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May elections in nine council areas have been postponed for one year amid the reorganisation of local government in England, Angela Rayner has said. The Deputy Prime Minister has also invited all 21 two-tier areas – which have both county and district councils – to submit proposals to reorganise themselves into single “unitary” authorities. Ms Rayner, who is also the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, agreed to cancel elections […]

A 15-year-old boy was stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife at a school in Sheffield, a court has heard. Harvey Willgoose died on Monday after he was injured at All Saints Catholic High School, in Granville Road, at about 12.17pm. Another 15-year-old boy appeared at Sheffield Youth Court on Wednesday charged with murder, possession of a bladed article and affray. The court heard the knife “went through his […]

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has announced a £55 million package of support aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s resilience, during a visit to Kyiv amid uncertainty about the future of the war. The UK will commit £17 million to support sustainable energy projects within the country, as part of efforts to help it recover from the damage wrought by Russia’s attacks on its key infrastructure. A further £3 million is being provided […]

There are more than 1,000 vacancies in Scotland’s NHS for consultants, figures have shown, as a health body called for action. Statistics released to BMA Scotland under freedom of information legislation show 1,003 whole-time equivalent (WTE) vacancies for senior doctors in the country’s 14 health boards – a vacancy rate of 14.4%. The figure has dropped slightly from 1,076 WTE vacancies recorded last year. But the number is at odds […]

Abuse victims will be able to bring compensation claims when they are ready rather than being bound by a three-year time limit, under reforms the Government has acknowledged are “long overdue”. As well as the deadline to bring personal injury claims being scrapped, apologies will also be made easier to achieve, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said as it announced two more of the 20 recommendations from the 2022 final […]

The Government will not boost economic growth and productivity until it tackles the the mental health crisis in young people, which is costing more than £1 trillion in lost earnings, experts have warned. Four mental health organisations have called on ministers “to acknowledge the scale of the crisis in children’s mental health and ignore ‘wishful thinking’ that it is exaggerated or a result of ‘over-medicalisation'”. It follows commentary, including from […]

A report into the care received by Nottingham triple killer Valdo Calocane shows he may have been “spared prison on the basis of incomplete evidence”, his victims’ families have said. Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order after killing 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates before attempting to kill three other people, in a spate of […]

A 15-year-old boy has died after he was in stabbed at a school in Sheffield, police have said. It happened at All Saints Catholic High School in Granville Road in the city at around 12.17pm, South Yorkshire Police said. A 15-year-old old boy has been held on suspicion of murder, the force said. Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield told a news conference at police headquarters: “It is with great sadness […]

The UK’s trading relationship with the US is “fair and balanced”, Downing Street insisted after Donald Trump said that the UK was “out of line”. The Prime Minister trusts Mr Trump to keep his word, No 10 said after the US president suggested he thinks a deal can be “worked out” to avoid slapping tariffs on the UK. Mr Trump suggested in comments overnight that he is poised to expand […]