In Today's Papers

By Clare Jerrom, David Callaghan and Alex Dobson.
Restrictions on legal aid condemned
A group of MPs has condemned the government’s plans to curb the soaring legal aid for asylum seekers and immigrants, as not thought through.
The constitutional affairs committee of MPs said that plans to cap the cost and time lawyers can spend on advising asylum seekers should be placed “in cold storage”.
The legal aid bill is currently around £174 million, up from £80 million three years ago.
Source:- The Times Friday 31 October page 2

Foreign prisoners to be freed early and deported
Foreign prisoners serving sentences of less than four years are to be released early and deported to free up spaces in Britain’s overcrowded jails.
Paul Goggins, the prisons minister, said an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill will make them eligible for release four and a half months early.
The move will create an additional 400 spaces in jails in England and Wales.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 31 October page 6
Tougher penalty for hate crimes
Offenders who target people with disabilities or gay people will face tougher penalties under proposals announced yesterday.
The range of aggravating factors in “hate crimes” will be expanded to include sexual orientation and disability with an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 31 October page 11
Life for man freed to kill by doctors
A schizophrenic who killed a stranger in an attack after being released from a secure mental hospital was jailed for life yesterday.
Paul Khan stabbed Brian Dodd more than 30 times, six years after slashing a man’s throat in a public library.
He was supposed to be held indefinitely for the library attack, but was released in August 2000 after a tribunal decided he could be cared for in the community.
Khan admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility at Mold crown court, Flintshire.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Friday 31 October page 11
11-year-olds drinking at danger levels
Government figures show that children aged 11 are drinking dangerously high levels of alcohol.
Britain has one of the worst binge drinking problems in Europe and the consumption of 11-year-old children is double that of a decade ago, the statistics show.
Source:- Daily Telegraph  Friday 31 October page 11
Wives who kill may be spared life sentences
Women who kill violent partners could escape life imprisonment for murder, under proposals floated today by the government’s law reform advisers.
In English law, a person who kills after a sudden and temporary loss of self control may be able to rely on the defence of provocation.
If that defence is made out the accused person will be convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, and the judge will not have to pass a life sentence.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Friday 31 October page 13
Reid leads way with job axe at health department
Health secretary Dr John Reid announced job losses at the Department of Health and signalled more job cuts in arms length health and social care bodies.
The number of people employed in the Whitehall based department is to be cut by 1,400 to 2,200 at a cost of £10 million in redundancy payments. Further job cuts from the 20,000 total of people employed in health and social care bodies are to follow, he said.
Source:- Financial Times Friday 31 October page 2
NHS advances justify billions spent, says PM
Prime minister Tony Blair said the health service was improving to reflect the billions of pounds of extra investment put in by the government.
The Conservatives claimed the extra 1 per cent on national insurance has done nothing to improve health services.
Source:- Financial Times Friday 31 October page 2
Treasury warned on public finances
The government has a 50-50 chance of breaking the “golden rule” of public finances of borrowing only to invest in the economy, according to the National Institution of Economic Social Research..
It said the Treasury will have to explain how a possible shortfall in public finances will be plugged.
The slow down in the housing market was the most serious threat to the health of the economy, the institution said.

Source:- Financial Times Friday 31 October page 5
Outrage over teens’ hotline to the pill
A new pilot scheme to help teenage girls access the morning–after pill more easily has been condemned.
North Tyneside Primary Care Trust is to run the 12-month trial from December. It will ensure girls who call the hotline, a consultation with a GP within 24 hours and without their parents’ knowledge.
A spokesperson for Family and Youth Concern said the scheme was a “seal of approval for promiscuity”.
Source:- Daily Mail Friday 31 October page 41
Scottish newspapers
Big rise in childhood diseases brings new call for MMR jabs
A rise in reported cases of measles, mumps and rubella last year has prompted a fresh warning to parents yesterday to immunise their children with the MMR triple vaccination.
Doctors reported a 27 per cent suspected rise in mumps cases, 22 per cent rise in rubella and an 18 per cent increase in measles among under-15s.
Source:- The Herald Friday 31 October
It’s time to tag the tearaways
The Scottish executive confirmed yesterday that ‘tearaway’ children would be electronically tagged as part of a controversial crackdown on antisocial behaviour.
A range of tough measures as part of the executive’s flagship Antisocial Behaviour Bill, were announced by Jack McConnell, first minister.
Parents who fail to control their children will be jailed unless they attend special classes, and antisocial neighbours face £100 fixed penalty fines.
Source:- Daily Record Friday 31 October page 2
Welsh newspapers
Ex-bully calls for action
As part of the ‘South Wales Argus’ campaign, ‘Unite Against Bullies’, a former bully tells of her experiences and what she thinks ought to be done to stop bullying in schools.
The woman who wants to remain anonymous says that from the age of eight she physically and mentally hurt other children. She is horrified by what she did, but said she was a victim of bullying herself, by older siblings.
She would like to see counsellors in all schools because bullies as well as their victims are desperately in need of professional help.
Source:- South Wales Argus Thursday 30 October pages 1 and 3
Children’s champion savages ministers
Welsh children are being failed by mental health systems that are supposed to support them, said children’s commissioner, Peter Clarke.
In his annual report he criticised the Welsh assembly for not allocating and ring fencing funding to implement the child and adolescent mental health strategy and he said that action must be taken to address this.
Clarke said that the service for children and young people is in crisis with poor and patchy provision and a worrying drain of skilled and professional workers.
The assembly will debate the report on Wednesday.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 31 October page 5
Widow slams ‘experts’ who freed killer
The widow of a man killed by a schizophrenic said the experts who discharged her husband’s killer from a mental hospital, are as much to blame for the tragedy, as the killer himself.
Paul Khan was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Brian Dodd in a frenzied attack in March.
Six years ago Khan slashed a man’s throat in Cardiff and was ordered to remain in a secure mental hospital indefinitely. But he was released in August 2000 after a Mental Health Review Tribunal ruled that he could be cared for in the community.
The Welsh assembly has ordered an inquiry onto how Khan’s mental health was allowed to deteriorate while he was being cared for in the community.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 31 October page 6