Section:GDN 1N PaGe:27 Edition Date:190830 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/8/2019 20:00 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Friday 30 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
27PM pressed to talk
to BBC about TV
licences for over-75s
PA MediaBoris Johnson has been urged to take
action on TV licences for the over-75s
after he called on the BBC to “cough
up” and fund universal entitlement.way forward that allows our over-75s
to retain their free licences.”
The Tory election manifesto in 2017
pledged to protect free licences. But
the benefi t will be restricted to those
on pension credit from June, as the
BBC has said it cannot aff ord to take
on the financial burden from the
government.
The move will strip 3.7 million pen-
sioners of their free licence. Earlier this
week Johnson said: “The BBC received
a settlement that was conditional upon
their paying for TV licences for the
over-75s. They should cough up.”Caroline Abrahams, the charity direc-
tor at Age UK, said the government as
well as the BBC will be held “respon-
sible for fi nding a resolution ”.
She said in a letter to the prime min-
ister: “We agree with you that free TV
licences for over-75s should continue
but we very much doubt that asking
the BBC to ‘cough up’ is likely to be a
realistic solution, since the corpora-
tion is adamant that it cannot aff ord
the £500m required ...
“We would very much hope that the
corporation and your government will
sit down together now and discuss aFlying start
Racing
pigeons are
released for a
training fl ight
over Dover.
During the
second world
war birds of
prey along
the coast
were culled
so pigeons –
thousands of
them given to
the war eff ort
by British
fanciers –
could fl y safely
with messages.PHOTOGRAPH: GARETH
FULLER/PA WIREannounced a review into the policy
of allowing some prisoners with a fi xed
sentence to be released on licence mid-
way through their term on condition of
continued good behaviour and to look
into potentially longer sentences for
violent and sexual off ences.
A total of 83,116 people are cur-
rently in custody , 82,905 of whom
are inmates in jails across England
and Wales, while 211 are detained in
prison service-managed immigra-
tion removal centres. Over the next
fi ve years, the prison population is pro-
jected to increase slightly from the low
in 2021 to 82,000 in 2024.
Frances Crook , chief executive of
the Howard League for Penal Reform,
said the projection was likely to be
wide of the mark: “The prison pop-
ulation is a political decision, not an
inevitability. When politicians exploit
crime and sentencing for their own
purposes, the prison population
infl a t e s. ”giving children and young people of
all ages the best possible education .”
A cross-party group of 93 MPs has
signed a letter to the chancellor, Sajid
Javid , urging him to prioritise educa-
tion funding for 16- to 18-year-olds.
Signatories include Robert Halfon , the
chair of the education select commit-
tee, and several former Conservative
ministers. The letter calls on the chan-
cellor to raise the base rate of funding
from £4,000 to at least £4,760 per stu-
dent, rising in line with infl ation.
“It is extraordinary that 16 to 18 edu-
cation has for so long been starved of
cash,” said Halfon. “Funding this age
group properly must sit at the heart of
a 10-year plan and be a major priority
in the forthcoming spending round.”
There have been calls for education
funding to be looked at in a similar way
to the NHS but according to those at
the meeting, a 10-year plan may not
be in Williamson’s gift.
Geoff Barton , the general secretary
of the Association of School and Col-
lege Leaders, said: “Warm words and
lingering promises simply won’t do ...
There needs to be an urgent response
to the current funding shortfall .”
Another letter to the DfE high-
lighted the crisis in S end funding in
the capital. Signed by 20 boroughs, it
says there was a £77m shortfall in fund-
ing for S end services across London
last year. The lead signatory, Danny
Hassell, Tower Hamlets council’s cab-
inet member for children, schools and
young people, said: “With demand
for services rapidly increasing but
funding at a standstill, we have now
reached a tipping point .”
A DfE spokesperson said spending
on children and young people with
the most complex S end has increased
from £5bn in 2013 to over £6bn this
year. “The prime minister has also
made clear that we will increase min-
imum levels of per pupil funding in
primary and secondary schools. ”4,000
The number by which the prison
population in June 2023 is expected
to undershoot initial predictions‘Warm words won’t
do. There needs to be
an urgent response to
the funding shortfall’Geoff Barton
School leaders’ union
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