Brighton and Hove City Council has approved a scheme under which dozens of affordable homes will be built on the site of a former library in east Brighton. Read more...
A financial controller who misappropriated £90,326 from his employer has been given a 14-year Bankruptcy Restrictions Undertaking, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service. Read more...
The government has announced changes to some immigration rules, most of which will affect applications submitted on or after 19 November 2015. Read more...
The Prime Minister and Education Secretary Nicky Morgan have announced a “root and branch review” of children’s residential care, to help put an end to a life of disadvantage for some of the most vulnerable children in care. Read more...
An engineering company has been prosecuted together with a facilities company, after a worker was fatally electrocuted while working on at a data centre in Middlesex. Read more...
A woman from Birmingham who lied to the court about her personal circumstances to avoid a prison sentence has been jailed for 16 months at Birmingham Crown Court. Read more...
The director of a company which sold and repaired musical instruments has been disqualified from holding a directorship for seven years, after an investigation by the Insolvency Service found that he had submitted incorrect Corporation Tax returns. Read more...
Kingston Crown Court has found two brothers guilty of helping others preparing for acts of terrorism, after a retrial. Read more...
The sister of a baby aged 14 months and her boyfriend have been jailed for a total of 25 years, after being convicted for their part in the baby’s murder. Read more...
The Minister of State for Community and Social Care at the Department of Health, Alistair Burt MP, has said that the mental health of children and young people is one of his priorities – and the government’s plans for children’s mental health were “nothing short of the biggest transformation to young people’s mental health and one of the largest investments the sector has seen”. Read more...
A man who dumped asbestos roofing and clinical waste on a site in Nottingham has been prosecuted by the Environment Agency. Read more...
The High Court has ordered two opaque limited liability partnerships (LLPs) into liquidation, after an investigation by the Insolvency Service found that each LLP had filed false accounts at Companies House. Read more...
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has responded to a report on the use of isolation in youth justice settings by stating that that isolation should primarily be used if a young person poses a risk to themselves or others. Read more...
The UK and China have signed an agreement to tackle international smuggling and the organised criminal groups who operate in direct contravention of customs laws. Read more...
Road safety campaign THINK! has launched a new campaign to encourage drivers to brake before they reach a bend, rather than on the bend. Read more...
A rapist who fled to Slovakia to escape justice has been given a 20-year extended sentence at Leeds Crown Court. Read more...
A man who carried out a revenge attack on his former partner by arranging for acid to be thrown over her has been sentenced to life imprisonment at Ipswich Crown Court. Read more...
A hacker who accessed both the UK Home Office website and the website of the FBI in the US has been given a suspended jail sentence at Birmingham Crown Court. Read more...
A retailer in the West Midlands has been prosecuted by Sandwell Council Trading Standards, after selling a children’s toy which contained illegally high levels of dangerous chemicals. Read more...
Hammersmith and Fulham Council has launched a safer cycling strategy to make the borough’s roads safer, including for pedestrians. Read more...
A building supplies company in Bournemouth has been prosecuted by Bournemouth Borough Council’s Regulatory Services, after a an incident involving a fork-lift truck left a customer requiring three surgical procedures on his leg. Read more...
Lancaster City Council is currently holding a major new public consultation to help to identify new land for building between 5,000 and 6,000 new homes. Read more...
The Exeter Private Rental Forum is holding a drop-in event for private sector rental tenants today (26/10/15), for renters who want to know more about their rights. Read more...
Lambeth Council in south London has prosecuted a “rogue landlord”, after he converted a property into flats and rented them out illegally without the necessary permissions. Read more...
Sheffield City Council has prosecuted the owner of a noisy dog, after neighbours complained frequently of noise intrusion caused by barking. Read more...
Sheffield Council’s Environmental Protection Service has prosecuted a Sheffield resident for fly-tipping, after bags of waste were found dumped on parkland at Cammell Road in Sheffield. Read more...
The Health and Safety Executive has successfully prosecuted a woodworking firm, after an employee broke both legs after a fork-lift truck accident. Read more...
The British Dental Association (BDA) has said that dental services in the UK represent low risk and good quality care, as underlined in a recent report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Read more...
A man from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire has been prosecuted under the Environmental Protection Act for dumping garden waste. Read more...
A lettings agency in Hammersmith has been fined £4,000, after an investigation by Hammersmith and Fulham Council found that the agency was found guilty of advertising properties for rent that were not under its control. Read more...
Hammersmith and Fulham council officers have helped the Metropolitan Police identify and jail drug dealers operating in White City in west London. Read more...
Stroud district councillors have voted to back plans for vulnerable Syrian refugees to be resettled locally. Read more...
Trading Standards Officers in Leicester are warning consumers not to fall for an online scam in which customers pay up-front for high-value cars that turn out not to exist. Read more...
The Court of Appeal has ruled sentences given to two rapists were unduly lenient – and has increased them by 11 and five years. Read more...
A motor dealer in Devon has been prosecuted by Trading Standards, after supplying a dangerous VW Touran in January 2012. Read more...
A lettings agency in Southend in Essex has received a maximum £5,000 fine for ignoring a request for information from Southend Council’s private sector housing (PSH) team. Read more...
A man from Chesterfield who fraudulently claimed more than £28,000 in benefits has been spared jail. Read more...
NHS Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has launched a new service providing emotional and wellbeing support for young people across West Sussex. Read more...
Essex County Council has called for the UK’s refugee commitment to be fully funded by government. Read more...
Devon and Somerset Trading Standards are to patrol the streets of Exeter on Monday (19/10/15) in an exercise to crack down on illegal tobacco. Read more...
The government is to fund a £5 million initiative to build a national coalition against extremism in communities and online. Read more...
The Birmingham Youth Justice Plan 2015-2016 has been drawn up setting out the priorities for the city’s youth justice service. Read more...
Worcester Crown Court has sentenced a man who conned women out of £185,000 in a string of romance frauds to eight years in prison. Read more...
A 30-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 43-year-old Greek national Menelaos Aligizakis. Read more...
Blackpool Council is supporting National Adoption Week (October 19 – October 25), encouraging people to think differently about adoption. Read more...
The Welsh Assembly’s Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister, Lesley Griffiths, is launching a new £10.9 million scheme to help unemployed parents into work or training, by helping them with childcare costs. Read more...
The City of London Corporation has announced its biggest house building programme since 1976. Read more...
Birmingham City Council staff and contractors who have given excellent service to social housing tenants have been recognised in an awards ceremony in Birmingham. Read more...
New research by University College London (UCL) has identified Genes involved in schizophrenia and obesity. Read more...
Nottingham City Council is to begin work on a Cycle Superhighway today (19/10/15), to help reduce the risk of injury to cyclists in the city. Read more...
A company based in Staffordshire has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after a worker suffered serious injury when he became entangled in a length of galvanised pipe being turned in a machine. Read more...
A father-to-be who attacked his pregnant wife and caused her to lose their child has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, child destruction and assault. Read more...
Birmingham Crown Court has sentenced a self-styled “Holy Man” who sexually assaulted a woman during a healing ritual to two years^ imprisonment. Read more...
A crackdown on tax cheats by HMRC has netted £109 million in the last six months – including £64.9m recovered in the first three months of this year, more than double the figure for the same period in 2014. Read more...
Bromley Council’s Adoption Service is holding an information event today (19/10/15) to celebrate National Adoption Week from 19-25 October. Read more...
The government has announced temporary changes to restrictions on nurse recruitment from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), to ensure safe staffing levels across the NHS. Read more...
A national company specialising in products and services to rural communities has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after a worker suffered a life changing injury in a woodworking machinery incident. Read more...
A waste recycling company has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after an employee was struck by a 7.5 tonne telehandler. Read more...
A company has been fined more than £4,000 after purchasing fish without an electronic sales note. Read more...
A pellet manufacturing company based in Nottinghamshire has been sentenced after a worker died in an industrial blender. Read more...
A new joint enforcement partnership aims to reduce the number of unsafe lorry drivers and operators in London. Read more...
Housing charity Shelter has said that nearly 500,000 homes in the private rented sector are infested with rodents and cockroaches. Read more...
A man from Birmingham has been fined £1,500 at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court, after being found guilty of fisheries offences. Read more...
Housing Minister Brandon Lewis has announced new measures that will make it easier to turn underused office buildings into new homes. Read more...
The Supreme Court has ruled in two cases in which ex-wives challenged their divorce settlements, after claiming that their husbands had concealed assets during the divorce hearing. Read more...
Reading Council has seized a large haul of illegal alcohol and tobacco from a total of 13 different off licences and convenience stores across the borough. Read more...
Housing Minister Brandon Lewis has said that the New Housing and Planning Bill introduced to Parliament by the government on Tuesday (13/10/15) marks the start of a national crusade to transform “generation rent” into “generation buy”. Read more...
Business Secretary Sajid Javid has announced that recruitment firms which recruit solely from overseas, without having advertised in the UK or in the English language, will be banned from doing so under plans announced on Tuesday (13/10/15). Read more...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted a saw mill in Kettering, Northamptonshire, after an employee sustained a serious hand injury. Read more...
A liquid petroleum gas (LPG) supplier has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after leakage from a tanker caused the emergency services to evacuate 15 people from their houses. Read more...
The Insolvency Service has ordered into liquidation three companies with assets of more than £445 million, which were formed and run with a fraudulent intent. Read more...
A landlord in Sussex has been prosecuted by Worthing Borough Council over the poor state of his property at Belsize Road in Worthing. Read more...
Bromley Council has prosecuted a landlord who failed to carry out necessary repair work to a house rented to a mother and her children. Read more...
A housing consultation published on Friday (09/10/15) proposes that social landlords will be required to administer a policy of fairer rents, under which tenants with high levels of income who live in social housing will pay a fair level of rent to continue living there. Read more...
Hackney Council in east London is investigating local letting agents and property managers to make sure they are displaying fees they charge in accordance with the law. Read more...
Harlow Council’s Environmental Health and legal teams have successfully prosecuted three residents for anti-social behaviour involving noise intrusion this year. Read more...
The UK’s new Minister for Syrian Refugees, Richard Harrington, has visited some of the migrants who have been given sanctuary in the UK, to see how coming here has changed their lives. Read more...
Reading Borough Council has launched a project exploring mental health issues among women during pregnancy and after childbirth. Read more...
Learning disability charity Mencap is joining forces with the Safer Hambleton Community Safety Local Delivery Team and North Yorkshire Police to host a drop-in surgery to help victims of hate crime in North Yorkshire on Thursday, 15 October Read more...
Oxford Crown Court has jailed the father of an 11-week-old baby boy, who died after sustaining serious head injuries and multiple injuries to his body while in the care of his father. Read more...
Bromley Council’s Food Safety Team has prosecuted two shops in the Penge area for selling sheep mutton meat as goat meat. Read more...
The director of a Cardiff computer supply company which went into liquidation owing £492,790 to creditors has been disqualified from acting as a director for eight years, after failing to keep proper accounting records. Read more...
Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London has convicted three men who forced a 15-year-old boy into a car on charges of conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. Read more...
Gwynedd Council is working with the Welsh Government and other local authorities in support of the all-Wales Hate Crime Awareness Week from 10-17 October. Read more...
A Ghanaian national has been sentenced to six months in prison, after pleading guilty to providing unregulated immigration advice. Read more...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has successfully prosecuted a company which erects steel frames, after an inspection by the HSE found that safety failings were putting workers at risk of injury. Read more...
NHS South Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS Vale Royal Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are to support World Mental Health Day on Saturday, 10 October, to raise awareness of mental health issues and services available across central Cheshire. Read more...
Islington Council in north London has used new legal powers to prevent a youth from visiting a neighbourhood in the borough where he would be in danger of falling into a criminal lifestyle. Read more...
A 58-year-old woman from Northallerton in West Yorkshire has pleaded guilty to fraudulently claiming £11,400 in benefits. Read more...
Nottinghamshire County Council’s Co-production team is working with partners on events across the county in support of World Mental Health Day on Saturday, 10 October. Read more...
A man who subjected a female ticket inspector to verbal abuse has pleaded guilty to a charge of making homophobic and abusive remarks. Read more...
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is teaming up with the Mental Health Foundation to raise awareness of how British nationals with mental health needs can prepare for overseas travel – and how the FCO can help when travellers experience difficulties. Read more...
Kent County Council is reminding local parents to claim 15 hours a week of free childcare and education for 38 weeks a year for children aged two who are eligible – as well as all three- and four-year-olds. Read more...
A Lancashire-based hydraulic cylinder manufacturer has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an employee lost the sight in one eye. Read more...
A City worker from Luton has been sentenced to six months’ imprisonment after being found guilty of concealing property from the Official Receiver, following a trial at Luton Crown Court. Read more...
The HCPC Conduct and Competence Committee has struck off a paramedic after a disciplinary panel heard how he had carried out examinations on female patients, which were not clinically justified. Read more...
A 37-year-old man who pleaded guilty to attempting to kidnap a child has been given a four-and-a-half year prison sentence at Wolverhampton Crown Court. Read more...
A landlord in Islington, north London has been fined nearly £7,000, after failing to obtain a licence for a house in multiple occupation (HMO). Read more...
The director of a central London restaurant has been disqualified from acting as a director for ten years, after submitting false VAT returns, failing to keep records and filing incorrect accounts. Read more...
Chancellor George Osborne has announced that shared parental leave and pay will be extended to working grandparents. Read more...
The Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has announced that the number of loan recipients under the Armed Forces home-buying scheme Forces’ Help to Buy will be doubled. Read more...
The Chancellor has announced that planning rules on brownfield sites are to be removed to free up land for development. Read more...
The government has pledged seven-day access to GP services for NHS patients by 2020. Read more...
The United Nations refugee agency has said that the changing weather in the Mediterranean has not stopped the flow of migrants trying to reach Greece from Africa and the Middle East – and unless accommodation and conditions for migrants in Greece improve, the secondary flow of newly arrived migrants across the EU will continue. Read more...
Whitehall Director General Stephen Rimmer has said he is confident that children in the West Midlands are safer now than they were when he moved to the region two years ago, on secondment from the Home Office. Read more...
Barnardo’s children’s charity has said it is deeply concerned about a 24% fall in the number of children being put forward for adoption. Read more...
Public Health England’s Mental Health Intelligence Network has launched a new resource designed to help local organisations decide how to best gauge the mental wellbeing of children and young people in their area. Read more...
Isleworth Crown Court has sentenced a woman who fraudulently claimed Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit to a six-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months. Read more...
England’s first specialist centre dedicated to helping small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) protect themselves from cyber criminals has opened in central London. Read more...
A multi-agency operation involving The Environment Agency, Lincolnshire Police, Immigration Enforcement – and officers from other agencies – has helped the Environment Agency crack down on illegal waste carriers in Lincolnshire. Read more...
A company whose operations spilled out onto land illegally has been prosecuted by the Environment Agency. Read more...
A maintenance company has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after a roofing engineer was injured in a fall from the roof of a domestic property. Read more...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has successfully prosecuted a pig farm, after a worker’s hand was pulled into moving machinery, injuring his finger. Read more...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted two global companies – Siemens Windpower A/S (SWP) and its principal contractor Fluor Ltd – after a worker was killed in the construction of an offshore wind farm and another was seriously injured. Read more...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has prosecuted soup manufacturer Baxters Food Group, after one of its employees suffered life changing injuries while working on a production line. Read more...
A Cardiff-based steel firm has been successfully prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), after an employee died when a two-tonne steel beam fell on him and crushed him at a warehouse in Cardiff, South Wales. Read more...
An optician and former bankrupt who fraudulently transferred his interest in a property to his children in an attempt to deny this asset to his creditors, has been sentenced to nine months in jail. Read more...
The Legal Aid Minister Shailesh Vara has announced proposals for a new statutory ban on referral fees in criminal cases. Read more...
Housing Minister Brandon Lewis has said that new fire safety measures will help save the lives of tenants – and ensure all rented property is equipped with a smoke alarm. Read more...
A new multi-agency project to help vulnerable families in Norfolk stay together has prevented any babies being taken into care during the project’s first six months of operation. Read more...
Hastoe housing association (HA) has announced that it will be declining the government’s voluntary Right to Buy (RTB) scheme because of the potential impact of rural exemptions in the policy. Read more...
Under an agreement signed between the UK and Jamaica on Wednesday (30/09/15), more than 300 Jamaican prisoners serving time in British prisons will be returned to Jamaica to serve their sentence from 2020 onwards. Read more...
Winchester Crown Court has sentenced two men convicted of supplying defective medicines. Read more...