A new working group has begun looking at the best ways to implement local government reorganisation if regional assemblies are set up in the North West of England, the North East or Yorkshire and the Humber. The reorganisation will happen only if there is a ‘yes’ vote in referendums on regional government to be held later this year.The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which chairs the new group, is stressing that its establishment in no way pre-empts any referendum result but that it is a forward planning measure to ensure that if people in any of the regions back regional assemblies the necessary reorganisation of local government can take place with the fewest possible problems.

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Most young people want the government to be tougher on crime, including taking a stronger stand against drugs, and they want better education for all but do not trust the present government to deliver improved standards in state schools.These are among the wide-ranging findings of The Young People’s Survey of Great Britain published today. It has been commissioned by “Bliss” magazine and is said to be the largest and most comprehensive national survey of how young people feel about themselves the Government, crime, education, the Royal Family, Europe and many other topics. The study involved a wide cross-section of 5,000 young people, with an average age of 15 from all parts of the United Kingdom.

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E-commerce is changing business practices on a global scale and public services are moving rapidly into electronic procurement. This White Paper explains how the Improvement and Development Agency’s IDeA Marketplace and Oracle’s iProcurement system can work together to satisfy the total procurement, financial accounting and reporting requirements of a council. Each of the two systems can provide significant benefits to a council seeking to modernize it’s procurement processes. It is the view of both the IDeA and Oracle that the full benefits of eProcurement are most likely to be unlocked by combining the two systems in a collaborative, integrated procurement solution.The IdeA Marketplace incorporates an electronic catalogue within an end-to-end integrated e-procurement system. It allows suppliers that are not fully e-enabled to display their catalogues online and penetrate the market, without full systems integration as well as accommodating suppliers with more advanced systems. Oracle’s eBusiness Suite includes Financials, Purchasing, and eProcurement.

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