The second of three exhumations by police investigating seven suspicious deaths at a care home is to take place. Grandmother Marion Alder, 79, died in July last year at the Parkfield residential home in Butleigh, Somerset.

{mosimage}The body of Nellie “Mary” Pickford, 89, was exhumed last Wednesday. A re-burial was performed the following day.

Former managers Rachel and Lee Baker were arrested by police after Lucy Cox, 97, died on New Year’s Day. Both were bailed without charge until September. Ms Alder, who was married to a pharmacist, Roy, moved to Butleigh in 1987. Once her body is exhumed, it will be examined by forensic officers checking the body for traces of drugs.

Her family released a statement which read: “Marion, who died aged 79, was a proud grandmother-of-four and mother to a son and daughter.

“As a family we miss her greatly and would ask we be left alone by the media at this difficult time.”

A final exhumation will take place in Somerton, Somerset, in the coming weeks. The exhumation of Ms Pickford was the first carried out in Avon and Somerset police’s history.

The cemetery will be cordoned off as the exhumation and re-internment take place over the next three days. Police have said it will be some weeks before the results of the tests are announced.

The government breached anti-discrimination laws after controversial changes to its immigration programme for highly-skilled workers, the Commission for Racial Equality believes.

Police are failing to protect young women at risk of being murdered by their families in so-called “honour” killings, despite a high-profile prevention scheme set up four years ago, senior officers have told the Guardian.

Rodney Brooke, Chair of the General Social Care Council (GSCC), announced today that Lynne Berry will be leaving the GSCC in September to take up the post of Chief Executive of the WRVS.

A scheme assisting vulnerable witnesses to access the criminal justice process will be rolled out nationally, following an announcement by Minister for Justice, Gerry Sutcliffe.  {mosimage}Professional intermediaries help children and

More than 700,000 elderly people are subjected to abuse in their own homes or privately run nursing homes, according to the results of a new study to be published this

A health minister has ordered council bosses to talk with the borough’s Primary Care Trust (PCT) chiefs to sort out an £8 million social care row. Lord Philip Hunt dismissed any legal challenge to the transfer of social care costs from Brent PCT to Brent Council as ‘highly unlikely’ in response to a concerned letter from MP Dawn Butler.

Many patients do not know about the performance of their local NHS services, a poll suggests. Nearly a third said they were unaware how their local hospitals and GPs compared to others. And the Policy Exchange think tank poll of 1,000 people also found 79% wanted simple scorecards to refer to.

Pro-abortion MPS are preparing for a bitter political battle in an attempt to bring in termination on demand in the first three months of pregnancy. The cross-party group of MPs will also press to remove the need for two doctors to approve a termination, and for the procedure to be medically justified.

A judge has revealed that 14 children born to the same mother have been put into care because of her addiction to crack cocaine and other drugs. Apart from the human cost of the damage to the children’s upbringing, the bill to taxpayers to look after the children is likely to exceed £2m.