It has been announced that smoking in public places will be banned in England from 1 July next year.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the ban was a "huge step forward".

Chief executive of the British Lung Foundation Dame Helena Shovelton, said: "This is a victory for all those of us who have campaigned so vigorously to improve public health."

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, said that decision had been "draconian.  "From July next year it will not only be illegal to smoke in every pub, club and bar in the country, it will also be impossible to set up a private club run by smokers for smokers," he said. "That's an amazing state of affairs but typical of a government that seems determined to interfere in every aspect of our daily lives."

Patricia Hewitt is to launch a £50m Smoke-free England campaign, to advise England's 3.7m businesses to prepare for the ban.

National toll roads are set to be introduced by the year 2016.  The number of vehicles on British roads had gone up from 26 million in 1997 to 33 million.

Last week a transport study suggested road charges could halve congestion.

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander has said:  "Drivers needed first-hand experience of road pricing through pilot schemes in Manchester, Birmingham and elsewhere within the next five years,

Shadow chancellor George Osbourne said the Conservatives were "sympathetic" to road pricing.  Mr Osbourne added: "I think road pricing should be linked directly to improvements in transport infrastructure and should not be used as an excuse to increase the overall level of taxation."

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said a move away from local A&E departments to specialist medical care units could prevent more than 1,000 unnecessary deaths each year.  The IPPR fear that campaigns to stop the closure of local A&E departments could prevent those 1000 lives from being saved.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the changes were all about saving money.  Conservatives have compiled of list of 29 A&E services that are under threat.  They say seven out of ten trusts proposing downgrades made a loss last year.  The government insisted that changing to specialist medical care units will make services safer and more up-to-date and that the move is not financially driven. 

The government's emergency access advisor, Professor Sir George Alberti, said :  "I have no trouble with that concept at all because for example if my aorta is beginning to rupture I want to see a vascular surgeon, who is experienced at doing that operation.  "Now if it takes 20 minutes longer to get there so be it.  And the same goes now for heart attacks, for strokes, you need to be at a specialist unit."

• 98 murders.

• 32 attempted murders.

• 106 rapes.

• 378 other serious crimes, including manslaughter, kidnapping, arson and armed robbery.

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "This is a shocking indictment of Government failure across the board to protect the public. How much longer must the public pay the often lethal price of this failure?"

The Home Office argued that only 0.2 per cent (448) of offenders being supervised were convicted of a serious violent or sexual offence in any one year.

The 2005 Offender Management Statistics disclosed that the period of imprisonment served by criminals handed a discretionary life term fell from nine years in 2004 to six years last year.

The statistics discovered that, in England and Wales, 144 of every 100,000 of the population were in custody,

The figures for 2005 show that 224,090 offenders were being supervised by the probation service, a rise of seven per cent over the previous year.

Assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo, Harry Fletcher, said the rise in offences committed by people on parole could be due to an increase in the number of people released early from prison. "The government must ensure that the Probation Service is fully resourced in order to minimise the chances of serious re-offending in the future."

Of the 3,500 Asbos (Antisocial behaviour orders) handed out in England and Wales in 2004-05 (a 60 per cent rise on the figures for 2003-2004) 55% are broken. 

Each Asbo issued costs the tax payer £3100, which means, of the £10,850,000 spent on Asbo administration £5,967,500 is being wasted.

The NAO (National Audit Office) questions the effectiveness of the policy, saying that more than half of all antisocial behaviour is carried out by: "a hard core of perpetrators for whom interventions had limited impact".  The NAO figures show that the average offender breaks the conditions of their Asbo four times, with one offender breaking the conditions of his order 25 times."

Following intense pressure from the Media and victims of crime, Home Secretary John Reid has promised 8,000 extra prison places. Mr Ried announced that he wants to scrap rules allowing violent criminals serving life sentences to apply for parole half way through, he also wants to stop automatic one-third discounts for people who plead guilty.
The conservatives have welcomed the overhaul, but criticised the government for not providing extra prison places in the past.
Mr Reid said: "Too often it appears that the criminal justice system is on the side of offenders, protecting their interest and individual rights rather than those of the victims and law-abiding majority".
President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Ken Jones, said "tough sentences could deter criminals."
Liberal Democrat spokesman Nick Clegg was critical of the proposed measures saying: "We will only secure a manageable prison population if we take a bolder approach to tackling reoffending, with non-custodial public punishment sentences and proper mental health treatment."

With the announcement that absent parents are to be "named and shamed", many have been critical as to the effectiveness of the policy.

Chris Stanley, head of policy and research at crime reduction charity Nacro points to the use of Asbos.
Mr Stanley said: "We don't think naming and shaming can be considered productive from a children's rights perspective.  There's also the issue of some young people who have never done anything successful holding up a leaflet publicising their Asbo and saying to their friends 'I did that'; almost like it's a badge of honour." 

Many now believe we live in a shameless society.

Last week Patricia Hewitt announced that the government was to launch a £50m Smoke-free England campaign.  This was seen by many a waste of money, telling the public about an issue that will be covered by the media.

Today the BBC reported that £100m of the tax payers money is spent on translation services in the UK.

The former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, said: "Translation is not a disincentive. It allows them to get access to services while they learn English. Translation is a way of helping people in transition into integrating into our society."

The government may have to give prisoners the right to vote, due to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

The ruling which found a ban on prisoners voting went against their human rights, could allow prisoners to become part of the electorate for the first time in our history.

Giving prisoners the vote will bring the current UK law (which dates back to the Forfeiture Act of 1870) in line with the rest of western Europe.

Following the dropping of the corruption inquiry into a BAE arms deal with Saudi Arabia, Mark Pietch of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) said the organisation would seek an explanation from the government about the decision.

Prof Pietch, who heads the bribery working group at the OECD said: "Obviously we want to know from the UK what exactly happened and I don't want to jump to a conclusion at the moment."

Lord Goldsmith told the BBC: "If you are faced with the reality of the situation that there's going to be massive damage - not to jobs - but to national security, our counter-terrorism capabilities, vital interests and against that you have the prospect of a case which is going to go nowhere, then I think the answer is you have to be realistic and bite the bullet."

Former minister for defence procurement, Lord Gilbert said: "It's a very very difficult area, one man's bribe is another man's commission payment. You get this sort of ambiguity in the world of commerce very frequently."

High Court judge Mrs Justice Black is forcing the Home Office to bring a family of deported asylum seekers back to Britain and pay them compensation at the expense (tens of thousands of pounds) of the taxpayer.

John Reid has admitted that the family's mentally incapacitated son should not have been deported with his appeal still pending, and has been ordered to pay him £4,000 compensation for being held in detention for two days.

Local authority tests carried out by the Liberal Democrats found 23% of pubs, bars and off-licences in England and Wales are selling alcohol to underage drinkers. 

Between 2004 and 2005 there were 11,452 tests in which under-age people were sent into pubs, bars and off-licences to make purchases.   Of those 11,452 tests, 2,588 resulted in purchases by the under 18s. 

Liberal Democrat local government spokesman Andrew Stunell the Liberal Democrat local government spokesman said: "It is shocking that under-age children can so easily buy alcohol.  "As well as being illegal, it is grossly irresponsible for pubs and shops to sell alcohol to under-age young people.  "Teenagers drinking illegally bought alcohol often take part in anti-social behaviour, causing misery for many people in their community."

There were 7,500 under 18s treated for conditions like alcohol poisoning in 2004-5, a rise of 20% compared to the period 1999-2000. 

The underage drink problem is increased by minors getting over 18s to buy alcohol for them.  The purchasers of the alcohol tend to be only 18 or 19, supplying the drink to gain esteem amongst a younger group.