Category Archives: UK news

Patients could get cancer scans without GP referral, says Steve Barclay

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Health secretary suggested patients could go directly to diagnostic test or clinician to ease ‘bottleneck’ in NHS system

Patients with cancer symptoms could bypass their GP in the future and go straight for a scan, the health secretary has suggested, in the latest “radical” attempt by the government to cut huge NHS waiting lists.

The suggestion, which comes as the government is expected to reduce the number of NHS cancer waiting time targets, could form part of proposals to “design out bottlenecks” in the NHS system, Steve Barclay said in an interview.

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Colourful kites fill London sky in solidarity with people of Afghanistan

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Event celebrates Afghan culture and protests against restrictions on women and girls two years after Taliban offensive

Hordes of colourful kites soared into the sky over London in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan on the second anniversary of the fall of their homeland to the Taliban.

Participants said the event, at Primrose Hill in north London, was intended to demonstrate how “colourful” the culture of Afghanistan once was and to provide “a voice, far from our home” for all the Afghans, especially women and girls, living under the Taliban’s oppressive regime.

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Rape, DNA and injustice: a timeline of the Andrew Malkinson case

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After spending 17 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, the 57-year-old’s conviction was finally overturned last month

A 33-year-old woman is raped and left for dead on a motorway embankment in Salford as she walks home. She recalls causing a “deep scratch” to her attacker’s face. Andrew Malkinson is visited by police officers the next day who see he has no scratch. He is arrested two weeks later and then picked out of a video lineup.

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Police and CPS had key DNA evidence 16 years before Andrew Malkinson cleared of rape

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Exclusive: No action taken despite 2007 discovery of searchable male DNA profile on rape victim’s top that did not match Malkinson’s

Police and prosecutors in the Andrew Malkinson case knew there was another man’s DNA on the victim’s clothes in 2007 – three years after he was wrongly convicted of rape – but he remained in prison for another 13 years.

Malkinson was cleared by the appeal court last month after spending 17 years in prison for a 2003 rape he did not commit. His exoneration came after fresh DNA testing linked another man to the crime.

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‘More than annoying’: German foreign minister abandons Oceania trip after plane problems

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The Airbus A340 taking Annalena Baerbock to the region twice had to turn back to Abu Dhabi after refuelling

Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has been forced to abandon a trip to Oceania after a problem with her government plane twice forced it to return to Abu Dhabi.

Baerbock set off from Berlin on Sunday, but a mechanical problem with her ageing German air force Airbus A340’s landing flaps meant it had to turn back to Abu Dhabi after a refuelling stop there. The aircraft took off again on Monday night, but the technical problem resurfaced and the plane had to return to the Emirati capital again.

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Charities and experts call for overhaul of ‘broken’ UK sick pay system

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Coalition urges health secretary to back changes as long-term sickness levels reach record high

A coalition of charities and health experts has called for an overhaul of the UK’s “broken” sick pay system, as the number of people prevented from working by long-term sickness reached a record high.

The health secretary, Steve Barclay, was urged in a letter to support changes that the campaign says would not just address widening health inequalities but also benefit the economy.

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Norfolk and Suffolk police admit breach involving personal data of 1,230 people

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Information about victims of crime, witnesses and suspects included with freedom of information responses, forces say

Two police forces in England have admitted mishandling the sensitive data of victims, witnesses and suspects in cases including domestic abuse incidents, sexual offences, assaults, thefts and hate crime.

Norfolk and Suffolk police said the data of 1,230 people was included in files responding to freedom of information requests and apologised.

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Labour says extra 900 beds for NHS just a ‘sticking plaster’ amid record waiting times – UK politics live

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Wes Streeting says announcement of £250m to provide 900 extra beds ‘comes nowhere near the 12,000 beds’ cut in the last 13 years

Back on the PSNI data leak for a second, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has questioned how the details of PSNI officers and staff were all kept in one system.

“What’s happened, why it’s happened, I don’t know, I don’t get it – how 10,000 people were all in one system, particularly intelligence people – but I’m sure that will all come out in the wash,” PA Media reports he told Newstalk.

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Teesside woman accused of carrying out own abortion pleads not guilty

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Bethany Cox, 22, will face trial next year over offences alleged to have taken place during first Covid lockdown in 2020

A 22-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging she illegally administered drugs in order to procure an abortion.

Bethany Cox, of Stockton-on-Tees appeared before the recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Watson KC, at Teesside crown court.

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Harvey Nichols boss resigns after strategy dispute with owner

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Manju Malhotra, who joined retailer 25 years ago, is understood to have disagreed over pace of change

The boss of Harvey Nichols has quit the retailer she first joined 25 years ago after tensions over its strategy, and a member of its owning family will take the reins.

Manju Malhotra started at the Knightsbridge store in London in 1998 as a newly qualified accountant and worked her way up through the ranks before becoming chief executive in January 2020, just before the Covid pandemic forced stores to shut.

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EU denies reports it has rejected UK deal to return people who cross Channel

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Ursula von der Leyen aide reported to have ruled out ‘returns agreement’ in leaked copy of memo

The EU has rejected reports that it is not open to a new deal with the UK on returning people who have crossed the Channel, after a leak of purported discussions between London and Brussels.

A leaked copy of a memo on discussions with the UK’s national security adviser, Sir Tim Barrow, was reported to have included mention of an aide to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, ruling out a post-Brexit “returns agreement”.

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UK should finally acknowledge role in 1953 Iran coup, says David Owen

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Former foreign secretary says doing so would benefit both reform movement in country and Britain’s credibility

The UK should finally acknowledge its leading role in the 1953 coup that toppled Iran’s last democratically elected leader, for the sake of Britain’s credibility and the Iranian reform movement, a former foreign secretary has said.

The US formally admitted its role 10 years ago with the declassification of a large volume of intelligence documents, which made clear that the ousting of the elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosadegh, 70 years ago this week was a joint CIA-MI6 endeavour. The formal UK government position is to refuse to comment on an intelligence matter.

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Bibby Stockholm: Home Office ‘should accept blame’ for delay in removing people

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Mayor of Portland says ‘buck stops with Suella Braverman’ after it took three days to inform ministers about outbreak

The Home Office should accept responsibility for failing to immediately remove asylum seekers from a giant barge after the detection of a dangerous bacteria, the mayor of Portland has said.

Carralyn Parkes said the “the buck stops with Suella [Braverman]” after Whitehall briefings over the weekend claimed that contractors on the Bibby Stockholm were to blame for delays as it took three days to inform ministers about the outbreak of legionella.

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UK universities face more strikes unless employers resume talks, union warns

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University and College Union is preparing a new ballot that could lead to marking boycott continuing and strikes lasting into 2024

Universities across the UK will face another round of strikes next month unless employers agree to return to the negotiating table, the University and College Union has warned.

A marking boycott that has left tens of thousands of students without their degree result this summer will continue, the union said, while preparations will get under way for a new strike ballot to renew the union’s mandate.

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Legionella on the Bibby Stockholm barge: five questions for Home Office

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Many issues remain to be resolved after asylum seekers were evacuated on Friday because of a potentially deadly bacteria

The Home Office’s decision to use the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate asylum seekers generated controversy long before the first person set foot onboard.

But issues with its use came to a head on Friday when the government confirmed the asylum seekers were being evacuated just days after moving in because of legionella, a potentially deadly bacteria, being found in its water system. While officials have provided a plan to use an RAF base instead, many questions remain.

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Keir Starmer urged to defend lawyers after Tories’ ‘targeted campaign’

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Exclusive: Martin Forde KC says fellow professionals are ‘bewildered’ at silence over case of Jacqueline McKenzie

Keir Starmer is facing calls to defend the legal profession against government attacks on “lefty lawyers”, amid further concerns for the safety of an immigration solicitor subjected to a “targeted campaign” by the Conservative party.

Martin Forde KC, the senior lawyer commissioned by Starmer to investigate the Labour party’s culture, said legal professionals from across the political spectrum had expressed their bewilderment that the Labour leader had not said anything after such personal attacks, even after former Conservative law officers criticised the political rhetoric aimed at “lefty lawyers” on Friday.

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Keir Starmer accuses Tories of ‘moving goalposts’ on NHS cancer care

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Proposals to ‘streamline’ treatment, which government says are clinically led, would cut number of targets from nine to three

Keir Starmer has accused the government of “moving the goalposts” as the number of NHS cancer waiting time targets is expected to be reduced.

The government has been consulting on the proposed measures to streamline NHS cancer care, which would replace the nine existing cancer targets with just three. The target of all patients seeing a specialist within two weeks of an urgent referral for cancer tests by the GP is expected to be scrapped.

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Dissident republicans obtained leaked police data, says PSNI chief

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Force’s chief constable believes thousands of officers’ personal details are in paramilitary hands

Republican paramilitaries have obtained the information that leaked in a Police Service of Northern Ireland data breach, according to the force’s chief constable.

Simon Byrne said on Monday that he believed dissident republicans had the dataset that mistakenly disclosed the personal details of more than 10,000 officers and staff last week.

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UK should embrace foreign students or lose them to rival countries, warns Ucas chief

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Many institutions have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students to help cover costs

Britain should warmly welcome international students joining universities across the country or risk losing out to the US, Canada and Australia, the higher education admissions chief has said.

The intervention came amid concerns that domestic students hoping to begin undergraduate courses this autumn could lose out to international applicants. Some courses in clearing in the run-up to A-level results day this week are available only to overseas students.

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