02/03/2017 BBC News at Six

The public at risk from poor policing in a third of forces

The police watchdog says too few detectives means

victims are being let down and cases not investigated.

Some forces are beginning to take officers out of neighbourhood

policing to focus on other areas, and we're saying absolutely that

erosion of neighbourhood policing cannot be allowed to happen.

We'll be looking at why police forces are cutting

the number of detectives, and how it's affecting crime rates.

I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any

President Trump's attorney-general is accused of lying

to the Senate about his meetings with the Russian ambassador.

The head of British Cycling apologises for failings,

following allegations of bullying and sexism.

Trying to help the rising number of people sleeping rough.

And how the death of Gordon and Sarah Brown's premature baby

helped save the grandchild of another Labour leader.

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News:

There's a tougher match for Andy Murray

at the Dubai Championship, as he faces the German

Philipp Kohlschreiber for a place in the semifinals.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

Cuts to policing in some areas are putting the public at risk -

That's the warning from the police standards watchdog.

It says there are now too few detectives, leaving a third

of police forces in England and Wales in a "potentially

perilous" state, with victims being let down,

criminal cases not investigated and suspects not followed up.

Our Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford reports.

from Bedfordshire Police, raiding the home of a suspected drug dealer

this morning. On a day that inspectors graded the force as

inadequate, the worst place in England and Wales, a grading the

Chief Constable blames on chronic underfunding. This grading is not

correct grading for Bedfordshire. If you are going to talk about

inadequate, talk about inadequate resources and funding, which has

been the case in this force for ten years now. Among the many failings,

the inspectors found that anti-social behaviour, like this

motorbike riding in a park in Dunstable, has soared, while Shannon

McMahon told me she was assaulted on Boxing Day and has had an inadequate

response. The police said they would send somebody out and nobody turned

up until three days later, then the guy and an leave and I haven't heard

back. While Bedfordshire Police was the only force branded adequate

national inadequate, inspectors said they were raising a large and red

flag that other forces, saying that they were arresting fewer people,

shelving crimes without investigating properly and failing

to track down suspects relentlessly. While two thirds of forces were

rated as good or outstanding, inspectors found that in some places

local policing is being eroded. There is a national crisis in a

severe shortage of detectives and a lack of grip in tracking down

suspects. With that erosion of local policing the greatest concern. Some

forces are starting to take officers out of neighbourhood policing to

focus on other areas, and we are saying that erosion of neighbourhood

policing cannot be allowed. Despite the years of austerity, the policing

minister insisted this wasn't about forces being under resourced. This

is clearly about how forces used resources, how they are able to

adapt, and we are seeing some of the really good police forces judged as

good or outstanding. Some of their per capita funding is lower than

those that are falling. Crime has been falling but police are

grappling with issues like cybercrime and a wave of historic

allegations of sexual offences. As other services like mental health

have shrunk through austerity, the police have become the service of

last resort. With money short, inspectors found some forces had

been quicker to adapt to the new environment.

With me is our Home Editor, Mark Easton.

What's at the heart of the problem here?

Theresa May once said the mission of the police was to cut crime, no more

or less, and if that's true, they've done pretty well. Budgets have been

cut around 20% by 2010 but since that time crime has fallen by a

third. But we expect the police to do rather more than that. Of the

priority and emergency calls they receive, less than a quarter are

directly crime related. Police work has shifted from arresting villains,

yes, they do that, but it is more about protecting victims. Other

agencies have seen their budgets cut. Once, detectives might have

turned up at the front door and arresting a husband who has hit his

wife, but now they are also thinking about safeguarding issues for the

woman and children. So domestic violence, cybercrime, fraud, child

sexual abuse, complex crimes that have become much bigger priorities,

and that is perhaps the real question you should ask, are the

police getting it right when it comes to 21st century priorities?

One of Donald Trump's closest advisors -

the attorney-general, Jeff Sessions - has been accused

of lying under oath to the Senate after he failed to disclose,

when asked, that he'd had two meetings with the Russian ambassador

Senior Democrats are now demanding he resign and have called on the FBI

Our North America Editor Jon Sopel reports.

The afterglow from President Trump's acclaimed joint address has now been

taken over by claims that the newly installed Attorney-General lied

hearings over his contacts with the Russians.

And that's brought calls for Jeff Sessions to resign and the

appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate links between the

administration and Vladimir Putin's government.

The fact that the Attorney-General, the top cop in our

country, lied under oath, to the American people,

He has proved that he is unqualified and unfit to serve in

Republicans aren't going that far, but are

backing calls that he should probably withdraw or recuse himself

from any investigation into those links.

Based on what we've read, and the information

is not complete, I think the Attorney-General should further

clarify and I do think he's going to need to recuse

What's emerged is that then Senator Sessions met the

Russian Ambassador at the Republican convention in July.

He met him again in September, but at his confirmation

hearing this January, he denied any contact with the Russians.

If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign

communicated with the Russian government, in the course of this

Senator Frankin, I'm not aware of any of those activities.

I have been called a surrogate at a time or two

in that campaign and I didn't have any communications with the Russians

Today, the Attorney-General denied any wrongdoing.

I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any

political campaign and those remarks are unbelievable to me and

are false and I don't have anything else to say about that.

We've now had the national security adviser

We've had the Attorney-General accused of perjuring himself because

of his contacts and the White House is absolutely insisten, there is

The head of British Cycling has apologised for "failings"

following accusations of bullying and sexism against

An investigation into the culture of British Cycling was launched last

Chairman Jonathan Browning said riders will now be better cared for.

He added the organisation would also address concerns raised

He's been talking to our Sports Editor, Dan Roan.

Three years, the story was one of success, British Cycling defined by

medals and glory, but now there is an image crisis and a damaging tide

of allegations. All are being denied but today the man tasked with

salvaging the governing body's authority -- invitation said it was

time to say sorry. We have met with groups of riders and staff and made

it very clear that, where there has been failings, we apologise. We

recognise them, but we are doing something about them and moving

forward. Said there was a bullying culture in British Cycling? There

have been well reported instances where it was unacceptable. British

Cycling unveiling a 13 point action plan designed to overhaul governance

and athlete welfare. It stems to last year, when former sprint

cyclist Jess Varnish complaint about sexism and bullying amid a culture

of fear at the sport's high-class performance programme. A decade ago,

Jenny Coquelin or was national mounting boxing national mountain

biking champion. I had staff who said to me down the years,

especially when I retired, that they supported and held that bad for my

situation. They haven't been able to do anything. -- they had felt bad

and were not able to say anything. They were worried about their jobs.

The idea of job reservation is a joke among riders, in the way that

management behave and decisions were made. British Cycling's credibility

was damaged yesterday when MPs heard about a year to keep records of

medical treatment. The man at the centre of the storm, Sir Bradley

Wiggins, today refusing to speak about the contents of a now infamous

medical packaged and delivered to him in 2011, and those who fund the

sport are unimpressed. Your best funded funding body is in crisis,

isn't it? There is a lot going on around British Cycling. A number of

fires seem to be going off, and it is difficult for them at this point.

I was shocked and disturbed by what I heard yesterday, especially around

the area of medical management and medical record-keeping. Dark days

for the sport and, with publication of what's known to be an explosive

report into cycling's culture in coming weeks, lifting the gloom

won't be easy. It has felt at times recently like

it's been knocked down here at the metals factory, as this place has

come to be known, and the organisation was warned it could be

jeopardising millions of pounds worth of public funding unless it

gets a grip and takes control of its issues. I think there is a lesson

for other sports, because British Cycling is symbolic, and there is a

growing sense that the win at all costs mentality has come perhaps at

the expense of standards of behaviour when it comes to

anti-doping and attitudes towards athletes, and the challenge perhaps

for all sports now is that the welfare act as much of a priority as

winning. -- is to put the welfare act as much of a priority. Shares

have jumped 20%. They jumped 25% in the towel trading after raising $3.4

billion, despite its 160 million users worldwide. It has never made a

profit. The Chief Inspector of Hospitals

in England has given a stark warning about the state of the NHS,

saying it's standing on a "burning platform",

with four out of five trusts needing Professor Sir Mike Richards says

the traditional model of caring for patients is no longer capable

of delivering the needs Our Health Editor,

Hugh Pym, has the story. Bring your baby across and let

you know about the checks A new birth today and

a new beginning for this Maternity and other services were

rated inadequate by the regulator, the Care Quality

Commission, in 2015. The Trust, which includes

Addenbrooke's, was put into special measures,

but now it's tackled the problems It was a very big shock

for our patients. The boss who helped steer

the hospital from the low point of special measures back to where it

should be, told me how The wider leadership teams invested

a huge amount of their time, you know in some cases well

over two days a week, in going out to frontline clinical

areas and talking to staff and listening to them and listening

to patients about what needed The Care Quality Commission makes

clear that while there are successful turnarounds

like at this hospital, there are others where there

is cause for concern and where care The CQC report said across major

hospital trusts in England, 68% were rated as inadequate

or needing improvement. 81% was said to need to improve

safety but 93% were praised But those ratings were done before

this winter's extreme pressure in hospitals and the CQC says

the whole system needs a complete Of course I have concerns

about what has been happening and I think we need to take a long

look at that to see what more can be done in terms of improving the acute

care model, from emergency admissions, through the hospital,

through to discharge. So we need to look across

the country at all of those things. But some hospitals are managing

it better than others. The system as a whole is under

strain but for some hospitals Those who having had a bad

inspection have turned things around The police watchdog warns the public

is at risk from poor policing in a third of forces

in England and Wales. The love affair and the secret

marriage that nearly was between Jackie Kennedy

and a British aristocrat. Coming up in Sportsday in the next

15 minutes on BBC News: Tributes to a Lisbon Lion,

a Celtic legend - the European Cup winner Tommy

Gemmell has died at the age of 73. Homelessness charities are warning

that further council cuts in England next year will lead

to more rough sleepers. There are around 6,000 rough

sleepers in the UK - a figure that's risen every

year since 2010. But one rural county has chosen

to increase its funding Cornwall has one of the largest

populations of rough sleepers in the country

and it's doubled in a year. Our social affairs correspondent,

Michael Buchanan, investigates. Sheltering in a bus stop,

just metres from the sea James has been homeless for eight

months follow a benefits sanction. You get a bit cold sometimes

but apart from that, Darren's 30-year marriage

broke up in October, They're frozen solid,

ill and sleep weary. I used to work in addiction

for three-and-a-half years and I got to see people

come through it. I never thought I'd

be here, not at 49. You are never more than one

pay cheque away from We head off to the

outskirts of town. In the bushes, signs

of a life less ordinary. In a sodden tent a Polish man, Yan,

who has been sleeping More homelessness means more work

for outreach worker Ian. Like many others here,

Neil and Shaun have been left rough sleeping due to addiction

and psychiatric problems. Waking up to this view is not

as enticing if you're The older you get, the harder it

gets, is what I say. At least in Liverpool,

if you are on the street in the city Much of Ian's time is spent driving,

searching for new rough sleepers, The large rural nature of the county

means people can sleep But the majority of this

in here is actually cow excrement. So he is kind of living

in pretty sort of hazardous We move on, but often

so do the rough sleepers. Keeping in touch with

people who lead chaotic, As a society we are not

dealing with the problem. You know there will be another site

like this, you know. That's the thing about

the countryside, there can be another site like this 200 yards

that way and you wouldn't know. As night falls over Truro,

we head out of the city. Bedding down in a small, brick

shelter is 71-year-old Brian Pesk. On the night we meet,

he tells me he's been sleeping rough for precisely five years,

four weeks and one day. Cold, you can defend

yourself against just Wet is impossible because it

takes days to dry. You know, sleeping bags and blankets

and things get soaking wet Back in Penzance, the rain has

stopped, so James and Darren With no homeless shelter

in town, their nightly hunt Struggle to survive and then one day

something good will come. Their refuge, this time,

is a public lavatory - two grown men sharing

a toilet cubicle. Their refuge, this time,

is a public lavatory - two grown men sharing

a toilet cubicle. They may, of course,

be kicked out by morning and tomorrow night,

well, who knows? Michael Buchanan,

BBC News, Cornwall. A brief look at some of the day's

other news stories. Theresa May has told BBC Scotland

that the Scots don't want another Speaking before her speech

to the Scottish Conservative Party conference tomorrow,

the Prime Minister said the SNP have "tunnel vision" about independence

and they should "get on with the day job" of reforming schools

and growing the Scottish Voting has been taking place

in the second election to the Northern Ireland Assembly

in ten months. 228 candidates are competing for 90

seats across 18 constituencies. Polling will close

at 10.00pm tonight. The BBC has learned that almost

4,000 motorists a day are fined for driving in bus lanes in England,

with the most lucrative camera on a street in Newcastle -

making ?6,000 every 24 hours. In total the cameras

earned local authorities When the former Prime Minister,

Gordon Brown and his wife lost their baby after she was born

prematurely, Sarah Brown set up Now, 15 years later, she says

it is very uplifting to discover that the charity's research has

helped save the grandchild of Our Scotland correspondent,

Lorna Gordon, reports. Two-and-a-half-year-old Ella,

happy and a picture of health. But the little girl was born

12 weeks premature. At birth, she weighed 1lb 10oz

and was the size of an adult's hand. I wasn't sure she was

going to survive at all. My husband was more upbeat

than I was but, to me, But she's alive today,

as her mother says, at a laboratory set up in memory

of the daughter of They lost their daughter, Jennifer,

when she was just a few days old. What I really treasure is the ten,

very, very precious days that we had with our daughter because,

thanks to the care of the doctors, nurses,

midwives around us, we were able to have an extraordinary amount

of time, you know, really being able to be

with our daughter and all of that I have inside of me and all that

love you have for your daughter, She received 13,000 letters

after her daughter died, many from women who had suffered

a similar tragedy. Sarah and Gordon Brown went

on to have two sons. A rare glimpse here of the family

together as they left Number Ten. The memory of Jennifer

remains strong. Yeah, Jennifer's a really

important part of both of us and lives inside,

you know, both our I think for us as a family,

with our two amazing sons, Jennifer's a part of that family

in her own way and for As to Ella, research done

here at the lab into the oxygen levels given to premature babies

helped save her life She's now been signed off

from her consultant. They've told us not to darken

their door with a child So we are, literally,

the luckiest people in the world. It's thought that up

to a quarter of babies born in the UK need extra care,

the research that helped save Ella will continue to help

others survive and thrive, A series of lost love letters,

detailing the blossoming relationship between Jackie Kennedy

and a British aristocrat and Ambassador to the US,

are to be auctioned this month. The letters were written

after the assassination of JFK, but ended when Jackie Kennedy

married the Greek tycoon Bonham's auctioneer,

Matthew Haley, took us through the letters

and the story behind them. What these letters show us

is the incredibly touching love story between David Ormsby Gore

and Jacqueline Kennedy and what comes through in these

letters is just the touching relationship that they had, that

very nearly blossomed into marriage. "Dearest David, you are like my

beloved, beloved brother and mentor As Her Majesty's ambassador

at Washington, he was an incredibly Kennedy, obviously was

assassinated in November 1963 and David Ormsby Gore in fact

lost his wife, so they were a widow and widower, really sort

of supporting each other. Ultimately they went

on holiday once or twice There is a draft letter

from David Ormsby Gore where he talked about plans

for a secret marriage and they were obviously

hatching these plans and discussing their potential

future together and then she went Here we are lucky enough

to have a draft really "Why do such agonising things have

to happen? I've tried for hours and hours

to understand your explanation, and I suppose I do in a way,

without agreeing with it. As for your photograph,

I weep when I look at it." I think the letters

are heartbreaking in a way. The most gut wrenching thing

is she writes back to him, painfully on Aristotle Onassis'

own stationery from his yacht, and says, "I'll always love

you and we'll always have "You and I have shared so many lives

and deaths and hopes and pains. We will share them forever

and be forever bound together by them and be,

I hope, as close as only people who have shared all that

can be to each other." The letters there to Jackie Kennedy.

Now a look at the weather with Jay Wynne.

The letters there to Jackie Kennedy. Now a look at

Wynne. It was a lovely day for many parts

of the UK. This was a picture taken by a Weather Watcher in Hampton

Court. It was like that for many but a few showers across the northern

half of the UK the last few hours is more cloudy. There has been some

rain in Northern Ireland. Not just rain, snow over the hills and we'll

see that mixture in the southern uplands of northern Scotland.

Northern Scotland where we see the lowest temperatures, a touch of

frost developing. Not so further south because we have cloud and rain

moving in. Not a great start of the day across southernmost counties,

South Wales will be wet and windy. Some rain could be on the heavy

side. Oven the roads, spray and surface water -- on the roads. Some

rain gets up into East Anglia and East Midlands. Into North Wales and

northern parts of England slightly dry. Fairly cloudy in the morning,

but still some rain into Northern Ireland and to the south of Scotland

but in northern Scotland after a chilly start we should see some

sunshine. I think we'll keep the best of the sunshine in northern

Scotland for much of the day. Elsewhere sunshine in short supply.

A lot of cloud. The main area of rain drifting northwards. The

south-east of England should dry up. . Keeping wet in the south-west in

the afternoon and further rain for Northern Ireland and largely dry in

southern Scotland by this stage. Into the weekend and keep the

umbrellas handy, there will be rain at times but the heaviest rain will

move its way around the country. Saturday, the heaviest rain looks

like it'll be across Scotland and Northern Ireland. Outbreaks of rain

for some parts of England and Wales but also some lengthy dry spells.

Then we swap things around for the second part of the weekend with the

wettest weather across Wales and the southern half the England. Further

north, much drier, rain at times. Top temperatures, seven in Glasgow,

ten or so in London. Thank you very much.