The Department of Health is today launching a consultation paper on a new approach to dealing with complaints in health and social care which will make it easier for people to complain when things go wrong.

A giant electronic database containing sensitive information on all 11 million children in England will be open to at least 330,000 users when it launches next year, according to government guidance.

The government is to press ahead with plans to reform the rape laws in an attempt to increase the low conviction rate, despite strong opposition from the judges who will have to put them into effect, the Guardian has learned.

NHS trusts are struggling to meet key hygiene standards, according to data submitted to the NHS watchdog. One in four trusts have reported they are not complying with one of the three standards relating to the hygiene code, covering areas such as cleanliness.

The government will again try to push through powers to detain mentally ill people in England and Wales who have not committed crimes.

{mosimage}The plans, to be debated in the Commons over the next two days, have faced opposition from mental health charities and opposition politicians.

Critics complain that the measures could result in too many people being locked up unnecessarily. Ministers have been trying to update mental health legislation since 1998.

After a string of defeats in the House of Lords, the government has given some ground on the bill, which amends the Mental Health Act 1983.

Concessions include giving doctors tight rules over the use of orders to force patients to take medicine and place them under detention if required.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Health Minister Rosie Winterton told BBC News: “What we have put down is an amendment to make clear that conditions can be set, in terms of community treatment orders.

“But we have said those conditions must be conditions which relate to the treatment of the patient and also are there either for the protection of themselves or others.”

She added: “We must make sure we have a bill that does address, as well as getting treatment of people, the issues of public safety.”

Desperate attempts were under way last night to avert a prison population crisis as the country’s jails began to run out of places.

The government will today attempt to help 66,000 adults facing chronic social exclusion by proposing that private and voluntary agencies, rather than a bewildering array of state agencies, should take responsibility for their future.

Teenagers are in the grip of a sexual health crisis fuelled by a “celebrity culture” that condones alcohol abuse, drug addiction and promiscuity, Government-funded advisers warn today.

{mosimage}A daily diet of celebrities in sexualised poses, taking drugs and getting drunk has led to increasing numbers of children “defining their lifestyle” around drugs, alcohol and sex in their early teens, with Britain now having the highest rate of teenage pregnancies and sexual infections in Europe, they say. Despite this, Government campaigns have failed to make the link between drugs, alcohol and sexual health – even though many drugs increase sexual desire, leading to more sex and more drinking, the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) on Sexual Health and HIV reports.

At the same time, “distorted messages” mean young boys wear football shirts emblazoned with alcohol brands while girls read magazines portraying them as sex objects, or purchase “sexualised” dolls. The strongly-worded report concludes that there is “no national and joined up Government approach” to deal with the problems.

Restrictions on the advertising of contraceptives on television, as well as the lack of compulsory sex education in schools, are exacerbating the problem, and the Government is using the wrong language when it talks to young people, the group says.

Its report paints an alarming picture of the extent to which teenagers are in thrall to the world of celebrity and will make uncomfortable reading for the Department of Health, which funds the group. The findings follow a Unicef investigation that put Britain last in a table of 21 countries for children’s well-being and found that more British children had sex by the age of 15 than in any other country. They were also the third highest users of cannabis and more had been drunk by 11, 13 and 15 than anywhere else.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said last night: “The Government has set targets for the reduction of teenage pregnancies but they are going to fail to reach these. It’s vital we improve sex education and advice, but also family and community structures which support young girls in the most deprived areas.”

In a fighting speech to the UK’s family doctors’ conference, GP Chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum sent a warning message to the incoming Prime Minister. Unless Gordon Brown clears the obstacles out of the way, the government’s flagship NHS policy of cutting patient waiting times to 18 weeks will fail.

The NHS is too vast for politicians to hand over to an independent board to run, the health secretary has said. Patricia Hewitt said the proposal, favoured by the British Medical Association, would turn the NHS into a “1960s nationalised industry”. But she said more power should be given to patients, GPs and health staff.