Monday 19 August 2002

By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.

Campaign group loses lottery cash

A lottery grant to a group campaigning against the deportation
of asylum seekers was removed yesterday as an inquiry was ordered
into the way Lotto cash is awarded.

The national lottery’s Community Fund agreed to stop the
£340,000 grant and order a review of the process by which the
money is awarded after David Blunkett intervened.

The home secretary told Lotto representatives that the grant to
the National Coalition of Anti- Deportation Campaigns had to be
revoked because he believed the group was involved in political
campaigning, which would make it ineligible for a grant.

The organisation has received £383,000 from the lottery
since 1998.

Source:- The Times Saturday 17 August page
6

Oxford attacked for rejecting brilliant deaf maths
student

Oxford university has been criticised by a Labour MP for
rejecting a deaf state school pupil who was awarded six grade As in
her A levels.

Anastacia Fedotova from Parrs Wood comprehensive in Manchester
is profoundly deaf and was unable to talk until she was seven. She
achieved her grades in maths, further maths, physics, chemistry,
biology and general studies with the help of her learning assistant
at the school.

Former foreign minister and MP for Manchester Central Tony Lloyd
is demanding an explanation from the university. “Anastacia’s
achievements are formidable. It’s an enormous shame that she
wasn’t offered a place at Oxford when she is so clearly
capable of benefiting from that education.

“I will be asking Oxford to justify its selection methods; both
in the hope that Anastacia can still be offered a place, but also
so that in future young people of talent get through a selection
process which, at the moment, is clearly failing,” he added.

Source:- The Times Saturday 17 August page 9

Boys’ club leader jailed for photos

A boys’ club leader from Oldham, David Ferron, was jailed
for a year yesterday after being convicted of taking indecent
photographs of children.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 17 August page 6

Voluntary work can cut student tuition
costs

Students could reduce the financial cost of university education
by doing voluntary work under a scheme to be proposed to the
government next month.

The Institute for Public Policy Research will recommend that
students who volunteer should receive a credit which could be used
for the costs of university.

Activities which could be rewarded include working in the
National Health Service, helping out local community organisations
or volunteering for schools in deprived areas where few pupils go
to university.

Credits could be used in or between terms or during a gap year
out. They could then be used against the £1,000 a year tuition
fees.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Saturday 17 August page 5

Tories demand law on internet child
‘grooming’

New laws should be introduced urgently to make it an offence to
use internet chatrooms to groom children for sexual abuse,
Conservative party leaders said yesterday.

Although the government is already considering taking action,
Iain Duncan-Smith believes the case for legislation has already
been made clear.

Duncan Smith called for increased penalties for paedophiles who
refuse to unlock encrypted information being stored on the
internet.

“Without this code, it is almost impossible to access the
material and obtain vital evidence,” he added.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Saturday 17 August page 7

Locked up at last

A teenager who has terrorised a community for more than three
years, was in prison for the first time last night.

Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 17 August page 37

Public to help with paedophile checks

The public are to be given a greater role in supervising
paedophiles after home office reports showed the police and
probation services are struggling to cope with the sheer number of
violent sex offenders released into the community.

Ministers are set to legislate to force the authorities to allow
two members of the public to sit on the ‘paedophile
panels’ that monitor the activities of such offenders.

Annual reports from the 42 new panels across the country show
for the first time the scale of the problem of monitoring the
thousands of offenders judged to be at risk to the public.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 18 August page 8

Sex approaches are made to one in five
children

More than one in five children have been the victim of an
unwanted sexual advance outside the home by a stranger or someone
known to them, according to research.

Of the 2,420 children aged nine to 16, who were surveyed, 22 per
cent said they had been the victims of some sexual approach ranging
from indecent exposure to sexual abuse and abduction.

Four children said they had been abducted while a further 41
said they had escaped an attempted abduction. Nearly half of the
incidents were accounted for by indecent exposure, the research by
the University of Huddersfield said.

Source:- Sunday Times 18 August page 4

Prisoners to sue over punishment

Prisoners are to sue the government for compensation over
punishment days that were added to their sentences before the Human
Rights Act became UK law.

A Manchester firm of solicitors is preparing the case on behalf
of 10 prisoners and former prisoners.

The European court ruled in July that extra days for bad
behaviour were illegal under the act, which took effect in Britain
in 2000.

The test case hopes to prove that all punishment days handed out
before the act became law were illegal.

If the case is successful, Millions of pounds could be paid out
in compensation.

Source:- Sunday Times 18 August page 24

Asylum seekers suspected of crime face
deportation

Asylum seekers who are suspected of committing any crime will be
deported, under new plans being drawn up by the home office.

Thousands of deportations every year could follow the successful
pilot scheme in Hounslow, west London, under the proposals. The
scheme has resulted in 272 asylum seekers, who were arrested for
suspected criminal acts being deported over a period of just four
months up to April this year.

The high level of arrests has added concerns about crimes
committed by asylum seekers, although the home office does not keep
figures of offences committed by asylum seekers.

One of the conditions under which refugees are allowed into the
country is that they will not break the law.

Traditionally asylum seekers have only been deported after a
successful prosecution, and then only if the conviction is for a
serious offence.

Ministers are now examining the results of the Hounslow scheme,
and are planning to sanction the deportation of all asylum seekers
suspected of committing crimes.

Source:- Sunday Telegraph 18 August page 14

Town in mourning for lost girls

Detectives investigating the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica
Chapman admitted last night that they were ” as certain as we can
possibly be” that the remains of two bodies found in woodland near
Soham, were those of the 10-year-old schoolgirls.

Cambridgeshire’s acting deputy chief constable Keith Hoddy
said Holly and Jessica’s parents “have been told this
terrible news”. He spoke in the grounds of St Andrew’s parish
church where 500 people had gathered earlier to pray for the
families.

The announcement came as the couple who have been arrested on
suspicion of murder, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr, continued to
answer questions about where they were and what they were doing on
Sunday 4 August, the day the girls disappeared.

Hoddy said: “It may be some days yet before we are able to
positively identify the two bodies found at Common Grove, near
Lakenheath, in Suffolk. However we are as certain as we possibly
can be tonight that they are those of Holly and Jessica.”

Source:- The Guardian Monday 19 August page 1

Council tables will embarrass ministers

Minister face embarrassment as Conservative-run authorities are
likely to be placed at the top of a list of the best councils in
Britain.

Stephen Byers ordered the comprehensive performance assessment
when he was secretary of state for transport, local government and
the regions. It is studying the record of 150 county and
metropolitan councils, the London boroughs and the unitary
authorities.

The Audit Commission, using judgements from the schools
inspectorate Ofsted, the Social Services Inspectorate, as well as
its own measurements of performance indicators, is to name the best
and worst councils in a report in the late autumn.

Conservative councils look likely to be taking the leading
prizes and will be give the reward of greater freedom and
flexibility over the use of their locally raised and
government-supplied resources.

Westminster council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
and Kent councils have scored highly in the early assessments, and
are expected to finish at or near to the top.

Labour’s best performers so far are thought to be
Blackburn council and Camden council, north London.

Source:- The Times Monday 19 August page 2

Scottish newspapers

Mix-up threatens free meal care for elderly

Thousands of vulnerable older people could be denied part of the
free personal care package because of a discrepancy in official
documents.

The anomaly centres on those who need special help in preparing
meals because they have a physical handicap or mental health
problem. The Scottish executive guidelines to local authorities say
that meal preparation should be excluded from free personal care
contradicting the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002,
which states that “assisting with food preparation” is considered
“social care not ordinarily charged for”.

At least one local authority, Scottish Borders council, admits
that it is being challenged on this point concerning the care
package of a 92-year-old woman.

Source:- The Herald Saturday 17 August page 1

Charity appalled at Nimby campaign

The chairperson of a charity working to rehabilitate young
offenders states that he is “appalled” by a group of affluent local
people who want to keep his group out of their area.

Dr Allan Rutherford was speaking out against the local campaign
to stop his organisation, Airborne Initiative, from establishing a
new centre in rural Braidwood in Lanarkshire. Airborne Initiative
provides residential alternatives to prison for so-called high
tariff offenders. Locals claim that the proposed location of its
centre, Braidwood House, is too close to a primary school and will
attract drug dealers into the area.

Source:- Sunday Herald 18 August page 7

Cancer care left in the hands of charities

The care of many of Scotland’s cancer victims is being
left in the hands of charities dependent on public goodwill,
according to a study carried out by the Scottish Partnership for
Palliative Care.

The study looked at 25 hospitals with more than 300 beds
providing palliative care and found that of the 25 consultants
working in them only nine had been appointed by the NHS. Of the
rest, 14 were employed by charities and two appointed by
universities.

Source:- Sunday Herald 18 August page 4

Sparks fly in free care policy row

A row over places for older people in East Dunbartonshire showed
no sign of abating last night as the council leader and local MSP
continued a public argument.

Brian Fitzpatrick MSP has accused the council of failing to
implement free personal care in full. Keith Moody, leader of East
Dunbartonshire council, claims the local authority has the fastest
growing older people population in Scotland and the £2.2
million funds allocated by the Scottish executive are
insufficient.

Moody says the council has met with Jim Wallace, deputy first
minister, and Andy Kerr, minister for finance and public service,
over the past two weeks to address the issue. Fitzpatrick claimed
there was a huge difference between meetings with ministers and
putting together a case for additional funding.

Source:- The Herald Monday 19 August page 6

Welsh newspapers

Welsh cannot make checks on register

Organisations in Wales are still unable to check staff and
volunteers for sex offences through the Criminal Records Bureau
(CRB).

There are now calls for the Welsh Assembly to put more pressure
on government to help resolve the problem.

Five months after the CRB was officially opened in Liverpool and
three-and-a-half years after the government announced its
establishment, there are still no forms for organisations that
operate through the medium of Welsh.

The problem arose because the CRB has been established centrally
through the home office and officials overlooked the fact that they
would need to provide a Welsh language version of the register.
When a scheme was submitted it was judged to be badly worded and
was rejected

The Welsh assembly with its policy of equality for both
languages is unable to step in and instruct organisations in Wales
that operate through the medium of Welsh to register staff on an
English language register.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 19 August page 1