Review of the Papers, Friday 18 May

Government

• Only 30% of government technology-based projects and programmes are successful, the official in charge of IT at one of its biggest departments has warned. Joe Harley, chief information officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, said current spending was not sustainable and the government needed to improve the quality of schemes while cutting costs. The government has been criticised repeatedly for IT projects running over their budgets and timetables. The cost of running the HM Revenue and Customs' IT system recently soared from £4.5bn to £8bn, while the public accounts committee last month said patients were unlikely to see significant clinical benefits from the £12.4bn NHS computer system by the time all the money has been spent in 2014. There is increasing anxiety over the ability to deliver the ID cards scheme. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2082503,00.html
• Britain's casinos could lose as much as £120m in profit annually if the government's "blatantly unfair" proposals for expanding the industry - including the introduction of a Las Vegas-style "super-casino" - go ahead, the High Court was told yesterday. Lawyers for the British Casino Association, which represents most of the country's existing 138 casinos, told Mr Justice Langstaff that in drawing up the expansion policy, Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, had "failed to comply with her duties of fair consultation". Her final policy had "departed radically" from a position of parity between the existing casino operators and the new entrants, creating an inequality that was "potentially seriously damaging" to the former's commercial interests, claimed Michael Beloff, QC, appearing for the BCA. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/207bcdb8-04dd-11dc-80ed-000b5df10621.html
• British businesses increased their greenhouse gas emissions by 3.6 per cent in 2006, exceeding the quota set by the government and forcing some companies to buy extra allowances. The European Union's emissions trading scheme, which imposes a cap for some energy-intensive sectors, was meant to curb carbon dioxide emissions from industry. But as yesterday's figures showed, companies in the power generation sector increased emissions and were forced to purchase extra allowances, buying about 34m tonnes of carbon under the EU scheme. The cost of buying the allowances ranged from €200m to €600m (£137m-£410m). British generators were among very few businesses to have to buy extra emissions rights among the 12,000 industrial facilities across Europe covered by the scheme. Most member state governments issued their industries with far more allowances than they needed, meaning almost none had to buy extra. The UK government, however, imposed a tight cap on emissions, in line with guidance from the European Commission. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e6c8129e-04db-11dc-80ed-000b5df10621.html
• GPs are wasting more than £300m a year by prescribing drugs to NHS patients in England which are never used and choosing branded medicines over cheaper generic alternatives, parliament's spending watchdog says today in a report to MPs. The National Audit Office found some doctors overprescribe, allowing patients with long-term conditions to build up stockpiles of medicines. In other cases, patients failed to collect drugs dispensed by pharmacies or refused to take them after they got home. The NAO said its figures were bound to be an underestimate. Each year drugs worth £100m were returned to the NHS and destroyed because they could not safely be dispensed to other patients. The cost of medicines that were thrown away or left at the back of bathroom cabinets was incalculable. The report found a further £200m was wasted by GPs prescribing expensive drugs instead of lower cost generic alternatives. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/story/0,,2082555,00.html
• Plans to outlaw the creation of "human-animal" embryos are set to be scrapped by ministers amid fears that an outright ban would hamper work on incurable diseases and damage British science. The move represents a major climbdown from the government's earlier position seeking a blanket ban on any research involving the hybrid embryos. Scientists want to fuse human cells with animal eggs to create mixed-species embryos because, as they grow, they will produce precious stem cells which may give valuable insight into intractable medical conditions such as Alzheimer's and motor neurone disease. http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,,2082556,00.html
• The culture minister, David Lammy, has reignited the controversy over the lack of minority MPs by calling on Gordon Brown and Labour's deputy leadership candidates to consider the imposition of all-black shortlists. The minister, the only man of African-Caribbean origin in the Commons, said the party's new leadership must take decisive action to address a "democratic deficit". Interviewed by the black newspaper New Nation, Mr Lammy said: "I'll be looking to Gordon Brown to show leadership on issues of representation because we should have 51 minority ethnic MPs. There should be 18 black, 24 Asian and the rest made up from other ethnic minorities if we were in proportion to our population. The party must look at all-ethnic minority shortlists where the constituencies are failing to step up to that task." http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2082546,00.html

 

Conservatives

• David Cameron is planning to unleash a policy blitz within weeks to prevent Gordon Brown dominating the political scene after he becomes prime minister. Conservative strategists are examining hundreds of proposals by the party's policy groups ready to release a "blizzard of ideas" when Mr Brown takes power. Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, is preparing a "guerilla war" against the new Labour leader, blaming him for 10 years of failures while Chancellor, and challenging him to change direction on key issues such as Iraq, ID cards and the environment. Mr Cameron had planned to delay his onslaught against Mr Brown until after his first weeks in office, but has decided to throw himself head-to-head against Mr Brown on every issue. The Tories have already attempted to counter Mr Brown's coronation as Labour leader with a series of policy announcements and speeches. Yesterday the party said it would give the environment "equal billing" with economic and social issues as Mr Cameron insisted that Conservatism and the environment "go hand-in-hand". http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2556492.ece