21/03/2018 BBC News at One

More than a million NHS workers

in England are offered a pay rise

of at least 6.5%

over the next three years

It marks the end of tight pay

restrictions on NHS workers imposed

for the past seven years -

the Health Secretary said the deal

recognises that staff have

never worked harder.

The agreement which NHS trade unions

have recommended to the members

today is a something for something

deal which brings in profound

changes in productivity in exchange

for significant rises in pay.

Labour said the pay

rise was long overdue.

We'll be asking whether this marks

the end of the wider cap

on public sector pay.

Also this lunchtime...

The academic at the centre

of the row over the use of personal

Facebook data says he's

been made a scapegoat.

Plastic pollution -

the amount in the ocean is set

to treble in ten years

unless action is taken,

says a major new report.

And nearly 40 years

after the last Papal visit -

Pope Francis is going to

the Republic of Ireland in August.

And coming up in the

sport on BBC News -

Scotland are set a target of 190 94

victory over the West Indies and a

place at next year's Cricket World

Cup.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC News at One.

More than a million NHS staff

in England, including nurses,

porters and paramedics,

have been offered a pay rise

of at least 6.5% over

the next three years.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

said the pay rise was recognition

that staff have "never worked

harder" but Labour said

it was long overdue.

The plan will be funded

by four billion pounds

of new money from the Treasury.

Wage rises in the NHS have been

capped at 1% since 2013 -

but given the forecasts

for inflation, the real terms

increase over three years from this

deal is expected to be small.

Our political correspondent

Iain Watson reports.

For the past seven years, NHS staff

have had a pay cut or frozen. Health

service unions have argued that the

members are chronically underpaid

and NHS managers have been calling

for wage increases to improve

recruitment and retention and void

staff shortages. The Treasury said

it had found the cash to improve pay

rates without taking it from

elsewhere in the NHS budget.

We

recognise the NHS is facing unique

pressures. We see an increasing

demand for services. We have set

aside that money in exchange for

making sure that we reform the way

the NHS is working. An agreement is

being reached with the unions which

is really positive.

Most staff have

been offered an average of 6.5% over

the next three years, not covering

doctors and dentists, the least well

off staff would get the highest

percentage increases, up to 29% over

three years. Hospital porters and

cleaners, the lowest NHS pay band,

could see salaries rise from around

£15,000 per year to more than

£18,000 over three years. A £2000

increase in the coming year. Since

lifting the pay gap for the police

and prison officers last autumn, the

government has been under huge

political pressure to do the same

for the NHS staff. This comes at a

price, the Health Secretary has had

to guarantee to the Treasury that

the system of increments, automatic

pay increase, will be reformed and

that the level of sickness among

staff, rather than patients, will

come down. After months of

negotiations, some unions signalled

strong support for the pay offer.

Some NHS staff welcomed it more

cautiously.

I personally will do

quite well out of this offer and

those on the lower banding will do

quite well. But there are some

people who won't do as well. People

I work with. I want everybody to get

a good offer today.

I'm happy. I'm

sure it came too late though.

Others

are sceptical. The GMB union said

that the average increase was below

the predicted rate of inflation and

should be rejected.

Labour asked for

more detail. After eight years of 1%

or a pay cap, the trade unions

appear to be quite happy with the

settlement but we will look at the

Devils the detail and where the

money is going to come from. Let's

see the detail on this one.

Posterity isn't dead or on

life-support but the government

recognises that pay in the NHS has

to recover to attract and keep staff

who do vital work. -- austerity.

In a moment -

we'll speak to our Assistant

Political Editor Norman Smith

who is in Westminster

but first lets talk to our

Health Correspondent Catherine Burns

who is outside the headquarters

of the Unison union

in Central London -

Catherine, how likely is it

this offer will be accepted?

That's the big question. That is

over to NHS staff. It is the start

of the consultation which will go on

until the end of May and report back

in June. That's when we find out

whether they have accepted it. If

they have, they will see the money

in July pay packets backdated to

April. If is a really big question.

The GMB union is not recommending it

to its members. Other unions are

more positive. Some things will be

attractive, progression through pay

grades. A newly qualified at the

moment would take seven years to get

to the top grade, this would change

to four years. The sides admit this

is a compromise and I asked the

union Unison what they have

compromised on and the answer was

money. They would have liked more

money. The employers would like this

to be something that

to be something that the could make

the NHS the most desirable employer.

Norman, does this have wider

significance, does it mark the end

for the public sector cap?

I think it does. To our phrase John

Cleese, it is a dead parrot, it is

no more, it is deceased. The rises

burst through the existing 1% per

year limit, in some cases

spectacularly so. Also because of

the way this is funded. Previously

when police officers and others got

increases above 1%, they had to pay

for it themselves. This increase

will not come from within existing

NHS budgets. It will come from the

Treasury. Initially from Treasury

reserves. That comes with

significant economic consequences

and the bill likely to be around £4

billion, possibly even higher

because you can bet your bottom

dollar the public sector workers

will be thinking, if NHS staff are

getting that sort of money, we want

that sort of money, so there will be

huge pressure on Mr Hammond to hand

over larger sums of money. What it

tells us politically I think is that

not that austerity is over, there is

still plenty out there, but that the

government has made a huge strategic

decision to ease off on austerity.

The reason, a simple calculation

that after eight years of pay

freezes, pay caps, people have

simply had enough.

Thank you. And to

Catherine Burns as well.

Well, following that news,

figures out this morning suggest

the squeeze on household income

may be easing with wages

growing at a rate

just below the rise in prices.

Official statistics showed that

average wages grew by 2.6%

in the three months to January.

They come a day after

figures showing inflation

falling back to 2.7%.

Simon Gompertz reports.

Even if your pay hasn't gone up

much, especially in the public

sector, the average is increasing

faster. That's what's happening at

this London business making beauty

products for people with sensitive

skin, founded by Sarah Brown who has

been raising her staff's wages.

One

of our biggest pressures is the

tightening in the jobs market which

we are feeling. Wages are going up,

we are a living wage certified

company, we have always paid more

than the national living wage --

minimum wage and we think it is fair

because of the cost of living.

Effectively, the buying power of our

pay has been shrinking but now wages

are rising by 2.6% on average and

are now almost catching up with

prices. And some people are doing

better.

We have made sure that we

have increased the living wage and

the minimum wage and people on the

lowest paid jobs has seen a 7%

increase above the rate of

inflation.

There has been a rise in

the number of people out of work, of

24,000, but the percentage of the

workforce without a job is down to

4.3%, close to the lowest in years.

Here, they have taken on 16 people

to help with demand, taking the

total to 48. That is matched over

the UK as a whole.

The economy has

been quite resilient in the

aftermath of the referendum and the

labour market is really prove that.

The job market is holding up. If

people start to feel better off,

then we should seek consumer

spending start to firm up across the

economy. That was really a bit of a

weak point in the UK last year.

There have been worrying signs, the

collapse of Crilly, shops and

restaurants laying people off. So

far, help us come from other

countries doing well and buying a

sports. -- buying our exports and

giving a boost to jobs and pay.

An academic who created

an app which harvested data

from 50 million users says

he has been made "a scapegoat"

for Facebook and the consultancy

Cambridge Analytica.

Dr Aleksandr Kogan said he

had no idea the work he did

for Cambridge Analytica

would be used for Donald Trump's

election campaign.

Facebook says Dr Kogan violated

the site's policies.

Ben Ando reports.

Worldwide it has 2 billion users. If

you are on Facebook and you probably

are, it has information about how

old you are, who you are related to

and how you might vote. If you were

one of 270,000 people who took part

in a bazaar is to test, that app

collected data from you, your

friends, their friends, to 50

million people for a company called

Cambridge Analytica. This is that

company's boss Alexander Nix

boasting two undercover reporters

that they use that data to send

millions of targeted messages during

the US elections that got Donald

Trump into the White House. A claim

that Facebook strongly denies. The

app was created by Cambridge

University academic who designed it

for research, not election rigging.

My view is that I am being used as a

scapegoat by both Facebook and

Cambridge Analytica. We thought we

were acting perfectly appropriately

and doing something that was

perfectly normal.

Facebook says it's

been outrage about how it's been

deceived but Cambridge Analytica

says it's done nothing wrong, it has

suspended its CEO Alexander Nix and

said it has appointed a senior

lawyer to carry out an

investigation. Analysts say online

political campaigning is here to

stay.

Every UK party is campaigning

online, buying adverts, profiling

the voters they want to reach. They

are spending the money they need to

reach them. The nice thing for them,

of these kind of advertising tools,

is that they can go back to people

again and again with the same

messages to get them across.

If you

don't want to join the trend of

deleting Facebook altogether, how do

you keep your data secure?

You can

turn your cookies off, you can make

yourself private, so you data isn't

given to the platforms. There are a

number of steps you can take to be

forgotten.

United States senators

are calling for Mark Zuckerberg to

appear before Congress.

They are

breathtakingly powerful. They know

more about me than me, more about

you than you.

Facebook says that the

controversial app would not be

allowed now. It's believed that a

warrant is being sought to enter the

offices of Cambridge Analytica to

search through their files and data.

The Kremlin has accused the UK

of being unwilling to listen

to Russia's view on the Salisbury

nerve agent attack -

after the British ambassador

decided not to attend

at the Russian Foreign Ministry

to discuss the incident.

Richard Galpin is in Moscow.

Does this mark a stepped-up

diplomatic response by Russia

to the Skripal case?

Yes, I think absolutely. A major

diplomatic offensive by Russia under

way and the meeting taking place

here at the Russian Foreign Ministry

is a big part of that. About an hour

ago we saw a large number of

ambassadors streaming into the

building to hear the Russian point

of view which is essentially that

Russia had nothing to do with the

poisoning of the scree Powell Noren.

--

they say there is only two

explanations that Britain is behind

the attack or unable to prevent a

terrorist attack on its soil. The

Kremlin repeating allegations that

it was Britain behind the nerve

agent attack. The British ambassador

has not turned up to this meeting

neither have the American German

ambassadors. That has also brought a

rebuke from the Kremlin on Britain.

They say that although they have

thrown out these accusations, they

are not willing to listen to the

answers. One official saying that

because there is no dialogue between

Moscow and London, this case is at a

dead-end. It does very much feel

like the two sides are at

loggerheads and it's not clear where

it can go from from here.

The suspect in a wave

of bombings in the Texas

state capital Austin has died

after he detonated a device

while being chased by police.

Two people were killed by parcel

bombs, after six separate attacks

in the city this month.

Gary O'Donoghue reports from Austin.

Police closed in on the suspected

bomber in the early hours.

Tracking him down to

a hotel north of Austin.

While they waited for extra back-up,

he drove off and then pulled

into a ditch at the side

of the road.

As the police approached his car,

he set off a bomb.

As members of the Austin Police

Department SWAT team

approached the vehicle,

the suspect detonated

a bomb inside the vehicle.

Knocking one of our SWAT officers

back and one of our SWAT officers

fired at the suspect as well.

The suspect is deceased and has

significant injuries from a blast

that occurred from detonating a bomb

inside his vehicle.

CCTV in the past couple of days

appears to show the man police

believe was the suspected bomber

dropping off a package

at a FedEx office.

Police have not named him, they say

he is a 24-year-old white man.

Since the beginning of the month

there have been six separate bombs,

five of which have exploded.

Two men have died and half

a dozen people have

suffered serious injuries.

A number are still in hospital.

Police still do not know the motive

for this bombing spree that

has terrorised Austin

for the past three weeks.

They are also telling the public

they do not know where the suspect

has been for the past 24 hours.

So there could still

be devices out there.

Gary O'Donoghue, BBC

News, Austin, Texas.

Our top story this lunchtime.

More than a million NHS workers

in England are offered a pay

rise of around 6% over

the next three years.

Coming up - in need of a family -

the campaign to place more Muslim

children with a Muslim household.

Coming up in the sport,

jockey Ruby Walsh is ruled out

of next month's Grand National

at Aintree following

his fall at Cheltenham last week.

The amount of plastic

in the ocean is set to treble

within a decade unless action

is taken, a government

report has warned.

The Foresight Future of the Sea

study also highlights the threats

of rising sea levels

and warming oceans.

But it also predicts positive

opportunities for the UK to use

new technologies to cash

in on the global "ocean economy."

Here's our Environment

Analyst Roger Harrabin.

The world is waking up to the menace

of plastic in the oceans.

The report says the best solution

is to stop it getting

to the sea in the first place.

In the longer term better

biodegradable plastics could help.

Plastic waste in the ocean

is expected to triple

by 2025 the report says.

And that is not all.

We are also having

pollutions from farms,

pesticides and fertilisers.

From industry, even

from pharmaceuticals.

The report says all these together

are combined to make a mighty

problem for the oceans.

But how did things get so bad?

The report's authors say

it is a question of out

of sight, out of mind.

Only 0.05% of the open ocean

is properly explored.

They say that must change.

We have explored the planet,

we have mapped Venus,

Mars and the Moon but we have not

mapped our own sea floor.

It really is time to

have a mission to planet Ocean.

And here is why.

The seas are industrialising fast.

The report predicts a doubling

of economic activity in the ocean

with offshore wind leading the way.

Deep sea mining is also set to boom.

The report's authors warned that

laws to protect the open ocean

are at risk of lagging behind firms

wanting to exploit it.

There is a continuous process

of wanting to look for new things

we can exploit in the oceans.

And commerce is out there looking

for these things, it is exploring

and that is happening faster

than we as scientists can

really keep up with it.

And my suspicion is the legislation

is also trying to keep

up with it as well.

This is the sort of thing at risk,

the extraordinary natural CO2 events

that I dived to visit in Papua.

Nature's Jacuzzi.

But even if we ban mining on sites

like this the corals that live

here will still face

other man-made threats.

Carbon levels cause two things,

rising sea surface temperature

which stresses corals out and can

cause large areas of them to die.

And it also makes the water more

acidic and that slows down

the growth rate of corals.

So many threats to our precious

oceans, so much opportunity.

Can mankind strike a balance?

Roger Harrabin, BBC News.

An error in calculating

the main sickness benefit -

Employment and Support Allowance -

could cost the government more

than £800 million.

The National Audit Office says

the mistakes in how the government

applied changes have been known

about since 2013 -

but that ministers only started

to address the issue last year.

Michael Buchanan reports.

Lucy Marsh lives at

home with her parents.

The 28-year-old has learning

disabilities and though

she does voluntary work,

she relies on benefits

for any income.

When she was moved from incapacity

benefit to Employment

and Support Allowance in 2013,

officials miscalculated

what she was due.

She has now been repaid

thousands of pounds.

Just in time for her to move

in to her first home.

What it means is that in monetary

terms, it is a payment

of just short of £2000.

Which obviously would be very useful

to Lucy in the context

of her moving into this

new supported accommodation.

It will help quite substantially

with the furnishings

and things for the new flat.

Many other claimants will get much

more money says today's report.

The average repayment

will be £5,000 per head.

Though some could get

as much as £20,000.

In total 70,000 people are due

a backdated payment.

The whole debacle could cost

the Department for Work and Pensions

as much as £830 million.

With repayments and

higher benefit awards.

Ministers say they are committed

to correcting the mistakes

and are aiming to repay everyone

affected by April of next year.

But while the errors started

in 2011 they'll only

backdate payments to 2014.

Claiming a court ruling

limits liability.

Welfare advisers are not impressed.

They were well aware

of the legislation before,

they had it in their own guidance.

They just failed to follow that.

And as a result some of the most

severely disabled people have lost

out on thousands of pounds

they will never get back.

For Lucy the repayment

will help as she moves on.

For other claimants who have been

underpaid for years,

their reduced budgets have

meant real hardships.

Michael Buchanan, BBC News.

A man has been

stabbed to death at

a shopping centre in east London.

The man who was believed

to be in his early 20s

was pronounced dead at the Stratford

Shopping Centre last night.

It brings the number

of fatal stabbings

in the capital this year to 26.

At least 29 people have been killed

in a suicide bombing

in the Afghan capital,

Kabul.

The bomber was apparently heading

towards a well-known shrine

where a large crowd had gathered

to mark the start of

the traditional New Year.

The Islamic State group said it

carried out the attack.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has

said the Church of England needs

new powers to protect

children from abuse.

Giving evidence at the Independent

Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,

Justin Welby said church's powers

around safeguarding "probably

needed re-looking at".

Well our Religion Editor Martin

Bashir is at the inquiry.

Tell us more about what he had to

say.

This is the third week of focus

on the Anglican Church and the

dioceses of Chichester in

particular. It was chosen because of

the large number of default priest

who have been since the 1980s. The

Archbishop of Canterbury who has

been nursing a heavy cold, arrived

surrounded by a couple of bishops,

his head of communications and legal

counsel. He gave evidence about

11:15am and one of the most striking

moments was when he described the

experience of confronting survivors

of abuse.

To read the transcripts,

to meet survivors is horrifying to a

huge degree because you see this

extraordinary and atrocious

willingness to turn a blind eye. Two

things going very seriously wrong.

And entirely damaging human beings.

The enquiry is currently on a break

for lunch. The Archbishop has been

told he will be expected to give

another 30 minutes of evidence

inside following that, the head

Bishop of safeguarding, the lead in

the Church of England, Peter

Hancock, will then give evidence.

Muslim families in the UK

are being encouraged to come forward

to adopt and foster Muslim children.

Around 4,000 Muslim

children are in care

and the number is growing.

More than half of them are spending

time living in non-Muslim homes,

which experts say can cause

religious and cultural problems.

The BBC Asian Network's

Shabnam Mahmood has more.

Providing a much-needed home

for children who don't have one.

Sha and Shaheen Ali have been

fostering for over nine years.

Like them, most of the children

they have looked after are Muslims.

They can associate with

the culture and the identity.

They can feel comfortable

that they are getting halal food.

That they can be supported

with their Islamic

education and knowledge.

To have an environment

where they can pray.

They can interact with the family

and community during

festivals like Ramadan.

Issues like having halal food,

having an alcohol free house.

Even if they are not drinking,

some of them still feel uneasy

that the presence is there.

The importance of matching

children to the right

families is all too clear.

It is so important, the needs

of the child are really

central to the process.

If you have a Muslim child come

into care the vast array

of their needs be it the Muslim

faith, education, health,

it is so important they find a best

match for the foster carer to look

after that child.

Figures given to the BBC say

there are around 4500

Muslim children in care

and the number is growing.

More than half of them spent time

living in non- Muslim homes.

It is accepted by many that more

needs to be done to attract Muslim

carers to meet this demand.

The charity has identified

religious misconceptions

for the shortage of Muslim carers.

Their new guidelines are clear

about the Islamic position

on fostering and adoption.

We found the scholars agreed

that it can be obligatory

from an Islamic perspective to adopt

and foster given the dire need

of Muslim families to foster

and adopt in the UK.

With the number of Muslim

children in care increasing,

more families are needed so young

ones can be placed

in familiar religious

and cultural environments.

Shabnam Mahmood, BBC News.

Pope Francis has announced

he will visit Ireland in August -

the first papal visit to the country

for almost 40 years.

The pontiff's visit will

include celebrating mass

in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

Our Ireland Correspondent

Chris Page reports.

The official announcement of a much

anticipated papal visit. Irish

families were in Rome to hear Pope

Francis confirmed he was going to

their country as was lush Bishop of

Dublin. It is almost four years

since the last time a pub went to

Ireland.

On a hillside nearly 300

people...

In 1979 John Paul II drew

massive crowds on a tour which

featured some iconic moments for

Catholics.

Young people of Ireland,

I love you.

It was such a sense of

excitement and talking about it now

I can see the helicopter coming up

ahead and then I suppose is a large

group of young people to be affirmed

by the Pope with those beautiful

words.

Father Martin McGill was

amongst the throng 39 years ago and

has been reflecting on what the

event this year might mean.

A lot

has happened in 30 years, a sense of

maybe having to face up to a past

which at times we did not want to

do. But if we are going to get any

healing and experience any sense of

truth, we need to do that.

The

repetition of the Church has been

damaged by scandals about child sex

abuse. And it has been major social

change like the legalisation of

same-sex marriage in the Irish

Republic after a referendum in 2015.

The influence of the Catholic Church

in Ireland North and south has

diminished in recent years. But

churchgoing remains more popular

than in most other parts of Europe.

In west Belfast today parishioners

were delighted about the plans.

Absolutely fantastic, if there was

more people like him it would be a

better world to live in. I'm sure

everyone will turn out and welcome

them with open arms.

Pope Francis

will visit Dublin in late August for

two days. So far no news as to

whether he will travel north of the

Irish border. If he does it would be

the first ever able visit to

Northern Ireland.

Time for a look at the weather...

Get quite cold night and something

tells me we are not quite done with

winter yet as we had towards Easter,

it could turn cold again. For the

short term we have white fine

weather around across most of the

UK. The weather systems are out in

the Atlantic lining up and heading

in our direction. And with that

comes a bit of mild air but not

desperately mild but temperatures

still below par for the time of

year. But a lot better than third to

just a few days ago. So today bright

weather across England and Wales,

some rain around in the north-west.

That continues into this evening.

Maybe some showers for the Eastern

counties of England but on the whole

a dry evening and look how much

milder it is going to be this coming

night. Five, six, 7 degrees. So

tomorrow morning is going to feel a

lot different dub in fact when the

sunshine is out it will feel very

pleasant indeed. A fine start to the

day but once again all that cloud

moving in, this next weather front

approaching on Thursday afternoon.

Still 10 degrees in Belfast in spite

of that. And easily around 12

degrees across the South where the

sun comes out. The big picture, the

jet stream is powerful across the

Atlantic. And what we will see in

the next few days is low-pressure

riding the jet stream heading in our

direction. Most of the brain and

breeze will go across Scotland and

Northern Ireland, maybe even some

sleet and snow across the hills. But

to the South bright weather with

just a few showers. And that takes

us into the weekend, looking a

little bit mixed. Not guaranteeing

dry weather but we do expect a fair

bit of bright weather around. It is

going to be a bit cooler, just a

suggestion of the wind coming from

the north-west. Just about double

figures across southern areas. So to

summarise the weekend, not bad at

all. Mostly bright with just a bit

of rain from time to time.

all. Mostly bright with just a bit

of rain from time to time.

A reminder of our main

story this lunchtime...

More than a million NHS workers

in England are offered a pay rise

rise of around 6% over

the next three years.

The agreement which energised trade

unions have recommended for the

members is something for something

deal which brings in profound change

in productivity in exchange for

significant rises in pay.

That's all from

the BBC News at One -