Press Releases
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Press Releases from 2011
Misleading Claims About Economic Benefits of Equality Act Are Endangering Jobs
23 December 2011
Contrary to government assurances, new equality rules will have no economic benefit and questionable impact on real inequality As unemployment continues to grow, a new Civitas report reveals that new equality regulations threaten further job losses. The Equality Act 2010 introduced new duties on employers to protect disadvantaged groups from discrimination in the workplace and combines existing anti-discrimination law into one act. The Government's official Impact Assessment of the Equality Act claimed that…
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Rise In Stem Subjects Disproportionately Due to Overseas Students
5 December 2011
Universities are educating 6,000 fewer British engineers a year than 10 years ago British universities are adding fewer STEM subject graduates to the labour market than total student figures suggest, according to a new Civitas report. The STEM subject push by Stephen L. Clarke finds that the number of overseas students attending British universities to study engineering increased by 12,308 from 1997 to 2007, but that the number of British engineering students declined…
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Equality Law's Billion Pound Paper-Shuffle
28 November 2011
'Equalities industry' undermines true equality As youth unemployment rises to record levels, a new Civitas report reveals that British workplaces spend up to a billion pounds a year complying with clumsy equality legislation. The costs put particular strain on public sector organisations, as well as making it more difficult for businesses to create and retain jobs. Furthermore, these policies have made jobs lessaccessible to disadvantaged, marginal workers. The Rise of the Equalities Industry, by sociology…
Why Economic Growth Is Faltering and What We Can Do About It
14 November 2011
Government's mistake is to misunderstand the scale of de-industrialisation The Government wants economic growth as much as anyone. Why isn't it happening? A new report from Civitas argues that growth is faltering because the Government has been solving the wrong problems. The Coalition thinks that the national debt and global warming are the biggest challenges we face, but according to A Strategy For Economic Growth, our main problem is de-industrialisation. The…
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EU Holds Back Uk Economic Recovery
17 October 2011
Britain must plan exit strategy from failing EU, but should keep trade links As Europe's leaders gamble their nations' finances on saving the Euro, a new Civitas report reveals that the European Union is damaging Britain's economic recovery and sapping job growth. Time to Say No, by Ian Milne, shows that a break with the EU need not represent a drastic break with Europe itself. Instead, it will permit a pragmatic reform of…
Government Has Abandoned Private Pension Savers to Predatory Financial Sector
12 September 2011
End of defined benefit pensions a tragedy for prudent savers Millions of pensioners will have their retirement incomes stripped of between 20% and 75% of their value, reveals a new Civitas report. You're on Your Own, by Peter Morris and Alasdair Palmer, outlines how the collapse of defined benefit pension schemes, which guarantee savers a fixed annual retirement income, has resulted in less saving. But it permitted new anti-consumer practices to emerge amongst…
Cash-Strapped London Health Services Must Consolidate HIV Specialist Provision
2 September 2011
Lansley missing cost savings that could also benefit care quality The Coalition Government is failing to realise productivity gains that are crucial for protecting the quality of NHS services, according to a new Civitas report. Andrew Lansley has wasted time by trying to force through wholesale changes to health commissioning, reforms which are now widely accepted as unworkable. But the Government could save millions of pounds by focusing commissioner attention on reconfiguring specialist services that…
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EHRC Refuses Britain a Fair Hearing
8 August 2011
Equality and Human Rights Commission should be abolished The Equality and Human Rights Commission contributes very little to meaningful equality in Britain today and should be abolished, according to a new Civitas report. Added to the Government's much trumpeted 'bonfire of the quangos', the EHRC would save the Treasury tens of millions of pounds at no obvious cost to the general public. Small Corroding Words, by Jon Gower Davies, is a systematic critique of…
Government Mis-Selling Green Economy As Job Creator
5 August 2011
Contrary to Government claims, EU green energy policies are predicted to destroy tens of thousands of British jobs Green economic policies mean more pain than gain for Britain, according to a new Civitas report. The Green Mirage, by John Constable, finds claims that the low-carbon economy can deliver so-called 'green collar' jobs are staggeringly far-fetched and unsupported by official measures. The Government claims that green policies can both reduce carbon emissions and…
Coalition Neglect Blamed For Slow Economic Growth
26 July 2011
Government lacks a convincing strategy Today's anaemic 0.2 per cent second-quarter GDP figure is not just the result of the international financial crisis. It is also the result of the Coalition's failure to play its part in promoting economic growth. A new report from independent think tank Civitas argues that the Government should demonstrate its loyalty to its own people instead of standing helpless on the sidelines. The Bombardier trains contract…
Opportunity Locks
11 July 2011
Coalition Government's 'rehabilitation revolution' fails to tackle repeat offenders As Parliament begins to scrutinise the Punishment of Offenders Bill, a new Civitas report reveals that Government plans to cut re-offending and public expenditure by rehabilitating prisoners fail to deal with key problems. Bars to Learning, by Carolina Bracken, argues that the Government's confused priorities mean that the prisoners most likely to re-offend on release are deliberately excluded from the reforms. The…
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North Eastern Industry to Be Decimated - and For What?
2 June 2011
The government's green taxes will spell the end for Britain's chemical industry, which employs 200,000 directly, an additional 400,000 indirectly, and accounts for 15% of UK exports. The sector, much of which is found in North East England, will be the victim of the race to cut emissions by 34% from 1990 levels by 2020: more than any other country's target. Moreover, this approach by the 'greenest government ever', will…
Sacrificing Jobs For No Green Benefit: Huhne's Blinkered and Dogmatic Policies Are Self-Contradictory
17 May 2011
The present government’s approach to climate-change policies will actually undermine the UK’s ability to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By pricing energy-intensive industries out of the UK via green levies and taxes, the ‘greenest government ever’ is actually smothering the emerging low-carbon economy at birth. The new plans for a 60% reduction in emissions by 2030 are too much, too soon. Chain Reactions, a report released next week by…
Strasbourg Court Flouting Democratic Self-Government
21 April 2011
Lib Dem peer joins Tory MP in call to avert 'collision' between Parliament and Human Rights Court Following Parliament's rejection of votes for prisoners, a new Civitas report calls for urgent reform of human rights legislation to keep European judges from deciding British law. Strasbourg in the Dock, by international lawyer and Conservative MP Dominic Raab, argues that judges have gone beyond their legitimate powers of interpretation in their now infamous Hirst ruling. He…
That's Not a Growth Plan - This Is a Growth Plan!
16 March 2011
'Rebalancing the economy' and 'promoting growth' have been flagship phrases for the new Government. On Budget Day its strategy for growth will be announced, but a report by independent think tank Civitas shows that current plans do not go far enough. In Economic Growth - Could the Government do more?, David Green and David Merlin-Jones argue that some of the Government's own policies are major obstacles to recovery. Civitas Director, David Green, said: 'The…
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Police Squeeze Could 'Encourage' Criminality, Warns Economist
14 March 2011
Detection key to deterring criminals Government claims that police cuts will be made without endangering the public are dealt another blow this week. A new Civitas report finds that sudden police cuts could potentially trigger a vicious cycle of crime and disorder. In An Analysis of Crime and Crime Policy, Birmingham University economist Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay finds "a strong and negative relationship between [police] detection rates and crime". (p. 4) This means that the more crime…
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'Modern Miracle' Needed For NHS White Paper to Succeed - Sir David Varney
19 January 2011
Gordon Brown's former head of public service transformation, Sir David Varney, today writes in a piece for the independent think-tank Civitas that risks in the NHS White Paper, to be cemented in the Health Bill released today, have been underestimated or ignored. In Risk, ‘Equity and Excellence’, Varney writes: 'The crucial point is the White Paper does not focus on the potential risks the reforms create and how these risks might be mitigated…
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2011: the Start of a Great Decade For Criminals?
7 January 2011
Police reductions could see crime rate surge The Government has announced a 20% real terms reduction in police funding over the next four years, starting with a 6% cut in the national funding grant this year. Satisfying this proposal is likely to involve dramatic staff reductions, including of frontline police officers. Policing and Criminal Justice Minister Nick Herbert has admitted the cuts will be 'challenging' for police forces. But what will be the impact on…