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.

Residents, visitors and business people will be able to hire an EV by the hour, day or week. Charges start at £5 per hour and include in-car access to the Member Care Centre, insurance, roadside assistance, maintenance, and cleaning. Membership in Hertz On Demand is free and entitles members to use the operator’s other car clubs in the US, Europe and China.

Ten Nissan LEAFs will initially be situated in strategic locations across the city. The cars will be recharged via POLAR, the national electric vehicle charging network, which is currently being rolled out in Oxford by Chargemaster and is supported by the Oxford Electric Vehicle Partnership (OEVP), led by Oxford Brookes University.

Michel Taride, president, Hertz International, and executive vice president, Hertz Corporation, said: “We are pleased to support Oxford’s commitment to sustainable transport solutions for residents and visitors alike. We look forward to launching the Hertz On Demand electric vehicle car club in Oxford, which will make use of the high density charging network installed by Chargemaster plc along with specially dedicated parking bays provided by the city. Electric vehicles are fun and exciting to drive, and the growing EV eco-system in Oxford should help encourage their use.”

Oxford councillor John Tanner said, “This fantastic investment in Oxford’s low-carbon future brings electric cars within reach for thousands of Oxford people. The Chargemaster and Hertz link-up is excellent news for jobs and for the environment. The POLAR network is a vote of confidence in Oxford’s future prosperity.”

Its consultation, which runs until 10 August, asks whether taxis and private hire vehicles should be regulated at airports in a similar way to those at railway stations.

Airports are not public places and are consequently not at present covered by normal taxi regulations.

The commission argues: “Airports are now mainstream transport hubs and market failures in airport settings are, if anything, more extreme than those at railway stations.

“Consumer transport options at airports for onward travel can be limited and some do not have rail links.

“Particularly vulnerable consumers, such as tourists, are a significant part of the customer base. This makes information deficits [about vehicle options] a particular problem.”

Another consultation question asks whether, where an airport has a concessionary agreement with a specific car provider, airports should “be obliged to allow a shuttle service for passengers who have prebooked with other providers, or to the closest taxi rank?”

Some airport owners enter into contracts with chosen taxi and private hire companies and so restrict access for all other providers, the commission noted, allowing other vehicles to park only some distance from the airport terminal.

Other proposals in the consultation paper would see local authorities lose their power to regulate the number of taxis that operate in their area.
At present, councils can do this based on their own assessment of whether there is ‘unmet need’.

The commission, an official body that reviews the operation of laws, suggests this power should go and that taxi numbers can be left to the market to decide.

It said: “If there is un-met need, we would expect new entrants to come into the market until the point at which needs were met. It is difficult to see a justification for determining demand on the basis of a survey and a subsequent bureaucratic decision, rather than a market mechanism.”

Ministers should set national safety standards for taxis and private hire vehicles, the commission also proposed.

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.”

The losses grew despite a 7.8% increase in revenues in the period to €3,919 million.

Fuel costs in the period leaped 24.9% to €1,409 million and non fuel costs rose 5.7%.

Passenger unit revenue for the quarter was up 8.5%.

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of IAG, said: “Total revenue in the quarter was up 7.8% with passenger unit revenue up 8.5% based on a capacity increase of 0.6%. Despite this, we’ve made an operating loss of €249 million before exceptional items. This is mainly due to a €281 million, 24.9% rise in fuel costs, driven by higher prices, the reduced impact of hedging and emissions charges. The Iberia pilots’ strike cost €25 million this quarter.

“Iberia’s overall operating loss for the quarter was €170 million (2011: €100 million operating loss) and British Airways’ operating loss was £62 million before exceptional items (2011: £5 million operating loss). Iberia’s performance reflects the weakness of the Spanish domestic market and industrial action by pilots opposed to actions by Iberia’s management to improve the airline’s efficiencies. For British Airways, although the London market and demand for transatlantic travel remains strong, its performance has been affected by rising fuel costs.

“The financial performance of our business continues to be undermined by government actions. In addition to the UK government increasing the world’s highest aviation tax – Air Passenger Duty – by double the inflation rate, the Spanish government plans to increase departure taxes from Spain by up to €10 per passenger.”

Operating income in the year dropped 16% by $13 million in the first quarter to $66 million. It had been $79 million in Q1 2011.

Total segments at the GDSGlobal distribution system – international computer reservation systems which amalgamate the content and enable booking on multiple suppliers increased 2.4% to 98 million. The volume of segments in Europe fell 1.9%.

Gordon Wilson, President and CEO of Travelport, said, “This quarter has seen significant enhancements in our geographical position in the key growth regions of Asia as we continue to execute on our strategy. Financial performance was solid and in line with our expectations, and we successfully restructured our near term debt.”