NHS makes morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England

The NHS has made the morning-after pill available for free across pharmacies in England in an effort to reduce a “postcode lottery” of access to emergency contraception.Almost 10,000 pharmacies are now able to offer the pill without charge, saving those in need of free emergency contraception from having to visit their GP or to get an appointment at a sexual health clinic.Some pharmacies were previously charging as much as £30 for emergency oral contraception.The NHS’s national clinical director for women’s health, Dr Sue Mann, said the expansion was “one of the biggest changes to sexual health services since the 1960s” and “a gamechanger in making reproductive healthcare more easily accessible for women”.“Instead of trying to search for women’s services or explain their needs, from today women can just pop into their local pharmacy and get the oral emergency contraceptive pill free of charge without needing to make an appointment,” she said

Five more prisoners freed in error after sex offender’s release from Essex jail

Five other prisoners have also been released by mistake in the same week a convicted Ethiopian sex offender was allowed to walk free from an Essex jail, says the prison officers’ union.The disclosure of further mistakes highlights the intense pressure on prison staff, according to the Prison Officers’ Association (POA).Last Friday, Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford after being sentenced to 12 months in jail in September for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl while living in an asylum hotel in Epping.After a two-day manhunt he was tracked down in north London and returned to detention.His mistaken release inflamed public anger, given his case had already caused unrest across England and Wales over the summer, with many demonstrators rallying against asylum accommodation and voicing anti-immigration sentiments

EHRC guidance will help businesses comply with the law on sex and gender | Letter

I can reassure businesses that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) takes how equality law is applied in everyday situations extremely seriously (Dozens of Labour MPs warn of chaos for firms over gender recognition advice, 23 October). It’s our job to accurately explain how to implement the law in practice and we have taken every opportunity to do so since the supreme court clarified the meaning of “sex” in the Equality Act in April.Our updated code of practice for service providers, submitted to the UK government seven weeks ago, will help balance the rights of service users and protect everyone from discrimination.These updates haven’t been rushed. Our consultation on the updated code heard from more than 50,000 organisations and individuals, including businesses, whose views helped make the guidance as clear as possible

Gambling does not cause any ‘social ills’, lobbyist tells incredulous MPs

The boss of the UK’s main betting and gaming lobby group has told MPs that there is no “social ill with gambling” as she warned against imposing higher taxes on the sector in the November budget.Grainne Hurst, the chief executive of the Betting and Gaming Council, repeatedly made the statement to parliament’s Treasury select committee on Tuesday, where she also claimed that higher taxes would result in thousands of job losses and push punters into using hidden market services.Hurst made the comments as part of the gambling industry’s lobbying against calls to increase taxes on the sector – including on products seen as the most risky for creating problem gamblers, such as online casinos and the betting machines that fill high street adult gaming centres (AGCs).During an at-times testy session, the committee member John Glen said to Hurst: “This issue has become pertinent in the run-up to a budget because people and government [are] frustrated that the taxation of something that does have a significant social ill for those individuals isn’t properly addressed in our tax system.”Hurst responded: “I would disagree that there are social ills as a result of it

Bankrupt Woking to get £500m bailout in Surrey council shake-up

Ministers have agreed to give bankrupt Woking council an “unprecedented” £500m taxpayer bailout under government plans to merge a dozen local authorities in Surrey.In a historic intervention, the communities secretary, Steve Reed, said the government would repay a significant chunk of the debt owed by the former Tory-run local authority.The bailout helps to smooth over the creation of two new councils in Surrey, in effect splitting the county in two. The plan will result in the merger of 11 district and borough authorities with the county council to create two new “mega council” unitary authorities.Labour is planning to push ahead with the most far-reaching reorganisation of local government in England for decades, as part of a “devolution revolution” to find efficiency savings and spearhead economic growth

Black women with fibroids face delays and poor care in the UK, says report

Black women in the UK who experience symptoms caused by fibroids are facing delays, poor care and dismissal by healthcare professionals according to a parliamentary report.Published by the all-party parliamentary group on black health, the report included a survey of more than 500 women regarding their experience of uterine fibroids, with more than 70% of respondents being Black British.The survey found that more than a quarter (27%) of respondents were not offered any treatment after being diagnosed with fibroids, and more than 50% also had experienced delays to their diagnosis of at least two years, while 26% of respondents had lived with fibroids for more than 10 years.Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths that develop in or around the womb. Serious cases can be linked to very heavy or long menstrual periods, pain, pelvic pressure and infertility and an increased risk of miscarriage