Cut teachers’ hours
DAMIAN Hinds will today pledge to cut teachers’ hours and workload in a bid to tackle staff shortages in schools.
In his first major speech, the Education Secretary will promise school leaders that the Government will “strip away” pointless tasks to allow teachers to “focus on what actually matters”.
Mr Hinds will acknowledge that rising pupil numbers are making recruiting and retaining staff difficult for schools. TROOPS are being sent to assist police investigating the nerve agent poisoning of former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Counter-terrorism police asked for military assistance to remove vehicles and objects from the scene in the city centre, much of which has been cordoned off over contamination fears.
Around 180 troops, including Royal Marines, RAF and chemical specialists, are understood to have been deployed.
The Metropolitan Police said the units were called in because they had “the necessary capability and expertise”.
A spokesman said: “The public should not be alarmed and the public health advice remains the same.
“Military assistance will continue as necessary during this investigation.”
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has visited the city centre and the hospital where Mr Skripal, 66, and Yulia, 33, remain after they were targeted in an “outrageous” chemical attack.
Ms Rudd said the pair are in a “very serious” condition five days after they were discovered slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Counter-terrorism police launched an attempted murder inquiry after Mr Skripal and his daughter were exposed to a nerve agent.
Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was part of the initial response by authorities, is also in hospital.
Lord Blair, former Met Commissioner suggested the seriously ill detective had attended Mr Skripal’s home.
He said: “There obviously are some indications the officer, and I’m very sorry that he has been injured, has actually been to the house, whereas there was a doctor who looked after the patients in the open who hasn’t been affected at all.”
Speaking after meeting Wiltshire Police Temporary Chief Constable Kier Pritchard in Salisbury, Ms Rudd said: “Still very serious for the two people who were indeed the subject of this outrageous attack and for the police officer, I understand it’s still serious, although he’s still conversing and engaging.”
The nerve agent used in the attack was identified in scientific tests by Government experts earlier this week but it has yet to be named publicly.
Ms Rudd declined to reveal any further details about the substance, how it was deployed, or who is suspected of carrying out the poisoning.
The circumstances of the attack, and its echoes of the fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, have prompted questions over the Government’s response if the evidence points to a state-sponsored assassination plot. Police said 21 people had been seen for medical treatment since the incident. Russia has denied responsibility for the attack, which comes seven years after Mr Skripal was released from the country as part of a spy swap with the US.
He was convicted in his home country in 2006 of passing state secrets to MI6.