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Sudden death

A mourning friend warns about SADS

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Illegal gas fitters ‘cost £100m’

Jan Collins says faulty work endangered her health

The cost of fixing botched work done by illegal gas fitters is costing customers up to £100m a year, according to the Gas Safe Register.

It said 250,000 illegal jobs were carried out annually and one in five of those inspected are found to be immediately dangerous.

The register replaced the Corgi registration scheme in April 2009.

It is urging customers to check that recommended engineers have the right qualifications.

Jan Collins from Cheshire tried to save money when she hired a fitter to install a gas fire in the dining room of her converted barn.

“If it had been a standard room with an eight-foot ceiling and a door then I absolutely would not be alive today”

Jan Collins

He worked for a registered gas engineering company, but he was doing the job for them on the side, more cheaply.

However, he was not qualified to put in a liquid petroleum gas (LPG) fire and installed it incorrectly.

”I started getting very bad headaches and very bad nosebleeds and was really quite lethargic,” Mrs Collins said.

“The chimney sweep was the first to alarm me when he did a test showing that 50% of the carbon monoxide was coming back into the room.

“The only thing that saved me was the size of the room. If it had been a standard room with an eight-foot ceiling and a door then I absolutely would not be alive today.”

A gas inspector confirmed the fire had five major defects, all of which were potentially fatal.

Jan Collins’s gas fire cost her thousands of pounds to fix

Mrs Collins’s fitter was eventually prosecuted.

It is a legal requirement for gas engineering businesses and individual fitters to be on the register.

About 120,000 engineers are on it and a sample of their work is assessed to make sure they are safe.

The register also has a record of which appliances each fitter is qualified to work on.

”What we want people to do is take a little bit of care and check they are using a registered person,” said Paul Johnstone, chief executive of the Gas Safe Register.

“Ask for ID at the door and even before they arrive it is very simple to check they have the right qualifications by going onto our website or phoning us.

There are warnings that even registered gas fitters may not always offer the best level of service.

Which? says it has been contacted by people who have used gas engineers but who have had continuing problems for years before they have been identified and corrected.

”Being on the Gas Safe register is no guarantee in terms of cost effectiveness, although it may be good in terms of competency,” said Matt Bath, a Which? spokesman.

“To make sure you are getting the best possible deal and are not locked into an unnecessary contract the best thing to do is to get three good quotes from qualified fitters.

“Each quote should show a clear breakdown of what the engineer will deliver as part of the service,” Mr Bath added.

Jan Collins still regrets not making the right checks on the engineer she hired to do her gas work.

She wasted thousands of pounds, but could also have lost her life.

Paul Johnstone of Gas Safe register said that 18 people died last year after gas appliances were installed or repaired badly, adding: “That’s 18 deaths too many’.

“The cost of fixing botched jobs has also soared,” he added.

“Customers may spend thousands of fitting appliances and when they’ve been fitted incorrectly, it costs on average an extra 25% on top of the initial cost to put it right,” he added.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Warning over ‘debt clearance’ offers

The guidance is informed by cases in the High Court recently

Consumers in the UK are being encouraged by a watchdog to stay clear of firms claiming to use a legal loophole to clear debts.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said that some debtors are being misled by firms claiming to use the Consumer Credit Act to get debts written off.

These businesses can charge an administration fee of hundreds of pounds.

The OFT has published a consumer guide on the issue.

This comes after draft guidance was circulated in January, after thousands of claims were launched against lenders by borrowers trying to avoid repaying their debts.

The OFT’s guidance draws on recent rulings by Judge Waksman at the High Court in Manchester.

Some of these have involved claims management companies claiming that a debt is permanently unenforceable if lenders were unable to produce a “true copy” of the loan agreement within 12 days of being asked.

But the judge confirmed that it was acceptable for lenders to produce reconstituted copies of original loan agreements, for the purposes of providing the borrower with information about their loan.

This information can be requested from the lender for just £1.

‘Right paperwork’

“Consumers have a right to information on debts they owe, but it is important that they realise that these sections of the Act cannot be used to write off legitimately owed debts,” said Ray Watson, of the OFT’s consumer credit group.

“Although the debt can be classified as unenforceable until the right paperwork is provided, people are encouraged to seek advice and help on how they can continue to repay the money they owe.”

He said the borrower could not “sell” a debt to a claims management company. The lender could also add interest and default charges to the loan, and the borrowers’ credit record could also be impacted.

However, in the cases, Judge Waksman did find against lenders on some points. He said that copies of loan agreements, when requested, had to contain the borrower’s name and address at the time it was signed.

And he ruled that if an agreement had been subsequently varied by the lender, then the lender was obliged to supply a copy of both the original agreement as well as the current one.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Schools budget ‘to escape cuts’

The schools budget for England will be announced during the Spending Review next week

Ministers have agreed the schools budget for England and are to claim schools will be protected from across-the-board cuts, the BBC has learnt.

But other government departments have been asked to make even deeper cuts than previously agreed to help fund the schools budget.

The BBC’s Nick Robinson says the government hopes this will be seen as a piece of “good news” out of the cuts.

The coalition government’s Spending Review will be announced next week.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had earlier announced plans for a “pupil premium” – extra spending on the most deprived children – but it was not clear whether this extra funding would simply be wiped out by other cuts to school budgets.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson says it is understood that next week ministers will claim that when the pupil premium is added to the rest of the schools budget, they have secured a small real terms increase.

The new pupil premium could see the budgets of some schools increase, while other schools face a decrease since their funding will depend, in part, on the number of poorer children they educate.

However, even those schools which receive small spending increases will find their budgets very tight in comparison to the significant spending increases they have seen in the last decade. In addition, school rolls are projected to increase by around 80,000 over the next four years, so there will be even less of an increase per pupil, according to the BBC’s Nick Robinson.

The protection of the schools budget will not apply to the rest of the Education Department’s budget, which will see a significant cut.

This will compare with an increase in spending on education of 4.3% on average each year under the last Labour government and 1.5% under the last Conservative administration.

Politically, however, according to Nick Robinson, ministers see a real terms increase in school budgets as a significant political prize allowing them to match and, perhaps, exceed the promise of the last schools secretary, Ed Balls, to increase the schools budget by 0.7% in real terms in the next two years.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Hicks fury at Liverpool ‘swindle’

Liverpool’s former co-owner Tom Hicks says he is devastated at losing the club in an ‘epic swindle’.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ten more Chile miners to go home

Dr Jorge Montes, Copiapo hospital's deputy medical director (15 Oct 2010)

Health officials say the miners will be closely monitored for at least six months

Doctors treating 30 freed miners still in hospital in Chile say at least 10 of them will be discharged on Friday.

Three of the men were allowed home on Thursday and officials at the hospital in the northern town of Copiapo say the rest are in “very good shape”.

Health Minister Jaime Manalich told reporters that all the men were likely to have a hard time psychologically.

Thirty-three miners were brought out of the San Jose mine on Wednesday after spending 69 days underground.

Late on Thursday, Edison Pena, Juan Illanes and Bolivian Carlos Mamani were greeted by cheering neighbours as they arrived home.

None of the men has given a detailed account of their time trapped in the mine, but Juan Illanes described the first 17 days of the ordeal as a nightmare, before they were discovered by rescue workers.

He later told reporters that he needed to be alone and quiet.

‘A new life’

No details have been given of the men who will next be given permission to leave hospital but Mr Manalich said all 30 were in good condition, despite problems that many have had with their eyes and teeth.

Mario Gomez, 63, is on a course of antibiotics for acute pneumonia and the health minister said he, too, was doing well.

Mr Manalich said the miners would be closely monitored over the next six months and predicted that a very hard time lay ahead of them.

“They have to adapt to a new life. Therefore we are prepared to stay with them and to work at least in the next six months,” he said.

He added that the men’s salaries would be paid for at least the next month and the government was committed to finding them new jobs.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Clinton’s concern

Hillary Clinton has praised the importance and significance of Nato

Hillary Clinton’s admission that Washington is “worried” over the scale of the UK coalition government’s planned spending cuts on defence comes ahead of next week’s defence spending review.

She also said Nato was the “most successful” defensive alliance “in the history of the world” and must be “maintained”.

BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt examines the source of Mrs Clinton’s concerns over Europe’s military might.

It is unusual for a US Secretary of State to express such concerns so openly. But her remarks were not addressed to the UK alone.

Washington has long made clear that in terms of military spending, its European Nato partners must try harder.

Stars in silent record for soldiers

The Prime Minister David Cameron and more than 20 names from sport, music and entertainment have recorded a charity single with a unique selling point – it is completely silent.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Moyes interested in groundshare

Everton manager David Moyes says the club would be ‘very interested’ if the opportunity to share a stadium with rivals Liverpool came about.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Casualty actor MacCorkindale dies

MacCorkindale starred in BBC One’s Casualty for six years

Actor Simon MacCorkindale, who starred in BBC One’s Casualty, has died aged 58 after suffering from cancer.

His publicist, Max Clifford, said he died in the arms of his wife, actress Susan George, on Thursday night in a London Clinic.

The actor revealed last year he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2006, but was told it was terminal after it spread to his lungs a year later.

He spent six years on the BBC medical drama as Dr Harry Harper.

He was also known for starring in 1980s series Manimal and Falcon Crest and appearing in the 1978 Agatha Christie film Death on the Nile.

Ms George said: “No-one could have fought this disease any harder than he did since being diagnosed four years ago.

“He fought it with such strength, courage and belief. Last night, he lost this battle, and he died peacefully in my arms.

“To me, he was simply the best of everything, and I loved him with all my heart. He will live on in me forever.”

MacCorkindale was previously married to actress Fiona Fullerton from 1976-1982

He began his career in theatre, making his West End debut in a production of Pygmalion, before moving to the small screen.

He moved to the US after the success of Death on the Nile where he had roles in various TV series including Dynasty, Hart to Hart and The Dukes of Hazzard before securing the lead in adventure series Manimal.

After being diagnosed with cancer while working on Casualty, he left the drama and returned to the stage in the West End production of The Sound of Music until its closed in February 2009.

His last television appearance was on BBC series New Tricks earlier this year.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

US budget deficit falls to $1.3tr

US unemployment has remained high, pushing up benefit payments.

The US budget deficit fell to $1.3 trillion (£813bn) in the year to 30 September, US Congress estimates say.

The deficit, which comes after the end of the US financial year, represented 8.9% of GDP and was £122bn less than the 2009 level.

However it is the second highest since the end of World War II.

The data “underscored the administration’s commitment” to cutting the massive deficit, the government said.

But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned that “we still have a long way to go to repair the damage to the economy and address the long-term deficits caused by the crisis.”

The US has come out of recession but has seen sluggish recovery and spending on benefits has continued to rise.

Unemployment, which has stayed stubbornly at about 9.8%, is widely seen to be holding back US growth.

“Our fiscal outlook, which remains challenging, has improved over the past year,” said Mr Geithner and the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeffrey Zients, in a joint statement.

They said the improvement was due to “careful stewardship” of emergency programs aimed at put the economy on the track to recovery – such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) to bail out banks,

Spending decreased and revenues rose, but analysts said the government was still borrowing 37 cents of every dollar spent.

And deficits and government spending are expected to contribute to a backlash against the Democrats at mid-term elections next month. The Democrats currently control both houses of Congress.

However both parties have acknowledged that rising deficits will cause trouble for whoever controls Congress after November.

US President Barack Obama has set a goal of cutting the deficit to about 4.3% of GDP by 2013 but there is scepticism that President Obama’s cross-party deficit committee will be able to produce a plan that hits such ambitious targets.

There are concerns from some analysts that huge deficits will leave foreigners less willing to keep purchasing US Treasury debt – in the form of bonds.

Economists have predicted that the deficits could result in high interest rates as the government is forced to offer more attractive rates to lure investors.

“If we get to 2013 and policymakers don’t look like they have a credible plan to deal with the deficit, then interest rates are likely to rise significantly and that will jeopardize the recovery we have under way at that time,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Liverpool in hands of new US owners

New England Sports Ventures completes its takeover of Liverpool after former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett remove the temporary restraining order blocking the £300m sale.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Robinson slams school ‘apartheid’

Peter Robinson called the Northern Ireland education system “a benign form of apartheid”

The First Minister has described the Northern Ireland education system as a “benign form of apartheid”.

In a speech on Friday, Peter Robinson said the current system, where Catholics and Protestants are usually educated separately, must change.

He said that he wanted to set up a commission to look at the total integration of the different sectors.

He compared the system to South Africa during apartheid where black and white children were educated separately.

BBC NI education correspondent Maggie Taggart said the speech was likely to provoke controversy.

In an apparent reference to Catholic schools, he said he had no objection to church schools but he did object to the state paying for them.

“It may take ten years or longer to address this problem, which dates back many decades, but the real crime would be to accept the status quo for the sake of a quiet life,” he said.

“The benefits of such a system are not merely financial but could play a transformative role in changing society in Northern Ireland.”

He added that there were a number of “knotty issues” such as “religious education, school assembly devotions and the curriculum”.

“Future generations will not thank us if we fail to address this issue,” the DUP leader said.

It would be difficult to dislodge “vested interests”, he said, but was “convinced” that it should be done.

Our correspondent said that the DUP position has been that the state – or controlled – sector was non-denominational and could be used by those of all religions and none.

She added that Mr Robinson was proposing a single education system, rather than enlarging the integrated system which he did not believe would create the critical mass needed to make a real difference.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Half a million pound drugs haul

Seven men have been arrested in Portstewart in connection with the seizure of a substantial quantity of illegal drugs on Friday.

The suspected ecstacy haul was estimated to have a street value of half a million pounds.

The arrests were made as part of a major PSNI operation into organised crime in the North West.

Police said seven people are continuing to assist them with their enquiries.

Detective Chief Superintendent Roy McComb Head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland Organised Crime Branch said the North West was a “safer place” as a result of the seizure.

“This was a substantial seizure of harmful drugs which will make a real difference in protecting the communities in what is a busy student and night-time economy area,” he said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Miner’s anger at underground ordeal

The first miner to return home, after being rescued from Chile’s San Jose mine, has spoken of his anger at being trapped underground.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.