFO

PAC: be honest about true value of PFI

NHS England chief financial officer Paul Baumann (right) is to leave the role after six years. He will take up the post of receiver general of Westminster Abbey, looking after its operational, financial and security affairs. NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said Baumann had driven “major gains for patients and taxpayers”.

The Public Accounts Committee has slammed “fuzzy thinking” about private finance initiatives and called on the government to be honest about their true value for money. “Much has changed in the past quarter-century, but government’s inability to answer basic questions about PFI remains undimmed,” said PAC chair Meg Hillier.

Peers call for free care for all older people Care should be free for all older people who need it, according to two former health ministers Lord Darzi and Lord Prior.

This would require the current £17bn funding for free personal care in England to be more than doubled to £36bn by 2030, their report, commissioned by the Institute for Public Policy Research, concluded.

The authors cited the case of Scotland, where care funding is free for older people, saying “increased spending on social care [there] has resulted in lower spending overall on health and care for older people”.

The report also called for “radical simplification” of the NHS and the undoing of some of the controversial 2012 Lansley reforms.

NHS deal ‘waste of money’ without social care boost ‘To truly put health and social care on a sustainable footing, we must tackle it as a whole’ urges ADASS leader

By Dominic Brady The extra £20bn a year for the NHS is like “pouring water down a sink with no plug in” unless social care also receives a funding boost, local government leaders have warned.

In a speech on 18 June, Theresa May confirmed long-awaited plans for increased health spending.

“The NHS will be growing significantly faster than the economy as a whole, reflecting the fact that the NHS is this government’s number-one spending priority,” she said.

“This money will be provided specifically for the NHS. And it will be funded in a responsible way.”

May said that taxpayers would need to contribute “a bit more” but that this would be done in a “fair and balanced way”.

But Glen Garrod, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: “It is deeply

disappointing to see no further investment in social care in this settlement.

“Putting money into the NHS without putting it into social care is like pouring water down a sink with no plug in.

“If we’re to truly put health and social care on a sustainable footing, we must tackle it as a whole.”

CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman said the extra cash would not deliver long-term change and the NHS was likely to “remain relatively starved of capital”.

“Governments for decades have grappled with the problem that much-needed periodic injections of cash in response to crises do not tackle system-wide public health prevention and determinants of poor health such as poor housing, skills and under-funded children’s and adult social services.”

The NHS will receive an additional £20.5bn a year in real terms by 2023-24, an average of 3.4% a year for the next five years. Funding is to be frontloaded, with injections of 3.6%, for the first two years.

In return, the NHS will be expected to develop an improvement plan with a particular focus on cancer care and mental health.

Health and social care secretary Sinking Jeremy Hunt announced that feeling: publication of the social care without extra funding for adult green paper would be delayed social services, until the autumn so it can emerge the NHS deal will be money down at the same time as the NHS plan. the drain This news was also greeted with dismay by the social care sector.

“With a delayed green paper and no additional funding, the brutal reality is that older and disabled people, and their families, are struggling now,” Garrod said.

“The NHS is now in a position to make long-term plans based on a long-term funding solution. Social care can do neither.”

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See opinion, page 20

6 PUBLICFINANCE JULY / AUGUST 2018

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�

Camden finance director to join CIPFA Mike O’Donnell has been appointed as CIPFA’s associate director of local government. The former finance director of the London Borough of Camden will join as the institute as it aims to develop policy and support to embed financial resilience across local government. CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman said O’Donnell would be a “tremendous asset”.

Progressive taxation could be used to fund the childcare necessary to help women get back into work

➊

Gender equality hit by ‘irresponsible’ tax system Government tax cuts benefit men more than women, while public services are underfunded

ALAMY

By Simone Rensch The UK has an “irresponsible” tax system that is doing nothing to improve gender equality, parliamentarians and women’s advocates have warned.

Women tend to be harder hit when tax revenues drop, as this affects public services, members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Responsible Tax and the Women’s Budget Group said at a meeting in Westminster on 12 June.

Tax cuts tend to benefit men most, panel members at the seminar on tax and equality explained. Sue Himmelweit, an economist at the Women’s Budget Group, said: “To keep raising the income tax threshold at the same time as cutting benefits is irresponsible taxation in equality terms. Chancellors always act like tax cuts are a gift to society, but if we look at the types of tax cuts – fuel tax, alcohol tax and income taxes, for example – [they] predominantly benefit men,” she added.

Chancellor Philip Hammond raised income tax thresholds in the Budget last year, including increasing the threshold for the higher rate of income tax from £45,000 to £46,350.

The APPG panel, chaired by Margaret Hodge, noted that public services and social security benefits were used more by women, as they tended to have lower incomes and were usually the primary care-givers.

But the current UK tax system is not bringing in enough revenue to enable local authorities to provide inclusive services and create an equal society, the panel agreed.

MPs and economists on the panel added that the government should put in place a system of wealth redistribution to help poor councils recoup “some much needed funds” for local services.

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, told the meeting that women and girls often pay the price of underfunded public services.

For example, because of high childcare costs and the lack of public funding in this area, many women were giving up their

➋ ➌ ➍ ➎

Fiscal females

The Women’s Budget Group promotes economic equality between women and men and scrutinises policy

Feminist economics

Account for unpaid work Mainstream economics tends to prize money, machines and men and fails to account for the contribution of unpaid work

Care contributes The economy depends not just on the production and distribution of goods and services, but on co-operation and care

Allow for unequal shares Household members may have different interests, and resources are not always shared equally

Look for policy impact Policies that appear neutral on the surface can have different effects and increase gender inequality

Balance budget by gender Gender budgeting analyses public spending through a gender lens and identifies its impact on women and girls compared with men and boys.

careers to stay at home or work part-time, and so earning less than their male counterparts.

Shadow childcare minister Tracy Brabin, who was in the audience, added that progressive taxation could be used to fund the childcare necessary to help women get back into work.

Conservative MP Nicky Morgan, chair of the Treasury select committee, said it was important to examine the gender impact of tax policy on real lives: “The government should be able to www.publicfinance.co.uk/subscribe demonstrate that it pays due regard on policies with gender importance.”

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NAO has �The criticised the

DWP for a lack of ‘sensitivity’ to universal credit claimants and the financial hardship they have endured

► Watchdog Watch

WHAT’S GOING ON IN AUDIT AND REGULATION —

N AT ION AL AU D IT O F F I C E

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10 PUBLICFINANCE JULY / AUGUST 2018

Average administration cost for each universal credit claim, versus £173 target cost

“The DWP had little realistic alternative but to continue with the universal credit programme and hopefully learn from past mistakes” ON U N IVER S A L CR E D I T C O STS : AM YAS M O R S E , NAO

2016-17. It also did not meet its target to re-inspect schools within five years in 43 cases between 2012-13 and 2016-17, mainly because it categorised 32 schools as new when they expanded or amalgamated.

Morse said the Department for Education “needs to be mindful that cheaper inspection is not necessarily better inspection. To demonstrate its commitment, the department needs a clear vision for school inspection and to resource it accordingly”.

Cuts have occurred while Ofsted has been handed new responsibilities for evaluating children’s social care, early years and childcare, the NAO said. Its report highlighted high turnover – 19% in 2017/18 – of inspectors, who cited workload pressures as a key reason for leaving.

ACCOUNTS COMMISSION ⦁ The Accounts Commission has warned Scottish councils to think carefully before opting to deliver services through arm’slength bodies.

The local government watchdog said councils should be especially careful since changes to taxation have made the model less attractive.

Although arm’s-length external organisations had brought benefits, the Accounts Commission said these have been undermined by the decision of the Scottish

REX / GETTY

⦁ Universal credit is pushing additional costs onto councils, while the overall scheme may never provide value for money, according to the National Audit Office.

The government spending watchdog also slammed the Department for Work and Pensions for showing a lack of “sensitivity” to some claimants and the financial hardship they had experienced.

In a highly critical report, published on 15 June, the watchdog found that a universal credit claim costs an average of £699 to administer, compared with the target of £173 per claim by 2024-5. Roll-out of the scheme had also been “considerably slower” than intended.

The flagship scheme, which consolidates six benefits into one, has been beset with operational problems and delays as well as being widely criticised for the hardship imposed on claimants, many of whom have experienced significant delays in receiving payments.

NAO head Amyas Morse said the DWP had “little realistic alternative but to continue with the programme and hopefully learn from past mistakes”.

Separately, the NAO revealed that Ofsted has failed to hit its targets while suffering “constants cuts” to its budget for more than a decade.

Spending on school inspections in 2017-18 has fallen by 52% in real terms since 1999-2000 – from £125m to £60m, an NAO report found.

Ofsted failed to meet its statutory target to www.publicfinance.co.uk/subscribe re-inspect schools graded ‘inadequate’ in 6% of cases (78) between 2012-13 and

voice of the nations

In brief…

BREXIT

IFS warns of funding drop post-Brexit

ALAMY

Wales would take a financial hit if the Barnett formula was used to allocate replacement funding for EU programmes, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. The IFS told the Welsh Assembly’s finance committee that Wales received up to 3.5 times more EU funding per person for agriculture and economic development than England. Using the Barnett formula after Brexit would lead to much smaller percentage increases for Wales unless funding in England rose substantially.

M I G R AT I O N

UK immigration policy ‘unhelpful’ Scotland should have greater control over immigration in the wake of subdued economic growth forecasts, according to finance secretary Derek Mackay. Current controls had a “disproportionate” effect on Scotland, and the UK government’s “one size fits all” policy held back the country’s ambitions, he told members of the Scottish Parliament’s finance and constitution committee.

“Reducing immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’, as the prime minister has discussed, is singularly unhelpful to Scotland’s economy,” he said.

T R A N S P O RT

Investment promises new chapter for rail The Welsh Government is pledging to open “a new chapter for rail services” with a £5bn investment in

“We will have the best, up-to-date information closer to the time of the UK and Scottish budgets, and we will have more hard data, which will be better than having just forecasts, which is what we have now,” he said.

If Mackay does end up with fewer resources than expected in 2018-19, his options will be to reduce spending, use borrowing powers, or draw down from the Scotland reserve. The commission has warned that the Scottish Government can only continue to borrow at its current rate until 2022-23. After that, the aggregate cap of £3bn will be reached, limiting future borrowing.

According to Mackay, the Scottish Government is hamstrung by its lack of fiscal freedom. “We need more levers in addition to the borrowing powers and having a reserve, because there are caps on how much I can draw down from that reserve,” he said. “We need more flexibility in the event of a worst-case scenario.”

the network. This aims to improve the Wales and Borders services, establish a South Wales Metro, and create 600 jobs, new trains and stations. First minister Carwyn Jones said: “This is a chance … to build a modern, forward-looking transport system, [and] to use it… to shape the life of the nation around us.”

W E L FA R E

Universal credit for new Belfast claimants Universal credit has been rolled out to Belfast and is available to new claimants in the Shankill, Falls and Andersontown areas.

Combining six benefits into a single payment, the phased Northern Ireland roll out began in September 2017. David Sales, universal credit programme director at the Department for Communities, said: “We have been able to closely manage and learn from the rollout to date.”

plan; in the absence of ministers, departments are limited in how they discharge their functions, and civil servants cannot, as recent court judgments make clear, take certain decisions in relation to those functions.”

In May, the Belfast High Court blocked a decision by a senior civil servant to approve a waste incinerator plant at a site near Newtonabbey.

Sterling went on: “The plan provides direction for those who deliver public services and provides a measure of transparency about what the [civil service] will be doing … when the executive and the Assembly are not functioning.”

He urged the early return of devolved decision-making at Stormont.

WALES

Council tax debt jail terms to end

⦁ People in Wales who fail to pay their council tax will no longer face a jail term, finance secretary Mark Drakeford has announced.

Non-payment of council tax can result in a jail term of up to three months, unlike other civil debt. But regulations to be brought forward next year would end this practice, pending the outcome of a 12-week ⦁ Northern Ireland’s civil servants have consultation ending on 3 September. issued a delivery plan to ensure “Getting into debt is not a crime,” said D government operates Drakeford.

“Imprisonment is a outdated and effectively while the an d devolved Assembly remains disproportionate response to in abeyance. a civil debt issue.”

An Outcomes Delivery He added that there was ““significant additional cost Plan for 2018-19 was tto the public purse” in published on 4 June. David jjailing individuals who Sterling, head of the civil service in Northern Ireland, said failed to pay, and this often made si the plan underpinned the the situation worse, putting press Northern Ireland Executive’s pressure on other public services.

Cas of council tax debt objectives of tackling Cases incre disadvantage and driving increased after the government scrap economic growth. scrapped the national council tax www.publicfinance.co.uk/subscribe He added: “This is a benefit scheme in 2013, the rail investment in Wales ery necessarily constrained delivery Welsh Government claimed.

N O RT H E R N I R E LAND

Delivery plan provides direction

£5bn

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R

ishi Sunak smiles a lot. It’s almost as if he can’t quite believe where he is. He tells PF he still can’t get used to sitting at his desk with a computer in his extremely large, glass-panelled, light-filled office. He prefers to sit at the small boardroom table at the end, where he can spread out.

Indeed, if he is still in slight shock at being promoted to parliamentary under-secretary of state for local government at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government it would be quite understandable.

The 38-year-old has risen pretty fast up the ranks after taking over from William Hague as the MP for Richmond (Yorks) in 2015. He was a parliamentary private secretary – a parliamentary aid - in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – for just over six months, before he was snapped up by MHCLG in the reshuffle in January this year.

But if Sunak is potentially still a little dazed, he is not fazed, and gives polished politicians’ answers to policy questions, as if he had been doing it for years. To be expected perhaps, given that he has followed the well trodden path of many a politician – leading public school (Winchester College) and then on to Oxford to study politics, philosophy and economics.

He tells PF that “of course” it was a surprise to be promoted to the

By Emily Twinch

ministerial role. He feels “very lucky”, as there are a “huge number of really talented people” in the Conservative Party – “lots of interesting people, who have done a huge variety of things before coming into parliament”.

MHCLG is well known for having a high ministerial turnover. Alok Sharma was housing minister for just seven months. Sunak’s predecessor, Marcus Jones, was in his role for three years, and most communities secretaries usually manage only a year or two (over the past 12 years, Eric (now Lord) Pickles is a record holder with five years as head of the department). Perhaps this is why Sunak’s office is fairly devoid of personal touches – perhaps he’s just too busy to add them, or maybe because you never know how long you’ll be at MHCLG. What would you like your legacy to be? PF asks Sunak. “You are writing my obituary already?” he laughs. But he becomes highly serious when he talks about his desire to ensure that local government “benefits from all the opportunities that technology provides”.

“That’s a particular interest of mine”. Sunak started his career at Goldman Sachs and later co-founded a large investment company, which led him to be based for some time in ► California, investing in the global

MAN FROM THE MINISTRY

TO ACCESS THE FULL VERSION OF PUBLIC FINANCE MAGAZINE, Ahead of hisHERE CIPFA conference address, former financier SUBSCRIBE www.publicfinance.co.uk/subscribe Rishi Sunak tells PF how his business background will stand him in good stead as he gets to grips with his local government portfolio

interview / rishi sunak

It’s a fantastic and challenging and interesting portfolio. You feel that you are starting to get to grips with it, and that takes time.

You obviously want to master your brief and try and make a difference. I’d like to stay here a long time

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BEN MEADOWS

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feature

Britain’s favourite national institution is 70 in July. Will the PM’s promise of a £20bn birthday present be enough to secure its future?

father: Aneurin �Founding Bevan, the Labour health minister who inaugurated the National Health Service, studying posters prior to the NHS launch in 1948

NHS: FIT FOR A NEW AGE?

T

he NHS turns 70 this July – and, like many 70-yearolds, it is feeling its age and needing a bit more care.

By Alison Moore Theresa May’s announcement of a 3.4% annual increase in funding for the next five years is some consolation (see box overleaf). But the challenges facing the health service over future decades go a lot deeper.

The world’s first national healthcare system was launched in 1948 in a world when penicillin had only just been introduced, childhood vaccinations were still limited and the life expectancy of men was less than 66, while for women it was just over 70.

With an initial budget of £280m – but more than 400,000 staff – the NHS started to feel the pinch almost immediately. Its founder Aneurin Bevan fought furiously against co-payment, but fees of a shilling for glasses, dentures and prescriptions were introduced in 1952.

Adding to the costs was the gradual adoption of new technologies – hip replacements from the 1960s, organ transplants, fertility treatments such as IVF, new drugs and the development of MRI and CT scanning along with other diagnostic tools. Childhood mortality fell dramatically and life expectancy rose. But this meant more children surviving with disabilities and more people living with long-term conditions: a triumph and a cost.

There were changes in attitudes too: mental health patients who would once have been institutionalised for their entire lives were increasingly moved into community settings.

Contraception, and, later, fertility services, were made available to single women.

The structure of the NHS also changed. In 1948, it took on an existing patchwork of local hospitals and a few teaching hospitals: from the 1960s onwards, it started to shape this into district general hospitals, with general management being introduced in the 1980s.

Probably the most fundamental change came with the purchaser/provider split of 1990, followed by fundholding and payment by results. Suddenly, hospitals were operating in a world where the commissioner had the whip hand – at least in theory.

Hospitals were granted growing autonomy through trust status and then foundation trust status. The Health and Social Care Act 2012, however, led to greater fragmentation, with the destruction of the middle tier of health authorities. The 200-plus commissioning organisations looked weak in comparison with their predecessors and were dominated by GPs, with limited lay representation.

Almost from its start, the NHS needed staff from overseas. From the Windrush nurses www.publicfinance.co.uk/subscribe post-war through to the South Asian doctors of the 1960s and 1970s, it has recruited from ► across the Commonwealth and, more recently, Europe.

32 PUBLICFINANCE JULY / AUGUST 2018

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Do we think the principle of social solidarity on which ACCESSin THE10, FULL the NHS is founded is going to be VERSION asTOstrong 15 or OF PUBLIC FINANCE 20 years’ time? It would be a mistakeSUBSCRIBE toMAGAZINE assume HEREthat attitudes to this will persist without maintenance ,

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Nigel Edwards, chief executive, Nuffield Trust

feature

OTTO DETTMER / IKON

data, but their insight is poor. We encourage people to think about the big questions that need answering and the big challenges they face. Having a curious mind is very important.”

While demand for data analysts looks set to grow, you’d be mistaken if you thought the evolution of finance hinged solely on the ability to use new tools, says Nick Jackson, who held a variety of senior public sector finance roles before moving to Oracle 18 months ago, where he is now director of finance and performance innovation. “The skill of finance professionals is more in being able to translate predictive analysis into a language that is understood by the business,” he says.

“Everyone gets very excited about IT and digital – and rightly so,” says Neil Sartorio, EY partner and lead for England & Wales local public services. Sartorio is also part of innovation programme London Ventures, a collaboration between EY and London Councils, which focuses on how the public, private and third sectors can work together to support London’s public services challenges.

But Sartorio warns that advancements in AI have not been matched by increases in emotional intelligence. “It’s not about structure – it’s about function and capability and creating relationships, culture and leadership across every departmental structure. Any CFO needs to talk about all organisations across those dimensions. You can’t do it through numbers any more. It’s about predicting to create the investment case.”

Despite the huge potential benefits to be reaped, and as those emerging from under the dark cloud of the General Data Protection Regulation will no doubt be aware, digital poses a whole range of challenges, from data privacy and management to the viability of the business models within the public sector to deliver that data.

Given that organisations spend millions every year storing stale, ancient or orphaned data, according to data protection company Veritas, data science and understanding the power and complexity of information management is a growing part of finance’s remit. “PostGDPR, you’ll have to know what data you hold, and, if you have a complex array of cloud systems, how do you hold that data and avoid malpractice and fraud. A lot of that will fall to the finance profession,” says Jos Creese, an independent IT consultant and principal analyst for not-for-profit cloud provider Eduserv.

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►

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Top tips…

Do ➊ Set out a vision ➋ Take into account the

➌

traditionalism and complexity of your setup – and the resources you have Lead from the top

Don’t ➊ Shy away from changing outdated practices

➋ Fall into a short-term,

➐

NATALIE WOOD

“Digital is more than just a website, a Facebook profile, or giving employees iPads”

➊ ➋ ➌ ➍

Align with corporate strategy Define exactly what digital means in your organisation, integrate it into corporate planning, and avoid merely ‘bolting it on’.

Create digital foundations Put digital architectures, principles and prioritised programmes in place before starting, ensure that you have effective leadership and communication, and encourage directors to take on roles that are cross-cutting.

Redefine your IT strategy Prioritise digital outcomes and effective business cases, assess legacy constraints – and, above all, be brave when it comes to confronting outdated practices.

Draw up a digital plan Agree a digital delivery plan that takes into account management structures and resource allocation, but make sure you tackle this as part of a broader, long-term vision.

narrow mindset

➌ Be afraid to restructure operating models

➎ ➏ ➐

Build a business case Your traditional return on investment approach may need adapting to account for risk as part of a holistic perspective on savings and benefits – but don’t be over ambitious.

Secure employee buy-in and boost communication Honest, frequent and widespread communication is essential, and HR should prioritise setting up a network of ‘digital champions’ to spread the word and lead the way.

Shift culture and behaviours The new digital culture needs to be understood, embedded and feature in governance and performance systems, with HR able to champion changing roles.

TO ACCESS THE FULL Restructure your operating VERSION OF PUBLIC FINANCE model MAGAZINE, Traditional hierarchies are not fit for SUBSCRIBE HERE model, purpose in a digital operating

➑

www.publicfinance.co.uk/subscribe and a new structure of operation will need to be defined.

WWW.PUBLICFINANCE.CO.UK 45

numbers game

trn

Gender inequality waste of money Economies of 141 countries lost out on $160trn in 2014 because of differences in earnings between men and women, according to a report from the World Bank. “The world is essentially leaving $160trn on the table when we neglect inequality,” said chief executive Kristalina Georgieva.

Immigration caps for skilled workers Some say say they they need to recruit skilled professionals from outside empty Someemployers employers need to more recruit skilled professionals s ffrom rom rom ro mthe ou outside uEU ttsssiitode tsi defillth the h he eE EU Uposts. to fill to The Government says it has to cap the number of immigrants, including doctors and other skilled workers, for each empty posts. types The government says ithave has recently to cap the number of these of im iimmigrants mrefused. migran mi mig ra an nWhat ts fo ts ffor ordoeach o of the following of skilled workers who had visa applications you think the Government policy should be?

types o of skilled work. What do you think the government policy i should h ld b be??

Doctors D Do octtor ors

37%

27%

19%

9% 3% 5%

Engineers E En n ngi gine gi neer es

27%

22%

28%

13%

4% 6%

Teachers

27%

21%

30%

11%

5% 6%

Computer and technology experts

21%

There should be no caps on the numbers at all

The cap should be increased so more visas are issued

20%

The cap should remain at the present level

30%

16%

No visas should The cap should be reduced so that fewer be issued to this visa are issued group at all

6% 7%

Don’t know

mil ion Budget cuts hit childhood obesity Of children aged 10 to 11 in England, 4.1% were severely obese in 2016-17, according to Local Government Association analysis of Public Health England figures.

The figure for severely obese children aged four and five was 2.35% in the same period.

The LGA called for the government to give councils increased funds and powers to tackle the issue. It blamed a £600m reduction in councils’ public health budgets between 2015-16 and 2019-20 as a contributing factor to rising child obesity.

Source: Ipsos MORI

More than half the public in Great Britain believe visa caps for non-EU applicants should be relaxed for skilled workers, according to an Ipsos MORI poll.

More than a third (37%) of 1,015 adults interviewed in May believed there should be no cap for doctors, while a quarter (27%) felt it should be increased.

A quarter (27%) said there should be no cap for teachers and 21% wanted it increased.

One fifth of those interviewed (21%) thought there should be no cap for computer and technology experts and another 20% believed it should be raised.

Thepublic publicon ofthe thepeers peers The

Po sit iv

Negative

VERSION FINANCE A lot/OF PUBLIC Not very much/ Don’t know fair amount nothing at all MAGAZINE, SUBSCRIBE HERE www.publicfinance.co.uk/subscribe

10%

Don’ t k no w

TO ACCESS THE FULL 4%

35%

ive gat ne or

37%

38%

How much, if anything do you know about how the House of Lords operates and what its role is in British politics?

Neither pos itiv e

59%

17%

e

How much, do do youyou know about how how the How much,ififanything anything, know about the House of Lords operates and what its role is House ofpolitics?

Lords operates and its role in British politics? in British

Source: YouGov

4.1% age 10-11 2.35% age 4-5 £600m reduction

in councils’ public health budgets between 2015-20

Care about Lords?

It appears most people don’t know anything about the Lords, and, if they do, they have a negative opinion.

According to a YouGov poll of 1,654 adults in Great Britain, 59% didn’t know very much or anything at all about the upper chamber. Thirty-five per cent said they had neither a negative nor positive view of the Lords, while 38% said they had a negative view. Seventeen per cent of those surveyed had a positive view of the upper house.

More people who voted leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum (52%) had a negative view than remainers (26%).

SHUTTERSTOCK

What do you think of caps?

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