East Midlands passengers to test digital tickets that will automatically charge best fares at end of day
Train passengers in the East Midlands are to test technology that will let them tap in and out for journeys and be charged the best fare for their trip at the end of the day.
Trials of digital rail tickets based on GPS tracking will begin on Monday as part of the government’s plan to improve the rail network’s complex fare system.
Continue reading...Ruling has bought government time to plan closures but Farage and Tories have more fuel for their grievances
Protesters were already gathering outside the Bell hotel by Friday evening with union flags and St George’s flags waving. This court ruling was never going to end as a quiet legal moment.
For the Home Office, the court of appeal’s decision was a practical win. If the ruling had gone the other way, the government would have been forced to rehouse 138 asylum seekers in a matter of days, opening the floodgates to similar legal challenges from other councils. Since there is scant alternative accommodation available, this ruling buys the government time.
Continue reading...Judges say decision to allow injunction was ‘seriously flawed’ and contained several ‘errors in principle’
More than 130 people seeking asylum will be allowed to remain in the Bell hotel in Epping after the court of appeal overturned a high court ban on housing them there, leaving police braced for further angry protests.
While the decision was a technical victory for the Home Office, as other local councils could have brought legal challenges against the use of hotels, it has already been seized on by Labour’s political opponents.
Continue reading...Outsourcing firm Mitie listed several roles aimed at providing ‘safe and productive’ environment for detainees
Jobs aimed at improving the wellbeing of people at an immigration detention centre, including holding workshops in floristry and balloon craft, are unnecessary and should be removed, a government minister has said.
The outsourcing firm Mitie, which manages the Heathrow immigration removal centre (IRC) in west London, listed several roles online, including a painting and decorating tutor and gym manager, for salaries ranging between £31,000 and £38,000.
Continue reading...Experts say country needs ‘wake up call’ with levels far below those needed for herd immunity
England needs to “wake up” to its faltering infant vaccination programme, experts have warned, as it was revealed that one in five children start primary school unprotected from serious infectious diseases.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the target for vaccine uptake among children in order to achieve herd immunity is 95%. But figures for 2024-25 released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday show that no childhood vaccine has met this requirement.
Continue reading...Home Office and the Bell hotel owners are challenging Epping Forest council’s injunction to stop 138 asylum seekers being housed
A ban on housing asylum seekers at a protest-hit hotel would have a “serious impact” on the government’s ability to house refugees and could incite further demonstrations, the court of appeal has heard.
The Home Office and the owners of the Bell hotel in Essex have launched an appeal against the temporary injunction granted to Epping Forest district council (EFDC) last week.
Continue reading...Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu denies sexually assaulting two teenagers and a woman in Epping last month
An Ethiopian man who became the focus of far-right demonstrations outside a hotel in Epping after being accused of sexually assaulting two teenagers has told a court he did not touch the girls.
“I’m not a wild animal. I can’t do these kind of things,” Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an asylum seeker housed at the Bell hotel in Epping, told his trial at Colchester magistrates court on Wednesday.
Continue reading...British Transport Police say alleged victim ‘did not wish to provide a statement to the investigation’
The far-right activist Tommy Robinson will not face charges over allegations he punched a man to the ground at a London train station, police and prosecutors have announced.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm after the incident on 28 July at St Pancras train station.
Continue reading...NHS may struggle to cope with more than 6 million predicted new cases over next 15 years, study shows
Cancer cases are projected to surge in England by 2040, with a person diagnosed every two minutes, up from one every four minutes in the 1970s.
More than 6 million new cases of the disease are predicted to be diagnosed over the next 15 years, with the NHS at risk of being unable to cope unless action is taken to prevent more cases and diagnose the disease earlier, when it is more treatable.
Continue reading...Justyna Czoska, a horse riding instructor, and her partner, Wojtek Kowalkowski, died along with a third person
A couple who died in a helicopter crash during the bank holiday on the Isle of Wight have been named by relatives.
Justyna Czoska, 52, a horse riding instructor, and her partner, Wojtek Kowalkowski, 49, from Bloxham, Oxfordshire, died after the aircraft crash-landed at about 9.24am on Monday between Shanklin and Whiteley Bank. The helicopter had taken off from Sandown airport 20 minutes earlier.
Continue reading...Officers step up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after teenage boy shot with air rifle
Dorset police have launched an investigation and stepped up patrols for Bournemouth’s Jewish community after a wave of antisemitic hate crimes in the seaside town.
Over the weekend, a teenage boy was shot with an air rifle and injured, and swastika graffiti appeared on buildings, police said.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Legislation that will include Texas-style scheme to shorten jail time expected to be rolled out this year
Ministers will legislate next month to abolish most short prison sentences, toughen up community punishments and introduce a Texas-inspired system whereby inmates can earn early release as part of an attempt to avert another prison crisis.
Government sources said the legislation, which will bring about the biggest shake-up in sentencing laws in England and Wales for three decades, would be introduced once MPs had returned to the Commons in September.
Continue reading...Ian Comfort calls for government to recognise cultural importance of event and guarantee its sustainable future
About 2 million people are expected to take to the streets this weekend at the annual Notting Hill carnival for its mix of music, food and Caribbean culture, but for the man who runs it, there is a sense of relief to see it taking place at all.
The chair of Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, Ian Comfort, told the Guardian that the event needed to secure a sustainable future after a year of funding rows, public disagreements with the Met police, and negative press after violence last year.
Continue reading...Zaher Zaarour, 26, to appear in court after death of 41-year-old Shazad Khan in north-west London
A man has been charged with murder after an ice-cream seller died in London, police said.
Shazad Khan, 41, was pronounced dead at the scene after officers responded to reports of an altercation in Monks Park, Wembley, at 6.10pm on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Experts talk of ‘resit crisis’ as number accounts for nearly a quarter of maths and English entries, an all-time high
This year’s GCSE results in England delivered something that teachers and policymakers had craved in recent years: stability, at least for most 16-year-olds.
Covid and its aftermath had sent GCSE results seesawing until this summer, when results were more similar to the previous year than at any time since the pandemic struck in 2020.
Continue reading...People with disease that has spread have been found to live twice as long when given treatment hailed as ‘hopeful’
More than 1,000 patients living with bladder cancer in England will be eligible for a treatment which can double survival rates from the disease.
In England, 18,000 people are diagnosed with bladder cancer each year, and only about 10% of people with stage 4 bladder cancer will survive five years or more after they are diagnosed.
Continue reading...Organisers say they are just being patriotic but some suspect far right is behind ‘dangerous’ lamp-post movement
“This is NOT racist never has been never will be,” reads the fundraising page of a group calling itself the Wythall Flaggers, which by Tuesday afternoon had raised more than £2,000, mostly in small donations of £5 and £10. “We have members of the community of all ethnicities and religions stopping by and praising what we are doing so please don’t call this racist.”
The money, according to the page’s organiser, will be used for “coating the local community in England flags as this is home and we should be patriotic and proud … We need help to cover every street in Wythall with our beautiful St George’s cross.”
Continue reading...Education secretary urges schools to change uniform requirements as costs force many parents into debt
Parents in England are skipping meals and turning to buy-now-pay-later services such as Klarna in order to afford school uniforms before the autumn term, according to a survey.
Almost half (47%) of the 2,000 parents who took part in the poll said they were worried about uniform costs, which can run into hundreds of pounds due to expensive branded items, while more than a quarter (29%) said they had forgone food or heating to pay for uniforms.
Continue reading...Shadow minister posts picture of himself at protest outside Essex hotel that has become anti-immigration flashpoint
Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist.
Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: “Send them home.”
Continue reading...Conservationists flag dangers of human interaction after ‘Reggie’ filmed playing with family
The public has been warned to keep away from an injured dolphin that was filmed dancing and playing with swimmers off the coast of Dorset earlier this month.
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO), a government-backed agency responsible for England’s seas, said it was “increasingly concerned about a lone dolphin spotted in Lyme Bay, Dorset, following multiple potential marine wildlife disturbance offences observed online and shared on social media”.
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