Policy Announcements, Friday 15 June

Government

• Laws under which parents in England and Wales face jail for smacking children so hard they leave a mark are to be reviewed, the government has said. Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said parents would be asked whether smacking should be banned outright. Restrictions were toughened in 2004 to stop parents and carers who assaulted children from using "reasonable punishment" as a defence. But moves to ban any hitting of youngsters outright were rejected.  
• The government has backed plans to transfer some powers from central to local government, giving more control to councils. Local government minister Phil Woolas said the government would support Conservative MP Nick Hurd's Sustainable Communities Bill. The bill was passed unopposed by MPs in its third reading the Commons, although Woolas urged for government amendments instead of a Tory "compromise". It had received cross-party and community backing but faced early opposition from the government.  Woolas raised "serious concerns" over the original content of the bill, describing it as a "centralising measure".

**Conservatives  **

• English cities need powerful elected leaders with the ability to raise cash on the open market by issuing bonds, the Tories say in a new report. Lord Heseltine called for a "massive transfer of power" to local government. He said control of the £11bn the government spends each year on regeneration should be handed from unelected "quangos" to elected leaders. The ex-deputy PM was asked to draw up policy ideas on inner city regeneration by Tory leader David Cameron. His Cities Taskforce report was launched earlier in Bristol.  

EU  

• Downing Street has indicated the treaty that emerges from next week's EU summit will not be put to a referendum. Tony Blair promised a public vote on the EU constitution in 2004 - before it was rejected by France and Holland. Number 10 said the document expected to be agreed next week would be an "amending" treaty rather than a "constitutional" treaty. But the Conservatives have said any deal handing power to Brussels must be put to the public in a referendum.