Markus Andrews

Labour has accused the Conservative government of being “complicit with criminals” amid a record backlog of serious cases waiting to be heard at courts.The opposition says the 57,000 cases at Crown Courts and record low prosecutions and convictions for rape are the result of “a decade of Conservative cuts and court closures”.Keir Starmer’s MPs will make a parliamentary push on Wednesday for the creation of more so-called “Nightingale Courts” – temporary tribunals to boost the capacity of the justice system. And they will try to summon the Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland, to update the Commons in person on the progress in reducing the backlog. MPs will be asked to vote on a package of measures, which also include enshrining victims’ rights in law and introducing measures to combat violence against women and girls.Austerity measures brought in by the government have resulted in the closure of half of all courts in England and Wales between 2010 and 2019.The National Audit Office says the government plans to close 77 more courts by 2025/26.“Inaction is complicity,” said David Lammy, the party’s shadow justice secretary. “A decade of government cuts and court closures has helped create a sky-high backlog and record-low conviction rates for serious crimes like rape”The Conservative Party’s failure to address these damning failures shows it is becoming complicit with criminals. “MPs should vote with Labour to enshrine victims rights, to protect women and girls from violence, and to fix the backlog of criminal cases.”The cross party House of Commons Justice Select Committee last year said that the “dramatic reduction in the size of the courts estate in England and Wales” over the past ten years “looks increasingly difficult to justify”. More

Ministers paid millions of pounds to consultants over payment of Covid funds to charities for no clear reason, an influential group of MPs has found, as they warned that a “worrying smoke” had been thrown up around awards.In a damning report, the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also said it was unclear what influence special advisers had over some funding decisions.Ministers have no information on where more than £100m of £500m in lifeline grants to charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises is actually being used.The report warned of a “notable opaqueness over some aspects” of decision-making by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).The PAC questioned why consultants were used to assess funding bids “when established processes were already in place to do this”.The report found that it was “unclear” what influence special advisers had over some grants. Some charities were given government funding despite civil servants initially scoring their bids in the lowest possible category.In three instances, charitable organisations were given money despite officials questioning whether the bodies were even “eligible for government funding in the first place”.The department also failed to provide MPs with a “clear rationale” for spending up to £2m of taxpayers’ money on consultants.And, because of the speed with which the money was allocated, the department has no way to measure its impact across the country or on the sector.Meg Hillier, the chair of the committee, said: “The PAC has seen these twin themes recur throughout the policy response to Covid, especially when it comes to disbursing funds. One is a worrying smoke thrown up around award decisions, with growing instances of the official processes overridden without adequate explanation.“The other is the focus on inputs, not outcomes, on getting money spent – including exorbitant amounts on consultants – without factoring or measuring the impact. I fear one clear impact is the steady erosion of taxpayers’ trust that their money is being well spent in this national emergency.”A spokesperson for the DCMS spokesperson said:“The PAC has rightly recognised that the government acted quickly in distributing unprecedented amounts of vital funding to charities in desperate need at the height of the pandemic. “All decisions on this funding followed proper due process and were in line with the Civil Service Code and the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers. All decisions were made by ministers based on advice from officials and special advisers did not unduly influence this in any way.“External grant and fund management support allowed the department to meet tight deadlines and safely distribute funds across the full package of support offered.” More

Catch-up money for schools over the next academic year is “only slightly more” than the amount spent on one month of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, according to a think-tank.It comes after the government announced £1.4bn more would go towards reversing the impact of the Covid pandemic on pupils’ learning, mostly for tutoring, although headteachers claimed this fell short of what was needed.Analysis by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) has found a total of £984m has been committed to catch-up for the next academic year, which the think-tank said was a “key year for education recovery”.In comparison, the government spent £840m on its flagship Eat Out to Help Out scheme to support restaurants, cafes and pubs last summer.The scheme – which gave customers discounted meals – ran for the month of August.David Laws, the EPI’s executive chair, said: “Learning losses over the last year in England have been very significant, and require a recovery package of evidence-based policies supported by adequate finance from the government.”He added: “It is striking that in one month the government spent almost as much subsidising meals in pubs and restaurants as it is now proposing to spend to fund education recovery over one full year for around nine million children.”Geoff Barton from the Association for School and College leaders said the EPI analysis suggests the government considers children’s education to be “less important” than measures supporting the hospitality sector.“It was willing to spend nearly as much on the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme over the course of a single month as it is on education recovery over the course of an entire academic year,” the union leader said.“The only possible conclusion is that the government does not attach the same importance to education as it does to other public spending priorities.”Meanwhile, Paul Whiteman from the school leaders’ union NAHT said: “As EPI point out, the government is not adverse to splashing the cash when they want to.”He said the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was “just part of the support that has been given to businesses that totals tens of billions”.The union’s general secretary added: “Of course, support for business is important, but it shows how far down the government’s list of priorities children and young people seem to place.”The recent £1.4bn package for catch-up – which put the total committed to education recovery so far to over £3bn – sparked backlash this week, with education unions claiming it does not go far enough.The government’s education recovery commissioner also resigned in protest.The EPI said the recent £1.4bn funding boost worked out at around £50 more per pupil every year and called this “a fraction of the level of funding required to reverse learning loss seen by pupils” since March last year.Taken together with a £1.7bn package announced earlier this year, the EPI estimated the government’s overall funding for education recovery works out at a total of around £310 per pupil over three years.This compares with an equivalent total funding of £1,600 per pupil set aside in the US and £2,500 per pupil in the Netherlands over the same period, according to the EPI.Labour has said it plans on forcing a Commons vote on Wednesday over the government’s school catch-up plans, which the shadow education secretary called “totally insufficient”.When asked about estimates the latest batch of catch-up funding works out at £50 per pupil per year, Gavin Williamson told LBC this week: “It is quite unprecedented to be getting this quantum of money outside of a spending review.”Announcing the £1.4bn funding package, the education secretary said it would “go long way to boost children’s learning” in the wake of Covid disruption and “help bring back down the attainment gap that we’ve been working to eradicate”.The Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “We have committed to an ambitious and long-term education recovery plan, including an investment to date of over £3bn and a significant expansion of our tutoring programme, to support children and young people to make up for learning lost during the pandemic.” More

The home secretary is to condemn “trial by social media” following police incidents filmed by members of the public.Priti Patel will give a speech to the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, later on Wednesday.She will support the association’s call for the increased sharing of footage from police officers’ body-worn cameras to counter “selective” viral social media posts.“I will not let the police be subjected to trial by social media,” the home secretary will say.“That’s why I backed the Federation’s call for forces to share body-worn video footage to counter highly selective, and misleading, video clips uploaded onto social media.“I want forces to be more proactive in sharing body worn video footage to highlight the good work of their officers, to build public confidence, and to correct harmful misinformation circulating online.”Last year, the Police Federation said it was concerned over a “growing trend of police officers being vilified after selective clips of police interactions are shared on social media and then broadcast by the media”.Some of the footage shared has sparked accusations of excessive force or racial profiling, and several clips have triggered misconduct investigations.Last August, Police Federation chair John Apter wrote to the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, saying that footage from video cameras should be released when possible after controversial incidents for “balance”. Some senior officers have resisted the calls, citing data protection concerns and the dangers of affecting court cases or disciplinary processes.At a press conference in December, Dame Cressida Dick said the Metropolitan Police would not “routinely release” officers’ footage.“This is frustrating for officers where they feel another side could be shown to the story,” she added.“We try to explain to help people understand the challenges some of our officers face and that they work in dynamic situations, where one piece of footage does not show the full story.”Dame Cressida said that Scotland Yard had been “robust in our defence when we think it’s the right thing to do”, but also started complaints processes if a viral video had alerted the force to an incident that could constitute criminal behaviour or misconduct by officers.“We are not in a position to be routinely posting up body-worn footage where someone is aggrieved and makes a complaint, we have to wait until the investigation is completed,” she added.In her speech at the Police Federation’s annual conference, which is being held virtually, the home secretary will also call violence against officers during protests “despicable”.She will also praise the way coronavirus laws have been enforced during the pandemic and call British police “the best in the world”. More

Britain’s top police chief has told an audience of women that she “sometimes has a bad ‘un’” in her ranks, on the same day PC Wayne Couzens admitted to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard.In a speech to the Women’s Institute (WI), Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, speaking about violence against women and girls, said that “recent events” had heightened “people’s concerns, women’s concerns about violence.”“We recognise we must be – and we are – intolerant of violence against women and girls,” she said. “I have 44,000 police officers and staff working in the Met. Sadly some are abused at home for example.“And sadly on occasion I have a bad’un. We are intolerant and we set ourselves high standards in how we work to identify, prevent and tackle any such behaviours.”PC Couzens appeared at the Old Bailey earlier on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard, who went missing in March while walking home in Clapham, south London.The court heard Couzens accepted responsibility for the killing of Ms Everard but was not asked to enter a plea to a charge of murder.Referencing the disappearance and death of the 33-year-old marketing executive directly, she said it sent “shockwaves through my communities and through my workforce.”She added: “The Met was angry and shocked – everybody. What happened them was a catalyst for wider societal concern about the safety of women and girls. Police officers are also members of our communities and the public and we feel that acutely.“Those events have brought into sharp focus that women and girls do not feel as safe as we want them to. Full stop.” More

Ursula von der Leyen has expressed her “deep concern” on the implementation of post-Brexit agreements in a phone call to Boris Johnson.The EU Commission president discussed issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol with the prime minister ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall this week, Downing Street said. “We will discuss how to progress and ensure compliance in margins of G7,” Ms Von der Leyen tweeted after the call on Tuesday night.Downing Street said Mr Johnson told the EU chief that the UK was “committed to finding practical solutions that protect the aims of the Belfast [Good Friday] Agreement and minimise the impact on the lives of people in Northern Ireland”.”He underlined the need for quick progress,” the spokesperson added.It comes as the EU warned Britain it would act “firmly and resolutely” if the UK were to renege on commitments of the Northern Ireland Protocol.Maros Sefcovic, the commission vice president, called on the British government to respect “its international law obligations”, saying Brussels would “not be shy” to respond to any unilateral action from London.In response, George Eustice, the UK environment minister, said Brussels must “respect” the deal, claiming it was “bonkers” for the EU to insist that new border checks for chilled meats such as sausages and chicken nuggets crossing the Irish Sea will be enforced after the end of a “grace period” this month.Irish premier Micheal Martin later called on the EU and UK to resolve the Protocol row, adding: “It’s very important that our trust is built up, because otherwise we will have continuing issues and problems.” More

Ministers have drafted in more help from the military and will provide extra testing and public health teams in parts of Greater Manchester and Lancashire after a surge in cases of the Delta coronavirus variant first identified in India.It comes as new internal NHS data shared with The Independent reveals a rise in hospital admissions in the region, with 13 new Covid-19 patients admitted to Manchester hospitals by 8am on Tuesday. The measures could help ministers decide whether to continue with the final end of social distancing rules, due to take place on 21 June.While a growing number of experts have expressed caution over the spread of the Delta variant, many Tory backbenchers are pushing for a full reopening of the economy. It was reported last night that Chancellor Rishi Sunak is willing to accept a delay of up to four weeks in the lockdown exit plan.Health secretary, Matt Hancock, said Tuesday’s new measures would include additional testing, as well as supervised in-school testing, and military support. He told MPs this approach had previously worked in south London and Bolton. Ministers have also extended their “minimise travel” advice to include Greater Manchester and Lancashire. And local directors of public health will be given discretion to reintroduce mandatory use of face coverings in communal areas in schools if they decide the measure is appropriate. But the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, called on ministers to go further and send more vaccines to the area.“We are not asking for any more vaccine here than our fair share. What we are asking for is the bringing forward of Greater Manchester’s supplies, so that we can run a surge vaccination programme over the next three weeks,” he said.He emphasised that the new system was “not a lockdown” but “advice”.Across England, the latest official data shows there were 879 Covid-19 patients in hospital, with a total of 66 new admissions in the past 24 hours to Tuesday. Across the northwest, there are 246 Covid-19 patients in hospital, with 163 across Greater Manchester.While admissions are rising, the number of hospital discharges – 101 in the past day – has meant the number of cases in hospital overall grew by just 19 in Tuesday’s figures.Mr Hancock announced the enhanced support as he told MPs the government faces a “challenging decision” over whether or not to lift remaining lockdown restrictions across England on 21 June.He also made an appeal to those living in Greater Manchester and Lancashire to get tested and to have a coronavirus vaccination as soon as they are eligible, “because that is our way out of this pandemic together”. As part of the government recommendations, those in areas affected by a rise in cases of the variant first identified in India are being urged to meet outside rather than inside where possible, to maintain social distancing and to minimise travel in and out of affected regions.The latest measures to try to halt the rise of the variant of coronavirus first identified in India will cover 10 per cent of England’s population.Official statistics released yesterday showed just a tiny number of those in hospital with the Delta variant have had two doses of the vaccine. The former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has suggested that any delay to England’s roadmap to lift lockdown would only last a couple of weeks, because of the success of the vaccination programme.Mr Hancock told MPs: “We are providing a strengthened package of support, based on what’s happening in Bolton, to help Greater Manchester and Lancashire tackle the rise in the Delta variant that we are seeing there.“This includes rapid response teams, putting in extra testing, military support and supervised in-school testing.”“I want to encourage everyone in Manchester and Lancashire to get the tests on offer,” he added. “We know that this approach can work. We’ve seen it work in south London and in Bolton in stopping a rise in the number of cases.“This is the next stage of tackling the pandemic in Manchester and Lancashire, and of course it’s vital that people in these areas, as everywhere else, come forward and get the jab as soon as they are eligible because that is our way out of this pandemic together.”The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We want to provide the package of support that has been effective in Bolton to a wider area … to tackle the cases of the Delta variant.” More

Theresa May has called on Boris Johnson to restore the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GDP on international aid, warning him that his cuts “will have a devastating impact on the poorest in the world and damage the UK”. More