Category Archives: England

Wealthiest English private schools spend below 6% on means-tested bursaries, research finds

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Data shows 200 independent schools devote fraction of fee income to support disadvantaged pupils based on family income

England’s wealthiest private schools devote only a fraction of their income towards means-tested bursaries, according to research that undermines claims that adding VAT to school fees would decimate support for poorer pupils.

The Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF), a thinktank campaigning for greater equality and transparency among independent schools, gathered data from more than 200 leading schools and found they spent less than 6% of their total fee income on supporting pupils based on family income.

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UK weather: heavy rain warning issued for western England and Wales

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Met Office expects a month’s worth of rain in 48 hours to end warm and dry spell

A month’s worth of rain is expected to fall on parts of the UK within 48 hours as the good weather the country has basked in for weeks comes to a soggy end.

Western England and the whole of Wales have been warned of possible flooding as the Easter weekend approaches.

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Attack on officers raises questions about separation centres at jails in England

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The country’s three special units at high-security prisons are in spotlight after Hashem Abedi’s assault against staff

With its high, ugly, grey concrete perimeter walls HMP Frankland looks as grim from the outside as you would expect for a place nicknamed “Monster Mansion”.

Since it was opened in 1983 on the leafy outskirts of Durham – near a 13th-century priory used for centuries as a holiday retreat for Benedictine monks – its inmates have included Peter Sutcliffe, Harold Shipman and Charles Bronson.

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Prison Service bans dangerous inmates from kitchens after officers attacked

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Move comes after Hashem Abedi injured three officers with hot oil and improvised blades at HMP Frankland

The Prison Service is to suspend the use of kitchens for the most dangerous inmates after the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber attacked three officers at HMP Frankland.

Hashem Abedi, a convicted terrorist who was jailed for life after helping his suicide-bomber brother Salman Abedi carry out the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, set upon staff with hot cooking oil and blades made out of cooking trays.

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British Steel to deploy emergency measures to save Scunthorpe furnaces

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Firm in race against time to get key materials as business secretary says no guarantee it will get what it needs

British Steel is to deploy emergency measures in a race against time to save the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, as the business secretary refused to guarantee the plant could get what it needed in time.

The company is understood to be looking at offers of help from more than a dozen businesses to obtain materials such as iron ore and coking coal, potentially allowing it to avoid the temporary shutdown of one of the two furnaces.

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Melanoma patients in England get fast-track access to cancer vaccine

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NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad expanded to include trial for patients with advanced type of skin cancer

Patients with an advanced type of skin melanoma in England will be given fast-track access to a “revolutionary” new cancer vaccine as part of an NHS trial.

The vaccine, known as iSCIB1+ (ImmunoBody), helps the immune system recognise cancer cells and therefore better respond to immunotherapy treatment.

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Travellers arriving in Great Britain face import ban on EU meat and dairy

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Government introduces measure to prevent spread of foot-and-mouth disease after rise in cases across Europe

Tourists from Great Britain who travel to the continent to satisfy their epicurean desires for cured meats and fragrant cheeses will be frustrated in their attempts to bring home some of their favourite foods after a ban on meat and dairy imports from EU countries came into force this weekend.

From Saturday, holidaymakers will no longer be able to bring meat from cattle, sheep, goats or pigs, or dairy products, from EU countries into Great Britain for personal use, in a move aimed at preventing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) after a rise in cases across Europe.

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National Trust bans coaches from East Sussex beauty spot to cut visitor numbers

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More than 600,000 people a year visit Birling Gap, part of Seven Sisters cliffs, which are vulnerable to coastal erosion

The National Trust has banned coaches from one of Britain’s most popular beauty spots in an attempt to reduce the growing numbers of people visiting the site.

Up to 600,000 people a year visit Birling Gap which is part of the Seven Sisters cliffs in East Sussex on England’s south coast.

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UK woman says she was arrested after confiscating her daughters’ iPads

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Vanessa Brown called police response in Cobham, Surrey, ‘a complete overreaction’ that left her ‘catatonic’

A history teacher has said she was arrested and blocked from seeing her daughters after she confiscated their iPads.

Vanessa Brown, 50, described her “unspeakable devastation and trauma” after spending seven-and-a-half hours in a cell on 26 March after a claim that she had stolen two iPads.

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Polish woman, 80, can stay in UK after Home Office U-turn

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Elzbieta Olszewska had previously been told she faced deportation after mistakenly filling in form online

A Polish woman who had her application to remain in the UK rejected because she mistakenly filled in a form online instead of on paper has been granted permission to stay in Britain after a change of mind by the Home Office.

Elzbieta Olszewska, 80, had been living alone in her flat in Warsaw before arriving in the UK last September. Her only child, Michal Olszewski, 52, an aeronautical engineer and dual British-Polish citizen, who lives in Lincoln with his wife, had been travelling regularly to the Polish capital to support his mother.

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Hundreds of asylum seekers to be removed from hotels in England

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Exclusive: Government source confirms action at nine establishments including one near Windsor Castle

Hundreds of people seeking asylum are to be removed from nine hotels across England within weeks as the Home Office attempts to show it has got to grips with the issue.

The crackdown will remove asylum seekers from a hotel in a village near Windsor Castle after claims of community tensions and racism, and hotels in the West Midlands and Cheshire that have been targeted by far-right activists.

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Somerset detective sacked for pretending to work from home

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Philippa Baskwill, who worked on child protection, found to have weighed down laptop keys with phone

A detective working on child protection, who was found to have weighed down the keys on her laptop to give the impression she was working at home, has been sacked without notice for gross misconduct after a disciplinary hearing.

Suspicions were raised when keystroke data – the record of the number of times the keys had been struck on the keyboard – revealed DC Philippa Baskwill had pressed the keys on her laptop nearly 3 million times in a single month – compared with the 80,000 to 200,000 average of her colleagues, the hearing was told.

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One in four women in England have serious reproductive health issue, survey finds

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Exclusive: Racial disparities highlighted as researchers estimate 10 million women have conditions such as fibroids or endometriosis

More than a quarter of women in England are living with a serious reproductive health issue, according to the largest survey of its kind, and experts say “systemic, operational, structural and cultural issues” prevent women from accessing care.

The survey of 60,000 women across England in 2023, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and analysed by academics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, found that 28% of respondents were living with a reproductive morbidity, such as pelvic organ prolapse, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, or cervical, uterine, ovarian or breast cancer.

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England’s ‘complex’ health and care system harming patients, report says

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Investigators find coordination failures between NHS and care bodies causing delays, distress and burnout

Navigating England’s “complex” health and care system is “extremely difficult” and carers and patients are experiencing burnout, distress and harm as a result, a damning report says.

There were frequent failures by NHS and care organisations in coordinating care for people with long-term health conditions, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) found. Figures show 41% of adults and 17% of children have at least one long-term health issue.

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Price of parking rises steeply due to English councils’ clean-air surcharges

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AA says ‘cash-guzzling’ councils are adding clean-air levies to parking tariffs and resident parking permits

Drivers are being caught out by hefty price rises to park their cars, as councils across England impose parking surcharges on petrol and diesel vehicles.

An estimated one in five councils now add clean-air levies to parking tariffs and resident parking permits to deter polluting vehicles.

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Swindon apprentice loses unfair dismissal case after ‘lunch-tampering’ row

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Brooklyn Forrester-Hayes threatened co-worker after reporting ‘finger-sized holes’ in his sandwiches

A garage apprentice who threatened a colleague he thought had pranked him by poking “finger-sized holes through his sandwiches” has lost an unfair dismissal claim.

Brooklyn Forrester-Hayes accused a fellow apprentice of “tampering with his lunch” as well as “smashing his crisps”, an employment tribunal was told.

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London mural by key postwar artist saved from demolition

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William Mitchell artwork saved but Blackheath community centre in which it was housed will be torn down

A rare piece of postwar art that was under threat of being demolished along with the south London building it was housed in has been saved.

The work, a mural by William Mitchell, was created for a community centre in Blackheath that is to be torn down to make way for social housing. The mural will now be preserved by Heritage of London Trust (Holt).

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Woman becomes first UK womb transplant recipient to give birth

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Grace Davidson gives birth to baby Amy Isabel after receiving her sister’s womb in 2023

Surgeons are hailing an “astonishing” medical breakthrough as a woman became the first in the UK to give birth after a womb transplant.

Grace Davidson, 36, who was a teenager when diagnosed with a rare condition that meant she did not have a uterus, said she and her husband, Angus, 37, had been given “the greatest gift we could ever have asked for”.

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Shabana Mahmood: lord chancellor with political nous unafraid to shake up system

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Her introduction to politics began as the child of the chair of Birmingham Labour party and as justice secretary she’s made tough decisions from day one

Shabana Mahmood’s potential as a future cabinet minister was first noticed by the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson in the 90s over tea and samosas at her family’s end-of-terrace Birmingham home.

Watson, a seasoned fixer, had become a close friend of her father, Mahmood Ahmed, the chair of Birmingham Labour party. When political problems arose, Watson and fellow Labour party organisers would be guided through to comfy sofas in the family sitting room.

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Shabana Mahmood: lord chancellor with political nous unafraid to shake up system

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Her introduction to politics began as the child of the chair of Birmingham Labour party and as justice secretary she’s made tough decisions from day one

Shabana Mahmood’s potential as a future cabinet minister was first noticed by the former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson in the 90s over tea and samosas at her family’s end-of-terrace Birmingham home.

Watson, a seasoned fixer, had become a close friend of her father, Mahmood Ahmed, the chair of Birmingham Labour party. When political problems arose, Watson and fellow Labour party organisers would be guided through to comfy sofas in the family sitting room.

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