The Mayor of London has committed £135 million to help up to 270,000 primary school children receive free school meals in state-funded schools in the capital from September.
It is hoped that the funding will save families an average of £440 a year and help families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

The government has announced a pay rise for millions of public sector workers.
Police and prison officers are set to receive a 7 per cent rise, teachers 6.5 per cent and junior doctors 6 per cent.
Treasury minister John Glen told parliament that he had accepted the recommendations of the pay review bodies.
The prime minister said the rises would not be funded by more borrowing or raising taxes.

Thatcham Research has announced EV Safe training to help the public sector prepare for the unique safety challenges presented by electric vehicles (EVs).
EV Safe will ensure the safety of key workers who interact with High Voltage (HV), such as first responders who need to understand how to safely shut down an EV following a road traffic collision and how to identify safe cutting points to enable extrication.

The Government has published new regulations for public electric vehicle charge points, which aim to improve the charging experience for electric vehicle drivers.
Priorities in the regulations include better reliability, clearer pricing, contactless payments and open data.
The regulations state that public charge points must take contactless payment within one year from the date the new regulations come into force.

The Scottish Government has announced an initial agreement with local government and the NHS about accountability arrangements for the National Care Service (NCS).
The agreement sets out who will be responsible for people’s care once the NCS is established, with overall legal accountability to be shared between Scottish Government, the NHS and local government.
Staff will still be employed by local authorities and councils will have responsibility for assets like buildings and the delivery of services.

Emergency grab bags, which give immediate support should a major incident occur are now available in York city centre.
The bags are part of a number of security measures being delivered by the multi-agency Regional Protect and Prepare Group and have been funded by Safer York Partnership (York’s statutory Community Safety Partnership).
The bags are designed to be used in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack or major incident and contain information and equipment that will aid the early response to an incident, prior to the arrival of the emergency services.

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has invited small social landlords, including local authorities to take part in a Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) data collection pilot scheme.
The pilot is open to small registered providers (those who own fewer than 1,000 homes) and aims to understand from small providers their experience so far in collecting the TSMs and any issues they may have encountered and the potential benefits and challenges of RSH collecting small provider TSM data.

The Mayor of London has announced £20 million of funding to tackle rough sleeping across the capital.
The money will be invested in the Life off the Streets Programme.
£17.27 million will be used to deliver the No Second Night Out (NSNO) service from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027, with the possibility of extending the service for up to a further two years.

The government has announced £1.2 million of funding for fifty-six councils across the country to clean up chewing gum from the streets.
Councils set to benefit from the second round of funding from the Chewing Gum Task Force. include Antrim and Newtownabbey, Cardiff, Glasgow, Ipswich, Liverpool, Sunderland and Wiltshire.
The task force was established by Defra in 2021 and is administered by charity Keep Britain Tidy. It aims to clean gum off pavements and put in measures to stop it being dropped in the first place.

The Scottish government has launched a new funding scheme offering up to £20 million in grants to support local authorities, universities and arm’s-length external organisations decarbonise their buildings.
The new Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund will replace the existing Scottish Energy Efficiency Loan Scheme, which has been running since 2006.
It is hoped the new scheme will increase the number of public sector organisations taking forward heat decarbonisation measures in their buildings.