TUESDAY 17 JANUARY 2006

Incapacity benefit reforms propose increased role for private sector
Private companies and voluntary groups are to be given a bigger role in helping long-term sick and disabled people find jobs under proposals in the government’s forthcoming paper on welfare reform. The paper is expected to pave the way for much of the activity provided by Job Centres to be outsourced.
Source:- Financial Times, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 2

Incapacity benefit claimants face curbs
Tougher sanctions are planned by the government against people claiming incapacity benefit who refuse to co-operate in efforts to get back to work, work and pensions secretary John Hutton said yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 12
 
Caretakers  not checked for sex offences
School caretakers and cleaners do not have to be vetted to weed out paedophiles, the government admitted yesterday. Meanwhile the Charity Commission has pledged to shut a loophole that lets sex offenders set up children’s charities. The Mirror was able to register a charity in the name of a registered sex offender.
Source:-Daily Mirror, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 10

Kelly given four days to settle sex teacher crisis
Ruth Kelly has been given a breathing space of four days to sort out the confusion over sex offender teachers being employed in schools and to save her Cabinet career.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 6

Government knew of sex vetting flaws
The government department at the centre of the row over sex offenders working with children, the Department for Education and Skills, was aware before the furore broke out that the vetting system contained seven major flaws.
Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 1

Unruly boy, 6, suspended from lessons ten times
A boy aged six has been suspended from school ten times in 18 months because he is “uncontrollable”. He suffers from ADHD and oppositional defiance disorder.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 12

Rat-infested prison was unfit to house humans
Squalid conditions in an overcrowded Leeds Prison, where inmates claim they are bullied and intimidated by staff are condemned by the prison watchdog today.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 29

NHS faces spending squeeze
Ministers must secure productivity gains in return for the massive increases in spending made in the NHS, according to a leaked Treasury document. The NHS can no longer expect funding increases on anything like the current scale.
Source:- Financial Times, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 1

Blair to delay controversial schools bill
Tony Blair will put off publication of the education bill amid warnings from senior ministers that he will need to make substantial concessions to Labour rebels.
Source:- Financial Times, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 2

Private chain in talks to run failing NHS hospitals
BMI Healthcare, owner of 49 private hospitals, said it was in discussion with the Department of Health about taking over the management of failing NHS hospitals.
Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 4

Killed by chips
A boy who would only eat chips, toast and beans has died of malnutrition aged 20. Scott Martin’s junk food diet was so bad it caused liver disease and bleeding.
Source:-Daily Mirror, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 1

Glitter to face trial
Gary Glitter is set to go on trial next month, officials in Vietnam said yesterday.
Source:-Daily Mirror, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 28

Exercise can slash risk of Alzheimer’s
People who exercise three times a week during old age are a third less likely to develop dementia than the less active, US research shows.
Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 8

Helplines swamped by callers over debt
Debt advice lines including the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and Natiional Debtline have reported a surge in calls as consumers take stock of borrowing after Christmas.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 5

Men held over sex attacks on girl
A jobless man from Newport, Gwent appeared at Cardiff crown court yesterday accused of kidnap and four sex attacks on a girl aged three.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 17 January 2006, page 10

Scottish news

Jailed killers to be freed one week a month
About 500 high risk prisoners who qualify for three-day home visits will, from next month, be allowed home for a maximum of seven days. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) hopes the move will lessen the need to use cells without proper sanitation, reducing the amount paid out in compensation after a judge ruled the practice of slopping out breached the human rights of inmates.
The SPS says increasing the length of home visits will also have the “fringe benefit” of helping inmates reintegrate into the community, making it less likely they will reoffend.
Source: The Scotsman, Tuesday 17 January 2006

285,000 face incapacity benefit cuts in shake up
The 285,000 Scots claiming incapacity benefit could have their payments slashed if they refuse to take part in a government scheme aimed at ending the current system.
John Hutton, the work and pensions secretary, said that incapacity benefit had become the “greatest barrier to social justice in Britain today” and had to be replaced.
His welfare reforms are likely to affect more Scots than any other piece of Westminster legislation. He said the system inherited from the last Conservative government had “scarred” cities such as Glasgow and Dundee, where levels of incapacity benefit claims remain among the highest in the UK.
Source: The Scotsman, Tuesday 17 January 2006

Welsh news

Parents in Wales fast losing confidence in sex offender system
Education minister Jane Davidson will admit to AMs that she cannot yet say that there are no sex offenders working in Welsh schools.
Davidson is due to make her statement a week after it emerged that some sex offenders have been cleared to work in schools by ministers.
Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday 17 January 2006

Why your councillor has said yes to a big pension
The majority of Welsh councillors have voted to in favour of giving themselves generous new pension rights.
Councillors on 19 of Wales’ 22 local authorities have voted for pensions that could be topped up with over £2m of public money each year.
Under the plans some councils could end up contributing up to 26.7 per cent of each councillor’s pension.
Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday 17 January 2006