Traffic officers have been patrolling the busy holiday route as part of a trial this year, and now they’re extending their patrols to visit three primary schools.

The crews are running two highways awareness days, visiting Blackwater Community Primary School and Chacewater Community Primary School near Truro on Wednesday, 19 September, and Goonhavern Primary School, near Perranporth, on Thursday, 20 September.

The children will get a chance to chat to the traffic officers about their jobs and will get to see first hand their patrol vehicle and the equipment used every day as they patrol England’s major A roads and motorways. Highways England’s trial initiative has seen traffic officers patrol the A30 in Cornwall for the first time during the bank holiday weekends and summer holiday season.

The aim of the initiative is to provide further assistance to motorists on the South West network, and extend the traffic officer service further south into Cornwall to continue an already close working partnership with Devon and Cornwall Police and Cornwall Council.

The traffic officers have been patrolling the A30 between Carland Cross and Liftondown and, based at Bodmin police station and Cornwall Council’s Castle Canyke depot during the peak holiday months, they have been much closer at hand to provide assistance along both the A30 and A38.

During the summer holiday period up to its conclusion on Monday (10 September), Highways England crews attended a total of 134 incidents, including live lane breakdowns, road traffic collisions and debris clearance. And on the last Sunday in July, the traffic officers’ ‘powers of recovery’ averted major disruption on the westbound A30 as they were able to assist police by towing a broken down horsebox and vehicle to safety at Okehampton Services.

Rob Penney, South West Service Delivery Manager for Highways England, said:

“The patrols have been really well received by both holiday makers and local residents.

“Following this initial trial period, the school visits are a great opportunity to meet local children and raise road safety awareness among this young audience.”

The highways awareness days will launch a longer-term STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) initiative run by Highways England’s A30 Chiverton to Carland Cross project team.

The schools’ outreach programme, which will run from October, is designed to engage children from four to 18 in fun, hands-on activities which will teach them more about the interesting work taking place as part of the dualling scheme.

Josh Hodder, project manager of the A30 Chiverton to Carland Cross scheme, said:

“The traffic officers have had a great reception and we look forward to working with local schools to teach them more about the STEAM project and our work on the scheme.”

For any schools interested in receiving a STEAM visit, or learning more about Highways England’s work in the area, email A30ChivertontoCarlandCross@highwaysengland.co.uk

View more information on the roles and responsibilities of a Highways England traffic officer.

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The Independent Advisory Group on Country Information (IAGCI) is part of the Office of the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. Its purpose is to review the content of all Country of Origin Information (COI) produced by the UK Home Office. Country of Origin Information is used in procedures that assess claims of individuals for refugee status or other forms of international and humanitarian protection. It is also used in policy formulation.

The IAGCI reviews products to provide assurance to the Independent Chief Inspector that the content is as accurate, balanced, impartial and as up to date as possible. COI is contained in:

CPINs are generated on an ongoing basis for the top 20 asylum intake countries, and commonly address a specific type of common asylum claim(s) or provide general information for several claim types. They are compiled from material produced by a range of recognised external information sources (news sources, academic literature, independent research reports, fact finding reports from UK government or from other governments, etc.). These documents also contain Home Office policy on the recommended position to be taken with respect to various types of claims, based on the available and accepted country information.

Information Request (IR) responses are made directly by case workers or others to the Home Office. These relate to information that is not covered in the CPINs. The IAGCI includes in its reviews a consideration of the COI included in a sample of (not more than ten) IR responses. Each IR response is typically a maximum of 2 pages in length.

Tender Details

IAGCI commissions country experts or experienced researchers to evaluate and report upon the country of origin information contained in UK Home Office information products. At its next meeting, the IAGCI requires a country expert to review the use of country information used in the following CPINs (4 separate tenders, 1 for each country):

Tender 1: Burma

Country policy and information note: Rohingya, Burma, November 2017 (50 Pages)

Country policy and guidance: critics of the government, Burma, March 2017 (38 Pages)

Tender 2: Iraq

Country Policy and Information Note: internal relocation, civil documentation and returns, Iraq, September 2018 (58 pages)

Country Policy and Information Note: Perceived collaborators, Iraq, January 2018 (16 pages)

Tender 3: Pakistan

Country Policy and Information Note: Pakistan: Background information, including actors of protection, and internal relocation, June 2017 (40 Pages)

Country Policy and Information Note: Pakistan: Land Disputes, January 2017 (16 pages)

Tender 4: Zimbabwe

Country Policy and Information Note: Sexual orientation and gender identity, Zimbabwe, May 2018 (35 Pages)

Country Policy and Information Note: Opposition to the Government, Zimbabwe, April 2018 (45 pages)

For each tender, the expert is also asked to consider a selection of approximately 10 Information Request Responses, which will be provided by the Chair of IAGCI, and are an average of 2 pages long.

Description of work

Country Policy and Information Notes aim to provide an accurate, balanced and up to date summary of the key available source documents regarding the human rights situation, with respect to the issues selected for coverage, in the country covered. The purpose and scope of the reports are clearly set out in an introductory section of the document. Reviewers should evaluate the reports in this context and seek to identify any areas where they can be improved. Specifically the review should entail:

• assessing the extent to which information from source documents has been appropriately and accurately reflected in the CPIN Reports
• identifying additional sources detailing the current human rights situation in the country with respect to main grounds for asylum claims (which are noted in each CPIN Report)
• noting and correcting any specific errors or omissions of fact
• making recommendations for general improvements regarding, for example, the structure of the report, its coverage or its overall approach

Reviewers should follow these specific guidelines:

• the review should focus exclusively on the country of origin information contained within the document, and not pass judgment on the policy guidance provided
• the CPIN should be reviewed in the context of its purpose as set out above. It should consider the situation in the country up to the stated ‘cut off’ date for inclusion of information
• when suggesting amendments, rather than ‘tracking changes’ on the original CPIN, a list of suggested changes should be provided as part of a stand-alone review paper, and each report should be reviewed separately. A reporting template will be provided to reviewers (for reference please refer to most recent reviews on the IAGCI webpage for examples of the template)
• any suggestions for additional information (or corrections to information in the document) must be referenced to a source document for the Home Office to be able to use it (preferably Open Source). The Home Office may use foreign language source documents, but only if the information is considered essential and is not available in English language source

Previous reviews of COI products can be viewed on the ICIBI website

The selected reviewers will be requested to attend an IAGCI meeting at the Office of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration in London, when their review will be considered. This meeting is due to take place in November 2018. Alternative arrangements may be made, if attendance is not possible. Representatives from the UK Home Office will also attend the meeting to provide responses to comments and recommendations made in the review.

Reviews commissioned by IAGCI may be used as source documents for future CPIN reports or other Home Office information products.

How to Apply

Researchers interested in conducting any of the reviews should submit:

• a one page letter demonstrating their expertise in human rights and/or asylum issues pertaining to the particular country or countries
• their c.v.

Payment for this work will be set at £2000. Expressions of interest should be submitted to the IAGCI Chair, Dr Laura Hammond laura.hammond@soas.ac.uk

Unfortunately, we are only able to accept expressions of interest from individuals and not from institutions or consultancy groups.

Successful bids will be notified by 3 October 2018. Final reviews will be due by the close of Wednesday 3 November 2018 and will be discussed at the IAGCI meeting later in November 2018 (precise date to be confirmed).

The activity was just one of many taking place across the country this year for the Year of Engineering, an HM Government campaign showing young people that engineering can be an exciting and rewarding career.

Students and apprentices (15 to18 years) involved in the Manchester-based Blair Project’s ‘ProtoEV innovation challenge’ have had 8 months to convert used petrol-driven go-karts into fully-electric high-powered ‘e-karts’.

It is skills such as these that the government will seek to harness as part of its Industrial Strategy mission to put the UK at the forefront of the design and manufacturing of zero emission vehicles; making all new cars and vans effectively emission-free by 2040.

The karts on display today (12 September 2018) at Millbrook Proving Ground, one of Europe’s leading test tracks for automotive research and development, demonstrate the technical skill of the competitors and the immense value of this vocational hands-on approach in inspiring future engineers.

Once the karts are built teams then compete against each other to see who has created both the fastest and most energy-efficient vehicle.

The ProtoEV competition was recently approved by the Motorsports Association as a motor club in its own right, which means a new development series will go ahead this autumn with full blown championship racing by 2020.

Through working with inspirational partners like the Blair Project, the Year of Engineering aims to give young people across the UK a million direct and inspiring experiences during 2018, transforming traditional perceptions of engineering as a career.

Jesse Norman, Transport Minister, said:

This is an exciting time for automotive engineering; one that has the potential to revolutionise the industry.

The Year of Engineering is focussed on inspiring the next generation of engineers to take on these bold challenges.

Through converting old go-karts into these new electric vehicles, the young people of the Blair Project have demonstrated just the kinds of skills that will be needed if the UK is to lead the world in zero emissions technologies.

Blair Project CEO Nile Henry said:

There is a serious shortage of young people going into engineering in the UK. We are trying to plug that gap by providing a project-based learning activity that gives young people the hands-on, practical experience and life skills that employers want.

Pensions have suddenly become interesting, with savings now the topic of conversation. There is most definitely a pensions revolution taking hold. And this can only come about as record numbers of people feel empowered to save, businesses feel confident to support their employees to save, and government assists this to happen through the automatic enrolment scheme.

Statistics published this week revealed more people than ever before are saving into a workplace pension. Membership of occupational schemes reached a record high of 41.1 million in 2017 – up a staggering 49% in just 5 years.

The transformation is even starker when you look at the numbers paying in to a private sector pension, with active members of pension schemes soaring to a high of 8.8 million in 2017. 81% of eligible workers were participating in a workplace pension last year, up from a low of 42% 6 years ago.

The people behind the remarkable statistics are the young, lower earners, and women. Record low youth unemployment has shown that not only are thousands more young people moving into work, but they are thinking ahead to their future too. In 2017, around 8 in 10 of eligible 22 to 29 year olds in the private sector were enrolled into a workplace pension; that figure was a meagre 24% in 2012.

The proportion of private sector workers earning between £10,000 and £20,000 who are participating in a workplace pension has risen from 2 in 10 prior to automatic enrolment to more than 7 in 10 in 2017. And private sector pension participation amongst women has doubled, reaching four out of five eligible female employees – something we’ve achieved in parallel with a record increase in female employment.

These groups, who were previously putting away little or nothing for their futures, are now embracing automatic enrolment.

Our reforms have allowed for planned, gradual, increases in contribution rates, which starting modestly, have already gone up to five per cent, and will rise again to 8 per cent from April next year. This phased approach is the right one if we want to bring about long-lasting behavioural change which breathes new life into the nation’s retirement prospects.

With unemployment at a record low, millions more people are moving into work – 1,000 people a day since 2010. And these figures show that once they’ve got a job, they are putting money aside for their futures.

Our reforms are supporting people to make these changes, showing we are returning to a society of savers where individuals are in control of their own money.