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‘Black Africans’ in England are disproportionately and highly affected by the heterosexually contracted HIV epidemic. Policy and practice frameworks have advocated ethnic matching in HIV prevention. We explore how self‐identifying ‘black African’ workers in London were co‐producers of ‘black African’ identities to target in preventative HIV interventions. Drawing on a focused literature review and 12 in‐depth interviews with workers, the paper identifies themes associated with co‐production of an African identify by workers. The historical inclusion of the category ‘black African’ in the 1991 census coincided with the emergence of Africans as at higher HIV ‘risk’. In co‐producing an African public, the workers projected their heterosexual and Christian affiliations on to the targeted population, perceiving themselves as ‘insiders’ knowledgeable about rumours that had historically co‐produced African identities. Fear of those in authority galvanised the formation of African‐led agencies, offering entry points for HIV prevention to Africans. By projecting aspects of their complex ‘selves’ on to the ‘other’, encounters in public spaces were deemed ‘opportunities’ for outreach interventions. The ethics of ‘cold calling’, confidentiality and informed consent were taken as ‘given’ in these socially produced ‘private’ spaces located in ‘public’ venues. In following HIV prevention frameworks as advocated by Pulle et al (2004), the workers endorsed yet problematised the notion of ethnic matching.

While efforts to mainstream collection of ethnicity in routine health datasets have gathered pace since the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, relatively little attention has focused on the capture of migrants, and data on asylum seekers and refugees are even more sparse. There is negligible coverage in the key datasets for primary and secondary care, and only a few of the new contract datasets to support the National Service Frameworks accord importance to the migrant population. Some of the communicable disease data collections record country of birth, but its incompleteness is a drawback. Given the growing size of the non‐UK‐born population and the accumulating evidence on the health and health care needs of the migrant population, country of birth merits a place alongside other access variables such as age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and place of residence in routine data collection. While record linkage studies offer some scope, and there is currently a focus on obtaining improved migration statistics in the forthcoming census and other data flows, health and social care sources remain a neglected area.

The purpose of this article is to explore preference for privacy among people with different demographic and cultural backgrounds. In particular the study aims to investigate the effect of age, gender, previous experience of space and cultural background on people's chosen spatial location for privacy in multi‐bed wards.

A group of 79 subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire on privacy and to select preferred and disliked locations on plans of hospital wards. Spatial data were provided by space syntax analysis (VGA). Possible subgroups in the data were investigated by tests of difference and latent class analysis applied to those spatial attributes which appeared to be relevant to people's preferences on locations for privacy.

The results show that privacy regulation encompasses universal and specific aspects across cultures, age, gender and previous experience of space. Specifically, the results suggest a universal preference for spatial location of privacy across culture, age and gender and a specific significant difference for spatial location of privacy as a result of previous spatial experience. In addition, the VGA integration measure was found to be a highly significant discriminator between preferred and disliked locations for privacy.

There are two particular limitations requiring further study. First, the study investigated only one facet of privacy, i.e. spatial location. More investigation is required to explore the inter‐relationships between spatial location and other facets of privacy, primarily that of intervisibility. Second, only two broader cultures (European and Arabic) were considered.

Ideally it would have been of benefit if a greater number of the people sampled had had direct experience of hospital wards.

At a general level the study supports the notion that there are universal and specific aspects to privacy. At a specific level the research links physical aspects of spatial location (i.e. visibility graph analysis measures) into this discussion.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question: in the British state's relationship with its diverse minority ethnic communities, how have politics framed administrative allocation of language support services? The dynamics of policy development are investigated, a tangible effect of the shift from unofficial pragmatic multiculturalism towards community cohesion/“Britishness” having been a government focus on English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) rather than translation/interpreting. This change has revealed a tension between the demands of identity and equality for minority ethnic people: respect for cultural identity requires provision of translation/interpreting while creating (political) equality between majority and minority communities entails the latter having access to the political language so placing an emphasis on ESOL.

An evidence synthesis is undertaken of policy documents relating to the British state's provision of language support services and data on the skill levels in English from government surveys.

The relative contribution of financial constraints and new policy/ideological positions to changes in the direction of policy and provision is assessed. With respect to the “new approach to ESOL”, this process of discretionary allocation that privileges policies of integration and community cohesion rather than language need itself is viewed against the inadequacies of the data currently available on levels of English language proficiency in providing the basis for making policy decisions and allocating resources.

The level of English language skills amongst Britain's minority ethnic groups and of government policy to address skill deficits has been substantially neglected. The paper provides a policy focus ahead of the release of the 2011 Census findings on language questions.

This study aims to examine the environmental attributes relevant to older people's preferences for neighbourhood open spaces. It also aims to explore the association between the relative importance of different environmental attributes and personal and social characteristics in a sample of older people covering a range of geographic locations in the UK.

Choice‐based conjoint analysis (CBC) was used to obtain responses from a sample of 237 older people (60 years +) living in the UK. A total of 13 environmental attributes were identified from earlier qualitative and quantitative studies. Participants were asked to choose a preferred park from a pair of hypothetical neighbourhood parks differing on four of the attributes presented in a questionnaire. The questionnaire included 14 such tasks.

The results suggest that older people preferred a neighbourhood park which is without nuisance, has cafes and toilets, many trees and plants, light traffic en route, wildlife to watch, and is well maintained. Analyses also reveal that whether or not people live alone, and their functional capabilities in getting around, make a difference in the way they place importance on attributes.

The findings can assist those involved in designing and managing outdoor environments to identify salient environmental attributes and prioritise interventions aimed at improving access to, and use of, outdoor spaces for older adults. The approach aids understanding of what is likely to maximise preference and use of open spaces in different segments of the older population.

Conjoint analysis procedures are some of the best tools available for determining importance or relative value of attributes of complex environments from the user point of view. The CBC analysis has been employed for the first time in this study to explore the relative importance of such attributes of open spaces for older adults.

The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between measures of the plan configuration of buildings (in this case multi‐bed wards), and subjective judgements on spatial locations for privacy.

Measures of plan configuration from six generic ward designs have been made using space syntax software (visibility graph analysis and depth map). Subjective judgements have been assessed by means of a questionnaire.

Participants' chosen locations for privacy have been shown to have a systematic relationship with spatial properties of the ward plans. At a ward level the designs with low integration and high control were chosen. At the bed location lower values of integration and control were selected.

In this study one facet of privacy (i.e. spatial location) has been investigated. These findings now need to be extended to studies involving environmental simulations, visibility and three‐dimensional awareness of spaces as experienced by hospital users. In addition further analysis will be carried out at an individual design level and the possibility of subgroups of people with different preferences will be explored.

Space syntax has a complicated theoretical and methodological approach to spatial measures. Many designers or architects may not be prepared to try to understand the implications.

At a general level there is little in the literature on the implications of plan form for the subjective experiences of people in buildings. At a specific level about privacy in wards, no evidence could be found that these systematic findings have been reported before.

The purpose of the paper is to show that the Arabian Peninsula, and the United Arab Emirates in particular, has not been spared by the trends of biodiversity loss observed on the world scale. The authors aim to present a rapid review of the challenges facing the biodiversity in the UAE and the solutions that this young country proposes to counteract the erosion of its biodiversity.

The authors gathered and compiled published and unpublished information from governmental and non‐governmental sources.

Despite being regarded as a vast desertic and unfertile area with one of the lowest human populations in the world, the UAE hosts a unique and remarkably adapted fauna and flora. Adding to natural causes (drought), the main threats facing biodiversity identified were: coastal development and urbanisation, as well as over‐exploitation of natural resources (fishing, hunting, grazing and water extraction) that are linked with the tremendous population increase and changes in lifestyle. Traditional systems of resource management in the UAE have been abandoned. Over the last few decades, the UAE has lost most of its big fauna and is witnessing the remaining Arabian leopard, Mountain Gazelle, Arabian Tahr, Arabian Sailfish, groupers and shark populations at the brink of extinction.

The paper proposes the inclusion of environmental issues in the development planning (with proper environment impact assessments), the involvement of local communities in the decision making and the improvement of federal and international trans‐boundaries collaborations. Highlights that an urgent step would be the implementation of integrated costal management zoning to stop the current extent of coastal development that contributes through physical alteration of habitats to the disappearance of key resources and habitats.