Melanie Dawes, currently director general running the Economic and Domestic Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, will act as Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office while a successor is found.

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “Ian has played an important role in establishing the Efficiency and Reform Group within the Cabinet Office. This group put in place tough cross-Whitehall controls on property, procurement and ICT in 2010. As a result we have helped departments deliver billions of pounds in cash savings for the taxpayer. He has assembled an enormously impressive team in ERG who will carry forward this crucial agenda.”

Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service, added: “Ian has established the efficiency and reform agenda firmly across government. Under his leadership, we have made great strides in transparency, procurement and eradicating waste in public spending – putting the government on track to deliver £9 billion in cash savings to date and double the amount of business going to SMEs, setting up the Government’s Digital Service and launching the first Government mutual joint venture. Ian has also led creation of the Major Projects Authority (MPA) that oversees projects worth in excess of £400 billion and the new Major Projects Leadership Academy to build the skills of senior project leaders across Government.”

Watmore, who was appointed chief operating officer of the Efficiency and Reform Group in June 2010, will now focus on non-executive and spousal roles in charity, sports, academic and church activities. He was previously chief executive of the Football Association.

The SPoE annual report reveals that in the year from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012, some 45% of cases handled by the organisation related to perceived failings in the tender process, including insufficient or inaccurate specification of requirements, inappropriate evaluation criteria and the accuracy and consistency of scoring.

The second biggest issue raised by suppliers was around pre-qualification questionnaires, with particular questions on supposedly inappropriate selection criteria (for example criteria relating to the geographic location of suppliers), the use of referees and references and the proportionality of tender requirements (eg levels of insurance or turnover, or requests for a director’s personal guarantee).

Of the cases handled by SPoE, 38% were deemed to be in order and no further action was taken. However, 24% of tenders were modified or stopped and restarted and in a further 24% of cases, no agreement between supplier and contracting body could be brokered.

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of all queries received by the body related to local authority tenders.

The site will be unavailable for online check-in between 1600 on Friday 18 May until 1200 on Sunday 20 May. The site will also be unavailable for new bookings and flight changes from 2200 on Friday 18 May until 2200 on Saturday 19 May.

The airline said, “Passengers must ensure that they have booked tickets, checked in online and printed their boarding passes etc prior to the [closure] times. Ryanair wishes to apologise to all passengers who may be affected by the website closure which is unavoidable in order to upgrade the website.”

Ryanair charges £40/€40 to issue a boarding pass at the airport for those who have failed to check in and print their boarding pass at least four hours before the flight time.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “As Manage My Booking will be unavailable during this 24-hour website closure, we have advised all passengers due to travel over the coming weekend (Saturday, 19 and Sunday, 20 May) to check-in on Ryanair.com before 16.00 (GMT) Friday, 18 May.

“Our upgraded site will improve our performance, and allow us to introduce a new SMS text alert system which will deliver real time info to passenger during flight delays of over two hours and during periods of mass disruption, such as adverse weather, air traffic control strikes or airspace closures.”

The airport authority said: “Following several crisis meetings, the project leadership team has reached the conclusion that the completion and subsequent acceptance tests of certain safety relevant installations was no longer possible by the planned opening date.”

British Airways says it is now changing flights that were due to go to Brandenburg between 3 June and 28 July back to Berlin Tegel (TXL) Airport.

An EU Council Agreement endorsed by the Parliament on Thursday will see the introduction on 1 July 2012 of a cap on data roaming tariffs within the EU.
The cost of using data within the EU will be capped at 70 Euro cents per megabyte from that data. The rules will also mean that this will fall to 45 Euro cents on 1 July 2013 and to 20 cents from 1 July 2014. There is currently no limit on EU data roaming charges.

Under the regulations, the cost of voice calls will also fall – to 29 cents per minute on 1 July 2012 from 35 cents now, dropping to 19 cents from July 2014. The cost of text messaging in the EU will also fall, from 11 cents now to 9 cents on 1 July.

The regulation will also see the market for data roaming liberalised. From 1 July 2012 virtual mobile networks will be able to access roaming services from other operators at wholesale rates while from 2014, data and voice packages will be unbundled, allowing users to buy their voice and data plans separately while keeping the same mobile number.

The Glasgow Central branch of the hire company has a fleet of Peugeot iOn electric cars.

Renters will be given a face-to-face handover of the iOn vehicle by a Europcar representative and the company will recharge the vehicle completely free of charge, waiving the standard refuelling charge.

Ken McCall, managing director, Europcar UK Group, said, “We think this is the perfect time for motorists to test out the new technology and we are delighted to be part of Glasgow’s effort to promote greener technology, which fits perfectly with our own philosophy of pioneering sustainable car hire solutions.”

CEPOL brings together senior police officers across Europe with the aim to encourage cross-border cooperation in the fight against crime and maintenance of public security and law and order. It was established in 2005 and is based in Bramshill near Hook in Hampshire and organises between 60 and 100 courses, seminars and conferences per year.

• Public Sector Travel publishes a daily updated tenders feed of UK and European public procurements which is available to registered subscribers.

The two companies are also working towards the content being available to those travel agencies who access the Travelport GDSGlobal distribution system – international computer reservation systems which amalgamate the content and enable booking on multiple suppliers through more traditional desktop access.

Travelport’s Universal API is a pipeline that allows companies connected to it to access aggregated travel content from a range of sources including the GDSGlobal distribution system – international computer reservation systems which amalgamate the content and enable booking on multiple suppliers (global distribution system), low-cost carriers and rail providers.

Adrian Watts, sales director at thetrainline.com commented “This is a fantastic development, not only for thetrainline.com and Travelport, but also for the UK rail industry as a whole as rail content will become more easily bookable by travel agents both in the UK and further afield.”

Travelport’s Klaus Kreher, director, business development rail, said “This is another example of how we are aggregating new content for our travel agency customers and distributing the way our content providers need us to support their business models.”

The six schemes are:

• M4 Junctions 3-12 managed motorway scheme; Thames Valley
• M25 Junction 30 / A13 congestion relief scheme, Thurrock;
• A19/A1058 Coast Road Junction improvement; North Tyneside
• A21 Tonbridge – Pembury widening; Kent
• A63 Castle Street improvements, Hull; and
• A160/A180 improvements, Immingham

The Department says the green light has been given to the projects to “ensure that a ‘pipeline’ of future Highways Agency major infrastructure improvements will be maintained”. The decision does not guarantee funding for any of the projects.

Roads Minister Mike Penning said: “We are committed to tackling congestion, keeping traffic moving and supporting the UK economy, putting in money where it’s most needed and where the public will get a good return on investment.

“We have already announced around £3bn of investment to complete work on Highways Agency major road projects under construction and to allow work to start before March 2015 on 20 much-needed road improvement schemes.”

The announcement means that two proposed road schemes: the M20 Junction 10a project and the M54 to M6/M6 Toll link road have now been shelved for the time being.

The Department said, “Those proposals not selected at this time to have their development work advanced are still good schemes that address clear problems, and the Department will continue to work with key stakeholders to drive down costs and maximise public value for money”.

The aircraft, originally due to enter the Australian carrier’s fleet in early 2013, will now arrive in 2016/17.

The reductions in capital expenditure are in addition to A$500 million of cuts announced in February.

The airline says it plans to save A$280 to A$365 million by 2014 from “transformation initiatives”, including deepening alliances, withdrawing from loss-making routes and modernising operational practices.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said: “We have made substantial progress in our fleet renewal programme – our average aircraft age is now 8.3 years, which is highly competitive with other major global carriers.

“As a result we are in a good position to reduce capital expenditure, targeting investment at business areas that deliver sustainable returns while maintaining flexibility in forward fleet commitments. With 12 A380s now in service and our Boeing 747 reconfiguration program well underway, we have made the financially prudent decision to reschedule a further two A380 deliveries – enabling significant capital expenditure savings.”