A scheme allowing community groups to tell courts about the impact of crime in their areas is to be announced today as part of the government’s drive to give the victims of crime a greater say in the judicial process.

Most NHS prescription charges in England should be scrapped and applied to ‘ineffective treatments’ instead, NHS public health chiefs say. The Association of Directors of Public Health said rising demands on the NHS will lead to more rationing.

The Government is preparing to make a substantial U-turn over 24-hour drinking by making it harder for pubs to open later in future amid the first signs they realise that the policy went too far too fast.

For many young people with disabilities and serious medical conditions, turning 18 can be the start of what some families describe as a ‘nightmare’ as they make the move from children’s to adults’ social services, a new report states.

Social Care directors have dismissed out of hand allegations by a small number of Parliamentarians that social workers are deliberately removing children  from their birth parents in order to meet

Directors of children’s and adults’ services stressed today that working towards successful transitions from childhood to adulthood was being given `the utmost priority’ by their departments.

Police forces across the UK have lost track of the whereabouts of 322 convicted sex offenders, a newspaper has reported. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the News of the World asked all 50 forces in England and Wales how many sex offenders are missing. They are required to inform police and probation officers of their addresses.

{mosimage}The Home Office said the sex offenders’ register was a “powerful operational tool” which had a 97% compliance rate.

The Metropolitan Police said 88 offenders from London were missing, the News of the World found. Its investigation also revealed West Midlands Police had lost 25 sex offenders and Greater Manchester 18.

Released sex offenders are supposed to be monitored by officials working under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements.

But according to the News of the World, registered sex offenders have used a loophole in the system allowing them to register vague addresses in order to disappear.

Michelle Elliott, founder and director of the child protection charity Kidscape, called it “unacceptable” that registered sex offenders could go missing. Last year, one paedophile who breached register conditions was allowed to give his address as “woods” after moving from “a tent near Guildford leisure centre”, the paper claimed.

A crisis is building in services which provide care for the elderly and most vulnerable as councils find their budgets squeezed by inadequate Government funding, it has been claimed. The stark warning was made by bosses at Suffolk County Council as the authority confirmed it will be recommending a tax rise of 4.5%.

Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has denied that ministers were trying to interfere with judicial independence by dictating lower sentences to keep offenders out of jail. Home Secretary John Reid and Lord Falconer have come under fire after a judge who gave a paedophile a non-custodial sentence said he was bearing in mind their warning that the jails were full.

{mosimage}Shadow home secretary David Davis said ministers were putting the public at risk by pressurising judges not to do their jobs properly. Prisoners should be made to “double up” in jail cells or housed in prison ships and military camps rather than asking judges not to lock them up, he said.

Sentencing Derek Williams to a suspended jail term for downloading child pornography on Thursday, Judge John Rogers QC told Mold Crown Court that he had to bear in mind “the current sentencing climate” in the light of a letter sent to the judiciary by Mr Reid and Lord Falconer earlier this week. The statement reminded judges and magistrates of sentencing guidelines that jail should generally be reserved for dangerous and persistent criminals.

Mr Davis described the current situation as an “outrage” on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. The Home Office should “use whatever capacity it can get – disused military camps, prison ships, whatever you need to do, even doubling up in prisons – in order to ensure that people are not put at risk”, said Mr Davis.

Lord Falconer said the ministers’ statement did not change the principles of sentencing, but merely reminded judges and magistrates of existing legislation and guidelines calling on them to use community sentences where it will not put the public at risk.

Long-awaited new laws designed to make it easier to deport foreign criminals will allow them to delay the moves by lodging a human rights claim. New Home Office immigration proposals back-tracked on a view expressed by Prime Minister Tony Blair that offenders should be kicked out of Britain “irrespective” of human rights concerns in their home countries.