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The Cuillin Hills on Skye rise to more than 3,000ft (910m)

Skye has been voted one of Europe’s top island holiday spots, beating sunnier climes like Sicily and Croatia’s Hvar.

The Misty Isle came eighth in the Top 10 European Islands category of Conde Nast Traveller’s Readers’ Choice Awards.

The Old Course Hotel in St Andrews, the Turnberry Resort and the Gleneagles hotel were also named in the Top 20 European Resorts category.

Ardanaiseig Hotel at Loch Awe was named as the UK’s third best leisure hotel.

This was the highest rating for a Scottish hotel, and it also made it into the World’s Overall Travel Top 100 list.

More than 25,000 people voted in the awards. The winners will feature in the November issue of the magazine.

Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of Visit Scotland, said: “The results of this survey are fantastic news for Scotland, especially as they are voted for by visitors themselves.

“Skye plays a prominent role in our “Meet the Scots” campaign, a European marketing drive which is expected to generate £85m for the Scottish economy.

“Having such high quality locations and businesses in Scotland is crucial to the success of our marketing of the country.”

Tourism Minister Jim Mather added: “I am delighted to congratulate the picturesque, evocative and timeless Isle of Skye and all those across Scottish tourism who have been highlighted as being among the best of the international travel community.”

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

Anyone working with children need to be disclosure checked

New vetting rules for adults who help with school activities or serve on school councils amount to an identity card scheme, says a parents’ group.

Checks on the background of those who come into contact with children have been around for a while, but they are about to be upgraded.

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council has written to ministers voicing concern.

It said it was worried the replacement scheme would see volunteers’ records being kept indefinitely.

The letter outlining the council’s views will be considered by the children’s minister Adam Ingram.

Concern about potential child abuse has led to extensive checks on the background of any adult who may come into contact with children.

The present system was thought to be too bureaucratic and too expensive and its replacement comes into force at the end of November.

In the letter to Mr Ingram, the council’s executive director, Eileen Prior, said: “We have raised concerns about misuse of disclosure checks since the original scheme started some years ago.

“Now the legislation is about to change and we know many local authorities intend to continue pushing parents through disclosure in the same way.”

She added that the new system would require people who work with children to be long-term members of the scheme and have their personal records held on government computers.

‘Paper chase’

Ms Prior said: “The government has spent in excess of £50m on the IT and systems development for the new scheme: surely that has not been spent to monitor parents who hire a hall or want to be part of a parent council? In effect this becomes an identity card scheme.

“We believe the government has to act in order to stop local authorities from pursuing these policies.

“Disclosures are designed to protect young people and vulnerable adults but, in some areas, have become a paper chase and a box-ticking exercise.

“We believe common sense has to prevail.”

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

The SPF fear police numbers in many force areas could drop to levels not seen since the mid-1990s

The union which represents Scotland’s police officers is to hold a summit with senior politicians from the main parties to discuss policing priorities.

The meeting was called by the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), which has warned the police budget for 2011-12 could be cut by as much as £88.5m.

The SPF said this was the equivalent of losing 2,808 officers in Scotland.

First Minister Alex Salmond recently unveiled plans to reduce the number of forces in the face of spending cuts.

Mr Salmond told the SNP party conference that, if it came to it, he would put “bobbies before boundaries”.

The SPF fear a projected 9% drop in the policing budget, which could mean police numbers in many force areas dropping to levels not seen since the mid-1990s.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill will attend the SPF meeting in Glasgow on Monday along with Labour’s justice spokesman Richard Baker, Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Robert Brown and Conservative MSP Bill Aitken.

In their invitation to the summit ahead of the draft Scottish Budget to be unveiled next month, the police body wrote that the police service was “too important to be expected to take an equal share of the pain”.

The SPF also said it believed the decisions taken in the next Scottish Budget “could either maintain or break policing in Scotland as we know it”.

The general secretary of the SPF, Calum Steele, said he welcomed the opportunity to engage with representatives from the four main parties.

He said: “There has already been a very constructive debate on the issues raised over the past few weeks in terms of what sort of policing should be delivered for Scotland. Now is the time to continue and to sharpen that debate.”

Mr Steele said the SPF was “very willing” to discuss ways of streamlining the police service, including the amalgamation of forces, if that could be shown to deliver the highest policing service to communities.

He added: “If savings are a consequence, then all well and good but the quality of the service must come first.

“However, cutting the numbers of serving officers would be a false economy that would set Scotland back by decades. Crime levels would increase, as would the fear and cost of crime, and there would [be] a knock-on effect on the National Health Service, the courts, social work and other agencies.”

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

The minister would place financial values on the UK’s natural world such as undeveloped land, woodland, rivers and marshes.

The UK government should create a new ministerial post for green economics, an international policy group that includes MPs past and present has said.

The minister would play a role similar to the Treasury chief secretary, but looking after “natural capital”.

The recommendation comes from Globe International, whose members include ex-Environment Secretary John Gummer – now Lord Deben – and Zac Goldsmith MP.

Its report was launched at a major UN environment meeting in Japan.

Other countries should modernise their government structures for similar ends, it says.

“The chief secretary looks after the ‘national economic interest’ in the narrow sense,” Lord Deben told BBC News.

“But we have to expand that to take in the natural capital that we’ll lose if we don’t look after it.”

Lord Deben – currently Globe’s president – and Mr Goldsmith are regularly credited with having helped to “green” the Conservative leadership, partly through leading the 2007 Blueprint for a Green Economy project, which reported to David Cameron.

Last week, the final report from a UN-backed study on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) reaffirmed that degradation of nature – deforestation, water pollution, destructive fishing, and so on – is costing the global economy between $2 trillion and £ each year.

In addition to creating the new posts, Globe says governments should draw up comprehensive sets of “natural capital accounts” that would place financial values on components of the natural world such as undeveloped land, woodland, rivers and marshes.

These valuations would take into account projections of long-term change, and assessments of what countries might need in future.

Guide to biodiversity

Biodiversity is the term used to describe the incredible variety of life that has evolved on our planet over billions of years. So far 1.75m present day species have been recorded, but there maybe as many as 13m in total. The term “biodiversity” refers to diversity of ecosystems, species and genes. In wetlands, for example, you might find different types of fish, frogs, crabs and snails; and within each species, differences in the genes which determine disease resistance, diet and body size. Research shows that ecosytems containing more variety are more productive and more robust. Biodiversity loss affects most of the major branches of life on Earth. Amphibians and corals are among some of the most threatened. Rising human populations, habitat loss, invasive species and climate change all take their toll. Around half of the planet’s natural environments had been converted for human use by 1990. The IUCN projects that a further 10-20% of grass and forest land could be converted by 2050. Deforestation represents one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. The map shows the extent of the planet’s remaining frontier forests – which exist in a state untouched by human interference – and the original extent of forest cover. The rising population and economic growth mean that natural resources are used at less and less sustainable rates. WWF calculates that by 2050, humanity’s resource use would need two-and-a-half Earths to be sustainable.

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Lord Deben said had such a system been in place in the UK, a number of decisions might have been made differently.

“For example, when we build, do we take into account the losses that building creates?” he said.

“We know there’s going to be a huge problem in feeding the world – the era of cheap food is over – and we could build all the houses we need on previously used sites rather than taking more natural land.

“We must price natural land properly, rather than allowing the immediate price to be what determines what happens to it.”

Proper natural capital accounting, he added, would also have meant a wiser and more efficient use of North Sea oil.

At the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Nagoya, Japan, many conservation experts are hoping previously reluctant governments will be persuaded that protecting nature is worthwhile.

“Until now, governments have largely focused on economic growth, ignoring the impacts on the natural resources base and all associated benefits,” commented Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

“If this bold practical political intervention by Globe is implemented, it will help to ensure we have an economic system that accounts for the value of nature, enabling politicians to make informed decisions with an understanding of the true costs and benefits to society.”

Globe – Global Legislators for a Balanced Environment – brings together members of parliaments across the world, including major players such as China, India, Brazil and several EU nations.

Its current report – the Natural Capital Action Plan – is designed to help governments implement the findings of the Teeb project, and work natural capital into their national accounting and policymaking frameworks.

Among its authors is Sir John Bourn, former head of the UK’s National Audit Office, while former environment minister Barry Gardiner is a prominent Globe member from the opposition benches.

The Natural Capital Action Plan launch here precedes a two-day forum on the sidelines of the CBD, scheduled to feature a number of high-profile speakers headed by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

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

The report calls for inmates to be able to open a bank account before they leave prison

Banks must do more to help ex-prisoners open accounts, apply for credit and take out insurance, in order to keep reoffending rates down, a report says.

Exclusion from such services prevents many ex-offenders from finding work and securing a home, the Prison Reform Trust and Unlock said.

Life without an account or insurance was a “second sentence”, they said.

The Prison Service said it was working to make more banking schemes available to prisoners while they are in jail.

It said “gaining employment, living in stable accommodation and having the ability to use and access appropriate financial products” contributed to the rehabilitation process.

Many former inmates struggle to open a bank account because they do not have the list of former addresses, identity documents and credit history required.

Without a bank account, employers may be reluctant to give them a job – as there are few jobs where salaries are not paid either directly into a bank account or by cheque.

Newly-released prisoners may also have difficultly renting a property, as many landlords demand payment by standing order or direct debit.

As part of the research, the Prison Reform Trust and reformed offenders group Unlock spoke to 144 people in prison, as well as 24 former prisoners and 29 families of people with convictions.

The poll suggested a third of people in prison did not have a bank account, and more than half had been rejected for a loan. Four out of five people had also had problems getting insurance.

People in prison were also 10 times more likely to have borrowed money from a loan shark than the average UK household.

The report calls for inmates to be able to open a bank account and receive lessons in handling money before they leave prison.

People should also be able to manage their bank accounts while in prison, and prisoners should have the opportunity to earn a real taxable wage, enabling them to save money, support their family or reduce debt.

The groups would also like the insurance industry to lift its blanket ban on offering cover to people with convictions, while the credit industry should develop ways of treating ex-prisoners more fairly.

Chris Bath, director of projects at Unlock and co-author of the report, said: “If we want people to lead productive lives, working, paying taxes and providing their family with a home, we cannot allow the justice system to sever people from their finances, even less to create lifelong financial exclusion.”

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “Far too often people leave prison only to face a second sentence of no insurance or banking, mountainous debt, loan sharks circling and a family to provide for.

“The rehabilitation revolution stands or falls on banks, insurers, public agencies and government working together to allow people to take financial responsibility for themselves.”

A Prison Service spokesman added: “We are working with the British Bankers’ Association, the banks and Unlock to increase the number of banking schemes across the prison estate.

“Engaging the expertise of independent organisations like businesses and charities is vital to changing people’s lives and stopping the revolving door of crime.”

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

Nurse Violetta Aylward was captured on film accidentally switching off her patient’s ventilator, leaving him brain-damaged.

An agency nurse working for the NHS was filmed switching off her patient’s life support machine by mistake.

Tetraplegic Jamie Merrett, 37, had a bedside camera set up at his home in Wiltshire, after becoming concerned about the care he was receiving.

Within days, it captured the moment Violetta Aylward switched off the ventilator, leaving him brain-damaged.

Ambition 24hours, which supplied her, said it could not comment as an internal investigation was continuing.

A confidential report by Wiltshire social services into the incident – leaked to the BBC’s Inside Out programme – concluded the agency was fully aware it was required to supply a nurse with training in the use of a ventilator, but the company did not have adequate systems in place to check what training their staff had received.

Mr Merrett, from Devizes, has been cared for at home on a life-support machine since 2002 after being left paralysed from the neck downwards after a road accident.

Despite being tetraplegic, Mr Merrett was able to use a wheelchair and a voice-activated computer

Despite his disabilities, he was able to talk, use a wheelchair and operate a computer using voice-activated technology.

His sister Karren Reynolds said he had become increasingly worried about serious errors involving nurses operating his ventilator, but claimed that health bosses did not act on e-mails of concern which he sent them.

In January 2009, he arranged to have a camera installed in his room. A few days later, the ventilator was switched off.

After 21 minutes, the machine was eventually restarted by paramedics but by then Mr Merrett, from Devizes, had suffered serious brain damage.

Ms Reynolds, who is considering legal action, said his level of understanding had dropped to that of a young child.

“His life is completely changed. He doesn’t have a life now,” she said.

“He has an existence but it’s nowhere near what it was before. He is very brain damaged compared to what he was before. He was a highly intelligent man and you could have long in-depth conversations with him and now it tends to be more simplistic.”

A review found the firm that supplied Ms Aylward did not have adequate systems to check staff training

The solicitor acting for Mr Merrett, Seamus Edney of SJ Edney in Swindon, said: “In my experience, this is the worst case of negligence on the part of a nurse.

“No one has come forward to make any admission, so now almost two years after the event we are trying to get someone to admit liability for what has happened.”

The NHS Wiltshire Primary Care Trust said in a statement: “[We have] put in place a series of actions to ensure that such an event will not occur again either for this patient or others. The incident is the subject of likely litigation so the PCT is restricted in what further it may say in public.”

Ms Aylward has been suspended while the incident is investigated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Their guidelines say a nurse should work within their level of competence and have the skills to undertake whatever care they are delivering.

Ms Aylward, who is from Reading, has not responded to requests for an interview.

The programme will be shown on Inside Out West and Inside Out South on BBC One at 1930 BST on Monday 25 October.

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

Mr Sims said he was sorry the force got it “so wrong”

A police force is due to respond after it was criticised in a report over the installation of ‘spy cameras’ in an area of Birmingham.

More than 200 cameras, both covert and overt, were put up in mostly Muslim areas of the city, paid for with government money to tackle terrorism.

An independent report into their installation said public consultation had been “too little and too late”.

West Midlands Police will respond to the report at a public meeting later.

The cameras were installed in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook districts and were put up by the Safer Birmingham Project (SBP), made up of the city council, police and other agencies.

The £3.5m funding for the cameras came from the Terrorism and Allied Matters Fund.

Thames Valley Police was asked to conduct an independent review into their installation which was called Project Champion.

The report was carried out by Sara Thornton, a member of the team which provided the funding.

The report said a lack of transparency over their installation “significantly undermined” police trust and set back relations by almost 10 years.

Human rights lawyers have said they would apply for a judicial review of the camera installation action unless there was a guarantee to remove all of them.

West Midlands Police said it had removed all the covert cameras while Chief Constable Chris Sims has apologised and said none of the cameras were ever used.

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

By Jorn Madslien

Attracting foreign manufacturing companies to the UK is increasingly difficult as other countries up their game, business leaders say

A handful of the land’s most powerful politicians are expected to turn up at the CBI’s annual business and industry jamboree in London on Monday.

While members of the coalition government are unlikely to get a standing ovation for last week’s Spending Review, many of the announced measures have been welcomed by business leaders.

And according to a CBI telephone survey of 120 chief executives and company chairmen, two thirds say the business climate in the UK has improved since the coalition came to power in May.

“If the fear had been that the coalition would be unable to do anything, than that has been firmly displaced,” observes CBI’s director-general Richard Lambert during a pre-conference briefing.

But before business leaders are prepared to hail the coalition’s efforts, there is much work to be done.

“Not surprisingly, the majority of business leaders are reserving judgement and looking for tangible changes on the ground,” Mr Lambert says.

“We plan to move beyond the drama of the Spending Review and focus on opportunities for growth and investment.”

If an economy normally has four engines that help move it forward, it is clear the UK is now left with just two, the CBI reasons.

David Cameron needs the private sector to deliver economic growth in the UK, the CBI insists

“We know that government consumption will not be driving growth in the coming years,” Mr Lambert reasons, and it seems consumer spending cannot be relied on either.

“It seems likely that household budgets will also be squeezed for some time,” he adds, pointing to how households are reducing personal debts, as well as how salary growth has slowed while prices keep on rising.

Consequently, Mr Lambert insists, “private sector investment and trade are the two main engines for growth”.

In other words, the coalition now depends on the private sector’s success.

“Everybody knows we can’t cut our way to growth and prosperity,” Mr Lambert points out.

“And without growth, the country will face real economic and political difficulties.”

Attracting foreign investors is crucial to ensure the UK prospers, the CBI says

To help the private sector pick up the slack as the public sector is scaled back, the government must ensure the UK, with its flexible labour laws and good industrial relations, remains an attractive place to invest, Mr Lambert insists.

That would involve offering investors a favourable tax regime, predictable and reasonable regulation and business friendly planning laws, he explains.

If it does not, he points out, many companies will channel their investment elsewhere.

It is particularly important to attract investment from non-British multinationals, as large companies headquartered in the UK are increasingly focusing on growing their global footprint rather than investing at home, according to the CBI.

“The attractiveness of the UK as a place to invest may be in long-term decline,” Mr Lambert says.

“Over the last 10 years, the [UK’s competitive advantages] have gradually been eroded as other countries have become more competitive.

“If nothing changes, looking five years ahead, companies – particularly manufacturers – could look to reduce their UK presence.”

Mr Lambert says governments should work together rather than engage in trade wars

Trade, the other engine for economic growth, has been aided by a 20% fall in the value of Sterling in the last couple of years, a fall that has made it easier for UK’s exporters to sell their products or services overseas, the CBI observes.

However, this advantage could be eroded amidst signs that some countries are keeping their own currencies artificially low, he suggests.

“This is a concern, and a real concern,” acknowledges Mr Lambert.

So far, during a period when the world has gone through a severe recession, there have been few signs of protectionism, he reasons, though now there are “signs that the cohesive and coordinated approach from the G20 now seems to be dissipating”, he says.

Closer cooperation between countries is crucial to ensure global growth, insists CBI chief economic advisor Ian McCafferty.

“The multilateral action spirit of two to three years ago, as we went into the recession, needs to be maintained,” he says, as he warns against single-issue bilateral agreements that are “missing the point”.

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

Apprenticeships are available in various parts of its business operations, says BT

BT is to double its intake of apprentices this year after a big increase in the number of applicants, the telecoms giant has announced.

The firm is recruiting more than 200 extra people by Christmas to add to the 221 positions it has already filled.

BT said about 24,000 candidates had registered an interest in the first set of vacancies, up from 9,000 in 2009.

It added that it also needed additional staff to help it roll out its new high-speed fibre optic broadband network.

BT apprentices start on salaries of between £12,000 and £15,000.

The roles available are in IT, telecoms, electrical systems and customer service, and are open to candidates studying for a BTEC qualification or foundation degree.

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