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  • Northamptonshire County Council ‘bought rugby hospitality box’

    Northampton Saints Symbol copyright Getty Photographs Image caption An audit research was instructed the cash used to be spent on a brand new stand at Northampton Saints, a claim the membership deny

    Councillors spent public cash on a hospitality field and hiring a airplane because the authority headed against monetary main issue, an research has found.

    Payments had been made by an organization owned by Northamptonshire County Council whose administrators were councillors.

    NEA Properties, which purchased the box at Premiership rugby facet Northampton Saints, used to be dissolved a month prior to the council banned spending.

    The BBC has contacted the councillors involved for a response.

    An impartial audit file found that NEA Properties’ “expenditure incurred was in keeping with the authority and function of the company and its directors”.

    Image caption Northamptonshire County Council has voted to make radical cuts to jobs and services as it makes an attempt to fill a £70m shortfall

    Considerations approximately finances at the council – which has been issued with two Section 114 notices, banning new spending – have been made as early as 2013, consistent with former chief Heather Smith.

    Worries over NEA Houses have been first raised via a whistleblower, former UKIP councillor Michael Brown, in January 2017.

    An audit used to be then commissioned and found the payments had been made with “minimal” governance and documentation.

    It discovered no proof of unsuitable spending or control via the corporate “however within the absence of various records most effective limited insurance will also be provided”.

    The audit was also informed £EIGHTY,000 spent on Northampton Saints went at the redevelopment of a new stand at the Franklin’s Gardens floor, but the membership denied this was once what was once bought.

    A club spokesman stated it could “make sure the county council had a box as a part of a advertising package which they purchased”.

    The Tale in the back of the cash-obstacle council Money-problem council: Your feelings Truth Check: What do councils need to do?

    Financial adviser Mr Brown mentioned the lack of a detailed audit path was once a “improbable in this day and age”.

    He brought: “As a public corporation they were protecting secret the accounts of a limited corporate it owns below the small firms exception.

    “this could no longer happen because it leaves itself open to abuse of public budget.”

    A spokesman for the council stated the record discovered that even though restricted assurances were equipped approximately the company, “the organisational affect was minor”.

    He brought: “The document additionally discovered that expenditure and fiscal transactions were transparent.

    “Alternatively, the committee did draw up a number of recommendations and paintings on addressing those will probably be performed as quickly as imaginable.”

  • UK prisons ‘awash’ with smuggled telephones and SIM cards

    A prison guard walks along a corridor in HMP Berwyn Symbol copyright Dan Kitwood/Getty Pictures Image caption “We’re also taking decisive action to search out and block mobile phones” – Prison Carrier spokesman

    A Minimum Of 15,000 cell phones or SIM playing cards were confiscated in English and Welsh prisons remaining yr, equivalent to one for each six inmates.

    Phones are utilized by a few prisoners to reserve medicine and co-ordinate criminal activity inside and out of doors jail.

    A penal reform charity mentioned the federal government had didn’t take on the foundation of the issue.

    The Jail Provider mentioned advanced security measures had resulted in extra confiscations.

    The BBC’s Shared Data Unit in comparison figures for the period 2010-2014 and 2017 from ministers’ solutions to written questions in Parliament, Freedom Of Knowledge requests to jail products and services in Scotland and northern Eire and published prison inhabitants figures.

    Image copyright PA Image caption Acid attacker Arthur Collins wanted to make calls with a smuggled phone approximately his newborn daughter

    what’s being done?

    New measures to clamp down on violence and the smuggling of illegal medicine, telephones and guns in prisons have been unveiled by way of the government in March.

    The National Crime Agency says one in THIRTEEN inmates have organised crime links.

    It estimates some of those 6,500 offenders continue to be desirous about illegal activity behind bars, together with controlling the supply of banned items like telephones, and unlawful items like medication and guns, which can be blamed for fuelling instability.

    Frances Crook, leader govt of The Howard League for Penal Reform, said the only method to keep watch over the illegal business within used to be to take on its causes.

    She said other pay phones to be had behind bars didn’t permit inmates privateness to talk to their households, were all the time fashionable and were charged at a charge that was once too pricey.

    “If prisoners had higher get right of entry to to telephones, the massive business in smuggling them in might forestall and personnel could pay attention to preventing the inflow of telephones being used for crime,” she mentioned.

    Private prisons had “led the way” by providing telephones in cells with cheap suppliers where calls is also monitored and security dangers controlled, she added.

    Peter Dawson, director of the Jail Reform Consider, said: “Understanding what number of phones are seized is crucial part of the tale, but what’s doubtful is what number of of the calls made on illegal mobiles in prisons are through other people trying to stay involved with their families.

    ‘Spice epidemic in jails possibility to nurses’ HMP Birmingham inmates seem in Periscope live circulation mobile phones in prisons: Why are they nonetheless there?

    “Whilst an individual can spend their entire week’s prison salary in only 30 minutes on a prison telephone, and has one hour a day once they can sign up for the queue to accomplish that, it isn’t unexpected that the call for for illicit handsets is high.”

    The Jail Carrier said: “These data display that we are effectively stopping contraband from entering the jail property.

    “On The Other Hand, we acknowledge that extra need to be performed and as Minister Rory Stewart has up to now said, there are just 5 tactics during which contraband can be smuggled into prisons and we’re taking steps to take on all 5.

    “We’ve Got addressed flying contraband in through tackling drones, the throwing over of items by the use of nets and searches, the dragging in of items by picking wires and the posting of gear by photocopying letters.

    “We Are additionally taking decisive action to find and block cell phones, including a £2m investment in detection equipment. we’ve got legislated to prevent telephones from getting used in prisons.”

    Extra approximately this story

    The Shared Data Unit makes information journalism to be had to information companies around the media business, as a part of a partnership among the BBC and the news Media Association.

    For more information on technique, click on right here. For the full dataset, click on right here.

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  • Prisons minister Rory Stewart: I’ll renounce if medication and violence don’t move down

    Final year there were greater than THREE,500 assaults in the 10 prisons that the Ministry of Justice is concentrated on. That was once a rise of 15% on the previous 12 months and greater than double the choice of assaults that took place in 2014.

    Based Totally at the results of mandatory exams on prisoners, drug use within the 10 focused prisons higher quite ultimate 12 months. Regardless Of the upward thrust, drug use in those jails is very just about the common for all prisons in England and Wales – with slightly below 10% of random drug exams proving positive.

    The new measures are being targeted at 10 jails which the Ministry of Justice says have “acute issues” with high drug use, violence and development issues.

    They are:

    Hull – Category B Humber, East Using of Yorkshire – Class C Leeds – Category B Lindholme, near Doncaster – Class C/D Moorland, Hatfield Woodhouse, South Yorkshire – Class C Wealstun, near Wetherby, West Yorkshire – Class C Nottingham – Category B Ranby, Nottinghamshire – Class C Wormwood Scrubs, west London – Class B Isis, south-east London – Category C

    It comes after figures published through the Ministry of Justice remaining month confirmed incidents of self-hurt and assaults in prisons have been at document levels. Seizures of smuggled-in medicine and mobile phones also rose by means of 23% and 15% respectively within the year to March.

    Symbol copyright PA Image caption Wormwood Scrubs, Hull, Lindholme and Nottingham (Clockwise from most sensible left) are amongst the 10 prisons to profit

    Then Again, the Prison Reform Agree With mentioned the problems in the jails had been as a result of a failure to match tools to demand.

    Its director, Peter Dawson, stated: “It used to be a catastrophic failure to offer that stability which led to the cave in of jail protection after 2012 – looking to tell governors the way to run prisons isn’t going to put it proper.”

    Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, welcomed the extra investment however mentioned “the satan will probably be within the detail”.

    Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon mentioned the federal government will have to cross “much additional” and set out an emergency plan around the prisons estate with considerable new funding to put an end to this crisis and make our prisons secure and humane for employees and inmates”.

    There are about EIGHTY FOUR,000 inmates in more than ONE HUNDRED prisons, throughout England and Wales.

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  • Birmingham Jail taken over from G4S via government

    HMP Birmingham Image caption HMP Birmingham, earlier referred to as Winson Inexperienced Jail, has been run via G4S considering 2011

    Birmingham Jail is being taken over by means of the federal government from the personal firm G4S, after inspectors stated it had fallen into a “state of concern”.

    A Few inmates had been too scared to go away their cells, Leader Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke mentioned in a letter.

    The jail won’t be returned to G4S till ministers feel “enough growth” has been made.

    G4S mentioned it “welcomed” the development as an opportunity to “urgently cope with” the issues.

    a new governor and additional body of workers are being introduced in and the capability of the jail might be lower through 300.

    Symbol copyright Reuters Symbol caption In 2016 more than 600 prisoners had been curious about a revolt on the jail

    Mr Clarke caused the “pressing notification” procedure, meaning Mr Gauke has 28 days to boost an action plan for HMP Birmingham, that is simplest the 3rd jail to have been issued with this kind of realize.

    In his letter, the previous Scotland Backyard anti-terrorism leader said there have been an “abject failure” of agreement control and delivery at Birmingham.

    I’ll quit if jails don’t improve – minister Rebel jail ‘overcrowded and in problem’ Midlands Are Living: Latest breaking news

    “The inertia that seems to have gripped both those tracking the agreement and handing over it on the flooring has ended in one in every of Britain’s top jails slipping right into a state of quandary that may be remarkable even by way of the low standards we have seen all too regularly in latest years,” Mr Clarke wrote.

    His letter outlines the “stressful” case of a “stricken” prisoner with private hygiene issues, “soaked” with water from a fireplace hose which inmates had pointed throughout the commentary panel in his cellular phone door.

    “We battle to know how team of workers could have allowed this appalling bullying to take place,” stated the executive inspector.

    Inspectors additionally discovered every other “distressed” prisoner sitting on “scruffy subject matter at the springs of his mattress” because the bed were stolen 3 days earlier.

    ‘Sleeping officials’

    Mr Clarke mentioned the case typified the “day-to-day vulnerability” of a few prisoners.

    “It used to be frequently difficult to search out officers, despite the fact that we did to find a few asleep during prisoner lock-up classes,” he wrote, including that “ineffective frontline control and management” had been at the heart of the prison’s problems.

    Under the new regime at Birmingham, Paul Newton, who has spent 30 years within the Jail Carrier and is recently governor at Swaleside prison in Kent, will take price.

    an additional 30 group of workers will probably be deployed at the jail, whose population can be reduced from approximately 1,2 HUNDRED to 900.

    Mr Stewart mentioned even as Birmingham confronted its own “specific set of challenges”, it should begin to “live up to the standards seen elsewhere”.

    “Now We Have good, privately-run prisons around the u . s .,” he stated.

    The jail’s Unbiased Monitoring Board (IMB) mentioned that during Would Possibly it was “so taken with the unacceptable prerequisites” in the jail that it “wrote straight away” to the minister, who replied.

    Symbol copyright PA Symbol caption Critical damage used to be led to to 4 wings of the jail in the course of the 2016 riot, which resulted in 500 prisoners being moved out

    Of the SIXTEEN privately run jails in the UK, G4S has contracts to function five of them, including Birmingham. Ministers consider the others the corporate runs – Altcourse, Oakwood, Parc and Rye Hill – are performing well.

    However in 2016 the corporate used to be forced to transfer the control of Medway Protected Training Centre to the government, after BBC secret filming confirmed body of workers allegedly mistreating kids held there.

    Further issues in regards to the corporate emerged remaining 12 months after every other undercover research into the G4S-run Brook Area immigration removing centre, near Gatwick Airport.

    Jerry Petherick, handling director of G4S Custody & Detention Services And Products, mentioned: “HMP Birmingham is an interior-city remand jail which faces exceptional demanding situations, together with more and more prime levels of prisoner violence in opposition to group of workers and fellow prisoners.

    “The health and safety of prisoners and jail group of workers is our key precedence and we welcome the six-month step-in and the opportunity to paintings with the Ministry of Justice to urgently address the problems faced on the jail.”

    ‘Cockroaches ever present’

    The IMB letter in Would Possibly mentioned “placed merely, the jail fails to offer a secure and respectable setting on an almost day by day basis”.

    It stated specific concerns it held incorporated levels of violence, the fashionable availability of prohibited medication and “frequently overcrowded and unfit dwelling conditions”.

    The board brought there have been “bathrooms in cells with out a screen, a normally grimy, negative atmosphere, muddle, items in stairwells, broken home windows, heating damaged or excessive, damaged showers, lack of kettles or even, now and again, loss of kit and bedding and cockroaches ever provide”.

    Frances Criminal, chief government of the Howard League for Penal Reform, welcomed the inside track but mentioned prisoners have been more than likely “going to be shipped out within the heart of the night time” which might lead to “even more overcrowding in different prisons”.

  • PepsiCo buys Sodastream for $3.2bn

    Sodastream machine Image copyright Getty Pictures

    PepsiCo has announced it is shopping for Sodastream for $THREE.2bn (£2.5bn).

    Israel-based totally Sodastream makes a system and refillable cylinders allowing users to make their own carbonated beverages.

    The deal gives Pepsi a new method of achieving consumers of their houses at a time when its signature sugary drinks are becoming much less popular.

    It is also the company’s first massive acquisition in view that leader govt Indra Nooyi disclosed she could step down in October after 12 years on the helm.

    Under the phrases of the deal, PepsiCo will purchase all outstanding shares of Sodastream for $144 each.

    Image copyright Reuters

    PepsiCo president Ramon Laguarta, who will prevail Ms Nooyi on 3 October, mentioned in a press release that Sodastream was once “highly complementary and incremental” to Pepsi’s business.

    He delivered: “PepsiCo is discovering new ways to reach shoppers beyond the bottle.”

    If regulators approve the deal, it’s expected to be finalised via January 2019, matter to a vote by way of Sodastream shareholders.

    Sodastream used to be at the start founded in the UNITED KINGDOM in 1903 and went via more than a few changes of possession till it become a subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes in 1985.

    In 1998, it was once purchased via Israeli firm Soda-Membership, with its UNITED KINGDOM production plant in Peterborough final in 2003.

  • Knife attacker shot by police close to Barcelona

    A Catalan police officer gestures outside the police headquarters at Cornellà de Llobregat on 20 August Symbol copyright EPA Image caption Police stated the man had entered the construction with the purpose of attacking officers

    a man wielding a knife and shouting in Arabic used to be shot dead as he entered a police station at Cornellà de Llobregat, south of Barcelona, Spanish government mentioned on Monday.

    The attacker, said to be 29 and of Algerian origin, had long gone into the development at 05:FIFTY TWO (03:FIFTY TWO GMT) and was shot by way of a guard.

    Catalan police mentioned the attacker had centered officers.

    He had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is largest), studies mentioned.

    Symbol Copyright @mossos @mossos

    The attacker lived close to Cornellà de Llobregat, had been living in Spain for a number of years and had a foreigners’ identity quantity, experiences stated. Police stations throughout Spain had been put on alert as a results of the incident.

  • Asian Video Games: Japan basketball gamers despatched house for ‘paying girls for sex’

    Sport Japan send 4 who ‘paid for sex’ home

  • Upward Push in kind 2 diabetes in children in England and Wales

    Group of young women Image copyright Getty Photographs

    The collection of children and youngsters being treated for kind 2 diabetes in England and Wales has long past up from 507 to 715 in four years, new figures show.

    More than three-quarters had been also obese, consistent with the NHS knowledge.

    Child well being experts said the upward push used to be “alarming” and the formative years weight problems epidemic used to be “beginning to bite”.

    Councils mentioned more had to be done to take on the obesity concern in kids, specifically among minority ethnic teams, who were such a lot affected.

    Kind 2 diabetes can result in a variety of illnesses similar to middle disease, strokes and kidney issues.

    The situation occurs while the frame cannot produce sufficient insulin to regulate blood sugar ranges. it might be associated with weight problems.

    The figures come from an audit published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Kid Well Being of kind 2 diabetes instances in professional paediatric units.

    They display an increase in youth receiving take care of the condition among 2013-14 and 2016-17, but they make up a tiny share of the full population of under-25s.

    Almost 1/2 the ones handled for sort 2 diabetes in 2016-17 have been black or Asian, the figures display. They were additionally more likely to be feminine and dwelling in a deprived area.

    ‘Extremely being worried’

    The Local Govt Association, which gets funding for public health from the federal government, says the actual number of youngsters affected could be higher.

    It mentioned it was “extremely being concerned” that extra youngsters are developing the condition.

    Official data presentations that one in 5 10 and ELEVEN-12 months-olds is overweight, and one in 10 4 and 5-year-olds is obese in England.

    Prof Russell Viner, president of the RCPCH, stated: “a rise in Sort 2 diabetes of this importance is alarming and displays that the youth obesity epidemic is starting to chew.”

    Kathryn Kirchner, clinical guide at Diabetes UNITED KINGDOM, stated considered one of essentially the most necessary possibility elements for kind 2 diabetes used to be being overweight or overweight, which is one thing that may also be prompted.

    “Those figures are a stark reminder that we have a collective responsibility to push for the actions defined in essentially the most up to date chapter of the formative years weight problems plan, together with clearer and more consistent food labelling.”

    A Division of Well Being and Social Care spokeswoman mentioned: “We’ve Got invested billions in public well being services and products and feature already removed the an identical of FORTY FIVE million kilograms of sugar from comfortable beverages yearly.

    “Our new childhood obesity plan will now get children exercise extra in schools, and reduce their exposure to sugary and fatty meals.”

  • Afghan Taliban kidnap dozens of bus passengers near Kunduz

    A map showing where Kunduz is in Afghanistan

    Greater Than 100 individuals are mentioned to have been kidnapped after Taliban militants launched an ambush on three buses in northern Afghanistan.

    Security forces sent to the world close to Kunduz are said to be concerned with fierce clashes with the militants.

    It comes an afternoon after the government introduced a conditional ceasefire.

    President Ashraf Ghani mentioned it would come into effect on Monday if the Taliban standard, but the militants haven’t replied but.

    BBC reporter’s terrifying days amid Taliban attack

    Esmatullah Muradi, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor, instructed Reuters information agency the bus passengers were taken to “an undisclosed region” after being forced from the buses on Monday morning.

    There are conflicting studies of ways many people have been taken. Afghanistan’s Tolo News mentioned the quantity may well be as high as 170.

    Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, Kunduz’s provincial council head, informed news agency AP he believed the militants had been searching for executive or security pressure employees.

    The Taliban have launched a few attacks in recent weeks.

    The greatest was the assault on the town of Ghazni, east of Kabul, which sparked a five-day fight with executive forces that left hundreds useless or wounded. The UN has warned that as much as ONE HUNDRED FIFTY civilians would possibly had been killed.

    However, the Taliban have yet to comment on this most up-to-date incident.

  • Korea reunion: ‘I’m hoping to hug my grown-up son’

    Video ‘I’m hoping to hug my grown-up son’

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