The summary of the Index of Eight Core Industries (base: 2004-05) is given at the Annexure.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the First Revised Estimates of National Income, Consumption Expenditure, Saving and Capital Formation for the financial year 2015-16 (with Base Year 2011-12) as per the revision policy.

John Redwood won a free place at Kent College, Canterbury, He graduated from Magdalen College Oxford, has a DPhil and is a fellow of All Souls College. A businessman by background, he has been a director of NM Rothschild merchant bank and chairman of a quoted industrial PLC.

• Read more about John Redwood

Alan Jones, Bernadette Kinsella, Matthew Grey, Paul Williams, Steven Harris and Will Phillips all took up their posts on 1 January and have been appointed for a period of three years. 

The Cabinet Secretary said:

“The Building Regulation Advisory Committee for Wales plays an important role in advising Welsh ministers on the making and amending of building regulations and other related matters.

“This period of appointment coincides with the Building Regulations Sustainability and Part L reviews.  I am confident Alan, Bernadette, Matthew, Paul, Will and Steven will all bring a wide range of expertise and experience to the Committee.”

Members of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee for Wales are appointed on a voluntary independent basis to represent particular fields of expertise and experience. 

This week, the Government will attempt to push some of the most controversial components of the Trade Union Act through Parliament. The move comes in the same week that the Government are asking us to trust them to protect workers’ rights through Brexit.

A series of provisions will impose strict rules on picketing and undermine the right to strike for millions of UK citizens. Yet, alarmingly, these changes are being introduced as secondary legislation, which will limit the opportunity for scrutiny and debate in Parliament.

Labour will strongly oppose these measures, as it has the entire Trade Union Act.

Jack Dromey MP, Shadow Minister for Labour, said:

“In an increasingly insecure world of work, Labour remains fundamentally opposed to restrictions that will limit the rights of millions of ordinary working people to strike.

“Unions are always careful in taking industrial action never to put at risk life and limb, offering essential coverage and initiating industrial action only as a matter of last resort.

“Theresa May talks of the Tories as the party of the working class. Yet in a country where trade unions are already heavily regulated, she wants yet further restrictions to rob workers of their right to take industrial action, leaving workers all too often badly treated and essentially powerless.”