Category Archives: England

Target for cutting premature birthrate in England will not be met, minister says

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Gillian Merron tells Lords the goal of reducing rate of preterm births to 6%, which was set in 2019, may be changed

The women’s health minister has admitted there is no chance the government will meet its target of reducing the premature birthrate to 6% in England by 2025.

Preterm birth, when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the biggest cause of death among children under five in the UK. The previous government set a target in 2019 to reduce the preterm birthrate to 6% by 2025.

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US playwright donates £1m to save home of Shakespeare’s daughter

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Exclusive: Ken Ludwig gives Shakespeare Birthplace Trust largest private donation in its 177-year history

The charity that cares for historic Shakespeare sites in Stratford-upon-Avon has received an unprecedented donation of £1m from the Olivier award-winning US playwright Ken Ludwig.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) can now pay for crucial conservation work on Hall’s Croft, the home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her physician husband, John Hall, who is believed to have advised his father-in-law on medical matters.

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School exclusions rise by fifth in England in past year, study finds

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Increasing amounts spent on educating pupils outside mainstream ‘where quality and safety is less guaranteed’

Suspensions and exclusions from schools in England went up by more than a fifth in the past year, according to analysis of live attendance data in a new report that raises concerns about children being shifted out of mainstream education into alternative provision.

Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that cash-strapped councils are spending increasing amounts on educating pupils outside the mainstream schools “where quality and safety is less guaranteed”.

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Councils in England draining reserves to stay afloat, leaders say

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Survey of 24 city authorities finds two in five plan to sell off assets and reduce services

Local authority leaders say they are having to drain their financial reserves to keep services afloat and avoid effective bankruptcy.

A survey of the mid-tier group of English city councils, which includes Southampton, Hull, Sunderland and Norwich, found that many that had previously avoided financial difficulties during periods of austerity were close to running out of funds.

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Boy, 14, held on suspicion of murdering 80-year-old man in Leicestershire

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Bhim Kohli died in hospital after alleged attack while walking his dog in Franklin Park 20 metres from his home

A 14-year-old boy is being held on suspicion of murdering an 80-year-old man, named by police as Bhim Kohli, who died on Sunday after being allegedly attacked while walking his dog just 20 metres from his home.

Leicestershire police said Kohli was found at about 6.30pm in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town. Four other children who had been arrested have been released.

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UK’s methane hotspots include landfills and last coalmine

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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.

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Pregnant women and older people in England offered RSV vaccine on NHS

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Programme for respiratory syncytial virus could prevent estimated 5,000 hospitalisations annually in infants

Pregnant women and older people across England will be routinely vaccinated against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for the first time, the NHS has said.

From 1 September the NHS will vaccinate pregnant women from 28 weeks onwards and adults turning 75. Adults aged 75 to 79 will be offered a catchup vaccine to make sure they are protected.

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Rochester prison given urgent notification after ‘systemic failure and decline’

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It is the first time such notification has been given to a category C prison focusing on training and resettlement

A Kent prison has become the first of its kind to be issued with an urgent notification after a decade of “systemic failure and decline”, the chief inspector of prisons has confirmed.

HMP Rochester is the seventh prison to have received such a notification since November 2022, but has become the first category C prison, which focuses on training and resettlement, to receive one. The urgent notification process was introduced in 2017 and is a means of raising immediate concerns following an inspection and requires a response and action plan from the secretary of state within 28 days.

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Seven years after Grenfell disaster, thousands live in fear of cladding fire

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As the final report on the fatal London blaze looms, many developers have not begun safety work

• Rowan Moore: The Grenfell inquiry is exposing a culture of contempt that has run deep in Britain

Grenfell was an avoidable tragedy, the inquiry’s counsel said on the final day of hearings. Yet with the report into the blaze that claimed 72 lives due this week, residents of other tower blocks fear that not enough has been done to prevent another catastrophe.

One of them is Gemma Lindfield. The 45-year-old barrister is still waiting for flammable cladding to be removed from her eight-storey apartment block in east London. It took three years before anyone even realised there was a problem. The following four years have been mired in indecision and wrangling about exactly who will pay to fix it.

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LNER train driver strikes called off after successful union talks

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Planned 22 days of disrupted weekend services suspended with Aslef stating it has resolved a longstanding dispute

A series of weekend strikes by train drivers on LNER from Saturday has been called off, their trade union Aslef has announced.

Passengers travelling between London and Edinburgh had faced the prospect of months of disruption after LNER drivers earlier this month announced 22 days of industrial action from the start of September until early November.

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Suicide rates in England and Wales reach highest level since 1999

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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.

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Man charged after chef left in critical condition from assault near Notting Hill carnival

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Mussie Imnetu from Sweden, who worked under Gordon Ramsay, was assaulted while in London on business trip

A Swedish chef who had worked under Gordon Ramsay is in critical condition after being attacked near Notting Hill carnival on Monday.

Mussie Imnetu, 41, the head chef at the Arts Club in Dubai, was visiting London on a business trip. At about 11.20pm on Monday, Imnetu was attacked at the Dr Power restaurant in Queensway.

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Starmer faces pushback from pubs over ‘bonkers’ outdoor smoking curb plans

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Hospitality industry expresses concern about impact on businesses of leaked proposals not denied by PM

Keir Starmer is on a collision course with the hospitality industry and political opponents after signalling plans for major curbs on outdoor smoking.

The proposals, not denied by the prime minister, would potentially prohibit tobacco use outside pubs and restaurants, including on pavements. The restrictions would come on top of existing plans to gradually outlaw smoking year by year.

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Woman, 52, and daughter admit part in far-right disorder in Middlesbrough

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Amanda Walton, who was walking dog when she threw missile, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend all plead guilty

A woman, her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend have admitted taking part in violent far-right disorder earlier this month in Middlesbrough.

Amanda Walton, 52, who was walking her pet chow chow, threw a missile and damaged a car. Her daughter Megan Davison, 24, jumped on the roof of a car. Davison’s boyfriend Jake Wray, 23, stopped cars at a junction demanding: “Are you white? Are you English?”

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People in England driving more, cycling less and walking further, survey shows

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Department for Transport’s annual travel poll shows car or van trips up 8% as Covid-era shift to cycling fizzles away

People in England are walking record distances, official figures show – but charities have said more needs to be done to get individuals on their feet.

According to government data, the average walking journey increased in length last year, even as most other forms of day-to-day travel continued to lag behind pre-pandemic levels.

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Man who threw object at Nigel Farage in Barnsley gets suspended sentence

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Josh Greally, 28, pleaded guilty to public order offence over incident during election campaign

A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after being convicted of throwing what appeared to be a coffee cup at Nigel Farage during the general election campaign.

Josh Greally, 28, was sentenced to six weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, at Barnsley magistrates court after throwing items at the Reform UK leader who was campaigning in the South Yorkshire town.

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Tens of thousands fill streets on final day of Notting Hill carnival

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Largely peaceful festival marred by fresh stabbing on Monday after three people were hurt on Sunday

Tens of thousands of revellers have turned out to enjoy the final day of this year’s Notting Hill carnival, flooding the streets of west London with colour, dancing and music.

Dancers showed off their flamboyant costumes while floats blasted music for the spectators on the streets of W11. Vendors cooked up a mix of food on open barbecues, as sound systems played everything from rare groove to house, samba, reggae and ska.

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World’s oldest man celebrates 112th birthday in Merseyside

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John Alfred Tinniswood was born the year the Titanic sank and has lived through the tenure of 24 UK prime ministers

The world’s oldest living man has turned 112 at his care home in Merseyside.

John Alfred Tinniswood, who lives in Southport, put his long life down to “just luck”, and said he did not follow a special diet, except for eating fish and chips every Friday.

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Fifty English secondary schools suspended more than a quarter of pupils after pandemic

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Exclusive: Children in disadvantaged areas three times as likely to be sent away as pupils in wealthier places

Fifty secondary schools in England suspended more than a quarter of their students after the pandemic, with children at schools with the most disadvantaged pupils three times as likely to be suspended as those in wealthier areas, according to analysis by the Guardian.

The proportion of schools suspending large numbers of pupils has risen sharply since schools were closed to many children during Covid, and teachers have struggled with deteriorating behaviour since they reopened.

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‘Bubble’ of post-pandemic bad behaviour among pupils predicted to peak

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Exclusive: Experts say ‘desocialised’ pupils home schooled through Covid are entering traditionally most disruptive years

Teachers returning to work next month will confront a worrying “behaviour bubble” as younger children who were most severely affected by the pandemic reach the teenage years renowned for peak classroom disruption.

The warning from experts and school leaders in England comes as evidence shows that children of primary school age during the pandemic – when schools were closed to most pupils – have been accruing exclusions and suspensions at a record pace since moving to secondary school.

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