Exclusive: analysis shows increase of a third in two years, prompting claim of ‘deprioritising women’s health’
The government has been accused of “deprioritising women’s health” as analysis shows that almost 600,000 women in England are waiting for gynaecological treatment, an increase of a third over two years.
There are 33,000 women waiting more than a year for such treatment, an increase of 43%, according to Labour analysis of data from the House of Commons library.
Continue reading...Bill could become law this week as end of parliamentary ping-pong in sight
Q: Do you think you will be able to implement this without leaving the European convention of human rights?
Sunak says he thinks he can implement this without leaving the ECHR.
If it ever comes to a choice between our national security, securing our borders, and membership of a foreign court, I’m, of course, always going to prioritise our national security.
Continue reading...Force reviewing available information after claims that Menzies used political donations to pay off ‘bad people’
Allegations that the MP Mark Menzies misused campaign funds have been referred to Lancashire police. The force said it was reviewing the available information after receiving a letter “detailing concerns around this matter”.
The PA news agency understands that the Labour party chair, Anneliese Dodds, wrote to Lancashire police calling for an investigation into the allegations about Menzies.
Continue reading...Doubling of related street, house and farm names since 1900 gives glimpse of flower ‘ghosts’, says National Trust
Over the last century orchards and blossom trees have been slipping out of the British landscape at an alarming rate but the “ghosts” of lost flowers are glimpsed in an increasing number of placenames recalling the vanished pinks and whites, researchers have found.
A National Trust study has discovered that the number of street, house and farm names relating to orchards and blossom has doubled across England and Wales since the turn of the 20th century, a period in which more than half of traditional orchards have disappeared.
Continue reading...£25bn of public money would have been saved between 2019 and 2023 if north had same care entry rates as south, report says
One in every 52 children in Blackpool are in care compared with one in 140 across England, leading to calls for more to be done to urgently tackle the widening north-south divide, brought on by “decades of underinvestment”.
Nine in every thousand children are in care in the north, compared with six in the rest of England, according to a report by Health Equity North.
Continue reading...Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health urges ministers to follow lead of Scotland and Wales
Parents in England and Northern Ireland should be banned from smacking their children because doing so is unjust, dangerous and harmful, leading doctors have urged ministers.
It was “a scandal” that Scotland and Wales had outlawed smacking but not the other two home nations, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Hi-tech ‘golden triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London risks deeper regional inequalities, says thinktank
Investments in new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are “profoundly skewed” towards the “golden triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London, and risk deepening existing regional inequalities in England, according to research.
Ministers have promised to level up the country, narrowing the gap between the best- and worst-performing areas, but the rapid rollout of generative AI and automation could cut against that aspiration, according to the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW).
Continue reading...Lib Dems and health trusts say patient and staff safety being put at risk by poor state of ageing infrastructure
Millions of patients are being put at risk in crumbling hospitals that are unfit for purpose, MPs have said, as figures reveal more than 2,000 NHS buildings are older than the health service itself.
Health bosses have repeatedly warned ministers of the urgent need to plough cash into replacing rundown buildings in order to protect the safety of patients and staff. The maintenance backlog has risen to £11.6bn in England.
Continue reading...Observer investigation finds that private companies made £105m despite not being registered with Ofsted
Hundreds of extremely vulnerable school-age children in England are being sent to illegal, unregulated homes every year because of a chronic shortage of places in secure local authority units.
An Observer investigation has established that councils placed 706 children, the majority of them under the age of 16, in their care in homes that were not registered with Ofsted, the children’s social care watchdog, in 2022-23.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Charges relate to £225m debt with Rights & Media Funding, with records suggesting a trail leading to Michael Tabor
Everton has paid about £30m in interest charges to an opaque lender associated with a tax exile, corporate records suggest.
The charges appear to have reached about £438,000 a week, according to the troubled Premier League club’s most recent set of accounts, a figure more than three times the reported wages of the Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Continue reading...London mayor expected to criticise Susan Hall in speech launching panels on school roofs
Sadiq Khan will accuse his Conservative rival in the race to be London’s next mayor of being “Trumpian” over the climate crisis, as he announces plans for solar panels on schools.
Khan is expected to acknowledge resistance to his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in a speech on Friday but insist that he still intends to “go further”.
Continue reading...NHS England to review seven specialist services after staff share misgivings privately
Adult transgender clinics in England are facing a Cass-style inquiry into how they treat patients after whistleblowers raised concerns about the care they provide.
NHS England has announced that it is setting up a review of how the seven specialist services operate and deliver care after past and present staff shared misgivings privately during a previous investigation.
Continue reading...West Yorkshire police arrest 25-year-old on suspicion of murdering woman, 27, who was shopping with baby
A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman as she pushed her baby in a pram in Bradford city centre.
West Yorkshire police said officers had detained him after a four-day manhunt across the north of England.
Continue reading...Emergency services dealing with incidents in Littlehampton and ‘severe flooding’ at a holiday park
The River Arun has overflowed in West Sussex with rescue operations under way in the seaside town of Littlehampton and warnings of severe flood waters as a result of Storm Kathleen.
“Our crews are supporting rescue operations in Littlehampton near Ferry Road and Rope Walk where the River Arun has burst its banks, leading to severe flooding,” West Sussex fire and rescue service said on X.
Continue reading...Nicholas Metson, who paid a friend £50 to help dump Holly Bramley’s remains, to serve at least 19 years
A man who cut his wife’s body into more than 200 pieces and then paid a friend £50 to help him dump her remains in a river has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years.
Nicholas Metson stabbed Holly Bramley, 26, at least four times in March 2023 before dismembering her body and storing her remains for a week in the kitchen larder at the flat they shared in Stamp End, Lincoln.
Continue reading...Gusts of more than 70mph recorded on Irish Sea coast, as temperatures rose above 30C in mainland Europe
Storm Kathleen brought strong winds to Ireland and the UK at the weekend, causing travel and power disruption. The storm, named by Met Éireann, developed in the Atlantic on Thursday, deepening explosively as it pushed northwards to the west of Ireland.
Peak wind gusts of 40-60mph (65-95km/h) were recorded quite widely across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and western parts of England and Wales on Saturday, with some Irish Sea coastal regions experiencing gusts above 70mph. A gust of 72mph was recorded at Drumalbin, Lanarkshire.
Continue reading...Money spent on tobacco products in England ‘could instead be spent in shops, on entertainment or other services’, author adds
Almost £11bn a year could be spent in England’s communities from money saved on tobacco products if people quit smoking, according to a study.
Published in the journal Tobacco Control and written by academics at the University of Sheffield, the study looked at how much people spent on cigarettes and other tobacco a year, and analysed how this money could be spent in cities and towns instead.
Continue reading...Liver scanning and portable testing units to be rolled out in communities where people may be at a higher risk
Thousands of people who are unknowingly living with hepatitis C in England could be identified and treated due to an expanded NHS testing initiative.
The initiative includes new liver scanning and portable testing units to be rolled out in communities where people may be at a higher risk of contracting the infection.
Continue reading...Insurers have made huge hidden payments for buildings cover over many years, experts say
Landlords of developments in England and Wales where residents face hefty service charges face calls to disclose millions of pounds in “secret commissions” raked in over the years for arranging buildings insurance.
Experts say these hidden commissions, paid to landlords including City investment funds that hold freeholds and managing agents, have been worth tens of millions of pounds a year. The arrangements were made without residents being told and resulted in higher service charges.
Continue reading...Relatives of Kelly Faiers say police failed to properly inform them that a body had been found
The family of a woman found dead at a sex offender’s home have criticised the police’s “bodged” investigation after his body is believed to have been found this week in a caravan close to where he vanished six months ago.
Relatives of Kelly Faiers said they were upset at how the news about the possible discovery of Richard Scatchard’s body was broken, claiming they did not have time to alert others close to Faiers before the police went public.
Continue reading...