In its hard-hitting report, Gambling addiction and its treatment within the NHS, the BMA is calling for gambling to be a recognised addiction that requires treatment on the NHS.

Home Office civil servants held at least four meetings with police chiefs to discuss the foreign convictions backlog that ministers say they knew nothing about, it became clear last night.

{mosimage}They took place last October as a new police unit struggled to deal with the details of thousands of British citizens convicted of offences overseas.

This information — including data about 540 serious criminals – had never been entered on to the Police National Computer (PNC) despite being submitted to the Home Office over a 10-year period.

Last May, responsibility for dealing with the data passed to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), which set up a unit in Hampshire.

But the backlog was so great that Acpo asked the Home Office for more money to ensure the information could be more swiftly entered on to the database.

A letter was sent to Tony McNulty, the police minister, last October to update him on the work of the new unit but the Government said this did not mention the problem with the backlog.

Patients are being put at risk by appalling conditions on hospital wards, a senior consultant says today in the British Medical Journal. Katherine Teale, a consultant anaesthetist at Hope hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester, accuses some nurses of neglecting basic care in favour of paperwork. Doctors are accused of not spending enough time on wards.

Boxing star Amir Khan has become an ambassador for the NSPCC, the children’s charity has announced. The 19-year-old, who is a hero to many youngsters, wants to encourage children to be brave and speak out if they are suffering cruelty.

Four out of ten muggings are committed by children aged 16 or under, it was revealed on Thursday. This is the first time a breakdown has been provided of who is responsible for the epidemic of robbery on Britain’s streets.

A major spending boost is needed if mental health care is to meet the government’s expectations for 2010/11, a charity has warned. Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health examined the resources needed to meet the government’s 10-year National Service Framework.

The government has only a year to save the NHS and maintain its status as a free service funded by taxation, the leader of Britain’s 120,000 doctors warned yesterday.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has appointed two new members to its board of trustees. The new board members – Ann Macfarlane MBE and Jenny Owen – will join SCIE’s other trustees in supporting SCIE’s leadership, strategic direction and executive level appointments.

The Government’s prisons policy has come under fire again after two more murderers vanished from an open jail. Duncan MacNeil and Paul Michael Neale were both serving life sentences when they walked out of HMP Sudbury, the Prison Service confirmed.

The court of appeal is being asked to decide if people in privately-run care homes should have stronger protection for their human rights. Campaigners say the law needs to be changed to prevent elderly couples being separated in care, or homes closed without the consent of vulnerable residents.