:00:23. > :00:27.A very good afternoon to you. Doctors and nurses who deliberately
:00:28. > :00:30.neglect their patients could face criminal charges and up to five
:00:31. > :00:32.years in jail and a very good afternoon to you. Doctors and nurses
:00:33. > :00:35.who deliberately neglect their patients could face criminal charges
:00:36. > :00:37.and up to five years in jail under new plans being put forward by the
:00:38. > :00:39.government. The offence of wilful neglect would apply to health
:00:40. > :00:42.workers in England and Wales. It is one of a number of proposals aimed
:00:43. > :00:46.at making stuff more accountable following the scandal at Mid
:00:47. > :00:50.Staffordshire NHS Trust. Branwen Jeffreys has the details.
:00:51. > :00:53.Hundreds of patients suffered appalling neglect at Stafford
:00:54. > :00:58.Hospital, some died needlessly. A public enquiry called for
:00:59. > :01:01.fundamental change in the NHS. The government now says that will
:01:02. > :01:07.include a new criminal offence of wilful neglect. This is not about
:01:08. > :01:11.criminalising ordinary mistakes that people make. It is about bearing
:01:12. > :01:17.down on those things which should never, ever happen, where in the
:01:18. > :01:22.rarest cases staff consciously neglect or maltreat patients.
:01:23. > :01:27.Doctors and nurses can already face heavy sanctions. They can be banned
:01:28. > :01:32.from working by their regulators and get sent to prison for criminal
:01:33. > :01:36.manslaughter by gross negligence. But not for deliberate neglect of
:01:37. > :01:41.care that might harm patients. Doctors say adding another criminal
:01:42. > :01:45.offence could lead to a culture of fear. It is worrying to think that
:01:46. > :01:47.any doctor could go to prison, but there is already legislation in
:01:48. > :01:53.place which can see doctors removed from their practice if there is any
:01:54. > :01:56.neglect of patients. What we have to think about supporting doctors and
:01:57. > :02:01.nurses to raise concerns where they exist and that will involve a
:02:02. > :02:06.culture shift. Can we see the ladies in here? Hospitals are already under
:02:07. > :02:11.renewed scrutiny. A new Chief Inspector of Hospitals is working on
:02:12. > :02:13.a system of ratings. But the government has stopped short of some
:02:14. > :02:18.of the public enquiry recommendations. There will be no
:02:19. > :02:23.legal minimum staffing levels, simply guidelines for the NHS. No
:02:24. > :02:29.regulation of health care assistants, just better training.
:02:30. > :02:32.The legal duty of candour may be limited to organisations, so doctors
:02:33. > :02:38.and nurses would not have to disclose mistakes. The offence of
:02:39. > :02:42.wilful neglect was used to prosecute nurses at the Winterbourne view car
:02:43. > :02:47.home. It already protects vulnerable children and adults including those
:02:48. > :02:52.with learning disabilities. The same law could be extended to offer
:02:53. > :02:56.protection to all patients. Staff -- Stafford Hospital is moving on from
:02:57. > :03:04.its troubled past but the impact of the failings here are still being
:03:05. > :03:09.felt across the NHS in England. Our political correspondent Ross
:03:10. > :03:13.Hawkins joins me in the studio. How significant is this announcement
:03:14. > :03:15.today? Nobody is pretending this one announcement is going to solve all
:03:16. > :03:20.these grave problems that we have heard about. You heard the ministers
:03:21. > :03:24.say, we are talking about the rarest of cases and there will be a much
:03:25. > :03:27.wider spread of announcements come Tuesday. What you have seen the
:03:28. > :03:32.Health Secretary try to do is position himself as a champion for
:03:33. > :03:36.NHS patients against failings in the past. What Labour pointing out in
:03:37. > :03:40.addition to talking about this, they are saying there could be a real
:03:41. > :03:43.crunch in the near future as winter comes and accident and emergency
:03:44. > :03:47.departments come under pressure. Both sides of the debate know that
:03:48. > :03:51.voters will remember some of those terrible stories of years gone by
:03:52. > :03:55.but it will be closely scrutinised in how the NHS runs now and asking
:03:56. > :04:02.whether it will let down patients again in future months.
:04:03. > :04:06.The Sri Lankan president has dismissed David Cameron's calls for
:04:07. > :04:09.an independent investigation into alleged war crimes carried out at
:04:10. > :04:13.the end of the country's civil war. Mahinda Rajapaksa made it clear he
:04:14. > :04:17.will resist pressure to hold an enquiry. Mr Cameron said if Sri
:04:18. > :04:25.Lanka refuses he will push for the UN to conduct its own investigation.
:04:26. > :04:30.James Robbins reports from Colombo. David Cameron took the crease for a
:04:31. > :04:36.few minutes' relaxation in Sri Lanka. If facing the world's most
:04:37. > :04:43.deadly test bowler counts as that. Mall restaurant promotes youth
:04:44. > :04:47.cricket as one form of reconciliation in a country scarred
:04:48. > :04:50.by civil war, but David Cameron is convinced the government here is
:04:51. > :04:53.moving far too slowly in investigating the past. He is piling
:04:54. > :04:59.pressure on President Rajapaksa for a war crimes enquiry and setting him
:05:00. > :05:03.a deadline. If that investigation is not completed by March then I will
:05:04. > :05:07.use our position on the UN human rights Council to work with the UN
:05:08. > :05:12.human rights Commissioner and call for a full, credible and
:05:13. > :05:16.international enquiry. After the Prime Minister's close-up visit to
:05:17. > :05:21.the north of Sri Lanka yesterday, where civil war raged until four
:05:22. > :05:25.years ago, today he acknowledged strongly differing views exist about
:05:26. > :05:30.the past. Mr Cameron will need support from other UN members to try
:05:31. > :05:34.to force full government accountability and Sri Lanka's
:05:35. > :05:41.president seems to reject David Cameron's ultimatum. That is his
:05:42. > :05:47.will is a democratic country. People who are in glass houses must not
:05:48. > :05:53.throw stones. The Prince of Wales is keeping is far from the row was
:05:54. > :05:55.possible. First watching Sri Lankan children at play, before the new
:05:56. > :06:04.pensioner decides he wants to join in. No hint here of a divisive
:06:05. > :06:12.Commonwealth Summit overshadowed by Sri Lanka's grim past.
:06:13. > :06:16.The Foreign Secretary has said that a number of Britons remain
:06:17. > :06:19.unaccounted for, following the typhoon in the Philippines. William
:06:20. > :06:24.Hague also pledged continuing support for victims of the disaster.
:06:25. > :06:27.An RAF cargo plane carrying heavy duty vehicles and medical supplies
:06:28. > :06:31.has arrived in the Philippines as part of Britain's emergency
:06:32. > :06:34.response. Seven people have been arrested on
:06:35. > :06:38.suspicion of murder following the discovery of human remains at the
:06:39. > :06:42.bottom of a well in the garden of a house in Surrey. The police have
:06:43. > :06:49.appealed for help in identifying the body. Richard Slee is that the house
:06:50. > :06:52.in Walling Ham us now. The body was discovered yesterday
:06:53. > :06:55.afternoon in the garden of a cottage at the end of this cul-de-sac and
:06:56. > :06:59.for most of today specialist police officers have had the unpleasant
:07:00. > :07:03.task of trying to recover that body from the bottom of a very narrow
:07:04. > :07:07.well. Every now and then a police officer
:07:08. > :07:10.wearing a diving suit and breathing apparatus would emerged to be hosed
:07:11. > :07:14.down by a colleague. It is thought the body at the bottom of the well
:07:15. > :07:19.had been there for about two weeks. The police believe it was probably
:07:20. > :07:22.placed there. The officer leading the investigation says removing it
:07:23. > :07:27.while at the same time trying to preserve the crime scene had been a
:07:28. > :07:30.difficult job. The body is white. We cannot tell what gender the body is
:07:31. > :07:35.at the moment but I can confirm it appears to be an adult. It has taken
:07:36. > :07:42.a considerable time recover the body because the whale is seven foot deep
:07:43. > :07:46.in about four or five feet of water. In recent years the cottage had been
:07:47. > :07:49.occupied by a large group of men from Eastern Europe who worked at a
:07:50. > :07:52.local car wash. The police say this is a highly unusual case and are
:07:53. > :07:57.appealing for anyone concerned about a missing person, or who may have
:07:58. > :08:00.information, to come forward. A postmortem examination will be
:08:01. > :08:05.carried out tomorrow. Last night seven men were arrested
:08:06. > :08:09.in connection with murder enquiry and tonight they are still being
:08:10. > :08:15.questioned at a police station in south London.
:08:16. > :08:19.Richard Slee reporting live there. One of the greatest ever cricketers,
:08:20. > :08:23.Sachin Tendulkar, has played his final test match. He said farewell
:08:24. > :08:26.to tens of thousands of adoring fans in Mumbai as India beat the West
:08:27. > :08:31.wind is. He scored the most runs in the history of international
:08:32. > :08:39.cricket. Andrew North was at his final game.
:08:40. > :08:44.The final sendoff for /10 Dahlgren Mumbai as says goodbye to its
:08:45. > :08:48.greatest ever cricketer -- Sachin Tendulkar. The result didn't matter,
:08:49. > :08:53.even though India won. It was all about one month and when the moment
:08:54. > :08:56.came the tears flowed. His team-mates and the West Indies
:08:57. > :09:04.giving him a guard of honour as he walked off for the last time. He was
:09:05. > :09:08.one of those moments when everyone just wanted to be there. -- it was
:09:09. > :09:14.one of those moments. I will miss him but I am happy because when he
:09:15. > :09:20.started there, I was not there, but now I am watching the match. Thank
:09:21. > :09:27.you, Sachin Tendulkar! But some fans are not sure how they will cope. For
:09:28. > :09:31.me, I am not going to follow cricket any more. Ever since I was a child
:09:32. > :09:37.cricket was meaning such a lot to me. It is hard to believe how I will
:09:38. > :09:40.survive. But in India cricket is almost a religion and Sachin
:09:41. > :09:50.Tendulkar a living God. They don't want to let him go.
:09:51. > :09:53.England and Wales have been in action in rugby union's autumn
:09:54. > :09:58.internationals and England suffered their first defeat of the season,
:09:59. > :10:03.losing 30-22 to the world champions New Zealand at Twickenham. At the
:10:04. > :10:07.millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales put on a commanding performance
:10:08. > :10:13.against Argentina. They won the match 40-6.
:10:14. > :10:14.There is more throughout the evening on the BBC News channel and