John
McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting on reports that the Treasury has asked
government departments to prepare for cuts of 3 per cent and 6 per cent, for
2019/20, said:

“For
all Hammond’s talk of ‘resetting’ the Tory Government’s economic policy last
summer it is now beyond doubt that Hammond represents more of the same Tory
austerity.

"Sneaking out an announcement asking departments to model cuts of 3 per
cent and 6 per cent for 2019/20 is no way to manage public spending.

"Hammond urgently needs to explain why this announcement was made in the
way it was and why after seven years of failed austerity he thinks more of the
same will now work.”

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, following
the statement in the House of Commons about the 700,000 patient letters lost by
NHS Shared Business Services, has today written to Jeremy Hunt to demand
further assurances for the public and said:

“The statement contained no reassurance that you had got to the
bottom of what happened in the first place.

“You repeatedly blamed the problem on contractors but failed to
acknowledge that this error was committed by a company part owned by your
Department, over a period of several years during your time as Secretary of
State.

“How on earth did it happen that NHS Shared Business Services,
failed to send so many letters and instead just left them lying in a warehouse?
How much money and staff time has been wasted by this incident?

“Patients and their families will need much more reassurance that
the Government actually has a plan to make sure this never happens again.”

Ends

Notes to editors

·         In
Section 12 of the NHS SBS Standard Purchase Terms and Conditions it clearly
states that there should be regular updates including of data breaches – “12.3.1
have a named person able to communicate with NHS SBS, who will take the lead
for information governance and from whom NHS SBS and the Client shall receive
regular reports on information governance matters, including but not limited to
details of all incidents of data loss and breach of confidence”

Full Sopra Steria Terms and
Conditions here: http://www.soprasteria.co.uk/docs/librariesprovider41/Policy/nhs-sbs-standard-terms-and-conditions-v2-jan2015

·         Full
text of Jonathan Ashworth letter to Jeremy Hunt below.

Dear Jeremy

Follow up letter on NHS Shared
Business Services

Thank you for your response to the Urgent
Question in this House this afternoon about the 700,000 letter undelivered by
NHS Shared Business Services between 2011 and 2016. The public will be relieved
to hear that, through sheer luck, no incidents of patient care have yet been
identified. However it is enormously frustrating that you had to be forced to
the House to give this update. Will you commit to publishing the advice you
received on which basis you chose not to make the details of this incident
clear at an earlier date?

The statement contained no reassurance
that you had got to the bottom of what happened in the first place. You
repeatedly blamed the problem on contractors but failed to acknowledge that
this error was committed by a company part owned by your Department, over a
period of several years during your time as Secretary of State. How on earth
did it happen that NHS SBS failed to send so many letters and instead just left
them lying in a warehouse? How much money and staff time has been wasted by
this incident? Patients and their families will need much more reassurance that
the Government actually has a plan to make sure this never happens again.

Who
in your Department was responsible for keeping a watch on this company? Sopra
Steria’s contract for delivering the NHS SBS service states: “NHS SBS and the
Client shall receive regular reports on information governance matters,
including all incidents of data loss.” How often did you receive updates about
the work of this company part owned by his Department, as required under the
contract signed by Sopra Steria? Will you publish these updates? Will you
publish any reports relating to data loss which were received by NHS SBS or
your Department since 2011?

Your initial statement last July said the
problem was limited to three areas of the country – South West England, East
Midlands, and North East London – will you commit to publishing a full
breakdown of the whereabouts of the patients who were affected, as promised to
Members today? What guarantees can you offer about the delivery of letters to
patients in other parts of the country?

Where was this warehouse where all these
letters were lying undelivered, and had anyone from your Department been there
during the years 2011 to 2016? What guarantees can you give that no further
warehouses of undelivered patient letters are yet to be discovered? Were these
all the letters that NHS SBS were commissioned to deliver during this time or
only a part of them? Were NHS SBS paid for the delivery of these letters, and
if so will this money be recovered? What action are you taking to address this
astonishing waste of public funds on your watch? Has an apology been offered to
the NHS staff, both in hospitals and GP surgeries, whose time and effort has
been wasted by this case?

Finally will you commit to returning to
the House once your enquiry is finally completed to update the house on the
final cost and impact for patients, and to explain what measures you are
putting in place to make sure an incident like this never happens again?

Yours sincerely

Jonathan

Jonathan Ashworth

Shadow Secretary of State for Health

Labour
hold emergency business roundtable to discuss business rates “ticking time
bomb”

Senior
Labour politicians met today with representatives from ten major business
organisations to discuss the mounting business rates crisis.

New
rates are due to kick in on 1^st April but thousands of businesses
are unsure whether they will be able to pay.

Labour
joined forces with businesses to put pressure on the Government to provide emergency
transitional relief for struggling businesses in the budget next week. They
also agreed to begin an ongoing dialogue about how to fundamentally reform
business rates in the longer run.

The
meeting followed Labour’s earlier announcement of a five point plan for
business rates, which is intended to help businesses through this difficult
period, and develop a system of business taxation that is fairer on businesses
and local communities alike.

Labour’s
Five Point Plan for Business Rates:

1.     
Set up an emergency transitional relief fund for businesses facing “cliff edge”
increases in their rates, and revise the appeals process to ensure businesses
get a swift and fair hearing

2.     
Bring forward CPI indexation so that businesses aren’t paying more because of
how inflation is measured

3.     
Exclude new investment in plant and machinery from future business rates
valuation

4.     
Introduce more regular valuations in law to stop businesses facing periodic,
unmanageable hikes

5.      Fundamental
reform of the business rates system to ease the burden on traditional high
streets and town centres in the age of online shopping; support the traditional
fabric of our communities, including community pubs and incentivising free cash
machines; and create a fairer system of business taxation.

Rebecca
Long-Bailey, Shadow Business Secretary, said:

“We’ve
called this emergency meeting with business organisations today because time is
running out to save our local businesses and we need to keep the pressure on.

It’s
clear that there is a way out of this crisis, the question is whether the
Government are going to take it.”

Jim
McMahon, Shadow Minister for Local Government, said:

“Our
town centres and high streets are already struggling – and this latest hike in
rates threatens to send many businesses under. Small businesses in particular
need far more support than the Government is currently offering.”

“This
business rate revaluation has exposed the inherent flaws in this antiquated and
unfair system. That’s why we are calling for a full review of business rates.
The Government must move towards a system which works for businesses, and their
local communities.”

Mike
Cherry, National Chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, said:

“Business rates are an
outdated tax. FSB is keen for all political parties to help those small firms
hardest hit by the current revaluation, and to start to focus on fundamental
longer-term reform of business rates to make sure it’s fair for small firms. It
is incredibly important to support small businesses and the self-employed so
they don’t face shock tax rises, so we are delighted to take part in the
roundtable.”

Andrew
Silvester, Head of Campaigns & Deputy Director of Policy at the Institute
of Directors said:

“It’s hugely
important that politicians on all sides look for constructive ways to reform
business rates. This is a 20th century system and in a 21st century economy it
looks painfully out of date.”

Christopher
Richards, Senior Business Environment Policy Adviser at the Engineering
Employers Federation, said:

“Establishing the principle that plant
and machinery has no place in the business rates system is an important first
step for all political actors to take, this is the top priority action for
industry. The inclusion of plant and machinery in business rates bills
represents a tax on productive investment and undermines the international
competitiveness of UK manufacturing. Excluding future investments from being
taxed is therefore a significant step in the right direction, is consistent
with the government’s industrial strategy aims and if enacted would give some
confidence to manufacturers about the likely post-Brexit investment environment
in the UK.”

China’s home-developed Wing-Loong II, the new reconnaissance and strike multi-role endurance Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), successfully completed its maiden flight Monday.

With a more than 20 meter wingspan, the yellow Wing-Loong II No.01 made its appearance on the runway of a highland airfield in western China at noon Monday, before conducting a 31-minute flight.

“Its flight marks China’s new generation reconnaissance and strike UAS. Following the United States, China becomes another country capable of developing such new generation large reconnaissance and strike UAS,” said Li Yidong, chief designer of the Wing-Loong UAS series.

The Wing-Loong UAS series were developed by Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute (CADI) of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

Li said it showed that China had the capability to deliver new generation reconnaissance and strike UAS products to foreign military customers.

In fact, the Wing-Loong II has already won the biggest overseas purchase order in the history of Chinese UAS foreign military sales, even before its maiden flight.

The Wing-Loong II is a medium-altitude, long-endurance, multi-role UAS integrated with both reconnaissance and strike capabilities.

It is composed of the Wing-Loong II unmanned aircraft, GCS, mission payload and a ground support system.

Its unmanned aircraft is 11 meters in length, 4.1 meters in height, and 20.5 meters in wingspan. The maximum flying altitude of the aircraft is 9km, with a flying speed reaching up to 340km per hour.

It has a maximum take-off weight of 4.2 tonnes, with an external carriage weight of 480kg, and can fly for 20 hours in a persistent mission cruise.

Li said that the Wing-Loong II could perform reconnaissance, surveillance and ground strike missions.

“It can rapidly identify then strike against time-critical and fleeting targets. The capability is not possessed by previous unmanned aircraft, even manned aircraft,” Li said. “Taking a look at the UAS in same class around the world, the Wing-Loong II is equivalent to the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper, and ranks in the first level on the UAS list.”

With a system extension, it can also perform intelligence collection, electronic warfare, search and rescue missions, and has several uses, including military, anti-terrorism, peace keeping, border patrol operations and civilian use.