Policy Announcements, Tuesday 20 February

Government

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Ed Balls MP, brought representatives from the European Commission together with leading representatives of London's financial sector, while also announcing the implementation of tax measures to boost the competitiveness of the City of London. The measures announced will modernise the tax system to remove obstacles to competition and expand choice in trading financial instruments in the UK. They will allow firms to benefit from the new opportunities offered by liberalisation of financial regulation in the European Union, and specifically from the introduction of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
The OFT today recommended that the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) should be reformed, to deliver better value for money from NHS drug spend and to focus business investment on drugs that have the greatest benefits for patients. The NHS spends about £8 billion a year on branded prescription medicines. The OFT's study identifies a number of drugs where prices are significantly out of line with patient benefits.

Olympics

A cross-party committee of MPs has said transport plans for the 2012 London Olympic Games "remain vague". A report from Commons transport select committee found that planning "appears embryonic" in areas including contingencies for emergencies. The MPs said the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was not exhibiting "any sense of urgency" in preparing for problems such as power failures or security alerts. They also expressed concern over the transport plan's reliance on rail travel for taking staff, spectators and competitors to and from events.

Conservatives and Lib Dems

Opposition parties have expressed anger that all fingerprints collected for ID cards will be cross-checked against prints from 900,000 unsolved crimes. No 10 insists it was always the plan to allow the checks, but the Tories and Lib Dems say they were not aware of it. In an e-mail to 27,000 signatories to an anti-ID card petition, Tony Blair said the cards would help bring "those guilty of serious crimes" to justice. The Conservatives and the Lib Dems both oppose plans for identity cards.

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