UNITED KINGDOM

Previous government spent almost £1m trying to prevent release of documents in 56 legal casesMore than £50,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on lawyers to try to prevent the release of a safeguarding review ordered after a disabled man starved to death in his own home.The costs were part of a bill of nearly £1m spent under the last government to prevent the release of various documents under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act. Continue reading... Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/02/errol-graham-disabled-man-death-review Author : Ben Quinn Publish date : 2025-01-02 07:00:00 Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.

Motoring body says hybrids without a plug should be banned or else confidence in electric cars will be damagedBritain needs to press ahead with a ban on the sale of new hybrid cars with no plug from 2030 or risk taking “a catastrophic misstep” on the road to net zero, ministers have been warned.Cars such as the Toyota Prius, which charge a battery from an internal combustion engine, need to be excluded from the list of vehicles sold in the UK from 2030 or there will be a “profound” fall in confidence in the government’s commitment to electric motoring, according

Buyers looking to move in could benefit from 6.5% drop in market since March 2022 as state claims largest share of first home buyer financeSign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news emailOwner-occupier buyers in Victoria could benefit from an investor sell-off that has been gathering momentum alongside falling house prices, an expert says.Data from Victoria’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing revealed the number of rentals fell by almost 25,000 – or 3.6% – across the state over a year.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading... Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/02/owner-occupier-buyers-victoria-falling-house-prices-rentals Author : Adeshola Ore and Australian Associated

Charity says NHS failure to help more young people sooner is a ‘shocking betrayal’The number of children referred to emergency mental healthcare in England has risen by 10% in a year, with lengthy waiting lists for regular NHS care pushing more to crisis point.There were 34,793 emergency, very urgent or urgent referrals to child and adolescent mental health services crisis teams between April and October 2024, analysis of official data by the mental health charity YoungMinds found. That compared with 31,749 in the same six-month period in 2023. Continue reading... Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/02/urgent-referrals-of-children-in-mental-health-crisis-in-england-rise Author : Andrew Gregory Health editor

Multiple calls made to triple zero before 39-year-old found critically injured outside her high-rise unit block on River Road in ParramattaGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA man is being interviewed by New South Wales police as they investigate how a woman fell to her death from a balcony in Sydney after a number of calls to emergency services.The first call to triple zero was about 11.45pm on Wednesday, when raised voices could allegedly be heard in the background, but nothing was said to the dispatcher, police said.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue