Reports
Alarming findings. Insufficient sleep is costing Japan 2.92 per cent of GDP, the USA 2.28 per cent and the UK 1.86 per cent, estimates this report. This is largely due to less worker productivity (equaling six working days per year). If employees are averaging less than six hours per night, mortality rates increase up to 13 per cent. Mental health problems are most likely to affect sleep, followed by commuting for longer than an hour, having financial concerns, being male, and separation from a partner. So what’s to be done? There’s a nod to France’s ban on out-of-hours work emails and Arianna Huffington-style napping facilities for employers. On the public health side, promoting exercise, moderating stimulant use including nicotine and introducing later school starts might help. For individuals, good ‘sleep hygiene’ - including using the bed for sleeping and banning devices - and a consistent wake-up time are the top recommendations. RAND Europe
Grid locked. One day late in March, for the first time, peak demand for energy in the UK was below the minimum the previous night. Solar energy had powered the country’s waking routine. On Saturday, no coal power fired the grid for the longest time since the industrial revolution. Energy consumers are leading the way towards distributed energy generation and flexible demand. A drop in the price of solar panels of 90 per cent since 2009, and of batteries of 65 per cent since 2010, mean that within three years it will make more economic sense for some businesses to leave the grid. The signs do not point to an orderly transition. Low prices in the wholesale market necessitate constant government intervention and create a bias towards large-scale energy technologies. Current tariffs encouraged producers to leave the grid, affecting poorer customers, and ultimately large producers who have failed to anticipate the costs of loss of business. Localised spikes in demand will cause brownouts. To do better, the UK could do with an independent energy system designer. A change in thinking is needed where we see small scale technologies as assets, rather than risks, to the grid where it comes to balancing demand. Where peak pricing is used to encourage system-friendly energy usage, it needs to be backed up by support for automated technology so consumers aren’t having to constantly manage their household energy consumption. Green Alliance
Bring the bill. For Parliament to function during Brexit, pass the necessary legislation and perform proper scrutiny requires a few special measures. First, let’s not mess around with the Great Repeal Bill - it’s “plausible” that it could have royal assent early next year. “Thousands of pages of statutes” David Davis estimates will need attention, and the Cabinet Office needs to prioritise, coordinate and schedule the passage of secondary legislation. It will be up to civil service policy teams and departmental lawyers to draft this, but if departments can work together to put it front of Parliament in an orderly way that would be a blessing. Confining this legislative tinkering to administrative issues will prevent time-consuming debates on the floor of the House. For large policy changes, such as new immigration and customs systems, new primary legislation is needed - around 10-15 bills may be required. Given that most Queen’s Speeches announce 20 bills, a lot of current business will need to be shelved, and parliamentarians will need to think carefully about how they can contribute effectively to scrutiny. Institute for Government
Not dinosaurs. Compared to similar-sized private companies, local councils will tend to have more business operations - 600-700 for a large metropolitan borough. They still provide 80 per cent of local public services. That’s why digital transformation holds a lot of promise, but in many authorities IT is a non-strategic function. A survey of 808 councillors, however, found 373 enthusiasts for big data, automation and technologically-driven change to services. 118 are sceptics, but 113 called themselves digital ‘champions’. Rather than adopting specific digital strategies, elements seem to be integrated into customer or modernisation strategies. Cabinet members are the most likely proponents, with little evidence of leadership from the top. To keep this agenda moving, a significant proportion of councillors want digital transformation written into devolution deals - alongside central government support to make it happen. LGiU
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