Ministers also considering lowering drink-drive limit among measures to reduce road deaths and injuries
Older drivers could face mandatory eye tests and the drink-drive limit could be cut as the government tries to reduce the number of road deaths.
In a major overhaul of the UK’s road safety laws, ministers are also reportedly considering tougher penalties for uninsured drivers and failing to wear a seatbelt.
Continue reading...US carmaker makes move for licence that would allow it to provide energy to domestic and business premises
Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.
The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.
Continue reading...Women’s safety campaigners welcome plan to switch from exclusion zones that ‘have made victims feel trapped’
Restriction zones aimed at “locking” violent offenders – rather than their victims – into specific areas when they are released from prison are to be introduced by the government in England and Wales.
At the moment, exclusion zones are often used to keep an offender away from their victim’s home but many campaigners for women’s safety have long called for this to be flipped.
Increased tagging for domestic perpetrators.
Requiring judges to flag domestic abuse at sentencing so prisons, probation and police can better identify and manage abusers.
Expanding specialist domestic abuse courts.
Bolstering transparency for victims at sentencing – including the provision of free copies of judges’ sentencing remarks for victims of rape and other sexual offences.
Continue reading...Emergency measures bailed out jails at last minute as No 10 refused to cut prisoner numbers until ‘cliff edge’ reached, former watchdog reports
The criminal justice system was within days of collapse on three occasions before being bailed out by “last-minute emergency measures”, an independent review by a former prisons watchdog has found.
Dame Anne Owers said the prison system, under pressure from overcrowding, was “in crisis” between autumn 2023 and the summer of 2024, but No 10 under Rishi Sunak refused to cut the numbers in jail until “the next predictable cliff edge”.
Continue reading...Yellow weather warning for wind in Scotland, Northern Ireland, north Wales and north of England from 6am
Storm Floris is forecast to bring unseasonably strong winds to the UK on Monday, the Met Office has said.
The strongest winds are expected during the afternoon and night across Scotland, with gusts of up to 85mph possible on exposed coasts and hills.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing urges ministers to improve 3.6% offer to avoid industrial action ballot later this year
Nine out of 10 nurses have rejected a 3.6% pay award for this year and warned they could strike later this year unless their salaries are improved.
In an indicative vote among members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 91% said the 3.6% rise was not enough.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns say party could slide into irrelevance if it chooses new leader with ‘polarising’ approach
The Green party risks going into reverse if they elect Zack Polanski as leader, his two opponents have said, arguing that his promised brand of “eco-populism” would prove polarising, divisive and likely to put off more moderate voters.
Speaking to the Guardian before the opening of the month-long leadership vote, which begins on Friday, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns said the party in England and Wales was at “a crossroads”, and could miss the chance to hold the balance of power at the next election.
Continue reading...Total remuneration at companies in England and Wales – many of them under scrutiny for sewage discharge – was £15m in 2024-25
The pay of water company chief executives in England and Wales rose by 5% in the last financial year to an average of £1.1m, despite a ban on bonuses for several companies and widespread outrage over the sector’s poor performance.
Total pay reported by water companies reached £15m in 2024-25, up 5% on £13.8m the previous year, according to Guardian analysis of 14 companies’ annual reports.
Continue reading...Matt Wrack wins ballot for NASUWT general secretary after legal challenge to executive’s earlier decision
Matt Wrack, a former leader of the firefighters’ union, has been elected as permanent general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union after a ballot in which less than 5% of eligible members voted.
He beat his challenger, Neil Butler, winning 5,249 votes to his rival’s 3,126, after the NASUWT’s first contested leadership election for a generation.
Continue reading...Initial £15.5m will go to schemes such as launch of large regional park to improving green spaces along canals
A coalition of environmental and heritage bodies has launched a billion-pound mission to bring nature into the heart of urban areas in the UK.
The first phase of the Nature Towns and Cities initiative will involve £15.5m being invested in 40 towns and cities across the four nations.
Continue reading...Food Standards Agency warns that the drinks can cause decreased consciousness and low blood sugar
Children under seven should not drink slushies containing glycerol because of the serious health risks they can cause, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.
Glycerol is a naturally occurring alcohol and sugar substitute that helps slushies maintain their texture by preventing liquid from freezing solid.
Continue reading...Stephen Cottrell tells General Synod assisted dying means assuming ‘authority over death that belongs to God alone’
Members of the Church of England should work to “withstand and even turn back” the forces of public opinion “that risk making … assisted dying a reality in our national life”, the archbishop of York has said.
Speaking to the church’s General Synod on Friday, Stephen Cottrell said permitting assisted dying would change “forever the contract between doctor and patient, pressurising the vulnerable and assuming an authority over death that belongs to God alone”.
Continue reading...Almost three in 10 conceptions ended in legal terminations, ONS figures show, as provider says women struggling to access contraception
The number of abortions in England and Wales reached a record high in 2022, with a leading provider stating that women are facing “significant barriers” in access to contraception.
Almost three in 10 conceptions ended in legal abortions in the two nations in 2022, up from about two in 10 a decade earlier, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Continue reading...Charities say more judge-only trials in England and Wales could lead to more miscarriages of justice
Removing the right to a jury trial for more offences would disadvantage people of colour and other minorities and lead to more miscarriages of justice, reformers have warned.
Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review of the criminal courts in England and Wales is expected to be published this week and recommend the creation of intermediate courts, sitting without a jury, to try some offences.
Continue reading...Reduction from 43 forces to as few as 12 could save money and end ‘postcode lottery’ for crime victims, leaders say
Police chiefs in England and Wales have told ministers that the number of forces should be cut to end “the postcode lottery for victims of crime”, the Guardian has learned.
They believe a reduction from the current 43 forces would save money, cut overheads and boost crime-fighting efforts.
Continue reading...Oasis fans were overjoyed by the performance of the reunited band, a ‘non-stop wild’ set that brought back fond memories
The atmosphere on the concourses in Cardiff after the first Oasis gig of their long-awaited reunion tour was one of speechlessness that the once-estranged Gallagher brothers had pulled it off.
Leigh, from Cardiff, could hardly find the words to describe the two and a half hours he had just witnessed. “They were quiet at the beginning, then the crescendos went wild, then they were non-stop wild,” he said. “It went supernova – crazy. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know what to say – I was 18 again.”
Continue reading...Focusing heavily on their 1990s output with only one song from their last four albums, Liam and Noel Gallagher performed together for the first time since 2009
Swaggering, cocksure and incredibly loud, Oasis burst back on to the live music scene on Friday night with an accomplished – if ever so slightly distanced – debut gig on their reunion world tour.
Playing Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the six-piece impressed at the start of what is arguably the most anticipated tour of the century, focusing overwhelmingly on songs from their 1990s heyday – only one song, Little By Little, was taken from their final four albums.
Continue reading...Estimate by disability charity published on eve of MPs’ vote on restricting welfare payments for new claimants
The extra cost of being disabled is on course to rise by almost 12% to £14,688 in five years, according to a new estimate published on the eve of a controversial vote to restrict welfare payments for new claimants.
A threatened rebellion by more than 120 Labour MPs forced the government into a last-minute climbdown on its welfare bill, by exempting claimants to planned cuts in personal independence payments (Pip), England’s main disability payment.
Continue reading...‘There isn’t a budget for this,’ health secretary says after MPs vote to legalise procedure in England and Wales
Wes Streeting has voiced doubts over whether the NHS can afford to establish an assisted dying service, after MPs passed a bill to legalise the procedure last week.
The health secretary was previously a supporter of assisted dying but switched sides last year, expressing concerns about the ethics of offering such a service before significant improvements could be made to the NHS.
Continue reading...Terminally ill people with less than six months to live will have right to choose procedure after approval from doctors and panel
Terminally ill people in England and Wales are to be given the right to an assisted death in a historic societal shift that will transform end-of-life care.
After months of argument, MPs narrowly voted in favour of a private member’s bill introduced by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, which could become law within four years.
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