New build plea to ease plight of homeless

Scottish news
 
New build plea to ease plight of homeless

Campaigners have called on the Scottish Government to sanction the building of thousands more affordable homes as new figures showed a sharp rise in the number of homeless people being put in temporary accommodation.

More than 9000 people were placed in temporary accommodation in 2006-07, an increase of 10% on the year before. Of those, the number of households with either a pregnant person or with children rose by 13%.

Archie Stoddart, the director of Shelter Scotland, said the rise in the number of households living in temporary accommodation was “very disappointing” and called on the government to take action.

Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 31 October 
 
Minister’s concern over rise in number of teenage pregnancies

The number of teenagers becoming pregnant has risen, new figures reveal.

Statistics showed that there were 9,040 teenage pregnancies in Scotland 2005 – up slightly from the previous year, when the total was 8,891.

But the rate of pregnancies among under-16s dropped slightly. In 2005 there were 7.1 pregnancies per 1,000 females under 16 – down from 7.4 the previous year. In 2005 there were also 56.7 pregnancies for every 1,000 females aged between 15 and 19, compared to 55.6 per 1,000 in 2004.

Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 31 October 
 
Welsh news

Open verdict on death of GP patient

A coroner has recorded an open verdict on a man whose body was exhumed as part of a murder investigation two years ago.

William Kerr, 84, was a patient of GP Howard Martin who was cleared in court of killing three of his other elderly patients by giving them morphine overdoses.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday 31 October 2007