The Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee has published a report examining housing conditions in the social rented sector. The report reveals that progress in improving the quality of social housing has largely stalled since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, leaving many tenants living in substandard homes. The Committee recommends establishing a new Decent Homes Programme that incorporates pooled funding and a unified housing quality framework for social landlords. Additionally, the report calls for the urgent publication of timelines to extend Awaab's Law to all hazards and advocates for regular ten-year reviews of housing standards.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee has published a report addressing England's temporary accommodation crisis in temporary accommodation which is affecting over 164,000 homeless children. The report reveals local authorities spent £2.29bn on temporary accommodation in 2023-24, with over 164,000 homeless children affected. Key recommendations include mandatory inspections of temporary housing, better notification systems for schools and GPs, improved handling of out-of-area placements and increased resources for the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). The report found that temporary accommodation contributed to the deaths of at least 74 children over the past five years, with 58 of these children being under the age of one. The Committee calls for the Government to publish its homelessness strategy by July 2025 to address these issues.

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has reported that progress at bringing social homes up to the Decent Homes Standard has almost ground to a halt, with just under 430,000 social homes still failing to meet this basic standard. It warns that hazards such as damp, mould and overcrowding are increasing, and recommends the Government set interim targets to upgrade social homes before 2035 to prevent tenants remaining in poor quality, unsafe homes for too long.

The Health & Care Professionals Council (HCPC) has published a blog on the subject of the importance of maintaining fitness to practise, wellbeing and seeking help where necessary. In the blog post, Head of Fitness to Practise, Laura Coffey, states: ‘We are increasingly aware of the demand and pressures on health and care professionals and indeed most recently with the added impact of the global [coronavirus (COVID-19)] pandemic. Increasing workload on professionals and healthcare services, combined with growing external scrutiny of their practise has often been linked directly to high stress and poor wellbeing.’ She also highlights that the HCPC is currently consulting on the standards of proficiency, and that ‘one key area of change being proposed within this consultation is the importance of our registrants maintaining fitness to practise as well as considering the role of mental health and being able to seek help where necessary’. This includes whether the standards should ‘mention mental health or wellbeing explicitly’.

Law360, London: Insurance company HDI Global Specialist SE has settled its dispute with a dozen aircraft companies over payouts for planes stranded after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, ending one of many disputes in sprawling litigation worth billions of pounds.

The Health Economics Methods Advisory (HEMA), which guides best practices in international health technology assessment (HTA), has published its first draft report for public comment until 30 October 2025. The report examines whether factors other than health benefits and costs to the system should be considered when deciding if treatments should be recommended. These factors include the burden on families and carers, if treatments address health inequalities, how much risk patients are willing to accept on novel treatments and the value of a diagnosis. It now is inviting comments and views on the findings of the draft report from patients, clinicians, and other stakeholders and is expected to deliver a final report in January 2026. It aims to provide concrete guidance that health technology appraisal organisations worldwide can use to improve their evaluations. HEMA is a partnership among very different healthcare systems from the US, Canada and UK via the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) in the US, Canada's Drug Agency (CDA-AMC) and the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Human Error Probability: Term used in safety engineering. Probability assigned to represent the likelihood that a human, usually the operator, fails to complete a particular action correctly.

High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has published a report by former Department for Education adviser Tom Richmond urging the government to introduce measures to curb financial risk-taking in England’s higher education sector, warning that current practices are undermining institutional stability and sector resilience.

The European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) has released the main findings of a technical report analysing the supply chain vulnerabilities for critical medicines to the Critical Medicines Alliance (CMA). The report will help reinforce security of supply of a first tranche of 11 critical medicines from the EU's list of critical medicines and provides valuable information to help the CMA, the European Medicines Agency, the Commission and Member States to 'anticipate, prevent and address' potential shortages of critical medicines.

The European Commission has announced that the European Commission's Health Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) has signed a joint procurement Framework Contract with HIPRA Human Health for the supply of their protein coronavirus (COVID–19) vaccine. According to the Commission, '14 Member States and countries are participating in this joint procurement, under which they can purchase up to 250 million doses'.

Heads of European Radiological Competent Authorities