10/10/2013 BBC News at One

One of the big six energy suppliers announces its raising its prices

again this autumn. Average bill for millions of SSE's customers will go

up by about 8% from next month, roughly £2 more per week. Downing

Street says the prime Minister will be looking at what can be done to

help struggling families. Also this lunchtime, privatising the Royal

Mail, why small investors look set to be favoured over those wanting to

buy large numbers of shares. A step closer to finding a drug to stop

diseases like Alzheimer's, but British scientists say it is still

more than a decade away. The Desert Rats head to Helmand to help pack up

the last sizeable British forced to go to Afghanistan before the

pull-out next year. And India's record-breaking batsman Sachin

Tendulkar announces he will be calling it a day next month after he

plays his 200th test match. Later on BBC London, the latest from

the Mark Duggan inquest as a firearms officer is questioned on

his role. And London's lost bikes, thousands recovered from thieves but

never reclaimed by their owners. Good afternoon and welcome to the

BBC News at one. The energy supplier SSE has become the first of the big

six companies to announce that their prices will go up in the autumn.

Millions of their customers will find the average bills rising by

about £2 a week from the middle of next month. The company is blaming

development fees and a jump in wholesale costs. Downing Street says

the prime minister understands the pressure family budgets are under

and will look at what more can be done.

It is the news households have been dreading. Just as the cold weather

arrives, millions of SSE's customers are now facing higher bills. As the

company responds to rising costs. 85% of the bill is actually outside

of most energy companies' control. There are three main reasons, the

cost of getting energy to people was Matt Holmes, the cost of buying

energy and the government charges. It means that from the middle of

next month SSE is back tariffs will rise by 8.2% on average. Making an

average Yule fuel bill around £1380, up more than £100 a year. But there

will be regional variations, with a 7% rise for customers in northern

England and southern Scotland and almost 10% rise for those in the

England and southern Scotland and south-east of England. That is bad

news for Gary watch it, and SSE customer in the West Country. I am

not angry at the price rise, I am angry at the size of it and the

timing of it. The most expensive time of year for gas bills. With

energy costs high on the political agenda, today, the blame baying --

the blame game began. SSE pointed to the growing impact of the

government's green and social policies. Labour has promised to

freeze prices to tackle what it calls cost of living crisis but

ministers insist is not the answer. People are not falls. They know that

you can't freeze prices and not bear a consequence. If you want real

investment to change the face of British energy and get a better deal

for consumers, that requires sensible long-term policies which we

are putting in place. The companies are putting up prices because we

have a broken energy market and they are ripping off consumers and this

latest scandal, this latest example, shows why the government needs to

act. The companies are trying to blame everybody else, the government

is trying to blame everybody else, they are responsible, they are not

getting a grip. With experts are warning that rival firms are likely

to increase prices soon, consumer groups today urged customers to shop

around for the best deal but groups today urged customers to shop

millions of families are now likely to be paying more for their energy

this winter. That speaks our chief political

correspondent Norman Smith, who is in Westminster. This is all going to

fuel arguments about controlling the cost of living. Yes, it is if you

like the equivalent of just dropping a hand grenade into the whole cost

of living debate. What has been fascinating has been the response

from Number Ten. It has been a very carefully calibrated response. We

are told simply that the Prime really understands the pressure on

family business Wash budgets. What really understands the pressure on

he has not been doing is slamming his fist on the table, picking up

the blower to the boss of Southern his fist on the table, picking up

Electric and demanding to know what is going on. Why? Because the view

in is the energy companies are having to compete in a global market

by wholesale prices are going up driven by ever rising demand from

China and although Downing Street say they are going to look at coming

forward with some sort of palliatives to curb rising prices,

these are long-term proposals they are looking at. Possible easing the

green taxes on energy companies, may be ensuring smaller companies pay a

lower rate of green levy, encouraging more into the market. It

is a hard-headed strategy but a very high risk strategy because the

danger as it can be presented of out of touch, it enables Labour to ride

a wave of public indignation and I expect that indignation is going to

get an awful lot worse over the next few days, when more energy companies

get an awful lot worse over the next make their announcements and when

people start to get the higher bills landing on their doormats.

Small investors are expected to be favoured in the privatisation of the

Royal Mail at the expense of those who want a larger number of shares.

It is thought that anyone who applied for the minimum entitlement

of £750 worth will be successful, but large applications worth more

than £10,000 could be turned down. The BBC understands that the shares

will be priced at £3 30 when they go on sale, the maximum possible under

the terms of the flotation. The mail sale has turned into a

the terms of the flotation. stampede with as much as £15 billion

thought to be chasing Royal Mail shares. And a whiff of the

privatisation fever which once surrounded BT and British Gas.

You've probably got to go back to the big privatisations of the 80s

and 90s to compare anything of this the big privatisations of the 80s

size but interestingly that generation of investors who have

missed out on privatisations are now tending to come back for the Royal

Mail one. Sorting and delivering this share sale has taken time but

all the while the likely proceeds have been creeping up. The minimum

you could apply for was £750 worth each and with a price likely to be

at the top of the advertised range the value put on Royal Mail looks

like hitting £3.3 billion in total. Of course, everyone has a view.

Yellow baboon I think it is a good idea. I think companies like this

should be run by the private sector. It is outrageous they are applying

-- that they are advertising it. I wish it was nationalised. If you

want to hold onto the shares it is probably a good investment. It is a

good idea, I am hoping to make a few quid. Staff are being given £2000 of

free shares while they and other investors decide whether to sell the

price jumps or hold on, ministers are facing criticism for not raising

enough. The rush for the shares and the possibility that the price might

shoot up has raised the question again as to whether Royal Mail is

being sold off to cheap and whether the taxpayer is being short-changed.

Yet another well respected analyst in the city has said they think that

Royal Mail has been undervalued by up to 80%. This is increasingly

looking like a botched up to 80%. This is increasingly

privatisation. I don't think we can have bungled the sell-off if lots of

people want to buy the shares but let me be very clear. I have already

said the smaller investors are going to be treated fairly when we come to

make the allocation of shares before trading begins. They will soon hear

precisely how many Royal Mail shares they will get and tomorrow the

nailbiter, do they go up question but what -- but more likely, by how

much? Why is it small investors looked likely to be favoured?

700,000 private investors have gone for this, which is many times more

than the amount of shares that can be allocated and when they are

looking at divvying up they have taken the view that it is those

people who have the lowest of money who should be rewarded, so if you

put in £750, which is the minimum investment, then that is what you

are likely to get, but we are also hearing the suggestion that if you

put in over £10,000 you may get nothing at all. In between those two

you would get a proportion of what you applied for. This will be

confirmed later on and as to when you can actually sell them if that

is what you want to do, dealing starts tomorrow morning hopefully by

then and hopefully by the end of today you will hear how much you are

likely to get but some people who have applied online to the

government rather than to a broker or by post might have to wait a few

days. The Home secretary Theresa May says

new laws will make it much harder for illegal immigrants to set up

home in the UK. The Immigration Bill will require banks and landlords to

check the immigration status of people who want to open an account

or rent a home. But Labour says the bill will not address some of the

biggest problems in the immigration area. Tom Symons reports.

It is a get tough policy that has often been controversial. Finding

suspected illegal immigrants and removing them. Now the government is

trying to make the everyday environment for those here without

permission more hostile. What this bill does is make it harder for

people who are here illegally to be able to carry on living in the UK,

so access to the things that people have and use on a day-to-day basis,

like driving licences and bank accounts, will become harder and the

proposals. The fifth Immigration Bill since the year 2000 will force

those with temporary visas seeking health care to pay a contribution.

Banks will have to check immigration records before opening accounts. A

driving licence will depend on immigration status. As will

accommodation and landlords will be required to make the checks. They

are not happy. Landlords will not have any training on this or

support. No helpline to ring. There could be a fine of £3000 for getting

it wrong. We feel it is very unjustified to put this burden on

landlords. The government has managed to deport the radical cleric

Abu Qatada but still says 70,000 appeals against deportation are made

each year. So it is reducing the categories where appeals are allowed

from 17 to four. This immigration lawyer says most successful appeals

fall into those four categories. He questions whether this change will

make any difference. The perception is that there is a lot of former --

foreign criminals roaming our streets and they get to stay here if

they have cats and that kind of thing but there are a very small

number of people who are bringing these challenges and a very small

number of those people actually succeed. Fewer foreign criminals

will be allowed to live amongst us, while fighting immigration battles.

They will be deported first. Labour says shambolic border controls and

immigration enforcement should be more of a priority. Ministers insist

there are -- they are one third of their way towards their target of

cutting net migration into Britain to below 100,000. But this policy is

not just about numbers. It is about politics. Theresa May simply

believes most voters will agree with heard crackdown on immigration.

British scientists believe they have come closer to developing a drug

which can stop Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other degenerative

brain diseases. In experiments on Parkinson's and other degenerative

mice they have shown for the first time that a chemical can completely

hold the death of brain cells. The study, published in the journal

Science Translational Medicine has been hailed as exciting and

historic, although it can be more than a decade before a medicine is

available. Pallab Ghosh has more. This is a normal brain. And here,

one eaten away by Alzheimer's disease. For decades scientists have

tried to find a cure. Today, there are reports that researchers have

made an important step forward. Some even described it as historic. For

the first time scientists have stopped brain degeneration in mice

by giving them a drug that blocks one of the signals thought to start

the process off. If it stops brain degeneration in its tracks it will

halt disease in people who have already got it and if we can detect

early disease than it could prevent a lot of generation, so the hope for

something like this is that we are able to arrest the process of cell

death, of brain cell death -- degeneration. That is what is so

exciting. Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain sulphur from

Alzheimer's and other degenerative brain disorders such as Parkinson's

and Huntington's disease. So what could this development mean for

them? The human brain is far more complex and -- than those of mice

and the drug used on the mice have unacceptable side effects, so

scientists will need to find a similar one that works the same way.

Any treatment for Alzheimer's and any other brain diseases would

therefore be at least ten years away. We must be quite cautious

because this is really early stage research and we need to do a whole

lot more research to really understand what this means, but to

turn it into a potential new drug, testing Chronicle -- testing with

trials to see if it is safe for the conditions. Some scientists have

described the development as a turning point which will provide

researchers with an important newly in their search for a cure for

Alzheimer's and other debate -- debilitating brain diseases. Euan

the Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has been released by gunmen who

kidnapped him early this morning. A militia group said his warrant for

his arrest had been issued for his alleged financial misdemeanours but

his arrest had been issued for his that was denied. It is thought his

abduction may have been linked to the seizure by US forces the Libyan

terrorist at the weekend. A graphic illustration of Libya's

continued uncertainty outside Tripoli hotel where the prime

minister lives for his own safety, all is apparently normal. Which in

the early hours of the morning this was the scene of an audacious raid

by dozens of militiamen. The kidnapping masquerading as an

arrest. TRANSLATION:

People came assigned with a paper from the prosecutor general with an

order for the arrest of the Prime Minister. No shots were fired as

government from a group calling itself the Libyan operations

revolutionaries room to Ali Zeidan from his room. On its Facebook page

the group said it had arrested him for financial misdemeanours. A

the group said it had arrested him picture of a dishevelled prime

minister appeared later on a satellite channel but many observers

see another motive. It has been five days since American special forces

captured a senior Al-Qaeda leader. He was also taken from his home in

Tripoli. Some Libyans were outraged and felt sure someone in government

must have known. There have been quite a lot of incidents of this

kind. Why? Because there are in Libya now a large number of these

so-called militias which are groups of people who took up arms against

Gaddafi and -- in 2011 and have remained in existence and never

fully accepted Desmond authority. Libya's euphoria which David Cameron

and Nicolas Sarkozy celebrated two years ago has gone.

Post-Revolutionary Libya is a chaotic, dangerous place. Full of

competing loyalties and power centres. The fact the prime minister

acknowledged himself in a recent interview.

TRANSLATION: We are in a state of revolution so

we have no choice. The Libyan state has no control over the implications

of the revolution, because the state is weak. Ali Zeidan was released

after just a few hours, a chaotic end to a messy, embarrassing

incident and another sign of Libya's continued instability. One

of the big six energy suppliers is raising its prices. The average bill

for SSE customers will go up by around 8%. These are the boys of

Dunstable grammar school out on fire practice. And still to come,

challenges designed to challenge young people. The Duke of Edinburgh

awards celebrate the 500th gold presentation. They choose the things

they want to do, and very often they are the things that might interest

them. Later on BBC London: The family of this community worker

plead for help to solve his murder. And she is one of London's top

skiers, so why is she struggling to secure her place at the Winter

Olympics? The last sizeable British forced to go to Helmand province in

Afghanistan debate -- begin their deployment today, the 7th Armoured

Brigade, also known as the Desert rats are expected to do little

fighting now that Afghan forces are leading the way, but their main role

will be to pack equipment ahead of the final pull-out next year. Some

of the troops starting today will be in Helmand for nine months rather

than the usual six. These operations from the beginning

have been called Herrick, the codename, but as it becomes the 19th

operation today it feels very different to other handovers in

Afghanistan, because the fighting on the ground is being done by

Afghans. It is a very different place, as more than two thirds of

the bases in central Helmand have been handed over and Helmand itself

is a different place. A lone piper in the Afghan desert heralding the

arrival of the desert Rats, after they won their name in the sands of

North Africa. We have been working with the brigade for in excess of

seven years. The outgoing Brigadier who said that foreign troops

according to the president of Afghanistan, brought only problems

was not what he thought was actually the case. The country is

unrecognisable from a decade ago, and we cannot gaze into a crystal

ball, but I am optimistic that the security forces can deliver

sustainable security into the future. Can the British Army look

back and be proud of the legacy? Very definitely. It is an important

point. The British public are proud of the courage and sacrifice of the

British forces in Afghanistan and they should also be proud of the

achievement. The plaques on the wall mark the brigade to have been here

and/or a memorial to the 439 British lives lost since the decision was

made to send troops to Helmand over a decade ago. Soldiers who have been

here before now face a very a decade ago. Soldiers who have been

different country. This time it is a very different deployment. For nine

months we will be in Camp Bastion working alongside the national

security forces and the Afghan army, showing them how to instruct

and to give them new techniques and how to develop their soldiers so

they can fight the enemy themselves. Much of the task over the winter

will be packing what they can bring home and disposing of what they

cannot, as Britain's Long war ends next year. So the days patrolling on

the ground in Helmand are really over. Most of the troops who arrived

now will spend most of time here on in Camp Bastion, where I am speaking

from. But some of them, rather than being here for just six months could

be here for eight or nine and not going back to Britain until next

June. Thank you, David. The first of 86 defendants have appeared in court

after being charged under a so-called crash for cash fraud

investigation in South Wales. A special all-day sitting is taking

place before a district judge. Our Welsh correspondences at the court

for us. That is at the court. We've seen a constant stream of people

arriving at the core to have had to open extra doors to deal with the

extra defendants all jointly tart -- charged in this investigation which

is one of the largest ever into insurance fraud. They started

arriving early, some in groups, others on their own. Many were keen

to disguise their faces. All 86 defendants were charged in one of

Britain's biggest ever cash for crash investigations. This

reconstruction shows the type of scam they are accused of taking part

in. Where accidents are staged to make fraudulent insurance claims.

Across the UK, it is estimated that this fraud is worth £392 million per

year, with one in seven personal injury claims linked to suspected

scams. Among the defendants appearing today were members of this

family who were accused of multiple attempts to defraud as well as theft

and money-laundering charges. The police investigation centred around

and money-laundering charges. The a garage on this industrial estate.

Officers worked for two years to gather evidence. The garage is now

under new management. The constant traffic outside of the Magistrates'

Court is set to continue through the day. Defendants will be bailed to

appear again next month. At times the defendants had to stand

five abreast in the dock. The youngest was a 23-year-old woman,

the oldest 871-year-old woman. All of the defendants are from South

Wales and will appear in court again in November. The Duke of Edinburgh

awards were launched more than 50 years ago. Since then more than 8

million young people have taken on the challenges designed to inspire,

guide and support them. This afternoon Prince Philip will attend

the 500th gold award presentation at St James's Palace as our

correspondence reports. These are the boys of Dunstable grammar school

out on fire practice. Taking on a challenge, testing yourself,

providing a service. 57 years after it was started, they remain the

enduring themes of the Duke of Edinburgh award. They choose the

things they want to do and very often they are things that they

think might interest them. Nearly always it is a new experience. Any

about? Close to me. Helen is 16 years old, from Berkshire, and

teaching sailing as part of a silver award. It has helped me with my

sailing because I can break it down easier. It has helped me learn how

to teach people and talk to people and explain things to people. And

to teach people and talk to people also to be part of a team with the

instructors here as well. Young women like hell and are now active

participants in the scheme, but the Duke of Edinburgh award -- like

Helen, but the Duke of Edinburgh award was initially for the boys,

and when the girls eventually joined they did not do the physical stuff.

Can you tell me how we can get instructors and adjudicators to

teach things like marriage and make up and all of the other schemes you

mentioned? Make up we can do, marriage might be more difficult.

That it did not take the women on to shake off the stereotypes. Over the

years, the Duchess of Cambridge was one of 2000 people to have the gold

award. And later today the Duke will be at his 500th gold award

presentation. At 92, he still takes a keen interest in the programme

which is built very much in his image.

It's a subject discussed by football fans for years, just how many

English players should be in club teams? Research by the BBC reveals

that out of all of the minutes played in Premier league football so

far this season less than a third of them involve English players. Our

chief sports reporter is here. them involve English players. Our

England may have given the world football but for more than half a

century the Premier league has gone from strength to strength, but on

the international stage the country has not met expectations, and now

the international stage the country there is evidence that prospects

could continue to slide. A study for BBC sport found that English

footballers account for less than one third of minutes played in the

Premier League, significantly lower than the rest of the European

leagues. More than 60% are footballers outside of the UK,

although there are opportunities at a lower level as the time played is

up by 7% in the Championship. We live in a global world. Competition

is not avoidable any more. The real question is for English football are

to produce of the needed quality, and let's go to the heart of the

problems. It's no wonder England are interested in the Belgian born

Januzaj, whose eligibility to play interested in the Belgian born

for the national team has sparked debate. Greg Dyke has set up a task

force to investigate the reduction of Englishmen playing in the league,

but one man says that the trend will continue. 68% of the top league is

foreign players. That is too much, and it looks as though it could get

worse and worse. England arriving for training this morning as they

prepare to face Montenegrin tomorrow night, and Poland on Tuesday with

the next year 's World Cup in Brazil on the line. As usual, England find

themselves under huge pressure to deliver, but they go into these

matches knowing that the opportunities for home-grown players

to break into the countries top teams are limited like never before.

Roy Hodgson could soon have a World Cup to look forward to, but the job

of future England managers looks certain to become even harder. And

finally, the legendary batsmen Sachin Tendulkar is retiring from

cricket after he plays his 200th test match next month. The

40-year-old former captain of India, who holds the record for the most

runs scored in test match history, will end his career with two matches

against the West Indies. No man has ever done more with a

simple cricket bat. Quite simply, Sachin Tendulkar has scored more

runs than anybody else in the international game ever. In India,

his status is more than statistical. The devotion of his followers

crosses into the spiritual, and those who know him well admire not

just his cricket talent, but his ability to ignore the adoration.

Just his idea about the game, the way he held together his cricket and

led his life, all very simple. Never got carried away with the adoration

from India and overseas. I have seen the best of Sachin Tendulkar, for 14

years we play together. We were together in school cricket and I was

captain of him for six years, which was an honour. He made his first

century for India in August 1990 against England aged just 17. By the

mid-30s he had made himself a celebrity and statesman. When India

reeled after the attacks in Mumbai in 2008, he appeared on television

telling his country that he played for India now more than ever. In

pure batting terms, there is always debate about who is the greatest.

It's easy to forget Brian Lara. He did not play as long as Sachin

Tendulkar, he went out earlier, but those are the best two players by a

long white in the last 20 years. For many, especially in India, he is

unsurpassable and the two test matches that remain in his career

will be an opportunity for an matches that remain in his career

outpouring of emotion which will make this seem rather tame. Time for

a look at the weather with Ben. And it has all changed.

It feels like we've been put in the fridge very suddenly and in eastern

areas it feels like somebody has switched on a fan as well, and it is

cold, and also very windy in the East. Having said that, there are

some sunny spells. As you can see from the satellite, quite a lot of

clear, bright sky, particularly in western parts. But further east,

notice how quickly the cloud start along. That is because they are

being blown along on a brisk and strong northerly wind. It piles into

the east coast of England through the rest of the afternoon, 50 up to

60 mph gusts. The wind is strong enough to give some big waves

crashing on to the seafront and even some local flooding. And some

showers as well, increasingly confined to the extreme east coast.

With the wind, cloud and showers are not feeling anything like the 11 or

12 degrees I showed you. Further west, lighter winds, more sunshine

will stop although temperatures struggling a little, 12 or 13

degrees. If you get into shelter it won't actually feel too bad. But

this evening and tonight the wind will continue to blow, especially

across the south-east. As we go through the night they will switch

into the north-easterly direction which will bring training across

parts of the south-east and towards the Midlands. Further west, clear

skies, and where the wind is light across Northern Ireland and Scotland

in one or two places it will be cold enough for a touch of Frost with

temperatures between five and eight degrees. Milder across the

south-east because of the cloud, and the wind will continue to blow

south-east because of the cloud, and during tomorrow. The wind bringing a

lot of cloud across the bulk of England and Wales. Some of it quite

heavy across the south-east. Holding onto brighter skies on western

fringes and brighter skies for Northern Ireland and Scotland, but

temperatures are little below the average for the time of year,

between ten or 15 degrees. Into the weekend, we develop a two-way split.

To the north, high-pressure tries to hold on, but in the south-east the

low pressure tries to muscle in. The squeeze in the isobars indicates

that we will seek a brisk north-easterly wind and some

outbreaks of rain pushing across parts of England and Wales.

Scotland, drier than some places but still on the chilly side. More of

the same for Sunday across England and Wales. Lots of cloud, outbreaks

of rain. By this stage the winds will be lighter. Further north in

Northern Ireland and Scotland, a lot of cloud, but a chance of some

Northern Ireland and Scotland, a lot brightness for the western parts and

temperatures still around 12 or 13 degrees. Although the wind will ease

a little through the next few days, it stays very chilly. That is