Motor neurone disease patients in England die waiting for home adaptations, campaigners say

People with motor neurone disease (MND) are dying waiting for grants to make their homes fit to live in due to a huge backlogs in applications, campaigners have said.The MND Association has found it takes an average of 375 days for people in England to get essential home adaptations through the government’s disabled facilities grant (DFG) due to growing delays in the system.But a third of people with MND die within a year of diagnosis, and about half die within two years, meaning they are spending the last months of their lives fighting for support, with many dying in unsafe and unsuitable homes.The charity’s chief executive, Tanya Curry, said: “For someone whose condition may progress dramatically in a matter of months, waiting a year or more for vital adaptations is equivalent to being denied them altogether.”Nicole Foster, 56, was diagnosed with MND in May and has spent her entire life’s savings, as well as money fundraised on her behalf, replacing her bathroom with an accessible one after she was told she faced a two to three-year year wait for DFG funding

People in poorest areas of England ‘more likely to need emergency care for lung conditions’

People from the poorest backgrounds in England with serious lung conditions are more likely to be admitted to hospital for emergency care than their more affluent counterparts, according to research.Analysis of NHS admissions data for November by Asthma + Lung UK found people from the most deprived backgrounds in England were 56% more likely to be admitted for emergency care, while 62% were more likely to be readmitted within 39 days of an emergency admission, which is linked with an increased chance of dying.The research also found that people in deprived areas were almost twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for a respiratory condition.One expert said the findings should act as a wake-up call to end the “postcode lottery”.The highest rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) admissions per population are in deprived areas including Blackpool, Manchester, Hastings and Burnley

Prosecutions for strangulation in England and Wales increase sixfold in three years

The number of suspects charged for strangulation and suffocation in England and Wales has increased almost sixfold in the three years since the offence was first introduced, Crown Prosecution Service data has revealed.Brought in under the Domestic Abuse Act, which came into force in 2022, the legislation closed a gap in the existing law, giving courts much greater sentencing powers.Kate Brown, the CPS’s lead prosecutor for domestic abuse, said that previously there had been “a lot of cases for which it didn’t seem like we had the right offence”, and the new legislation marked “a significant shift in recognising the serious nature of the offence”.“There were some thoughts that it might not be necessary and that the act of strangulation or suffocation could be covered by other offences,” she said, but added that the options previously open to prosecutors “didn’t really hit the mark in terms of the seriousness, because strangulation is a really serious offence”.Suffocation and strangulation carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, whereas previously, except for the most serious cases which could be charged as grievous bodily harm or attempted murder, prosecutors were having to charge offenders with common assault, which carries a much lesser maximum sentence of six months

Britons reported to be drinking less, as data shows consumption at record low

People in Britain are drinking less alcohol than in previous years, according to reports.The average UK adult consumed 10.2 alcoholic drinks a week last year, the lowest figure since data collection began in 1990 and a decline of more than a quarter from the peak of 14 two decades ago, according to figures published in the FT from research company IWSR.However, total abstention is not on the rise despite the decline in consumption, which suggests more moderate drinking habits have driven the trend.“The population is ageing and older consumers physiologically can’t drink as much,” Marten Lodewijks, the IWSR president, told the newspaper

Resident doctors say they will resume talks to avoid further strikes with ‘can-do spirit’

Resident doctors have said they will approach talks with Wes Streeting with a “can-do spirit” to avoid further strikes in the new year, as their five-day action ended on Monday morning.The British Medical Association called on the health secretary to come to the table with the same “constructive” attitude, saying the tone of 11th-hour talks before their stoppage had been encouraging but too late to avoid the strike in England.Streeting also signalled his determination to get back to the talks, saying he did “not want to see a single day of industrial action in the NHS in 2026”, and that he would “be doing everything I can to make this a reality”.“My door remains open, as it always has done, and I’m determined to resume discussions with the BMA in the new year to put an end to these damaging cycles of disruption,” he said.Streeting and Keir Starmer have taken a tough line towards the strike, with the prime minister saying it was “beyond belief” that it should go ahead when the flu-hit NHS was facing its worst crisis since Covid

Starmer has no coherent social mobility plan, says top government adviser

Keir Starmer has no coherent strategy to tackle entrenched inequalities harming the life chances of millions of people, the government’s social mobility commissioner has said.A report warned last week that young adults in Britain’s former industrial heartlands were being left behind as a result of failed or abandoned promises by successive governments.The Social Mobility Commission (SMC), a government advisory body, said big cities such as Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol were starting to thrive but that opportunities were “overconcentrated”.In a Guardian interview, the commission’s chair, Alun Francis, urged Starmer to outline a bold vision to tackle “the defining social mobility challenge of our generation”.He said: “We have a government that talks quite a lot about social mobility, but mainly about individuals – often about [the] social mobility of themselves or their colleagues … But what we don’t have is a coherent approach to social mobility as a useful concept that you can build a strategy around