A care home for the elderly may be forced to close because its bedrooms are too small. West Sussex County Council will hold a public meeting on Monday to decide the future of Burrscrofte in Shoreham. Four elderly people live in the home, with 25 other rooms used for intermediate care, short-stay and respite accommodation.

Standards in education for students with learning difficulties in further education is “uneven”, Ofsted says. It found 18 of the 22 colleges it visited lacked expertise in assessing students’ capabilities. This made it difficult to measure their progress.

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.

Tony Blair has promised a decision next week on whether Catholic adoption agencies will be able to opt out of gay discrimination laws. The prime minister said there could also be a Commons vote, saying it was important to find “a way through this sensitive and difficult issue”.

{mosimage}Earlier, Education Secretary Alan Johnson said any opt-out would mean “plain, simple discrimination”. But some Catholics say new rules go against their religious beliefs.

In a statement, Mr Blair said: “Both gay couples and the Catholic agencies have high levels of success in adopting hard-to-place children. It is for that reason we have taken time to ensure we get these regulations right.

“How do we protect the principle of ending discrimination against gay people and at the same time protect those vulnerable children who are at the present time being placed through – and after care provided by – Catholic agencies who everyone accepts do a great job with some of the most disturbed youngsters?”

The agencies say they will close if not given an opt-out from having to place children with gay couples, which they say goes against their beliefs.

Mr Blair said: “The new regulations provide a massive step forward in ending discrimination against gay people. These regulations will extend further anti-discrimination legislation. We are clear about what we want to do. There is one last aspect within the new regulations to resolve and it concerns adoption.”

The government is in talks to buy two prison ships to ease the current wave of overcrowding. An RAF camp is also being considered as one of a number of options to temporarily ease the pressure.

The Roman Catholic Church is not expected to win an exemption from new anti-discrimination laws, following the row over adoption by gay couples. Its agencies are demanding an opt-out, so that they are not required to place children with homosexual people.

{mosimage}Reports that Tony Blair has “caved in” to Cabinet members who are against an exemption have been described as “ridiculous” by Downing Street. But No 10 has suggested agencies may be allowed time to adapt or close. Tony Blair has met Labour MPs over the issue and an announcement is expected next week. The Equality Act, due to come into effect in England, Scotland and Wales in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation.

Catholic leaders say its teachings prevent its agencies placing children with homosexuals and they will close if bound by the rules. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, has denied claims that he is using “blackmail”. The Church of England has backed the Catholic Church in its attempts.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, have written to Tony Blair to argue that “rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well-meaning”.

Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman, the latest minister to voice an opinion on the issue, has said there was no scope for exemptions to the legislation. “We will stay true to our commitment in tackling sexual discrimination in terms of sexual orientation,” she told the New Statesman magazine. “You can either be against discrimination or you can allow for it. You can’t be a little bit against discrimination.”

The government has been too slow to react to rising levels of childhood obesity, an MPs’ report has warned. Despite a target to halt the rise of obesity among under-11s by 2010, the Commons public accounts committee said little concrete action had been taken.

Changes to how the public has its say on the running of the NHS are set to fail because of a lack of funding, leading doctors have said. The British Medical Association said the structure of Local Involvement Networks (Links) was flawed and open to unacceptable variations.