The Government is considering bringing in legislation that would mean hospitals and local authority and privately run care and nursing homes having to comply with a statutory hygiene code. The Health Secretary, John Reid, has opened discussions on the idea with health and social care regulators.News of the move came as new figures showed the number of cases of the MRSA infection – the so-called superbug – had fallen in England by just over six per cent on last year’s level and now stands, on average, at the lowest point since mandatory recording began.

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Planners with an interest in sustainable communities will soon be able to access up to date training via their desktop computers. The University of the West of England, in Bristol, has won a contract to create a new course in spatial planning in line with Government policies on sustainable development.The University’s Faculty of the Built Environment has been given a quarter of a million pounds of Government funding to develop the course, which will be delivered by distance learning to existing planners as part of their continuous professional development. It will mean that for the first time planners who want to enhance their skills in key areas will not have to attend a college or university.

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By David G. Green, Emma Grove and Nadia MartinThe authors compare the policing methods of Britain, France, Germany and the USA. They argue that, in spite of the fact that they have very different policing traditions, the USA, France and Germany have all made a more effective job of combating rising crime than Britain. They identify increases in different types of crime over varying periods from 1893. In 1921, there were 57,000 police officers dealing with 103,000 crimes. In 2002/2003 there were 134,000 police officers dealing with 5,899,000 crimes. The reason for the striking success of policing in New York and other US cities is that have adopted the Broken Windows approach to crime and anti-social behaviour where the police pay attention to low-level acts of disorder, and deal with them before they create an environment in which the anti-social elements feel in control.

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