Fifteen government departments and agencies, including Whitehall’s biggest spenders, face the threat of legal action for failing to carry out their duties under race equality legislation, according to a final report from the Commission for Racial Equality to be published later this week.

The social care regulator, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), has obtained a court order to close a nursing home in Lichfield after the safety and welfare of the residents was judged to be at risk.

Four out of 10 employers say that alcohol misuse is a significant cause of worker absenteeism, but few organisations have policies to deal with drink or drug problems, according to a report published today.

Up To 20,000 vulnerable people in Stoke-on-Trent are set to benefit from technology which will help them stay in their own homes.

A 39-year-old woman and her two younger siblings have won a total of £100,000 in an out-of-court settlement with Hackney council in east London because it failed to remove them as children from their abusive home.

{mosimage}Jennifer Routledge, who received £57,500, was raped aged nine by a stepfather who was jailed for the crime, and later abused by another who she believed had groomed her for the purpose. She and her siblings were beaten and deprived of food and she left school at the age of 13 unable to read and write properly.

No court has yet awarded damages against a local authority for failing to take children into care. In 1995 five law lords ruled that five children who suffered “horrific” abuse before they were eventually removed from their parents could not sue their local council. The judges ruled that councils owed no duty of care to those affected by the way they carried out their childcare functions.

Lawyers say the law has moved on in the wake of the Human Rights Act, which places public authorities under a duty to protect individuals from inhuman and degrading treatment. They point to cases like that of Ms Routledge where councils have paid compensation even though there is no binding precedent obliging them to pay.

Most claimants rely on legal aid but lawyers have now been warned that their funding may be put on hold by the Legal Services Commission (LSC), the body which administers legal aid. The commission is looking to choose one or two test cases to take to court to clarify the law and in the meantime other pending cases may have to wait.

“Clearly if you’re running a test case you don’t pursue lots of other cases of that type,” said David Keegan of the LSC. “Local authorities might settle one or two but that doesn’t mean they’re going to settle the majority. What you need is a precedent case.”

The number of young criminals using cannabis has shot up since Labour downgraded the drug’s legal status, it emerged yesterday.