Housing and Council Tax Benefits Administration in England: A Long-Term Perspective on the Performance of the Local Government Delivery System

The Coalition government announced, in 2010, that between 2013 and the end of 2017 all existing claims to income-based welfare allowances, including housing benefit, would gradually move to the Universal Credit (DWP 2010). This article evaluates the performance of the Council Tax and Housing Benefits Administration Services under the current system for the delivery of these benefits since they were transferred fully to local authorities in 1993 up until December 2011. During this period the performance of local government has been influenced by four successive national delivery regimes, namely: Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT); Best Value; Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) and Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA). An earlier article (Murphy, P., Greenhalgh, K. and Jones, M., 2011. Comprehensive performance assessment and public services improvement in England – a case study of the benefits administration service in local government. Local Government Studies, 37 (6), pp. 579–599) examined the CPA period in detail and found a significant improvement in performance across all types of authorities in all parts of the country during this period. The current article complements this earlier analysis and provides a longer-term perspective on the performance of the benefits service between 1993 and December 2011. The findings of this article show that under CCT the performance of the system was poor, there were wide variations in individual local authority performance, with many acknowledged inadequacies in the system and unacceptably high levels of fraud. However, towards the end of CCT and in the subsequent Best Value period the antecedents of some of the tools and techniques subsequently used to drive improvement in the CPA era were either put in place or were being developed. The Best Value period itself did not show significant improvements in performance and it was not until many of the initiatives were refined, developed and applied within the CPA framework that sustained and significant improvements became evident. This overall improvement generally continued under the CAA although the previous trend of consistent reductions in the variation between authorities’ performance had changed between 2009–2010 and 2011–2012. It is too early to judge whether these latest trends will be maintained under the Coalition government’s localism regime.     

The attribution of responsibility in cases of stalking

There is a general belief that stranger stalkers present the greatest threat to the personal safety of victims, despite national victimisation surveys and applied research demonstrating that ex-partner stalkers are generally more persistent and violent. The just-world hypothesis offers a possible explanation for this apparent contradiction. The current research used nine hypothetical scenarios, administered to 328 university students, to investigate the assumptions that underlie attributions of responsibility in cases of stalking. It explores whether these assumptions are consistent with the proposed mechanisms of the just-world hypothesis, and whether they vary according to the nature of the perpetrator–victim relationship and conduct severity. Thematic analysis revealed that the victim was perceived to be more responsible for the situation when the perpetrator was portrayed as an ex-partner rather than a stranger or acquaintance. Furthermore, victims were perceived to be more responsible when the perpetrator's behaviour was persistent and threatening. These findings are discussed in the context of the just-world hypothesis and related to the proposed mechanisms by which a person can reinterpret a situation so that the perceived injustice disappears.     

Analysis of motivation in people with mild learning disabilities (mental handicap) who set fires

Abstract

Ten people with mild learning disabilities (mild mental handicap) who had all set rues and had been admitted to a hospital facility for people with challenging behaviours were interviewed about their perceptions of events, feelings and cognitions prior to and after setting fins. They were also asked to rate their excitement/upset in a series of fire-related situations. Results showed that people could identify reliably the events, feelings and cognitions prior to fire-setting but were less reliable at identifying consequences. Most commonly, people had felt angry prior to setting fires but it was also common to feel not listened to, sad or depressed. Multiple factors were relevant for most people. Some people identified the excitement of the rue as relevant and these people gave the highest ratings on the fire-related situations schedule and scored higher than controls on this schedule. Implications for treatment are discussed.     

‘It lets out all my demons’: Female young offenders' perceptions about the impact of alcohol on their offending behaviour

The paper reports on findings from 55 qualitative face-to-face interviews with young offenders, and observations of 41 youth offender panel meetings over an 18-month period taking place in two Youth Offending Teams in the Southeast of England. It discusses the perception of correlation between drunkenness and offending asserted by a high number of the female offenders and compares this to perceptions of male offenders, both in this research and from previous research studies. The research brings into question whether current interventions are effective and puts forward suggestions for capitalizing on the apparent greater willingness of female offenders to acknowledge the significant negative impact of drunkenness on their behaviour.     

Environmental Affordances and Children in Post-conflict Belfast

This paper examines the experiences of children in post-conflict Belfast as peace and social change afford new opportunities at the same time as they regulate behaviours and spatial practices. Theoretically and empirically it draws on the concept of environmental affordances in order to map the experiences of 11-year-old children in separate inner-city segregated and middle-class communities. Whilst the recession has affected the pace of urban restructuring, children in the expanding mixed and largely middle-class city extract multiple advantages from their area in ways not available to segregated communities. The paper concludes by highlighting the implications for effective listening strategies in the management of divided communities.     

Spacing commemorative-related violence in Northern Ireland: assessing the implications for a society in transition

This paper explores the geography of commemorative-related violence in Northern Ireland and considers its ramifications for a society in transition. Using original primary research, this article contributes to discussions on violence, space and memory through a spatial analysis of new quantitative archival data and existing archival material explored through a multi-disciplinary lens. It examines the complex relationship between the practices and processes of commemoration, the violence that it sometimes occasions and the places in which such violence exists. In unpacking this specific form of violence we consider the continued importance of both place and past in a post-conflict society.     

Fair trade slippages and Vietnam gaps: the ideological fantasies of fair trade coffee

Fair trade coffee sales have boomed since the late 1980s, making it one of the most recognised forms of ‘ethical consumerism’ in the world. Around the same time exports of lower quality coffee beans from Vietnam also boomed, launching Vietnam from an insignificant coffee exporter to the world’s second largest with historically unprecedented speed. These disparate projects have had significant impacts on thousands of farmers – with Vietnam’s new class of coffee producers representing three and a half times the number of coffee families certified by fair trade. Northern actors, however, have given far more public and positive attention to fair trade. This article will argue that this difference does not stem from a strictly objective appraisal of the relative merits and shortcomings of each project, but from the compatibility of fair trade with ‘free trade’ and its emotionally charged ideological fantasies. This includes unconscious beliefs and desires around individualism, voluntarism, democracy and the affirmation of the exaggerated power of Northern consumers – as opposed to the Southern agency and complicated collective action implied by Vietnamese coffee statecraft.     

Challenging the Ongoing Injustice of Imprisonment for Public Protection: James,Wells and Lee v The United Kingdom

The Government has recently abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection, a highly controversial form of indeterminate sentence. Yet, at the time of writing, nearly 6,000 inmates are still serving such sentences, all of whom will have to convince a Parole Board that detention is no longer necessary for the protection of the public. This paper evaluates recent European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence which considered the legality of post‐tariff detention in the absence of suitable rehabilitative provision. The Court held that there would be a violation of Article 5(1) if prisoners were held without access to such provision. Consideration is given to the implications of this ruling for those serving such sentences and, more broadly, to the impact it may have on risk‐based sentencing policies.     

Residential real estate brokerage services under attack in Canada

If Canada’s Competition Bureau gets its way, there will be greater competition in the residential real estate brokerage business, commission rates will fall and the public will have enhanced access to the Multiple Listing Service. To this end, the Bureau announced on 8 February 2010 that a notice of application would be filed with the Competition Tribunal challenging the way the Canadian Real Estate Association conducts business. The association filed its response six weeks later. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this action, it is safe to say that the face of Canadian residential real estate brokerage services will never be the same. Commonwealth Law Bulletin editorial advisory board member Gavin Murphy explains.     

Gorr on actus reus

Advances in forensic techniques have expanded the temporal horizon of criminal investigations, facilitating investigation of historic crimes that would previously have been considered unsolvable. Public enthusiasm for pursuing historic crimes is exemplified by recent high-profile trials of celebrities accused of historic sexual offences. These circumstances give new urgency to the question of how we should decide which historic offences to investigate. A satisfactory answer must take into account the ways in which the passage of time can erode the benefits of criminal investigation, the costs associated with investigating old crimes, and the need to prioritize investigations in the face of limited police resources. This article emphasizes the first of these factors. It begins by considering the moral goals of a criminal justice system and the contribution of criminal investigations to the achievement of these goals, distinguishing between contributions that depend on further steps in the criminal justice process, such as prosecution and punishment, and contributions that can have value independently of these further steps. Using this important distinction, the article then examines a range of factors that relate the passage of time to criminal justice goals, including the seriousness of the crime; deterioration of evidence; death of the offender, victim and others affected by the crime; and diminished psychological connectedness between those affected by the crime and their current selves. While the range and non-uniformity of relevant factors preclude a simple answer to the question of when historic crimes should be investigated and call instead for case-by-case assessment, we find that the analysis does support some general conclusions that can guide such an assessment.