7727posts
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An ambitious new strategy for chalk streams
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow, Environment Agency Chair Emma Howard Boyd and Natural England Chair Tony Juniper visited the River Mimran in Hertfordshire on Friday 15 October for the launch of the Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy. They met with members of …
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Your questions about the Future Farming Resilience Fund
Last week I wrote a blog post encouraging farmers and land managers to take advantage of the free business support and advice on offer through the Future Farming Resilience Fund. Some people have been in touch to ask various questions about the fund. I wanted everyone to see the responses, so I thought I’d address them in this blog post.
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How we’re improving payment account validation
Validating payment accounts is just one simple thing we can do to increase confidence that a payment will be successful. Like all good product journeys, Angela's team set out to find out what the problems were with the existing solutions, and if there were opportunities to make things more effective.
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The Geospatial Scholarship Fund – A call to action for the geospatial industry
As we focus on education this year for Black History Month 2021- Proud To Be, we are delighted to place a spotlight on geosciences and the importance of diversity in a subject that informs decisions that affect all our lives. …
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Lessons from MoJ’s first ever Innovation Challenge
In May, we invited tech companies and start-ups to bring innovative thinking and technological solutions to key reoffending challenges. In this post, Daniel Daly reflects on some key takeaways from running a Government Innovation Challenge.
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Future proof policy: A guide to using foresight in policy making
This blog introduces a short practitioners’ guide to how foresight approaches can improve outcomes in policy making. It is the output of Peter McGowran's 3-month UKRI Policy Internship with the Government Office for Science Futures team, in connection with his …
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World Menopause Day 2021
Angela MacDonald explains that for many women who struggle with health issues approaching, during and after the menopause, it’s good to talk. Yesterday, Monday 18 October 2021, was World Menopause Day (WMD), a day to raise awareness and keep the …
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Job Vacancy: Head of Animal Welfare and Delivery Assurance
Find out more about a new and exciting role in the FSA as a Head of Animal Welfare and Delivery Assurance.
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How our training offer is supporting local government with day-to-day working
It’s been seven months since we launched an online library of training courses to support our local government colleagues to develop their digital skills while working remotely. In that time, we’ve had 218 applications from people working in more than …
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Addiction Awareness Mental Health and Well-being
Join us to hear an insight on how to spot signs and symptoms of addiction and where to get help and support
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Maintaining quality of food imports on this World Food Day
Tony Hunt, imports delivery lead in the Digital Data and Technology Services Major Projects team, has been looking at how food comes into the UK this World Food Day.
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Update on the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot
In July, we opened the applications window for farmers to join our Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot. In this post, Lisa Applin (Rural Payments Agency) and Tom Lewis (Future Farming and Countryside Programme) share the results of the application process, what the team learned and what they will do next.
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Emily Miles' stakeholder update - Help for millions with food allergies
FSA Chief Executive Emily Miles discusses a new allergen labelling law, known as Natasha's Law, and the launch of the UK Anaphylaxis Registry.
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What does the Health and Care Bill mean for NHS staff?
Health Secretary Sajid Javid reflects on how the proposals set out in the Health and Care Bill will make it easier for NHS staff to do their day-to-day jobs.
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The Photography Show: your questions answered
IPO Digital Communications Officer, Oliver Downey, recently attended The Photography Show at the NEC Birmingham alongside the team, where copyright was centre stage.
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Package of measures announced to support pig sector
There has been widespread coverage of the announcement of a package of measures to support the pig industry. This was widely covered in national, regional and trade media, including The Times, The Financial Times, Daily Mail, The Guardian, the I …
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Proud to be – Black History Month 2021
October marks the month-long recognition of Black History Month and this year the theme is “proud to be”. As we focus on recognising the many important contributions that have been made by members of the black community, we also seek …
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NHSBSA NHS Bursary alpha assessment
Read the alpha assessment report for the NHS Bursary service from the NHS Business Services Authority.
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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on handwashing
On Global Handwashing Day, Helen Heard shares the findings of a new report into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on handwashing attitudes and behaviours.
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How to recruit and retain great care staff
Staff recruitment and retention remain long-standing challenges for the care sector, with the coronavirus pandemic adding to the difficulties many providers face. Cygnet Healthcare's Fiona Oxley presents an uplifting and positive take on recruiting great colleagues - and keeping them.
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Why I decided to take the COVID-19 vaccine
"My name is Sofija Igonkina, from Latvia. I have been living in England for 15 years. I'm a nurse and I work in Evergreen nursing home in Hastings. I want to share my story about why I had the COVID-19 vaccine and why I'm going to get a booster jab this winter."
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A big day for DIO as new Head Office is officially opened
Some of us at DIO had a memorable morning yesterday with the official opening of our new head office by the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter. This has been a few years in the planning and …
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What is an academy and what are the benefits?
We want every school in the country to be part of a family of schools in a strong multi academy trust. But what are academies and what are the benefits of of this plan?
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Closing the Loop: dealing with the deluge
In the latest blog in our 'Closing the Loop' series, we take a look at what happened when a worldwide pandemic had an unexpected impact on our trade mark and design examination applications.
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Super courtrooms spearhead good multi-hander progress
The Manchester super courtroom – which opened its doors at the Crown Court last month – got underway with its first large trial last week, as HMCTS passed another significant milestone in recovering our ability to hear ‘multi-hander’ trials.
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Understanding UK occupations
How we’ve enhanced our Standard Occupational Classification to help better understand the UK jobs market. The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) is a framework used to classify occupations according to skill level and specialisation. It assigns all jobs a four-digit code …
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Reasonable Adjustments as part of World Sight Day [14 October]
How many of us are familiar with the process of getting reasonable adjustments at work? Or with what the term reasonable adjustments actually means? The term ‘reasonable’ is subjective in itself as what is reasonable to me may not be …
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A Service Standard for the Royal Navy
A service standard is a set of design principles to guide delivery teams in creating effective, digital services that provide a consistent experience for the end-user. Royal Navy delivery teams had been working to the Government Service Standard, however some …
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T Levels: Everything you need to know about the groundbreaking new technical equivalent to A levels
T Levels – the new technical post-16 qualification available in schools and colleges all over the country – may only have been around for one year, but already they are making a huge difference for those that study them.
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Helping prisoners turn their lives around: the vital role specialist production instructors play
Life inside a prison is about so much more than prisoners moving between their cells and communal areas, and prison officers locking and unlocking doors. There are a whole range of activities underway to help inmates prepare for their release …
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Financial support for smaller businesses
Raising finance is important in allowing a business to function. In particular, working capital enables the day-to-day operations of the business. The need for this finance was the main focus for all businesses during the pandemic, especially for the smaller ones.
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Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee: Recruiting new members now!
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is pleased to announce that it is now recruiting new committee members for the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (HSAC), a non-statutory, independent scientific advisory body. HSAC provides expert advice on how …
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DIO - Senior Blast Effects Engineer (SEO)
Do you want a job where every day is different? Does providing specialist construction advice about explosives, weapons, ballistics & counter terrorism sound exciting? If your answer is yes, then DIO is the place for you. Working for DIO and …
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Protection, prevention and peace of mind this winter
As people working in or with the care sector, we all want the best for residents, colleagues and the communities around us. Let’s give them even greater peace of mind by getting vaccinated for flu and COVID-19 and make this the safest, healthiest winter we can.
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User panel is key to success for the waste tracking service
Laura McNulty, from the Resources and Waste team, explains how users are helping to design a digital waste tracking service, and the benefits of creating a user panel.
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What we talk about when we talk about biometrics…*
Technology using biometric data is progressing at a rapid pace. Finding the right balance between the privacy concerns and entitlements of the individual while harnessing new technology responsibly, accountably and proportionately is proving to be a significant challenge for policing today; tomorrow’s technology will make it even more so. Which is why there needs to be an informed and realistic response to the government’s idea of soaking up the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner functions within a data regulator’s role which is buried at the end of the DCMS’ ongoing broad consultation.
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Digital Business Analysis - Putting the Business into our Digital Services
I have to admit, the term ‘Business Analyst’ doesn’t sound particularly interesting. It’s not even very descriptive; my own parents don’t really understand what I do. Analyse the business, perhaps? Look at processes, write business cases, monitor value-add with KPIs …
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Establishing the Home Office User Research Ethics Board
The Home Office User Research Ethics Board protects the rights, safety, wellbeing and dignity of all participants and researchers involved in our research. This is how we do it.
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Partnership is key for positive progress
Lee Marrs, Intelligence Research Officer at the Environment Agency, discusses working with industry partners to prevent the illegal export of waste. Last month we took big strides towards our ambition to stop illegal export of waste to protect the environment …
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Baby Loss Awareness Week - Our stories so far
This year’s theme for Baby Loss Awareness Week - from 9 to 15 October - is wellbeing. Katie James-Manning and Helen Mallison, who were impacted by their experience in different ways, reflect on what personally helped them. KATIE’S STORY I’m …