Dying at work. Work-related suicide – how does the UK regulatory context measure up?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how work-related suicides are monitored, investigated and regulated in the UK, examining a small selection of cases and drawing on international comparison with other countries. Effective data collection and regulation are the cornerstone of suicide prevention, and this paper aims to consider whether the UK’s current regulatory framework provides an effective basis for preventing work-related suicides. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on qualitative sociological methods and is based on an in-depth analysis of 12 suicide cases occurring between 2015 and 2020. In each case, work-related causal factors had been previously identified by at least one official source (police enquiry, coroner or employer’s investigation). This study analysed multiple sources of documentation and undertook interviews with individuals close to each suicide case. The aim of this study was to consider the organisational response of three stakeholder organisations to the suicides: the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the coroner and the employer. Findings The study points to serious shortcomings in the UK’s regulatory response to work-related suicides. Suicides are currently not recorded, investigated or regulated. Whereas the fracture of an arm or leg in the workplace needs to be reported to the HSE for further investigation, a suicide occurring in the workplace or that is work-related does not need to be reported to any public agency. Employers are not required to investigate an employee suicide or make any changes to workplace policies and practices in the aftermath of a suicide. The work-related factors that may have caused one suicide may, therefore, continue to pose health and safety risks to other employees. Originality/value Whereas some recent studies have examined work-related suicides within specific occupations in the UK, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the UK’s regulatory framework for work-related suicides. The study on which the paper is based produced a set of recommendations that were targeted at key stakeholder organisations.

Public-Private Partnership for Urban Housing Through Civic Engagement

Public-private partnership (PPP) is a contractual arrangement between a public agency and a private sector, whereby the private sector performs a public function in accordance with an output-based specification for a specified period of time in return for a financial benefit. The central problem investigated in this chapter is the challenges in urban housing delivery using the public-private partnership approach, to identify concerns and develop a framework to address them. Adopting a qualitative research strategy and descriptive approach, primary data was collected thru questionnaire administered to selected sample of staff, private partners, and beneficiaries of houses. This research analysed the identified challenges experienced in the urban housing based on the existing literature and theories on PPP. Findings reflect that, despite challenges, there is confirmation that the PPP concept is a catalyst to addressing urban housing delivery by using private investment.

Pola Pengawasan Komisi Informasi Aceh Dalam Mewujudkan Keterbukaan Informasi Publik di Propinsi Aceh

Amanat Undang-Undang No. 14 Tahun 2008 tentang Keterbukaan Informasi Publik telah mewajibkan setiap badan publik untuk dapat memiliki keterbukaan dalam pelayanan informasi kepada masyarakat. Dengan kehadiran aturan hukum tersebut telah menjamin hak masyarakat untuk memperoleh dan mengakses informasi yang dibutuhkan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui dan menjelaskan pola pengawasan yang dilakukan oleh Komisi Informasi Aceh (KIA) dalam mewujudkan keterbukaan informasi publik di lingkungan Satuan Kerja Perangkat Aceh (SKPA). Penelitian ini berjenis kualitatif dengan pendekatan deskriptif, informan dalam penelitian ini ditentukan melalui teknik purposive sampling. Teori pengawasan dari Sondang P. Siagian digunakan untuk menganalisis permasalahan. Dari hasil analisis, penulis menilai bahwa pelaksanaan pengawasan KIA terhadap implementasi keterbukaan informasi publik di SKPA telah berjalan dengan efektif. Tinggal mengupayakan bagaimana KIA dapat meningkatan kinerja keterbukaan informasi publik oleh sebagian SKPA yang masih rendah.Mandate of Law No. 14 of 2008 concerning Openness of Public Information has required every public agency to be able to have openness in providing information to the public. The presence of these laws has guaranteed the right of the community to obtain and access the information they need. This study aims to identify and explain the pattern of supervision carried out by the Aceh Information Commission (KIA) in realizing public information disclosure within the Aceh Working Unit (SKPA). This research is a qualitative type with a descriptive approach, the informants in this study were determined through purposive sampling technique. Supervision theory from Sondang P. Siagian is used to analyze the problem. From the results of the analysis, the authors consider that the implementation of MCH supervision on the implementation of public information disclosure in SKPA has been running effectively. It remains only to find out how MCH can improve the performance of public information disclosure by some SKPAs, which are still low.

What is the Public of Public History? Between the Public Sphere and Public Agency

Public history constitutes a historical field, it includes several related journals, membership organisations, research centres, undergraduate and graduate programs all over the world. Most importantly, Public History has been marked by growing historiography and an increasing public interest in history. However, there is a lack of research on the most important constituent element of Public History, the ‘public’. The aim of this paper is to shed light on how Public History has approached the public in the last four decades. By focusing on the two different forms the public has taken, the public sphere and the public agency, the paper examines the notion of the public as it appeared in the historiography and how it determined the epistemology and methodology of Public History.

The death of law? Computationally personalized norms and the rule of law

The emergent power of big data analytics makes it possible to replace impersonal general legal rules with personalized, particular norms. We consider arguments that such a move would be generally beneficial, replacing crude, general laws with more efficiently targeted ways of meeting public policy goals and satisfying personal preferences. Those proposals pose a radical, new challenge to the rule of law. Data-driven legal personalization offers some benefits that are worth pursuing, but we argue that the benefits can only legitimately be pursued where doing so is consistent with the agency that the law ought to accord to individuals and with the agency that the law ought to accord to public bodies. The principle of public agency is a prerequisite for the rule of law. The principle of private agency depends on the rule of law. Each is incompatible with the unrestrained computational personalization of law.

Risk Prediction of Delay in the Execution of Public Works Through Fuzzy Logic

In Manaus, delays in public constructions are not uncommon as their execution deadlines are often extrapolated, even though such deadlines are obtained through preliminary technical studies. The causes that give rise to such delays are varied ranging from the occurrence of rain to the addition of quantities of existing services or additions of new services. In this research, we sought to obtain a model, using fuzzy logic, to predict the risk of delay that some variables may cause in the period of execution of the work, allowing the public administration or the contracted company to adopt measures they consider essential to mitigate this delay. Initially, documentary and bibliographic research were carried out to identify the causes that most contribute to the occurrence of delays in the works. Once these causes were identified, the construction of the fuzzy inference system was started, with six of the most significant causes identified in the research being considered as linguistic variables, namely: the hiring factor, which corresponds to the quotient between the value of the proposal. of the company and the amount budgeted by the administration; the value of the work, which is the value of the contract for the work; the engineering execution drawing, which are the engineering drawings used in the works; the alteration of quantities, which are changes in the quantities of existing services or addition of new services; authorization from public agencies, which corresponds to the permission or support of any public agency or public company for the execution of the work; and the rain. For the simulation of the created fuzzy inference system, real data from four public works were entered, and the answers of this simulation were satisfactory because they are confirmed by the documentation of the respective works. It is concluded that the system proved to be useful, as it was possible to predict the risk of delay in the execution of public works in the city of Manaus, and it can be used by both the public administration and the contractor to mitigate the causes of delays in the execution of public works.

Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination: The Interplay of Message Framing, Psychological Uncertainty, and Public Agency as a Message Source

The study examines how framing, psychological uncertainty, and agency type influence campaign effectiveness in promoting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. A 2 (gain vs. loss frame) × 2 (high vs. low uncertainty) × 2 (national vs. local agency) between-subjects experiment was conducted among Houston residents ( N = 382). Findings revealed that a loss frame was more effective among participants primed with high uncertainty through a thought-listing task; however, it was less persuasive under conditions of low uncertainty due to increased psychological reactance. Moreover, there was an interaction effect between uncertainty and agency type on vaccine beliefs. The study contributes to the framing literature by identifying psychological uncertainty as a moderator and provides useful suggestions for vaccine message design.