Megan’s law won’t work, Reid warned

Megan’s law won’t work, Reid warned
The government-appointed children’s commissioner rounded on John Reid yesterday over moves to inform parents about paedophiles living in their area, saying any attempt to introduce the law would be entirely counterproductive.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 1
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Cash for treating drug addicts increased by third
Spending on treatment for drug addiction will increase by nearly a third this year, Caroline Flint, the public health minister promisted yesterday.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 8
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Huge increase in women trapped as ‘super carers’
The generation of women in their forties and fifties who are caught between the demands of holding down a job and looking after a younger or older relative will rise by 50 per cent by 2020, a study by the Future Foundation reports today.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 13
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Prisons failing former inmates
Prisons are failing to help former inmates rebuild their lives, acccording to a survey carried out by Inside Time, a free newspaper distributed to every prison.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 8
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Freed sex offenders trying to break the rules
Hundreds of sex offenders including paedphiles failed to tell the authorities where they were living or turn up to have their fingerprints and photographs taken, the Home Office said last night.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 6
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Home secretary confronts his staff
John Reid set out yesterday to mend fences with officials in his embattled department just weeks after telling some of them that they were “not fit for purpose.”
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 6
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New human trafficking centre
A new human trafficking centre in Sheffield has been established by the Home office after a four-month police operation in Britain and Ireland againts criminals involved in trafficking women for sex.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 14
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Abortion law ‘must change to reflect public disquiet’
The archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor called for a review of abortion laws in a meeting with the health secretary Patricia Hewitt yesterday. Murphy-O’Connor said that there was increasing concern amongst the public about the number of abortions that were taking place and said the law needed to be changed.
Source:- The Times, Thursday 22 June 2006, page 13
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Scottish news

10,000 children each day witness violence at home
Scenes of domestic violence are witnessed by 10,000 children in Scotland every day, the Booze and Blade conference heard.
One-third of experts from the police, council and prosecution service also said the legal age for buying alcohol should be raised to cut drink-fuelled violence.
In Glasgow alone 22,000 incidents of domestic violence were reported last year, however, one expert told the conference that this was just the tip of the iceberg – on average it takes 35 incidents before a mother will go to police.
Source:- The Herald, Thursday 22 June 2006
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Behind-the-scenes talks on local authority mergers
Council leaders are holding talks with ministers to cut the number of local authorities in Scotland after next year’s Holyrood elections.
Tom McCabe, the finance minister, said councillors and officials have come to him privately to offer to merge their authorities. He has previously called for a reduction in councils.
Councils most likely to change first are Ayrshires south, east and north. There have also been moves to merge administration at Clackmannanshire and Stirling, though the councils insist they will remain separate.
Source:- The Scotsman, Thursday 22 June 2006
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Welsh news

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