Category Archives: Society

Jailing shoplifters will not address root causes, says senior Tory

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Sir Bob Neill criticises government plan for failing to consider mental health and addiction problems of many offenders

Ministers cannot “warehouse” addicts and people with mental health problems who commit crimes such as shoplifting, a senior Conservative MP has said in response to a plan to give shoplifters mandatory sentences.

Sir Bob Neill, the chair of the Commons justice select committee, said the new policy would “pump low-level offenders” into almost-full jails at huge public expense and do nothing to change the “chaotic lives” of offenders.

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Homes proposal effort ‘to line’ Duke of Northumberland’s pockets, inquiry told

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Ralph Percy lost an application in 2021 to build 80 flats on part of his Grade I-listed Syon Park estate

An attempt by the Duke of Northumberland to replace allotments with dozens of new homes on his west London estate is simply an effort to line his “already deep pockets”, a public inquiry has heard.

Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, lost an application in October 2021 to build 80 flats on part of his Grade I-listed Syon Park estate after the council received more than 900 objections from local residents to the plans.

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Fix ‘endemic’ problems in youth custody, urges prisons watchdog

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Monitoring boards chief warns of poor conditions at four young offender institutions in England

A prisons watchdog has warned that poor conditions are “endemic” at four young offender institutions in England and urged ministers to take urgent action to improve them.

In her new role as the national chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs), Elisabeth Davies has taken the unusual step of writing a letter to the prisons minister, Damian Hinds, to raise serious concerns about the welfare of children in YOIs in England.

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Twenty years ago, Africa’s women’s treaty set a path to equality. We must be ready for the next steps

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The landmark Maputo protocol has led to huge gains in women’s rights, from abortion access to equal pay. But to go further will require political will and action

Signed 20 years ago, in the Mozambique city that bears its name, the Maputo protocol was a landmark treaty in the progress towards gender equality across Africa.

It promises equality and non-discrimination to women and girls in civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

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Exploitation of care workers in England is ‘appalling’, says government adviser

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Brian Bell says ministers have let social care become reliant on low-paid and vulnerable foreign workers

Ministers have allowed England’s creaking social care system to become too heavily reliant on low-paid foreign workers who are vulnerable to exploitation, the government’s migration adviser has warned.

In a strongly worded intervention, Prof Brian Bell, who has just been reappointed by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, as chair of the migration advisory committee (MAC), called the government’s tacit acceptance of exploitation in the sector “appalling”.

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Step to riches? Disused stairwell in London could be yours for just £20,000

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Estate agents selling Twickenham ‘property’ believe it could have development potential

If climbing the property ladder seems stressful to you, why not consider taking the stairs?

A disused four-storey stairwell at the back of a branch of Starbucks in south-west London has become the latest peculiar piece of property to go on sale in London’s feverish housing market.

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Revealed: how hidden delays blight cancer care in England and Wales

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Watchdog warns that admin errors, unexplained cancellations and delayed scan reports all contribute to longer waits for patients

Patients with suspected cancer are waiting months for diagnosis because of hidden waiting lists or falling into a “black hole” after referral, England’s patient champion warns this weekend.

Admin errors, unexplained cancellations and delayed scan reports are among factors contributing to longer waits, according to Healthwatch England, a committee of the Care Quality Commission.

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Ex-paratrooper completes 19,000-mile UK coastline walk, raising £500,000

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Chris Lewis began his walk while facing homelessness in 2017 and acquired a fiancee, baby son and dog en route

A former British paratrooper, who set out alone on a 19,000-mile UK coastline walk has completed the challenge, raising £500,000 for charity and returning home with a partner, dog and baby son in tow.

Chris Lewis, 43, was joined by hundreds of cheering supporters as he completed the final mile of his walk, which began on Llangennith beach on the Gower peninsula, near his home city of Swansea, south Wales, on 1 August 2017.

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Wes Streeting apologises to Labour MP who felt ostracised due to gender views

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MP said she felt ostracised and accused male colleagues of shouting her down for opposing transgender reforms

A senior member of the Labour frontbench has offered an apology to a fellow MP, Rosie Duffield, who has said she felt ostracised by the party because of her views on gender reforms.

Duffield had also accused male party colleagues of trying to shout her down in the Commons earlier this year when she spoke to back the government’s move to block gender reforms proposed in Scotland.

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Hospital admissions for life-threatening allergies more than double in England

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Number of people taken to hospital increased to 25,721 in 2022-23, from 12,361 two decades before

The number of people being admitted to hospital in England for life-threatening allergic reactions has more than doubled in the past 20 years, figures show, with an even higher rise in food-related cases.

There were 25,721 admissions to English hospitals for allergies and anaphylaxis in 2022-23, more than double the 12,361 two decades before, according to data obtained by the drugs regulator the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). For food-related anaphylaxis and other adverse reactions, the figures increased from 1,971 admissions in 2002-03 to 5,013 last year.

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Why English Heritage is encouraging adults to dress up

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Research shows our imaginations grow richer with age so the charity is giving grownups a chance to have fun

Parents are used to watching their children eagerly dress up as a knight or a gladiator before going bananas when they visit castles, forts and stately homes.

But English Heritage believes adults will also get more out of visiting their sites if they leave their inhibitions aside and don a Roman toga or medieval chainmail for the day.

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Make nurseries exempt from VAT and business rates to boost wages, say MPs

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Committee also says government has more work to do to tackle structural problems in early years childcare

Ministers should remove business rates and VAT from nurseries so that they are able to pay their staff more, a group of MPs have recommended.

In the spring budget, Jeremy Hunt pledged to reform the childcare system, including by offering parents of children aged nine months to three years 30 hours a week of free childcare in term-time, which was expected to cost £4bn. The government claimed that it would reduce childcare costs for a family by almost 60%.

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Sciensus’s licence partly suspended after death of cancer patient

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Regulator acts after firm paid millions by NHS for healthcare gave patients wrong chemotherapy dose

Britain’s health regulator has partly suspended the manufacturing licence of Sciensus, a private company paid millions by the NHS to provide vital medicines, after the death of a cancer patient who was given the wrong dose of chemotherapy.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had taken “immediate” action under regulation 28 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 law “where it appears to the MHRA that in the interests of safety the licence should be suspended”.

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‘Catastrophic’ forecast shows 9m people in England with major illnesses by 2040

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Cases of dementia, diabetes, cancer, depression and kidney disease expected to soar as growing numbers reach old age

Nine million people in England will be living with major illnesses such as dementia, diabetes, cancer, depression and kidney disease by 2040, according to projections health leaders called “catastrophic”.

In a rapidly ageing population, the number living with serious diseases will rise from almost one in six of the adult population in 2019, to nearly one in five by 2040, with huge implications for the NHS, social care and the public finances.

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Labour vows to ‘modernise, simplify and reform’ Gender Recognition Act

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Party chair says since act was passed by party in 2004, there is now a ‘much better understanding of the barriers trans people face’

Labour will overhaul an “outdated” law to make it easier for transgender people to transition while maintaining protections for single-sex spaces, the party’s chair and shadow equalities secretary has said.

Writing in the Guardian, Anneliese Dodds accused the Conservative party of seeking to stoke “culture wars” by pinning its hopes for electoral success on “demonising vulnerable LGBT+ people”.

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‘Absolutely physically knackered’: UK workers on intensifying conditions

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Teachers have to fill in social worker gaps while postal workers report being physically exhausted after having to walk miles with heavy bags at speed

When Karen Wilson started work as a secondary school teacher almost 40 years ago she had plenty of energy for life outside of school. She loved singing in choirs and opera groups and enjoyed her evenings.

But in the last decade that all changed. “The intensity has definitely increased,” she said. “Teaching becomes your whole life because you don’t have any energy to do anything else.”

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People at increased risk of burnout due to more demanding workdays, TUC says

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Exclusive: More than half of workers in England and Wales report work is becoming more intense, according to polling

People are facing more intense working days than ever, with less time for their private lives and an increased risk of burnout, according to research by the TUC.

More than half of workers (55%) reported that work has become more intense and demanding, according to polling for the union body.

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Scottish prisons criticised over handling of inmates in solitary confinement

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Inspectorate calls for urgent improvements, particularly in treatment of prisoners with mental health problems

Scotland’s prisons are repeatedly breaching the human rights of inmates put in solitary confinement, particularly those with severe mental health problems, the prisons inspectorate has said.

Prisons are routinely failing to provide segregated inmates with at least two hours of human contact a day, are using segregation to “contain” inmates with severe mental health issues who need specialist care, and are failing to properly reintegrate troubled prisoners, it found.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Heathrow failed to meet minimum accessibility standards, CAA report finds

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Airport only one to be rated as ‘poor’ and ‘needs improvement’ over all four quarters in year to March

Heathrow failed to meet the minimum accessibility standards for disabled passengers in the year to March, the sector’s regulator has said.

The airport was the only one in the UK to be rated as “poor” and “needs improvement” by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over all four quarters in the period, according to the report.

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‘Gut-churning’: anger as Hungarian president addresses major women’s rights conference

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Katalin Novák, an anti-abortionist and promoter of pro-natalist policies, spoke at the opening of the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda

Some leading delegates at a women’s rights conference in Rwanda have expressed shock at the appearance there of the Hungarian president, an anti-abortionist criticised for an anti-equality stance.

Katalin Novák, an important player in the international “anti-gender movement”, was invited by the Rwandan government to speak at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali this week, where reproductive rights is one of the areas under discussion.

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