1 Almost 10,000 pupils were permanently excluded from school in 2003-04, the highest number in five years. Persistently disruptive behaviour was the main cause of expulsion. More than 344,000 temporary suspensions were also issued last year.
2 The introduction of the European Rail Traffic Management System will be delayed until 2025, according to the Strategic Rail Authority. The cost of up to £5 billion to install the system of stopping trains from going through red lights, recommended by the public inquiry into the Paddington and Southall train crashes, is thought to be the reason for the delay.
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3 The NHS overspent by £140 million in 2004-05, according to an investigation by the National Audit Office and the Audit Commission. The figure is only 0.2 per cent of the £69 billion budget, but 18 per cent of individual NHS bodies did not balance the books, compared with 12 per cent the previous year.
4 Council housing funding is unfair and too complex, says the Audit Commission. Its report shows wide inequality in the funding system and calls on the Government to allow greater autonomy to authorities that can be self-financing.
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5 Half of ambulance calls could be handled at the scene by “emergency care practitioners”, according to a proposal aimed at reducing the number of patients taken to A&E department by a million a year. Peter Bradley, the national ambulance adviser to the Department of Health, believes paramedics could attend to minor injuries and ailments.
6 The NHS has axed its £1.1 billion PFI hospital project in Paddington after eight years due to costs. A total of £14 million has been spent already on the scheme to build a healthcare and research campus in London.
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7 High-ranking public sector officials had pay rises of 9.5 per cent in 2003-04, says an Income Data Services poll. Chief executives and most senior regulators are on six-figure salaries.
8 The tsunami charity appeal has boosted voluntary donations, research by the Institute of Fundraising suggests. Only a quarter of the charities surveyed reported a fall in donations in the first half of 2005 and most expect the decrease to be short-lived.
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9 Passenger numbers on Britain’s railway network are set to rise 28 per cent by 2015. The Association of Train Operating Companies has suggested scrapping smaller stations and under-used trains, lengthening other services and charging premiums for peak travel.
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10 A levels and GCSEs are likely to be scrapped in favour of a diploma, according to David Bell, the Chief Inspector of Schools. He said the Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, who has rejected Sir Mike Tomlinson’s plans for a diploma for 14 to 19-year-olds, would face growing pressure for change.
11 More than 1,100 fines have been issued to parents whose children have played truant from school since penalties of up to £200 came into force in September. Some families have been fined for taking children on holiday during term-time to avoid higher prices at peak-time.
12 A third of Europe’s obese children live in the UK, according to the British Medical Association. At the launch of a BMA report Preventing Childhood Obesity, Dr Sam Everington, a GP in London, said: “A quarter of the children I see are overweight.”
13 University students living in Wales will be exempt from top-up fees at Welsh universities. Under a new cross-party deal, English and Scottish students at those institutions will have to pay £3,000 from 2007, but Welsh students will pay only the flat £1,200-per-term tuition fee.
14 Thirty-one people were killed in road accidents involving police vehicles in 2003-04, up from 22 the previous year, according to figures released by the Home Office.
15 Applications to grammar schools are down by 15 per cent after a change in the admissions system, the National Grammar Schools Association says. Some parents now place a comprehensive at the top of their list in case their child fails the entrance exam.