Policy Announcements, Friday 20 April

Government

• New proposals to protect the victims of forced marriages are to be introduced to Parliament today. Lord Lester of Herne Hill's bid to empower family courts to use civil remedies as part of a crackdown received cross-party support in January. And constitutional affairs minister Baroness Ashton, who will introduce the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Bill to the Lords, said the changes would be a "powerful and useful new tool" in protecting victims. They would stop short of making forced marriages a criminal offence, but would provide courts with new powers to impose injunctions to prevent the practice, and order arrests where these are breached.  
• NASA and the British National Space Centre (BNSC) have signed a historic agreement to jointly study how the two space agencies might work together on future planetary explorations to the Moon and beyond. A joint team is to be established to conduct a study into specific areas of US-UK potential collaboration involving lunar science and exploration. Science and Innovation Minister Malcolm Wicks said: "During my recent meeting with NASA's Administrator Dr Michael Griffin, I was keen for the USA and UK to co-operate on exactly this sort of exciting endeavour."  
• The development of casinos across the UK could cause health problems for serious and novice gamblers alike, doctors have warned. The government had said Manchester would have the first "super casino", and 16 other cities would have casinos of a smaller scale. But those plans are currently on hold after they were rejected by peers. The British Medical Journal paper says the health effects of gambling must be considered if new casinos do open.

Other

• Opponents have effectively scuppered a bill which would exempt MPs from Freedom of Information Act inquiries. Ex-Tory chief whip David Maclean had brought in the private member's bill. He says he does not want letters on behalf of constituents published - but it would also curb requests about issues such as MPs' expenses claims. Lib Dem MP Norman Baker and a handful of MPs from all parties managed to talk out the planned bill by making sure the debate continued for five hours. This means the bill now goes to the bottom of the queue for private member's bills and has virtually no chance of becoming law unless it gets government backing. The two-clause bill would effectively remove both the Commons and House of Lords from the list of public authorities obliged to release information under the 2000 act, which came into force in 2005.