Review of the Papers, Friday 03 August

Government

• The government has awarded more than £1m to fund seven projects, described yesterday as having the potential to make a "significant" difference to the environment. They will receive the money from the Carbon Trust, an independent company funded by the government to tackle the threat of climate change. Garry Staunton, from the Carbon Trust, said the "diverse nature" of the technologies "demonstrates the exciting low carbon innovation work in the UK today". They had "the potential to make significant carbon savings and to be commercially very successful". Coventry University has been awarded £150,000 for aluminium smelting technology that could reduce emissions by 20%. Warwick Manufacturing Group has been given £250,000 to develop a paint coating process that would eliminate the need for paint shops in the making of plastic components. Other award winners include e-Stack, which makes natural ventilation systems for big buildings, and Spirax Sarco, which has manufactured a steam trap performance sensor with the potential to reduce carbon emissions by more than 750,000 tonnes over 10 years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/03/climatechange.carbonemissions
• The health secretary, Alan Johnson, began talks yesterday to reduce the profit margins of the pharmaceutical industry amid evidence that drug companies may be overcharging the NHS by hundreds of millions of pounds. Mr Johnson met pharmaceutical chiefs on Tuesday to discuss a proposal from the Office of Fair Trading for the price of medicines to reflect the proven therapeutic benefit to patients. Under the current rules companies can charge what they like, subject to a cap on maximum profits. His move shocked the drugs industry, which signed a five-year deal in 2005 offering price cuts in return for increased allowances to encourage research and development of new products, including better medicines for children. At the time it was trumpeted by ministers as a great deal for the taxpayer, saving about £370m for the NHS and bringing down prices to match or beat the going rate in other European countries. http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2140653,00.html
• The Government will fail to meet its target of cutting MRSA rates by half because of poor hospital management practices, according to The Lancet. Ministers at the Department of Health are believed to have accepted that they are unlikely to achieve their goal. Figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show rates of the superbug are down 17 per cent since April 2004 and 6.4 per cent to 1,444 in the three months to March 2007. An editorial in The Lancet blames hospital managers for failing to train staff in antibacterial prescribing, and providing inadequate hand-washing and isolation facilities. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/03/nhs203.xml
• Motorists may reject pay as you drive road pricing because of worries that it threatens their privacy, MPs warn in a report today. Fears that the public will not accept the monitoring of their movements required to make road pricing work have been highlighted by the Commons transport select committee. The Government has sought to reassure motorists that the introduction of road pricing - possibly with the aid of "spy in the sky satellites" - would not threaten or intrude upon motorists. But the committee, previously a strong supporter of road pricing, claims that present laws are inadequate to guarantee that drivers' privacy would not be undermined. "Road pricing schemes have to be put in place with the agreement of the public," said Gwyneth Dunwoody, the committee chairman. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/03/nroads103.xml
• Judges should have the power to compel the prime minister to set out the remedial measures his government will take if it fails to hit targets to reduce carbon emissions, a cross-party committee of MPs and peers has recommended. A bill due to be introduced in the next parliament places a legal duty on the environment secretary to reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. The bill sets out a series of milestones, including five yearly "carbon budgets" setting out the projected carbon emissions. But the joint committee of peers and MPs examining the draft climate change bill concluded that the enforcement mechanisms in the bill were unclear. The committee, chaired by Lord Puttnam, recommends that "failure by the government to meet a carbon budget or an annual milestone should trigger a duty to prepare a report explaining the reasons for the non-compliance and an action plan for remedying the situation". http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/aug/03/1
• It has been a long time in coming. Now, after years of wrangling over the route, its vast cost and who should pay for it, Crossrail is inching closer to fruition. Political momentum behind the east-west rail route that would linkBerkshire with Essex via Heathrow and Canary Wharf is growing. Ministers need no convincing of theeconomic benefits and the need to ease congestion on London's overcrowded commuter networks. Moreover, approval for Crossrail could help Labour in next year's London mayoral elections. A bill is being debated in the Commons and is expected to clear parliament next spring, paving the way for a swift start to construction. In theory, a green light could come by the autumn. In reality, with the total cost projected to be at least £10bn, this is far from guaranteed. Eighteen years on from its genesis, under Margaret Thatcher's premiership, the biggest stumbling block to Crossrail remains its financing, where a deal is as elusive as ever. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/422c282c-415a-11dc-8f37-0000779fd2ac.html
• Post office bosses were accused of "blackmail" after a leaked letter showed that they have warned postmasters they will lose thousands of pounds in compensation if they do not stick to the officially approved script on closures. In a highly contentious move, undercover staff will be sent around the country to check that postmasters are using the official "lines to take" when customers ask about the Government's plans to close 2,500 post offices. The woman in charge of the closure programme spelt out the plans in a letter to postmasters, which was leaked to the Conservatives. The letter from Sue Huggins, the director responsible for the so-called Network Change Programme, was accompanied by a two-page crib-sheet spelling out the "key messages" they must deliver if people ask about the closures. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ZSF1P4DSF1XX3QFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/08/03/npost103.xml