A Muslim policeman is suing Scotland Yard for race and religious discrimination after he was removed from an armed protection unit on the advice of MI5, it has emerged.

Against expectations, legislation to merge the health and social care inspectorates is about to be dropped from the Queen’s speech. It’s not too hard to guess why. The government has still not got over the embarrassment of accepting defeat on a plan to amalgamate the five criminal justice regulators

The number of people dying from alcoholism has more than doubled in 15 years and continues to rise, government statistics have revealed. In 1991 a total of 4,144 men and women died from drinkrelated illness in Britain, but by last year the annual figure had leapt to 8,386, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

{mosimage} Six local probation areas have been placed in “special measures” because they have been the worst performing in England and Wales, John Reid announced yesterday.

The six – London, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Thames Valley, Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire – were put into “capability reviews” because they were rated very poorly in the national performance tables for the supervision of offenders.

The disclosure comes as the home secretary announced he wanted to see voluntary organisations and the private sector given the chance to bid for £250m of probation service work each year – nearly a third of the total – from April 2008.

Mr Reid confirmed during a speech inside Wormwood Scrubs prison, west London, that he will introduce legislation shortly to make it compulsory for local probation services to put the work out to contract.

Bingo halls in west Cumbria are being targeted in a recruitment drive for social care workers. Cumbria County Council has joined forces with local independent care providers for the campaign. Leaflets and information will be handed out at bingo halls in Whitehaven and Workington over the weekend.

A Conservative councillor and former parliamentary candidate has been suspended from the party amid allegations that she sent a racist email. Councillor Ellenor Bland was reported to race relations watchdogs by Liberal Democrats who said the “offensive” message showed there were still “deeply unpleasant elements” in David Cameron’s Conservative Party.

Children from broken homes will be given free places at some of the most expensive boarding schools in the country under Government plans announced yesterday by Beverley Hughes, the children’s minister. The Milton Abbey school in Dorset, which charges up to £24,000-a-year, and Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire, which has annual fees of £23,280, are among the 51 schools expected to take part.

A mother-of-six from York has been jailed for seven years for turning her sister-in-law into a domestic slave. Veronica Sandeman, 26, originally from Dundee, was forced to work naked and beg for food, York Crown Court heard. Antonia Pearson-Gaballonie, of New Lane, Acomb, York, committed “callous and brutal acts” and was “manipulative and cunning”, said the judge.

The Parole Board came under fire after it emerged 87 serious criminals released early from life sentences were sent back to jail last year because they committed more crimes. The shocking figure – which covers former prisoners who are supposed to be under the strictest supervision from officers – includes one case of murder.

Residents are celebrating after winning a two year fight to shut down a mental health rehabilitation centre on their doorstep. A planning inspector has ruled that private firm Cambian Healthcare must stop its current operations at The Aspens in Mexborough, following a four-day public inquiry last month.