Review of the Papers, Wednesday 25 April

Government

• Home Information Packs (HIPS) will cause chaos because of a lack of qualified inspectors, experts said yesterday as the Government faced increased pressure to delay the scheme. The Tories said they were planning a last-ditch attempt to block the introduction of the packs, which become compulsory on June 1 and could cost sellers between £600 and £1,000. "If we can stop them we will," said Michael Gove, the shadow housing minister, claiming that the project was nothing but "expensive and deficient red tape". The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said last night that the regulations surrounding the packs were "impenetrable, unclear and contradictory" and warned that they could be detrimental to the housing market and the wider economy. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=WZ1Q5FGCYALHFQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/04/25/nhip25.xml
• Almost one in five private finance initiative projects are still not making their owners money, a survey of almost 100 of them has shown. Profitability has improved since 2005, when the study was last conducted. Eighty-three per cent of contracts are profitable, with a quarter reporting "better than ex-pected" profits. But the survey found almost 20 per cent still did not make money, with almost 40 per cent saying they were making less money than expected. "Those sorts of figures give the lie to claims that the private sector is ripping off the public purse through PFI," said Mike Stevens, head of UK support services for KPMG, the consultants, which carried out the study with the Business Services Association, whose members provide cleaning, catering and similar services to schools, hospitals and other projects under PFI contracts. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d5af9e3e-f2c8-11db-a454-000b5df10621.html
• Senior ministers are backing a controversial bill to exempt parliament from the Freedom of Information Act as a second attempt is made on Friday to push the legislation through the Commons. The bill has the support of several ministers, including Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary; Tom McNulty, police minister; Andy Burnham, health minister; Ian Pearson, climate change minister; John Healey, financial secretary to the Treasury; and Keith Hill, parliamentary private secretary to Tony Blair. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2064856,00.html
• Ministers have been accused of "nationalising the family" with plans for the first national college for parenting. In a move designed to crackdown on yobbish behaviour, the Government has earmarked £30 million for the new academy to coach parents on how to control tearaway children. It forms part of Tony Blair's "respect agenda" to tackle persistent anti-social behaviour, problem families and young offenders. The new academy - based at King's College, London - will act as an "international and national hub" to promote the latest ideas on how to raise children and implement recent Government reforms, including new courses designed to improve the bond between fathers and their children and catch-up lessons for parents with literacy and numeracy problems. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/25/nparent25.xml
• Thousands of patients risk contracting potentially deadly superbugs because NHS hospitals are not taking basic steps to stop the spread of infection, research for The Daily Telegraph reveals today. An independent study of 167 NHS hospital trusts in England found that infection control was in a state of disarray, with hospitals unable to reassure the public that they are screening and isolating enough infected patients. Only 10 of the trusts surveyed could provide data showing that they had isolated more than 90 per cent of individuals with MRSA - a standard that infection control experts regard as fundamental in the battle against hospital-acquired bugs. The findings, provided by Dr Foster Research, the independent health information company, raise serious questions about the Government's promise to make infection control a top priority. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/25/nmrsa25.xml
• Employees who smoke must be given time to attend clinics to help them to quit during working hours without loss of pay, new public health guidance recommends today. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) claims that the proposal will cut the £5 billion annual cost of lost productivity, absenteeism and fire damage caused by smoking. It believes that a business with five smokers could spend just £66 on providing advice, including the cost of lost employees' time, and see an overall saving of around £350 in improved productivity. It is the first time that NICE has issued guidance that applies beyond the NHS, effectively including every workplace in England. The recommendations come as all workplaces, from offices to factories and pubs, prepare to go smoke-free on July 1. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1701528.ece

Conservatives

• George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, will meet President Bush in the White House today in a significant boost to the Conservatives' international credibility and a thawing in their frosty relations with Washington. Mr Bush invited Mr Osborne to join him at an event on tackling malaria across the developing world after he had his first meeting with Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, at the White House a few weeks ago. Mr Osborne is the first senior Conservative politician to meet Mr Bush since before the last election, when Michael Howard, the then leader, angered the US administration by distancing himself from the Iraq war. His successor David Cameron has also kept his distance from the unpopular Bush Administration, and has not visited Washington since becoming leader. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1701549.ece

G8  

• Tony Blair, with an eye on the history books, piled the pressure on Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, yesterday to boost her country's aid to Africa. "Significant increases in aid money have been given - but not enough," said the Prime Minister, referring to the commitment made at the Gleneagles G8 summit that he hosted in 2005 to double assistance to Africa to £25 billion by 2010. "We do need to do much more," he said after a meeting with the German leader in Berlin. Mrs Merkel was at the sharp end of a high-level lobbying campaign before the G8 summit that she is due to host in northern Germany in June - and she was on the defensive. The Africa Progress Panel, which includes Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, Bob Geldof and Peter Eigen, the anti-corruption campaigner, had joined forces with Mr Blair to encourage the West to increase its assistance. "If you look at our 2007 budget you will see that development aid has been substantially increased and I can tell you that it will go up again next year," Mrs Merkel said. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1701552.ece