:00:00. > :00:07.Educate to rehabilitate - but fewer prisoners are now studying
:00:08. > :00:12.And lowering the targets, why the most serious cases could be
:00:13. > :00:23.And warmer temperatures on the way for the weekend, join me later for
:00:24. > :00:28.all the details. Hello - first tonight -
:00:29. > :00:31.locked up for their crimes - and using distance learning
:00:32. > :00:34.to turn their lives around. But the number of prisoners studying
:00:35. > :00:39.with Milton Keynes based Open University has fallen by 42% -
:00:40. > :00:44.after funding was cut in 2012. There are now just over
:00:45. > :00:46.a thousand offenders Now a new scheme is trying and help
:00:47. > :00:52.more inmates educate themselves out of re-offending as Kate
:00:53. > :01:01.Bradbrook reports. Seminar discussions
:01:02. > :01:02.at the Open University meeting up face-to-face is a rare
:01:03. > :01:09.sight as courses are mainly taught Because of this
:01:10. > :01:18.is the OU is the only university where people serving time
:01:19. > :01:20.in prison can study. I work with people up
:01:21. > :01:28.and down the country,... People like Stephen has spent eight
:01:29. > :01:31.years behind bars for drug related Now he has two masters degrees
:01:32. > :01:34.and is studying a Ph.D. He worked here at
:01:35. > :01:36.the open University. Having a degree means
:01:37. > :01:39.you are more employable, it means that you can then begin
:01:40. > :01:42.to pay back something into society and for me
:01:43. > :01:51.it is a winner all around. The OUl distributes
:01:52. > :01:53.course materials to prisons across the country,
:01:54. > :01:55.up until 2012 much of it was paid for by government grants which have
:01:56. > :01:57.since The university says enrolment
:01:58. > :02:00.numbers have fallen Now with the help of
:02:01. > :02:08.the Garfield charitable foundation a pilot scheme
:02:09. > :02:10.will fund an hundred 50 prisoners per year
:02:11. > :02:11.to Anyone else would have to take out
:02:12. > :02:17.a loan or pay for that course, why The main reason
:02:18. > :02:20.is because statistics have shown time and time again that
:02:21. > :02:23.education does reduce reoffending rates so if we are giving them
:02:24. > :02:26.skills for employment and they are able to help them
:02:27. > :02:28.to change their lives any money be put in in
:02:29. > :02:36.the More than 1000 offenders
:02:37. > :02:45.are studying for a degree, or you is aiming to halt
:02:46. > :02:49.the decline in numbers and make prisoners better prepared
:02:50. > :02:54.for the world outside. The government says in 2012,
:02:55. > :02:56.student regulation changes meant that grants were replaced
:02:57. > :02:58.with student loans These changes apply to prisoners
:02:59. > :03:03.in the same way as everyone else. Earlier I spoke to an ex-offender
:03:04. > :03:06.who's been in and out Noel Smith got his degree
:03:07. > :03:13.on the inside - and has written I asked him if all prisoners
:03:14. > :03:23.could be rehabilitated that way. I am certainly not a one off,
:03:24. > :03:26.I know quite a few ex-prisoners who went down the same route as me
:03:27. > :03:29.and are still out of prison and are still productive or newly
:03:30. > :03:31.productive members of society. I find that people who have been
:03:32. > :03:34.educated in prison and giving training and vocational training
:03:35. > :03:37.and allowed to go beyond the normal basic education in prison,
:03:38. > :03:39.most of those are people We are talking today about funding
:03:40. > :03:47.for higher education in prison, presumably lots of inmates don't
:03:48. > :03:49.have basic qualifications, GCSEs or A-levels, vocational
:03:50. > :03:51.qualifications, so should funding be available all the way
:03:52. > :03:56.through the system? I think it should, really,
:03:57. > :03:59.I went to prison in the 70s when it was kind of de rigueur
:04:00. > :04:01.to educate prisoners, there was a lot of money pumped
:04:02. > :04:04.into prisoner education and our prison population
:04:05. > :04:07.was about half the size it is now After a round 1990,
:04:08. > :04:13.after the Strangeways riot, it then became the case
:04:14. > :04:16.and it is now that if you want to do further education in prison then
:04:17. > :04:19.you must find yourself right to a charity to refund you for it,
:04:20. > :04:22.which I think is wrong. Of course there's only so much money
:04:23. > :04:25.in the pot, isn't there? What would you say to people who say
:04:26. > :04:28.that it should not be spent on any kind of benefit
:04:29. > :04:32.or reward for prisoners? It amazes me that people still think
:04:33. > :04:36.like that, it is not an award, yes it is a benefit to prisoners
:04:37. > :04:39.but it is also of benefit If you are going to educate
:04:40. > :04:44.prisoners who are uneducated and had no schooling and have not education
:04:45. > :04:47.and make the prospect and hope for the future better then surely
:04:48. > :04:50.that would mean there would be less people committing
:04:51. > :04:51.crime against society. Maintaining percent of prisoners
:04:52. > :04:58.will be getting out at some stage, probably living next door to you,
:04:59. > :05:01.and I am sure he would want them to have an education and a job
:05:02. > :05:04.rather than just come out and go back to what they were doing before
:05:05. > :05:08.they went to prison. There'll be a new prison
:05:09. > :05:11.in Wellingborough - after the borough council
:05:12. > :05:13.unanimously approved plans tonight. The existing prison
:05:14. > :05:17.was closed in 2012 - and proposals for the new facility
:05:18. > :05:20.will double its capacity The Ministry of Justice
:05:21. > :05:23.says it will create up The new prison could
:05:24. > :05:28.be open by 2020. An 87-year-old man from
:05:29. > :05:32.Cambridgeshire has appeared in court Brendan Constant is accused
:05:33. > :05:36.of murdering Jean Constant - Her body was discovered
:05:37. > :05:41.at the Poppyfield's sheltered He has been released on bail
:05:42. > :05:48.until a further hearing next month. The East of England Ambulance
:05:49. > :05:50.Service has had its response targets for the most serious calls lowered,
:05:51. > :05:53.so it has more chance It means fewer people having heart
:05:54. > :05:58.attacks or strokes are guaranteed Here's our health
:05:59. > :06:15.reporter Nikki Fox. For a number of years this and meals
:06:16. > :06:21.trust has struggled with response times of a large area and it deals
:06:22. > :06:23.with a huge range of demands. I went out with the crew a few months ago
:06:24. > :06:28.and the calls came literally back-to-back. In 2014 fines of more
:06:29. > :06:33.than ?1 million for missing targets and since then things have improved
:06:34. > :06:37.but not enough to meet the national figure. That is to get to 75% of the
:06:38. > :06:45.most serious colleagues within eight minutes. That has now been relaxed
:06:46. > :06:50.to 16.5%. This has been quite quietly but the trust says it is
:06:51. > :06:55.being transparent. We publish it in our reports, the targets are in
:06:56. > :06:59.there and as he moved into the New Year it is not the law targets,
:07:00. > :07:03.nobody nationally is achieving the standard on a consistent basis. What
:07:04. > :07:08.we are doing and what the commission is expected of us and funders to do
:07:09. > :07:13.is to deliver an average or above average position nationally. Those
:07:14. > :07:16.in favour say it that maxi relaxing the targets is reasonable bearing in
:07:17. > :07:22.nationally. But those against say by nationally. But those against say by
:07:23. > :07:25.effectively moving the goalposts it could make the Ambulance Service
:07:26. > :07:28.look better without things improving for patients.
:07:29. > :07:29.Next tonight, another Cambridge biotech success story.
:07:30. > :07:34.Astex Pharmaceuticals is Japanese owned,
:07:35. > :07:37.and a new breast cancer drug it has helped develop has just been
:07:38. > :07:40.Cambridge is a vital player in this international network,
:07:41. > :07:42.but what will Brexit mean for its future role?
:07:43. > :07:57.It took the team of 25 Cambridge scientists 12 years to make this
:07:58. > :08:02.breakthrough. This robot and a process called x-ray crystallography
:08:03. > :08:07.allowed scientists to define the shape of cancer protein, this
:08:08. > :08:12.discovery has meant a new drug being developed to target advanced forms
:08:13. > :08:17.of breast cancer. It is a statement on the quality of science that we
:08:18. > :08:22.have here in Cambridge, it really is world beating and this is why you
:08:23. > :08:28.have so many organisations, multinational companies who clearly
:08:29. > :08:33.have investment here but also collaborate with companies such as
:08:34. > :08:37.Astex here. The drug has been approved in America. To get the drug
:08:38. > :08:41.into production revolves around different companies working together
:08:42. > :08:45.in sync often based on opposite sides of the world, but here at the
:08:46. > :08:48.Cambridge science Park just up the road there is a chemical technology
:08:49. > :08:56.firm which also has international clients. Johnson Matthey is a global
:08:57. > :09:00.firm providing chemical facilities smaller research firms can afford.
:09:01. > :09:04.We went been in Cambridge because it is one of the biggest pharmaceutical
:09:05. > :09:08.and biotech courts in the UK but also you look so many of our
:09:09. > :09:13.customers are local which allows us to work with him closely but we also
:09:14. > :09:19.work with customers in continental Europe, with customers in Asia and
:09:20. > :09:23.the USA so it is a very global industry. And it is the global
:09:24. > :09:28.nature of this network that does not sit well with uncertainty. What will
:09:29. > :09:32.the impact of Brexit be for the company? Science is an international
:09:33. > :09:37.game so we have scientists from all game so we have scientists from all
:09:38. > :09:42.over the world, in fact that 2% of scientists here in Astex are from
:09:43. > :09:46.the EU. It is important for us to still have access to the best talent
:09:47. > :09:50.wherever that may come from. Whether that is continental Europe or Asia
:09:51. > :09:55.or the Americas. This will be crucial for the firm as it will now
:09:56. > :09:58.be expanding its workforce after this latest pioneering success.
:09:59. > :10:06.I'll leave you with the weather from Alex.
:10:07. > :10:11.Some cloudy conditions across some parts of the region overnight
:10:12. > :10:14.tonight, also clear spells so temperatures made just not low
:10:15. > :10:18.enough for a touch of ground frost. That should be short lived with more
:10:19. > :10:22.cloud coming in from the north by the end of the night. We start the
:10:23. > :10:25.day tomorrow on temperatures of around 8 degrees with a light
:10:26. > :10:28.northerly winds and there will be some areas of cloud through
:10:29. > :10:33.tomorrow, I pressure building in from the south-west but generally
:10:34. > :10:36.quite a bit of cloud, brighter spells and perhaps some sunshine
:10:37. > :10:41.with temperatures climbing into the mid-teens. Tomorrow highs of around
:10:42. > :10:44.13 or perhaps 40 degrees with a light rough westerly wind and that
:10:45. > :10:48.wind direction will continue bringing the cloudy conditions for
:10:49. > :10:51.the rest of the week but into the weekend we change the wind direction
:10:52. > :10:54.to a southerly and that will bring warmer temperatures. The National
:10:55. > :10:57.Weather Service opportunist outlet, and on Friday there will be some
:10:58. > :11:02.areas of cloud around for much of the day, brighter spells but as he
:11:03. > :11:03.gets into the weekend temperatures rising with southerly winds and
:11:04. > :11:07.temperatures in the weekend and we could see the low 20s
:11:08. > :11:12.by Sunday. Here is Darren with the national weather.
:11:13. > :11:17.Hello. The weather has been a big news in North America across the
:11:18. > :11:22.Masters in Augusta, for the first time the par-3 competition was
:11:23. > :11:26.abandoned, the storms moving away and sunshine windy for a while.
:11:27. > :11:31.Temperatures about 17, which is on a par with what we had today in the
:11:32. > :11:34.south-east of Wales, blue skies around here. That's from one of our
:11:35. > :11:39.weather watchers. More sunshine over the next few days. Little or no rain
:11:40. > :11:42.once again, it's looking dry and as we get more sunshine, especially in
:11:43. > :11:43.England and Wales this weekend, it will be warming up. In stark
:11:44. > :11:44.contrast