| Double gold for Adlington England's Rebecca Adlington matches her Olympic double gold with a second win at the Commonwealth Games, while team-mates Liam Tancock and James Goddard also win their events. news.bbc.co.uk |
Quango cut: Controversy over scrapping of Youth Justice Board Young offender board championed by civil service union but dismissed as ineffectual by Howard LeagueThe unexpected decision to scrap the Youth Justice Board, which oversees the juvenile system in England and Wales, from prevention to custody, has provoked immediate controversy over its track record and a ministerial promise of more radical moves to come.The £500m-a-year board was set up in 1998 by Jack Straw and Norman Warner, its first chairman, who put in place the formal structure covering young offenders.Most of the board's budget went on "buying" 2,200 places a year in young offender institutions and secure training centres. Its work will now transfer to the Ministry of Justice.today penal reformers questioned claims by the outgoing chair, Frances Done, that the board had "profoundly changed the landscape of youth justice" by cutting numbers of first-time entrants to the criminal justice system, as well as youth reoffending rates and numbers of young in custody.Frances Crook, of the Howard League, described the board's track record as having been "pretty poor", and accused it of failing to protect children in custody and failing to match its stated aim of reducing the unnecessary use of imprisonment.The board's former chair, Rod Morgan, has challenged the basis of several of its claims to success.However, the civil service union, the PCS, says it is launching a campaign to save the board, which, it said, had a role in helping to fix Britain's "broken society".A separate decision to scrap the office of chief coroner for England and Wales leaves its first occupant, Peter Thornton, in the odd position of having his job abolished before he was due to start in February.The charity Inquest said the abolition would render completely hollow the government's root-and-branch reform of the inquest system.Eyebrows will also be raised at the Home Office's decision to scrap the Security Industry Authority, which licenses the private security industry. The Home Office says the industry is now in a position to regulate itself. But that may be put to the test if a case arises of a security guard, with no Criminal Records Bureau checks, hwo is involved in a suspicious death.Youth justiceYoung peopleUK criminal justiceCivil serviceAlan Travisguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Man's murder linked to A1 crash Detectives investigating the discovery of a man's body behind an East Lothian pub are treating the death as murder. bbc.co.uk |
Duchess of Cornwall 'mauled' by kitten A playful kitten left the Duchess of Cornwall looking like a scratching post today when the royal visited the world famous Battersea Dogs and Cats home to open a new facility. telegraph.co.uk |
7/7 inquest focuses on King's Cross blast The inquests into the 7 July bombings in London in 2005 have begun hearing about the victims of the King's Cross attack. bbc.co.uk |