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Church of England senior clergy and Sussex Police are criticised for their handling of two paedophile priests.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) says it has made “good progress” in its first year as a stand-alone business.
The company reported a 21% rise in pre-tax profits to $462m (£286m) for the year to the end of March.
CWC runs consumer telecoms services in 38 territories outside the UK.
Cable & Wireless demerged last year, splitting into two companies – CWC and Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW), which focuses on telecoms services to business, mostly in the UK.
The company said that strong contributions from Macau and Monaco had been offset by poor trading in the Caribbean.
“Financially, three of our business units, Panama, Macau and Monaco & Islands, have progressed,” it said in a statement.
“The Caribbean has been more difficult than we anticipated at the time of demerger and we continue to face weak or declining economies across the region.”
The firm has been reshaping its Caribbean operations in the face of reduced tourism and increased competition.
Shares in the company were down 9% in afternoon trading in London.
But CWC’s shares have fared better than those of CWW since the demerger in March 2010.
Since then its stock has fallen 9%, compared with a 40% drop for CWW.
On Tuesday, CWW reported a £140m annual profit, compared with a loss of £94m the year before when it had faced large costs related to the demerger. Before exceptional items, profit rose 23% to £143m.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Plans for low-level radioactive waste disposal to be allowed at a landfill site in Northamptonshire have been given the go-ahead by the government.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The research was conducted 10 years after race riots in Oldham Schools in Oldham are largely polarised along racial lines, research has found.
More than 80% of primary school pupils of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin attended schools, in 2009, in which no more than 20% of the pupils were white.
The study, by Bristol University, found more than 70% of white pupils were in “majority white” schools, in which at least 80% of pupils were white British.
Oldham Council said it did not dictate where parents should send children, but was trying to encourage mixing.
The report says the picture has changed little since 2002, when 74% of Pakistani and 85% of Bangladeshi primary pupils attended minority white schools and 92% of white British pupils attended majority white schools.
The research – by Simon Burgess and Rich Harris at Bristol University’s centre for market and public organisation – was conducted 10 years after riots in Oldham that saw confrontations between white and Asian, largely Pakistani, gangs.
“While the precise triggers of the rioting remain controversial, there is general agreement that a key underlying factor was the polarised nature of schools and communities in the towns,” the report says.
At secondary school level, the research found that 60% of Pakistani pupils and 65% of Bangladeshi ones were in the “minority white” schools.
The study suggests the lack of integration between children in the town could be explained partly by catchment areas, as well as by the fact that more than 30% of primary schools and 40% of secondary schools are Roman Catholic or Church of England, which ask for “demonstrable practice of faith” in their admissions criteria.
It could also be because parents wanting to choose integrated schools are unwilling to be among the only ones to do so.
“It is undoubtedly very hard to be the first mover and as a parent to lead a movement for integration by applying to a school numerically dominated by another ethnic group,” the report says.
The 2010 opening of The Oldham Academy North, which aims to promote integration and social cohesion, could help, the study says.
Professor Burgess said: “Parents may prefer a mixed, integrated school, but the fact that the school system is so highly segregated means that they are forced to send their children to essentially mono-ethnic schools.
“More pessimistically, it could be that there are few mixed schools because no-one really wants a mixed school.”
The study says about 60% of primary school pupils in Oldham are from a white British background, compared with 72% nationally.
And 17% of primary pupils are of Pakistani ethnicity and 14% of Bangladeshi ethnicity, compared with 4% and 2% respectively for England as a whole.
Responding to the research, Oldham Council said its primary schools “reflect the communities in which they are based and the choices that parents make when deciding where to send their children to school”.
The council said it taught children about the history of Oldham’s changing population and ran linking between schools to boost interaction between pupils of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The council also said research on Oldham sixth-form colleges had shown “high levels of quality relationships between students from different cultures and backgrounds”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The US Treasury has agreed to sell part of its stake in AIG, as it winds down ownership of the global insurer.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Tornadoes swept vehicles from the road near El Reno, Oklahoma Tornadoes sweeping the US Mid-West have struck near Oklahoma City, hitting vehicles on a section of motorway west of the Oklahoma state capital.
Official said at least four people had been killed and many others injured.
The new storms come as rescue workers search for hundreds of people missing in Joplin, Missouri, about 200 miles (320km) to the north-east.
At least 122 people were killed there on Sunday by a powerful tornado that cut a wide swathe through the city.
The Oklahoma tornadoes hit rural areas to the west and south of Oklahoma City, officials said.
State officials said at least four people had been killed.
The emergency director for Canadian County, Jerry Smith, said two people in his county had been killed, but he had no details on how they died.
He said a number of people were reported to have been injured after a powerful tornado struck a section of the highway in Canadian County, throwing cars off the road.
March 1925: Deadliest twister in US history as so-called Tri-State Tornado kills 695 in Missouri, southern Illinois and south-west IndianaMarch 1932: Deep South tornado outbreak kills 332 people from Texas to South Carolina, with 270 dying in Alabama aloneMay 1840: The Great Natchez Tornado kills 317 people in Mississippi town, most living on flatboats on the riverApril 1974: 310 killed in 24-hour “super outbreak” of 148 tornadoes across 13 states.May 1896: Two weeks of storms kill 305 people in Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky
A regional medical official said three children in the town of Piedmont, north-west of Oklahoma City, were badly injured.
At least one gas explosion was reported in the town of El Reno.
The tornadoes formed from storm systems that began in western Oklahoma state and began travelling north-east in the afternoon.
As the storms built up, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin warned people to take shelter.
“This is a very dangerous time right now,” she told CNN.
Television reports showed tornadoes forming and striking the ground.
The storms were forecast to move over Joplin, Missouri, bringing the possibility of more tornadoes for the badly-damaged city.
Rescue workers were combing through the wide path of debris Sunday’s twister left, hoping to find some of the hundreds of people still unaccounted for.
The huge tornado cut a path some six miles (10km) long and at least half a mile wide through Joplin.
Rescuer Keith Beck says crews are searching Joplin “street by street” in the hope of finding survivors
Much of the south side of Joplin is reported to have been levelled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to rubble.
US President Barack Obama said he would visit tornado-hit Missouri on Sunday, immediately after he returned from a six-day tour of Europe.
He called the Joplin tornado “devastating and heartbreaking” and promised the government would “do absolutely everything we can” to help victims recover and rebuild.
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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
All 10 of the IMF’s managing directors have been Europeans Developing countries have expressed concern over the selection process for the next head of the International Monetary Fund.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said choosing a managing director on the basis of nationality undermined the fund’s legitimacy.
European officials believe another European should replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the IMF’s managing director.
Mr Strauss-Kahn resigned last week.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The government is debating changes to the existing Forest Code A prominent Brazilian conservationist and his wife have been killed in the Amazon region, police have said.
They said Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo were ambushed in Para state, near the city of Maraba.
The environmentalist had repeatedly warned of death threats against him by loggers and cattle ranchers.
The government has ordered an immediate investigation and promised to catch those responsible for their deaths.
The bodies of the couple were found inside the nature reserve, Praialta-Piranheira, where they had been working for the past 24 years.
According to family and friends, the pair had been subjected to numerous threats in the past two years for their environmental activism.
They made a living with eco-friendly cultivation of nuts, fruit and rubber.
News of the deaths came just hours before Brazil’s chamber of deputies began debating changes to the existing Forest Code.
The legislation, first enacted in 1934 and subsequently amended in 1965, sets out how much of his land a farmer can deforest.
Regulations currently require that 80% of a landholding in the Amazon remain forest, 20% in other areas.
Proponents of change say the law impedes economic development and contend that Brazil must open more land for agriculture.
However, opponents fear that in their current form some of the proposed changes might give farmers a form of amnesty for deforested land.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Marmite – you either love it or hate it, the makers say Denmark has already threatened to reimpose national border checks to control immigration, now it has moved to expel the savoury spread Marmite.
Danish officials say the product breaks food safety laws because of its added vitamins and minerals.
The Danish authorities must give their permission for products with such additives to be sold.
Over the past few years several well known items including breakfast cereals have been banned.
Already a shop in Copenhagen has been ordered to remove jars of Marmite from its shelves, says the BBC’s Europe correspondent, Chris Morris, in Brussels.
He says outraged expats in the country are already threatening a campaign of civil disobedience and there are suggestions that the Danish ban could break European law.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Twitter can be used in court now but where will it all end? During the row over privacy injunctions, critics have emphasised that it’s near impossible to stop people revealing information on Twitter. But what if people use it to name victims in rape cases or reveal information from court that could see trials abandoned?
Twitter has 200 million registered accounts worldwide and adds more than 460,000 new accounts every day.
While video and audio recording has long been barred from courts in England and Wales. But Twitter has already been given a foothold in judicial proceedings.
In December the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, issued new guidance on Twitter, allowing for its use in English and Welsh courts, at the discretion of trial judges.
The decision was taken following pressure by journalists and activists covering the extradition hearing of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Lord Judge said: “The use of an unobtrusive, hand-held, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is generally unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice.”
“A lot of tweets are accurate but nobody ever tweets that the defendant denies all the charges”
Sean O’Neill Times crime editor
But there are potential pitfalls. Journalists and ordinary people in the public gallery are party to information that the jury may have been prevented from hearing. The danger of a trial being seriously prejudiced is obvious.
He added: “The danger to the administration of justice is likely to be at its most acute in the context of criminal trials, where… information posted on, for instance, Twitter about inadmissible evidence may influence members of a jury.”
Everyone in a court hears the identity of rape victims, but this cannot be published or otherwise revealed outside court.
Even in the pre-Twitter age, people who had been in court could have revealed restricted information using forums, chatrooms and blogs they had set up. But there were conscious barriers to publishing sensitive information.
There’s no doubt that Twitter has narrowed the gap between merely thinking something, and publishing it to a global audience.
Lord Judge has began a consultation process on the impact of Twitter in English and Welsh courts, which has now finished. A report is due to be published later this year.
Scottish Courts are awaiting the outcome of the consultation before issuing guidelines but permission has been granted for Twitter in one case – the sentencing of politician Tommy Sheridan in January. Northern Ireland’s top judge is also waiting with bated breath.
Twitter was first used in a UK court at the Julian Assange extradition hearing The impossibility of policing Twitter has been highlighted this week. Using parliamentary privilege to side step an injunction, Lib Dem MP John Hemming said it would not be practical to imprison the 75,000 Twitter users who had named Ryan Giggs.
But if enforcement is impossible in this case, what if court orders in criminal cases were breached on Twitter?
Some journalists and lawyers are worried about members of the public failing to understand the impact of breaking court orders designed to prevent the naming of rape victims, child witnesses or people in the witness protection programme or to publish information which might prejudice juries.
“We have already seen it with people breaking super-injunctions. If that starts to happen in criminal cases it’s potentially far more serious,” says the Times’ crime editor, Sean O’Neill.
“It could prejudice a trial, put a protected witness’s life in danger or cause serious psychological damage to a victim of sexual assault. All because so-called citizen journalists don’t know what they’re doing.”
O’Neill, who tweets regularly under the name TimesCrime, said Twitter can be very useful but he added: “Nowadays every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks they can tweet from court.
“The Crown Prosecution Service are monitoring it and they have noticed that a lot of tweets are accurate but nobody ever tweets that the defendant denies all the charges. It’s always slightly slanted.
“In the Assange case 90% of what was tweeted was utter drivel. It was what Assange was wearing or that Jemima Khan had just turned up. It was just gossip.”
It is commonplace now for judges to warn jurors at the start of trials not to mention the case they are covering on social networking sites.
But warnings are not given to people in the public gallery, who can change from day to day and often include relatives and friends of the defendants, and spectators who pass through for only a brief period.
Court orders, such as those surrounding Baby P, are not always obvious to the layman Top defence lawyer Courtney Griffiths QC, whose clients include Liberian ex-leader Charles Taylor, notes that the judge allowed tweeting in the recent Night Stalker trial, in which he represented serial rapist Delroy Grant.
Griffiths said: “The bottom line is that the courts will have to accommodate new technology. We live in a world where people want immediate access to news and events.
“As long as it doesn’t compromise the integrity of the trial I can’t see anything wrong with it.”
But Griffiths injects a note of caution.
“Most experienced journalists know what to report. But the judge always has to be alert. Everyone is a reporter nowadays.”
Of course, members of the public tweeting from court have the potential to serve a vital function. The number of journalists covering UK courts has fallen over the years.
The lack of reporters at court offers the potential for citizen journalists to uncover scoops, using Twitter.
“You can follow sports events on Twitter, you can follow revolutions and the Arab spring on Twitter, and it’s logical that court reporting should be included”
Professor Richard Tait Cardiff University
Many commentators feel court orders in British courts are virtually unenforceable in the internet age.
“It’s very difficult in the world we live in to stop prejudicial stuff appearing on the web,” says Prof Richard Tait, director of the Centre for Journalism at Cardiff University.
“But most jurors are sensible enough not to pay attention to people opining on cases with no basis in fact.”
But Prof Tait believes Twitter could open the way for live television coverage of the courts.
He said: “It’s a step on the road to greater coverage of the courts. If live reporting on Twitter succeeds it strengthens the case for TV coverage.
“If you are following a high profile case by Twitter, and if the journalist can encapsulate what is going on in 140 characters you will get a reasonable flavour of the case but you will get a better account with live TV coverage,” he said.
In the United States high profile trials – such as the murder trial of Casey Anthony, which started in Florida this week – have live TV coverage with journalists tweeting comments.
But the jury in that case have been sequestered in a hotel and, when Judge Belvin Perry swore them in he warned them against “tweeting or blogging” on the case or posting anything on internet chatrooms.
Twitter’s official line is: “We don’t comment on individual accounts. In keeping with our policy, we review reports that accounts violate the Twitter rules and Terms of Service.”
Sohaib Athar tweeted the first news of the attack on Osama Bin Laden But on the Twitter blog earlier this year creative director Biz Stone wrote: “We don’t always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content.”
Although he went on to say: “There are tweets that we do remove, such as illegal tweets and spam. However, we make efforts to keep these exceptions narrow so they may serve to prove a broader and more important rule—we strive not to remove tweets on the basis of their content.”
But Prof Tait: “Court reporting is a specialist job and you need to know the law and the rules of the court.
“Twitter is now an established journalistic medium, you can follow sports events on Twitter, you can follow revolutions and the Arab spring on Twitter, and it’s logical that court reporting should be included.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A Moscow court has upheld ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s second conviction for fraud but cut his 14-year sentence by one year.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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The scheme will let 200 people in a small part of Cornwall trial the latest connectivity technology Volunteers in an area of Cornwall are being sought to trial new high-speed 4G broadband as part of a joint project by Everything Everywhere and BT.
The trial, from September to December in South Newquay, will be focusing on offering broadband in expensive-to-reach rural areas.
It will be the first chance for UK customers to test 4G technology, which is set to roll out nationally by 2014.
UK networks will bid for use of the 4G spectrum early next year.
The auction will follow a consultation period that has already begun into how the 4G spectrum will be distributed among networks in the UK.
For the Cornwall trial, Everything Everywhere – the name given to the partnership of T-Mobile and Orange – and BT have been granted part of the 800Mhz spectrum for test purposes.
The spectrum is currently being used across the UK for analogue television but is in the process of gradually being switched off.
The trial will act as an experiment to see if 4G LTE could provide a cheap solution to getting high-speed internet to places currently regarded as black spots with slow or no broadband connection.
LTE, which stands for Long Term Evolution, is a particular type of 4G system that allows data download speeds of 100 megabits per second while on the move, and faster speeds for stationary wireless connections.
“They’re trying to avoid digging up the roads, so that removes the large cost of getting superfast broadband to those rural areas”
Sebastien Lahtinen Thinkbroadband.com
This faster capability means that rather than providing physical cabling to less urban areas, BT will instead be able to use masts from Everything Everywhere to distribute its broadband wirelessly.
“Instead of building two networks, we’re trying to do it with one,” explained Emin Gurdeneli, VP of network services at Everything Everywhere.
“The customer will enjoy a broadband service at their premises, at their home etc, as if they had acquired it in the usual way. What will be different is our delivery mechanism.”
The trial is being supported by Nokia, Siemens and Huawei, as well as the Cornwall Development Company.
People living in the St Newlyn East area of South Newquay have been asked to register their interest in the trial via a website. They will receive all the necessary equipment.
Half of the people in the trial will have their homes fitted with modified wireless routers, which will be able to pick up the area’s 4G connection to give the household access to the internet.
The other half will be given 4G dongles with which to try out the connection on individual devices such as laptops.
Speeds of uploads and downloads will be measured to determine the technology’s success. Until now, 4G LTE’s capabilities in the UK have been measured only in laboratory conditions.
Sebastien Lahtinen, from thinkbroadband.com, says money is a large motivator behind the trial.
“They’re trying to avoid digging up the roads, so that removes the large cost of getting superfast broadband to those rural areas,” he told the BBC.
He added that the 4G broadband could provide those in the trial with faster connections than most current fixed-line broadband customers.
“It has the potential to jump them into the next generation world.”
However, the UK still lags behind other countries with its 4G rollout. Germany, Sweden, Japan and the US already have public 4G networks in use.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Benjamin Netanyahu “Israel will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967”
Palestinian officials have dismissed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress, saying it will not lead to peace.
A spokesman for Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said Mr Netanyahu had created “more obstacles”.
Mr Netanyahu had told the US Congress that Israel was “willing to make painful compromises” to achieve peace.
But he rejected US President Barack Obama’s call for a peace deal based on pre-1967 borders, plus land swaps.
Reacting to the speech, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said: “What came in Netanyahu’s speech will not lead to peace”.
He said there was “nothing new” in the speech, “except that he is adding obstacles on the road towards a genuine, serious, lasting and comprehensive peace”.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the speech proved Israel could not be a partner for peace in the region.
Mr Erekat said Mr Netanyahu was seeking to “dictate the results” of negotiations before they had begun.
Initial Palestinian reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech has been scathing. One senior Palestinian official told me it was a declaration of war not peace.
Palestinian leaders already frustrated with America’s role in a stagnant peace process will have been dismayed by the rapturous reception Mr Netanyahu received. Right now the two sides seem very far apart. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians are talking as if they anticipate being back at the negotiating table anytime soon.
Some Palestinian leaders welcomed President Obama’s statement last week that a future Palestinian state should be based on the pre-1967 borders. In this latest speech, Mr Netanyahu again rejected that proposal. Palestinians are still threatening to go to the United Nations to seek recognition of a Palestinian state in September, a move strongly opposed by Israel and the United States.
“He dictated that Jerusalem will be undivided, that refugees cannot return, that his army will remain on the borders, that his settlements will be expanded and kept, that he wants Palestine to be demilitarised,” Mr Erekat said.
The BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says that the speech shows that the gulf between Mr Netanyahu’s view of an acceptable peace deal and that of the Palestinians is as wide as ever.
Mr Netanyahu had said Israel would be “generous on the size of the Palestinian state, but very firm on where we put the border with it”.
Speaking to a supportive bipartisan audience at the US Capitol in Washington, Mr Netanyahu urged Mr Abbas to “tear up” a recent reconciliation agreement with Islamist party Hamas, which controls Gaza.
He said Israel could not make peace with a faction that did not recognise its right to exist.
But a Hamas spokesman dismissed his remarks.
“The true response to this arrogant speech which denies Palestinian rights should be the complete ending of all negotiation and the implementation of [Palestinian] reconciliation as soon as possible,” Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
President Abbas is due to meet leaders of the PLO and his Fatah movement on Wednesday to consider how to pursue an attempt to seek recognition for statehood by the UN in September.
Mr Abbas has said that he would prefer to establish a state through negotiations, and suggested that he is being forced into taking this unilateral step by Israel’s refusal to engage.
But US President Barack Obama said he would not support such a move, which fails to address and resolve fundamental issues with Israel.
Mr Netanyahu said he remained committed to a two-state solution to the conflict, in which an independent Palestinian state sits alongside a Jewish state.
“I’m willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historic peace,” he said. “We seek a peace where [the Palestinians] will be neither Israel’s subjects nor its citizens.”
But he said the future border could not rest at Israel’s “indefensible” 1967 lines, because many Israelis now live in suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem beyond Israel’s pre-1967 territory.
He said the precise border must be drawn at the negotiating table, but said it would be different from the 1967 border.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The NHS is facing cuts across the UK, the King’s Fund says Wales is facing the worst NHS cuts in the UK, a review of spending suggests.
The analysis, by Professor John Appleby, of the King’s Fund think tank, suggests the Welsh NHS budget will fall by nearly 11% in the next three years, once inflation was taken into account.
Northern Ireland faces a 2.2% cut over four years, he says, with the long-term picture in Scotland less clear.
England came out best, but even it is facing a cut of 0.9% over four years – despite promises to protect the budget.
Prof Appleby said this was because new inflation figures, which were higher than expected, had counteracted the small rises for the NHS in England that were announced last autumn.
The government in England has suggested it is prepared to pump more money into the health service if the inflation predictions come true, to ensure it does get a real rise in its budget.
For Scotland, the comparison was harder as the budget has only been set for this year, when there will be a 3.3% cut.
“We acknowledge that the settlement for health and social services will be challenging”
Welsh government spokesman
However, Prof Appleby also said the NHS was coming out better than other government departments.
The analysis, published by the British Medical Journal, also detailed the differences in spending per head of population.
In Scotland it stands at over £2,000 per head – about 15% higher than in England.
Prof Appleby said: “This shows that all the parts of the UK are facing a difficult task with the NHS, but Wales certainly has the hardest.”
A Welsh government spokesman said ministers were fully committed to the health service, pointing out that 40% of its budget was being devoted to the NHS.
But he added: “We acknowledge that the settlement for health and social services will be challenging, but it is fair and manageable within the constraints of the reduction in funding we have received from the UK government.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The elderly have some resistance to swine flu Last winter’s flu outbreak claimed 602 lives in the UK, with more than 70% of the deaths among 15- to 64-year-olds, Health Protection Agency figures show.
Flu normally hits older people, but last winter it acted differently as the main strain was swine flu, which the elderly have some resistance to.
The HPA figures also show that just 50% of under-65s in at-risk groups were immunised against flu.
Officials said the vaccination uptake figures were “very concerning”.
The flu vaccination programme was beset by problems, with some GPs reported to have run out of jabs.
The government turned to vaccines left over from the pandemic of two years ago which did not protect people against all the strains in circulation.
And there were problems in encouraging more people to come forward for vaccination. Three-quarters of the at-risk groups should be vaccinated, according to targets.
However, the figures released by the Health Protection Agency show that in the healthy pregnant women group, the immunisation rate was just 37%.
The proportion of over-65s coming forward was better at 73%.
The death toll was actually higher than the total during the 2009 pandemic when 474 died. This has been put down to the fact that the pandemic peaked in the summer, when people are less susceptible to illness.
In both periods many more people are likely to have died with flu as a contributory factor, as the HPA records only count those where flu has been cited as a major cause on the death certificate.
Professor John Watson, of the HPA, said: “A concerted effort must be made by healthcare professionals – including GPs and midwives – to encourage those at risk to take up the offer of vaccination. It is the best way to protect against flu.”
“A severe flu season places considerable pressure on the NHS and, although it coped well last year, there are areas where I’m determined we can improve”
Andrew Lansley Health Secretary
The government has responded by giving the NHS in England three years to improve uptake to 75%. It will also be setting up an emergency pot of 400,000 doses to be held centrally in case there are shortages next winter. This already happens in Scotland.
But in the long-term it is looking to see whether the whole system needs overhauling. A three-month consultation is being launched to see whether GPs should lose the responsibility for purchasing the vaccines. Under the plans, the Department of Health would take charge of ordering them and distributing them to GPs.
Slightly different systems operate elsewhere in the UK, but a move towards central buying in England could lead to a UK-wide system.
The government believes this would ensure local shortages would be avoided and could help improve uptake.
In the consultation paper, it is argued that GPs would encounter a financial risk if they ordered more vaccines as they are unable to sell on any they do not use.
Ministers also believe a central system may be more efficient, potentially shaving nearly £40m off the £180m bill.
If central purchasing was introduced, it would bring flu vaccination in line with the entire childhood immunisation programme organised by government.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “A severe flu season places considerable pressure on the NHS and, although it coped well last year, there are areas where I’m determined we can improve.”
But the British Medical Association questioned whether changes were needed.
Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of the BMA’s GPs committee, said: “There is no genuine evidence that the system is not working now, so I think GPs are happy with it.”
However, he said a move towards a central system would probably not be opposed.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.