If police carry arms routinely, this will fuel fear and criminals might arm themselves more heavily. Despite this, a number of police officers (around 300) are now routinely carrying sidearms while on patrol in much of Scotland. Armed police officers have been seen in a bakery, in a branch of Aldi and at a routine traffic incident in Glasgow - all incidents where it was unnecessary for the officer to have a firearm by his side. Until 2009, firearms officers had to keep their weapons in a locked safe and have a senior officer’s authorisation to take them. Firearms officers should revert back to this practice, because it is not necessary that they take their arms on routine patrol.

The government is threatening to change firefighters’ pension schemes, meaning all members will pay more, work longer and still get less. Pay more Before 2010, firefighters already contributed one of the highest proportions of their salary towards their pensions (11%), and in April this year it increased for the third year running. Firefighters typically now pay over £4,000 a year from a £29,000 salary, and the government has announced they will impose another increase in 2015. Work longer Firefighters will be expected to work until they are 60 however the government’s own report by Dr Tony Williams, published in December 2013, recognises that two thirds (66%) will not meet the current fitness standard. Firefighters, who are forced to retire at 55 due to a natural decline in fitness, could lose up to half of their pension or face the sack. Get less Firefighters will only receive the full pension they signed up for if they work for 40 years in the service which given current retirement and fitness rates is unlikely for the majority of firefighters.

The LD service is very specialist with relatively few staff doing different but highly specialist jobs. LD staff visit people in their homes for many reasons. For instance, we work hard to keep people out of hospital, if people do go to hospital we work to prevent readmission, we adapt homes so people don’t have to leave their family home or go into expensive care services, and we work with people to help them stay healthy and active, so that they don’t have to use other more expensive health services. And very often, there just aren’t any other services that can provide the care that we do. Norfolk County Council has cut Learning Disabilities Services by £960K and chosen to use the money elsewhere. But this money should be protected by Law for the specific care needs of people with learning disabilities. Help us get Norfolk County Council to reverse its harmful decision to cut Learning Disabilities services.

There are only two Fire Engines at Lancaster Fire Station covering one of the largest areas in the county.Due to Government cuts the Fire Authority has no other option than to remove one engine from the station. We as serving Firefighters must make the public aware that we need a minimum of two engines and nine Firefighters to ensure a successful rescue at a house fire or a road traffic collision. Without these resources arriving promptly, the outcome could prove fatal. If the cuts are imposed there will be a minimum five minute delay from turnout of the proposed 'on call' replacement engine. This would be crewed by retained staff who would not have the same amount of training hours as a full time crew. This is your Fire Service for which you only pay approx £56 per year from your council tax, this is a great value ' insurance policy' that covers rescues from fire,flooding,sea,rivers,building collapse, lift, trench collapse, large animal rescue..... The list is endless. Demand your monies worth, Demand your safety oppose the cuts.

We fear that privatisation could critically endanger the quality of Dorset County Hospital's pathology service and put patients at risk. We have been fighting an intense campaign against this privatisation in many different modes. Town centre petitioning events have provided 8000 signatures on paper. We need your help to lift this number as the campaign enters is last stage, so as to show the hospital the the Dorset public say NO to their important pathology laboratory being sold off. Where pathology labs were privatised elsewhere there were quality problems seen in the ensuing services and eventually financial problems had to be corrected. Where finance becomes tight then there is a temptation to cut corners. Over 100 people work at the Dorset County Hospital Pathology Laboratory, carrying out tests whose results guide the treatment of patients throughout a good part of Dorset and its surroundings. Private companies have been invited to bid to deliver this service in place of the existing NHS Pathology Laboratory. Should the service be moved away from Dorchester, there would no longer be the possibility of carrying out rapid on-site testing for patients in danger at the Dorchester hospital; moreover consultants would lose the valuable ability for close cooperation with the expert testers in cases of difficult diagnosis. The users of Dorchester Hospital Pathology Lab have no complaints about the service. It was being developed as a centre of excellence for cancer testing. The Dorset Health Campaign group was formed in late 2012 as a result of the 38 Degrees NHS privatisation campaign.

Carers save the country an estimated £119 Billion pounds a year, and yet achieve no recognition for their work. Like myself a full time carer for my wife most carers are unable to escape the stresses of placed on us by the continuous need to be on duty 24/7 and the assistance provided by GPs Social Services and Charities, is severely limited by the cuts inflicted by this government. In general most governments and public service unions prefer to ignore us, and are content to allow us to take the brunt of spending cuts full on. These stresses are increasing day by day, causing both physical and mental problems thus increasing the workload on an already over stretched NHS. This must stop right now. Home Carers should be supported by the government and not be pitched from one charity to another like orphans looking for a new home. The government must stop abdicating it's responsibilities and do something positive.

The National Gallery has decided to privatise up to 400 of its 600 staff including those who look after security of the paintings, deal with the public and requests for information about the collection, complaints, school bookings and more. This came just a week after Director Nicholas Penny announced his resignation. Ten senior managers at the Gallery have left, been made redundant or dismissed in the last two years. A temporary “Security Consultant” responsible for the privatisation used to work for G4S, the private security firm. Only last November the Gallery Executive endorsed the view that privatisation could not guarantee quality of service and would not save money. Now they and the Board of Trustees have announced privatisation is the only option. This petition is initiated by the PCS union (Culture Sector) and so far supported officially by the Peoples' Assembly, the Musicians' Union, Lost Arts, BECTU and SERTUC

Bury Hospice provides invaluable in-patient, out-patient/day services and hospice at home services. They ensure vital support and care for those with a terminal or life-limiting illness and their friends and families.

This is important because the vast majority of people reading this petition will still be around in five years, and so this affects YOU. If we don't act now, then our safety and the safety of future generations will be in danger as our National Health Service slowly crumbles from a lack of funds.Furthermore, the population is ever increasing; as the ONS predicts, within 25 years the UK population will reach just over 73 million. This will put further strain on an already struggling institution. We need to say NO to spending £1.4 billion on redundancies, and YES to more spending on the NHS itself, its resources and its staff.

When we are treated in hospital or by another practitioner we need to be able to trust that we receive correct, well administered, well handled treatment. When we complain we need to see clearly that our complaint is well handled, and, most important, that the outcome of the complaint is carried through in practice. When we are forced, because of the closure of ranks, to complain to the Ombudsman we expect fair and even handed treatment of our complaint, with high professional standards. This is about us, our lives and in some cases our deaths. We need to be able to trust hospitals, doctors and nurses. And, when it all goes wrong and we have to complain, we need to be sure that our complaint is given a fair hearing. We need to be able to trust the Ombudsman. Today we cannot.

SSCL has already cut 500 jobs across the UK. It's also announced the closure of three offices in Cardiff, Leeds and Sheffield, and is shipping 200 posts to India. SSCL, the joint venture company, is 25% government owned. The remaining 75% is controlled by French multinational Steria - one of the companies responsible for failing to deliver a £56m IT project, recently written off by The Ministry of Justice. Despite this, MoJ is now rewarding failure by awarding further work to the company. If this privatisation and offshoring goes ahead,1,000 staff in Newport and Bootle also face being privatised. More jobs could be lost. The staff in Newport and Bootle handle personal data belonging to thousands of public servants, prison and probation officers. This data would be at risk if it was offshored to a country without the UK’s robust data protection regulations. We want the government to use its stake in the SSCL company to prevent the offshoring of jobs and data and to stop future offshoring by ending its privatisation agenda.

I have been a registered psychiatric nurse for more than twenty years. I am gravely concerned regarding the situation unfolding within our communities and mental health services as a whole. Times are difficult and I appreciate the need for financial constraint but fear we have gone too far down this road. Following the suspension of our local psychiatric inpatient unit in 2012 our area has been without sufficient inpatient beds to meet the needs of its community. Consequently people are being placed in intolerably difficult and potentially life threatening situations, as people are discharged prematurely to free up beds, increasing pressure on dwindling community resources. Similarly people are becoming unnecessarily acute symptomatically, prior to admission, necessitating Mental Health Act Assessment, where timely intervention would minimise the need for such measures. Services are at breaking point and I fear a significant rise in untoward and avoidable incidents were sufficient resources in place. The lack of adequate inpatient beds is resulting in many of our most vulnerable being hospitalised in an untimely manner, hundreds of miles away from family, friends and the familiarity of local support and services, exacerbating difficulties arising from already fragmented care and a lack of continuity and seamlessness within service provision. Waiting times for care co-ordination are in excess of 3 months. Something I have never before encountered, leaving people in the community unsupported and without service provision. Timely intervention at the point of referral is critical to recovery, promoting well-being and optimising the efficacy of community based solutions, as alternatives to hospital admission. My purpose in writing to you is as advocate to those I serve. They are amongst the most vulnerable and I fear, increasingly neglected members of society. I respectfully petition you to bring their plight to the attention of government and support my plea to you, to support the urgent need for adequate inpatient beds, per head of the population. Services are in collapse and otherwise avoidable tragedies are going to become common place. In the last two years 1291 acute inpatient beds have been c!osed. Below is a list of individuals within my local authority, who at the time of writing are being accommodated in inpatient wards a great distance away from local facilities. There are 60 such local authorities in England alone: 19 year old hospitalised 85.2 miles away from home. 20 year old hospitalised 83.1 miles away from home. 23 year old hospitalised 48.2 miles away from home. 27 year old hospitalised 75.6 miles away from home. 27 year old hospitalised 76.8 miles away from home. 30 year old hospitalised 105.5 miles away from home. 34 year old hospitalised 222.6miles away from home. 47 year old hospitalised 82.7 miles away from home. 54 year old hospitalised 316.3 miles away from home. 58 year old hospitalised 237.8 miles away from home. 68 year old hospitalised 81.5 miles away from home. 73 year old hospitalised 69 Miles away from home. 93 year old hospitalised 81.2 miles away from home. My greatest fear is these difficulties are not locally based but reflect a national crisis within the provision of services for those in need of acute psychiatric care.