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This paper aims to consider the potential implications of the layering of regulation in relation to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at the borders between the nations of the UK.

This paper uses a qualitative research method grounded in particular in legal geography to examine the existing approaches to regulating hydraulic fracturing and identify the places and their features that are constructed as a result of their intersection at the borders of the nations comprising the UK.

The current regulatory framework concerning hydraulic fracturing risks restricts the places in which the practice can occur in such a manner as to potentially cause greater environmental harm should the process be used. The regulations governing the process are not aligned in relation to the surface and subsurface aspects of the process to enable their management, once operational, as a singularly constructed place of extraction. Strong regulation at the surface can have the effect of influencing placement of the site only in relation to the place at which the resource sought reaches the surface, whilst having little to no impact on the environmental harms, which will result at the subsurface or relative to other potential surface site positions, and potentially even increasing them.

This paper is limited by uncertainty as to the future use of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas within the UK. The issues raised within it would also be applicable to other extractive industries where a surface site might be placed within a radius of the subsurface point of extraction, rather than having to be located at a fixed point relative to that in the subsurface. This paper therefore raises concerns that might be explored more generally in relation to the regulation of the place of resource extraction, particularly at legal borders between jurisdictions, and the impact of regulation, which does not account for the misalignment of regulation of spaces above and below the surface that form a single place at which extraction occurs.

This paper considers the potential impacts of misaligned positions held by nations in the UK in relation to environmentally harmful practices undertaken by extractive industries, which are highlighted by an analysis of the extant regulatory framework for hydraulic fracturing.

Whilst the potential for cross internal border extraction of gas within the UK via hydraulic fracturing and the regulatory consequences of this has been highlighted in academic literature, this paper examines the implications of regulation for the least environmentally harmful placement of the process.

The education and training of construction graduates are highly influenced by the higher education institutions which produced them and the relevant professional bodies, which set the competencies that guide both academic and industrial learning. Thus, it is important to ascertain what the key stakeholders perceive construction graduates should achieve in competencies. Construction is a practice-oriented collection of professions, thus, this research focussed on the quantity surveying (QS) profession that is responsible for cost control and management of construction projects, and accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the expected level of competencies attained by QS graduates, assess the industry perception of the achievement of competencies by QS graduates, and the ranking of competencies in the order of perceived importance.

The study adopted three different data gathering phases to include literature review, expert forum, and two surveys – industry and academia.

The research revealed unrealistically high expectations by the construction industry of QS graduates achieving a high level of competency in ten mandatory, seven core, and seven optional competencies. The research found that there were significant levels of dissatisfaction with the expected level of achievement of mandatory, core, and optional competencies by the QS graduates. Thus, a perception gap was identified between the academia and the industry.

This research will provide a benchmarking tool for curricula alignment for the construction degree programmes in higher education.

The identification of the exact nature of industry competencies requirements and any variations will assist the construction graduates to connect more effectively to the industry. These research findings confirm the need for continued expansion of curricula and diversification of pedagogies.

ABRACI, the Brazilian PCB Association, in conjuction with the Brazilian National Technical Standards Association is launching a National programme for PCB standards, based on the IEC set of standards (1EC‐94–249–326 etc).

The focus of this paper is on purchasing and supplier involvement in the firm. Using the resource‐base view of the firm, hypotheses are developed concerning purchasing/supplier involvement, strategic purchasing and firm’s financial performance. A model of the hypothesized relationships is offered and empirically tested using structural equation modeling. The model is tested using data collected in 1999. Each factor in the model is measured by a number of scale items. Based on the results of confirmatory factor analysis, an overall fit of the model to the data is achieved. Both convergent and discriminate validity is demonstrated. The research findings reveal that the hypotheses tested in the model are supported. Purchasing/supplier involvement has a positive impact on strategic purchasing, and strategic purchasing has a positive impact on firm’s financial performance. The paper concludes with some research implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research.

The figures contained in these regulations were not intended, either literally or by implication, to be taken as standards for milk. A milk which contains less than 8·5 per cent. of solids‐not‐fat is not necessarily adulterated—one that contains 8·5 per cent. or more is not necessarily genuine. All that the regulations do is to move the onus of proof. In the case of the prosecution of a vendor of milk for a sample which contained 8·5 or more of solids‐not‐fat the Local Authority would have to prove that the sample was adulterated, in the case of a prosecution for a sample which contained less than 8·5 per cent. of solids‐not‐fat, the defendant, in order to escape conviction, would have to prove the milk to be genuine. The weight which has been given to this limit of 8·5 per cent. of solids‐not‐fat has varied considerably. There are those who appear to consider that it is almost an absolute minimum, and that any milk which contains less than this amount is almost certainly watered, whilst others attach little importance to this figure. It may be desirable to interpolate at this point the figures which have been obtained recently on the samples taken in the County of Lancaster. Since the beginning of the year 1930, 5,959 samples of milk have been examined, of this number 121, or 2·0 per cent., have contained less than 8·5 per cent. of solids‐not‐fat. By means of some of the methods which are described below each of these deficient samples has been examined for the presence of added water, and it has been found that 102 contained added water, whilst 19 were naturally poor. It follows, then, as far as these samples are concerned, that in the case of herds of cows, only 0·3 per cent. give milk containing less than 8·5 per cent. of solids‐not‐fat. From this it must of necessity follow that the limit of 8·5 is at least a very good sorting test. In fact it is far more likely to fail to detect slightly adulterated milks (containing, say, from 1 to 5 per cent. of added water) than it is to describe milks as adulterated which are in reality genuine but poor. Dr. J. F. Tocher, who holds the position of Public Analyst to many of the Scottish Counties, and who is a very outspoken critic of the methods adopted for the determination of added water, has written on this subject to a considerable extent. The following statement, which was made by him in his 1925 Report, has been brought to my notice § with the suggestion that it should be referred to in this report. Dr. Tocher writes:—“The general conclusion from these results is that it is quite unsound on the part of analysts to express a definite opinion that water has been added to milk, when a sample has been found to be below 8·5 per cent. in solids‐in‐fat.” If such a statement as this merely means that a milk is not necessarily watered if the percentage of solids‐not‐fat is below 8·5 it is, of course, not only correct, but absolutely unassailable; in fact, it is merely putting the limit of the Regulations into other words. To those, however, who are familiar with Dr. Tocher's other writings, it may appear that there is something more than this behind the words used. On many occasions in the past Dr. Tocher has stated categorically that it is not possible to prove by chemical or physical examination that a milk is or is not watered, and that all that an analyst can say is that the milk is below the limit, and leave the interpretation of the fact to others, the final evidence being obtained from those who have handled the milk. Apart from the fact that it is not usual to give undue weight to evidence obtained from a defendant it would be quite impossible to rely entirely on this source, for the reasons given in the following paragraph.

When two firms of solicitors merged to form one of the largest practices in their town, integrating the various staff and partner skills was imperative, especially as the organization operated from two separate offices. The need to retain and improve the expertise that already existed was matched by an intention immediately to build on that skills‐base and a determination to involve everyone in an ongoing learning process – in other words, investing in the people who worked there.

The institution of food and cookery exhibitions and the dissemination of practical knowledge with respect to cookery by means of lectures and demonstrations are excellent things in their way. But while it is important that better and more scientific attention should be generally given to the preparation of food for the table, it must be admitted to be at least equally important to insure that the food before it comes into the hands of the expert cook shall be free from adulteration, and as far as possible from impurity,—that it should be, in fact, of the quality expected. Protection up to a certain point and in certain directions is afforded to the consumer by penal enactments, and hitherto the general public have been disposed to believe that those enactments are in their nature and in their application such as to guarantee a fairly general supply of articles of tolerable quality. The adulteration laws, however, while absolutely necessary for the purpose of holding many forms of fraud in check, and particularly for keeping them within certain bounds, cannot afford any guarantees of superior, or even of good, quality. Except in rare instances, even those who control the supply of articles of food to large public and private establishments fail to take steps to assure themselves that the nature and quality of the goods supplied to them are what they are represented to be. The sophisticator and adulterator are always with us. The temptations to undersell and to misrepresent seem to be so strong that firms and individuals from whom far better things might reasonably be expected fall away from the right path with deplorable facility, and seek to save themselves, should they by chance be brought to book, by forms of quibbling and wriggling which are in themselves sufficient to show the moral rottenness which can be brought about by an insatiable lust for gain. There is, unfortunately, cheating to be met with at every turn, and it behoves at least those who control the purchase and the cooking of food on the large scale to do what they can to insure the supply to them of articles which have not been tampered with, and which are in all respects of proper quality, both by insisting on being furnished with sufficiently authoritative guarantees by the vendors, and by themselves causing the application of reasonably frequent scientific checks upon the quality of the goods.

MR. F. W. F. ARNAUD, the Public Analyst for the Borough of Portsmouth, delivered a lecture on this subject at the Town Hall on April 27. The lecturer commenced his address by stating that many of the objections to the use of certain preservatives which he might have occasion to put forward were not necessarily his own individual objections, but were the objections of many scientific men who had dealt with all sides of this difficult subject. There was a tendency on the part of some people to regard preservatives as disinfectants, but disinfectants and antiseptics were two different things. A disinfectant not only retarded the growth of microbes, but actually killed them, while an antiseptic preservative merely retarded their growth or formation. Two common antiseptics were sugar and salt. It had been contended that a small dose of a chemical preservative was preferable to a dose of microbes. The effect of a preservative was not to kill the life already present, but to prevent the free multiplication of the organisms present, and the swallowing of a dose of preservative did not necessarily prevent the swallowing of a dose of microbes. There were many old forms of preserving food, such as the use of sugar for fruit and condensed milk; of vinegar for vegetables; and the process of smoking for bacon and fish, smoke being very destructive to microbes; but the oldest form of preservation was the process of salting meat and fish. Another form of preservation was the method of preventing the access of air to perishable articles, as in the cases of eggs and lard. Then there was drying, as in the case of fruit, and chilling, or freezing, as in the cases of meat, milk, poultry, and fish. The temperatures employed for freezing food varied considerably, and depended chiefly upon the length of time during which storage was necessary. If it were only desired to keep meat for a week or two, a low temperature was not necessary, but one of 40 deg. F. was sufficient. Any cooling process was equivalent to the use of a great deal of chemical preservative. A cooling to 50 deg. P. was equivalent to the addition of boric acid to the extent of .05 per cent. At a normal summer temperature of 70 deg. P., two microbes would produce 62,100 in the course of twenty‐four hours; hence the necessity for cooling articles of food. The drawback to most of these methods of preservation was that sugar, salt, and cold were not applicable in every case. Exclusion of air and subsequent sterilisation had their drawbacks also. When sterilisation was complete and the air was exhausted, no putrefaction could take place, and the food should remain indefinitely unchanged. In the matter of tinned meat, the drawback lay chiefly in the failure to ensure complete sterilisation, and in the dissolving of tin, and occasionally lead, from the metal enclosing the food. In the case of tinned meat putrefaction to any considerable extent could be easily recognised by the blown condition of the tin and an absence of the inrush of air when the tin was pierced. Such food was a source of great danger, and if eaten the meat was liable to give rise to ptomaine poisoning—which was occasioned by eating the poisonous products produced by various bacteria. The danger of metallic poisoning could be largely overcome by the use of glass or earthenware vessels. Preservatives in use at the present time were: Benzoates, fluorides, formalin, salicylic acid, sulphites, saccharin, and beta naphthol, generally used singly, though there were some very complicated preservatives on the market. With reference to the use of salt and sugar as preservatives, little or nothing could be said against their use, for sugar was in itself a food and had a well‐known food value. Salt, too, was an essential constituent of our food, for without the elements of which it was composed we could not exist. Naturally, the assimilation of a large quantity of salt was not desirable, but it could not be urged, as, for instance, in the case of boric acid, that it was a substance foreign to the constituents of the human organism, for it was indispensable. Boric acid, however, played no part in any of the essential life processes.

The British Library’s new home has generated a huge amount of interest since it first opened in autumn 1997. The article describes the new library, its history and gives readers a feel for the building, its reading rooms and facilities for the public.

June 5, 1967 Master and Servant — Redundancy — Redundancy payment — Calculation — “Normal working week” — “Normal working hours” — Variable hours of overtime — Whether to be taken into account — Whether overtime compulsory — Redundancy Payments Act, 1965 (13 & 14 Eliz.11, c. 62), Sch.1, para. 5 — Contracts of Employment Act, 1963 (11 & 12 Eliz.II, c.49), Sch.2, paras.1(1), 3(1).