The Church of England has backed the Catholic Church in its bid to be exempt from laws on adoption by gay couples. Catholic leaders in England and Wales say its teaching prevented its agencies placing children with homosexuals and they will close if bound by the rules.

{mosimage}The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Dr Rowan Williams and John Sentamu have written to the prime minister. They say “rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well-meaning”.

The Equality Act, due to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

The archbishops said many people who do voluntary work are motivated by religious beliefs. They point out exceptions have already been made for those whose conscience dictates they cannot take part in certain work, such as NHS doctors unwilling to perform abortions.

“In legislating to protect and promote the rights of particular groups the government is faced with the delicate but important challenge of not thereby creating the conditions within which others feel their rights to have been ignored or sacrificed, or in which the dictates of personal conscience are put at risk,” they said.

Pre-menopausal women who eat large amounts of fibre could halve their breast cancer risk, a UK study has suggested. The University of Leeds researchers, who studied 35,000 women, found those who ate 30g of fibre a day had half the risk of those who ate less than 20g.

Judges and magistrates are being asked to jail only the most dangerous and persistent criminals. The home secretary and law chiefs have sent them a letter as the number of inmates in England and Wales hovers around the jail capacity of 80,000.

Thousands of diabetic children could risk losing limbs because the NHS cash crisis is hitting services, according to a new report. Four out of five diabetic children have poor glucose control, putting them at risk of developing complications, it said.

Bradford started inquiring into its infant mortality problem in 1915, but the city is still stuck with a consistently higher than average number of infant deaths. Until the mid-1990s, the rate was at least decreasing, but since then it has remained on a plateau – which is why the local strategic partnership, Bradford Vision, has stepped in.

A new survey is inviting thousands of older people and their relatives to recount their experiences of choosing a care home. Social care watchdog CSCI wants to find out how much help and information people were given before choosing a care home for themselves, a relative or a friend.

Birmingham’s housing department is in the process of developing a 15-year housing plan for older people. The Commission for Social Care Inspection produced its annual report where projections indicate a rise of 54% in number of older people with a high-level care requirement.

Government proposals to give patients and the public in England more say in the NHS are likely to fail because of insufficient resources, the BMA has said.