Author Archives: HM Government
News story: David Mundell MP reappointed Secretary of State for Scotland
The Rt Hon David Mundell MP has been reappointed as Secretary of State for Scotland.
The Secretary of State said:
“I am delighted and honoured to have been reappointed Secretary of State for Scotland.
“The Scotland Office has a key role to play as we face the huge tasks that lie ahead of us.
“We need to secure the right Brexit deal for Scotland and the whole of the UK, and we also need focus on how we bring back powers from Brussels in a way that works best for the Scottish economy.
“We need to work closely with the Scottish Government, and to do that effectively we will need to forge a much more constructive relationship, one based not on politics and press releases but on what is best for Scotland. I’m confident that can happen. My door is open and I hope, now the election is over, we can reset the relationship between Scotland’s two governments.
“As before, my door also remains open to all those interest groups and business sectors that have a stake in Scotland’s success. I’m looking forward to working with everyone as we look to the future together.”
News story: UAE delegation visits pioneering UK drug rehabilitation services
Leaders from the United Arab Emirates’ National Rehabilitation Centre inspect additional UK centres of excellence looking to do business.
A delegation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to UK drug rehabilitation services has resulted in the Director General of the UAE’s National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) appointing teams to drive forward detailed negotiations. The UAE intention is to secure active partnerships with the UK this financial year.
UK expertise in drug rehabilitation attracts repeat visits from UAE
This was the second visit recently from senior staff at the National Rehabilitation Centre in Abu Dhabi to see UK drug rehabilitation expertise and services.
Hosted and planned by Healthcare UK, this visit was led by His Excellency Dr. Hamad Al Ghaferi, Director General of the UAE’s National Rehabilitation Centre. The mission included:
- Head of Nursing Dr. Samya Al Mamari
- Dr Shamil Wanigaratne, adviser to His Excellency and clinical psychologist.
UK healthcare centres of excellence
The mission team visited a selection of centres of excellence in the UK drug rehabilitation sector, including:
Contact us at healthcare.uk@trade.gov.uk for more information about UK drug rehabilitation services or to discuss support with exporting.
News story: UK digital health sector sets up wins in Brazil at Hospitalar
In May Healthcare UK and NHS Digital helped build new relationships and trade openings in Brazil when they jointly led an 8 company mission to Sao Paulo to take part in Hospitalar, the biggest healthcare trade event in Latin America.
Following the event, a number of contract negotiations are currently close to completion. Hospitalar 2017 had a strong focus on digital health, and the 8 companies in the UK mission were selected for their strength in this highly innovative, competitive and fast-moving area:
Brazil’s healthcare market growth driven by digital
With the largest healthcare market in Latin America, and seventh largest in the world, Brazil is one of Healthcare UK’s priority markets. Despite the recent economic downturn, the market for healthcare imports is predicted to grow, reaching £52 billion by 2020.
As is the case around the world, demographic changes are driving demand for digital healthcare solutions in the Brazilian market. As the population becomes older and non-communicable diseases continue to rise, it is becoming increasingly urgent for Brazil to identify smarter investments to provide health services to the population.
The Brazilian constitution ensures that everyone must have access to healthcare, and digital and e-health systems are seen to a key way to achieve this without increasing cost.
UK healthcare exhibitors make an impact in Brazil
Headed up by Healthcare UK’s Managing Director, Deborah Kobewka and NHS Digital’s Director of Digital Transformation, Beverley Bryant, the UK presence made a significant impact at Hospitalar. Six of the UK organisations had speaker sessions on the main stage, helping to generate a strong flow of traffic and meetings on the UK stand.
The party had meetings with Brazilian government leaders and health officials at city, state and national level, visited the leading cardiothoracic hospital in Sao Paulo (InCor) and leading private hospital Sirio Libanes.
Contact us at healthcare.uk@trade.gov.uk for more information about UK digital health services and to discuss support with exporting.
read morePress release: UK House Price Index (HPI) for April 2017
UK Property Transaction statistics showed that in April 2017 the total number of seasonally adjusted property transactions completed in the UK with value of £40,000 or above increased by 20.3% compared to April 2016. The unusually low level of transactions in April 2016 was associated with the introduction of the higher tax rates on additional properties introduced in this month. Comparing April 2017 to March 2017, property transactions fell by 3.2%.See the economic statement.
Sales during February 2017, the most up-to-date HM Land Registry figures available, show that:
The UK House Price Index (HPI) is published on the second or third Tuesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. The May 2017 UK HPI will be published at 9.30am on 18 July 2017. See calendar of release dates.
The UK HPI revision period has been extended to 13 months, following a review of the revision policy (see calculating the UK HPI section 4.4). This ensures the data used is more comprehensive.
New revision tables have been introduced for England and Wales within the downloadable data. Tables will be available in csv format. See about the UK HPI for more information.
Data for the UK HPI is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the Valuation Office Agency.
The UK HPI is calculated by the Office for National Statistics and Land & Property Services/Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. It applies a hedonic regression model that uses the various sources of data on property price, in particular HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Dataset, and attributes to produce estimates of the change in house prices each month. Find out more about the methodology used from ONS and Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency.
The first estimate for new build average price (April 2016 report) was based on a small sample which can cause volatility. A three month moving average has been applied to the latest estimate to remove some of this volatility.
Work has been taking place since 2014 to develop a single, official HPI that reflects the final transaction price for sales of residential property in the UK. Using the geometric mean, it covers purchases at market value for owner-occupation and buy-to-let, excluding those purchases not at market value (such as re-mortgages), where the ‘price’ represents a valuation.
Information on residential property transactions for England and Wales, collected as part of the official registration process, is provided by HM Land Registry for properties that are sold for full market value.
The HM Land Registry dataset contains the sale price of the property, the date when the sale was completed, full address details, the type of property (detached, semi-detached, terraced or flat), if it is a newly built property or an established residential building and a variable to indicate if the property has been purchased as a financed transaction (using a mortgage) or as a non-financed transaction (cash purchase).
Repossession data is based on the number of transactions lodged with HM Land Registry by lenders exercising their power of sale.
For England this is shown as volumes of repossessions recorded by Government Office Region. For Wales there is a headline figure for the number of repossessions recorded in Wales.
The data can be downloaded as a .csv file. Repossession data prior to April 2016 is not available. Find out more information about repossessions.
Background tables of the raw and cleansed aggregated data, in Excel and CSV formats, are also published monthly although Northern Ireland is on a quarterly basis. They are available for free use and re-use under the Open Government Licence.
As a government department established in 1862, executive agency and trading fund responsible to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, HM Land Registry keeps and maintains the Land Register for England and Wales. The Land Register has been open to public inspection since 1990.
With the largest transactional database of its kind detailing more than 24 million titles, HM Land Registry underpins the economy by safeguarding ownership of many billions of pounds worth of property.
For further information about HM Land Registry visit www.gov.uk/land-registry.
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