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Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) has become an established intervention to support patient recovery after a cardiac event, with evidence supporting its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in improving patient health and reducing future burden on healthcare systems. However, this evidence has focussed on the national value case for CR rather than at the point at which it is commissioned. This analysis uses the UK as a case-study to explore variation in current CR engagement and disassemble the value case from a commissioner perspective. Using data collected by the National Audit of CR (NACR), and an existing model of cost-effectiveness, we present details on the current level of CR uptake by commissioning region (Specialist Clinical Networks) in light of the current UK target of achieving 85% uptake. We then interrogate the value case for achieving the target at a commissioner level, highlighting the expected profile of health benefits and healthcare system costs over the long-term. Importantly we consider where this may differ from the national value case. Each commissioning region has a unique level of CR uptake and sociodemographic profile. Concurrently, the value case for commissioning CR relies on the upfront cost of the service being offset by long-term healthcare savings, and health improvements. The shift in the UK and internationally to more localised commissioning necessitates evidence of cost-effectiveness that better reflects the realities of those decision makers. This paper provides vital additional data to facilitate such commissioners to understand the value case in increasing CR uptake in line with national policy. • Many nations are aiming to increase rates of CR uptake. • Commissioning of services is complex and different from national decision making. • The challenges in reaching targets are different for each region. • It is important to consider equity when commissioning CR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments provide policy incentives to increase adoption rates of electric vehicles and achieve sustainability goals. This paper investigates the impact of UK financial purchase incentives on new registrations of electric fleets whilst moderating for change in gross domestic product (GDP). We use a unique dataset of new registrations of electric fleets in the UK for a 20-year period (1999–2019). Our results show that financial purchase incentives positively impact new registrations of electric fleets, and this effect is positively moderated by GDP change. Marginal analysis reveals three categories of adopters that purchase electric fleets at different levels of policy and GDP change: insensitive adopters, standard adopters, and sensitive adopters. Overall, financial incentives may be more effective in fostering the adoption of electric fleets when set to levels that are conditioned on the level of GDP change. In particular, financial purchase incentives are most effective when GDP change and incentives are above their average level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a succession of policy documents related to active travel published by the British government since the implementation of a National Cycle Network (NCN) in 1995. However, as the latest National Travel Survey (NTS) reveals, the number of journeys made by bike in the UK has remained steadfastly around only 2% (Department for Transport [DfT], 2018a). By using documentary analysis of the available official policy documents and statements, the aim of this paper is to make sense of the policies that have been published concerning active travel (AT) in England. This is done from a figurational sociological perspective. Three key themes emerge from the analysis: (1) the rhetorical, advisory level of the vast majority of the policies; (2) the reliance on a wide network of local authorities to implement AT policy; and (3) the focus placed on individuals to change their behaviour. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that despite a large number of policy publications from a range of government departments claiming to promote AT, little has actually changed in this time period in terms of a national agenda. Despite the successive policies, it seems there is little appetite on behalf of recent governments to make widespread infrastructural changes, where instead the focus has largely been on persuading the individual to seek more active modes of travel, increasingly for their own, individual 'health' gains. Highlights •The paper is based on documentary analysis of available official policy documents from UK government on active travel since 1996 • The findings reveal the largely rhetorical, advisory level of the vast majority of the policies, which contributes to a lack of overall success in promoting active travel • The lack of success is compounded further by a reliance on a wide network of local authorities to implement active travel policy, when most local authorities appear more concerned with transport issues related to motorised vehicles • The findings reveal that active travel policy has becoming increasingly focussed on health gains that might be made from increasing the number of trips made by bicycle • The overwhelming focus of the policy documents analysed, however, is on encouraging individuals to change their behaviour, a process regarded as 'healthism', and one most sociologists of health suggest is likely to fail as a result • We conclude by suggesting that if the government is serious about wanting to see a 'step change' in the way in which people travel, particularly over shorter distances, then there is a need to have a more forceful approach to implementing policy within local authorities at the same time as making more substantial infrastructure changes to encourage cycling [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have distinct, siloed child protection and welfare systems. • Disability features differently across different child protection and welfare policy regimes. • Our comparative policy content analysis of disability in child protection and welfare policies within Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic demonstrates many similarities between the settings. • When comparing Irish policy on an international liberal welfare playing field, more differences become evident. The isle of Ireland is both socio-politically and geographically divided. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have distinct, siloed child protection and welfare systems owing to political severance in the early 1900 s. Meanwhile disability, as a contested concept with speculative borders and boundaries, features differently across different child protection and welfare policy regimes, in ways that have real effects on everyday practice at a grass-roots level. This paper presents findings of a comparative policy content analysis of disability in child protection and welfare policies within Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. To embed criticality, findings are presented and then contextualized against similar data for child protection and welfare systems within the international liberal welfare regime present in the United States of America. Findings reveal a relatively progressive policy slant across Ireland insofar as international policy standards go. Even so, pervasive international traditions such as associating disability with vulnerability and risk, remain unfortunate and prevalent across the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product-Service Systems (PSSs) constitute a family of service-based business models designed to satisfy our societal needs in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. To date however PSS application has remained niche due to a variety of critical barriers. This paper explores how ‘demand pull’ national government policies could support PSS activity by addressing these barriers and cultivating market demand. Lessons are drawn from a case study of how regulatory , economic incentive , informative and procurement policies have supported Energy Service Company (ESCo) activity in the UK; a sub-set of the PSS family focused on energy service provision. Subsequently five policy recommendations are presented to support PSS activity: (1) balancing economic incentives and regulatory disincentives; (2) promoting indirect policy support; (3) redesigning existing market structures; (4) promoting locally-led PSS activity; and (5) creating stable policy frameworks. The paper warns however that national government policy cannot easily address all PSS barriers, such as customer preferences, international developments, technological progress and inherent business model weaknesses, pointing to the need for other complementary solutions. Furthermore, other governance actors beside national government could also implement PSS supporting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Finnish Baby Box provides parents of newborns with a wide range of infant clothing and other basics. • The cardboard box in which the infant can sleep was emphasized by the media and commercial companies outside Finland. • The box preventing SIDS was advanced by private companies and the media. • This was less the case in Wales and Scotland, a result of their being governed by authorities with a "left" orientation. For over 80 years the Finnish state has provided expectant mothers with a cardboard box containing an extensive collection of clothing, bathing products for the baby, nappies, bedding and a small mattress. Numerous jurisdictions have implemented it in some form. We investigated through a critical case study methodology whether its translation into the liberal welfare states of Canada, UK, and USA experienced message distortion (the box as a means of preventing SIDS), commercialization, watering down of content; and separation from the complex of Finnish welfare state policies that support families with children. We find that only Scotland and Wales recognized the decommodification and equity roles played by the baby box. This study identified numerous barriers to building progressive public policy in Canada, UK, and USA: the structures and processes of the liberal welfare state, commercial interests that skew public policymaking and media logic that limits news reporting to the concrete and simple, eschewing complex analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: High levels of excess mortality (i.e. that not explained by deprivation) have been observed for Scotland compared with England & Wales, and especially for Glasgow in comparison with similar post-industrial cities such as Liverpool and Manchester. Many potential explanations have been suggested. Based on an assessment of these, the aim was to develop an understanding of the most likely underlying causes. Note that this paper distils a larger research report, with the aim of reaching wider audiences beyond Scotland, as the important lessons learnt are relevant to other populations. Study design: Review and dialectical synthesis of evidence. Methods: Forty hypotheses were examined, including those identified from a systematic review. The relevance of each was assessed by means of Bradford Hill's criteria for causality alongside--for hypotheses deemed causally linked to mortality--comparisons of exposures between Glasgow and Liverpool/Manchester, and between Scotland and the rest of Great Britain. Where gaps in the evidence base were identified, new research was undertaken. Causal chains of relevant hypotheses were created, each tested in terms of its ability to explain the many different aspects of excess mortality. The models were further tested with key informants from public health and other disciplines. Results: In Glasgow's case, the city was made more vulnerable to important socioeconomic (deprivation, deindustrialisation) and political (detrimental economic and social policies) exposures, resulting in worse outcomes. This vulnerability was generated by a series of historical factors, processes and decisions: the lagged effects of historical overcrowding; post-war regional policy including the socially selective relocation of population to outside the city; more detrimental processes of urban change which impacted on living conditions; and differences in local government responses to UK government policy in the 1980s which both impacted in negative terms in Glasgow and also conferred protective effects on comparator cities. Further resulting protective factors were identified (e.g. greater 'social capital' in Liverpool) which placed Glasgow at a further relative disadvantage. Other contributory factors were highlighted, including the inadequate measurement of deprivation. A similar 'explanatory model' resulted for Scotland as a whole. This included: the components of the Glasgow model, given their impact on nationally measured outcomes; inadequate measurement of deprivation; the lagged effects of deprivation (in particular higher levels of overcrowding historically); and additional key vulnerabilities. Conclusions: The work has helped to further understanding of the underlying causes of Glasgow's and Scotland's high levels of excess mortality. The implications for policy include the need to address three issues simultaneously: to protect against key exposures (e.g. poverty) which impact detrimentally across all parts of the UK; to address the existing consequences of Glasgow's and Scotland's vulnerability; and to mitigate against the effects of future vulnerabilities which are likely to emerge from policy responses to contemporary problems which fail sufficiently to consider and to prevent long-term, unintended social consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on quality adjusted life year (QALY) has been underway for just over 50 years, which seems like a suitable milestone to review its history. The purpose of this study is to provide a historical overview of why the QALY was developed, the key theoretical work undertaken by Torrance, Bush and Fanshel and how two seminal papers shaped its subsequent development. Moving the QALY forward – there are several historical and reflective exercises. The historical interplay between politics, policy and the challenges facing the National Health Service (NHS) in formulating the QALY concept in the UK has been explored in some depth already, whilst the conceptualization and development of the methodological framework is relatively underexplored. We address this gap by viewing the QALY through the lens of the methodological debates, reflecting upon two key papers underpinning the QALY methodology and how these methods have been developed over time. In part the changes in technology e.g. Google Scholar, and the availability of tools to search for early uses of the QALY allow us to better understand the historical context in which the theoretical development of the QALY has taken place. Here we celebrate two seminal papers that shaped early QALY development. The first section provides a history of these papers, summaries their contributions and explores the uptake of these papers over time. The second section reviews the methodological debates that have surrounded the QALY over the last 50 years and looks at how the QALY has moved to address these challenges. The third section presents the voices of diverse commentators representing the field of health economics who have contributed to the subsequent development of the QALY in both theoretical and empirical capacities and captures their thoughts about future research and policy use of QALYS. • Two seminal papers from North America define the QALY we know today. • Systematic searches identified 716 papers citing both these seminal papers. • Co-citation analysis and visualisations highlight a range of methodological topics. • Behavioural theories are shown to inform research into how we get the numbers. • Research is also needed on what the numbers mean and what aspects to incorporate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past models and tools that support in the decision making process based on Asset Management Principles (AMP) are lacking in terms of the effective outcomes and transparency of the process in the highway maintenance. There is also little research on how to align the decision areas when applying AMP and how to improve the inclusive effectiveness. Hence, the paper focuses on examining the challenges and prospects of applying AMP in a highway maintenance agency or department. An exploratory research method was used through an extensive review of literature and an industry survey. The findings from the literature and case study review were used to design a questionnaire and conduct the survey. The survey results revealed that the AMP are only being implemented ineffectively in maintaining highways, and a strong commitment is required to improve the asset management capability for effective use of the asset data. It is highly recommended that the Highway Agency should issue a guideline for implementing asset management policy and also encourage associate departments to achieve asset management maturity level 3 so that ISO55000 certification can be achieved. The study concludes that there is still substantial work needed within the asset management process, particularly in highway maintenance before its effectiveness can be realised and measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyses UK cycling policy in relation to the shift towards a hollowed-out neoliberal state. In the UK, cycling became embedded in public policy only after policy-making had been variously outsourced to private, quasi-private, and voluntary organisations. The paper argues that this broader context has contributed to the ongoing failure to treat cycling as a strategically important mode meriting substantial national transport funding. Secondly, the paper makes links between a growing policy focus on ‘active’ and ‘responsible’ citizenship, and the dispersal of cycling policy away from transport into other areas including public health and the environment. It is argued that while there are benefits to this construct, it has again helped to maintain cycling as perceived as being peripheral to the main business of ‘transport’. Cycling policy has been doubly devolved, away from the state, and away from transport. The implications of this for policy and advocacy are discussed and future directions for both are finally outlined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper comments on UK government's Open Standards Consultation which opened on 7 February 2012. It questions the UK government's mandating of open standards defined as standards which include patents licensed on a royalty free basis. The paper suggests that instead of promoting a level playing field, the government's policy will actually restrict competition and hinder interoperability. This policy is contrary to EU policy in a number of different fields which have all accepted, despite significant in-depth debate on this issue, that the best way to ensure the most effective competition, innovation and interoperability is to allow both royalty free patents and royalty bearing patents to compete provided the latter are licensed on FRAND terms. Lastly the paper suggests that the public procurement rules are not the place to apply industrial policy, instead a full market analysis should be conducted involving other government departments such as BIS and the IPO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Food poverty is an important contributing factor to health inequalities in industrialised countries; it refers to the inability to acquire or eat an adequate quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways (or the uncertainty of being able to do so). Synonymous with household food insecurity, the issue needs to be located within a social justice framework. Recognising the clear interdependence between the right to food and the right to health, this paper explores how international human rights obligations could inform approaches to addressing food poverty and insecurity with specific reference to Ireland and the UK. Little attention has been paid to how countries should meet their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food in developed countries. The paper contributes by examining the social and policy circumstances which inhibit poor households from obtaining sufficient food to eat healthily, along with strategies and interventions from State and civil society actors in the two countries. In practice, problems and potential solutions have largely been directed towards the individual rather than at social determinants, particularly as research on environmental factors such as distance to shops has produced equivocal results. Other key structural aspects such as income sufficiency for food are broadly ignored by the State, and anti-poverty strategies are often implemented without monitoring for effects on food outcomes. Thus scant evidence exists for either Ireland or the UK meeting its rights to food obligations to date, in terms of roles and responsibilities in ensuring access to affordable, available and appropriate food for all. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Service user participation and making choices are frequently advocated, however, they are complex concepts and how they are translated and/or experienced in everyday life can vary amongst different groups of service users. Recognising the importance of participation in current international guidance and UK government policy this paper seeks to explore how research can include a frequently marginalised group of disabled young people, in particular young people with learning disabilities and/or who communicate non-verbally. The paper discusses the use of non-traditional research methods, especially symbol based interviews developed in an ongoing English longitudinal study exploring choices and decision-making processes for young people with life-limiting conditions. The paper then presents some research findings and concludes by discussing their implications. In particular, it demonstrates how the use of symbol based interviews can inform policy makers about how these young people can be included in research and that listening to them can inform our understanding of decision-making processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Environmental tax reform (ETR) is a process of shifting the weight of taxation from socially desirable activities, such as labour and profit-generation, to the use of natural resources and the generation of pollution. The paper calculates the revenues from the UK fuel duty escalator (FDE) (an above-inflation increase in fuel duty implemented from 1993 to 1999), and compares these with the revenues lost from the cuts in income tax in 1995 and 1996, and again in 2001. The paper finds that the lost revenue was roughly the same as the revenue from the FDE. In effect the governments concerned had implemented an ETR without in any way drawing attention to the fact. The FDE was discontinued in 1999 when the oil price rose and, in the face of protests at the level of fuel duty the following year, real revenues from fuel duty subsequently declined. It is at least arguable that, had the fact that FDE had facilitated income tax cuts been established by the government at the time, the FDE and fuel duty generally would have been less unpopular. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The effectiveness of institutional arrangements and policies for governance has become a key question within the sustainability paradigm, not least in coastal areas which have unique issues and jurisdictions across the land–sea interface. In the UK, approximately 60 non-statutory coastal management initiatives have been established at the local/regional level since the 1990s, based on a variety of programmes and projects. Proposals for a UK Marine Bill have raised questions about the role of non-statutory initiatives in the system of governance. The traditional sectoral approach to management and planning is being modified due to the pressure of increased human activities, but doubts exist about what effective contribution local and regional partnerships can make. The paper reports extensive examples of Integrated Coastal Management initiatives engaging institutions and society to produce outputs which have transformed management, promoting long-term, collaborative, participatory and ecologically sustainable approaches. The paper concludes that there are demonstrable benefits in taking a partnership approach to coastal management at a local level, yet these forms of planning and management are not widely accepted or embedded within the current system of governance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The UK National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Clinical Guidelines recommend routine prescription of antidepressants for moderate to severe depression. While many patients accept a prescription, one in three do not complete treatment. We carried out a meta-ethnography of published qualitative papers since 1990 whose focus is patients' experience of antidepressant use for depression, in order to understand barriers and facilitators to concordance and inform a larger qualitative study investigating antidepressant use over time. A systematic search of five databases was carried out, supported by hand searches of key journals, writing to first authors and examining reference lists. After piloting three critical appraisal tools, a modified version of the CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) checklist was used to appraise potentially relevant and qualitative papers. We carried out a synthesis using techniques of meta-ethnography involving translation and re-interpretation. Sixteen papers were included in the meta-ethnography. The papers fall into two related groups: (1) Papers whose focus is the decision-making relationship and the ways patients manage their use of antidepressants, and (2) Papers whose focus is antidepressants' effect on self-concept, ideas of stigma and its management. We found that patients' experience of antidepressants is characterised by the decision-making process and the meaning-making process, conceptualised here as the ‘medication career’ and ‘moral career’. Our synthesis indicates ways in which general practitioners (GPs) can facilitate concordant relationships with patients regarding antidepressant use. First, GPs can enhance the potential for shared decision-making by reviewing patients' changing preferences for involvement in decision-making regularly throughout the patient's ‘medication career’. Second, if GPs familiarise themselves with the competing demands that patients may experience at each decision-making juncture, they will be better placed to explore their patients' preferences and concerns – i.e. their ‘moral career’ of medication use. This may lead to valuable discussion of what taking antidepressants means for patients' sense of self and how their treatment decisions may be influenced by a felt sense of stigma. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: There is a demonstrable link between parking availability, price and mode choice, and parking policy has been shown to be a powerful demand management tool. Parking however is clearly an area of policy conflict since using it to manage demand may reduce revenue generation, or (be perceived to) damage the local economy. In terms of on-street and off-street parking there are a wide range of users who often have conflicting opinions, which have to be taken into account in its management, invariably leading to parking policies and measures that do not maximise the demand management potential of parking. This paper presents a range of public and business opinion data, from the case study of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, collected as part of the consultation for its parking strategy in 2005–2006. The strategy covers a wider geographical area than simply the city centre, and whilst this paper makes reference to this wider area it primarily deals with the city centre since that is where the majority of the parking strategy issues are to be found. After setting the policy and political context, the paper goes on to present these data. It then shows how the city''s parking policies were changed in response to the consultation. These policy changes are compared with parking policies that would solely manage travel demand, to demonstrate how the political process leads to compromise in the formulation of parking policies and measures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

With digitalization and the support of policies, the creative industries have shown rapid growth in the last 20 years. Open forms of collective learning, user engagement and social networks have become popular to generate IPs and values. Meanwhile, government policy can support the sectors through subsidies, regulations, standardization, and protections at regional and national levels. This paper aims to explore the role of government policy in the innovation of creative industries from a macro dynamic perspective. The research method combines a structured literature review, a secondary document review of industry reports and government policy, and thematic content analysis. Through in-depth studies of the UK's and China's animation sectors, the paper identifies key elements of closed innovation, social innovation, and open innovation systems in the market. Comparisons of national government policies since 2000 reveal different approaches for countries where creative sectors are well-established, and for those starting with limited knowledge resources. A dynamic model is developed to address the evolution of macro dynamic innovation systems and the role of policies as interactive mechanisms. Practical implementation and future research areas are also suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rejuvenation of public spaces is a key policy concern in the UK. Drawing on a wide literature and on qualitative research located in a multi-ethnic area of East London, this paper explores their relationship to well-being and social relations. It demonstrates that ordinary spaces are a significant resource for both individuals and communities. The beneficial properties of public spaces are not reducible to natural or aesthetic criteria, however. Social interaction in spaces can provide relief from daily routines, sustenance for people''s sense of community, opportunities for sustaining bonding ties or making bridges, and can influence tolerance and raise people''s spirits. They also possess subjective meanings that accumulate over time and can contribute to meeting diverse needs. Different users of public spaces attain a sense of well- being for different reasons: the paper calls for policy approaches in which the social and therapeutic properties of a range of everyday spaces are more widely recognised and nurtured. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The introduction, in the United Kingdom, of the Special Education Needs and Disabilities Act (SENDA) published and approved in 2001, has removed the exemptions given to educational institutions by the Disabilities Discrimination Act (DDA) of 1995. This applies to learning web sites and materials that must now undergo “reasonable adjustments”, in order not to disadvantage students with learning disabilities as well as non-disabled students. This paper discusses how e-learning and the inherent use of online learning activities raises problems for students with dyslexia far beyond accessibility and web design. This paper aims at proposing that the so widely proclaimed advantages of e-learning to bridge distances, different learning paces and cognitive styles, is at the same time producing close to insurmountable barriers to students with cognitive disabilities in general, and dyslexia specifically. It presents the results of a research project aiming at uncovering evidence that students with dyslexia are in fact less likely to thrive in a synchronous e-learning environment. The paper reports on a set of experiments undertaken with students when engaged in online authentic synchronous learning activities. The paper focuses on text-based synchronous activities, since it is the widest and most commonly used synchronous technology, and provides clear evidence that it can marginalise, demotivate and disappoint students with dyslexia with difficulties in reading, spelling, word order and argumentation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The principal motivation for this paper is to examine the policy issues for UK regional airports within the air transport system with particular reference to airport airline relationships. The geography of airline route networks is considered a key factor that determines location of the pressure for infrastructure development. Regional airports policy is considered in this context. The problems of the resultant concentration of air traffic has largely been ignored up until now and so this paper seeks highlight the issues this presents to policy makers. The paper reviews the changing regional airport ownership patterns and examines a range of implications. It then explores the policy implications for the future regulation and development of the air transport system. The authors contend that regulation and the planning system are the only two remaining policy levers for government to guide privately owned airlines, privately owned airports and commercialised airports towards national policy goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The dependence of cities on intensive consumption of energy from fossil fuels is a major cause of climate disruption, and there is increasing interest in the potential for city governments to facilitate a transition to sustainable energy. Little is known, however, about the extent or structures of current urban energy initiatives. Our paper addresses this gap by mapping UK local authority energy plans and project investments and exploring governance processes in three leading cities. It uses socio-technical and urban studies' perspectives on neo-liberal governing and energy systems to interpret findings. This reveals both the gap between local ambitions and capacity to implement plans, and the potential for translation of neo-liberal governing into contrasting commercial and community urban energy enterprises, prefiguring different energy futures. Overall, however, the neo-liberal framework is associated with small scale and uneven initiatives, with limited contribution to a systemic shift to sustainable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration controls serve a crucial symbolic function of delineating the nation and the people, the boundaries of 'Us' and 'Them' and state legitimacy is, through immigration policy, linked to ideas of nation building and preservation (Honig, 2003). Labor migration policy is not simply an instrumental response to the needs of employers but highly symbolic and politically contested terrain that assumes intense public significance. This is particularly evident in the case of domestic workers, who are embedded in the family, the 'heart of the nation'. This paper explores the ways in which migration policies on domestic work not only produce a subordinated workforce, but reflect and construct ideas about family, work, and Britishness, with a particular focus on two visa types: domestic worker accompanying an employer and au pair visas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind generation increased dramatically in the UK over the last decade, partially contributed by the consumer-funded Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme introduced in 2002 as part of the government policy to support renewable energy. Despite its success in stimulating electricity generation from renewable sources, the RO scheme was closed in 2017 and succeeded by an alternative scheme, raising questions on the policy change. This paper makes the first attempt to evaluate the RO scheme by comparing the reduced spending on electricity and the costs of the scheme, focusing on wind generation. Using daily average hourly data from April 2009 to March 2021, our results from the Prais-Winsten estimation suggest that a marginal increase of 1 GW in hourly wind generation reduced the wholesale electricity price by £1.28/MWh. However, we show that the reduced spending on electricity resulted from the lower price was not enough to offset the costs of the RO scheme attributed to wind farms. Therefore, the RO scheme brought negative gain to consumers through increased wind generation, indicating that its closure was in consumers' best interest. • Wind generation reduced prices in the wholesale electricity market. • Reduced spending on electricity was less than cost of the RO scheme. • Negative gain to consumers in most financial years from 2009–10 to 2020-21. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread deployment of renewable energy is accepted as a major contributor to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Many countries have established policies to accelerate the development of renewables. The UK Government gives renewable energy a key focus in its Energy White Paper.11The government White Paper can be found and tracked at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sepn/index.shtml. While accepted as visionary in its ambition, the White Paper has been criticised as too weak in its definition of the actual policy measures required. The Renewable Power Association has published the ‘RPA Renewables Routemap’22The Renewables Routemap can be found at: http://www.r-p-a.org.uk. as its strategy for achieving a sustainable energy future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In 1845, Friedrich Engels identified how the living and working conditions experienced by English workers sent them prematurely to the grave, arguing that those responsible for these conditions -- ruling authorities and the bourgeoisie -- were committing social murder. The concept remained, for the most part, dormant in academic journals through the 1900s. Since 2000, there has been a revival of the social murder concept with its growth especially evident in the UK over the last decade as a result of the Grenfell Tower Fire and the effects of austerity imposed by successive Conservative governments. The purpose of this paper is to document the reemergence of the concept of social murder in academic journal articles. To do so we conducted a scoping review of content applying the social murder concept since 1900 in relation to health and well-being. We identified two primary concepts of social murder: social murder as resulting from capitalist exploitation and social murder as resulting from bad public policy across the domains of working conditions, living conditions, poverty, housing, race, health inequalities, crime and violence, neoliberalism, gender, food, social assistance, deregulation and austerity. We consider reasons for the reemergence of Engels' social murder concept and the role it can play in resisting the forces responsible for the living and working conditions that kill. • In 1845 Engels saw the health effects of capitalist exploitation as social murder. • The term was rarely applied in academic journals through the 20th century. • The early 1970s saw it being used to explain adverse health outcomes. • Since 2010, an exponential increase has been driven by developments in the UK. • These developments include the Grenfell Tower Fire and imposition of austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an international comparison of hydrogen niche formation in the UK and South Korea with special regard to policy development. Hydrogen energy development has provided us with a good example of ongoing phenomena during the early stage of socio-technical transition, in other words, the socio-technical niche. The purpose of the case studies was to see the country dependence in shaping the early stage (the period between the year 2002 and 2005) of hydrogen niche formation from the national innovation system perspective. The findings show certain differences in the background of hydrogen energy policies and the manners of policy development. There also are differences in the R&D activities, including not only the way in which they are performed, but also the strategic focussing of R&D, which have been influenced by R&D systems and the industrial structures of the national innovation systems. Vision-articulating processes and the roles and tendency towards intervention of governments are diverse. The research result will contribute to better understanding of the geography of socio-technical transition with empirical evidence. From that, one will be hinted that the hydrogen future may be diverse in different locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the light of the UK Government''s call for efficiency savings across all departments, including the Criminal Justice System, this paper attempts to shed some light on how cost savings can best be secured in the running of Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) in England and Wales. It does this by identifying ‘best practice’ YOIs using recently-developed Data Envelopment Analysis that caters for both good and undesirable outputs (such as assaults and testing positive for illicit drugs by inmates), thereby allowing policymakers to deliver cost savings through the spread of management techniques adopted by benchmark YOIs. The study also analyses the size-efficiency relationship for YOIs in England and Wales and finds that, although the smallest institutions are typically the most efficient, the size-efficiency relationship is quite complex. This calls into question the Government''s wisdom of building ‘titan’ prisons in England and Wales which, perversely, might decrease the efficiency of rehabilitating young offenders. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In 2009, two seminal documents were published by the United Kingdom (UK) government concerning healthcare services for offenders. The Bradley review into diversion for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities emphasised a need to improve offender health, not least because of the high economic costs to society as a whole resulting from unresolved mental illness, physical ill-health and substance abuse problems commonly experienced by offenders. The Bradley review made wide-reaching recommendations for change, requiring strong partnership between health and justice agencies at both central government and local levels. A framework for the delivery of Bradley''s recommendations has been set out in Improving health, supporting justice, the Department of Health''s offender health strategy which sets out the direction of travel for the next 10years. This paper discusses the reality of working toward improving health services for this marginalised group in the context of the influence of the current straitened financial climate on the allocation of resources to publically funded healthcare in the UK; it examines the historically based, and widely held, belief in the principle of “less eligibility” within our society, whereby there is much public and media resistance to allocating resources to improving care for offenders when other, more “deserving”, groups are perceived to be in continuing need. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Children''s accounts have been proposed as a means for creating an inclusive and accessible system for asset building throughout the life course. The idea gained traction in multiple settings, leading to a series of policies and demonstration projects across the globe. In the United Kingdom, the policy was adopted in the form of the Child Trust Fund program which began in 2005. A privately-funded project called the SEED Demonstration was launched in the United States in 2003. During this period a number of different children''s savings account policy proposals have been made at the federal level in the United States. The details of these proposals differ but as a group reflect the recognition by select policymakers of the promise of this intervention. In particular, it has the potential to seed the savings process, facilitate financial education, increase economic opportunity, promote social development, and begin a lifelong process of asset accumulation. The introduction and evolution of this policy idea over the past five years has been instructive. It has indicated the types of policy design choices that will have to be addressed if this policy is to be implemented on a large-scale. The big lift will not just be getting this idea further into policy discussions, but will entail the consideration of a wide range of complex implementation issues including how the system would be funded and administered. This paper describes, the policy development process to date, analyzes the policy design choices and tradeoffs, reviews policy insights from demonstration projects, and assesses how the shifting political landscape may influence future policy deliberations and create implementation opportunities in the U.S. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The UK government’s economy-wide 60% carbon dioxide reduction target by 2050 requires a paradigm shift in the whole energy system. Numerous analytical studies have concluded that the power sector is a critical contributor to a low carbon energy system, and electricity generation has dominated the policy discussion on UK decarbonisation scenarios. However, range of technical, social and market challenges, combined with alternate market investment strategies mean that large scale deployment of key classes of low carbon electricity technologies is fraught with uncertainty. The UK MARKAL energy systems model has been used to investigate these long-term uncertainties in key electricity generation options. A range of power sector specific parametric sensitivities have been performed under a ‘what-if’ framework to provide a systematic exploration of least-cost energy system configurations under a broad, integrated set of input assumptions. In this paper results of six sensitivities, via restricted investments in key low carbon technologies to reflect their technical and political uncertainties, and an alternate investment strategies from perceived risk and other barriers, have been presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 triggered a substantial academic debate about its consequences on employment rates of disabled people. In contrast, the employment provision of the 1996 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in Britain has received little attention. Exploiting both pooled and longitudinal data, this paper provides robust evidence that, similar to the ADA in the USA, the DDA has had no impact on the employment rate of disabled people or possibly worsened it. Possible reasons for this are higher uncertainty around litigation costs, low levels of general awareness about the Act among disabled people and employers, and a lack of financial support. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Public health policy has arguably taken a new direction in the UK since 1997. This is typified by a review of the public health workforce. A key profession within this workforce is that of health visiting. Starting Well, a Scottish National Health Demonstration Project is one attempt to develop the public health role of health visitors. The project aimed to improve child health by providing intensive home visiting to families in Glasgow. This paper reports on a process study focused on whether Starting Well, an intervention exemplifying contemporary public health policy, could be operationalised through health visiting practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 44 staff responsible for developing and implementing the programme. Whilst greater contact with families allowed health visitors to develop their understanding of the life circumstances of their case-load families, the evaluation raised issues about the feasibility of systematically changing practice and demonstrated the difficulties of implementing an approach that relied as much on individual values and organisational context as formal guidelines and standardised tools. Furthermore, the ability of the systems and structures within which practitioners were operating to facilitate a broad public health approach was limited. The policy context for public health demands that increasing numbers of health workers are familiar with its principles and modus operandi. It remains, however, a contested area of work and its implementation requires change at a number of levels. This has implications for current policy assumptions about improving population health. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper we examine the discourses of Primary school numeracy coordinators responsible for auditing, monitoring and supporting their colleagues in relation to the introduction and embedding of the National Numeracy Strategy (NNS) in the UK. Cultural–Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) focuses our analysis on the contradictory coupling of school, NNS and audit systems with our R&D project through boundary objects and crossers. We achieve this through an analysis of the registers and genres adopted in teachers’ reflective discourses, and their relation to contradictory activities. Their often conflicted narratives indicate contradictions between these systems. We find inquiry hybridised with audit and inflected by its collegial negotiation. We also find dialogical inquiry mediated by the collegial discourse of practice, and our R&D group mediated by a critical discourse of reflexivity. The theoretical articulation of the CHAT approach to discourse through Halliday and Hasan''s conceptions of register and genre is discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The UK-IPO has expanded its range of non-statutory services to include Patent Informatics: the macroscopic analysis of patent data to derive technical information. This article describes the genesis of Patent Informatics at the UK-IPO in line with Government strategy and the potential applications of Patent Informatics including informing policy decision making, horizon-scanning and responding to technology sector enquiries. Patent Informatics is a flexible technique for mining patent data; examples graphically presented include e-paper patent filings over time and a carbon capture and storage technology landscape map. Reference is made to other Patent Informatics work under taken by the UK-IPO and covers the databases, analysis tools and methodology employed. The article concludes that in a knowledge driven economy, unlocking technical information from patent data through Patent Informatics enhances Government and industry strategy, innovation and success. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]