Unemployment rate rises less than expected but redundancies hit record high December 15, 2020 The UK’s unemployment rate rose to 4.9 per cent in the three months to October, a lower increase than had been expected. The rate was up 0.1 per cent from the three months to September, when it stood at 4.8 per cent, new ONS figures showed. Economists polled by Reuters had expected the jobless rate [...]
Fines, bans and directors liable: Government plans Big Tech crackdown December 15, 2020 The government is set to announce sweeping new measures for social media companies, as part of a crackdown on big tech. Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden and Home Secretary Priti Patel will today propose plans to hand Ofcom considerable powers over social media firms. Ofcom handed new powers The regulator will be able to fine companies [...]
EU joins UK in rolling out sweeping new fines for tech giants December 15, 2020 US tech giants could face fines of up to 10 per cent of their revenue under new draft EU rules set to be unveiled today. The regulations, the most serious attempt at reining it companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple yet made by the bloc, come amid intense worldwide scrutiny on the role [...]
Procuring in a crisis: The government must learn from the PPE uproar December 15, 2020 Covid-19 has revealed a great deal about how governments respond to crises. The results have been varied: from unprecedented schemes to support furloughed workers up and running a matter of days, to a contact tracing app still plagued with issues months later. In fact, while the pandemic may have shown how quickly things can be [...]
Health on the high street December 15, 2020 This year has presented a new set of challenges to the high street, which have the potential to change the face of this British institution as we know it. Even before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, recent years have seen hundreds of thousands of retail jobs lost and a huge number of much-loved stores [...]
Foreign aid isn’t charity, it’s an investment in our own prosperity December 15, 2020 When he announced his decision to cut UK foreign aid spending from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of GDP, chancellor Rishi Sunak, argued that the sum was hard to justify to the British people during a pandemic. In fact, it is not so hard. Aid is not charity, and its benefits are neither [...]
Why flexibility will hold the key to resolving the skills crisis once and for all December 15, 2020 Debates about skills in the UK have long ebbed and flowed, but there has been a steady trend towards dedicated funding and qualifications shaped to what employers say they need for specific occupations. This now includes the apprenticeship levy — a tax on large employers that can be recovered if they fund apprentices — and [...]
Exclusive: Tech Nation’s top London startups revealed December 15, 2020 Tech Nation has announced London’s top five early stage tech companies as part of its Rising Stars competition. In what has been a difficult year for small firms, Tech Nation has picked some of the most innovative startups from the capital. In its third year, the Rising Stars programme is a national competition for innovative [...]
London moves into Tier 3: what does this mean for travel? December 14, 2020 The government has announced this afternoon that London will be moving from Tier 2 into Tier 3, following a substantial rise in Covid infections in the city. This announcement will have an impact on people travelling in and out of the city over Christmas. Domestic travel Domestic travel between different cities within the UK is [...]
Number of homeless deaths in England and Wales hit record high December 14, 2020 An estimated 778 people died while homeless last year in England and Wales, an increase of 7.2 per cent from 2018.
