News story: The AAIB has sent a team to Caernarfon Airport
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The AAIB has sent a team to investigate an aircraft accident that occurred at Caernarfon Airport read more
Author Archives: HM Government
Press release: Hurricane Irma: statement from Priti Patel
Commenting on the impact of Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean International Development Secretary, Priti Patel, said: The thoughts of the British people are with all those affected by Hurricane Irma and Britain has already taken swift action to respond. … read more
News story: Civil news: limits on emergency representation for JR work
Make sure you understand the rules when self-granting emergency representation in the housing category.
Providers must ensure they do not carry out judicial review housing work we cannot pay them for when attempting to self-grant emergency representation via delegated functions. We know of several examples of this happening and firms should be reminded that delegated functions cannot be exercised for judicial review save for specified exceptions.
Exceptions for self-granting
Specific exceptions where self-granting emergency representation is possible includes:
- proceedings under Part VII Housing Act 1996 (as amended)
- section 21 National Assistance Act 1948 (as amended)
- section 20 Children Act 1989 (as amended)
- section 47(5) National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 (as amended)
- section 19(3) Care Act 2014 or
- section 36 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 These exceptions are dealt with in paragraph 5.3 (a) of the specification to the Standard Civil Contract – see link below.
Public interest cases
These are dealt with under paragraph 5.3 (b) of the Standard Civil Contract which states: “Public interest cases: you do not have the power to make a determination that a client qualifies for civil legal services on the grounds that the case has a significant wider public interest.”
Further information
Standard Civil Contract 2015 – to download Standard Civil Contract 2015 specification (sections 1 to 6)
News story: Civil news: pilot aims to cut paperwork for certificated work
Deadline is 15 September 2017 for Bristol providers invited to take part in pilot scheme.
Bristol providers invited to join a pilot to simplify certificated work processes in certain family proceedings have until 15 September to respond.
The pilot scheme is due to start on Monday 25, September 2017 and those providers invited have been contacted directly.
The scheme will involve legal aid certificates being granted with a wider limitation for scope or costs restrictions.
This will allow providers to free up administrative time currently spent collating and submitting evidence before they can carry out work.
Why are we doing this?
We want to reduce the paper burden for providers because this will allow them to act more quickly for clients and spend less time having to contact us for further information.
There will be no changes to fee schemes, claimable work or Legal Aid Agency (LAA) evidence requirements and no impact on court proceedings.
It just means evidence LAA needs to see can be submitted when proceedings are concluded rather than upfront.
More time for complex work
An added benefit is that our caseworkers will have more time to spend on complex applications and providing a quality service.
News story: LCV2017: high-performance carbon-reduction sports car unveiled
HIPERCAR – which stands for High Performance Carbon Reduction – is a project by Ariel Motor Company, Delta Motorsport and Equipmake to develop an ultra-high performance sports car with advanced carbon reduction technologies.
Phase one results were made public for the first time today at Cenex-LCV. A number of prototypes are on show. This work was supported through a £2 million grant from Innovate UK.
The model sports car will be built at Ariel’s facility in Somerset.
Bridging the route to market
Simon Edmonds, Director – Manufacturing and Materials, Innovate UK said:
Routes to market for new technologies – especially in automotive – are very challenging. Projects we fund like HIPERCAR bridge that gap and aid wider commercial exploitation in mass market vehicles in the future.
This exciting project pulls through a number of novel low emission technologies developed by UK based SMEs and deploys these in this stunning vehicle for the first time.
Anchoring low carbon tech in the UK
Simon Saunders, Director of Ariel said:
HIPERCAR prototype is unveiled at LCV2017.Developing another of the fastest cars in the world is important for Ariel, but anchoring the technology in this country and building a British supply chain is vital for the economy.
The government assistance through Innovate UK to us and other contributing projects has been vital in developing the many technologies and components featured in the vehicle.
This is an extremely advanced, cutting-edge car that brings together UK developed technology in every aspect of its design. The fact that it has been developed in the UK and supported by UK government agencies shows just how important the vehicle and the technology is to the UK automotive industry.
Looking to the future
In addition, the project has received funding for its next phase from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), worth £6 million. This will enable the team to carry out further testing, development and production.
Jon Beasley, Director of Technology and Projects at the APC said:
read moreThe HIPERCAR project is a great example of how smaller companies and members of the UK’s niche vehicle network are creating opportunities to adopt, and bring to market, cutting-edge low-carbon technology through their future vehicle programmes.
This is one of a number of projects in APC’s portfolio that is significantly reducing CO2 and safeguarding or creating jobs, in addition to developing UK automotive capability. APC8, the next round of funding, is now open.