13/01/2018 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats,

Sir Vince Cable, has warned

the government not to agree

to bailout the construction

company Carillion

with taxpayers' money.

There are fears the firm,

which has debts of £1.5 billion,

could collapse after creditors

rejected a possible rescue plan.

Carillion employs about 20,000

people in the UK and is one of

the government's main contractors.

Our Business Correspondent

Joe Lynam reports.

This is Liverpool's list Hospital

and construction, it will be the

biggest single hospital in the UK

and is being built by Carillion. Now

there are fears that projects like

this could be affected if the

company collapses. Carillion is

responsible for some of the UK's

largest infrastructure projects.

Should the government bail out the

debt-laden company?

I think what

needs to happen in this case, the

contracts have to be kept going, and

supporting the supply chain and the

tens of thousands of workers. That

can be done by the government taking

much of this in-house or

re-tendering. The government can't

adjust to a financial bailout. The

shareholders and creditors, the big

banks, have to take a hit, they

can't just off-load all the losses

onto the taxpayer.

Carillion is a

major British company with hundreds

of contracts running prisons,

maintaining hospitals and MoD

facilities. At almost 20,000

employees here and tens of thousands

more dependent on the company. Yet

it has run up debts of £1.5

it has run up debts of £1.5 billion

including almost £1 billion to its

banks whose patience has run out.

Britain's biggest ever rail

infrastructure projects are just two

begins construction here and here at

Euston station, Carillion is

supposed to build and but are given

its mountain of debt is a real

chance the government might step in

and have to give this contracts to

other companies simply bail the

company out. With all the moral

hazard that comes with that. So what

would happen to other companies that

Carillion had passed on work too?

Companies like Carillion outsource

most of their works are pretty much

all the supply chains are dependent

on them for payment. And you have so

many tiers of contracting, people

lower down the chain equally

concerned. But that's the kind of

model we have in the construction

industry were large firms outsource

everything.

If Carillion cannot be

saved or restructured the

consultants EY have been put on

notice to take over as

administrators. A precautionary

measure which the government and

thousands of staff hope will not be

needed.

And Joe joins me in the studio. A

worrying time for those employed by

Carillion and for the government a

huge headache. What is happening

behind the scenes.

There has been a

meeting on Thursday and there will

be further meetings this weekend,

such as the concern in Whitehall.

Major government departments at

involved in this from transport,

Treasury, justice, business, it's

all controlled by the Cabinet Office

which has a new minister, David

Lidington, this week. The government

stressed they have contingency plans

and they are robust, should anything

happen to Carillion major projects

like Liverpool and HS2 will continue

as normal. Sources tell me the

Carillion issue needs to be sorted

in the next few days, not weeks.

Joe

Lynam, our business correspondent,

thank you very much.

Consumers can no longer be charged

extra for paying by credit or debit

card under new laws from today.

From today it will be unlawful to

charge credit or debit customers

more than other customers.

It is hoped the ban will benefit

shoppers and holidaymakers who buy

goods online or in small stores -

but some retailers have already said

they will raise overall prices

in response to the change.

Adina Campbell reports.

They are the small fees

added at the very end

of the buying process.

In percentage terms it

may not be that much,

but these card surcharges add up.

Not any more.

Under new EU rules, retailers

on or offline can no longer charge

customers for paying with a credit

or debit card.

The Treasury says these

surcharges cost consumers

£166 million every year,

but some companies such as concert

venues can still charge

a booking or service fee.

No longer will they be

penalised just for paying

by credit or debit card.

Now with the end of surcharges

you are comparing like for like.

The price you see

is the price you pay.

You don't get a nasty

sting at the end.

But some small businesses

are concerned the new ban

could hit profits.

Nearly 63% of our sales

are by credit card and debit card

so it will affect us

in the long-term if rates

and increased rates do go up.

For retailers like this

hardware store, today's ban

throws up several options.

They may decide to suck up the cost

of processing a debit

or credit card.

Alternatively, they could simply

put up their prices

or they may decide to re-brand these

fees as a service charge.

One business that's already been

criticised is the delivery company,

Just Eat, which has said it

will impose new charges

on customers who pay by card

and others may go on to do the same.

There are now calls

for the new changes to be closely

monitored to ensure consumers

are not punished for

paying by plastic.

Adina Campbell, BBC News.

A 25 year-old model has

died after being stabbed

in a street in west London.

Harry Uzoka had recently done

a photo shoot with GQ Magazine.

Friends and family have

described him as an "inspiration

to young black men".

A 27 and 28 year-old-man have been

arrested on suspicion of murder.

Dentists have accused the government

of not doing enough to tackle

tooth decay in England.

New figures indicate

there were nearly 43,000

operations to remove children's

teeth last year - a 17%

increase on four years ago.

The British Dental Association says

England now provides

a second-class service when compared

to Scotland and Wales.

Our health correspondent

Dominic Hughes has the story.

Tooth decay in children is

distressing, painful and avoidable.

Dentists say sugary snacks

and drinks are the biggest cause.

British children drink

more soft drinks than

anywhere else in Europe.

And the number of

multiple extractions

which have to take place in hospital

under a general anaesthetic

is continuing to grow.

Figures compiled

by the Local Government Association

show there were nearly 43,000

multiple tooth extractions among

under-18s in England last year.

That's around 170 every day of the

working week. Overall, there's been

an increase of 17% in just four

years. Dentists say children in

England are suffering,

and are being offered

a second-rate service

when

compared to Scotland and Wales.

We have seen in

Scotland and in Wales

that they have got national

programmes to try and prevent this.

And they have actually got some

reasonably good results

out of it.

The government has not put any

money into a national

prevention programme

for England, and that's

the reason why we are seeing

so many children being put under

general anaesthetic.

The Department of

Health in England says

the introduction of a tax on sugary

drinks was part of its plan

to reduce the number

of extractions, and that

more than half of all children have

seen a dentist in the last year.

And, with proper oral hygiene, good

brushing and avoiding high sugar

snacks and drinks, thousands of

children could be saved from

experiencing the pain of a rotten

tooth.

Dominic Hughes, BBC News.

With all the sport,

here's Mike Bushell

at the BBC Sport Centre.

Good afternoon, Mike. Good

afternoon, thank you. Let's start

with tennis.

Johanna Konta says she has recovered

from the hip injury that

disrupted her preparations

for the Australian Open which starts

on Monday in Melbourne.

The British number one,

who is seeded ninth,

steered clear of the debate sparked

by Billie-Jean King calling

for the Margaret Court

show court to be renamed

because of controversial comments

from the Aussie tennis great

about gender and sexuality.

I do not agree with what Margaret

Court said. However she is entitled

to her own opinion. But again in

terms of playing, if I'm scheduled

to play on Margaret Court I will go

out there and compete. It is a

tournament decision where they put

me.

In the golf, defending champions

Europe trail Asia by one

point after the second

day of the EurAsia Cup in Malaysia.

The Europeans had been

going really well initially -

led by Henrik Stenson

and Tommy Fleetwood -

and were two points ahead

after winning the first three

foursomes this morning.

But the Asian team

came back strongly

and when Bernd Wiesberger

and Ross Fisher missed this

putt at the seventeenth,

they went ahead six and half points

to five and a half,

going into tomorrow's singles.

With nine athletes already named

as part of the Paralympics GB team

for the upcoming Winter Games,

the race is on for others to join

them on the plane to South Korea.

And for the first time in 20

years there could be

a British Nordic Ski team competing

in Cross Country and Biathlon.

Kate Grey has been to Norway to meet

those chasing a place.

For these three there is no time to

take in the beautiful scenery.

It

has been 20 years since Britain has

been represented in Nordic skiing at

the Paralympics. Back then this man

was flying the flag, now at 47 he is

hoping to give it another go.

It's

like a new lease on life. I had not

realised how much I had missed it.

It gets a hold of you, I am really,

really glad I'm back here again.

For

his team-mates Scott and Steve

Pyeongchang would be their

Paralympic debut but they have had

international experience competing

at the Invictus Games.

To get my

body and my mind ready for going to

the big events like the Invictus

Games, that has helped massively.

It's definitely been a big stepping

stone to move on to, hopefully, to

go to the Paralympics in March.

These guys have been two very

different journeys to reach this

point but they have one thing in

common, the military background.

It's thanks to support from the help

that he was programmed that they

have been able to recover, train and

find success through sport.

Every

newspaper article is about being a

soldier, losing your legs. And

suddenly you find yourself in the

world of sport where people don't

care how you got injured, they can

about how fast you can ski and

clearly you can shoot and they want

to know if we are going to the

Paralympics or how we did in the

World Cup. They don't care about

your injury and I really enjoy that.

It helps me feel I have truly moved

on with my life, and I don't like my

injury define me.

And with two more

qualification events before the team

is announced in one month's time

it's the final push to make it to

Pyeongchang. Kate Grey, BBC News,

Norway. Let's hope they can make

that plane.

That's all the sport for now.

Plenty more on our website -

bbc.co.uk/sport.

Plenty on the build-up to today's

football in the Premier League, its

goal is between Cardiff and

Sunderland, that's the latest. Thank

you Mike.

You can see more on all of today's

stories on the BBC News Channel.

The next news on BBC

One is at 5.40pm.

Bye for now.