UK government accused of ‘delay and drift’ over adult social care talks

The government has been accused of “delay and drift” after it emerged crucial cross-party talks aimed at building political consensus for large-scale changes to adult social care have failed to get off the ground.The Liberal Democrats said not a single all-party meeting on the issue had taken place in the four months since the government announced ambitious plans to build a national care service to fix the UK’s growing social care crisis.Wes Streeting said in January that older people could be left without help and the NHS overwhelmed unless a national consensus could be reached on how to fix a system widely regarded as failing.The health secretary appointed Louise Casey to chair a commission on social care with a brief to build agreement between the main parties on how the changes could be taken forward. Streeting said past attempts at reform had stumbled because of “bad politics”

Trans activists accuse UK equalities chief of ‘overreach’ for suggesting bans

Trans rights campaigners have accused the head of the UK’s equalities regulator of “overreach” after she said trans women could be banned from women’s toilets, sports and hospital wards.Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling on Wednesday by the UK supreme court that under the Equality Act “woman” only referred to biological women was “enormously consequential”.Lady Falkner told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday morning the commission was working on a fresh code of practice on women’s spaces, which would have legal force, to confirm what the new rules would be.“We are going to have a new statutory code of practice, ‘statutory’ meaning it will be the law of the land, it will be interpreted by courts as the law of the land. We’re hoping we’re going to have that by the summer,” she said

How will UK judgment on legal definition of womanhood affect policy?

This week’s supreme court judgment will have significant implications across policy areas from sport, to prisons and the NHS. It will also impact how smaller organisations manage single-sex spaces and services.The Equality and Human Rights Commission has said it will publish a new statutory code of practice by the summer, so that it can offer advice to public bodies and organisations about how they may need to revise their policies.The supreme court was asked to decide on the proper interpretation of the 2010 Equality Act, which applies across Britain. The unanimous judgment that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law should add clarity to a number of disputes over single-sex spaces

Watchdog raises concern over DWP plan to deduct benefit overpayments

A government watchdog has criticised ministers for understating the impact on the poorest of plans to directly deduct benefit overpayments from people’s bank accounts.The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is legislating to require banks to withdraw cash from the accounts of claimants who have been overpaid due to fraud or error.Banks will be able to charge claimants for “reasonable” administration costs prior to making deductions. The government is yet to specify the value of the charges.After a review of the public authorities (fraud, error and recovery) bill, the Regulatory Policy Committee, an independent legislative watchdog, has said the impact on the most vulnerable has been understated in an impact assessment of the bill

New daily weight-loss pill shows success at clinical trial

A significant trial of a daily weight-loss pill has found that it helped people to shed the pounds and reduce their blood sugar levels, making it a contender to join the new wave of drugs that combat obesity and diabetes.People who took a 36mg pill of orforglipron lost an average of 7.3kg (16lbs) over nine months, according to results from a phase 3 clinical trial reported by the drug’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on Thursday.The trial, which enrolled 559 obese people with type 2 diabetes from the US, China, India, Japan and Mexico, also found that the daily pill reduced blood sugar levels, in some cases bringing them below the formal threshold for diabetes.Results from the trial have been eagerly awaited by health researchers

GPs in England will be able to claim £20 per new patient for seeking specialist advice

GPs in England will be paid £20 each time they decide not to send a patient to hospital under a government scheme to help reduce the NHS waiting list.Family doctors will be able to claim the money if they instead seek advice from a hospital doctor or specialist before a decision is taken about referring patients for tests and treatment in an out-of-hospital setting, such as a health clinic, or to see a community-based specialist.An estimated 2 million patients a year, many with common conditions such as ear wax, tinnitus and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), could get faster care because of the initiative, ministers say.It could also help women with menopausal symptoms avoid joining the already 580,000-strong waiting list for care from overloaded NHS gynaecological services.NHS England has allocated £80m to fund an expansion of the existing “advice and guidance” scheme so that it covers all of England from this month onwards