General Bipin Rawat, the Chief of Army Staff, felicitated MADRAS Engineer Group (MEG) Contingent on 21 Feb 2017 at South Block,

The Government is to come up with its own study with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to assess the trends and impact of pollution on human health. Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Peter
Dowd MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, commenting on
today’s ONS public sector finance figures, said:

“Today’s
figures show the Government’s debt still rising, seven years after the Tories
started their austerity agenda, and two years after they said they would
balance the books.

“It’s
clear that their slash and burn approach to public spending has not only given
us a crisis in NHS and social care but also failed as an approach to reducing
Government debt.

“Labour’s
Fiscal Credibility Rule gives us a firm commitment to addressing the public
finances while investing in our economy for the future as part of our programme
to rebuild and transform Britain.”

21 Feb 2017

The percentage of community payback orders (CPOs) being completed has dropped once again according to Scottish Government statistics.

Only 67.6% of orders were completed in 2015/16, down from 68% the year before, and 70.3% in 2013/14.

It indicates a worrying trend of orders not being completed.

The Scottish Conservatives have called on an urgent review of the orders to ensure that criminals don’t start treating them with contempt.

It also follows reports last year that CPOs were being issued for more serious crimes such as rape and child sex offences.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Douglas Ross said:

“These figures show that a third of those being issued with Community Payback Orders aren’t even completing them.

“Victims and communities are rapidly losing faith in this system and you have to question what sort of punishment these orders are providing if there is such a high chance that those on CPOs will be allowed off the hook.

“There is a real chance that criminals start treating them with contempt, and we need to ensure that CPOs once again act as a proper punishment.

“When we’ve seen them being handed out for crimes as serious as rape, it is even more galling that so many are not being completed.

“Although there is a place in our justice system for community payback orders, we need to ensure that they are being properly administered, and are being issued for appropriate crimes.”

The Scottish Government figures are available here:
http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0051/00514220.pdf

The figures regarding completion of orders are available in Table 2.

The Scottish Conservatives brought up the issue of CPOs being handed out for serious crimes in FMQs last September:
http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2016/09/demand-for-urgent-review-after-rapists-handed-community-punishments/

The Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution expressed satisfaction over the production figures as per the 2nd advance estimates released by the Agriculture Ministry.