Category: news

Sir David Normington will get £85,000 a year for a three-day week

MPs have raised “serious concerns” over the appointment of a senior civil servant to oversee Whitehall’s recruitment process.

The role has previously gone to people from outside the civil service, the public administration committee said.

There were also “reservations” over Sir David Normington starting the £85,000-a-year job straight after retiring from the Home Office on a pension.

But the committee said it had “every confidence” in him as an individual.

The government has reformed the way Whitehall’s recruitment process is overseen, by combining the roles of the First Civil Service Commissioner and the Commissioner for Public Appointments into a single job.

Sir David, who retires as Permanent Secretary at the Home Office at the end of this year, will be paid £85,080 a year for the new three-day-a-week job.

In a report, the committee said the government had not “made its case” for such a change, adding: “We reserve our position about the wisdom of this reform, subject to our own examination of the impact it will have on the two offices.”

It added: “While we recognise the constraints on the public purse, we have reservations that Sir David will be able fulfil the two roles as adequately as his predecessors on the basis of the same time commitment for both jobs as his two predecessors gave to each of theirs.

“There is a severe risk that one or both Offices will not receive the requisite amount of attention.”

Sir David, currently on £189,000 a year, has been a civil servant since 1973.

The committee noted that the two holders of the commissioners’ roles, and their recent predecessors, had been recruited from outside Whitehall.

It said: “There is a view that these roles need to be perceived as independent if they are to enjoy the confidence of civil servants and of the public more widely.

“We are satisfied that Sir David has the professional competence and personal independence for the posts of First Civil Service Commissioner and Commissioner for Public Appointments.

“However, these two posts regulate recruitment into public service and are, respectively, the complaint authorities for breaches of the Civil Service Code and the Code on Public Appointments.

“Therefore, we have reservations about the desirability of moving away from the recent practice of appointing from outside the Civil Service, instead appointing a career civil servant to these posts, who is in this case, moreover, being appointed directly on his retirement.”

The combined role, which Sir David is taking up from 1 January next year, will not result in any extra pension payments.

But the committee said it had “reservations about the ability of a civil servant to benefit from a significant public sector pension entitlement immediately before going on to secure another public appointment”.

Sir David recently featured in a BBC documentary about the Home Office, by the film-maker Michael Cockerell.

He was permanent secretary at the education department before joining the Home Office in 2005.

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India’s underground economy accounts for 50% of GDP, the report says

India has lost more than $460bn since Independence because of companies and the rich illegally funnelling their wealth overseas, a new report says.

The illegal flight of capital through tax evasion, crime and corruption had widened inequality in India, it said.

According to the report from US-based group Global Financial Integrity, the illicit outflows of money increased after economic reforms began in 1991.

Many also accuse governments and politicians of corruption in India.

Global Financial Integrity, which is based in Washington, studies and campaigns against the cross-border flow of illegal money around the world.

It said that the “poor state of governance” had been reflected in a growing underground economy in India since Independence in 1947.

Global Financial Integrity director Raymond Baker said the report “puts into stark terms the financial cost of tax evasion, corruption, and other illicit financial practices in India”.

Some the main findings of the report are:

India lost a total of $462bn in illegal capital flows between 1948, a year after Independence, and 2008.The flows are more than twice India’s external debt of $230bn.Total capital flight out of India represents some 16.6% of its GDP.Some 68% of India’s capital loss has happened since the economy opened up in 1991.”High net-worth individuals” and private companies were found to be primary drivers of illegal capital flows.The share of money Indian companies moved from developed country banks to “offshore financial centres” (OFCs) increased from 36.4% in 1995 to 54.2% in 2009.

The report’s author, Dev Kar, a former International Monetary Fund economist, said that almost three quarters of the illegal money that comprises India’s underground economy ends up outside the country.

India’s underground economy has been estimated to account for 50% of the country’s GDP – $640bn at the end of 2008.

Mr Kar used a World Bank model to calculate India’s missing billions.

He compared India’s recorded sources of funds, such as foreign direct investment and borrowing, and its recorded use of funds, like foreign currency reserves and deficit financing.

Illegal outflows are considered to exist when funds recorded exceed those used. India’s exports and imports over the past six decades were also taken into account.

Adjusted for inflation, that all added up to $213bn missing since 1948. Taking estimated investment returns into account, Mr Kar calculated that was worth $462bn in today’s money.

The figure could be much more, he warned, as it did not include smuggling and cash transfers outside the financial system.

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Fifa executive committee members Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii are banned over claims they asked for money in exchange for World Cup votes.

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The incident has raised fears of cyber attacks

The traffic to some highly sensitive US websites was briefly rerouted via China, the US government has said.

The incident, which happened for 18 minutes last April, is published in a report by the US-China Economic and Security review commission.

It found that China Telecom sent incorrect routing information, but it is not clear whether it was intentional.

It comes amid continuing discussions in the US and the UK about cyber-security.

Among traffic rerouted via China was that destined for the websites of the US Senate, the Office of the Secretary of Defence, Nasa and the Commerce Department, the report said.

“Evidence related to this incident does not clearly indicate whether it was perpetrated intentionally and, if so, to what ends,” according to the report.

“However, computer security researchers have noted that the capability could enable severe malicious activities,” it added.

The danger of cyber-attacks has been high on global agendas recently.

This week, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned that cyber-attacks posed a huge future threat and urged more joined-up efforts between the US military and civilian agencies.

MPs in the UK have also been hearing about the risks of cyber-attacks.

In evidence given to the Science and Technology Committee, experts said that a concerted cyber-attack capable of damaging key infrastructure could currently only be launched by an enemy state.

Stuxnet fears

“The risk of a concerted attack which has fundamental effect on infrastructure would have to be at state level and therefore politically unlikely,” said Dr Hayes, a senior fellow at the Microsoft Institute for Advanced Technology in Governments.

But he said the tools were there for either politically-motivated hackers or organised criminals to launch an attack.

“If I see a nuclear weapon, I need plutonium, but cyber-weapons are just a sequence of ones and zeros. We have concerns that Stuxnet could be copied for instance,” he said.

“The risk of that is high and could have localised effect on critical infrastructure,” he told MPs.

The recent Stuxnet malware, which appeared to be targeted at Iran’s nuclear power plant, has caused alarm in governments around the world about a new wave of state-sponsored cyber-attacks.

Dalai Lama

Dr Ross Anderson, from the University of Cambridge, told MPs that Stuxnet was a sophisticated piece of malware.

“We can surmise it was from someone who didn’t like the Iranians refining uranium. It took six people five months to write. It appears whoever commissioned it had access to people whose business was writing malware, as well as people clearly expert in industrial control systems.

It was an effort funded to the order of £1m or thereabouts,” he said.

Experts have said that Stuxnet’s complexity means it could only have been written by a nation state.

Mr Anderson told MPs that he had had personal involvement into state-sponsored malware attacks.

“A couple of years ago, a student of mine helped the Dalai Lama’s office clear up malware clearly from the Chinese government,” he said.

Despite the threat from enemy states, the biggest risk to UK computer systems remained the prospect of internal system failures as upgrades to the net addressing system began, he said.

“The most likely cause of disruption to the internet comes from software failure associated with the transition to IPV6,” he said.

But he warned that the threat of external attacks was likely to get worse over time, as more and more systems became computerised.

Experts needed

Mr Anderson said that government needed to become more “IT-aware”.

“Regulators such as Ofgem and Ofcom should have people on their staff who understand IT and the risk we could be sleepwalking into,” he said.

He warned that the government needed to do more.

“We have never put enough into combating cyber-crime. The Metropolitan police have difficulty sustaining e-crime units, because they are forever being closed down or merged,” he said.

He said that the situation was not helped because the culture of the UK’s security body GCHQ was non-collaborative, unlike that of the US’s National Security Agency.

“Currently there are two separate communities, the civil community and the defence community. Outside of the defence community there is no source of expertise,” he said.

“Bodies like the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Metropolitan police don’t have their own engineering staff, so are beholden to Cheltenham [the base for GCHQ] for advice.”

He was not convinced that GCHQ was the right body to be protecting computer systems.

“It may take a cyber-attack to convince the prime minister that GCHQ is incompetent and things need to be changed,” he said.

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Twitter is banned in China but many use it by circumventing internet controls

A woman in China has been sentenced to a year in a labour camp after posting a message on the social networking website Twitter.

The fiance of human rights activist Cheng Jianping told the BBC she had been accused of disrupting social order, but her message had been a joke.

She had repeated a Twitter comment urging nationalist protesters to smash Japan’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, adding the words “Charge, angry youth”.

Twitter is banned in China.

However, many people use it by circumventing internet controls.

The offending online “tweet”, which has landed 46-year-old Cheng Jianping with a year of re-education through labour, was posted in the middle of last month.

At the time, China and Japan were embroiled in their worst diplomatic row in recent years over a group of uninhabited, but disputed, islands in the East China Sea.

Groups of young Chinese had been demonstrating against Japan, publicly smashing Japanese products.

Cheng Jianping’s fiance, Hua Chunhui, told the BBC he first posted the short message on Twitter, ridiculing the demonstrators, saying their actions were nothing new and if they really wanted to make an impact they should smash the Japanese Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

Ms Cheng then “retweeted” the mocking message, he said, forwarding it and adding the words “charge, angry youth”.

Ten days later she was detained by police “for disrupting social order” and has now been sent to the Shibali River women’s labour camp in Zhengzhou city in Henan Province.

Mr Hua said his fiance had started a hunger strike and he was trying to get her released to undergo her re-education at home.

Contacted by the BBC, staff at the camp said they had no information to give.

But Mr Hua said documents from the labour re-education committee made it clear Ms Cheng had been committed because of her single “tweet”.

Another Twitter user has now tweeted that Ms Cheng should apply for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, because the five words she added to the message had cost her a year of freedom.

Her detention is a sign of how closely China’s government scrutinises comment on the internet.

The authorities are fearful of the power of the internet to stir up discontent.

They are also wary of the way nationalist demonstrations like those targeting Japan have the potential to run out of control.

Ms Cheng may also have been targeted because she is a local human rights activist.

Her fiance said she had signed petitions including one calling for the release of China’s jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

And she had been detained by police for five days in August this year after she voiced support for Liu Xianbin, a long-time campaigner for democracy in China, involved in the protests that preceded the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Liu Xianbin had been detained again this year, apparently suspected of inciting subversion of state power for criticising China’s Communist Party.

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Nigeria’s Fifa Executive Committee member Amos Adamu is suspended for three years and fined $10,000.

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‘Treacher Collins syndrome made me who I am today’

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The tournament was scrapped in 1999, but it is now being revived by ABF, The Soldiers’ Charity, to raise money for injured soldiers and their families.

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Eric Pickles said he wanted to return power to local authorities

Reforms to the planning system in England giving decision-making powers to local people are to be unveiled by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

The Localism Bill will hand power over planning decisions from Whitehall to neighbourhood groups.

It wants residents to set a plan for development in their area, which will then be voted on by the community.

The government will offer financial incentives for areas which encourage the “right kind of development”.

Under the plans, communities will decide where new shops, offices or homes should go and what green spaces should be protected.

If residents then vote in favour of the “Neighbourhood Plans” in local referendums, councils will have to adopt them.

These plans would then be given access to “fast-track” planning approval, meaning urgent planning can short-cut the system quickly.

The government is asking for 12 councils to volunteer to come forward and trial the system.

Mr Pickles said: “For far too long local people have had too little say over a planning system that has imposed bureaucratic decisions by distant officials in Whitehall and the town hall.

“We need to change things so there is more people-planning and less politician-planning, so there is more direct democracy and less bureaucracy in the system. These reforms will become the building blocks of the Big Society.”

Greg Clark, Minister for Planning and Decentralisation, added: “We want local people to be able to make more of their own choices about what their home town should look like in the future. These reforms offer a scope for self-determination unheard-of until now.

“Localism in planning will create the freedom and the incentives for those places that want to grow, to do so, and to reap the benefits. It’s a reason to say ‘yes.'”

Last month, Mr Pickles lost a court battle over his decision to scrap the last government’s regional housing targets in England.

The move was ruled unlawful by the High Court after housing developers had asked the court to block it, arguing Mr Pickles had abused his powers.

Mr Pickles had said he wanted to return planning powers to local communities. An aide said that no appeal was planned.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is out in cinemas this week

A 36-minute clip of the latest Harry Potter movie has been leaked online ahead of its international release.

Warner Bros said it was “working actively” to remove the video, which it said was “stolen and illegally posted” on file-sharing websites on Tuesday.

“We are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law,” it added in a statement.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 opens in the UK on Friday.

It is one of two films to be adapted from the final book in JK Rowling’s best-selling series.

It is not yet known how the first 36 minutes of Deathly Hallows Part 1 came to be posted online.

A studio spokesman said its distribution “constitutes a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros property”.

“We are working actively to restrict and/or remove copies that may be available,” its statement added.

Deathly Hallows Part 1 could have the biggest opening weekend so far for the fantasy film franchise, according to industry experts.

They believe it could pass the $100 million (£62.7m) mark in North America in its first three days and take more than $1 billion (£627.5m) in global ticket sales.

According to the Box Office Mojo website, the first six Harry Potter films have earned $5.4bn (£3.4bn) at the worldwide box office.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 will be released next summer.

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Carwyn Jones called on the Tories to spell out what cuts they would make to ringfence NHS spending

First Minister Carwyn Jones has challenged Welsh Tories to spell out what they would cut to meet their pledge to protect Wales’ health budget.

Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne is warning frontline NHS services will be hit under the assembly government’s draft budget cut of 7.6% in real terms.

Mr Bourne said he would be prepared to see a 20% reduction in education spending to ringfence the NHS budget.

Welsh Lib Dems said ministers needed to address a £1bn “misspend” in the NHS.

Assembly government ministers say they have done their best to protect health within the draft budget announced on Wednesday.

It will take a cut of 7.6% after inflation over three years.

Education and local government face reductions of between 7% and 8%, over the same time.

Hardest-hit were economy and transport and the environment and housing departments. Their funding is cut by a fifth over three years.

Welsh Conservatives responded by expressing surprise that the draft budget by the Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition at Cardiff Bay did not ringfence the health budget.

Mr Bourne told BBC Wales Today of the 7.6% cuts on the health budget: “We would protect that, and we’re looking at different ways of doing that.

“One way, which I’m surprised they haven’t taken, is to freeze higher salaries in the public sector. I think that’s an obvious thing to do.

Mr Bourne accepted that ring-fencing the health budget would mean cuts of “about 20%” in other budgets such as education.

He said: “I think parties have to set out their priorities, and we’ve been absolutely clear that our priority is to protect the health budget, it’s of crucial importance to Wales, and I can’t believe the Labour party is actually saying it’s going to cut the health budget – because that’s what’s happening.

“We would protect it, and that’s one way we would do it.”

First Minister Carwyn Jones responded: “At last, some clarity from the Conservatives – in order to protect health to the extent they want to, they want hammer schools’ budgets.

Nick Bourne said the Conservatives would protect Wales’ health budget

“Unlike them we are a responsible government and have protected health budgets while ensuring there is also sufficient money for schools right across Wales.

“I challenge them to lay out exactly which other services they would cut.”

Welsh Lib Dems finance spokesperson Peter Black, AM for South Wales West Wales, said the assembly government had “tried to protect health services” but ministers had not “done anything to address the £1bn that is being misspent”.

He told Radio Wales: “There has been some attempt at ringfencing by keeping it flatlining – no change in cash terms – but in a sense this is a side issue.

“The issue is how we spend that money and what the outcome are from spending that money.

“Wales still has worse outcomes than England and we still have the situation where finance professionals in the health service say that one fifth of that budget is being misspent.

“And unless the assembly government addresses that issue, then this attempt to keep health at roughly the same level is actually going to be for nothing.

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Wine lovers in Finland have been enjoying a sip of vintage champagne that was salvaged from a shipwreck after more than 200 years underwater.

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Severe weather causes flooding on a number of roads across Northern Ireland.

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The MSP wants to see people over the age of 16 given the right to die

Politicians at Holyrood are expected to recommend that a bill to legalise assisted suicide should be thrown out.

Independent MSP Margo MacDonald is behind the bid to give terminally ill people over 16 the right to die.

The committee set up to look at the End of Life Assistance Bill will publish its recommendations later.

It is one of the most contentious pieces of legislation to come before the Scottish Parliament and opponents say it would encourage suicide tourism.

They reckon the move would result in 1,000 people ending their lives each year.

However, Ms MacDonald, who has Parkinsons disease, dismissed the claims and said it was immoral that those who wish to end their lives due to terminal illnesses should have to travel to Switzerland.

The MSP for the Lothians has also accused fellow MSPs of making up their minds before hearing the evidence.

Although the special parliament committee is expected to be against the legislation, the matter will be subject to a full parliament vote within the next few weeks.

It is not illegal to attempt suicide in Scotland, but helping someone take their own life could lead to prosecution.

Ms MacDonald’s bill would allow people whose lives become intolerable through a progressive degenerative condition, a trauma or terminal illness to seek a doctor’s help in dying.

It also proposes a series of safeguards which would prevent abuse of the legislation.

In England, the director of public prosecutions has indicated he was unlikely to take legal action against those who assist the suicide of friends or relatives who have a settled and informed wish to die.

However, no such guidance has been given in Scotland.

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Police in Japan arrest a man alleged to be second in command of Japan’s biggest yakuza crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi.

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