In Today's Papers

By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson.

Applications for asylum rise 4 per cent in three months

The number of asylum applications has risen by four per cent according to the latest figures.

Statistics for April to June also reveal that the backlog of cases waiting decisions has risen for the first time for two years, and only a third of failed applicants have been removed.

Immigration minister Beverley Hughes said the targets for removing 30,000 failed applicants a year would have to be revised urgently.

The numbers applying for asylum from April to June reached 20,400 compared with 19,520 in January to March.

Source:- The Times Saturday 31 August page 10

Disabled woman loses battle with Labour

A disabled woman who claims the Labour party discriminated against her, failed to bring a disability discrimination case against the party.

Helen Garrod claims she was rejected for a job on Tony Blair’s 1997 general election campaign team because of her disability. She claims she has suffered psychological problems as a result.

Garrod, from Helston, Cornwall was born with dystrophic dwarfism and uses a wheelchair.

But the Central London Employment Tribunal chaired ruled there was insufficient evidence to support her claim that post traumatic stress disorder prevented her from launching her case for four-and-a-half years.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 31 August page 9

Huntley’s silence hinders doctors

Doctors trying to establish the psychiatric state of Ian Huntley are finding their task increasingly difficult as he has said virtually nothing since entering hospital.

A team of psychiatrists at top security hospital Rampton have 16 days left to assess whether Huntley, is mentally fit to stand trial for abducting and murdering Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman from Soham, Cambridgeshire.

It is understood that Huntley has given only a few monosyllabic answers since he was admitted to the Nottinghamshire hospital on 20 August, after a police doctor became concerned about his behaviour.

Huntley was examined by two psychiatrists, including one from Rampton, but the final decision to take him to the hospital was made by a Cambridgeshire social worker.

A source said he had shown classic signs of schizophrenia.

Source:- The Sunday Times 1 September page 4

Criminal vetting backlog spreads

The crisis over delays to checks at the Criminal Records Bureau is spreading from education to the voluntary sector and health and social services amid calls for a public inquiry.

Efforts have been focused on pushing through 22,355 education related checks on criminal records before the start of term this week.

But day nurseries, child-minders and day care centers are also being hit by the delays. By the beginning of July, 65,000 applications had been made to the CRB to cover the sector, but a month later only 8,000 had been processed.

The backlog has also delayed checks on up to 10,000 agency nurses until next year.

Source:- The Sunday Times 1 September page 4

Protest over asylum center

More than 1,500 people protested over the proposed accommodation centre for asylum seekers at a former air base in Throckmorton, Worcestershire.

Among them, 750 wore numbered placards to represent each of the asylum seekers expected to be housed there.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 1 September page 4

Thames torso detectives fear repeat killings

Detectives investigating the case where a five-year-old boy’s torso was found dumped in the River Thames fear the case could be the first of many if they are not able to solve the crime.

"The ritual killing of children is an absolute reality," Detective Inspector Will O’Reilly said. "We do not want this to gain a foothold in the country. That is why, one year on, we are still working flat out to try and solve this case."

Detectives say they have now narrowed down ‘Adam’s’ country of origin, and will be focusing attention there.

The torso was spotted on 21 September last year in the Thames close to Tower Bridge.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 1 September page 12

Drug rule change will see 20,000 prisoners freed

Prison Service rules have been secretly relaxed by the home office to allow up to 20,000 more prisoners to be released under its electronic tagging scheme, according to a leaked government document.

In a desperate measure to reduce the soaring prison population, home secretary David Blunkett has told governors to change rules allowing prisoners previously ineligible for early release to be freed.

Until now, anyone in prison for any offence who had ever been convicted of possessing drugs was automatically banned from taking part in the scheme, in which prisoners are tagged and released two months before the end of their sentences.

But governors have been told to ignore previous convictions for possessing drugs, including heroin and cocaine, and consider releasing them.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 1 September page 2

Tories will seek parents’ pledge on pupil behaviour

Headmasters should be allowed to refuse school places to children whose parents refuse to guarantee their good behaviour, the Conservative party will propose this week.

In his first significant policy announcement, Iain Duncan Smith will propose giving statutory powers to headmasters to enforce home-school behaviour contracts, which are signed by parents and designed to set standards of behaviour and commitment to homework.

The policy paper called "Children left behind – the crisis in inner city education" will say that parents who refuse to sign the contracts could have their children turned away from schools.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 1 September page 2

Disabled children sue over triple diptheria vaccine

The manufacturer of the MMR vaccine is being sued over claims that another of its triple inoculations has caused cerebral palsy and autism in hundreds of British children.

A group of 120 disabled children have joined a class action which claims their illnesses were caused by the three in one diptheria, pertussis and tetanus vaccine made by Glaxo Wellcome and the Wellcome Foundation.

Glaxo Wellcome is now part of GlaxoSmithKline, the company which is facing a separate claim by several thousand children whose autism was allegedly triggered by the company’s jab for measles, mumps and rubella.

The government has previously admitted that the DPT vaccine can cause problems in some children and paid limited compensation to victims under the 1979 Vaccine Damages Payments Act.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 1 September page 6

Violence at child jail ‘is running out of control’

Violence, bullying and sexual assaults on staff at Britain’s first child prison are spiralling out of control, it emerged last night.

Aggression and intimidation exists at all levels at Medway Secure Training Centre, which houses some of the country’s most persistent young offenders.

Sexual assaults on female staff by the inmates are so regular that parts of the £30 million centre are no-go areas for women.

An investigation has now been launched.

Source:- The Mail on Sunday 1 September page 41

NHS land sell-off helps to cure housing crisis

The NHS is set to agree its largest property sell-off, which will release a stream of lucrative sites for new homes in return for £400 million plus a share of developers’ profits.

In the deal, 120 hospitals, asylums and redundant pieces of land will be freed over the next three to five years. Many of them are in urban areas and include Victorian builds, which provide a rich seam of period property for house builders.

The NHS’s property arm NHS Estates is in detailed discussion with a joint venture set up between Miller Group and Bank of Scotland.

Source:- The Times Monday 2 September page 3

Checks on school staff fall short

More than 7,000 records of school staff have not been checked in time for the start of the new school year, the home office admitted last night.

The failure by the Criminal Records Bureau means that pupils in all parts of the country will miss lessons.

All school staff must be checked by the bureau, set up in March to ensure paedophiles cannot gain access to children. It is mainly concerned with offences against children, but it will also check for violent crime.

Source:- The Times Monday 2 September page 4

Reading with a parent calms unruly children

Antisocial behaviour among disruptive children who fight, steal and lie, can be significantly reduced through regular reading with a parent, according to researchers.

A team from the Institute of Psychiatry observed considerable improvements in the behaviour of more than 100 five and six-year-olds in an inner London borough after 10 weeks of regular reading with their parents.

The project was funded with a £500,000 department of health grant.

Stephen Scott, senior lecturer in child and adolescent psychiatry at the institute, who led the research, said the study provided clear evidence that simple, focused parenting programmes could be highly effective in improving behaviour from a very young age.

Source:- The Times Monday 2 September page 8

Move to improve child protection

Directors of social services will today set out plans for fundamental reform of child protection, in the wake of the Victoria Climbie case.

In a paper circulated to MPs and chief constables, they call for closer integration of social services, education, police and NHS teams along lines pioneered in Vermont in the US.

A public inquiry into the death of Victoria, led by Lord laming, is due to report to ministers in the autumn on lessons to be learned from the murder of the eight-year-old from the Ivory Coast who died in London in February 2000.

Victoria’s great aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her lover, Carl Manning, are serving life sentences for the killing.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 2 September page 5

Scottish newspapers

Welsh newspapers

Poppy Day cash pays for work passed on by councils

More than £500,000 in appeal money raised for the annual Poppy Day is being used every year to help cash-strapped councils.

The Royal British Legion says that it is being forced to pay for adaptations to the homes of older people, which is normally the responsibility of local government.

Bill Pinney, the president of the Newbridge branch in Wales, said people would be outraged if they knew that some of the money they donated was being used to prop up public services.

He added that Care and Repair agencies acting on behalf of local authorities were referring cases to the charity when they became aware that the older person was an ex-serviceman or was a relative of one.

Monmouth assembly member (AM) David Davies said that he would take the matter up with the Welsh Assembly, and he added that he felt it was disgraceful that local authorities were abdicating their responsibilities towards older people and using charities to pay for work that they should be doing.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 2 September page 1

Christian charity for ex-vicar on sex offenders’ register

Church leaders have defended their decision to allow a former vicar, who is on the sex offenders’ register, to sing in a church choir alongside children.

The parochial church council of St Mary’s Church at Overton, near Wrexham have accepted Jason Kennett Opwood, as a church member although two years ago he received a police caution when pornographic images of young boys were found on his computer.

Following the caution he was placed on the sex offenders register and was suspended from his position as vicar of a north Wales parish.

The parish council of St Mary’s says they are aware of Mr Opwood’s position, and that he and his family have been accepted within a loving and forgiving Christian community. The church has a child protection policy in place.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 2 September page 3

So Brave I Won’t Get A Penny

The headteacher at the heart of a controversial alleged slapping case may never receive compensation for her 18-month ordeal.

Marjorie Evans was convicted of slapping a pupil at St Mary’s junior school in Caldicot, south Wales, but the verdict was later overturned by the court of appeal.

She has since returned to her post and says that she wants to sue the education authority following her suspension for allegedly hitting the 10-year-old boy in the face. But she has been warned that her bid for compensation may fail because she did not complain of stress at the time. She said that because she had been brave during adversity, and did not complain of stress at the time she was unlikely to get a penny.

Following the court of Appeal decision a report by the Welsh assembly was highly critical of the way the affair had been handled and the assembly education minister, Jane Davidson, vowed that there would never be a repeat of the way that Marjorie Evans’ case was conducted.

Source:- Welsh Mirror Monday 2 September page 11