The NHS is too vast for politicians to hand over to an independent board to run, the health secretary has said. Patricia Hewitt said the proposal, favoured by the British Medical Association, would turn the NHS into a “1960s nationalised industry”. But she said more power should be given to patients, GPs and health staff.

A man who murdered his disabled fiancee and her carer has been told he will spend the rest of his life in jail. David Tiley, 47, stabbed mother-of-five Sue Hale, 49, who suffered from a degenerative brain disorder, and her carer, mother-of-two Sarah Merritt, 39.

Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are being subjected to appalling abuse in their own homes, according to a report today.

Gordon Brown’s flagship tax credits programme “brutally discriminates” against two-parent families and actively discourages single parents from forming stable relationships, a damning report says today.

Childcare nurseries must open at weekends and in the evenings to cater for the demands of modern working life, according to a government-backed survey of parents.

A man with severe learning difficulties was imprisoned, tortured and killed after he was falsely accused of being a paedophile, a court was told.

Community and racial tensions are now more likely to overheat in the rural towns and villages of the east of England than in the previously riot-hit northern mill towns of Burnley or Oldham, a government report will warn today.

Parents who use background information disclosed to them by police to harass sex offenders or fuel vigilante action will face prosecution for incitement, senior police officers warned yesterday.

Obesity has been a factor in at least 20 child protection cases in the last year, the BBC has learned. Some doctors now believe in extreme cases overfeeding a young child should be seen as a form of abuse or neglect.

Plans to offer more “chemical castrations” to serious sex offenders will be among a raft of measures set to be unveiled by the government. Increasing provision of libido-reducing treatments forms part of a crackdown on paedophiles, sources told the BBC.