Consultation News

Concerns over controversial plans to axe dozens of hospital beds will be passed on to health secretary Jeremy Hunt – after a petition calling on the decision to be ditched gathered 10,000 signatures. A total of 64 beds at Bradwell Hospital are due to close on December 18 in a move that would see more […]

Community campaigners want a housing developer to stop demolition of a south side building until public consultation has taken place. Developers Sanctuary Homes bought the former Victoria Infirmary site from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde while pledging to work closely with the local community. However, consultation does not begin until January next year – and

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) blocked a motion to hold a public consultation on introducing same-sex marriage. According to Sinn Fein Finance Minister Mairtin O Muilleoir, he was refused by the Executive when he asked for a consultation to be brought forward. He told the Assembly that as he has been unsuccessful, he will now

Local government reorganisation is one way councils are able to deal with Whitehall-imposed financial pressures. Huge savings can, potentially, be made by merging local authorities. A recent study, commissioned by the County Councils Network (CCN), supports this notion; they found transforming all remaining two-tier areas into county-based unitaries could save the sector nearly £3bn over

A consultation on sweeping changes affecting the whole of the NHS in Oxfordshire is to be partly delayed until May 2017. The ‘Oxfordshire Transformation Programme’, part of a set of broader ‘Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP)’ being produced for NHS England, was due to go out to consultation by January 2017. Today Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning

The Scottish government hopes to make a decision on whether to allow fracking in the second half of 2017. The government is mulling over whether to allow the controversial oil and gas extraction technique in Scotland, with a moratorium currently in force. Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse told MSPs that a “precautionary, evidence-based approach” would continue.

A central London bike route that sparked a fierce battle between cyclists and taxi drivers is set to be saved after being overwhelmingly backed in a public consultation. Almost 80 per cent of the 15,000 people who responded to Camden council said they wanted the segregated east-west trial route through Bloomsbury to be retained. The

Social care minister David Mowat has said sustainability and transformation plans would not be signed off by government if they fail to address council’s social care needs. Speaking today at the National Children’s and Adult Services Conference, the minister said STPs would be regarded by the Department of Health as “incomplete” if councils believed they had

A consultation is to be held on whether older pupils should be allowed to opt themselves out of religious observance in schools, the BBC has learned. All young people in Scotland need parental permission to withdraw from religious activities like assemblies. The Humanist Society of Scotland (HSS) was seeking a judicial review of that policy

Tensions and conflicts are emerging between health bosses and their town hall counterparts over STPs Serious tensions are emerging between the health service and local government. There are three sources of conflict – centrally-imposed secrecy over the sustainability and transformation plan (STP) process, whether the aim of STPs is to fix the NHS or develop