Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Free nursery care doesn’t apply to 58%
MORE than half a million children fail to qualify for the flagship Tory “30 hours’ free childcare” scheme.
Labour branded it “unfair” after ministers said 58% of three and four year olds do not benefit.
The policy aimed at “all working parents” was a key 2015 Tory election boast.
But parents must work at least 16 hours a week to qualify, barring many parttime and zero-hour staff.
Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi’s figures mean 540,000 children are affected. “We estimate 58% are not eligible,” he said.
Shadow Early Years Minister Tracy Brabin said: “Many children missing out would benefit most.”
Tory MP Nicky Morgan, said many parents training for work are also excluded.
KILLED KILLED KILLED
KNIFE crime rocketed by nearly a quarter last year to the highest rate since records began.
Police recorded almost 40,000 knife offences in 2017 – nearly five an hour on average.
That was up 22% on 2016, when 32,468 were recorded, and is the highest number registered since comparable records started in 2010.
The figures piled pressure on under-fire Home Secretary Amber Rudd, amid a rise in violent crime after years of Tory cuts to police forces and youth services.
It came as Scotland Yard admitted a third of murders in the capital last year remain unsolved.
Only 66.67% of them resulted in charges, down from 78.22% the previous year, according to figures from the Metropolitan Police yesterday. Before that the rate had consistently been over 90% since 1999, when it was 84%.
Increases in homicide, robbery and “high-harm” violent offences were also recorded by forces in England and Wales. Firearm offences were up 11% to 6,604.
Shadow Policing Minister Louise Haigh lashed ministers for “creating the conditions for crime to thrive”.
She said: “The Home Secretary has comprehensively failed to protect the public. Our communities are now exposed and we’ve a Government unwilling or unable to put it right.”
Duncan Ball, knife crime lead of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “I don’t think it’s directly linked to drop in [police] officer numbers. However, if you had more officers clearly you could have greater presence on the streets in certain areas.”
A lack of youth services “potentially deprives us of opportunities to create diversions” away from knife crime, he said. Last year £416million was spent on youth services, down from £622million three years ago, official figures show.
The number of homicides rose by 54, or 9%, to a total of 653, when cases linked to the Hillsborough disaster and the 2017 terror attacks were excluded.
There were 1.3 million crimes in the “violence against the person” category – a rise of a fifth on the previous year. Overall 5.4 million offences were recorded, a 13% year-on-year rise.
Recorded burglaries and robberies were up 9% and 33% respectively.
Those killed in this year’s knife crime
SHADOW POLICING MINISTER