John Hemming's Web Log

In essence that is what the linked article says about the "spine". There is a serious problem allowing this government access to any information. It then get passed to all sorts of bureaucratic busybodies who use it to harrass people. If you admit to your doctor, for example, that you drink too much (as I do) expect the system to put pressure on you to stop drinking. "its all in your best interests dear". There is a serious problem in that people won't tell their doctor things because the doctor will tell the government's computer system. It is all a problem about confidentiality.

The link is to a decision of the Court of Appeal where parents apply to stop an adoption because their circumstances have changed. In essence it makes the point that first the court has to decide whether or not the circumstances have changed. At that point no decision should be taken as to the welfare of the child. Once the decision as to circumstances has been made then welfare should be considered. All of this ignores the overwhelming tendency of a number of family court judges to prefer intervention and adoption. It is important to note what has happened now with the Websters. In the Webster (Hardingham) case it has now been decided that they didn't cause the original harm. In the mean time two sets of adoptive families have been told that the children now with them should not have been removed from the original family. That is not in any way unique. PC&S is a case that went to the European Court and the same conclusion was come to, but by then it was too late. I know...

The link is to a cut in the NHS capital budget. Devolution to Scotland and Wales may mean that the devolved assemblies need to work out where to apply capital budget cuts, but the Barnett Formula (and he is still around I saw him about a week ago) implies that the same reduction should be applied to them. In any event cutting the budget by a third quite clearly qualifies to be called a "slash".

The linked story is in French and as such is less likely to hit the UK Media. However, in it FATIH BIROL, DIRECTEUR DES ÉTUDES ÉCONOMIQUES DE L'AGENCE INTERNATIONALE DE L'ÉNERGIE - the Director of Economic Studies at the Internatinoal Energy Agency basically says peak oil is closer than people think. He says a substantial growth in Iraqi output will be needed to avoid a market "wall". Automatic Translation Without the Iraqi black gold, the oil market will face a "wall" from here at 2015 In September 2005, in the columns of the World, you launched this warning to the consumer countries black gold: "Leave oil". Do you have the feeling to be heard? Fatih Birol. Each day, the oil market becomes more difficult, because the speed of the growth of the request and the concentration of the production in a very small number of countries. Since 2005, the rise in the price of the barrel was confirmed: the current price, near to 70 dollars, is an important sign...

The appointment of Digby Jones is an interesting step for the government. It will also be a challenge for Digby to see if he can affect the treacle that is the way in which governmental systems work. It is helpful for Birmingham to have someone else from Birmingham as part of the government even though he has never been someone to be described as a Labour loyalist.

Work and Pensions: Self-Employed: Disabled Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what training is available to disabled people in receipt of incapacity benefit wishing to become self-employed. A: We already have powers to offer training to disabled people in receipt of incapacity benefit through New Deal for Disabled People and Pathways to Work. Pathways to Work will be rolled out nationally by April 2008, primarily via the private and voluntary sectors in 60 per cent. of the country. Contracts will not specify exactly what programme of support should be available, enabling providers to offer innovative work focused support which is tailored to the needs of individual customers and could potentially include self employment training. Further assistance may also be available from Jobcentre Plus, which offers a wide range of practical and financial help to assist customers, such as career development loans. Specially trained personal advisers are available to discuss wit...

Work and Pensions: New Deal Schemes: Disabled Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make changes to the new deal self-employment test trading scheme so that disabled people in receipt of incapacity benefit can access it. A: New deal self-employment test-trading provision is already available to incapacity benefit recipients who are eligible through new deal for lone parents and new deal for partners. Additionally, we already have powers to offer test-trading as part of Pathways to Work, which will be rolled-out nationally by April 2008. We amended the Social Security (Incapacity for Work) Regulations 1995 in 2006 to ensure that participants do not lose their incapacity benefit because of their work or earnings under test-trading. Jim Murphy (Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions).

Prime minister: Gordon Brown Chancellor: Alistair Darling Foreign Secretary: David Miliband Home Secretary: Jacqui Smith Health: Alan Johnson Schools and children: Ed Balls Innovation, universities and skills: John Denham Justice: Jack Straw Commons leader: Harriet Harman Defence and Scotland: Des Browne International Development: Douglas Alexander Work and Pensions: Peter Hain Northern Ireland: Shaun Woodward Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Andy Burnham Cabinet office minister: Ed Miliband Culture: James Purnell Olympics: Tessa Jowell Transport: Ruth Kelly Lords leader: Baroness Ashton Attorney General: Baroness Scotland Environment: Hilary Benn Chief Whip: Geoff Hoon Business and enterprise: John Hutton Duchy of Lancaster: To be confirmed Communities: Hazel Blears.

It seems to be that the system has moved into overdrive in North Tyneside. All of these babies are being harmed by the system as a result of them being prevented from being properly fed by their mothers. There really must be some form of formal investigation into the massive jump in babies being removed from their mothers.

The point about this case (see link), however, is that in essence it recognises that the other children should not have been removed from their parents' care. I am aware of a current Norfolk case where the state is intervening totally inappropriately in a family. The Websters may have won out, but the forced adoption targets machine continues to grind up human lives.

The link is to an EDM about Family Court secrecy tabled by Eric Pickles and myself. That this House regrets the Government's proposals to retain secrecy within the family courts; believes that this secrecy permeates bad practice throughout the whole system of children services; feels that it is possible to protect the identity of the child while allowing parents to talk and seek advice publicly about their treatment in the family courts, and that professional witnesses should be uniquely identified to monitor consistency; further believes that every case should have an anonymised judgement handed to the parents that they can discuss publicly; and calls on the Government to recognise that there are very serious problems in the system that have been postponed rather than resolved by the limited proposals contained within the consultation document.

The Peak Oil APPG was founded today in the House of Commons. The officers are: Chair - John Hemming Vice-Chair - Colin Challen, Robin Teverson Secretary - Austin Mitchell Treasurer - Mark Williams

Work and Pensions: Incapacity Benefit: Disposable Income Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the median net disposable income of households receiving incapacity benefit was (a) before and (b) after housing costs were taken into account in the latest period for which figures are available. A: Latest available data show that the median net (disposable) weekly income of households receiving incapacity benefit is £302 before housing costs and £260 after housing costs. Notes 1. The source of the information provided is the Family Resources Survey (FRS), United Kingdom 2005-06. The Survey is a nationally representative sample of approximately 28,000 households. 2. Data for 2005-06 was collected between April 2005 and March 2006. 3. The estimates are based on sample counts that have been adjusted for non-response using multi-purpose grossing factors which align the FRS to Government Office Region populations by age and gender. Estimates are subject to sampling error a...

The linked BBC story is to one where some children were left with their mother who killed them because she was mentally ill. One was aged 10 and therefore was clearly not someone who could be adopted easily. On the other hand today I have heard of two stories involving social workers removing babies where there clearly is nothing like the threat that existed in respect of the case in Hackney. Obviously we don't know the whole story as yet. It does, however, seem even moreso that the system is broken very badly.

Treasury: HM Revenue and Customs: Correspondence Q: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the extent of the backlog is in dealing with correspondence and other contacts at HM Revenue and Customs. A: HMRC has received over 26 million items of correspondence from customers in the last 12 months. At the end of May 2007 it is estimated that around 76,000 items are more than 40 working days old. Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury)

Education and Skills: Adoption Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the target is for each local authority classified by relevant Government office for numbers of adoptions from care in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. A: No adoption targets have been set by central Government for individual local authorities, though some authorities have chosen to develop adoption targets as part of the local area agreement/local public service agreement process. I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government on 13 June 2007, Official Report, column 1073W. Local public service agreements are based entirely around reward targets. They have now been largely merged into local area agreements, which contain non-reward and reward targets, and typically run for three years. No local authority has a reward target specifically on adoptions which is dependent on performance in either 2006-07 or 200...

We have had one of these newfangled toasters for some time. It has an electronic guide as to the intensity of toasting. Normally we use between 3 and 5. 5 gives a quite uniform level of toasting. 7, however, sets the bread on fire. We found this out this morning when a guest decided to toast some bread at level 7. The kitchen rapidly filled with smoke (although the newly rebatteried smoke alarm ignored this - it obviously has a burning bread ignoring function). Clearly if level 7 sets the bread on fire we should avoid ever going as high as 8 because we could see domestic meltdown. It is a bit odd that there is a setting for burning bread on the toaster. However, there are lots of odd things in this world (eg our current Public Family Law system).

I have had some of the statistics about adoption from care for some time. I have now loaded them onto my main reference website. The index page is http://john.hemming.name/national/familylaw/stats/index.html . Most of these statistics (not the Scottish ones) are produced from SSDA903 which is an annual electronic return by local authorities to DfES for each child in care. The figures as to newborn babies have not been released elsewhere. The index page references these four pages. Scottish 5 year destination analysis and comparison to England This shows how the figures in Scotland are massively lower than in England (on a percapita basis). They also demonstrate that this lies substantially in the under 5s. 1995 Source and Destination Stats only available this year This is a particularly interesting analysis for children first taken into care in 1995. DfES statisticians take about 4 days effort to produce each year so I have only managed to get this one report. First into care This l...

Communities and Local Government: Local Government: Standards Q: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which local authorities, classified by Government office region, have public service agreement (PSA) targets which include adoption targets; what the target for adoption is in each case; and how much money each local authority will receive if it achieves all of its PSA targets. A: There are 61 reward targets in Local public service agreements and local area agreements which measure performance on adoption and/or stability of placements for looked-after children. Reward would be payable to Local authorities and their partners for achievement of these particular targets. Details on each target have been made available in the Library of the House. Phil Woolas (Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government

The whole MTAS saga demonstrates the failure of the British Constitution. This particular governmental car crash has been obvious on the horizon. Hospitals are now having to plan cancellations of operations etc. It is all a bit surreal really.