By Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
French rail firm to spend £4.8 million on security for Channel Tunnel
Security at the freight depot at Frethun near Calais is to be given a boost of £4.8 million, according to the French national rail company SNCF.
SNCF’s security chief Bruno Chretien said his company would be erecting a double layer of fencing and barbed wire around Frethun’s three-mile perimeter fence. Infra red cameras will also be installed at the freight yard, which has become the focus of attempts by asylum seekers from the Sangatte refugee camp to reach Britain.
Chretien said: "Today we are facing new arrivals, mainly Kurds, who are much more aggressive than two months ago. They are organised like a mini army with leaders and groups to cause diversions. They are ready to do anything to achieve their objective, and have absolutely no fear of uniform."
Yesterday, violence broke out at the centre following a game of football. Around 300 asylum seekers hurled rocks at French police, who responded with tear gas. Four Afghan asylum seekers were injured.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 18 May page 2
Users of heroin and cocaine should not go to jail, say MPs
A review of drugs policy in Britain is expected to recommend that users of illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin should be offered treatment to help kick the habit, rather than be put into jail.
MPs on the committee will recommend the best way to ensure drug addicts overcome their problems is through better access to treatment programmes, and not through prison.
The long-awaited report will say that police and court time should not be wasted on punishing people who use small amounts of drugs for recreational purposes.
The report is expected to endorse the programme in south London, where cannabis users are warned and have their drugs confiscated, but not pursued.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 18 May page 4
Parents are main barrier to tackling truants
Despite government entreaties, and the jailing of a mother in Oxfordshire, parents are still allowing their children to miss school and go shopping.
Source:- The Independent Saturday 18 May page 9
Young offenders take off the tags and run
Young offenders are removing their electronic tags and absconding, making a mockery of the government initiative, according to an internal memo.
There have been "numerous" instances of tag removal in the first few months of the £45 million home office initiative, which is expected to be extended with £6.5 million funding, according to the memo.
The absconders, who are tagged as an alternative to prison, are able to go back onto the streets undetected once they have removed their tags.
The memo, written by Oxford university researchers, is an evaluation of the government’s 41 intensive supervision and surveillance programme.
It says there have been more than 650 youths placed on the programmes by the end of February, and adds: "There have been numerous breaches for young offenders missing supervision appointments, failure to adhere to curfew requirements, removing tags, absconding."
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 19 May page 2
Hi-tech ID card may curb migrants
The home office is to unveil plans for an identity card, modelled on the high-tech Italian system, in a bid to curb the influx of illegal immigrants into Britain.
Every citizen will be issued with a card to produce when voting, getting a job, registering with a doctor. Ministers believe the scheme will deter illegal immigrants who enter Britain seeking work or to use the NHS.
Home office officials have begun liasing with Italian counterparts, who will shortly begin their trials in 83 communities including Naples.
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 19 May page 28
Heroin on the NHS for addicts
Britain’s soaring drug addiction rates will be tackled as thousands of addicts are to be prescribed with heroin at GPs surgeries.
The move follows a detailed investigation by the House of Commons home affairs select committee. This week it will recommend a network of ‘safe injecting areas’ where addicts can use diamorphine or ‘medical heroin’ prescribed on the NHS.
The report will say the chaotic lifestyle of Britain’s 240,000 heroin addicts has to be addressed.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 19 May page 1
Why are so many teenage girls cutting themselves?
Thousands of teenagers across the country are using knives and razors to injure themselves. Nicci Gerard reports on this alarming new blood cult
Source:- The Observer Sunday 19 May page 17
Home office ‘loses’ 137 asylum seekers a day
More than 130 asylum seekers a day are vanishing and living in Britain illegally despite repeated government pledges to tackle the problem.
The latest figures show 276,214 refugees who have been ordered out of Britain have now absconded over the last 12 years, and the home office has no idea where they are.
Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin said: "This is truly appalling. We were told just a year ago that the government was getting its removal policy in to order. These figures make it perfectly clear that nothing of the sort has happened. The chaos is getting worse."
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 19 May page 1
Care workers disregarded murder clues
Two social workers at Haringey council found two blood stains in a flat, but failed to report the matter for three days, has bought the council, already under scrutiny for failing to protect Victoria Climbie, under fresh controversy.
The social workers found bloody handprints on the wall, blood stains on the sofa and discovered the carpet was missing on a visit to a flat. But Heather Phillips and Nicola Joseph did not believe the situation required police attention and went home.
Police were eventually called to the flat and discovered the tenant Momadou Ceesay had killed his wife by stabbing her more than 100 times. Her body remained in the bathroom for days.
The police describe the event as a "huge cock up by social services".
This latest case involving Haringey social workers came to light at Ceesay’s trial at the Old Bailey, which ended last month.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sent to a mental hospital indefinitely after he admitted using three knives and a blade to stab his wife, then leaving his18-month-old daughter in the flat with the body.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 19 May page 2
Elderly patients sent home from hospital too soon
The number of older people re-admitted to hospital as emergency cases has risen over the past two years, according to figures today.
Emergency re-admissions among patients over 75 has increased from 26,523 in the last quarter of 1999 to 31,427 in the same period in 2001.
Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for older people, who compiled the research, said the findings were further evidence of a worsening crisis in care for older people.
Hospitals are under acute pressure to discharge patients as quickly as possible because the beds are needed to meet government waiting list targets.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 19 May page 4
One in four children is a lawbreaker
One in four school children have admitted they have committed a crime in the past 12 months.
Nearly two thirds of pupils excluded from schools have been responsible for a crime, with expelled pupils committing an average of 44 offences in the last year.
The government’s Youth Justice Board will publish the findings tomorrow, which are based on research by Mori.
The figures will increase concern about soaring crime levels among young people.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday 19 May page 1
‘Keep women out of jail’ says home office
Women should not be jailed for offences such as not paying fines or shoplifting, according to the home office last night.
The government, which is setting up a special justice board to deal with women offenders, is determined to reduce the spiralling female prison population.
The body, which is to include ministers and representatives from the prison and probation services, will bring in new ways to look after the special needs of women prisoners once in prison.
But home secretary David Blunkett has said that ending sentences for women, particularly those with young families, is in many cases desirable.
Source:- The Independent On Sunday 19 May page 10
Unwed couples unfit to adopt, says Duncan Smith
Unmarried couples should not adopt children, according to Conservative party leader, Iain Duncan Smith.
Duncan Smith, who is to oppose for the second time measures to increase adopters when they go before MPs today, said that unmarried couples were very likely to break up. He suggested that adoption agencies tackle the problem of children needing homes by outing more black and Asian children with white families.
He said: "What we know from all the figures is that couples that are not married, their systems, their allegiances break up far, far quicker than married couples."
The Tory leader denied he was making a moral judgement about the 40 per cent of couples in Britain who are unmarried.
Source:- The Times Monday 20 may page 2
Girl, 12, tagged
A 12-year-old girl from Walsall is the first person in Britain under the age of 16 to be fitted with an electronic tag.
Magistrates took the action after she broke a bail condition to stay out of the town centre.
She was accused of mugging another girl for her mobile phone and £5.
Source:- The Times Monday 20 May page 4
Village protests at proposal for asylum seekers holding centre
More than 1,000 people protested against plans to build an asylum seeker accommodation centre in rural Worcestershire yesterday.
They vowed to campaign for as long as necessary to defeat the government’s project.
Crowds of campaigners joined the village of Throckmorton’s 100 residents in a show of public opposition at the centre at a nearby RAF base.
The village is one of three sites where the accommodation centres are to be placed. Asylum seekers groups agree the rural locations are not suitable.
Peter Luff, Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire, described the campaign as "a battle we can and will win".
Planning laws and the "moral argument" would see off the government’s proposals.
Source:- The Times Monday 20 May page 6
Childcare for students
Free childcare worth up to £120 a week will be awarded to teenage parents to enable them to study for A-levels.
The government agency responsible for post 16 education and training, the Learning and Skills Council, is to invest £1.5 million to fund at least 400 full-time child care places in an experimental scheme lasting a year.
The council hopes the programme will become permanent.
There are around 350,000 teenage parents in England, 5,000 of whom are at further education colleges.
Source:- The Times Monday 20 May page 11
Immigrants should learn English, say ethnic Britons
New immigrants should learn English and attend citizenship classes, according to the vast majority of black and Asian people living in Britain.
Seventy five per cent of blacks and 68 per cent of Asians support David Blunkett’s plans to send immigrants to classes to learn about English culture.
A survey on race and immigration also found that most people, 51 per cent, whether white, black or Asian, thought that Britain was a racist society. But 55 per cent thought it was a more tolerant place than it was 10 years ago.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 20 May page 1
Benefits ‘penalise married couples’
Unmarried mothers are prevented from marrying by a welfare system that rewards them for staying single, according to a wealth reform think tank today.
Labour is undermining marriage with a tax and benefit system that makes marriage an unattractive option for the less well off, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society says.
The situation has become so "skewd" that poorer couples where one partner works, both work or both live on benefits, are all penalised if they co-habit or get married, it says.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 20 May page 7
Scottish newspapers
MSPs talking tough on youth crime fall foul of Barnardos
Politicians found themselves under attack from a leading children’s charity, as they pledged to step up their fight against youth crime.
Labour emphasised its proposed youth courts resulting in imprisonment for parents who made no effort to curb persistent young offenders, while the SNP defended its costing plan to double the number of secure places for those youths.
But Liz Barrett, head of Barnardos UK, said Britain already had more children in custody than any other European country, and that the current debate was detrimental to solving the problems.
"Sending parents to jail is ridiculous and fining people already in poverty smacks of stupidity," she said.
Barrett said it was vital the government worked in partnership with communities in developing initiatives to help parents. She added that encouraging courts to give out more community service orders was better practice in the long term.
Source:- The Herald Monday 20 May
Welsh newspapers
Valleys pupils least likely in Wales to go to university
A new report shows that people in the south Wales valleys are the least likely to go on to higher education.
The report from the education and training body Elwa, says that in Blaenau Gwent the numbers going on to university are almost half the national average, and the constituency MP, Llew Smith, is calling on the Welsh assembly to provide more money for the area.
He said that there was an obvious link between deprivation and the number of people going to university, and that bringing back student grants and scrapping tuition fees would be likely to give more people the opportunity to go on to higher education.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 20 May page 1
Police investigate death of prisoner found hanged
Two investigations have been launched into the death of a remand prisoner found hanged in Cardiff prison.
Wayne Tranter was found in his cell after he was remanded in custody following a domestic disturbance, and both south Wales police and the prison service are investigating the incident.
A spokesperson for the prison service said that two members of staff had found Tranter hanged in his cell. She added that he was not regarded as a high-risk prisoner, and that he had not been on suicide watch.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 20 May page 3
