Tag: meerkats

Meerkat’s Out of the Bag! Cheeky creatures coming to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital

Children at an Edinburgh hospital will soon be learning important conservation lessons from some very unusual teachers – a mob of meerkats based in an outdoor classroom within the grounds!

The first programme of its kind outside of Australia, the meerkats from The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Edinburgh Zoo will reside at NHS Lothian’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (RHCYP) and be at the heart of an extensive learning and discovery experience.

Thanks to a partnership between Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC), NHS Lothian and RZSS, the inquisitive creatures will give young patients, particularly those staying long term, the opportunity to learn all about nature and the environment.

Edinburgh Zoo currently delivers a weekly programme of educational activities at the RHCYP, including projects on penguins, pandas and tigers, all of which encourage children to think about their place in the world and the importance of wildlife within it.

The meerkat enclosure will replicate their natural habitat and zookeepers from Edinburgh Zoo will care for them and provide meerkat educational sessions while on site.

Roslyn Neely, CEO of ECHC, said: “Some children are too unwell or have been in hospital for so long that they don’t have the opportunity to engage with the outdoors, or interact with animals.

“Many of the children who visit the hospital care passionately about nature and the environment. Our programme will allow them to learn from experts while getting up close to the best teachers of all – the meerkats themselves.

“The wellbeing benefits of engaging with animals and using nature in the healing process are well documented, and there’s great excitement within the hospital in anticipation of our furry friends arriving.”

David Field, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said, “Our conservation education programme has already been a great success and now we are taking this incredible next step by creating the only meerkat enclosure at a children’s hospital outside of Australia, making this a first in the UK and Europe.

“Being close to nature and animals can have a tremendous impact on people’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. We also know that people and communities are more likely to help protect nature when they have had the opportunity to connect with our natural world.

“We are really looking forward to bringing a group of meerkats to live at the hospital next year and seeing the impact this will have for the children and their families.”

Allister Short, Service Director, Women’s and Children’s, NHS Lothian, said: “We are really excited about this innovative programme coming to the RHCYP.

“Meerkats have been introduced into many children’s hospitals in Australia and this unique concept encourages children to learn and be inspired, particularly when they’re in hospital for long periods of time.

“We want to brighten up our patients’ days in an educational way and we know that the meerkats will be an exciting addition to the RHCYP.”

The programme is currently in the early stages of planning and it is hoped the meerkats will move into their new home at the RHCYP from 2024.

Meerkat misery: big fine for ComparetheMarket

The CMA has fined ComparetheMarket £17.9 million after it found that clauses used in the company’s contracts with home insurers breached competition law.

An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded that, between December 2015 and December 2017, the price comparison website ComparetheMarket breached competition law by imposing wide ‘most favoured nation’ clauses on providers of home insurance selling through its platform.

These clauses prohibited the home insurers from offering lower prices on other comparison websites and protected ComparetheMarket from being undercut elsewhere. They also made it harder for ComparetheMarket’s rivals to expand and challenge the company’s already strong market position as other price comparison websites were restricted from beating it on price.

As a result, competition between price comparison websites, and between home insurers selling through these platforms, was restricted. The CMA found that this is likely to have resulted in higher insurance premiums.

ComparetheMarket’s clauses meant:

  • The insurers bound by the contracts were prohibited from offering cheaper deals on other price comparison websites. In turn, this limited competitive pressures on all home insurers competing on price comparison websites.
  • Rival comparison sites were restricted in gaining a price advantage over ComparetheMarket, for example, by lowering their commission fees to encourage those insurers to quote lower prices on their platforms.
  • The competitive pressures ComparetheMarket itself was subject to were weakened. Without the clauses, it would have had to compete harder to get lower prices from the home insurers, for example by reducing the commission fees it charged.

Michael Grenfell, the CMA’s Executive Director for Enforcement, said: “Price comparison websites are excellent for consumers. They promote competition between providers, offer choice for customers, and make it easier for consumers to find the best bargains.

“It is therefore unacceptable that ComparetheMarket, which has been the largest price comparison site for home insurance for several years, used clauses in its contracts that restricted home insurers from offering bigger discounts on competing websites – so limiting the bargains potentially available to consumers.

“Digital markets can yield great benefits for competition, and therefore for consumers. We are determined to secure those benefits, and to ensure that competition is not illegitimately restricted. Today’s action should come as a warning – when we find evidence that the law has been broken, we will not hesitate to step in and protect consumers.”

Further information on this investigation can be found on the case page.

Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Which?, said: “The actions of ComparetheMarket have fallen well below the standard you’d expect from a company who claims to be working in the best interest of consumers, so it is positive to see the CMA intervening to protect consumers and issuing this large fine.  

“Customers should be able to trust that they can find the best deals when using price comparison sites, and any business found to be flouting the rules should be held to account.”