UNISON, the largest public sector union, has called out its members on selective strikes in the thirty two London Boroughs. The action, which the union claims will hit a variety of services and may continue for a month, is timed to coincide with a meeting with the employers on the London weighting claim.Currently, London weighting in the boroughs is between 1,500 and 2,850 pounds. In July 2001 the union lodged a claim for 4,000 pounds weighting for all council staff, to alleviate the excessive cost of living and working in the capital. In response to the union claim Councils have recently offered an increase of 201 pounds per annum, but only for staff earning up to 14,796 pounds.

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The Home Office is developing its first e-crime strategy to detect and deter criminals from widening their activities into the rapidly developing areas of new technology. It is working with law enforcement agencies and industry to put a strategy together by February 2004.New and developing technologies present widespread opportunities for criminals. New technology is being used for old crimes such as fraud and paedophilia. For example mobile phones allow criminals to impersonate people in ways that are not possible with land lines. They are using high-tech means to evade the law and commit serious crimes, on both a national and international level. New e-crimes range from hacking, cracking, individuals who propagate computer viruses, worms, trojan horses through to denial of service attacks. This is where a website or individual’s user account is overwhelmed with actions, such as e-mails, in a deliberate attempt to overload and disable it.

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The improvement process in local government is being supported through the Capacity Building Programme that has a budget of 27 million pounds. The programme includes helping councils to develop the mix of skills and expertise needed to take advantage of the greater freedoms and flexibilities and new powers available through the Local Government Bill. It has been developed around the key themes of: peer support; support for improvement planning, leadership and change management, recruitment and retention, middle management development, making the best use of scarce skills; and support for District Councils. The paper sets out what facilities are available now and how councils can make use of them.Published by The Local Government Association and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and available at
<http://www.local-regions.odpm.gov.uk/capacity/prospectus/pdf/capacity.pdf>

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