This Guide from the Centre for Public Scrutiny aims to join up patient and public involvement in health. It clarifies the distinct roles of the Committees and the Patient and Public Involvement Forums. It also suggests ways that the Committees can work with the Forums to maximise their influence on decisions about health and healthcare.The guide is part of the package of measures to provide further support for patient and public involvement that was announced by the Minister for Health Services, Rosie Winterton, in March. Other parts of the package include reducing the number of Forums and creating a “resource centre” for patient and public involvement.

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More money is being made available to public sector bodies in Wales to help them reduce and recycle waste. An extra 122,000 pounds funding has been announced by the Welsh Assembly Government on top of 100,000 pounds announced last year.The money will ensure the continuation of schemes that are already in place, such as publicity and training, and allow further developments, including a capital fund for bids for recycling equipment.

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Environmental campaigners are naming the local councils that they say are ‘wasting the countryside’, by allowing new housing developments to be built at too low densities or that make inadequate use of previously developed ‘brownfield’ land.The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England today publishes an in-depth analysis of new Government data to identify those councils which, it says, are making developers use land efficiently – and those that are failing to do so. The findings come as the Government has begun consultations on changes to the planning system to ensure local authorities take account of housing demand when looking at development plans.

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