News round up: Woolas admits immigration policy failures

Phil Woolas: Our asylum failure ‘has spread misery and division’

The new Immigration Minister has condemned his own Government for the way it handled migration and asylum-seekers.

Phil Woolas said the Government’s failure to remove unsuccessful asylum applicants had caused misery and division within the country.

Read more on this story in The Times

OECD says gap between rich and poor in UK among widest in world

The gap between rich and poor people in the UK is one of the widest in the developed world, a report has found.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Backbench committee questions town hall investment in foreign banks

Rules which allow town halls to invest hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in foreign banks are to be questioned by an influential backbench committee.

The Communities and Local Government Select Committee announced yesterday that it would examine whether new regulations and guidance were needed to cover council handling of £11 billion of reserves.

The announcement came as 123 councils were still battling to retrieve more than £900 milllion in collapsed Icelandic Banks.

Read more on this story in The Times

Number of sex offenders who break release rules rises by 27 per cent

The number of sex attackers breaching legal orders has increased by 27 per cent in two years, it has been revealed.

From a record total of 31,392 registered sex offenders in the community, 1,634 were charged or cautioned last year, the Ministry of Justice said.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

Government to crack down on blue badge parking cheats

Drivers who abuse the disabled parking badge system will be targeted in a £55m scheme to improve facilities for those who really need them.

Paul Clark, the transport minister, has today unveiled plans to extend the blue badge scheme and give local councils the power to immediately confiscate badges that are being misused.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

£1m ad campaign targets ‘forgotten’ drinkers

A recycling bin full of empty alcohol bottles may be a sign you are drinking too much, a UK charity warned today.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

More from Community Care

Comments are closed.