darren_z064d555

Six towns and cities have been selected to develop England’s first clean heat network zones, the Government has announced. The Energy Department (DESNZ) said these urban areas will roll out technology that recycles excess heat from sources like data centres or factories to warm several buildings at once. The schemes will be set up in Leeds, Plymouth, Bristol, Stockport, Sheffield and two areas of London. They will receive a share […]

The Home Office has announced a new charter with the insurance sector to “crack down” on fraud. The department said the voluntary agreement would target fraudsters “seeking to manipulate the insurance market with bogus claims and duping innocent people into buying fake insurance policies”. It added that the charter includes pledges to “identify and address loopholes, enhance collaboration and improve victim support”. The Home Office said the charter covers the […]

The world is on track for a “catastrophic” 3.1C of global warming, the UN has warned as it called for massive efforts to cut the emissions driving climate change. In its annual report on the gap between the emissions cuts needed to limit global warming to 1.5C and what countries are doing and have pledged to do, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the goal would “soon be dead” without […]

Taxes and borrowing are both set to increase as Rachel Reeves signalled she would rewrite the way Government debt is measured in her first Budget. The Chancellor said she faced difficult choices but insisted her Budget would “begin to fix the NHS and start to rebuild our economy”. The cost of Government borrowing increased in response to speculation the Chancellor would change debt rules to spend billions more on investments. […]

Child serial killer Lucy Letby has lost a Court of Appeal bid to challenge her conviction for the attempted murder of a baby girl. Letby’s lawyers asked senior judges for approval to appeal against her most recent conviction after being found guilty following a retrial in July of attempting to kill a newborn known as Child K. On Thursday, lawyers for the former nurse told the Court of Appeal that […]

A Windrush Commissioner is to be appointed and funding made available for groups which help victims apply for compensation, Yvette Cooper announced as she committed to a “fundamental reset of the response to this scandal”. The Home Secretary said £1.5 million will be made available for organisations providing advocacy for applicants to the compensation scheme, which has been criticised by many as complicated and too slow. Labour had committed in […]

Police Scotland have lost more than one million days to staff absence in the past four years, figures show. Since 2020, 1,020,930 working days have been lost by staff absence, with each full year between April 2020 and April this year showing at least 200,000 days lost. Of those lost days, 239,507 were as a result of “psychological disorders”, according to the figures released by Police Scotland to the Scottish […]

The UK economy is set to grow slower than previously expected over the next two years amid cautious consumer spending, according to new forecasts by economists. EY Item Club’s latest quarterly economic forecast also suggested that caution by Bank of England rate-setters not to cut interest rates too quickly will contribute to “steady rather than rapid” growth. It represents a potential blow to Chancellor Rachel Reeves days ahead of the […]

The ban is set to come into force on 1st June 2025 The sale of disposable vapes will be banned by next summer, the Government has said. New legislation to ban the sale of single-use vapes from June 1, 2025 has been laid out in Parliament, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed on Wednesday. It added that businesses will have until the deadline “to sell any remaining stock they hold […]