Government In England Research Articles

Enabling cyber incident collaboration in UK local government through fast-time communication

This paper brings together concepts and ideas to support organisations in implementing cyber incident response and coordination, especially focusing on the need for fast-time communications. Normal business operations are slow-time communication, with the shift to fast-time communication occurring during an operational incident. A good example of fast-time communication is instant messaging as opposed to slow-time e-mail. We are proposing a number of strands to formulate an approach. We realised the standard Playstation 3 theme (P3T) approach applies to fast-time communications and can be augmented to provide a novel application of the P3T. We propose to add governance to ensure that the scope application and use is appropriate, within the scope of a threat profile. We also propose to make use of the consequence relevance acceleration severity and harm (crash) gate framework which facilitates the definition of trigger points for escalation in cyber incident response planning and response. We will present some use cases and explain how to integrate them into existing operating processes and procedures. The temporal activities matrix is discussed, which explains the different slow-time/fast-time activities in a cyber response team/security operations centre (SOC). This paper comes at the end of a three-year work programme for local government in England led by MHCLG which focused on cyber resilience from the ICT side and started to build an approach and capacity within the Local Resilience Forums (LRFs). The work delivered a wide range of workshops and cyber exercises for the English LRFs. There was also a similar programme run by the Welsh Government for the wider public sector in Wales. Finally we explore future research considering an additional application around smart cities, incorporating zero trust architecture.

National policy piloting as steering at a distance: The perspective of local implementers

AbstractThis article contributes to the literature on tools of governance by examining the role of national policy pilots from the perspective of local implementers, using interviews with directors of adult social services in elected local government in England. Previous research in the same settings has shown that local actors often find the experience of participating in national policy pilots frustrating. This article attempts to explain why local authorities volunteer for such schemes. Drawing on the literature on the varieties of experimentalism and Anglo‐Governmentality, the article explores the ambiguous role of piloting in multilevel governance and reflects on its implications for policy implementation and local service development. Findings suggest that participating in national pilots provides local authorities with access to ideas and resources, and with a mandate for change, which motivates them to voluntarily subjugate themselves to being “steered at a distance” as they align themselves with central government's policy goals.

Developing and proposing rational and valid principles for effective school governance in England

The rationale for the principles of effective school governance in England, as set out in government regulations, has never been made explicit. This article addresses that issue and develops and proposes such principles. We argue that effective school governance secures the legitimacy of schools as institutions. Such institutional legitimacy is achieved through the institutionalization processes in which the institutional primary task is central. Effective governance is therefore concerned with overseeing and ensuring the processes of institutionalization. We identify two general principles that relate to ensuring the school's legitimacy and ensuring that the school's institutionalization processes enable it to be a legitimate institution. We also distinguish six specific principles that relate to: the school's work on the institutional primary task, the resources required and deployed for work on the institutional primary task; the school's compliance with the rules and regulations that apply to the institution; the school's conformance to the norms expected of a school; the way the school operates on a day-to-day basis in relation to wider society's expectations; calling the headteacher or principal (HT/P) to account for the functioning of the school; and ensuring the HT/P's development. Our analysis is relevant to school governance in other countries.

Industrial action could lead hospital pharmacists to withdraw from weekend rotas, warns union leader

NHS staff, including hospital pharmacists, could withdraw from voluntary rotas and weekend work as goodwill begins “running out”, following the government’s pay award for 2022/2023, the president of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) has warned. In July 2022, the government in England and Wales announced plans to award NHS staff pay increases worth at […]

Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolition by Bronwen Everill

Reviewed by: Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolitionby Bronwen Everill Rebecca Shumway (bio) Slavery, Capitalism, Free produce, Abolition, Trade, West Africa Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of Abolition. By Bronwen Everill. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020. Pp. 328. $39.95.) The transatlantic relationships that developed among Europeans, Africans, and Americans during the formation of the Atlantic world changed in important and complex ways at the dawn of the nineteenth century. The most widely noted of those changes stemmed from Britain and the U.S.A.'s abolition of the trade in captives from Africa; the Haitian and [End Page 151]other Atlantic Revolutions; and technological innovations associated with industrialization. Other profound changes in intercontinental transatlantic relations were less visible, and, in many respects, less linear in their evolution. This is especially true of ideological changes among Europeans and Americans with regard to Africa and unfree labor. In Not Made by Slaves, Bronwen Everill delves into these murkier waters surrounding abolitionist ideologies, so-called legitimate commerce, the formation of racialized nationalist identities, and proto-imperial positioning by the governments of Britain and the U.S.A. vis-a-vis West Africa. The book shows how present-day notions about the ethics of consumerism, including "fair-trade" commodities, socially conscious corporate practices, and considerations of inequity in the relationships between producers and consumers, originated in this era in tandem with other better-known transformations within the connective tissues of the Atlantic world. The book's seven chapters are organized thematically and discuss topics such as important commodities of transatlantic trade in this period (tobacco, cotton, sugar), commercial brands and branding, credit and debt, and nationalism. Everill's Introduction describes the vast historiography relevant to the study as well as some of the principal places, individuals, and trading firms discussed in the text, and summarizes each chapter. While the precise argument of the book remains somewhat elusive here, the Introduction clearly links the book's subject matter to the modern-day issue of ethical consumption. Similarly, the Epilogue stops short of drawing specific conclusions about the historical matter covered in the book but reviews the contradictions and complexities described in previous chapters and stresses that these are inherent in both past and present attempts to make international commerce simultaneously ethical and profitable. Not Made by Slavesstands out from other scholarly studies of nineteenth-century abolitionism and economics by deliberately including a West African perspective on the commercial, political, and ideological changes associated with the ending of the transatlantic slave trade and the development of new export streams from West Africa. While Everill's analysis of West African historical developments is rather slim compared to her discussion of how British and American abolitionists envisioned what ethical trade with Africa might look like, she provides concrete examples of antislavery sentiment and consumer consciousness among West Africans during this era. In the mostly Islamic hinterland of Senegambia, for [End Page 152]instance, some African rulers prohibited the sale of enslaved people to Europeans because they opposed trading with Christians. They sometimes also stamped out the market for imported alcohol and tobacco for religious reasons. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, a variety of settlers, missionaries, and colonial agents pursued antislavery agendas. They called international attention to the widespread use of slave labor in producing and transporting the "legitimate" African trade goods upon which British and American commerce there depended. Everill provides even more significant insight into the African side of this story when explaining the ideological shift that occurred toward the middle of the nineteenth century among Britons and Americans regarding unfree labor. As white people in these countries invested more and more in the belief that they were both culturally and biologically superior to other people, they also became more comfortable with the notion of "domestic slavery" in Africa and other places inhabited by people of color. Political and business leaders in Britain, in particular, were committed to the notion that overseas commerce was an important and necessary means of expanding Christian influence and what they considered "civilization" to what they considered the more "barbaric" parts of the world. This belief, in turn, fueled...

‘Because I said so?’ Revisiting the ‘letters’ in early modern letters patent

Letters patent have been used as a tool of governance in England since medieval times – though their functions have changed. The uses to which Henry II put his were limited by the socio-political context of the feudal system. When Elizabeth I began to use them as a tool of ‘economic’ policy – such as handing them out to regulate trade with the continent – it was only one of a number of uses. The role of the letters in governance, including the disbursement of peerages, under Henry II and in the sixteenth to the seventeenth century are compared here. The conclusion is that their use, at the time of the passing of the Statute of Monopolies, should best be seen as the Crown sharing part of its ‘body politic’, bringing the patentee into the monarch’s inner circle, rather than as a granting of an individual ‘right’.

MATification: Plurality, turbulence and effective school governance in England

MATification: Plurality, turbulence and effective school governance in England

Sir John Fortescue and the Governance of England. By MargaretKekewich. Pp. xxiii, 367, Woodbridge The Boydell Press, 2018, £60.00.

Sir John Fortescue and the Governance of England. By MargaretKekewich. Pp. xxiii, 367, Woodbridge The Boydell Press, 2018, £60.00.

Using the Middle-Out Perspective to augment advocacy for smokefree legislation

Abstract Issue Complementing ‘Bottom-up' and ‘Top-down' approaches, the Middle-Out Perspective (MOP) conceptual framework focuses on how middle actors can influence action by enhancing other actors' interest and ability to act. Middle actors exert influence sideways on other middle actors, upwards on policymakers and downwards on individuals. Middle actors can be immediate targets as potential allies or communication channels. Description of the problem Successive governments' longstanding voluntary agreements with industry have not protected children and non-smokers from secondhand smoke. Can the MOP enhance effectiveness of small organisations whose voices are ignored? Results The NGO Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) built a coalition of NGOs, practitioners' organisations, and others to advocate for smokefree legislation. Aggregating these voices made them more visible and their demand more influential. Involvement of trade unions and lawyers threatened legal action by exposed employees. Local government support and threats of local legislation changed the hospitality trade's opposition to support. Middle actors' supporters and members lobbied their MPs. ASH's professional expertise and reputation made them a trustworthy actor with legitimacy. The consortium led to the national government in England passing smokefree legislation in 2006. Lessons Middle actors can be agents of change, promoting desirable public health goals in a middle-out manner. Formal MOP mapping at the start of work can help public health staff identify potential non-traditional ‘allies' to expand the range of who are considered potential middle actors for a particular issue, enlisting powerful additional leverage in improving the public's health. However, middle actors are not neutral. They can contribute to better public health, but they may also be exploited by commercial interests to block healthy policies or promote a health-diminishing agenda. Key messages The Middle-Out Perspective (MOP) provide a lens to examine how actors positioned between government (top) and individuals (bottom) act to promote changes in a middle-out manner. Using MOP as a formal approach can help public health organisations and practitioners consider potential ‘allies’ from outside traditional health-related bodies or professions.

Corrigendum to: Impasse or mutation? Austerity and (de)financialisation of local governments in Britain

Corrigendum to: Impasse or mutation? Austerity and (de)financialisation of local governments in Britain

A Chemical Satire on the 1809 Change of Government in Britain

This note provides the context and transcription of a short satiric article published in the Bristol Mirror on the political events of 1809. The piece used chemical metaphors to provide an understanding of the circumstances surrounding the change of ministry in Britain in the autumn of that year. The article bears a strong resemblance to early twenty-first century political satire, including its relationship, or lack thereof, to reality.

Service Evaluation of the English Refugee Health Information System: Considerations and Recommendations for Effective Resettlement.

Since 2015, the UK has resettled over 25,000 refugees. To support resettlement and integration, refugees undergo a pre-arrival medical health assessment (MHA), which is used for healthcare planning by local government in England. This study aimed to understand the utility and effectiveness of the MHA and flow of data to support resettlement planning. Seven local government representatives were interviewed regarding their experiences and perceptions of the refugee health information system (HIS) and the MHA for resettlement in England. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The three themes indicated that the HIS was perceived to be effective, however, issues on governance, timeliness of information and access were identified. Findings showed that for the MHA to be more useful for planning, assessments for mental health issues and child special educational needs (SEN) are needed. Findings also indicated resettlement promoted joint working and acceptability of refugee resettlement. In areas where data sharing and governance processes are well defined, the HIS is effective and the MHA supports resettlement. National agencies should put structures in place to support timely health information flow.

Bio-Politics and Calculative Technologies in COVID-19 Governance: Reflections From England.

Through the extensive use of public media, the government of England was heavily involved in encouraging and instructing people on how to manage their life during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This model of health emergency governance replicates the practice of 'calculative technologies' and 'bio-politics' embedded in population management. Previous research on COVID-19 governance both in the United Kingdom and beyond provides varied revelations on broader 'technologies of government' and bio-politics by numerous governments. However, rarely have any studies explicitly and distinctively highlighted the unique 'calculative technologies' mobilised by governments within their bio-politically designed "technologies of government" to compel the populations to manage their lives under their COVID-19 guidance. The paper therefor examines how the UK government deployed "calculative technologies," as part of its strategies of health governance and governmentality during the first wave of COVID-19 in England. This study uses document analysis as its data collection method. Its review includes documents, press releases, social media disclosures and health guidance issued by the UK government from March to December, 2020. The data are analysed employing the Foucault's governmentality and bio-political scholarship. The paper's findings reveal the UK government's use of integrated calculative technologies of self-governance in the form of risk calculations and metrices/statistics (eg, death tolls, infection rates), performance management (eg, two metre social distancing, and hand washing for twenty seconds) and discipline and control (eg, fourteen days self-isolation), in addition to a more conventional top-down, managerial decision-making process adopted in the past. By these newly initiated "calculative technologies," the government has "bio-politically" governed the behaviours and lifestyles of vulnerable community members, health workers and general public at a distance, inculcating self-management and individualisation of responsibility. The newly adopted calculative technologies used by the UK government created a multi-faceted discourse of obligations, entitlements and scale of engagement, and facilitated directions about what people should do to protect themselves and others from the spread of the virus. Overall, the overtly and idiosyncratically used calculative technologies resemble a unique 'art of government' and produce a set of 'bio-political' interventions enforcing the populations to manage their own wellbeing and governing them at a distance during COVID-19.

Impasse or mutation? Austerity and (de)financialisation of local governments in Britain

AbstractPost crisis, local governments’ (LGs) budgets have been drastically cut in Britain. Similar budgetary strains had serious consequences in the past, leading to major restructuring in LGs’ functions. This paper interrogates the spatial dynamics of short-term municipal finances by putting into dialogue the political economy perspectives on financialisation with the economic geography literature on urban governance. Using data for over 400 municipal authorities in Britain, we examine locational underpinnings of changing financial practices with respect to spending cuts. We find that austerity increased risk and uncertainty for LGs. To preserve key services in such an environment, they resorted to short-term borrowing in breach of regulatory guidance. Effectively, an internal market for inter-council lending and borrowing has been created based on market principles in which LGs with surplus cash and reserves have extended credit to those with liquidity problems. On the asset side, the austerity programme forced them to embrace financial logics through a spectacular shift from cash and deposit holdings to investment in money market funds and credit extension as they have strived to generate as much income as possible to fund services at risk.

Adam Smith and the idea of free government

ABSTRACT This article reconstructs Adam Smith’s contribution to the conversation on the nature and value of free government in the eighteenth century. Smith contributes to this conversation in two ways. First, by embedding the idea of free government in a narrative of the progress of government, which traces the interplay between natural progress and social circumstances, and culminates in the establishment of modern free government in Britain. Second, by offering a theory of the form of free government fit for modern commercial states. Drawing on the “rational system of liberty” established in Britain, the Smithian model of free government is based on a “happy mixture” of republicanism and monarchism. Looking beyond the rational system, it merges the traditional concern for constitutional security against arbitrary power with a new science of policy intended to moderate the oppressive inclinations of legislators. The article contests Duncan Forbes’ reading of Smith as questioning the relation between individual liberty and free government, and brings Smith closer to Quentin Skinner’s work on the neo-Roman understanding of liberty. It suggests that Smith’s work may offer insight into some of the ways in which neo-Roman ideas were being creatively reformulated in the eighteenth century.

The 2021 Metro Mayors Elections: Localism Rebooted?

AbstractMetro mayors are the latest addition to the complex jigsaw of subnational governance in England, and were introduced from 2014 to lead, allegedly, a ‘devolution revolution’. This article focusses on the 2021 election to reflect on the roots and first mandate of these new mayors, to understand how they fared at the ballot box, and to assess whether and in what ways they are making an impact. The analysis shows that metro mayors are maturing as institutions, and they are becoming more rooted in the public imagination. Harnessing ‘the power of place’ was a key driver of success: some metro mayors have shown a potential to ‘reboot localism’ and, with it, devolution. However, resistance from central government to let go of power persists and could hinder both the metro mayors’ and the devolution agendas going forward.

The Role of Public Health Expenditures in COVID-19 control: Evidence from Local Governments in England

For over 150 years the local health departments of England have been critical in controlling 19th and 20th century infectious epidemics. However, recent administrative changes have hollowed out their flexibility to serve communities. We use administrative data on past budgetary allocations per capita to public health departments at upper tier local areas (UTLAs) of England to examine whether public health funding levels were correlated with more rapid control of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and July of 2020. The dependent variable was the number of days between a UTLA's 10th case of COVID-19 and the day when new cases per 100,000 peaked and began to decline. Our models controlled for regional socio-economic factors. We found no correlation between local public health expenditure and the speed of control of COVID-19. However, overall public expenditure allocated to improve local areas helped reduce time to reach peak. Contrary to expectation, more dense areas such as London experienced shorter duration. Higher income areas had more rapid success in accelerating the time of the first peak in the first wave of their local COVID-19 incidence. We contribute to understanding the impact of how public expenditure and socio-economic factors affect an epidemic.

The impact of school exclusion zone planning guidance on the number and type of food outlets in an English local authority: A longitudinal analysis.

The use of planning policy to manage and create a healthy food environment has become a popular policy tool for local governments in England. To date there has been no evaluation of their short-term impact on the built environment. We assess if planning guidance restricting new fast food outlets within 400 m of a secondary school, influences the food environment in the local authority of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. We have administrative data on all food outlets in Newcastle 3 years pre-intervention 2012–2015, the intervention year 2016, and three years’ post-intervention 2016–2019. We employ a difference-in-difference approach comparing postcodes within the school fast food outlet exclusion zone to those outside the fast-food exclusion zones. In the short term (3 years), planning guidance to limit the number of new fast-food outlets in a school exclusion zone did not have a statistically significant impact on the food environment when compared with a control zone.

An overview of current issues and practice relating to local government cyber security in England and Wales

This paper explores some of the current issues around cyber security and resilience relating to local government in England and Wales, covering the period of the current National Cyber Security Programme from 2015 to 2020. The paper outlines the structure of cyber security and resilience and explains the linkages at a regional and devolved administration level in the case of Wales and UK national level. The paper introduces the concept of a cyber asset taxonomy to quantify cyber artefacts, to aid the early warning of organisations with particular type of equipment, systems and services. There is also discussion around a volunteer-led CyberShare Node/Fusion Cell structure to aid incident response in a cost-effective way. Finally, there is a description of current research which will result in future papers.

Unproductive Co-production: European Integration, the British Film Industry and the Franco-British Co-production Agreement of 1965

The negotiation of bilateral co-production agreements had a major impact on European film-making from the 1950s to the 1970s. These agreements also provided the basis for the closer integration of Europe's film industries within what was then the European Economic Community (EEC). However, the British government was slow to adopt co-production arrangements and British film-makers tended to be more reticent about using them once they were made available. This article examines the British experience of European co-production during this period, focusing on the negotiation and implementation of the Franco-British co-production agreement of 1965 in the context of broader debates about film production and policy within the EEC. Particular attention is given to Someone Behind the Door (1971), a proposed Franco-British film which was ultimately made as a collaboration between French and Italian production companies after delays on the British side caused the French producer to withdraw from the UK. The correspondence collected by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as the proposal for Someone Behind the Door was processed – including input from film union and producer associations – provides a unique insight into the bureaucratic policies and procedures which encumbered European co-production in Britain. While continental film-makers established comfortable habits of cooperation, British co-production was stymied from the outset by a misalignment between the interests of Britain's government, its film unions and its producers.