Policy Announcements, Thursday 15 February

Government

• The Prime Minister and Minister for Higher Education Bill Rammell announced a substantial boost to help increase voluntary giving to English Higher Education providers, making them more financially independent. The government is to provide £200 million over three years for a matched-funding scheme to support English universities in their fundraising efforts. The scheme is intended to stimulate additional private cash donations to the sector of over £400 million - meaning £600 million in total could be generated for Higher Education.
• A new system of training for care workers and the extension of registration to those working in domiciliary care was announced by Care Services Minister, Ivan Lewis.

Conservatives

• CCHQ has confirmed a tip-off that the Conservative Party is currently market-testing an alternative to the traditional blue Tory rosette. Under consideration is a blue and green ribbon in the same shape and style that people wear on their lapel to highlight AIDS or breast cancer, for example.
• Conservatives have protested at the way local councils are to spend millions of pounds recruiting thousands of staff to police the ban on smoking in public places which comes into force in the summer. Shadow Local Government Minister Eric Pickles described the crackdown as heavy-handed and over-zealous, and insisted the cash should be used to clean up the streets and collect rubbish rather than bankroll a "town hall Taliban".

Liberal Democrats

• Less than a quarter of dentists are accepting new NHS patients, according to a survey by the Lib Dems which reveals a national shortage of NHS dentists. Almost half of the dentists questioned are only taking on private patients. Nearly half of the dentists on the NHS website that claim to accept new registrations were unable to take on adult NHS patients.