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A “vacuum of information” on the characteristics of grooming gangs is fuelling continued abuse and allowing extremists to exploit it, MPs have said.In a delayed debate sparked by petitions on the issue, several politicians said a report published by the Home Office had not answered the questions many hoped it would.Tom Hunt, a Conservative member of the Petitions Committee who opened Wednesday’s debate, said many victims he had spoken to “feel that the report doesn’t go far enough”.“They believe it only touches upon the issues and if it is the start of something more significant then OK, but if it is the end of it they would be very unsatisfied,” he told the House of Commons.“They feel this was an issue that was swept under the carpet … [and] if it is the case that if certain crimes are disproportionately committed by members of certain communities, we should be open and honest about that and address it. “Because actually by sweeping it under the carpet it makes tensions and divisions worse down the line.”The Home Office report said that although a number of high-profile grooming cases, including Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford mainly involved men of Pakistani ethnicity, “links between ethnicity and this form of offending” could not be proven.The Home Office report said the “existing data would not answer the question of the relationship between ethnicity and child sexual exploitation,” adding: “Based on the existing evidence, and our understanding of the flaws in the existing data, it seems most likely that the ethnicity of group-based CSE offenders is in line with child sexual abuse more generally and with the general population, with the majority of offenders being white.”It was published in December following a petition demanding its release, which was signed by more than 130,000 people – automatically triggering a parliamentary debate.Conservative MP Sir John Hayes called the report a “study in obfuscation” and called for action on known modus operandi for grooming gangs, such as the use of taxis to find and pick up victims. More

The damaging practice of burning grouse moor peatlands will be partially banned in England, ministers have announced, prompting criticism that the measure does not go far enough.Some conservationists cautiously welcomed the crackdown, which will mean shoot organisers will no longer be allowed routinely to set fire to heather on ecologically sensitive sites.
But the ban comes with exceptions, and wildlife experts say more urgency is needed to help tackle the climate crisis.  The ban will apply to blanket bogs – peat more than 40cm deep – on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) that is also a Special Area of Conservation or a Special Protection Area unless a licence has been granted or the land is steep or rocky.Environmentalists have for many years condemned the practice of setting light to upland peatlands that are rich in wildlife, which is done in winter to ensure grouse have new, more nutritious shoots of heather to eat before they are shot for sport.  But the burning releases carbon into the atmosphere, adding to the climate crisis. The UK has 13 per cent of the world’s blanket bog, which store more than 3,000 million tons of carbon.Wet bogs also support a range of birds, including breeding dunlin and golden plover.
Advocates of the burning say it protects areas from wildfires, and that differently aged heathers protect threatened ground-nesting birds.
But some experts argue burning makes the land vulnerable to fires, destroys habitats and increases flood risks.
The new ban also does not apply where scree makes up half the land area. And environment secretary George Eustice may also issue burning licences for “wildfire prevention, for a conservation purpose or where land is inaccessible to cutting or mowing machinery”. These licences may last several years.Luke Steele, of Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors, said: “England’s grouse moors are woefully under-regulated so we welcome today’s announcement that burning on fragile blanket bog will no longer be routinely allowed in many areas.
“However, the legislation does not go far enough, given it fails to end burning on degraded shallow peatlands, which need restoring to their healthy, deeper state.  “In the midst of a climate emergency, there is no justification to allow fires to be set on any carbon-rich peatlands.”
More than 660 fires have been started on grouse moorlands in Yorkshire alone since 2018, according to new research by Mr Steele’s group.  The Wildlife Trusts questioned why the ban was only partial, saying: “If, in some places, the reason they are burnt is to prevent wildfires spreading over dry ground, the best way to stop fire happening is to block ditches and help the peat become wet again.
“It is deeply frustrating that it has taken so long for the government to commit to this – 14 months after it was first promised.  “It will be extremely embarrassing if we are still burning any of our peatlands when the climate conference meets at the end of the year.
“The government’s own advisers say we need to restore all upland peatlands to meet climate targets. So while it’s a tiny step forward, much greater urgency is needed across a huge range of comparably burning issues to protect our wildlife and tackle climate change.”
Natural England chairman Tony Juniper said: “This is a hugely welcome announcement that will see better protections for our globally important peatlands.”
The government says it will set out further steps to protect peatlands this year and a £640m Nature for Climate fund will launch a programme of peatland restoration. More

The home secretary told MPs that going on holiday was “not a valid reason” to leave home during the current lockdown and that the police presence at ports and airports would be increased.“Anyone who does not have a valid reason for travel will be directed to return home or they will face a fine,” she added.But there are fears that people who have already spent substantial sums of money on booked flights and accommodation will refuse to return home, take a £200 fine, and proceed with their holiday.Speaking to journalists on Thursday, the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said police will not automatically stop travellers choosing to continue their journeys under current coronavirus legislation.Martin Hewitt explained that police can question people about their reasons for travel in airport terminals or car parks in the way they would in other public spaces.He said that those who do not have a reasonable excuse for travel under the law can be fined “but the process after that is being worked through”.“Whether they are then barred from travelling is not a police issue, that’s a borders issue,” Mr Hewitt added.“In the terminal we can stop and question people, but the point that needs clarification is whether there is something then that prevents travel.”Addressing the House of Commons on Wednesday, Ms Patel said people would also be required to declare their reason for travel, in a form which will be checked by carriers before departure.A Home Office spokesperson told The Independent the forms have not yet been issued, and it is unclear how carriers could void the legal agreements made with ticket holders at the time of purchase.There is no indication of any legal change that would afford police greater powers to prevent people from leaving the country.The Home Office said officers would also be carrying out more physical checks at addresses to make sure people are self-isolating after returning to the UK from abroad. More

Schools in Northern Ireland will remain closed until at least the first week of March, the country’s first minister has said.Arlene Foster confirmed on Thursday that Stormont ministers would back a proposal brought forward by education minister Peter Weir, which called for current schooling arrangements to stay in place until 5 March at the earliest.  It means pupils would return to school on 8 March – providing Covid cases continue to fall and the country deems it safe – the same date Boris Johnson has said schools in England are set to reopen.At present, only vulnerable children and those of key workers are allowed to attend class under NI coronavirus guidelines.“The Executive has decided that schools will not be able to fully open again before 5 March, this will apply to all educational settings including pre-schools, nurseries, primaries and post-primaries,” Ms Foster said at a press conference.
“Special schools will remain open and mainstream schools will continue to provide supervised learning for vulnerable children and the children of key workers,” she added.“Childcare settings and child minders will also remain open.”
She said she understood that “for so many it will be felt as a disappointment that we cannot yet press the restart button on this and indeed many other aspects of daily life” but that this was the country’s best hope of getting “our young people back into the classroom as soon as possible”.  “As a working mother of children still in full time education, I have a sense how difficult home schooling can be practically, educationally, and emotionally,” she said. “The kitchen table is no substitute for the school desk and as my children would no doubt agree, parents are no substitute for trained teachers or lecturers.”Sending a “message to all the young people”, Ms Foster said: “We understand how difficult this is for you, you are coping with much change and much uncertainty and we recognise the new challenges which you are experiencing and we are determined to do all we can to support you as well.
“We know you haven’t had the benefit of in-class teaching for the equivalent of half a school year, since the start of Covid-19, and for those who in exam transition points this has been a particularly difficult time.”It comes one week after NI moved to extend its current coronavirus lockdown to 5 March, and just a day after Mr Johnson announced schools in England would not reopen until at least 8 March either.  Ms Foster did not specify if ministers had voted to follow Mr Weir’s phased return approach, in which he suggested not all pupils should return to school on 8 March. Instead, he said, schools should start by allowing just priority groups to return such as children in key exam years.Mr Weir also urged Executive colleagues to support his request for special school teachers to be prioritised for Covid-19 vaccinations, similar to the current calls being made across England for teachers still going in to work to be given jabs as a matter of urgency.Ms Foster said at the news event that government ministers had been told earlier that NI’s R rate for new cases had fallen to “well below 1”, and is currently sitting between 0.65 and 0.8.  However, the number of patients in specialist intensive care is still high, she warned, with the R rate for hospital admissions falling between 0.8 and 0.9, and somewhere between 0.95 and 1.15 for ICU admissions. More

Mass badger culling will end after next year, the government has signalled, after years of controversy about the practice.
But wildlife campaigners expressed caution, the Badger Trust saying it remained “to be convinced of the sincerity of any commitment to bring the cull to an end”.
At the same time as the announcement, the government published figures showing 38,642 badgers were killed under four-year licences last year.
But the real figure is even higher because the 38,642 does not include “supplementary” licences, the trust warned.
The number is up on the previous year’s toll of 35,034.
Four months ago, The Independent revealed how leading scientists and wildlife experts including Jane Goodall and Virginia McKenna  issued a direct plea to Boris Johnson to cancel a planned badger cull expansion.The cull was designed to reduce the transmission of tuberculosis (TB) from badgers to cattle.
It prompted protests from the start, with opponents arguing it was not just cruel, but also actively spread TB, because when setts are disrupted, badgers will move about more than ever, potentially carrying disease with them.
Now, environment Secretary George Eustice has set out proposals for Natural England (NE) to stop issuing the current intensive cull licences for new areas after 2022, and to enable new licences to be cut short if the chief veterinary officer agrees.  Branding culling “unacceptable”, he said he was also planning to restrict any new supplementary cull licences to two years and stop re-issuing such licences in any areas where supplementary culling has previously been licensed.
Some 102,349 wild badgers have been killed since the current cull began in 2013, according to the Badger Trust.
Mr Eustice is also launching a public consultation and a call for views on proposals and longer-term options on how to curb TB in cattle.
In a written parliamentary statement, he said: “The bTB eradication strategy we published in 2014 is making progress. We are now seeing sustained improvements in the high-risk area. We need to build on this momentum to achieve bTB-free status for England by 2038.”He said work on developing a cattle vaccine was on track to be completed within five years.  Last year ministers were accused of breaking a pledge to end the culling of badgers by expanding projects to trap and shoot the animals.The Badger Trust said Mr Eustice’s announcement was “a real bag of mixed messages” and the charity was not confident that it did signal the end of the badger cull.  The Trust questioned the decision to release the figures on the same day as the announcement, “with the perceived – yet questionable – ‘good news’ ahead of the ‘very bad news’”.
It said another 38,000 or more badgers were likely to be culled this year, “paying the ultimate price for a policy based on highly controversial science”.
Dominic Dyer, a former Badger Trust chief executive, said: “In some areas of England the badger population has been so depleted by culling that the species is in danger of becoming locally extinct from areas which it has inhabited since the Ice Age.  “The government has dithered and delayed on finding on finding an exit strategy to badger culling.”
But he said ending issuing new licences was better for farmers, taxpayers and the future of badgers and marked “the beginning of the end of one of the darkest chapters in the history of farming and wildlife protection in England”.
Mr Eustice added: “I envisage that in future, some form of culling would be an option in exceptional circumstances to address any local disease flare-ups. This transitional period will also give us time to undertake badger vaccination pilots and develop our future badger vaccination policy.” More

The UK is offering EU citizens financial incentives to leave the UK and return to their country of origin, a move that activists say “undermines” the government’s claim it is encouraging EU citizens to apply for settled status.EU citizens were quietly added to the government’s voluntary returns scheme from 1 January. The scheme, which is meant to help migrants in specific situations leave the UK voluntarily, includes flights and up to £2,000 in resettlement money.The Public Interest Law Centre, which is running a project to help protect homeless EU citizens in the UK, criticised the offer of money to return to the continent as contradictory.Benjamin Morgan, who runs the project, told The Guardian: “It is clear from our casework that some of the most vulnerable EU citizens are yet to resolve their status. Barriers to application and delays in Home Office decision-making remain significant factors.“This mixed messaging around settled status on the one hand and voluntary returns on the other, seriously undermines the government’s claim that the rights of vulnerable Europeans will be protected after Brexit.”A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “Some people may choose not to obtain status under EUSS and may not wish to remain in the UK after the deadline. “That is why we have written to stakeholders to inform them that EEA nationals who wish to leave the UK may now be eligible for support to help them do so under the voluntary returns scheme.”The deadline for European citizens living in the UK who wish to remain here to apply for the EU settlement scheme (EUSS) is 30 June.It comes amid calls from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JWCI) for the government to immediately lift the deadline for the EUSS, as it warned that thousands of European key workers risked losing their legal status and face removal from the UK.In a report titled When the Clapping Stops: EU Care Workers After Brexit, the JWCI said that one in seven European care workers in the UK were unsure what the settlement scheme was and one in three had not heard about it before they got in touch with the JWCI.One in three also did not know there was a deadline for applying for the scheme or when that deadline was. Some 295 care workers were surveyed by the charity for the report.“If even a tiny fraction of the estimated EEA+ (EU, EEA and Swiss) residents are unable to apply in time, tens of thousands will lose their status overnight,” warned the report.“Without urgent action, the care sector is likely to be devastated.” More

Ministers have been urged to intervene after a mass outbreak at the DVLA’s offices in Wales, by a union declaring the government agency’s response a “scandal”. More than 350 employees at the UK vehicle licensing agency’s contact centre in Swansea tested positive in the four months to December, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to above 500.Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething is among several senior politicians to say he is “concerned about anecdotal reports” emerging from the offices – with the BBC and The Observer reporting that some symptomatic employees had been encouraged to return to work, amid an alleged “culture of fear”.Both outlets also reported complaints that “archaic” IT systems meant many employees could not work from home, and that close contacts were not always sent home to self-isolate, with workers allegedly advised to turn off their Test and Trace apps to prevent notifications of an infection risk.For those who fell ill, absences of more than 10 days have triggered a warning, The Observer reported, citing a complaint received by Public Health Wales’s outbreak control team.A DVLA spokesperson strenuously denied each of these allegations.“It is a scandal that DVLA are not doing more to reduce numbers in the workplace when Covid infections are on the rise,” said Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary, Mark Serwotka.“Our members are telling us they are scared to enter the workplace for fear of catching Covid-19.“Ministers must intervene and ensure DVLA are doing their utmost to enable staff to work from home and temporarily cease non-critical services.”Asked about Mr Serwotka’s warning and call for action at the top of government, a Department for Transport pointed to a DVLA statement and comments highlighting that there are no active cases inside the Swansea contact centre, with just four people currently self-isolating following a positive test across the 6,000-strong agency.“Staff in roles that enable them to work from home are doing so and have throughout, in line with current government advice,” the DVLA statement said. “However, in view of the essential nature of the public services we provide, some operational staff are required to be in the office where their role means they cannot work from home.”A DVLA spokesperson said the agency had extensive safety measures in line with government advice and worked closely with Public Health Wales and local health and safety agencies.It has opened an additional facility for on-site staff in Swansea, and workers are regularly reminded of the requirement to self-isolate if told to do so by the Test and Trace app, the spokesperson added.
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The government has repeatedly criticised prosecutors for doing “no more than applying the law”, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.Max Hill QC, the director of public prosecutions, defended decisions in two recent immigration cases that drew the ire of the Home Office as Priti Patel attempts to crack down on irregular journeys to Britain. In the first, the CPS dismissed charges against 69 Albanians who had been charged by the Border Force with entering the UK illegally, but had not reached the country.“In both cases, we have done no more than apply the law, which is for parliament and not us to decide,” Mr Hill told The Independent.“We’re absolutely clear that any prosecuting authority must be free, and is free, to make independent decisions following the law … that independence does lead to [opposing] positions taken by the general public or even by the Home Office. We have no difficulty in scrutiny of our decisions.”The CPS overturned prosecutions of the passengers, but maintained charges of facilitating illegal immigration against three alleged crew members.After the decision was announced, a Home Office spokesperson said it was “disappointed” that the proceedings were discontinued and that it was “working with the CPS urgently to resolve the issues raised by this case”.“Knowingly entering the UK without leave is a criminal offence and anyone who has committed such an offence should be prepared to face prosecution,” a statement sent to the media added.But Mr Hill said the passengers of migrant boats who have no role in organising or controlling crossings should not be charged, and “can be dealt with perfectly appropriately by immigration scrutiny and removal rather than prosecution”.A month later, the CPS dropped charges against seven Nigerian stowaways who had been accused of trying to hijack an oil tanker off the coast of the Isle of Wight.Police dealing with incident aboard ship in English ChannelProsecutors said mobile phone footage showed the ship and crew were not put in danger and there was no attempt to take control of the vessel.A Home Office spokesperson said it was “disappointed” by the CPS’ decision, adding: “It is frustrating that there will be no prosecution in relation to this very serious incident and the British people will struggle to understand how this can be the case.”Abusive posts were directed at the CPS’ Twitter account following the comment, with prosecutors called “f***ing clowns” and “pathetic”.Mr Hill said all cases were considered on their merits and the same legal tests, and that it would have been “quite wrong” to maintain charges which would not have survived scrutiny in court.“Initial reports that led to the military intervention suggested a hijack or possible hijack but on cold, calm review it transpired that the stowaways had not committed the criminal offence of endangering a vessel,” he added.“We do perform a valuable function, which is to ensure that cases that should not proceed, don’t proceed. That’s where our independence is absolutely critical and these recent two cases prove an absence of political interference. Rather, they prove our independence.” More