Greenpeace urges Labour to ‘fulfil international obligations’ as critics question accuracy of official data
The UK’s worst methane hotspots include the last coalmine, livestock farm clusters, landfills, power plants and North Sea oil and gas wells, according to an analysis.
The process has also thrown up serious doubts over the UK’s ability to calculate its methane emissions.
Continue reading...Samaritans charity calls on government to invest in suicide prevention as it has with smoking reduction
Ministers have been urged to treat suicide as a public health crisis after the rate at which people killed themselves in England and Wales reached the highest level in more than two decades.
The official figures, described by the suicide prevention charity Samaritans as “worse than expected”, showed 6,069 suicides were registered in the two nations in 2023, up from 5,642 in 2022 and the highest rate since 1999.
Continue reading...Campaigners fear increase by £149 in energy price cap by Ofgem will put more pressure on households
Households will begin the run-up to winter with a sharp increase in their energy bills after the industry regulator increased its cap on energy prices by 9.5% from October.
Under the new price cap, the average annual energy bill will rise to £1,717 a year for gas and electricity, up £149 from its current level of £1,568, which has been in place since July.
Continue reading...Design with bees on reverse, part of collection inspired by plants and animals, was voted people’s favourite
The first £1 coin bearing the official portrait of King Charles III has entered general circulation as part of a collection inspired by plants and animals found across the four nations of the United Kingdom.
The latest design, featuring two bees, has been issued to Post Offices and banks, with nearly 3m coins making their way into tills and pockets.
Continue reading...Children’s commissioner finds wide disparity with white counterparts in year to June 2023, with 88% of searches aimed at finding drugs
Black children are four times more likely to be strip-searched by police officers across England and Wales than their white counterparts, according to the latest nationwide figures disclosed by a watchdog.
The children’s commissioner also found that children under the age of 15 are a bigger proportion of those subjected to intimate searches, official figures from the year to June 2023 showed. Fewer than half of all searches of children in that year (45%) were conducted in the presence of an appropriate adult.
Continue reading...Number of pupils accepted by ‘high tariff’ providers passes 100,000, after better than expected A-level results and fewer international students
Sixth-formers are rushing to take up places at the most selective universities, with figures showing a substantial increase in the numbers enrolling compared with last year after receiving their A-level results.
Experts said that “high tariff” universities, including those in the Russell Group of research intensive universities, were allocating more places to UK school-leavers this year after recruiting fewer international students.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read about this year’s A-level results here
Private schools which could close as a result of the government’s plans to impose 20% VAT are already facing “big budget shortfalls”, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said.
She told Sky News:
Private schools are businesses that can make choices about how they manage their budgets, the level of fees that they charge, and ultimately, it’s about how attractive they are to families in terms of the numbers of students that are sent there.
We have seen private schools in recent years whack up their fees year on year, way beyond inflation, and that has priced out lots of people.
Overall, 425,680 applicants (all ages, all domiciles) have been accepted into university or college – an increase on 414,940 (+3%) in 2023.
In total, 376,470 students (all ages, all domiciles) have been accepted at their first (UCAS ‘firm’) choice, a 4% increase on last year. This represents 82% of those holding an offer who received their decision this morning up from 79% in 2023.
The overall number of accepted international students stands at 51,170, in line with 51,210 in 2023. However, accepted applicants from China are slightly down compared to last year – 10,950 (-6%).
The top three subjects with the largest increase in total placed applicants are engineering and technology (+11% on last year), architecture, building and planning (+9%) and law (+9%).
Acceptances for UK students (all ages) to nursing have risen slightly compared to 2023, with 18,450 applicants securing a place (up 1%). This still represents a decline from the peak seen during the pandemic.
I’m particularly thrilled to see free school meals students securing a place at university or college in record numbers. I know how important it is to everyone working in education that every student, no matter their background, has the opportunity to reach their full potential. Widening access and participation is not just about numbers; it’s about opening up doors and transforming the lives of students through higher education so they can pursue their passions and career aspirations.
Ucas is here to help all applicants take their next step, including students who received different results than expected, or those who are looking to change their mind.
Continue reading...Four firms including Northern and Greater Anglia unlawfully prosecuted more than 74,000 alleged fare dodgers
Tens of thousands of prosecutions for alleged fare dodging brought by train companies are to be quashed after a court ruling.
Four companies including Northern Trains and Greater Anglia unlawfully prosecuted more than 74,000 passengers in England and Wales using the single justice procedure (SJP), which allowed fast-track magistrates hearings on fare evasion cases to be held behind closed doors.
Continue reading...There are stark contrasts between north and south England, in Northern Ireland and Wales, and between private and state schools
Many students in England receiving their A-level grades on Thursday will be happy after overall results showed an increase in the number of As and A*s, exceeding not only last year’s results, but those recorded before the disruption caused by the pandemic. Nevertheless, disparities remain between northern and southern England, and in Northern Ireland and Wales where results fell compared with last year, as well as between private and state schools.
It is the second year in England that A-level and GCSE assessment has returned to pre-pandemic norms. Exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 after Covid closed schools for long periods, and A-level grades based on teachers’ predictions led to a sharp spike in top results.
Continue reading...‘Pioneering’ facility will extract precious metal from up to 4,000 tonnes of scrap circuit boards a year
The Royal Mint has unveiled a “pioneering” factory that will recover gold from electronic waste, creating a more sustainable source of the precious metal for the coin manufacturer’s luxury jewellery line.
The factory in south Wales, which has been under construction since March 2022, is designed to extract gold from up to 4,000 tonnes a year of circuit boards sourced in the UK from electronics including phones, laptops and TVs.
Continue reading...Mural featuring disgraced presenter also painted over in his home village of Llangennech, Carmarthenshire
A plaque honouring Huw Edwards at Cardiff Castle has been removed after the disgraced presenter pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children.
Cardiff council took away the wall-mounted plaque after Edwards admitted to having 41 indecent images of children, sent to him by another man on WhatsApp.
Continue reading...Site in Pembrokeshire suggests area was more militarised than previously thought, says expert who made discovery
A previously unknown Roman fort discovered in Pembrokeshire in Wales overturns assumptions that the area’s indigenous Celtic tribe was on peaceful terms with the Roman invaders.
The site, which has excited archaeologists, had been hidden until now beneath an enormous, overgrown field. It explains why the land had been unsuccessful for farming: the farmer kept hitting stone.
Continue reading...Morgan was only candidate to put herself forward to replace Vaughan Gething as Welsh Labour leader
Eluned Morgan has been confirmed as the new leader of Welsh Labour and is to become the first female first minister of Wales.
Lady Morgan, 57, the health secretary in the Labour-led Welsh government, was the only candidate to put herself forward to replace Vaughan Gething.
Continue reading...St James’s Park in central London records highest reading, with health alerts in place across the Midlands, eastern and southern England
UK temperatures have reached their highest point of the year so far, the Met Office has confirmed, with 31.9C recorded at St James’s Park in central London.
The high temperatures, which were recorded largely along the eastern half of the country, came as the majority of schools in England and Wales closed for the summer.
Continue reading...Northumbrian village was named as nation’s favourite, just ahead of Portmeirion and St Andrews
Bamburgh, the Northumbrian village known for its sprawling sand dunes and imposing castle, has retained its title as the UK’s best seaside destination for the fourth consecutive year.
A survey of 4,700 people by the consumer group Which? placed the Northumberland coastal village as the nation’s favourite, ahead of Portmeirion in Gwynedd and St Andrews in Fife.
Continue reading...Resignation comes after four Welsh ministers stepped down in apparent attempt to force his hand
Vaughan Gething has announced he is quitting as first minister of Wales following a brief and turbulent period in the job after his fate was sealed by the resignation of four of his ministers.
Gething has faced a series of controversies, including over donations and claims he sought to delete sensitive messages, since he took over from Mark Drakeford as first minister and the leader of Welsh Labour in March.
Continue reading...His resignation comes after four Welsh ministers stepped down from their posts in an apparently calculated move to force his hand
The JD Vance comment about Britain supposedly becoming an Islamist country under Labour (see 8.42am) is an example of the extreme political rhetoric that has coarsened politics on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years. Yesterday Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced that she will chair a meeting of the Defending Democracy taskforce to consider how election candidates are being exposed to more aggression and intimidation than in the past.
This morning Brendan Cox, whose wife, the Labour MP Jo Cox, was murdered by a far-right terrorist during the Brexit referendum in 2016, told the Today programme that he thought the problem was getting worse. He said:
There was a wide range of intimidation, but I do think it was another level.
Having spoken to lots of MPs about it, there was a sense that something had changed, that they felt hunted, that they felt unable to go about campaigning – that there were men in balaclavas, there were fireworks being thrown, there were tyres being slashed …
Continue reading...Shabana Mahmood says Tories left country threatened with total breakdown of law and order
Rishi Sunak and his former ministers are “the guilty men” who should be held responsible for “the most disgraceful dereliction of duty” by failing to address the prisons crisis, the justice secretary has said.
Speaking as she set out plans to release thousands of inmates early to ease pressure in overcrowded jails, Shabana Mahmood said the Conservatives “had left the country threatened with a total breakdown of law and order”.
Continue reading...Government to announce terms which could free more than 20,000 inmates in coming months to manage capacity
The “shocking” prisons crisis is even worse than feared, Keir Starmer has said as the government prepares to release tens of thousands of inmates early in a bid to prevent jails becoming full.
The prime minister suggested he was opposed to freeing violent criminals and sex offenders when ministers announce the terms of a new prisoner release scheme for England and Wales on Friday.
Continue reading...Labour leader said he wanted to restore service and respect in politics and ‘end the era of noisy performance’
Clive Myrie is opening the BBC’s election night coverage. He is co-presenting with Laura Kuenssberg.
No 10 has also announced knightoods for four Tories in the dissolution honours – Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM; Julian Smith, the former chief whip and Northern Ireland secretary; Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary; and Alister Jack, the outgoing Scottish secretary – and one damehood, for Thérèse Coffey, the former deputy PM.
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