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Health Secretary Sajid Javid is reportedly making the Covid vaccine a requirement for all NHS staff.The government believes that making the vaccines a condition of employment would help limit the spread of the coronavirus in healthcare settings, as well as the numbers of Covid-related deaths.But the plans are feared to cause a staff retention and recruitment crisis in healthcare, The Sunday Telegraph reported.As many as 190,000 healthcare workers had not received one dose of a Covid vaccine by 11 April, NHS England data shows, and the figure does not include temporary staff.It is feared that the NHS could see a mass exodus of staff as seen in the care sector, partly as a result of mandatory vaccines.All care workers – including agency workers, volunteers, and healthcare visitors – have to be vaccinated by 11 November.Almost 90,000 care home staff in England have still not been fully-vaccinated against Covid-19, and – out of this number – 41,000 have still received no vaccine at all, according to NHS figures published this week.In a blow to the already-struggling sector, care home staff are leaving to better-paid jobs elsewhere – including Amazon’s warehouses and the NHS – where they have not been required to be vaccinated, according to a report by The Guardian this weekend.There were already at least 120,000 social care vacancies before the Covid-19 pandemic and the government last month estimated that as many as 68,000 care workers, in the worst-case scenario, could be lost as a result of the vaccine rule.Public and health sector union Unison called on the government this week to scrap the “no jab, no job” policy – warning ministers that they are “sleepwalking into disaster”.It comes after the government announced in June that it would be launching a consultation on whether to extend this mandatory vaccination policy from care home staff to NHS workers. Today (5 September), Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show that the consultation launched in the summer has not yet concluded.He said that the NHS had a “duty of care” to ensure patients did not become infected, but said that an “incredibly high” proportion of frontline healthcare workers – more than 94 per cent – were already vaccinated.The chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said compulsory jabs for health staff are “not necessary”.He told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “The overwhelming majority of NHS staff are choosing to be vaccinated. And the important thing is to support people, to give people the opportunity to be vaccinated.“So I think we would want to say that there is no necessity for compulsion, for surveillance of people, at this stage because the staff themselves are doing the right thing.”Medics have also warned against extending the rule to the NHS, saying that staff should not face losing their jobs for declining a vaccine.Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association council, had said in June that “compulsion is a blunt instrument to tackle a complex matter” and that implementing a blanket rule would “raise new ethical and legal implications”.He added: “Recent research has highlighted that pressurising health and social care workers can have damaging effects, leading to an erosion of trust, worsening concerns about the vaccine, and hardened stances on declining vaccination.”Mr Nagpaul said efforts should be focused on targeted engagement and any policy must avoid discrimination, given that vaccine uptake is lower in some ethnic minority groups. NHS staff are recommended to be inoculated against flu, tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) – among others – but the vaccines are not compulsory.Isra Black, a University of York lecturer specialising in healthcare law, told The British Medical Journal earlier this year that “any public authority, whether the state or individual NHS trusts, that mandates vaccination will need to comply with human rights and equality law.”Mr Black added: “Mandatory vaccination interferes with the right to private life protected by article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, so the relevant authorities will need to show that the interference is justified in its pursuit of a legitimate aim and its proportionality.“Public bodies must also show that they have taken into account the public sector equality duty and that mandatory vaccination policies comply with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.” More

Geronimo the alpaca’s distraught owner has accused government officials of hiding from her how he was killed and how they “tortured” him on his final journey, calling for them to resign.Helen Macdonald said giving her the truth about how her animal died was the very least officials should do after four years of “mentally abusing” her, during her prolonged legal battle to save him from being put down.She said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was still ignoring her, leaving her not even knowing how Geronimo died, after government vets “bungled” his transportation.Ms Macdonald, herself a veterinary nurse, said she felt let down by her own profession over “the worst case of cruelty” she had ever seen in her entire career.In scenes that horrified animal lovers worldwide, police officers and vets went onto the Gloucestershire farm without notice on Tuesday, capturing the frightened animal and forcing him into the back of a trailer as he made loud distress calls.Experts said Geronimo was gasping for air because the government vets failed to use a headcollar so his breathing was obstructed, and he was incorrectly tied up. Where, when and how he died remains a mystery. The Independent has asked Defra for the details.Defra had refused to allow a third test on the animal after two highly disputed tests suggested he had tuberculosis, insisting he be killed as part of the government’s TB eradication plan.Ms Macdonald, who has also called for environment secretary George Eustice to quit, said: “We’ve expressly asked for all the circumstances of his removal and what happened to him afterwards, and they’re ignoring us.“Somebody knows what they did to him. I don’t know whether he died in the trailer, whether he was shot or what. They won’t tell me. It’s the least they could do after what they did to him.“They had no idea what they were doing and tortured him. They didn’t ask for help – they were cruel beyond words and incompetent. They should be struck off. I’m going to find out who they are.“I want to know every single detail. Unless these people are dragged out by their hair, I don’t know how we’re going to find out, and that’s just unforgivable.”In an official complaint to the government on Wednesday, the British Alpaca Society also called for those who led the operation to be suspended immediately for “gross misconduct and animal abuse”.“If Geronimo arrived at his final destination still alive and not strangled or suffocated, how can we be sure he was humanely euthanised?” the society wrote.“The lack of knowledge as to the correct way to handle alpacas was startling and totally inexcusable…“It is also well documented that alpacas sit down when being transported, yet Geronimo was tied up like a horse.“There is no excuse for these actions. The correct information is in the public domain, yet whoever led this repulsive exercise yesterday simply hadn’t bothered to find out the proper techniques.”A planned protest outside Defra’s offices on Wednesday is expected to draw hundreds of demonstrators.Ms Macdonald added: “They’ve been abusing me for four years, forcing me through court cases, and now they won’t even do me the courtesy of telling me how he suffered in his last moments. It’s outrageous.”She said “someone needs to hold them to account because I can’t rest until I know”.“And it was a vet who did it – my own profession, for Christ’s sake.”She said it was too early to know what action she would take, adding: “This is beyond anything that anyone should have to endure.”A crowdfunding appeal set up during her four-year court battle to fund the legal costs has raised more than £36,000.The Independent has asked Defra to respond to the claims, in particular why it has not responded to Ms Macdonald, and why her own vet was barred from attending the post-mortem examination as an observer. More

Priti Patel has announced that the Home Office is seeking advice on whether to criminalise the possession of laughing gas.In a move branded branded a “waste of time” by drug experts and “baffling” by one Tory MP, the government has asked the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to review the harm caused by nitrous oxide.It comes just weeks after drug-related deaths were found to have hit an all-time high in England and Wales for the eighth consecutive year, most involving opiates, and follows the publication of a damning landmark review which concluded that England’s drug treatment system is currently “not fit for purpose”.The Home Office said it is acting following what it calls a “concerning” rise in nitrous oxide use among young people.Nitrous oxide is the second most-used drug among 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK, behind cannabis, with nearly 550,000 people in that age group reporting taking it in the latest annual crime survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, while up on 2013 levels, the proportion of young people in England and Wales using nitrous oxide has been the same for the past four years, according to ONS, sitting at 8.7 per cent at the last count.The sale of nitrous oxide for its psychoactive effects became illegal under the Psychoactive Substances Act in 2016, but it is not a crime to possess the drug. The government is reported to be concerned this is a “significant factor” in its use, and the home secretary said that “should the expert ACMD recommend further restrictions on this drug, we stand ready to take tough action”.But Adam Winstock, a consultant psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist, said criminalising possession of the drug “would likely lead to illicit sales” and would merely “add the risk of criminality to all”.“Asking for evidence is great but the ACMD advice comes framed by the current home secretary’s preconceived notion that a problem related to drug use can be successfully addressed by making something illegal,” said Prof Winstock, founder of the Global Drug Survey.“This is palpably and evidentially false. But making a drug with minimal risk to most users illegal will add the risk of criminality to all.”Nitrous oxide is “very safe” compared to other drugs, Prof Winstock said, with the risk of accidental harm low but increased when consumed with other substances. But he said the risk of nerve damage is “real and significant”, with a study on 16,000 users showing just over 3 per cent reported symptoms consistent with nerve damage.“That is a worry. But avoidable,” he said. “Smart education, not blunt regulation, is required.”When used recreationally, nitrous oxide is typically released into balloons from small silver canisters and inhaled, giving temporary feelings of relaxation and euphoria. It is also used medically as an anaesthetic, given for instance to women in labour.Prolonged use of nitrous oxide can cause vitamin B12 deficiency, anaemia and nerve damage, and the substance has been associated with 36 deaths between 2001 and 2016, according to the ONS. The ACMD last reviewed nitrous oxide six years ago, concluding it did not seem to warrant control under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.The advisory panel’s former chair, David Nutt, who was sacked in 2009 after saying that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol, called the move a “gimmick”.The Imperial College London professor said it is “completely symptomatic of the utterly blinkered perspective that this government has on drugs”, adding: “This is completely pointless, an utter distraction, this is pretence of doing something about drug problems, but focusing on a drug that has very, very little harm – way less harm than alcohol – and they should be investing their money on people who are dying of drugs like fentanyl and heroin.”Meanwhile, the government has since faced accusations of undermining the ACMD’s independence, with Professor Alex Stevens quitting the panel in protest in 2019 at the government’s “political vetting” of potential members.Prof Stevens cited several instances where a minister had allegedly blocked suitable applicants who had criticised the government on social media, including Niamh Eastwood, the executive director of drug charity Release. She had tweeted that a letter from minister Victoria Atkins rejecting the ACMD’s call for safer drug consumption rooms despite a climate of rising drug-related deaths was “utter BS”.Reacting to the Home Office’s request over nitrous oxide, Crispin Blunt, chair of the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group, said that “in the light of [recent drug death statistics] this request is a baffling use of the wretchedly limited resources of the ACMD”.“The already overstretched ACMD should be given proper resources to consider, for instance, the scheduling status of other substances which haven’t been evaluated in far longer than six years and which could significantly upgrade our ability to deal with the country’s worsening mental health crisis and overdose problem,” Mr Blunt said.Additional reporting by PA More

The Runnymede Trust has emerged victorious following a battle with a group of Tory MPs who demanded an official probe into its “woke” race equality work citing political bias. The organisation was accused in April of breaking its charitable objectives by criticism of the controversial Sewell Report, with MPs accusing it of being motivated by anger at the government.However, the Charity Commission has ruled that the trust was not in breach of guidelines — nor did trustees breach their legal duties and responsibilities when they decided to work with the Good Law Project in tackling government croynism.Helen Earner, director of regulatory services at the Charity Commission, said: “We take all concerns raised with us about charities seriously – whether they come from members of the public, parliamentarians, or the media.“In this case, we have found no breach of our guidance. However, we have told the trustees of the Runnymede Trust that they must ensure the charity’s engagement with political parties and politicians is balanced.”Clive Jones, chair of the trust, welcomed the ruling and said it worked with all political parties.“As the nation’s heartfelt outpouring after the recent European football final confirmed, the English people – and indeed the people of all four nations of the United Kingdom – understand that racism still exists and must be tackled in all its forms,” he said.“This feedback from the Charity Commission confirms our belief that the Runnymede Trust has an important and worthy role to play in supporting our country in our shared commitment to achieve racial equity, and to make the UK a truly inclusive and post-racial society.“The Runnymede Trust has met with every prime minister since Ted Heath in 1970. We look forward to continuing our relationship with parties across the political spectrum and with stakeholders across our communities – and to meeting with Boris Johnson when the opportunity presents itself. “We would take this opportunity to reiterate our belief that the UK is the greatest nation in the world, not least in terms of equality and opportunity. But we cannot afford to leave anyone behind in terms of outcomes.”John Hayes, MP for South Holland and The Deepings, took aim at trust during an April parliamentary session, confirming that he and other MPs, including Tom Hunt and Darren George Henry, were among those to complain to the commission.He called upon equalities minister Kemi Badenoch to make representations to “stop the worthless work of organisations, often publicly funded, promulgating weird, woke ideas and in doing so seeding doubt and fear, and more than that, disharmony and disunity.” More

Ethnic minority surgeons are being blocked from job promotions due to an elite “old-boys’ network” within the profession, according to researchers.Analysis of more than 3,000 junior surgeons in NHS England over the past decade revealed that Black women junior surgeons were 42 percentage points less likely to be promoted than white men, while women of Indian and Pakistani ethnicity were 28 percentage points less likely to be promoted.The research, presented at the British Academy of Management online annual conference, led medical professionals to urge government ministers to ramp up its efforts to tackle racism in the sector.It also highlighted a gender divide, with white women 21 percentage points less likely than white male counterparts to be promoted. Women of Chinese and south-east Asian ethnicity were 14 percentage points behind.Black men were 27 percentage points behind white men, with Indian and Pakistani men 10 percentage points behind, and men of Chinese and south-east Asian ethnicity six percentage points behind.Ethnic minority women accounted for 15 per cent of surgeons in 2020, but just 8 per cent of trainees who were promoted to consultant were from this group, the research found.One of the researchers, Professor Carol Woodhams of the University of Surrey, said: “This is objective evidence that disadvantage against diverse groups in surgery is deep-rooted and a new progressive milieu in the NHS and the broader society has not yet translated into concrete and progressive outcomes.“Women and ethnic minority junior surgeons may have less access to important informal networks that bestow the sponsorship and patronage that is so important in securing a consultant post.”She said even with the same number of training hours and the same record of career interruptions, women and black men were less likely to be promoted to consultant. More

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is self-isolating after being identified as a close contact of someone who has Covid-19.She said she will be self-isolating pending a PCR test result.Under coronavirus rules, double-vaccinated adults and all children can avoid self-isolation if they are a close contact of someone with coronavirus so long as they are symptomless and provide a negative PCR test.The First Minister had her second dose of a coronavirus vaccine in June.On Sunday evening Ms Sturgeon tweeted: “I’ve had notification tonight that I’ve been identified as a close contact of someone who is positive for Covid.“Accordingly, and in line with the rules, I’ll be self-isolating pending a PCR test result.“My thanks to all the contact tracers working so hard in NHS Test & Protect.”Scotland has recorded another record number of new coronavirus cases, with 7,113 people testing positive for the first time, according to Scottish Government figures published on SundayThe number of patients in hospital with recently confirmed coronavirus infections has also risen for the ninth consecutive day, reaching 507, with 52 in intensive care.Earlier Ms Sturgeon urged people to follow health advice and take sensible precautions to keep themselves and others safe.She tweeted: “We are seeing a rising curve of cases in Scotland.“It’s reassuring that vaccines are preventing the levels of serious health harms that case numbers like this would once have caused.“However, we can’t be complacent and are monitoring carefully.“In meantime, please take care.” More

A network of food banks have warned they are bracing for “what looks set to be the busiest and most difficult winter on record”, with a “perfect storm” of impending policy changes expected to push even more people into poverty.While the coronavirus crisis was estimated to have forced tens of thousands of people to turn to food banks for the first time last year, the forecast from the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) – which represents more than 500 food banks in the UK – for the second winter of the pandemic appears bleaker still.The group’s co-ordinator, Sarah Goodwin, pointed to three “devastating” changes, all planned for October: the overnight loss of the £20 Universal Credit uplift; the end of the furlough scheme; and a “dramatic” increase in energy prices as the regulator Ofgem raises a cap on the most widely-used tariffs.“The scale of the disaster about to unfold cannot be overestimated,” Ms Goodwin wrote in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Thursday.“Independent food banks have come to expect a busy August as the UK’s social security safety net continues to be eroded,” she added. “As parents try to find ways of scraping together the cost of new school uniforms and taking care of their children through the school summer holidays, money for food runs dry. “But this summer is different – there is a sense of foreboding among members of the Independent Food Aid Network.”Despite the work of campaigners, Ms Goodwin warned “matters are about to get much worse”. She added: “Food banks are trying to prepare as best they can for what looks set to be the busiest and most difficult winter on record.”Some 15 million households are expected to see their bills increase by at least £139 in October, in what has been reported as the largest hike in energy prices in a decade. Ofgem has blamed the increase of the cap – first introduced in January 2019 to tackle “rip-off” prices – on a 50 per cent spike in wholesale energy costs over the past six months. This rise occurred as inflation jumped amid the easing of pandemic restrictions.Speaking earlier this month, the regulator’s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, admitted it was “extremely difficult news for many people”, but said: “Across the sector the profit margin is actually zero, so right now companies are making what it costs them to sell the energy they sell. What we can’t do as a regulator is ask them to sell the energy for less than it costs them to buy.”And with the furlough scheme set to end on 30 September, having helped fund 11 million people’s wages since the pandemic began, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research predicts the official unemployment rate will rise around half a percentage point after furlough ends – totalling 160,000 more people out of work.Meanwhile, campaigners and MPs have furiously opposed the government’s planned removal of the Universal Credit uplift, which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) warned on Thursday would hit more than one in three working-age families with children in nearly every constituency across the country.The charity described the move – confirmed by Boris Johnson last month – as the “biggest overnight cut in benefits since the Second World War”, which it said will have “deep and far-reaching consequences on families with children across Britain”.The chair of Kirkcaldy food bank, Joyce Leggate, was quoted in the BMJ as saying: “Very few of our clients are able to withstand any reduction in their benefit level, never mind this savage cut as winter is approaching and household bills will rise again. “As a food bank, we do not know if and how we will be able to provide the support that will inevitably be needed.”Citing Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data which suggested that, between April 2019 and March 2020, some 43 per cent of households relying on the pre-pandemic rate of Universal Credit were food insecure, Ms Goodwin said the government’s own statistics “reveal that the £20 increase to Universal Credit payments was essential”.And demand for food banks has already been rising. According to the Trussell Trust, the UK’s largest food bank provider, it distributed 2.5 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021. This represented a 33 per cent increase on the previous year, and some 980,000 of these parcels went to children.Both the IFAN and JRF urged the government to abandon its plans to axe the uplift – a call supported by six former work and pensions secretaries and reportedly scores of Tory MPs. “It’s poverty that is at the heart of the ever-worsening food insecurity crisis and only bold actions that increase people’s incomes will make the difference that counts,” Ms Goodwin added.Katie Schmuecker, deputy director of policy and partnerships at the JRF, said: “Plunging low-income families into deeper poverty and debt, as well as sucking billions of pounds out of local economies, is no way to level up.“It’s not too late for the prime minister and chancellor to listen to the huge opposition to this damaging cut and change course.”But speaking on Thursday morning, Mr Johnson indicated the cut was still set to go ahead, saying: “My strong preference is for people to see their wages rise through their efforts rather than through taxation of other people put into their pay packets.”Citing a December 2020 report linking austerity to a post-pandemic health crisis, Ms Goodwin said: “The impact of the pandemic on pre-existing health inequalities is already widely recognised. The cut to Universal Credit will inevitably deepen health inequalities, yet further.” A DWP spokeperson said: “The temporary uplift to Universal Credit and furlough scheme are part of a £400bn support package which has helped families through the financial disruption of the toughest stages of the pandemic, and our £429.1m Covid Local Support Grant was introduced to support families with food costs.“We extended them beyond the easing of restrictions. Now, with record vacancies available alongside the successful vaccination rollout, it’s right that we focus on our Plan for Jobs, helping claimants to increase their earnings by boosting their skills and getting into work, progressing in work or increasing their hours, with Universal Credit providing a vital welfare safety net.” More

The government should ban on new intensive poultry farms in an effort to save rare animal species from being wiped out, experts say.Ministers must declare “peak poultry” within a year, phasing out industrial chicken from school and hospital menus, because the meat is damaging biodiversity and fuelling the climate crisis, it’s claimed.Chicken are reared on vast quantities of soya, grown in South America, where swathes of forests are cleared to produce feed for industrially farmed animals.Campaigners from the Soil Association say species being put at risk of extinction because their habitats are being lost include jaguar, northern tiger cats, giant anteaters, giant armadillos and three types of monkey.The damage has shot up because the UK’s consumption of poultry has risen significantly in recent years as consumers have switched away from red meat on health and environmental grounds.UK consumers eat nearly a billion chickens a year, reared in at least 1,000 intensive poultry units nationwide, an increase of more than 30 per cent in a decade, research has shown.The Soil Association is calling on the government to ensure UK consumption and production of poultry peaks within 12 months, then falls. The organisation’s chiefs want ministers to:Phase out industrial chicken meat from schools and hospitalsImmediately ban new intensive poultry unitsAnd support producers to switch to nature-friendly and higher-welfare production systemsThe government says it is introducing “world-leading” legislation banning products grown in illegally deforested areas and is forcing businesses to examine their supply chains.Rob Percival, Soil Association head of food policy, said: “We’re gobbling our way through some of the planet’s most precious ecosystems, sacrificing iconic wildlife for the sake of soya and an ultra-processed chicken nugget.“Just as the climate crisis demands we rapidly reach ‘peak oil’ and transition to renewable sources of energy, the nature crisis demands we reach ‘peak poultry’ and transition to more nature-friendly, sustainable farming systems.”An Ipsos Mori poll this month found six in 10 UK adults wanted a ban on imports linked to deforestation, and a Soil Association survey found strong support for a ban on industrial livestock units.Research from Greenpeace among others has repeatedly highlighted the destruction caused by soya production on rainforests, savannah and wetland ecosystems – vital wildlife habitats – in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. Mr Percival called it devastating.

There simply isn’t enough land to go aroundRob PercivalDr Flavia Miranda, professor at the University of Santa Cruz-UESC and an IUCN-affiliated wildlife veterinary expert, said: “Soyabeans have been destroying our country due to the loss of critical wildlife habitats.“In just a few decades, nearly half of Brazil’s landscapes have been transformed into pastures and agricultural land, leaving only about 22 per cent of the biome.”The UK’s overseas “soya footprint” covers an area approaching the size of Wales, according to the Soil Association.Mr Percival added: “We need roughly a tennis court of soya per person to fulfil our demand for grain-fed meat.“With UK poultry consumption roughly double the global average, and demand for grain-fed meat rising globally, there simply isn’t enough land to go around. Our diets need to change.”Last year international scientists suggested introducing taxes on meat consumption and production to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises.And the UK Climate Change Committee called for a 20 per cent drop in meat and dairy consumption by 2030.If the UK is to be a credible host for the Cop26 climate talks, Mr Percival said, it was vital to “address our contribution to deforestation and wildlife loss abroad and get our industrial poultry problem under control”.A government spokesperson said: “The UK has a long and proud history of supporting action to combat deforestation and promote sustainable land use. Our new due diligence measure in the Environment Bill will clean up our supply chains by making it illegal for UK businesses to use key commodities produced on illegally deforested land. “This is just one piece of a much larger package of measures we are putting in place to tackle deforestation, and we are working internationally to tackle the drivers of deforestation and protect the world’s vital intact forests. “As part of our presidency of Cop26, we are building a global alliance of countries committed to working together to tackle this important issue, and this new dialogue will be instrumental in making this happen.” More