1 Police will no longer have to fill out the lengthy “stop-and-account” form when approaching people in the street. The move is part of a package to cut red tape and save up to 6 million police hours a year.
2 The Armed Forces have been awarded a 3.9 per cent pay and allowances deal. The Opposition has cautioned that, as £282 million will come out of the Ministry of Defence’s budget to finance the rise, cuts may be needed elsewhere.
3 Controversy over bugging devices in prison deepened with reports that a solicitor’s conversation was recorded. Simon Creighton reported that he had been taped talking to a 71-year-old inmate serving life for murder.
4 Five men have been jailed for up to 17 years each for shielding the July 21 bomb plotters. The men, aged between 25 and 32 and all from London, were convicted of 22 charges of assisting offenders and failing to disclose information about terrorism.
5 Police will be allowed to mount a High Court challenge over their pay award. They are angry at the Home Secretary’s refusal to backdate the 2.5 per cent rise.
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6 More than 30,000 16-year-olds leave school without qualifications. The figures, revealed in a Conservative Party analysis of government statistics, cast doubt on plans to raise the school-leaving age to 18.
7 Council tenants may have to prove they are seeking work in future. Caroline Flint, the new Housing Minister, says: “The question that we should ask of new tenants is what commitment they will make to improve their skills, find work, and take the support that is available.” The housing charity Shelter and the single homeless people’s charity Crisis criticised her plan.
8 Fraud and error in the tax credits system is losing taxpayers £1 billion a year. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee says HM Revenue and Customs has failed to resolve the problem.
9 Schools face shortages of English and maths teachers next year. There has been a 15 per cent dip in the numbers of teacher-training applicants in these subjects and a 30 per cent fall in numbers of would-be physics teachers.
10 The largest study undertaken into the MMR jab has concluded that it does not cause autism. Confidence in the injection is slowly improving after the 1998 scare. The new research has been published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood .
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11 Health service spending on Viagra and other impotence drugs more than tripled in six years. The NHS spent £58 million in 2006 on more than 17 million prescriptions, compared to £17.5 million in 2000.
12 Adults have a duty to discipline other people’s children, says the Conservative Party leader. David Cameron said: “We need to reclaim the streets, to resocialise the streets, the parks, the playgrounds .”
13 Police and civil rights groups have backed the Government’s move to allow evidence from phone tapping to be used in criminal court cases. However MI5, MI6 and the Government’s spy base GCHQ fear their intercept techniques will be revealed.
14 The Home Office has intervened to boost the career opportunities of British doctors. Doctors from India, South Africa and other Commonwealth countries are to be barred from applying for jobs in the NHS.
15 More 13-year-olds in Britain have drunk alcohol than have not. The Office for National Statistics figures show there were 690,000 13-year-olds in England and Wales in 2006 and nearly 350,000 of them were drinkers.