Government
- Plans to shake up the way the government combats terrorism have been put on ice until Tony Blair leaves Downing Street, senior Whitehall officials said yesterday. The prime minister was sent proposals before Christmas by John Reid, the home secretary. They included a plan to split the Home Office into a ministry for national security and a separate ministry of justice. http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2013423,00.html
- A national road pricing scheme will not solve Britain's congestion problems and the Department for Transport is incapable of pushing through the policy, a committee of MPs said yesterday. The Commons transport committee said its scathing report on the DfT's performance last year was a "terrible picture of failure". It gave mild support to a road pricing scheme, but warned that the DfT lacked the leadership and coherent thinking needed to implement such a policy. http://www.guardian.co.uk/cars/story/0,,2013329,00.html
- Ministers were criticised yesterday after a campaign to target thousands of criminals who have failed to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in fines was cancelled. Operation Payback was due to be launched at the end of last month, with a series of radio and television advertisements warning people: "Fine dodgers: we are coming to collect." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/15/ndodgers15.xml
- The Government spent almost £137 million on advertising last year, more than Marks & Spencer and Tesco combined. Only soap powder giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever spent more on advertising last year, according to advertising industry figures. Whitehall spent millions of pounds advertising about everything from Labour's flagship tax credits to campaigns to help people to give up smoking. Its budget was well ahead of the £67 million and £66 million spent by Tesco and Marks & Spencer respectively. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/15/nbrown115.xml
- Business leaders were divided last night over the merits of Tony Blair's plan to persuade them to dig into their pockets and help ease a university funding crisis by promising the Government will provide an extra £1 for every £2 they donate. There were no immediate offers to pledge from senior executives contacted by The Daily Telegraph. Many are already supporting their alma mater either with time or money, and prefer to do it privately rather than publicly. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/02/15/cngrant15.xml
- The lord chancellor has given the clearest signal yet that the government will press ahead with a law to allow police to question suspects after they have been charged. At the moment questioning of suspects must stop once charges have been brought, but police chiefs, backed by the Crown Prosecution Service and the security services, feel the new power would be invaluable in cases where huge amounts of evidence are gathered, often in encrypted computer files. http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,2013394,00.html
Olympics
- The construction company that will build the Olympic stadium has priced the job at more than double the budget planned when London was awarded the Games. London's bid book quoted a £280m cost for the stadium but Sir Robert McAlpine, the Olympic Development Authority's preferred bidder, says the cost will be more like £630m. The government and the ODA have conceded that to build an arena capable of downsizing from an 80,000-seat showpiece to a 25,000-capacity athletics venue after the Games would inflate the original price, but still envisaged a final cost of no more than £400m. http://sport.guardian.co.uk/london2012/story/0,,2013454,00.html