Policy Announcements, Monday 30 July

**International  **

• US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown have pledged to forge a strategic relationship based on values shared between both nations. They met at Camp David, near Washington, their first meeting since Mr Brown succeeded Tony Blair as UK PM. Talks focused on issues including Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur and world trade. Mr Brown denounced terrorism as a crime, not a cause, while Mr Bush said the UK fully understood the importance of striving for success in Iraq.  

Government  

• The way private equity firms are taxed should be reviewed, the Treasury Committee has said. Instead of using stock markets to raise money, private equity firms buy companies using money from clients and cash borrowed from banks. In their interim report, the MPs said that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) should look at whether the tax system unfairly favours the use of debt. The committee will resume its hearings when Parliament returns in the autumn.  
• Proposals to fly the Union flag every day on government buildings are set not to apply to Scottish Executive sites. The government published the plans last week and they follow Gordon Brown raising the issue of celebrating Britishness in January. The SNP said Justice Secretary Jack Straw assured the policy would not cover executive buildings. However, UK Government properties in Scotland will fly the Union flag under the current proposals. SNP leader Alex Salmond, now first minister, previously said Britishness "went bust long ago" in Scotland.  

Conservatives 

• The Conservatives have published proposals for reforming the system for pupils with special educational needs, calling for more special school places to be created. The party's commission on special needs in education, chaired by Sir Robert Balchin, recommended that expert "profile assessors" decide where children should be educated, independent of local authorities. The assessors would allocate children to one of a dozen categories, with each category attracting a sum of money to be paid to the special or mainstream school where a parent had found a place. Currently local authorities assess a child's needs and pay for their support, leading to accusations that councils underestimate needs to cut costs. The commission's report, published on Monday, criticised the policy of inclusion - placing special needs children in mainstream schools where possible.
• George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, would support plans to raise taxes for private equity, but has called for an end to the "witch hunt" against the billionaire buyout bosses.  "Gordon Brown may be happy to stay silent on these things, but I think we need to do what we can to reward proper risk-taking and draw the sting out of this whole debate by ensuring that what looks like income is taxed as income," Mr Osborne told the Times.