30/03/2017 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at ten: How ministers plan to transfer thousands of pieces

of European Union legislation into British law.

The parliamentary archives at Westminster will make room

for new additions to the British statute book, as the law binding

the UK to the European Union is set to be repealed.

We want a smooth and orderly exit and the Great Repeal Bill

It will provide clarity and certainty for businesses,

workers and consumers across the United Kingdom

But there are concerns that the process ahead could weaken

the rights built up and guaranteed in EU law over four decades.

All rights and protections derived from EU law must be

All rights and protections - no limitations, no qualifications,

And in Edinburgh, the day after the Brexit process started,

Scotland's First Minister signs her letter demanding

We'll have more from Edinburgh, Westminster and Brussels

on the questions being asked about the Brexit process.

The little boy who died after his surgery was repeatedly delayed -

two doctors talk about the situation in one of Britain's biggest

The women who could have been suicide bombers -

we report from Nigeria on the brutal tactics of the militant

In the mountains of North Wales, a helicopter crash has claimed

the lives of this couple and three other members of the same family.

And we return to Homs - with the Syrian conflict

in its seventh year - to meet some of the city's children.

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News: Manchester City Women

A day after the Brexit process formally started,

ministers have revealed their plans for converting thousands

of items of European Union legislation into British law.

They have announced what they call a Great Repeal Bill,

which they say will provide "clarity and certainty" on what

But critics warn it could allow changes in the law without proper

parliamentary scrutiny, and a weakening of

Our political editor Laura Kuenssberg reports.

Locked inside the tower, preserved for safekeeping.

Scrolls and scrolls and scrolls of the laws of our land.

But this one that has shaped so much for decades will be disappearing.

Repealed, rolled back, the act that took us into the EU.

He wants to pass instead a huge set of new laws that will put

the thousands and thousands and thousands of European measures

which currently govern us on the statute books.

As we exit the EU and seek a new, deep and special

partnership with the EU, we do so from a position

where we have the same standards and rules.

But we ensure we deliver on our promise to end the supremacy

In other words, on the day powers come back to Westminster

from the EU, the laws will not just disappear.

The Repeal Bill will essentially cut and paste the lot

But Labour is worried the Tories might take the chance

All rights and protections derived from EU law must be

converted into domestic law, no limitations.

As sovereign power, we will indeed have the power to amend,

repeal or improve all of this ghastly EU legislation.

If he panders too much to the secret and quiet, or not so secret,

agenda of the barmy-army Eurosceptics behind him,

he will not get the level of co-operation he otherwise

would when he talks about pragmatism.

With all law under the Union Flag, the Government has promised again

But as we leave, it's politicians abroad who could really

EU leaders were not exactly sunning themselves

Hunkered in the gloom of the conference centre instead.

Firm and downbeat about the prospect of a happy ending.

Brexit has made us, the community of 27, more determined

We will remain determined and united in the future.

Ministers know they can't just breeze through

It is more than just tidying up a few laws, but an exercise

As we've heard, after Britain leaves the European Union in two years'

time, politicians in the UK will have the power to change any

of the laws that have been transferred from the EU.

The Confederation of British Industry says there could be

opportunities for more flexible regulations, but unions say

there is a danger that workers' rights could be weakened.

Our business editor Simon Jack has been looking at the likely

There isn't a business or a worker in the UK that European regulation

Rules on the chemicals that are going to our

drugs, the components that go into our planes, and how financial

Once we leave, can the government free

business from what some of them, like this steel factory in Dorset,

It's easier for us to export to Mongolia than it

And the EU has made our product more expensive.

We want to protect workers' rights, we want

to ensure good health and safety, but we have got to get rid of the

enormous amount of paperwork and cumbersome regulation that gives no

advantage to the business, the customer or indeed the consumer.

But some industries are steeped in decades of heavy regulation

for good reason, and it's unlikely there will be any rapid change.

I think it's somewhat of an illusion to think

that we're going to see immediate benefits.

Actually, we are suffering from uncertainty.

The Great Repeal Bill gives us some degree of

certainty, but a lot of devil lies in the detail.

So this is actually about life and death.

It's making available products for critical care for patients, to keep

them healthy, to treat cancer, to control epilepsy.

Get it wrong and we're going to see some very

Even fairly simple companies will never be free of EU

regulation if they want to sell their products there.

65% of our bikes are sold within the EU.

So to adhere to two different sets of

rules, the UK and the European one, really doesn't make sense.

We'l have one bike which adheres to the

highest standards there are out there.

Not all regulation comes from Brussels.

Some laws are made right here in Whitehall.

Businesses are never quite sure where EU regulations stop

This is meant to give some clarity, bring it all

together for the sake of consistency.

And over time we can decide ourselves to get rid of the

But, say some, one person's pesky regulation is

another person's important safeguard.

We already know some employers' lobbies, and also some

politicians, are calling for Brexit to create the opportunity for there

But what we are calling on the government

to do is to act on the commitments made to protect and to

Businesses across all sectors have begged for

This colossal cut and paste exercise of

EU law into UK law will provide some.

But it may not lead to the huge and sudden bonfire of

regulation some hoped and some feared Brexit would deliver.

Two things expected tomorrow - the President of the European

Council, Donald Tusk, will talk about his draft guidelines

We'll be talking to our Europe editor Katya Adler in a moment.

But tomorrow will also see the delivery of a letter

Let's talk about that with our Scotland editor, Sarah Smith.

The crucial letter makes a formal request to the Prime Minister on

independence. The Scottish Government have released a picture

tonight of Nicola Sturgeon sitting on the sofa, Hearst shoes kicked

off, her legs tucked underneath her, as she's putting the final touches

to the letter. Couldn't be more different than the very formal

portrait of Theresa May signing the Article 50 letter in Downing Street.

Very different images, and believe me, that is no accident. But while

the picture might look quite casual, the contents of this letter are not.

We are deeply serious. In it, the First Minister asserts that she has

a clear mandate to ask for another referendum since the Scottish

parliament voted to back her arduous day, and she repeats her request for

a vote in 18-24 months' time. She says by of the Brexit deal will be

clear. But she knows what the Prime Minister is going to say in reply.

The Prime Minister has said she doesn't think now is the time to

talk about another referendum. She's not prepared to enter into any

discussions about a possible referendum until after the UK has

left the EU, and maybe for some years after that.

Let's go to Brussels and Katya Adler will stop Donald Tusk's statement

tomorrow, an idea of what the guidelines will be. What do you make

of that? Actually this is a very big moment in a momentous week. The week

that the UK began formal proceedings to leave the EU. Tomorrow, we will

indeed get a clearer idea about the EU's position, when it comes to

Brexit. These are just draft guidelines. They'll be expanded on

and finalised at a summit of EU leaders who are in Brussels at the

end of next month. But we will get a much clearer idea of where they are

going, and crucially, after months of veiled threats and teeth baring

between two sides, we will now have two clear and cool documents on the

table. One from Theresa May, delivered here to the EU yesterday,

and the other, the draft guidelines from EU. We'll be able to compare

and contrast them, see where there may be easy agreement and whether

two sides will probably fall out. We don't expect any big surprises

tomorrow. The European Commission and key leaders like Angela Merkel

have been pretty clear. For example, no cherry picking when it comes to

the single market. They want to make headway with divorce proceedings

before talking about trade in the future relationship. For the EU,

this is a tricky balancing act. It wants to keep Britain close for

economic, political, security reasons, but on the other hand it

wants to make this process unpalatable enough to put other EU

member states off wanting to leave as well. So for the EU this isn't

all about Brexit. It's about safeguarding European unity. Katya

Adler, thank you, in Brussels and Sarah Smith, a in Edinburgh.

Senior staff at one of the UK's biggest children's hospitals have

warned that pressure to cut waiting lists is putting the safety

They say the death of one little boy - whose urgent care was delayed -

Two senior surgeons at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital have

told the BBC that the focus on reducing waiting lists has taken

The hospital has denied that pressure is being

Our health editor Hugh Pym has this exclusive report.

He was admitted to hospital for emergency surgery,

which should have been straightforward, but after

His family say their lives were torn apart.

You don't expect to take a baby to hospital and come away without them.

His grandmother Julie spent a harrowing week at

Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in April last year.

Nobody would listen to how much pain he was in,

His mother was too upset to be interviewed.

Doctors saying he'd needed an operation for a hernia in his

He became critically ill and never recovered.

He was basically put in a room and left.

And all we got, nearly everyday, was, "He's not having

the operation today, he's not having

Surgeons at the hospital have told the BBC that Kayden's death

They said for some time before that they were warning

management about the shortage of operating theatres.

Basem Khalil, a paediatric surgeon, says there was a top-down focus

on bringing down waiting lists for planned or elective surgery,

One of the consultant surgeons had offered

to cancel his elective lists, so with elective patients on it,

so that he could do Kayden as an emergency, but did not receive

That doctor, he believes, felt he didn't have the authority

to change his planned surgery to accommodate Kayden.

The hospital did not take any substantive actions with regards

to warnings that were given by myself or my colleagues.

I feel that the children are being let down, that

despite the amazing work that we are capable

of doing and are doing, we have been let down,

I think that is completely unacceptable.

Another surgeon, who retired in January this year,

was highly critical of the culture at the hospital.

I was part of the group that wrote a letter to the medical director,

saying that the surgical services were unsafe last year.

Simple answer, they haven't responded to it.

I think it's an indictment of the management.

The medical director of the Trust which runs the hospital

We let Kayden down on this occasion and I'm bitterly sorry about that.

What do you say to the suggestion that you're prioritising routine

elective care and that urgent cases sometimes suffer?

There is no instruction or edict gone in this organisation that

prioritises elective over emergency surgery.

The hospital has apologised to Kayden's family and said

the delays that led to his death were unacceptable.

But Julie says they still feel their loss as acutely as ever.

I listen to my daughter and then I cry because what my

She'll ring me and she'll say, "I can't do this no more," you know,

or she'll ring me and say she's going to take her own life

There's pressure across the NHS, juggling the need to provide

urgent care and coping with rising waiting lists.

The hospital defends its safety culture, but after Kayden's death,

two surgeons felt they had to come to the BBC to voice concerns.

Tonight, health regulators confirmed they were taking a close look

Five members of the same family have died in a helicopter crash

The privately-owned aircraft went missing yesterday as it was flying

Search teams found the wreckage this morning.

It was in this remote mountainous area of Snowdonia where rescue teams

found the wreckage of the helicopter and five bodies.

Volunteers had combed the peaks and valleys

in appalling weather conditions, looking for the aircraft.

Police blocked off the few narrow lanes that lead up into the Rhinog

mountains north of Dolgellau and to the east of the

There is very difficult and hazardous terrain involved

and it's in the area of south Snowdonia.

A crash that has been located, along with five people,

We are now preserving the scene for a joint investigation

The BBC understands those on board were husband and wife

Ruth and Kevin Burke, and three other members

The couple lived in the village of Hulcote near Milton Keynes.

A family spokesman has revealed that six children

This is the type of helicopter involved, a twin engined Squirrel.

It took off from near Luton yesterday lunchtime,

but failed to arrive at its destination in Ireland.

It was initially thought it had crashed into the sea,

but it was then established it had disappeared from radar

Police described search conditions as atrocious,

with visibility down to less than ten metres in places.

The aircraft was eventually found by a volunteer mountain rescue

team in a remote spot, some miles from here.

Tonight, police have said they may have to suspend their operation

to recover the victims, because of the difficult terrain

they are having to work in, and a forecast of more bad weather.

Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram has caused

persistent turmoil in Africa's most populous country.

It has spent the past seven years carrying out bombings,

assassinations and abductions, with the aim of overthrowing

the government and creating an Islamic State.

The militants, who've now been pushed out of several towns

and cities by the Nigerian army, have intensified a suicide

bombing campaign, often involving women and children.

The BBC's Clive Myrie has been to Gwoza, the former

stronghold of the group, in north-east Nigeria.

You may find some of the images in his report distressing.

Bandit country, with an unseen enemy happy to die.

Our heavily-armed military convoy snakes around fresh craters,

blasted by roadside bombs just hours before we arrived.

The shots a warning for anyone lurking in the bush.

We stop at the city of Gwoza, once the base of operations

For eight hellish months, they held sway here.

By the side of the local abattoir, bodies piled up every day.

Hundreds died, mostly men and boys, often beheaded.

Women were raped and forced to marry fighters.

It took a major assault by the Nigerian army

Boko Haram had hoped to make this city the capital

of a new Islamic State run under strict Sharia Law.

But it's the Nigerian military who are in control,

and Boko Haram have taken to the hills.

This is the mosque where the group's leader used to pray,

extolling the virtues of his warped brand of Islam, in sync

with so-called Islamic State, to whom he pledged allegiance.

But forced back into the bush by Nigerian troops, he is having

to rely more now on fighters desperate to get to heaven,

and is mobilising scores of women suicide bombers.

Boko Haram promised paradise if these three teenagers

But the police convinced them life was worth living.

Abducted and drugged, this girl's target was a petrol station.

This picture taken minutes after she was due to die,

This woman was married to a Boko Haram fighter

who told her she should die for the cause.

TRANSLATION: They are calling the women and saying

they are going to teach them how to read the Koran.

Then they tell them to go and detonate a bomb.

They tell them if they do that, they will go straight to paradise.

Some women would rather do it and die than to

My husband asked me to do it, but I said no.

So everyone now poses a threat and can be searched,

especially women travelling from rural areas.

There are claims the military has a shoot to kill policy if a woman,

even with children, refuses to stop at a checkpoint.

These distressing images filmed by an eyewitness show the aftermath

Two people have blown themselves up, but a third

Locals urge the soldier at the bottom left of

The crowds now worry that the bomber is heading their way.

The frequency of such attacks has unnerved the security forces,

who maintain they do act within the law to save lives.

We have not had any incident where a woman and her child

approaches one of our locations and is challenged and is fired at.

But there are allegations from Amnesty International that

Nigerian security forces have illegally detained and executed

hundreds of people accused of links to Boko Haram.

And that government-sanctioned vigilante groups have also carried

out human-rights abuses against Islamist suspects.

Boko Haram once controlled an area the size of Belgium.

Their fighters may now be in retreat.

A brief look at some of the day's other other news stories.

A mother and her 13-year-old son have died after being stabbed

at their home in Stourbridge in the West Midlands.

Police say a man in his 20s who's known to the family

Ken Livingstone has dismissed criticism of his controversial

comments about Hitler on the first day of a Labour Party

The former Mayor of London could be expelled from the party tomorrow,

over his claim that Hitler had supported Zionism.

Today, he insisted that there had been "real collaboration"

between Nazis and Zionists before the Second World War.

Controversial tests taken by seven-year-olds in England's

schools could be abandoned under new Government plans.

Teachers and some parents have complained the assessments put too

Last year, hundreds of parents took their children out of school

Health officials have published new guidelines for the amount

of sugar that should be in everyday foods, from breakfast

The aim is to cut the amount of sugar children consume by 20%

Public Health England says children are currently consuming three times

A coroner has opened and adjourned the inquest into the death

of the man who carried out the Westminster terror

Khalid Masood killed three pedestrians by driving into them

on Westminster Bridge, and fatally stabbed a policeman.

Even though Khalid Masood murdered four people

in his attack on Westminster, there must be an inquest,

Today, in a brief opening hearing, the coroner was told how he had

driven onto the pavement three times as he crossed the River

Detective Superintendent John Crossley told the coroner that

after fatally injuring three people on Westminster Bridge, Khalid Masood

came round to Carriage Gates and attacked one police officer

Another officer shot him, and he was declared dead

At the postmortem, the cause of death was described

Videos filmed at the time recorded three shots,

As she closed today's hearing, the Westminster coroner

Dr Fiona Wilcox said, "I take a moment to pass my sympathies

to the family of Khalid Masood, who are also victims

Masood spent his last night at this Brighton hotel.

Debbie Hall checked him in, and was one of the last people

to see him the next morning as he dropped off his key and left.

In the booking comments after he had left, I actually put, "Nice man."

He was, in fact, a very dark person who was about to cause a lot

Many of the survivors of Khalid Masood's attack are

This was Melissa Cochran, whose husband Kurt was killed,

surrounded by her family, who have flown over from America.

As the war in Syria enters its seventh year,

more than five million Syrians have fled the violence in their homeland.

The city of Homs, where the rebel uprising began, is now

almost completely returned to government control.

In 2014 our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet

reported from the old city, and she's now returned to meet

a little girl who'd been caught up in the fighting three years ago.

Besieged and bombarded for two years.

The government finally allowed some families to leave.

One of the most traumatised children I'd seen in this war.

Baraha is now one of the oldest in her class.

These eager kids know learning matters.

So many Syrian children aren't in school.

You know, in some ways, of course, this is terrific to see,

children just being children here in Syria, in a place which has

seen some of the worst fighting of the war.

And now, an ordinary day, with children going to

Through the alleyways of the old city, now

The last time I was here, it looked like this.

And a mortar hit the kitchen, killing her brother,

Later, a mortar almost hit Baraha and her sister.

So, I met you three years ago, and now you are almost 12.

You are OK, you are sleeping at night, you don't have bad memories?

TRANSLATION: Thank God I forgot everything.

When I go to bed, I remember when I had a part in a play,

I remember school, what I did during the day.

Hard for her father to forget, now bringing up four

Heading into her future, this little girl has already

It's the same for all of them, children all across this country.

Their fate still lies in Syria's hands.

All eyes on Europe and Europe as Mike eyes on us as we feel our way

to a new future. We will hear from the German defence minister. Now we

are out of the way, will the EU start pursuing a common defence

policy? Join me on BBC Two.