Error and fraud rate for scheme estimated at between 5% and 10%, says HMRC chief
The government believes it may have paid out up to £3.5bn in wrong or fraudulent claims for the furlough scheme.
Jim Harra, the top civil servant at HM Revenue & Customs, said that his staff had calculated for the possibility that as much as 10% of the money might have gone to the wrong places.
Continue reading...Duke of Sussex says he will keep the 18th-century house as his UK residence
The Duke of Sussex has paid back £2.4m of taxpayers’ money used to renovate Frogmore Cottage, his spokesperson has said.
Harry and Meghan’s official residence was gifted to them by the Queen but required extensive renovation to make it habitable for the couple and their son, Archie.
Continue reading...Experts fear that France and the UK will follow the country’s rapid rise in new infections
Spain has become the first western European country to record more than half a million Covid-19 cases, logging a total of 525,549 infections as concerns also grow over the rise in cases in France and the UK.
The Spanish milestone comes amid a continuing surge in infections as millions of children begin returning to school after a six-month hiatus.
Continue reading...Rates growing fastest among those aged 10-29, and decreasing in the older age groups
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, implored young people to stick to the rules as Covid-19 infections in the UK rose to their highest levels since early May.
It is not known why case rates are higher among young people, but England-level data shows they are rising steeply.
Continue reading...Mykonos and Crete among islands from which travellers will have to isolate for two weeks from Wednesday
Seven Greek islands are being removed from England’s list of locations exempt from 14-day Covid quarantine, in a significant shift in the government’s travel corridor policy.
Speaking in the Commons on Monday, the UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that arrivals from the Greek islands will have to isolate for two weeks on their return to England from Wednesday at 4am but not those visiting the country’s mainland.
Continue reading...Grant Shapps says Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini and Zakynthos will be added on Wednesday
The Department for Transport press release about Grant Shapps’ announcement has now arrived. This is what it says about the inclusion of the seven Greek islands on the quarantine list for England.
The first changes under the new process were also made today, with seven Greek islands to be removed from exemption list – Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini and Zakynthos. People arriving in England from those islands from Wednesday 9 September 04.00am will need to self-isolate for two weeks. Data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England has indicated a significant risk to UK public health from those islands, leading to Ministers removing them from the current list of travel corridors.
At the same time, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has updated its travel advice for Greece to advise against all but essential travel to Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini and Zakynthos. The rest of Greece remains exempt from the FCDO’s advice against all non-essential international travel.
Shapps says he is not lifting quarantine for Spain’s Canary or Balearic islands.
He says there might have been a case for this when quarantine was imposed on Spain. But the number of cases in country has risen sharply, he says, and now it has 127 cases per 100,000. He say it is not safe to reduce quarantine for those islands.
Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini and Zakynthos removed from air corridor exemption list.
Continue reading...Leading epidemiologist warns over case rate in France; Scottish first minister said her government could ‘put brakes’ on lockdown easing
Fatigue, headache and fever are the most common symptoms of coronavirus in children, with few developing a cough or losing their sense of taste or smell, researchers have found, adding to calls for age-specific symptom checklists.
The NHS lists three symptoms as signs of Covid-19 in adults and children: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change in the sense of smell or taste.
Related: Fatigue and headache most common Covid symptoms in children – study
French people who reject mask-wearing are more likely to be older, educated women who support the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protest movement and the controversial virus specialist Didier Raoult, and would refuse to have a coronavirus vaccination if one were available, according to a new study.
They also describe themselves as free-thinkers who believe the government is meddling too much in their lives, have a distrust of public institutions and often support conspiracy theories, it found.
Related: French 'anti-maskers' most likely to be educated women in 50s, says study
Continue reading...Barbara Pomfret came to aid of group left homeless in Madrid after forced removal from UK
A British woman living in Spain who helped 11 Syrian asylum seekers who were left homeless and hungry on the streets of Madrid after being forcibly removed from the UK has said she is ashamed of the UK government’s behaviour.
The all-male group were left destitute after being put on a flight to Madrid by the Home Office last week. They had arrived in the UK in small boats from Calais and are part of a Home Office plan to remove almost 1,000 such arrivals.
Continue reading...Researchers call for age-based symptom checklists as virus presents differently in children
Fatigue, headache and fever are the most common symptoms of coronavirus in children, with few developing a cough or losing their sense of taste or smell, researchers have found, adding to calls for age-specific symptom checklists.
The NHS lists three symptoms as signs of Covid-19 in adults and children: a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, and a loss or change in the sense of smell or taste.
Continue reading...UK on collision course with EU and Ireland over unilateral powers for British ministers
Downing Street has defended plans to give British ministers unilateral powers over Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland, putting them on a collision course with the EU and Irish leaders in a week of crunch negotiations.
A No 10 spokesman said the measures were “limited and reasonable” and insisted the UK would remain compliant with the Northern Ireland protocol – despite anger from Brussels and Dublin at the plans leaked overnight.
Continue reading...WikiLeaks founder in court to face US accusations of stealing military secrets
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has appeared at the Old Bailey at the start of an extradition hearing on an 18-count US indictment that accuses him of recruiting hackers to steal military secrets.
Wearing a dark suit, tie and white shirt, Assange, 49, sat behind a glass security screen at the back of the court, his glasses pushed back on top of his head.
Continue reading...Police seal off area after Kesgrave high school pupil sustains serious injuries in shooting
A teenager has been arrested after a 15-year-old boy was shot on his way to school in Suffolk.
The victim, a pupil at Kesgrave high school, sustained serious injuries and was airlifted to Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, Suffolk police said.
Continue reading...The conditions appeared to cause structural changes that harmed memory and thinking
High blood pressure and diabetes bring about brain changes that impair thinking and memory, research suggests.
Doctors examined brain scans and medical data from 22,000 volunteers enrolled in the UK Biobank project and found significant structural changes in the grey and white matter among those with diabetes and high blood pressure.
Continue reading...Chairman says he is ‘not looking for scapegoats’ as inquiry hears of possible ‘missed opportunities’
The Manchester Arena bomber was spotted “praying” at the venue 50 minutes before he carried out the attack and asked what he had in his rucksack, the inquiry into the bombing has heard.
It was one of two possible “missed opportunities” to stop Salman Abedi in the hour before the bombing on 22 May 2017, the public inquiry into the attacks heard.
Continue reading...Labour calls on Matt Hancock to explain reasons behind increase and testing centre problems
The UK has recorded a massive rise in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus, amid concerns the government has lost control of the epidemic just as people are returning to work and universities prepare to reopen.
Labour has demanded the health secretary, Matt Hancock, give an urgent statement to the House of Commons to explain the increase and why some people are still being told to drive hundreds of miles to have a test.
Continue reading...Sean Williams was stabbed in the neck after intervening in fight at unlicensed event in Catford
A 34-year-old man was stabbed to death after intervening in a fight at an illegal rave in south London, the Metropolitan police have said.
Sean Williams was stabbed in the neck in the early hours of Sunday morning after attending an unlicensed music event at Culverley Road in Catford, the Met said.
Continue reading...Police say lone suspect still on loose after attacks in which one man died and seven people were injured
West Midlands police have released CCTV of a man they are seeking after a series of stabbings in Birmingham city centre left one man dead and seven people injured, two seriously.
The attacker responsible for the stabbings – which happened in four different areas over a two-hour period in the early hours of Sunday morning – was still at large, police confirmed.
Continue reading...The UK health secretary has commented on Sunday’s sharp rise in coronavirus cases, after nearly 3,000 more people tested positive. Matt Hancock said: 'The rise in the number of cases is concerning ... We've seen in other countries across the world and in Europe this sort of rise in the cases amongst younger people leading to a rise across the population as a whole'
Survivors and victims’ group ‘outraged’ by suggested sum per person for email error in May
Survivors of institutional sexual and physical abuse in Northern Ireland have rejected compensation offered to them in response to a damaging leak that exposed more than 500 of their names.
The Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia) group said on Sunday it was “outraged” by the offer of £1,500 per person as recompense for their identities being revealed earlier this year.
Continue reading...Gavin Barwell angered by David Frost’s suggestion that May government ‘blinked’ in negotiations
Theresa May’s former chief of staff has accused the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost, of having a “brass neck” after he said the UK government had “blinked first” in negotiations.
Gavin Barwell, a key member of the former prime minister’s negotiating team, said Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement was “95% the work of his predecessors” and a deal had only been secured by conceding to the EU’s demand for some customs checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of Great Britain, which May’s team had not agreed to.
Continue reading...