Sex offenders could face compulsory lie detector tests in future after a pilot project was judged a success. The Home Office will now consult on the scheme, which aims to monitor offenders’ behaviour in the community. The pilot scheme involved about 350 convicted sex offenders in England many of whom gave information that helped probation staff supervise them.

A report raises serious concerns about the validity of a sudden infant death study used in the case against expert witness Professor Sir Roy Meadow. At a murder trial, Professor Meadow said it was unlikely cot death would strike a family more than once. But a Lancet study published in 2005 suggested almost 90% of second deaths in the same family are natural. Now a special report in the British Medical Journal casts doubt on the data and conclusions of the Lancet study.

The National AIDS Trust has announced the appointment of social care expert Dame Denise Platt as its new Chair. Dame Denise takes up her role as Chair at an important time for the National AIDS Trust (NAT) in the lead up to World AIDS Day today. She will be succeeding Dame Ruth Runciman, who has served as Chair of the NAT for the past six years and will continue to support the organisation as an ambassador.

{mosimage}Dame Denise brings a wealth of experience to the role, on account of her distinguished career in the social services and health sectors. She was also an early advocate for a comprehensive response to the HIV epidemic, and as Director of Social Services for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, oversaw the first HIV policy to be introduced by a local council.

Dame Denise is the Chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, a non-departmental Government body responsible for inspecting and assessing the performance of all social care services in England. She is also a member of the National Executive Council of the fpa.

The findings of a high-profile cot death study seen as discrediting the controversial paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow have been called into question in a new report. A paper published in the medical journal The Lancet in January 2005 suggested that the vast majority of second infant deaths in families who have already lost a baby were due to natural causes.

John Reid is to beg the public to buy shares in new prisons after failing to secure funding from the Treasury. The unprecedented move would see investors paying for the urgently needed cells, before renting them to the Home Secretary to lock up criminals.

The Home Office is to start a period of consultation on plans for compulsory lie detector tests for sex offenders. The scheme is designed to help monitor their behaviour in the community. A pilot scheme with hundreds of convicted offenders has been judged a success. The majority disclosed information that helped probation staff supervise them more effectively.

Smoking in enclosed public places will be banned in England from 1 July next year, the government has announced. The ban covers virtually all enclosed public places including offices, factories, pubs and bars, but not outdoors or in private homes. It follows similar bans in the Irish Republic and Scotland – a ban in Wales starts on 2 April.

Chancellor Gordon Brown says he is upbeat about his son’s future after revealing four month old Fraser has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Mr Brown received messages of support from political allies and opponents, with Tory leader David Cameron among the first to offer his best wishes.

{mosimage}In a positive statement Mr Brown and his wife Sarah said their son was “fit and healthy”. They lost their daughter Jennifer Jane in 2002 after she was born prematurely.

A spokesman for the couple – who have one other son, John – said they were told in late July that Fraser may have the genetic disease and tests had now confirmed it.

The spokesman said Fraser was “fit, healthy and making all the progress that you would expect any little boy to make”.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening inherited disease that disrupts the way the digestive and respiratory systems work.

Mr Brown’s spokesman said: “Thousands of other parents are in the same position.”

“They are confident that the advice and treatments available, including proper exercise and, later, sporting activity will keep him fit and healthy.”

A former prisons chief has launched a scathing attack on the Government over the prison overcrowding crisis. Lord Ramsbotham writes in the Independent that the Government’s reforms of the prison service are “deeply flawed” and that it needs to rethink its long-term strategy.

More than 150 illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers will be freed from custody after a riot wrecked Britain’s biggest detention centre. John Reid was forced to release the men back on to the streets after a wave of blazes and destruction lasting for more than 18 hours at Harmondsworth, in west London.