The European Court of Human Rights has said individual governments can decide how to implement a ban on convicted prisoners voting.

The judgement means the UK will be able to decide for itself how to resolve the long-standing row over votes for prisoners, bt the court says the UK only has six months to outline its proposed reforms…

In a summary of its judgement, the court said it “accepted the [UK] Government’s argument that each State has a wide discretion as to how it regulates the ban, both as regards the types of offence that should result in the loss of the vote and as to whether disenfranchisement should be ordered by a judge in an individual case or should result from general application of a law.”

Television celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver’s fight to get the government to make sure new academies and free schools don’t serve junk food to their pupils has been backed by Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert.

Julian raised the issue with Education Minister, Michael Gove after he received a letter from Jamie and an email from a resident both expressing their concerns.

He has also signed a Commons’ Early Day Motion welcoming Jamie’s campaign and calling on Mr Gove to change the law to make academies and free schools serve food that meets nutritional regulations.

Julian said: “It is vital that our children receive good, nutritional meals, not only to promote healthy living now but also to teach them how to eat well for the future.

“We have children across the country who are obese because of poor diets and lack of exercise. We cannot afford to take any chances that this problem will be compounded by poor nutritional standards in our schools when we have introduced laws to protect against it.

“All schools teaching our children should be bound by the regulations put in place to safeguard the health of pupils in their care; there should be no exceptions.”

Mr Gove told Julian: “Free schools and new academies which have been set up from September 2010 are not required to comply with the school food standards.

“Studies by the School Food Trust now provide good evidence of the benefits of a balanced meal on pupils’ concentration, behaviour and ability to learn. Given this evidence we expect that free schools and academies will still want to promote healthy eating and good nutrition through the provision of high quality lunch services.

“We have asked the School Food Trust to survey the quality of food in a sample of academies in response to concerns raised by Jamie Oliver and we expect the trust to report to us within the next few months.”

Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary Edward Davey has today published practical advice for energy consumers looking to get a better deal on their gas and electricity deals through ‘collective switching’, and guidance for organisations wanting to launch their own collective energy purchasing schemes.

Businesses, consumer groups, local government groups, housing organisations, charities and energy regulator Ofgem also attended a round table meeting chaired by the Energy Secretary in Westminster to discuss how to help consumers club together to cut their gas and electricity bills.

Richard Bates, Director of Empowered Consumers at Consumer Focus, commented:

“Many consumers are put off by the prospect of having to switch energy by themselves. Collective switching – where an intermediary can do the hard work on their behalf – offers an alternative, straightforward way of switching. And because the intermediary can aggregate together consumer demand, it can give customers much more muscle in markets than they have when switching alone.

“Other countries have already shown that collective switching can deliver significant consumer benefits, chiefly greater convenience and better value. There is real scope for similar schemes to be developed in the UK and we hope many organisations will be interested in finding out how this innovative model can work in their area.”

The costs of running the central government property estate have been cut by £278 million in the financial year 2010/11, Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude announced today.

The figures have been published in today’s State of the Estate Report on the efficiency and sustainability of the central government estate.

The wide ranging report shows that during 2011:

•the overall size of the central estate fell by 5.8% – or seven times the equivalent office space of Europe’s tallest building, the Shard in London Bridge
•the number of property holdings fell by 11.1%
•running costs reduced by £278 million year-on-year
•departments beat the 10% Prime Minister’s CO2 reduction challenge as early as May 2011, with a total emissions reduction of 13.8%
•more than half of government buildings with Display Energy Certificates had an energy efficiency rating better than the industry standard for the first time
•the average cost of office space is 16% less than the private sector average.

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said:

“Taxpayers should not foot the bill for property that isn’t needed and that’s why this Government introduced strict property controls when we came into office. Since May 2010 we have exited 904 properties saving millions as well as providing vital opportunities for regeneration in local communities.”

“The Government estate is now greener, leaner and cheaper to run. Today’s report shows just how much we can achieve when the Government acts as a single organisation, but there’s more to be done to drive out inefficiency.”By consolidating our property estate we are helping transform the way government works, introducing modern, flexible workplaces to drive up productivity and innovation.”

Better use of property is also important for private sector growth – exiting leasehold properties can lead to much needed regeneration opportunities. For example:

•Market Towers on Nine Elms in London was used by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Patient Safety Agency, and has been vacated by the Government. It is at the gateway to the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area, which stretches from Lambeth Bridge to Battersea Power Station, and has been earmarked by London’s Mayor for major redevelopment – including 16,000 new homes and 25,000 new jobs.
•Riverwalk House on Millbank – previously used by the Government Office for London, the private sector developer now plans to re-develop this building and change use into residential accommodation.
•When the Office for National Statistics (ONS) needed to relocate staff outside of London, poor market conditions made it difficult to exit its lease. To enable ONS to move, the Ministry of Justice, National Savings & Investments, Passenger Focus and the Crown Prosecution Service jointly took over the lease – vacating over 30 properties and reducing costs as well as the overall size of the estate.

The Government’s new approach means departments no longer work in silos when it comes to property, and now consider the needs of the Government as a whole. Tight property controls exist where departments need to seek permission to renew leases or enter new ones.

By looking across Government, it’s now possible to identify where surplus property sits. Where it is not possible to sell a building or exit a lease due to market conditions, space will be made available to SMEs and free schools, where possible, to give them an opportunity to grow.

A sophisticated type of fraud is on the rise across the UK – where people are telephoned by fraudsters and tricked into revealing their PIN and handing over their bank card to a courier.

Pay Your Way is working with The UK Cards Association and Financial Fraud Action UK to raise awareness of how to avoid the ‘Courier Scam’.

More than £1.5 million has now been lost to the scam, with the same amount – £750,000 – stolen in the first four months of 2012 that was stolen during the whole of 2011. This equates to a three-fold increase in this crime.

The scam involves a person being called by someone claiming to be from their bank and told that their debit or credit card needs collecting.

The caller suggests the person hangs up and calls the bank back to ensure the issue is genuine, but stays on the line; tricking the person into thinking they’re calling their bank.

The fraudster will then ask the person to key in their PIN number, before sending a courier to collect the card. The victim is told the card is going to the bank to be changed but is actually delivered to the fraudster to use.

According to figures released today by Pay Your Way, over three quarters of the UK (76%) feel confident they would be able to spot a fraudulent telephone banking call.

However, after hearing how the Courier Scam works, over half (56%) of the 4,000 people surveyed were surprised by how sophisticated it is, one third (33%) worried they were more vulnerable than they thought and four fifths (80%) felt that anyone could be a potential victim to the fraud.

With 91% feeling that older adults would be particularly at risk, Pay Your Way is encouraging people to make sure that older relatives and friends are also aware of the scam in order to stamp out this kind of fraud and help older generations to keep their finances secure.

For further information visit the Payments Council website.

To report a fraud, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use their online fraud reporting tool.

The Office of Fair Trading has required Wonga.com Limited and some of its associates (Wonga) to ensure that aspects of their debt collection practices are acceptable.

The action follows statements made by Wonga to customers in two types of written communications and in the wording of one call script.

Without having appropriate justification the letters or emails suggested that customers may have committed fraud and that Wonga would consider contacting the police if customers did not act as Wonga requested.

The wording in the call script stated that customers with jobs in the public or financial sectors should not find themselves in debt, and that this was stated in their terms of employment.

As a result, the Office of Fair Trading has imposed a requirement on Wonga that its communications must not, without appropriate justification:

- allege that a customer has, or may have, engaged in criminal conduct or refer to the consequences of such conduct

- state that a customer should not be in debt if the customer has a certain employment status or for any other reason.

The letters and emails were sent to customers who had claimed money back from Wonga by asking their card providers to reverse a payment made to the company. They were also sent to some customers who had entered into debt management plans.

David Fisher, Director of Consumer Credit at the Office of Fair Trading, said:

‘We have acted to ensure that Wonga does not behave this way again. I would like to make it clear to businesses that they must not adopt aggressive or misleading practices with their customers’.

The Office of Fair Trading launched an extensive review of the payday lending sector in February. It expects to announce its findings and strategy to raise standards across the sector later this year.

Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael has welcomed support from the National Farmers Union of Scotland for UK government plans to create a new adjudicator that will protect farmers and small producers in their dealings with major supermarkets.

Mr Carmichael was commenting after meeting with the President of the National Farmers Union of Scotland earlier this week.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included ongoing negotiations over the future of the EU Common Agricultural Policy, Single Farm Payments and measures to reduce the environmental impact of the agricultural sector. Mr Carmichael was meeting with the NFUS ahead of a trip to Brussels for discussions with EU fisheries officials later this week.

Commenting, Mr Carmichael said:

“The Liberal Democrats have been calling for the creation of an adjudicator to protect our farmers for some years and we are now delivering in government. I know that the NFUS and other producer groups welcomed the progress that was made on this issue in the Queens speech and the legislative work underpinning the creation of the adjudicator is now underway.

“In recent years, too many farmers have experienced difficulties due to sharp practices on the part of some of their biggest customers. A number of producers have struggled locally in recent years and this new body will provide firms such as Orkney Meats with protection of a sort that simply was not available in the past.

“On the Common Agricultural Policy, there is a clear need to ensure that our agricultural sector is as environmentally efficient as possible but farmers should not be punished for failing to deliver the impossible. Changes to the current rules need to be sensible and must take account of the long term needs of the industry.

“What we ultimately need is a CAP that delivers for the taxpayer, consumers and local farmers. The current arrangements are not fit for purpose and we are now at a stage where root and branch reform is required if we are to achieve our economic and environmental goals.”

A warning has been issued by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) about fake or “phishing” emails sent out by fraudsters

Customers have to renew their claims by 31 July – or their payments may be stopped.

In the run-up to the tax credits renewal deadline often sees an increase in such attacks, and in May 2011 a record 26,301 phishing attempts were reported to HMRC.

The scam email usually starts with the sentence such as “we have reviewed your tax return and our calculations of your last years accounts show a tax refund is due”

The phishing emails often promise a rebate and, if taxpayers click on the link, they are taken to a cloned replica of the HMRC website. The recipient is asked to provide credit or debit card details or other sensitive information such as passwords. Fraudsters then try to take money from the account.

Victims risk having money stolen from their bank accounts, or their personal details being sold on to criminal gangs for identify fraud.

During last year’s tax credits renewals period, from April to July, nearly 94,000 phishing emails were reported by customers. Even though HMRC helped shut down more than 360 scam websites during the period, others continue to be created.

Steve Lamey, Director General for Benefits and Credits, said:

“We only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund in writing by post. We don’t use telephone calls, emails or external companies in these circumstances. Anyone who receives an email claiming to be from HMRC should send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk before deleting it permanently.”

HMRC works with other law enforcement agencies in the UK and overseas to investigate and shut down phishing attacks. Scam networks have been closed in a number of countries, including Austria, Mexico, the UK, South Korea, the USA, Thailand and Japan.

HMRC advises customers to:

•Check the advice published on the HMRC website see if an email received is listed.
•Forward suspicious emails to HMRC at phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and then delete them.
•Do not click on websites or links contained in suspicious emails, nor to open attachments.
•Follow advice from Get Safe Online.

If people believe that they have been the victim of an email scam, they should report the matter to their bank/ card issuer as soon as possible. Anyone in doubt should check with the HMRC fraud attempts page.

To report a fraud, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use their online fraud reporting tool.

Payday lender Wonga has been ordered to stop aggressive debt collection tactics or face a £50,000 fine. In some cases it has accused debt-ridden customers of being fraudsters for paying late.

Read more at bit.ly/KiTNrx

Sport England is determined to create a meaningful and lasting community sport legacy not only from the London 2012 Olympic Games, but also the Paralympic Games, by growing sports participation by disabled people at the grassroots level.

At present, only one in six disabled adults plays sport regularly. We want to change this.

The Inclusive Sport Fund has been set up by Sport England with £8 million of National Lottery Funding. It will invest in programmes designed to grow the number of disabled young people (age 14+) and adults regularly playing sport.

We are looking for innovative, scalable and replicable projects that make it easier and more enjoyable for disabled people to take part in sport and physical activity more often.

The application form will be made available on this website on 1st June 2012, please review the Inclusive Sport Funding prospectus that includes the assessment and eligibility criteria prior to the application form being made available.

The deadline for submission of applications is 5pm on the 31 August.

For further information and queries please contact Sport England on 08458 508 508.

Sport England will be organising a series of workshops providing further information and support in June and July 2012.

Further details of these, including locations and dates, will appear by the end of May.