TODAY (Friday, 21st January 2022) Bob Downes, Chairman of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, has confirmed that following conduct allegations, Terry A’Hearn has stepped down and left his position.
Mr. Downes said: “Following conduct allegations, Terry A’Hearn (above) has stepped down and left his position. SEPA has a clear Code of Conduct and takes conduct allegations very seriously indeed. In order to protect anonymity, SEPA is unable to comment further.”
Mr. Downes confirmed that recruitment for a new Chief Executive would shortly commence and in the interim, Chief Officer Jo Green would be Acting Chief Executive, supported by SEPA’s Agency Management Team.
Legislation to end the harmful practice of setting ‘glue traps’ is to be brought forward by the Scottish Government in order to protect animal welfare.
Glue traps are devices, most commonly but not exclusively, used by professional contractors in food premises, where the use of rodenticide poisons are undesirable due to the risk of poison contamination.
The glue boards work by placing them along areas where rats and mice are likely to frequent; once the animal steps onto the board, it is then firmly stuck to it and is unable to free itself. Once an animal is captured the glue trap can be retrieved and the animal dispatched.
The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) undertook a review of the use of glue traps and concluded that there are significant animal welfare issues related to their use, not only for rodents but also for non-target species such as wild birds.
Given this, the Scottish Government intends to implement a full ban and will seek stakeholders’ views through a consultation, before forward bringing legislation during this parliamentary term.
Environment Minister Mairi McAllan said: “We are committed to maintaining the highest welfare standards in Scotland for animals, including wildlife.
“We have carefully considered the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission’s findings, alongside all other relevant evidence, I am pleased to announce in Parliament today that we intend to end the cruel practice of setting glue traps.
“The Commission’s report is clear that there are significant animal welfare issues related to the use of glue traps, not only for rodents but also for other animals such as wild birds. Therefore, we will bring forward legislation to ban glue traps in this parliamentary term.
“Our intention is to ban the sale as well as the use of glue traps. However, there are implications arising from the Internal Market Act which can undermine decisions made by this Parliament, including in devolved climate and environmental policy. We intend to work through these issues.”
UK government to review and remove train announcements that add unnecessary noise and disruption to journeys
the Department for Transport will ensure train operating companies retain important safety messages and work with accessibility groups so that passengers receive the necessary information
announcement follows the publication of the government’s Plan for Rail, which puts passengers back at the heart of the railways
Quieter train journeys are set to become the norm after the government announced it will identify and remove repetitive and unnecessary onboard announcements on trains in England.
The changes mean that passengers will no longer be bombarded with unnecessary ‘tannoy spam’ that distracts from important safety-critical messaging.
Working closely with the Rail Delivery Group, passenger groups including Transport Focus, and train operators, the Department for Transport (DfT) will identify how the vast number of announcements can be cut or reduced while maintaining vital obligations to ensure train travel remains accessible for all. Messages that play a safety critical role, or that ensure the railways are accessible for all, will remain.
The review will take place over the course of this year, with redundant messages identified and starting to be removed in the coming months.
Banal announcements set to be culled include self-evident instructions, such as having your ticket ready when leaving the station and contradictory calls for passengers to keep volume levels low while onboard announcements blare out. There will also be new curbs on the maximum frequency at which remaining announcements will be heard.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Train passengers are all too often plagued by an endless torrent of repeated and unnecessary announcements.
“In line with the passenger improvements, we are rolling out with our Plan for Rail we want to see improvements to the railways for those who use them day in day out.
“That’s why I’m calling for a bonfire of the banalities to bring down the number of announcements passengers are forced to sit through and make their journey that little bit more peaceful.”
As passengers come back to the railways, DfT will continue to ensure journeys are more comfortable to all users and that passengers continue to receive the important information they need about their journey.
Officials will work with accessibility groups to ensure that access for all is maintained.
The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, launched last year, ‘puts passengers at the heart of the railway’. To improve the comfort and enjoyment of train travel, customer service will be modernised and upgraded across all stations and, on trains, focused on providing passengers with better communication and a more personalised service.
Anthony Smith, Chief Executive of the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: “Passengers will welcome a review intended to cut out unnecessary announcements.
“Transport Focus looks forward to helping with the review so passengers get the information they want, including those with additional accessibility needs.
Jacqueline Starr, CEO of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “We know people want the most relevant and timely messages on their journeys and to help with this, train operators are continuing their work to improve customer information, including cutting unnecessary onboard announcements.
“We’re also going further by asking customers what they want to know and using their responses to plan more useful and consistent announcements across the network, helping people have a better experience travelling by train.”
New research says lack of trust in public sector officials has played a key role in low uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations amongst groups termed “high risk.”
According to research from the Universities of Birmingham and Leeds, vaccine hesitancy was greatest among people from lower socio-economic and/or ethnic minority backgrounds. The researchers recommended that the Government should review public health messaging, with a focus on tailoring health promotion advice to these groups and greater effort in improving trust in public sector and the Government.
The study showed during the period immediately before Britain’s COVID vaccine rollout in December 2020, over 11% of UK adults said they were unwilling to take a COVID vaccine. But this hesitancy wasn’t spread evenly across the population.
It was lowest among white people, with 9% saying they didn’t want a COVID vaccine. In comparison, 50% of Black people said they didn’t want to receive the vaccine, and hesitancy was also high in other non-white groups: 28% of South Asian and 17% of other Asian respondents said they were unwilling to be vaccinated.
Dr Kausik Chaudhuri, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Leeds University Business School and lead author of the study said: “Our study shows that hesitancy is at least partly driven by people feeling disenfranchised by the state or not trusting government personnel.
“When we analysed data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we found that participants who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that “public officials don’t care”, or who felt that they “don’t have a say in what government does”, were least likely to want to get vaccinated.
“It is worth noting that their responses were not based on how the government had been managing the pandemic. Rather, they can be interpreted as a reflection of peoples’ overall faith in public institutions, irrespective of COVID.”
Even though rates of declared vaccine hesitancy have since fallen, the research paper suggests that the general trends have been borne out over the past year across every age group: COVID vaccine uptake has been highest among white people and lowest among Black people, with the difference often a sizable gap of around 20 percentage points.
Among those eligible for the vaccine, the uptake of booster doses has also been low among non-white groups.
The research also showed that:
Clinically-vulnerable respondents were more willing to take a COVID jab.
Self-employed people were less willing to get vaccinated compared to employed people.
Respondents who said that they felt positive about their financial wellbeing were almost three times as likely to be willing to take a vaccine compared to those felt they were just getting by or struggling.
Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, Professor of Economics from the University of Birmingham and co-author of the study (above) says: “Building trust in the public sector and government are essential to improving uptake amongst groups who are most at risk from COVID.
“Public sector officials along with government need to look at new and innovative ways to engage with citizens as well as be transparent in their communication to refute fake news related to vaccines.
“Similarly, it is imperative that politicians and officials maintain high ethical standards during times of emergency like the pandemic when there is reduced oversight. It hasn’t helped in the UK where we see news of parties being held at Downing Street in the middle of lockdowns along with reports of the government breaking the law in the awarding of PPE contracts which has only lowered public trust in officials.
“During a period when new COVID-19 variants are on the horizon, the focus should be on clear public health messages around vaccination, rather than what is making headlines in this regard.”
“Shameful shambles” of DWP’s long term underpayment of state pensioners with “little interest” in consequences
The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) estimates it has underpaid 134,000 pensioners, mostly women, over £1 billion of their State Pension entitlement, with some of the errors dating as far back as 1985.
In January 2021, DWP started an official exercise to correct the errors, the ninth such exercise since 2018. The errors, which mostly affect widows, divorcees and women who rely on their husband’s pension contributions for some of their pension entitlement, happened because of the Department’s use of outdated systems and heavily manual processing. Small errors that were not recognised each time added up over years to significant sums of money.
DWP will only contact pensioners when it finds through these exercises that they have been underpaid, and admits that many more are not receiving their due – these “risk missing out on significant sums”, with “little guidance for those currently claiming State Pension who are concerned that they have been underpaid” and people left “in the dark over their entitlement”.
There is currently no formal plan for contacting the next of kin where a pensioner who was underpaid is now deceased.
DWP is only paying those it has identified as having a legal entitlement to arrears, in some cases many years after the event, and has been inconsistent in paying interest. It has shown little interest in understanding the further knock-on consequences, including on social care provision, for those it underpaid.
Fixing DWP’s mistakes itself comes at great cost to the taxpayer – expected to cost £24.3 million in staff costs alone by the end of 2023. Experienced, specialised staff have been moved away from business-as-usual and as a result DWP is already experiencing backlogs in processing new applications.
The risk remains that the errors that led to underpayments in the first place will be repeated in the correction exercise, if not also in new claims.
Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “For decades DWP has relied on a State Pension payment system that is clunky and required staff to check many databases – and now some pensioners and the taxpayer are paying in spades.
“Departments that make errors through maladministration have a duty to put those it wronged back in the position they should have been. In reality DWP can never make up what people have really lost, over decades, and in many cases it’s not even trying. An unknown number of pensioners died without ever getting their due and there is no current plan to pay back their estates.
“DWP is now on its ninth go at fixing these mistakes since 2018, the specialised staff diverted to fix this mess costing tens of millions more to the taxpayer and predictable consequences of delays in new pension claims. And there is no assurance that the errors that led to these underpayments in the first place will not be repeated in the correction exercise.
“This is a shameful shambles. The PAC expects DWP to set out the step changes it will make to ensure it is among the last.”
Learning new things: where and how would you want to do it?
If you were looking to learn something new – whether it’s to get a job, for a hobby or just because you fancy it – where would you want to do it? At home? In a local school or community centre? With a local employer or community group? Online?
We’re working with our Granton Waterfront regeneration partners to find out what people living in the area think about learning – why is learning important to you?
How does it affect you and your life? What you would like to learn about? How do you learn best? What things help you learn? What things make it harder to learn?
Please give us your answers on our online questionnaire:
An NHS Lothian staff member has received his MBE at the Palace of Holyroodhouse for his voluntary work with mountain rescue teams.
Stephen Penny, 61, has worked with NHS Lothian as a training advisor and lead for volunteer responders within the Lifelines team at the Rivers Centre since 2021. Lifelines helps support the physical and mental wellbeing of volunteer and emergency responders.
Stephen, who is married to Sarah and is a dad of three, lives in the Scottish Borders and has been a mountain rescue volunteer for over 30 years with Scottish Mountain Rescue and Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team.
Stephen said: “You can’t volunteer as a responder without the support of your family and at yesterday’s MBE investiture at the Palace of Holyroodhouse Sarah was beside me all the way through – just like over the years of volunteering.
“I grew up in a rural area and it’s always been important for me to give something to my community. I was inspired to join mountain rescue after meeting some volunteers at an emergency services open day.
“My greatest sense of achievement comes from knowing you’ve helped someone in their time of need. I’ve found that the skills you learn from being a mountain rescue volunteer also have a lot of value in other aspects of your life, including in your day job.”
Stephen was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 2019 but, due to pandemic restrictions, was not able to receive this until now.
Sixty years before, in 1959, Stephen’s grandfather received an MBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his efforts during and after World War Two, as well as his voluntary work as a special constable.
Stephen said: “Community was really important to my dad and grandfather, and they instilled this in me. It was an honour to be given an MBE, especially sixty years after my grandfather received his.”
Gill Moreton, Lifelines lead for NHS Lothian, said: “Stephen brings a wealth of knowledge to his role at Lifelines, including his lengthy and extensive volunteering experience with mountain rescue. The Lifelines and Rivers teams are delighted for Stephen as he finally receives his MBE.”
As we enter into a new year, cyber crime continues to threaten businesses. Cyber attacks cost the global economy an estimated $6 trillion USD in 2021, and the costs are predicted to increase for 2022.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, hackers have been quick to exploit the growth in home working practices. Small businesses also reported an increase in attacks, and with 60% closing within six months of falling victim to a data breach, establishing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy has never been more important.
Anthony Green, CTO and cyber crime expert at FoxTech, discusses what businesses should watch out for in the coming year: “In 2022, with many organisations implementing flexible working policies, and bringing personal devices into the office, it’s important to understand how cyber attackers might continue to exploit our changing working practices.
“It is often easier for attackers to breach home network devices, so when personal devices are being used to access company data at home, or brought into the office and connected to company networks, it can expose their system to hackers searching for vulnerabilities to exploit. With hybrid working policies expanding companies’ cyber risk, it’s vital to be aware of what the threats are, and how to prevent attackers gaining access.”
To help businesses plan their cybersecurity strategies, FoxTech has put together a guide to the top predicted cybersecurity threats for 2022, and what organisations can do to protect themselves:
Ransomware
Ransomware was the defining force of cyber attacks in 2021. Hackers infiltrate a system, steal sensitive data and demand a ransom for its return. Ransomware attacks surged by 144% in 2021 from the previous year, and the problem is only expected to develop in 2022.
Anthony comments: “A spate of high-profile ransomware attacks in 2021 has led many organisations to review their cyber risk controls and implement more effective strategies against data loss.
“While this might make it more difficult for cyber criminals to mount traditional ransomware attacks in the short term, attackers are incredibly agile, so we are expecting their strategies to shift in the coming year”
“To prevent your business from falling foul to a ransomware attack, there are two things to consider:
Preventing an attacker from gaining network access – investing in an external security assessment is the most reliable way to discover your vulnerabilities. Cybersecurity experts can then configure your security tools to protect you from the latest methods of attack.
Catching an attacker before it’s too late – it can take months for an attacker to gather the data they need to demand a ransom. Working with an external, specialised cybersecurity company that can monitor your system and quickly alert you to any suspicious activity can be the difference between a minor incident and devastating financial loss.
“Constant systems monitoring – by someone who is aware of developments in attackers’ tactics – will be more important than ever, as cyber criminals are looking for new ways to circumvent security operations. Currently, businesses are subject to 10,000 attempted attacks a day, but it often takes months for hackers to infiltrate an organisation’s most well-protected data. Catching a threat straight away, and acting quickly to mitigate the effects of a breach, will prevent attackers from stealing enough sensitive data to deliver a ransom.”
Phishing
Over 75% of cyber attacks start with someone opening a malicious email. These emails are designed to extract data from the recipient, usually a password, which is used to gain further access to an organisation’s network. Once an account takeover has been successful, hackers are able to mount more sophisticated attacks.
So how can businesses protect themselves from phishing scams?
Anthony comments: “Security awareness training is essential. Only 14% of UK companies perform cybersecurity awareness training, but educating employees on how to spot phishing scams is crucial.
“Things such as shortened links, an impersonal address, or anyone asking for private information, can all indicate that an email is not legitimate, even if it appears to come from a trusted source.”
The NCSC provides free security awareness training available here:
It is also imperative to set up Two Factor Authentication on email accounts and ensure the secure configuration of your email service.
Business Email Compromise Attack
In 2022, when so much business will be conducted through online conversations between remote workers, organisations need to be aware of business email compromise attack – also known as ‘conversation hijacking.’ These attacks are well-researched, and highly personalised, making them difficult to detect and very effective.
This kind of attack usually comes once access has been gained through a phishing attempt. A hacker reads through breached emails to learn as much as they can about business practice and payment details.
Next, they will use this information to craft seemingly authentic messages which can be sent to both employees and customers, with the aim of tricking them to transfer money or update their payment information.
“A scam that we are seeing more and more frequently is when a hacker impersonates an organisation’s CEO to redirect large payments to their own accounts,” says Anthony.
“Once this money has been lost, it is almost impossible to retrieve, so it really is crucial to prevent hackers gaining access in the first place – and to have your accounts frequently and carefully monitored by cybersecurity experts who can spot an intruder before the final attack has been mounted.”
Chief Executive Officer Anne Gibson to elevate reputation and leverage growth
Secondary breast cancer charity Makes 2nds Count is off to a flying start in 2022 with the appointment of a dynamic Chief Executive Officer.
Accomplished in leadership roles across a range of sectors, Anne Gibson brings a wealth of Third Sector experience and will support further growth as Make 2nds Count continues to champion research and education in the field of what is often regarded as the forgotten cancer.
The disease – also known as metastatic, advanced or stage IV breast cancer – is an incurable cancer that has spread beyond the breast to other parts of the body. It can be treated but, on average, there are around 35,000 patients in the UK living with secondary breast cancer and the death toll here is a shocking 1000 women a month.
Anne Gibson will lead development of a three-year strategic plan to elevate the charity’s reputation as a key player in improving quality of life for patients through its research activities, supporting patients and families and enhancing awareness of the disease.
She has worked in leadership roles across local and national government, the Third Sector and the independent care and education sectors. She was an HM Inspector of Education and has worked in partnership with the Care Inspectorate and with Audit Scotland.
Her skills and expertise include organisational development, continuous improvement, quality assurance, building leadership, community engagement and participation and developing partnership. Anne currently sits on a number of Boards including a non-executive Director role with NHS 24.
Anne said: “The most important thing we can give to patients and their loved ones is hope.
“Make 2nds Count is already making a tangible difference to those living with the disease, and their families, through its inspiring support and research initiatives. However, more education, support and research is still needed and I’m delighted to be part of such a passionate team with huge aspirations to deliver that this year.”
Make 2nds Count founder Lisa Fleming, 38, of Edinburgh, says: “Having Anne on board will be transformational for us as we drive the charity forward and evolve.
“Her appointment is just the most exciting start to what we predict will be a very constructive year for us. We’ve already come so far but we look forward to achieving so much more in 2022.”
Lisa set up Make 2nds Count after discovering she had both primary and secondary breast cancer. She had had no previous breast cancer diagnosis, warning signs or lump when she was told the disease had already spread to the majority of her bones. It swiftly spread to her brain and she continues to live with the disease – knowing it is also a death sentence.
As we enter this third week of the new year, many of us will be considering how we can maintain the heart-healthy habits we started at the beginning of 2022.
Staying motivated can be particularly challenging, especially during the winter months, however research indicates that if we are able to maintain a habit for around 66 days, it can turn from a short-term to a long-term habit.
To help you reach your goals over the coming months, here are some tips for increasing success:
Set a Goal
One of the most important things we can do for our motivation is set a goal. It helps us to focus on the future and gives us something to aim for. Remember to make your goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART).
Challenge Your Thinking
Next time you find yourself shying away from a positive habit such as exercising or cooking a healthy meal, consider if the thoughts you are having about the task are logical or helpful.
For example, instead of saying “I don’t have time to cook”, you may say to yourself “I don’t have as much time as I would like, but I can still make something quick and healthy”.
Set Cues
Setting reminders or cues for ourselves can increase our chances of success.
Try taking out your sports kit the night before a run or setting an alarm to move once per hour.
Track your Progress
Tracking progress can be a great way to see the improvements we make, which can increase our motivation to continue.
You can use apps such as MyFitnessPal, or even a simple spreadsheet to track weight loss, running times or the number of vegetables you eat per day!
Pair Up
Forming a habit with a friend or family member can be a great way to increase accountability and share success!
