Policy Announcements, Monday 12 February

• New measures to strengthen police powers to deal with sex offenders and further protect the public from crime come into force today. The measures, from the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, mean that from today more offenders can be placed on the sex offenders' register for life; the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) can prosecute an offender for a sexual offence, even if the date of the offence is unknown; courts can seize any vehicle used in connection with people trafficking; and anybody found in possession of a knife or blade in a public place or school faces a maximum prison sentence of four years.

• The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and the Secretary of State for Culture, Tessa Jowell today published the Government's official study into the feasibility of hosting a future World Cup, concluding that England is well placed to bid to host the tournament in 2018, and has strong public support for doing so.
• The UK Government is funding a consortium to help develop 'greener' air-conditioning systems, which are more energy efficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly for planes, high-speed and underground trains and buildings. Adoption of aircraft-style 'air cycle' air-conditioning technologies in buildings would eliminate emissions from conventional hydro fluorocarbon, or greenhouse gases. The £800,000 two-year research and technology project, named New Environmental Control System Technology, or NECST, will create the technology needed to develop the air-conditioning systems.
• The Government is investing in a £17.4m project to provide computer technology to bring the next generation of aircraft into production in the UK. The project, which will also boost the UK's car and boat industries, comes on top of a £34 m DTI-backed wing technology project recently launched by the Secretary of State Alistair Darling at the Airbus factory in Broughton in North Wales. The project announced today will put £8.7m of Government money, through the DTI-led Technology Programme, towards another Airbus-led consortium, to develop computer-based simulation software dramatically improving the design process for future aircraft.

• The Liberal Democrats are to refer the British Government to the European Commission over the abandonment of the investigation into BAE Systems' dealings in Saudi Arabia. If the Commission finds that its rules have been broken, the Government could face a potentially unlimited fine in the European Court of Justice. 

Conservatives

• David Cameron's two-day visit to Sweden was being billed as a low-key fact-finding mission, on which he aims to learn about the Scandinavian country's approach to family policy, childcare and the environment.