UK Government Department Research Articles

Potential barriers to the competence assessment of Offshore Installation Managers: A hermeneutic perspective.

The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) performs one of the most critical roles within the UK offshore Oil and Gas Industry. The OIM is responsible for the safety and well-being of all persons on-board and within 500 m of the installation whilst operating within a complex environment where multiple organisations and stakeholders interact. The persistence of major incidents in the industry highlights the importance of OIM competence in controlling emergencies, consequently the research aims to identify the potential barriers that can limit or prevent the proficient competence assessment of an OIM in this situation. The OIM role is investigated by qualitative analysis of key documents using hermeneutics to interpret text and to identify the potential barriers to effective competence assessment. Such analysis has historically been used within the domains of theology, business and law. Hermeneutics takes into account the cultural, historical and social environment at the time of issue of the document, and semiotics, i.e. the study of signs and symbols, their use and interpretation.Analysis is ongoing, however the six potential barriers to the effective competence assessment of OIMs in controlling emergencies identified to date are discussed. These barriers are associated with the multiple definitions of competence that exist in the UK and worldwide; the current predominance of competence assessment by observation; the lack of definitive competence requirements for trainers and assessors; the complexity in UK legislation and the interaction between UK Government departments and concerns associated with goal setting legislation when applied to competence assessment.The output from the research will assist industry Duty Holders improve the competence assessment of their appointed OIMs and allow safety engineers to consider the probable competence of an OIM in a given environment at a given point in time.

A framework for examining the dimensions and characteristics of complexity inherent within rail megaprojects

This paper presents a framework for examining the dimensions and characteristics of project complexity, with an emphasis on rail megaprojects. UK government departments have recorded that project complexity has increased significantly over the last decade and highlight that the subject has received inadequate attention, with a detrimental effect on project performance. However departments have not examined the characteristics of complexity or made a distinction between complexity emanating from the decisions made by the project itself and the complexity emanating from its context, as they warrant different treatment. By way of response, post examination and comparison of existing frameworks, a new framework is proposed based on a literature review. A case study is examined to illustrate how the framework may be applied.

Charlotte Watts: from pure maths to HIV and gender-based violence

Appointed last October as Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID), epidemiologist Charlotte Watts of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is, by training, a pure mathematician. Indeed, her PhD from the University of Warwick was titled “stochastic stability of diffeomorphisms”. Although a background in applied maths might have offered her a natural progression into statistics and epidemiology, the relevance to health of “diffeomorphisms” is harder to discern—although not, it seems, to Anne Mills, Professor of Health Economics and Policy at LSHTM. “Charlotte has great analytical powers”, she says. “The ability to conceptualise and theorise is not only important in theoretical work. It enables you to analyse issues, to get to the heart of what they're all about, and then think your way through to solutions.” In fact, Watts chose Warwick on account of its then Professor of Mathematics, Christopher Zeeman, no stranger to the application of his discipline. “By going to Warwick I was going to study with someone who was trying to make their maths useful”, Watts explains. Doing something socially useful had long been on her agenda. Its eventual realisation was to be in two fields: HIV and gender-based violence.

Reflections on the labyrinth: Investigating black and minority ethnic leaders’ career experiences

Black and minority ethnic (BME) employees appear to experience more difficulty reaching senior leadership positions than do their white counterparts. Using Eagly and Carli’s metaphor of the labyrinth, our aim was to give voice to black and minority ethnic managers who have successfully achieved senior management roles, and compare their leadership journeys with those of matched white managers. This article used semi-structured interviews and attribution theory to examine how 20 black and minority ethnic and 20 white senior managers from a UK government department made sense of significant career incidents in their leadership journeys. Template analysis was used to identify facilitators and barriers of career progression from causal explanations of these incidents. Although BME and white managers identified four common themes (visibility, networks, development and line manager support), they differed in how they made sense of formal and informal organizational processes to achieve career progression. The findings are used to theorize about the individual and organizational factors that contribute to the leadership journeys of minority ethnic employees.

Explaining Perceived Inconsistencies in “Stated Preference” Valuations of Human Life

The Relative Utility Pricing model is used to explain the fact that when faced with two “safety packs”, the second giving three times the safety benefit of the first, discriminating respondents will place a value on the second pack that is, on average, twice the amount they say they will be prepared to pay for the first. When the safety packs reduce fatal accident frequencies, the “value of a prevented fatality” (VPF) figures deduced from the valuations of the two safety packs must then be significantly different. Such response patterns on the part of respondents were found in a high-profile study carried out on behalf of a number of UK Government Departments. However, the authors of that study considered the responses “aberrant”, and dismissed their survey in favour of their later one, which they based on a novel elicitation technique and which led to a VPF that was lower by a factor of between 5 and 10. That method has been shown elsewhere to be invalid, which returns the focus to the original study rejected by its authors. This paper shows that the VPFs produced by the first study are fully explicable and cannot be dismissed if the stated preference approach is to be accepted. However, in view of the difficulties experienced with stated preference techniques in the valuation of life, it is clear that an urgent reappraisal is needed of revealed preference techniques if people’s safety is to be safeguarded adequately.

Energy and Environmental Performance of the ‘Abertridwr Community’ – First Winter Season

This paper discusses initial findings from the first eight months (July 2013 to February 2014) of the environmental performance monitoring as part of a Technology Strategy Board funded Building Performance Evaluation programme project at the Abertridwr ecological micro-community, in Wales, UK. The case study community includes eight low-impact, ecological, low carbon flats, one additional flat and four houses; occupied from 2010. The community was developed by United Welsh Housing Association and received a grant from the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change midway through construction, enabling eight flats to be upgraded to level four of the code for sustainable homes so incorporate ecological materials and systems. All the units use exhaust air source heat pumps (EASHPs) to provide their hot water and space heating needs; a system that has been reported to have significant costs for some housing association tenants across the UK. The project discussed in this paper builds upon earlier research undertaken by the same housing association led by the first author of this paper, which followed a 12 month detailed environmental and energy performance monitoring period, that indicated EASHPs could provide comfortable internal conditions at low monthly and annual costs [1]. Interim results from the first winter's (2013/14) monitoring at the Abertridwr project indicate that heating (space and water) are not excessive for a flat occupied by two adults and a house occupied by three adults and one child. Yet, there are potential issues of occupancy energy-use strategies disguising overall actual building performance as a function of problems for the designed building fabric and installed energy strategies. The monitoring continues until August 2014, when 12 months analysis will be undertaken before final reporting in September 2014. This paper will be of interest to academics, designers, contractors, environmental engineers and building owners.

Energy use in non-domestic buildings: the UK government's new evidence base

Policy for reducing carbon emissions from non-domestic buildings in the UK relies at present on survey and modelling work carried out in the 1990s. The UK government's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is engaged in a programme of new research to update this evidence base. The work has two main components. The first is a database – the National Energy Efficiency Data framework (NEED) – in which floor area and activity data for non-domestic premises are being linked to electricity and gas consumption at the individual property level. The second is a research project of sample surveys designed to elicit information about buildings and energy use, but also opportunities for abatement and the behavioural and organizational factors affecting efficiency improvements. A pilot survey of the food and mixed retail sector has been carried out in advance of further surveys of the entire range of building types. The research programme is described along with some of the methodological problems it raises.

A dwelling-level investigation into the physical and socio-economic drivers of domestic energy consumption in England

The UK Government's Department for Energy and Climate Change has been investigating the feasibility of developing a national energy efficiency data framework covering both domestic and non-domestic buildings. Working closely with the Energy Saving Trust and energy suppliers, the aim is to develop a data framework to monitor changes in energy efficiency, develop and evaluate programmes and improve information available to consumers. Key applications of the framework are to understand trends in built stock energy use, identify drivers and evaluate the success of different policies. For energy suppliers, it could identify what energy uses are growing, in which sectors and why. This would help with market segmentation and the design of products. For building professionals, it could supplement energy audits and modelling of end-use consumption with real data and support the generation of accurate and comprehensive benchmarks. This paper critically examines the results of the first phase of work to construct a national energy efficiency data-framework for the domestic sector focusing on two specific issues: (a) drivers of domestic energy consumption in terms of the physical nature of the dwellings and socio-economic characteristics of occupants and (b) the impact of energy efficiency measures on energy consumption.

The value of psychological flexibility: Examining psychological mechanisms underpinning a cognitive behavioural therapy intervention for burnout

Little is known of the mechanisms by which interventions for burnout work. Employees of a UK government department were randomly assigned to either a worksite group-based CBT intervention called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; n=43), which aimed to increase participants' psychological flexibility, or a waiting list control group (n=57). The ACT group received three half-day sessions of training spread over two and a half months. Data were collected at baseline (T1), at the beginning of the second (T2) and third (T3) workshops, and at six months' follow up (T4). Consistent with ACT theory, analyses revealed that, in comparison to the control group, a significant increase in psychological flexibility from T2 to T3 in the ACT group mediated the subsequent T2 to T4 decrease in emotional exhaustion in that group. Consistent with a theory of emotional burnout development, this significant decrease in emotional exhaustion from T2 to T4 in the ACT group appeared to prevent the significant T3 to T4 increase in depersonalization seen in the control group. Strain also decreased from T2 to T3 in the ACT group only, but no mediator of that improvement was identified. Implications for theory and practice in the fields of ACT and emotional burnout are discussed.

Editorial

I hope that over the last three years of my editorship, our agenda has helped to provide a platform for geographers and other researchers to publish and promote work that is publicly engaged and impactful in a variety of ways. Reflecting back on what we have published in 2012, I remain cheered by the diversity of contributions from scholars in the UK and the wider world. In the first issue alone, we published articles and commentaries addressing trading networks in sub-Saharan Africa, water management in the Middle East, rural livelihoods in Mexico, Arctic geopolitics, health geographies in the USA and UK policy debates on development and health. It has also been a good year, from my point of view, in terms of Themed Sections. I am delighted to record my thanks to Brian Ilbery for working with us on the topic of food security and infectious animal and plant diseases, which followed on from a series of presentations originally delivered to the 2010 British Festival of Science (Ilbery 2012). Apart from the academic interventions, it was a real pleasure to publish a reflection by Alick Simmons (2012), the Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer of the relevant UK government department (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Defra). This kind of interaction addresses the journal's agenda. Without tempting too greatly the writing/review/publishing fates, we expect to have Themed Sections on environmental security, climate change, security and surveillance, the geographies of devolution and wellbeing. We should have some great collections over the next couple of years – so much so that I have had to impose a temporary moratorium on Themed Section proposals from potential guest editors. This should not be taken to suggest, however, that we do not continue to welcome relevant individual articles and commentaries. The Geographical Journal's breadth and volume of readership and authorship makes the open access (OA) agenda developing in the UK and elsewhere an important consideration going forward. As Editor, I am committed to working alongside the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) with authors, reviewers, readers and the editorial board to do all we can to ensure the journal maintains its relevance in this context. The Society's summary of the current situation and online resources for the community are available online at www.rgs.org/OpenAccess I remain eternally grateful to our editorial board members and independent reviewers for being so willing to offer peer review. The journal's Managing Editor continues to offer essential support and insights, and Wiley-Blackwell colleagues are a pleasure to work with.

An interview with … Dr Howard White by Mark Monaghan

This section of Evidence & Policy has two main objectives: to inform readers about the development of evidence-informed policy and practice, as reflected in the literature; and to provide practical advice on the sources and skills that policy makers, practitioners and researchers can exploit in their search for evidence. This issue reports on a new cases database, standards in UK government departments, and some recently published guidelines on evidence. Lessons from the Literature follows.

Can exercise prevent coronary artery disease even on a high fat diet?

Can exercise prevent coronary artery disease even on a high fat diet?

Appraisal of UK funding frameworks for energy research in housing

The current UK research capacity and funding programmes in the field of energy use and energy demand reduction in existing housing are appraised. A satellite–hub model concept is proposed as an appropriate way forward. To set the scene, the complex nature and difficulty of the problem of achieving real energy reductions in housing is highlighted and research opportunities for current and forthcoming housing and energy policy measures are investigated. A range of recent and on-going research funding programmes managed by UK Research Councils, government departments and industry are appraised in the context of relevant policy measures and criteria that the authors consider to be essential for rapid and high-quality research in domestic energy reduction. Finally, the implementation of the concept of a satellite–hub model is explored through the structure and operation of a domestic energy use and retrofit research satellite–hub on a regional and national level. This provides an insight into a potential evolutionary change in the research of energy use and demand reduction in existing housing. Il est procédé à une évaluation des capacités de recherche et des programmes de financement actuels du Royaume-Uni dans le domaine de la consommation d'énergie et de la réduction de la demande énergétique dans les logements existants. Le concept d'un modèle de hub satellite est proposé comme voie à suivre pour progresser. Pour définir le contexte, la nature complexe et les difficultés du problème que pose la réalisation de réductions énergétiques effectives dans le logement sont soulignées, et les possibilités de recherche de mesures actuelles et à venir concernant les politiques du logement et de l'énergie sont étudiées. Dans le cadre des mesures et des critères de politique pertinents que les auteurs considèrent comme indispensables pour une recherche rapide et de haute qualité dans le domaine de la réduction de la consommation intérieure d'énergie, il est évalué un éventail de programmes de financement de la recherche récents et en cours, gérés au Royaume-Uni par les Research Councils, les ministères et l'industrie. Enfin, la mise en oeuvre du concept d'un modèle de hub satellite est examinée à travers la structure et le fonctionnement d'un hub satellite de recherche sur la consommation intérieure d'énergie et la rénovation au niveau régional et national. Ceci donne un aperçu des possibilités de changements évolutifs dans la recherche relative à l'utilisation de l'énergie et à la réduction de la demande dans les logements existants. Mots clés: bâtiment, changement climatique, énergie, politique énergétique, logement, politique de recherche, rénovation

The ranking of negative-cost emissions reduction measures

A flaw has been identified in the calculation of the cost-effectiveness in marginal abatement cost curves (MACCs). The problem affects “negative-cost” emissions reduction measures—those that produce a return on investment. The resulting ranking sometimes favours measures that produce low emissions savings and is therefore unreliable. The issue is important because incorrect ranking means a potential failure to achieve the best-value outcome. A simple mathematical analysis shows that not only is the standard cost-effectiveness calculation inadequate for ranking negative-cost measures, but there is no possible replacement that satisfies reasonable requirements. Furthermore, the concept of negative cost-effectiveness is found to be unsound and its use should be avoided. Among other things, this means that MACCs are unsuitable for ranking negative-cost measures. As a result, MACCs produced by a range of organizations including UK government departments may need to be revised. An alternative partial ranking method has been devised by making use of Pareto optimization. The outcome can be presented as a stacked bar chart that indicates both the preferred ordering and the total emissions saving available for each measure without specifying a cost-effectiveness.

Lean in UK Government: internal efficiency or customer service?

This article draws on service operations and Lean management in considering the relationship between internal service processes and customer service in public sector organisations. It draws on extensive evidence from two case studies of large UK Government departments to illustrate that whilst public service organisations recognise that methodologies such as Lean improves their internal processes to date they have not linked this to value or customer service. This article presents a model which shows that public service organisations are driven towards internal operations improvement due to the efficiency agenda leading to a process focus, rather than a market driven approach focusing on the customer. This article argues that although this starting point is not necessarily bad in order to sustain improvement after initial gains there is a need to focus on both process and customer. This article therefore contributes and extends the discussion on the adaptation of Lean for a public sector context.

Alcohol Misuse Y91 Coding in ICD-11: Rational Terminology and Logical Coding Specifically to Encourage Early Identification and Advice

Alcohol misuse is a common presentation to the Emergency Department (ED). The International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 for alcohol misuse, both under F10 and Y90/Y91, is not straightforward. The practicalities of coding ED attendances reveal an increasing detachment from ICD-10 (currently under review). Early identification [sometimes using blood alcohol concentrations (BACs)] and brief advice (IBA) can reduce unscheduled alcohol-related ED re-attendance. The UK Government Department of Health has implemented use of the terms 'Hazardous Drinking', 'Harmful Drinking' and 'Dependent Drinking' in its Public Service Agreements aimed at reducing harm by alcohol. Simplifying coding might increase IBA usage. We suggest that coding improvements in ICD-11 should update Y91 (currently 'clinical assessment')-with ICD-10 Y90 remaining for BAC to classify a patient's 'alcohol status'. Y90 and Y91 together would indicate the urgency for early IBA and/or speciality referral, aiming to reduce the prevalence of 'Dependent Drinking'.

Guest Editorial: the origins of Understanding Society

Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, is a new household panel survey motivated by the success of longitudinal studies in the UK, and funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) with co-funding from UK government departments. The UK has a diverse and rich portfolio of longitudinal studies including the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), based on 5,500 households, which ran for eighteen years from 1991 and is the predecessor of Understanding Society. The BHPS continues to be a widely used dataset in the UK and internationally, but as the panel matured it was recognised there was a need to look to the future of longitudinal data resources for the coming decades in the UK. The ESRC and the wider academic community saw this as a strategic priority to meet the emerging data needs of the social science and policy-making communities. The ESRC were successful in establishing funding for a new study which would incorporate the existing BHPS sample but with an expanded and ambitious scientific research agenda. What follows is a short description of the study’s development to date to provide the background for the papers included in this special section. In July 2005, the ESRC submitted a pivotal bid to the UK Government's Large Facilities Capital Fund, which typically funds key infrastructural investments across the natural sciences. The success of this bid represented a sea change in funding mechanisms for the social sciences, with the growing recognition that large data sets are the key infrastructural investments for the social sciences, equivalent to laboratories for the natural sciences such as the Large Hadron Collider facility in Geneva. The bid sought funding for a new and much larger household panel study, following a consultation report carried out by Longview, which recommended renewal and major expansion of the BHPS (Martin et al 2004). In May 2006, the then Office for Science and Information agreed funding for the new household panel study. The new UK household longitudinal study (UKHLS), which became known as Understanding Society, was to have the following features: • A longitudinal survey, with at least a 20 year life, of a cross-section of UK households • A sample size of 40,000 households • Innovative methods and types of data collection • A resource facilitating research on a wide variety of issues, involving not just traditional social science but linking to medical and environmental sciences • Data collection starting in 2008

The Management and Use of Social Network Sites in a Government Department

In this paper we report findings from a study of social network site use in a UK Government department. We have investigated this from a managerial, organisational perspective. We found at the study site that there are already several social network technologies in use, and that these: misalign with and problematize organisational boundaries; blur boundaries between working and social lives; present differing opportunities for control; have different visibilities; have overlapping functionality with each other and with other information technologies; that they evolve and change over time; and that their uptake is conditioned by existing infrastructure and availability. We find the organisational complexity that social technologies are often hoped to cut across is, in reality, something that shapes their uptake and use. We argue the idea of a single, central social network site for supporting cooperative work within an organisation will hit the same problems as any effort of centralisation in organisations. We argue that while there is still plenty of scope for design and innovation in this area, an important challenge now is in supporting organisations in managing what can best be referred to as a social network site 'ecosystem'.

Boundary troubles: working the academic–policy interface

The boundary between academic research and policy making is characterised by at least two different sets of ‘troubles’. This article draws on the author's experience as scientific adviser to a UK government department to highlight the often-problematic relationship between researchers and policy actors, and to tease out conflicting understandings of the value and robustness of different kinds of ‘evidence’. The article assesses the contributions of both governance theory and theories of governmentality to understanding the case material, and challenges the idea that there might be a new settlement between social science and policy that represents a ‘post-ideological’ turn in policy making.

The Relevant Market: An Acceptable Limit to Competition Analysis?

Imagine that an agreement affects two separate markets. In market A, the agreement causes small (but appreciable) consumer welfare losses. In market B, the agreement generates massive consumer welfare benefits, dwarfing the losses in market A. Should one aggregate these costs and benefits across markets (‘Aggregate Across Markets’) when assessing the agreement under Article 101, or should one demand that the benefits outweigh the costs in each relevant market?This was one of three themes discussed at a breakfast roundtable that the OFT organised in May 2010. The focus of the debate was a recent OFT paper: OFT, Article 101(3) - A Discussion of Narrow versus Broad Definition of Benefits (OFT Discussion Paper). 23 experts attended, some from other UK competition authorities (the Competition Commission and Ofcom), DG COMP, some UK government departments (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills), academia, businesses and law firms. The OFT compiled a synopsis of the roundtable’s discussion (Synopsis). The OFT Discussion Paper asks whether we should Aggregate Across Markets. The relevant Commission notice says: “The assessment under Article 81(3) [now Article 101(3)] of benefits flowing from restrictive agreements is in principle made within the confines of each relevant market to which the agreement relates.” The OFT Discussion Paper agrees that this is how the law currently stands. It claims that this issue is increasingly important, as two-sided markets become more prevalent. This paper starts with some preliminary observations on the OFT Discussion Paper, Section 2; then it shows that the EU Courts Aggregate Across Markets, so has the Commission, Section 3. Given how much it undermines legal certainty, the Commission needs strong justifications for deviating from the EU Courts’ case law in its guidance. The paper then discusses the advantages of Aggregating Across Markets, Section 4; and the disadvantages, Section 5. Section 6 concludes that, in addition to following the EU Courts’ case law; the arguments in favour of Aggregating Across Markets outweigh those against. I recommend that EU competition authorities that are not already Aggregating Across Markets, should start soon. As the techniques involved are no different from those used when one does not Aggregate Across Markets, decision-makers will easily be able to modify their behavior.This material was first published by Sweet & Maxwell in the European Competition Law Review, 10, 2011 and is reproduced by agreement with the Publishers.