Category Archives: England

‘Watershed moment’ as three-year time limit on child rape claims scrapped in England and Wales

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Under current rules, civil child sexual abuse cases must be brought within three years of turning 18

Hundreds of child rape survivors, including those targeted by grooming gangs, are expected to pursue their abusers in the courts after ministers scrapped a three-year time limit on compensation claims.

Under reforms hailed by campaigners as a “watershed moment”, ministers said civil claims will no longer have to be brought within three years of a child abuse survivor’s 18th birthday.

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‘No medical evidence’ to support Lucy Letby’s conviction, expert panel finds

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Babies former nurse was convicted of killing were victims of ‘bad medical care’ or died of natural causes, panel says

Babies the former nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering were in fact the victims of “bad medical care” or deteriorated as a result of natural causes, an expert panel has concluded.

Outlining what the senior Conservative MP David Davis described as “one of worst injustices of recent times”, the international team told a press conference there was “no medical evidence” to support claims of deliberate harm.

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Ofsted’s new school report card worse than old system, say headteachers

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Unions as well as school leaders say proposed changes to replace four-grade approach in England are ‘demoralising’

Moves to overhaul the way schools are inspected in England have been criticised by headteachers and teaching unions as “demoralising” and worse than the system they are aiming to replace.

The changes by the Ofsted schools inspectorate would replace single judgments such as “outstanding” with a new report card for parents. They will be unveiled by Ofsted’s chief inspector, Martyn Oliver, on Monday alongside the launch of a public consultation.

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Tributes paid to two children killed in car collision in Essex

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Police say man and woman arrested over alleged hit-and-run in Pitsea remain in custody

Tributes have been paid to two children who died after an alleged hit-and-run in Essex.

Police said officers received reports that a girl and a boy had been involved in a collision with a car on Ashlyns, in Pitsea, near Basildon, at about 6.25pm on Saturday, and that the car had failed to stop at the scene.

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Small UK businesses complain of being caught unawares by EU ‘red tape’

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New safety regulations have led SMEs to stop sales to bloc and Northern Ireland while they work out how to comply

Small businesses are warning they have had to pause selling their products in the European Union and Northern Ireland since mid-December while they work out how to comply with new EU product safety regulations that caught many of them unawares.

Skye Weavers, a small family business on the Isle of Skye, says it has missed out on sales of its scarves, shawls and blankets to customers in both markets after halting internet orders from those locations because of the rule change.

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Campaigners hail ‘important victory’ in protection of England’s national parks

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Minister says there was error when Manningtree station car park extension was approved under last government

Campaigners have celebrated an “important victory” in a closely watched case that will determine whether the government will enforce new legislation aimed at protecting national parks and landscapes in England.

Dedham Vale is a designated “national landscape” on the border of Essex and Suffolk, home to increasingly rare species including hazel dormice and hedgehogs. Within it is Manningtree station, where the train operator Greater Anglia built an extension to the car park to cope with increased traffic.

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Just Stop Oil protester, 78, released to home detention after fitting tag found

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Gaie Delap had prison term extended because contractors could not find wrist strap of right size

A 78-year-old climate protester has been released on home detention curfew just a week after her prison term was extended because government contractors were unable to find the right-sized tag for her wrist.

Gaie Delap, 78, a retired teacher and Just Stop Oil protester, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her participation in a climate protest on the M25 in 2022 and was released last November under the home detention curfew (HDC) scheme.

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Ofsted overhaul for English schools to be put out for public consultation

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Five-step rating from ‘exemplary’ to ‘causing concern’ set to replace single-word judgments

Schools in England are likely to be judged on a new five-step scale, under proposals by the Ofsted inspectorate to be put out for public consultation as soon as next week.

The consultation is the culmination of plans by the government to overhaul the way schools are rated, with Labour having pledged to scrap inspection reports using single headline grades such as “outstanding” or “inadequate” after a coroner’s report said an Ofsted inspection had contributed to the death of Ruth Perry, a headteacher, in 2023.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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York Minster congregation outraged over ‘deeply inappropriate’ concert

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Gig at cathedral by metal band Plague of Angels would be ‘outright insult’ to their faith, say parishioners

First there was a silent disco at Canterbury Cathedral. Then there was the “rave in the nave” in Peterborough.

But York Minster is taking it one step further by hosting a controversial metal band in what parishioners have called an “outright insult” to their faith.

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Driver of car that crashed into Wimbledon school is released on bail

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Claire Freemantle had been rearrested on Tuesday after bereaved families criticised original police investigation

The driver of a Land Rover that crashed into a primary school in Wimbledon, killing two young children, has been released on bail pending further investigations.

Claire Freemantle, 48, was rearrested on Tuesday on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

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NHS England told to scrap improvement pledges and prioritise cutting waiting times

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Plans shelved include earlier cancer diagnosis, boosting women’s health and expanding access to dental care

NHS England is scrapping plans to diagnose more cancers early, boost women’s health and ramp up childhood vaccinations after ministers told it to prioritise cutting waiting times.

The health service is also abandoning pledges to expand access to dental treatment, give more people drugs to prevent strokes and enhance care for those with learning disabilities.

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Judge rejects attempt to overturn inquest verdict on Stockport scout’s death

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Scout leaders had launched judicial review over verdict of unlawful killing of Ben Leonard, 16, who fell from cliff on expedition

A high court judge has rejected an attempt by a scout leader and an assistant to overturn the findings of an inquest jury that concluded they were responsible for the unlawful killing of a 16-year-old boy who fell from a cliff during an expedition.

Ben Leonard from Stockport, Greater Manchester, became separated from his group during a hike in north Wales and fell about 60m (200ft) from a ledge, suffering a fatal head injury.

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London student raped 10 women and filmed attacks as souvenirs, court told

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Zhenhao Zou, 27, a Chinese national, is accused of attacking women after ‘stupefying’ them with drink or drugs

A PhD student accused of raping 10 women drugged his victims before filming his attacks as “souvenirs” for his own “sexual gratification”, a court has heard.

Zhenhao Zou, 27, a Chinese national, was described as seemingly charming and smart, but was in fact a “predator, voyeur and rapist” who ignored pleas from his victims to stop, a jury was told.

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UK weather: major incident declared in Somerset as storms bring flooding

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More than 100 people evacuated from their homes as Storm Herminia hits Britain after Éowyn

A major incident has been declared in Somerset after more than 100 people were evacuated from their homes because of flooding, while roads were blocked, trains delayed or cancelled and schools closed, as stormy weather once again battered parts of the UK.

Rest centres were set up for people forced to leave their homes in three Somerset towns – Chard, Ilminster and Somerton – with some residents reporting levels of flooding not seen for years. Highways teams dealt with almost 50 incidents.

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Father of girl, 14, killed in family’s kitchen in Darlington guilty of murder

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Simon Vickers, 50, had claimed his daughter, Scarlett, died in a freak accident, but prosecutors said he stabbed her

A father who claimed his 14-year-old daughter died in a freak accident after innocent horseplay has been found guilty of murdering her by stabbing her in the heart with a kitchen knife.

Simon Vickers, 50, claimed he did not know precisely how his daughter, Scarlett Vickers, came to be killed in the family kitchen on a Friday night in July last year.

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Quarter of people in England had poor NHS care in past year, report says

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Survey for patient watchdog finds over half of those who made complaint were not satisfied with process or outcome

A quarter of people in England experienced poor NHS care over the last year but fewer than one in 10 of them complained about it, a report by the patient watchdog has revealed.

When people did complain, more than half were not satisfied with either the process involved or the outcome, Healthwatch England said. Complaints take many months to resolve.

24% of patients had received poor care in that time – the equivalent of 10.7 million people in England.

56% took no action – and only 9% made a complaint.

20% were scared that complaining would affect their treatment.

34% did not trust the NHS to use a complaint they made to improve services.

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New rules ease reporting restrictions in family courts across England and Wales

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Journalists and bloggers to have greater access under ‘open reporting provisions’ after pilot scheme launched in 2023

A scheme allowing journalists increased access to family courts is being rolled out in an effort to improve transparency.

The initiative permits accredited journalists and legal bloggers to report on cases as they unfold, as they would in criminal courts, provided the families and certain professionals involved remain anonymous.

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Spooky kettles and a girl in white: Adele’s ‘scary’ mansion not all that’s haunting Sussex village

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Owners claim singer ‘blighted’ sale of property she once rented but Partridge Green has no shortage of ghostly tales

At first it was the strange rumblings that would wake her. Then bright lights would fill the bedroom as a face appeared, looking down on her. Her husband, who worked nights, never believed her until one day, he saw it too.

Shaken by the sightings, the couple sold the cottage and moved far away from Partridge Green, a quaint, isolated village in West Sussex. Thirty years later, a short distance away from where these night-time hauntings took place, the village welcomed a surprising new arrival.

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Man arrested after climate activists cut UK insurance firms’ fibre optic cables

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Protest group says it targeted insurers ‘due to their critical role underpinning the fossil fuel economy’

A man has been arrested after environmental activists claimed responsibility for sabotage attacks on fibre optic cables outside major insurance companies.

The 29-year-old was arrested by City of London police after activists said they had cut the cables to insurance company offices in London, Leeds, Birmingham and Sheffield on Monday.

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