How to make early prison release work | Letters

Sir Mark Rowley is completely justified in his fears for public safety (UK’s most senior police officer criticises early prison release scheme, 28 May). We confuse the lines between punishment, prison sentencing, deterrence and the desire to prevent reoffending.We can readily identify those who are less likely to reoffend – those who are over 25 and no longer testosterone-fuelled, those who do not have a drug habit, have a home and family to go to, and a means of earning an income.We know, too, that if prison works as a deterrence, its greatest impact is in the first few days of being there. Thereafter, life becomes institutionalised

UK cancer survival rate doubles since 1970s amid ‘golden age’, report says

The proportion of people surviving cancer in the UK has doubled since the 1970s amid a “golden age” of progress in diagnosis and treatment, a report says.Half of those diagnosed will now survive for 10 years or more, up from 24%, according to the first study of 50 years of data on cancer mortality and cases. The rate of people dying from cancer has fallen by 23% since the 1970s, from 328 in every 100,000 people to 252.But cancer remains the UK’s biggest killer, the report by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) says.Progress has not been equal across all cancers, and women have not reaped as many benefits as men

Cancer experts warn of coffee enemas and juice diets amid rise in misinformation

Cancer patients are snubbing proven treatments in favour of quackery such as coffee enemas and raw juice diets amid an “alarming” increase in misinformation on the web, doctors have said.Some were dying needlessly or seeing tumours spread as a result, oncologists said. They raised their concerns at the world’s largest cancer conference in Chicago, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco).Dr Fumiko Chino, a cancer researcher and assistant professor at MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, co-authored a paper presented in Chicago that said cancer misinformation had “acutely worsened in the past decade”.With more people being diagnosed amid a growing and ageing global population, misleading or false information about cancer had become a significant public health concern, the study said

Disabled woman killed herself after DWP mistakenly withdrew benefits

A disabled woman killed herself after her benefits were mistakenly stopped leaving notes saying she had no food, could not pay bills and was in “debt, debt, debt”.At a rare second inquest into the death of Jodey Whiting, her mother blamed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for her suicide in 2017.Joy Dove told the hearing in Middlesbrough: “I know for a fact. It was the DWP that caused it … I’m sorry, I’ve got to say it.”A coroner, Clare Bailey, recorded a conclusion of suicide which, she said, had been precipitated by the mistaken withdrawal of benefits by the DWP

Issues in social housing that Labour must tackle | Letters

The housing ombudsman’s latest report recorded a significant increase in social housing repairs and maintenance complaints since 2020 (Housing ombudsman for England warns of ‘simmering anger’ over living conditions, 29 May). We as a sector support the ombudsman’s campaign to raise awareness among tenants of routes to redress in cases where issues with their homes have not been resolved. It is also important to look at these figures in context.The increase represents one complaint upheld by the ombudsman for every 1,000 social homes. With many more residents now aware of the ombudsman’s service following an ad campaign, care must be taken when drawing any conclusions from the data

Police launch corporate manslaughter inquiry into Nottingham hospital trust

An NHS trust is being investigated on suspicion of corporate manslaughter after the deaths and severe harm of potentially more than 2,000 babies and women in Nottinghamshire.Police are reviewing more than 200 alleged failures of maternity care at Nottingham university hospitals (NUH) NHS trust but this figure could rise to about 2,500.NUH is at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in the history of the NHS led by the respected midwife Donna Ockenden, who is examining deaths and harm spanning more than a decade at the Queen’s medical centre and Nottingham City hospital.Nottinghamshire police said on Monday they were investigating possible corporate manslaughter at the trust.Det Supt Matthew Croome said the alleged offences related to “circumstances where an organisation has been grossly negligent in the management of its activities, which has then led to a person’s death”