By Mark Sandford Reproduced by permission of the Public Management and Policy Association. With the prospect of Assemblies for the English regions drawing near, attention is focused on what impact they could make. The author draws on the lessons from the Greater London Authority for insights on the influence on public policy, despite little executive power and limited spending ability.

More than half the Crown Courts in England and Wales now have new IT infrastructure to speed up the handling of cases. A total of 57 courts are now equipped with technology to allow them to communicate more effectively with victims and witnesses and the wider Criminal Justice System.The systems have been installed as part of a three-year project, called LINK, part of a 300 million pound programme to use IT to improve services and promote confidence in the system. The project is on time and running within budget, which means it will see a further 53 courts being wired and fitted with modern desktop and e-mail systems over the next two years.

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A million children growing up in overcrowded, unfit or emergency housing are suffering from serious health problems and poor education and their futures are being blighted, according to the homeless charity Shelter.It has announced the biggest campaign in its history with the aim of ending the devastating impact of the housing crisis on children in Britain. The campaign was launched with the publication of “Toying With Their Future”, a report that reveals for the first time that more a million children living in sub-standard homes or emergency housing are subject to serious illness and deprivation.

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