Friday 28 May 2004

By Amy Taylor, Shirley Kumar, Clare Jerrom and Alex
DobsonBy Amy Taylor, Shirley Kumar, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson

Hodge favours year off for maternity

Children’s minister Margaret Hodge called for paid maternity
leave to be doubled for new mothers to a year yesterday.

While speaking to think tank the Social Market Foundation, Hodge
also said that some of the time should be reserved as “daddy
leave” to encourage fathers to stay at home.

Mothers are allowed 26 weeks paid leave after a birth, and fathers
are given two weeks.

Source: The Financial Times, Friday, 28 May, page 6

Charity law shake-up to licence chuggers

Strict restrictions on ‘chuggers’ professional street
fundraisers were contained in new legislation announced
yesterday.

The measures were outlined in the draft Charities Bill which aims
to modernise the laws on charities, some of which date back 400
years.

Source: The Times, Friday, 28 May, page 17

Paedophile jailed

A former language school teacher was sentenced to 15 years in jail
for 19 counts of indecent assault and two of indecency involving
girls under 16.

John Keeler, 59, who was sentenced at Taunton Crown Court, recently
served three years in a Thai jail after making indecent videos of
girls as young as 8.

Source: The Times, Friday, 28 May, page 18

Sex offenders may face lie detector tests

Compulsory lie detector tests for convicted sex offender released
from prisons could become a reality the government has
indicated.

Ministers are due to decide on whether to introduce the tests this
summer. The home secretary David Blunkett has also announced that
serious offenders are going to be electronically tagged to track
their whereabouts.

Source: The Guardian, Friday, 28 May, page 1

Jail staff face ‘race fight’ bet
inquiry

Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into allegations that
prison officers at a young offenders institute took bets on fights
between black and white inmates, it emerged yesterday.

The officers at Feltham young offenders institution are alleged to
have put black and white inmates together in cells at and taken
bets on how long it would take for a fight to start.

Source: The Guardian, Friday, 28 May, page 3

Scottish newspapers

Reliance expects go-ahead in weeks to extend operations
across Scotland

Reliance Security said yesterday it was “100 per cent
confident” it will get the go-ahead to roll out its prisoner
escort operation across Scotland in the next few weeks.

Campbell O’Connell, the Scottish operations director of the
company, said he expected it to be allowed to fulfil the rest of
its contract.
The company has come under increasing criticism after mistakenly
releasing a number of prisoners from custody within weeks of taking
on the prisoner escort contract with the Scottish executive.

Source: The Scotsman , Friday 28 May

Concern at rising number of women in prison
system

The number of women held in Scotland’s prisons system has
increased significantly, according to a new report.

An inspection of Cornton Vale prison has shown there were 340 women
being held at the jail at the time of inspection, compared with 137
in 1990.

The report by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons into Scotland’s
only all-female jail said the number of women admitted to the
prison with mental health problems, addiction problems and a
history of abuse was “very alarming”.

Source: The Scotsman , Friday 28 May

Refugees called to fill skills gap

The business community in Glasgow is calling on refugees to fill
the skills gap in hospitality and catering industries.

The Glasgow Chambers of Commerce yesterday launched the first in a
series of events to highlight the wealth of experience within the
city’s refugee community.

Source: The Scotsman., Friday 28 May

Anger at plan to replace nursery nurse strikers with
teachers

Scotland’s largest local authority yesterday announced plans
to use teachers to break the strike of nursery nurses over the
summer months.

Glasgow Council said it would ensure pre-school children are given
a nursery place from next week and the disruption over the summer
would be minimised. However, it provoked an angry response from
unions by asking teachers to provide cover for striking nursery
staff.

Unison accused the authority of trying to employ
“strike-breakers”, while the Educational Institute of
Scotland said its members have been advised not to carry out
additional duties.

Source: The Herald , Friday 28 May

Welsh newspapers

Batman Fathers’ Rooftop Protest

Two fathers fighting for better access to their children staged
a rooftop protest in Cardiff.

The men, members of the lobby group Fathers4Justice, which
flour-bombed Prime Minister Tony Blair last week, said they were
protesting on behalf of fathers across the UK. Dressed as Batman
and Robin they brought a city centre street to a standstill as they
perched with placards on a 25ft-high ledge at the Civil Justice
Centre.

Source: South Wales Echo, Thursday 27 May, page 1

Secret deal to cut hospital waiting

Hundreds of Welsh patients will be treated in the private sector
under secret plans to slash long-term waiting lists.

A deal with Cardiff Bupa is being drawn up to take 1,600 patients
waiting more than 18 months for treatment. The deal is likely to
cause embarrassment for the Welsh Assembly which until now has
opposed using the private sector to tackle the crisis in NHS
waiting times.

Source: Western Mail, Friday 28 May, page 1

Internet images make child abuse trauma burden
worse

A Welsh conference will be told today that child victims of
sexual abuse suffer far worse trauma if they think images of their
ordeals are being distributed on the internet.

Child protection organisation Trafod is hosting a conference in
Cardiff where delegates will be told of the effect of the internet
on victims of child abuse. Victims are often left with deep
psychological scars as a result of images of their abuse being
passed among paedophiles, researchers will tell the conference.

Source: Western Mail, Friday 28 May, page 2