Category: news

Baume: ‘It’s not a decision that’s taken very often’

Civil service chiefs lodged formal protests at spending decisions by Labour ministers in the dying months of their rule, the BBC has been told.

It culminated in the "nuclear option" of demanding written instructions from their political masters, union leader Jonathan Baume said.

There was dismay at Labour’s use of public finances, he added.

Ex-ministers have previously dismissed claims of excessive spending as "spin" by the coalition government.

The government has ordered a review of all spending commitments and pilot projects signed off by Labour ministers since the start of the year.

‘Not the right thing’

Mr Baume, leader of the First Division Association, told 5 live’s chief political correspondent John Pienaar: "When a permanent secretary asks for their letter of direction from a minister, it is because they feel that a serious decision is being taken, which they feel is not right.

"It’s not a decision that is taken very often to ask for such a letter of direction, which is why it is regarded something of a nuclear option. So when it happens it tends to be a big spending decision, where the civil service believes this is not the right thing to do."

The instructions – formally titled "letters of direction" – have been sent to the Treasury, and will be sent on to the cross-party Commons public accounts committee, which evaluates public spending for propriety and value for money.

On Monday, Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws told BBC Two’s Newsnight: "I think we’re very concerned indeed that over the last few months of this government there were a lot of spending commitments that were made and some of those may not represent good value for money."

He said that in some cases the decisions "were made against accounting officer advice".

Prime Minister David Cameron has said his ministers have found examples of "crazy" spending, including paying out bonuses to three-quarters of all senior civil servants.

In response, former Chancellor Alistair Darling accused the new coalition government of "playing the oldest trick on the book" by blaming its predecessor for the state of the economy.

On Monday, it emerged that Liam Byrne, Mr Laws’ predecessor, had left him a one-sentence letter, saying: "I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left."

Mr Byrne later told the BBC that this "a phrase that chief secretaries have to get used to using".

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The eurozone’s single currency plummets against the US dollar, falling below $1.22 for the first time since April 2006.

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Twelve pupils have been taken to hospital after a collision between a coach and car.

One pupil from Aylesford School, in Warwick has been airlifted to hospital after the incident about 1600 BST.

Two adults were seriously hurt in the crash on the A4177 between Hatton and Hatton Park, Warwickshire, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.

Thirty pupils were checked by the service before 12 were taken to hospital.

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A British woman is being questioned by Spanish police after two of her children were found dead in a holiday resort in Spain.

Police said the children, a boy and a girl both under the age of six, were discovered in a hotel room in the coastal town of Lloret de Mar.

The British Embassy in Madrid said an inquiry had been launched into the deaths.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said it was investigating the reports.

A spokesman said: "We are in contact with the Spanish police but because the children are minors we cannot say much.

"We believe the mother has been arrested. There is an ongoing investigation."

‘Popular with British’

Police were called to the four-star Hotel Miramar, located on the Costa Brava coast 47 miles (75km) north of Barcelona, at about 2pm local time.

A Girona police spokesman said: "At around 3.53pm, the mossos de la comissaria de Blanes (local police) received a note from the local police of Lloret de Mar that the bodies of two minors had been found at a hotel.

"When the officers arrived at the scene they found two children inside a room at a hotel.

"Girona Police are investigating the death of the two children. The police have detained the mother of the minors to find out what happened."

Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that the children’s mother phoned police, who were unable to revive them.

Embassy staff said they were trying to establish whether the family was on holiday in Spain or living in the country.

Lloret de Mar is a popular destination for British holidaymakers.

A spokesman for travel association Abta said: "It’s very popular with the British. It’s a very traditional Spanish resort, similar to Benidorm and Torremolinos."

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Astronauts attach a new Russian docking and storage module called Rassvet to the International Space Station.

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Environment groups and timber firms agree to protect two-thirds of Canada’s vast forests from unsustainable logging.

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Left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell accuses the party leadership of running a “discredited” leadership race.

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A former senior executive at RBS is forced to agree he will not take any senior or full-time work in the financial services industry.

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A loud explosion has been heard in the western part of the Afghan capital, Kabul, police say.

Reports said the blast took place at the Darulaman crossroads, home to Afghan government buildings. Witnesses said a car was burning there.

The details of the incident are sketchy and there is no report about any losses caused by the blast yet.

Despite tight security in Kabul, the city has seen some high-profile attacks by Taliban militants in recent months.

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The Unite union says it has filed for leave to appeal against a court ruling which blocked planned strikes by BA cabin crew.

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A gay couple in Malawi could face 14 years in jail after being convicted of gross indecency and unnatural acts.

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Leaders of Thailand’s anti-government protesters say they will accept an offer by senators to mediate talks, amid growing pressure to end violence.

Five days of street clashes between troops and protesters in Bangkok have left 37 people dead and scores more injured.

A leader of the "red-shirt" protesters said the group would agree to the proposal to prevent more loss of life.

But it is not yet clear whether the government will take part in the talks.

BBC correspondents in Thailand say pressure is growing on both sides to end the crisis, amid high tension in the capital.

Late on Monday, the United Nations called on the protesters to "step back from the brink" and urged the government troops to exercise restraint.

On Tuesday sporadic outbreaks of violence continued, but the BBC’s South East Asia correspondent, Rachel Harvey, said that confrontations between troops and demonstrators appeared to be less intense than they once were.

But several thousand protesters remained inside the barricaded camp in the centre of Bangkok in continued defiance of government demands to leave.

Schools and government offices remained closed, with underground and elevated train services suspended.

The government is reported to have extended the public holiday until Friday to allow more time to resolve the crisis – which has seen gunfire and explosions at a number of sites around the protest camp.

The offer to mediate talks came from the head of Thailand’s Senate.

"We have agreed to take a new round of talks proposed by the Senate because if we allow things to go on like this, we don’t know how many more lives will be lost," red-shirt leader Nattawut Saikua told journalists.

Economy hit

There was no immediate response from the Thai government. Over the weekend it rejected a red-shirt proposal of UN-mediated talks, saying violence had to end and the protesters leave their camp before talks could take place.

On Tuesday the military held a news conference, showing footage which it said showed that the red-shirt protesters were aggressors in the fighting.

The red-shirts have been protesting in Bangkok since 14 March. They are currently occupying the shopping district, forcing hotels and shops to close and hitting the economy hard.

The protesters are a loose coalition of left-wing activists, democracy campaigners and mainly rural supporters of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

They say the government is illegitimate because it came to power through a parliamentary deal rather than an election, and want fresh polls.

The Thai government says that hard-liners within the red-shirts are using innocent demonstrators as a shield behind which to create unrest.

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Five Pakistani students who were accused of planning a bomb attack will hear if they have won appeals against deportation from the UK.

The men were arrested last year in one of the UK’s most high-profile counter-terrorism operations.

The security services believed they were planning to attack within days, but none of the students was charged.

The group were told they would be banned from the UK, but five appealed, saying police and MI5 had got it wrong.

The controversial affair began last April when the Metropolitan Police’s then head of counter-terrorism, Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, accidentally revealed details of the investigation.

Shortly afterwards, police raided a series of locations across Liverpool, Manchsester and Lancashire, eventually detaining 11 men.

Ten of them were students from Pakistan,who were all either close friends or loosely known to each other.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the time that the security services were "dealing with a very big terrorist plot".

A covert investigation by MI5 had led officers to believe that one of the men, Abid Naseer, was the leader of a cell that was being guided by al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

No explosives were found and all of the men were released without charge after two weeks.

But they were immediately detained again under immigration laws after the then Home Secretary sought their deportation saying they were still a threat to national security.

After several months in prison, all but two left the UK. The remaining pair, Abid Naseer and Ahmad Faraz Khan, say they want to stay in the UK.

They both deny the allegations that they are involved in terrorism or al-Qaeda.

Three of the detainees who left the country, Abdul Wahab Khan, Shoaib Khan and Tariq ur Rehmanare also appealing against the deportation order.

The decision over the men’s future will be taken by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

The semi-secret tribunal has public sessions, but also hears evidence from MI5 officers behind closed doors.

Its ruling on whether the deportations are fair will indicate whether the courts accept MI5’s assessment of the men.

In his own report into the investigation, Lord Carlile, the terrorism laws watchdog, said that none of the arrests had been made "on a full evidential foundation" but that officers had moved in because they feared for public safety.

He said that the police had been "probably right" to launch such a massive operation, with gun-point arrests in public places – but added that detectives should have sought the advice of specialist prosecutors much earlier.

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UK inflation accelerated again in April to hit 3.7%, the highest rate for 17 months, due partly to sharp rises in food prices.

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Cardinal Brady has said he will stay on as the Archbishop of Armagh.

He had been facing increasing pressure to resign after he participated in an investigation into clerical abuse.

It was revealed in March that the Cardinal was present when children signed vows of silence over allegations against a paedophile priest in 1975.

Dr Brady also revealed he has asked a Vatican inspection of child protection procedures to include a visit to the Armagh diocese.

His comments follow the publication of the Annual Report of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

It found that nearly 200 new allegations of abuse have been reported to the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog since April 2009.

In a statement, Cardinal Brady said he was committed with all his "human weaknesses to walk this journey of renewal and to discern God’s will for the Church at this time".

Dr Brady said the impact on abuse survivors of the "drip-by-drip revelation of past failings has to be addressed".

The Archbishop revealed he had held both public and private meetings with survivors of abuse.

"I also listened to people from the Diocese, in Parishes and in Diocesan groups."

Cardinal Brady said he was committed to building on the substantial progress made in child safeguarding in recent years and to achieve the objectives set out by Pope Benedict XVI in his pastoral letter to Irish Catholics.

He has also asked Pope Benedict for an additional bishop in the diocese.

Cardinal Brady said that he would be appointing a Director of Child Safeguarding for the diocese who would handle all future allegations of child abuse and report to civil authorities in both jurisdictions.

Sharing ‘soft information’

"In the future, it will be this statutory authority and not the Church (or any other organisation which works with children in Northern Ireland) that will decide who is permitted to work with children," he said.

" As part of our registration with this new Independent Safeguarding Authority, Bishops in Northern Ireland will give a commitment to sharing ‘soft information’ held or known about any person working in a Church context, as well as all allegations of abuse, with the new Authority."

The head of Ireland’s Catholics apologised in March for his role in mishandling the case of a serial child abuser.

As a priest in 1975 Cardinal Sean Brady was at meetings where children signed vows of silence over complaints against paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

The Catholic Church in Ireland released more details about why Cardinal Brady asked two victims, aged 10 and 14, to sign secrecy agreements.

The church said the boys were asked to sign oaths "to avoid potential collusion" in evidence-gathering for an internal church inquiry.

It added this this would ensure that the complaints could "withstand challenge."

The church statement did not explain why either Cardinal Brady or his superiors at the time did not share their information with the police. Fr Smyth went on to abuse more children in the following years.

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