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EU laws

Express
Government ministers are said to be considering delaying plans to scrap EU laws by up to six months. The Retained EU Law Bill was first introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg in September of last year. At the time the leading Brexiter was serving as the business secretary.
Along with other Eurosceptic Tory MPs, he argued that stripping out EU regulations was a key to securing a Brexit bonanza for the UK’s economy.
Under the terms of the bill, any EU-derived regulation in Britain that is not converted into UK law or revoked by the end of 2023 will automatically drop off the statute book.
Rishi Sunak pledged to keep the bill and scrap, amend or retain all EU-derived laws on Britain’s statute books by December 31, 2023.
However, officials are struggling to review the 4,000 laws that are potentially involved, The Times‘s political editor writes.
Experts have expressed grave concerns that mistakes with possible far-reaching consequences for the economy could be made in any attempt to rush through the bill in order to meet the end of the year deadline.

Fisheries

Express
UK fishermen are being “bullied” out of their own British waters by European boats, with the Government warned the fishing sector has been hit by a brutal “double whammy”. Boris Johnson, who pledged to “Get Brexit Done”, had promised to protect the industry before signing a trade deal with the European Union. But fishermen have been left fuming as the agreement states there would be a five-year transition period that would see EU boats continue to gain access to UK waters until 2026.
At the time, the former Prime Minister admitted some concessions had been made in talks with the EU, but insisted for the first time since 1973, the UK would have “full control” of its waters.
However June Mummery, the former MEP for East of England and founder of Renaissance of the East Anglian Fisheries, has thrown those comments to shreds.
She told Express.co.uk: “Boris Johnson said we would ‘take back control of our waters’. That was a bloody lie. Fishermen have been betrayed and stabbed in the back.

Grooming gangs

Mail
Home Secretary Suella Braverman today vows to stamp out the grooming gangs behind organised child sex abuse – and raises the prospect of jail sentences for people who fail to alert the authorities.
She highlights the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, which led to the conviction a decade ago of a group of British-Pakistani men for offences against girls aged between 12 and 16. The authorities had failed to act despite widespread evidence of abuse – in some cases because they feared being accused of racism.
The Home Secretary, writing in The Mail on Sunday, pledges to ‘track down and punish the grooming gangs with the same sense of mission and determination’ used to pursue the murderers of Stephen Lawrence, the black British teenager who was killed in a racially motivated attack at a bus stop in South London in 1993.
Ms Braverman, who was born in Harrow, in North-West London, to a Kenyan mother and Mauritian father, writes: ‘The time has come to make right one of the greatest injustices seen in Britain in modern times. The systematic rape, exploitation and abuse of young girls by organised gangs of older men – and the disgraceful failure of the authorities to act despite ample evidence – is a stain on our country.’
A Buddhist, Ms Braverman describes the ‘perpetrators’ as ‘groups of men, almost all British-Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values’.

Education

Express
Homeschooling must be regulated as a matter of urgency, the former education minister says, after the pandemic kept record numbers of pupils out of the classroom. Sir Gavin Williamson warned that some youngsters were still being denied an education and called for a register of children taught at home so councils can check up on them.
The MP, who served as Education Secretary from 2019 to 2021, said: “There are an amazing number of parents who do wonderful home-schooling to an incredibly high quality, but there are also instances where the child is hardly getting any education at all.”
Ministers had promised to create a register as part of a new Schools Bill announced in May last year, but Education Secretary Gillian Keegan revealed in December that the legislation had been scrapped.
Lack of regulation means there are no official figures for the number of home-educated children but the Association of Directors of Children’s Services has estimated that 81,000 children were taught at home in 2021, up from 37,500 in 2016. There are fears some of these children are simply absent, with parents claiming they are home-schooled to avoid attention from the authorities.

Dover

Mail
Agonised parents have revealed their children have been forced to endure ‘nightmare’ 16-hour waits at the Port of Dover without access to food, water or toilets amid scenes of ‘carnage’, as lengthy border checks continue to delay thousands of holidaymakers, including coachloads of school children.
Some youngsters have only been able to obtain snack foods for the lengthy wait at the port, resulting in them being ‘physically sick’ from hunger.
Last night the Port of Dover declared a critical incident and attributed the delays to ‘lengthy French border processes and sheer volume’, as well as inclement weather.
It added that it was ‘deeply frustrated’ that travellers were suffering ‘significant delays’ ahead of the Easter getaway and advised holidaymakers to check the latest advice before travelling.
Many passengers slammed officials for not better communicating how long the delays could be, with many forced to sleep in their vehicles overnight.
Among them are coachloads of children heading on school trips for the Easter break.

ITV News
Coach passengers hoping to travel to Europe for the Easter break have been stuck in their vehicles overnight as delays continue at the UK’s busiest port.
The Port of Dover was forced to declare a critical incident on Friday night as some travellers experienced queues of up to 16 hours while waiting to board ferries.
Extra sailings ran through the night on Saturday as the port struggled to clear the backlog, with coaches still delayed by around 10 hours.
On Sunday morning, passengers and concerned parents took to Twitter to complain about the overnight waits.
“My daughter was due to sail at 12pm yesterday and is still sat in a queue. My worry now is the coach driver’s fitness to drive once in France,” one person wrote.

BBC News
Coach passengers arriving at Dover for the Easter getaway face lengthy waits despite extra ferries being laid on overnight to clear a backlog.
Some passengers who arrived on Saturday were still stuck on Sunday morning.
The port said it estimated waits of between six and eight hours for coach passengers, depending on the ferry operator.
Officials cite slower border processing and a higher-than-expected number of coaches as causes of the delays.
The disruption at Dover began on Friday night and continued through Saturday, with coach passengers particularly badly affected.
Some have provided BBC News with descriptions of travel “carnage”, and said they had waited for as long as 14 hours to board a ferry to France.

Independent
The Port of Dover authorities have warned passengers to expect hours-long delays as extra overnight ferries failed to clear the backlog of waiting coaches.
This morning, P&O Ferries posted an update saying: “We apologise for the wait times in Dover this morning. The current wait at the entrance to the Port of Dover is approximately 4-5 hours. Once coaches reach our check in desks they will be on the next crossing to Calais.”
Officials added that long queues are expected to continue on Sunday- a frustrating start to the Easter break.
The delays come after a critical incident was declared overnight on Friday.
Operators P&O Ferries and DFDS Seaways reported delays to ferry and coach services, citing bad weather and hold-ups at French border controls as partly responsible.

Mirror
Parents and passengers are venting their fury as coaches full of schoolchildren have been stuck in queues at Dover for more than 12 hours overnight as severe delays continue.
The port, which has declared a critical incident, said the hold-ups were “due to lengthy French border processes and sheer volume”.
Additional coach bookings taken by ferry operators for Easter have impacted operations, a statement on the port’s website said.
Fed-up holidaymakers and worried parents took to social media to criticise the delays this morning, as thousands try to travel through the port on Easter getaways and school ski trips.
And one frustrated coach driver, who has a party of 48 kids from Swansea waiting to board a ferry to get to Italy, said some of the children are being “physically sick” after not eating a substantial meal for over 15 hours.

Child abuse

Independent
Suella Braverman remains “committed” to a new legal requirement necessitating professionals working with children to report “signs or suspicions” of sexual abuse.
The government is expected to formally lay out its plans in the coming days as part of a drive toward tackling grooming gangs and protecting children.
Ms Braverman confirmed that Rishi Sunak would outline further details on measures tackling gangs specifically on Monday.
In October 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse described sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake.”
The seven-year inquiry into institutional failings in England and Wales concluded that people in positions of trust should be compelled by law to report child sexual abuse.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, home secretary Suella Braverman said that the inquiry “recommended that the government should introduce a mandatory duty for professionals with safeguarding responsibilities to report any signs or suspicions of such abuse”.

ITV News
The Home Secretary is set to spell out details of a new plan that would see people working with children in England put under a new legal duty to report “signs or suspicions” of sexual abuse.
The government is expected to set out details of plans in the coming days to tackle grooming gangs and better protect children.
It comes after the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse last year described sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”.
The seven-year inquiry into institutional failings in England and Wales concluded that people in positions of trust should be compelled by law to report child sexual abuse.

Harassment law

Telegraph
Rishi Sunak is facing a Tory revolt over “draconian” laws that will allow shop assistants, bar staff and doctors to sue their employers if a member of the public offends them at work.
New harassment rules on the brink of becoming law will enable medics to sue the NHS if a patient insults them, allow bar staff to take legal action against landlords if they are offended by drunk punters, and let baristas take coffee shop owners to a tribunal if they overhear offensive remarks made by customers.
Senior Tories warn the proposed law will lead to an explosion of litigation and force business owners to run their establishments like a “police state”.
A Whitehall source said ministers were “sleep walking” into a “big expansion” of the Labour-era Equality Act, which Mr Sunak had previously blamed for enabling “woke nonsense to permeate public life”.

Covid

Mirror
Millions of Brits will have access to another Covid booster jab from next week as cases climb to their highest level this year.
Care home residents in England will be the first to receive the spring Covid-19 booster vaccine from Monday.
From Wednesday, millions more people in the country will be invited to book an appointment, health officials confirmed.
Some five million people will be entitled to the top up vaccine until the end of June.
This includes those aged 75 and over as well as people with an immunosuppressed condition aged five and over.
From April 5, everyone will be able to book a jab online with the first appointments available from April 17.
Letters and text messages will also be sent to those without the app or who do not regularly use it.
Estimated coronavirus cases last week reached their highest level so far since January 3, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Results suggest 1.5 million people in private households in England had coronavirus n the week ending March 13, up from 1.3 million the week prior.

Metro
Covid booster jab will be rolled out up and down the country from next Monday.
Five million people are eligible for the booster dose up until the end of June.
This includes those aged 75 and over and anyone aged five and over who is immunosuppressed.
Care home residents are the first group eligible, with the care home programme rolling out across England from Monday.
Everyone else eligible will be able to book their jab online from April 5, with the first appointments available the week commencing April 17.
Millions will be sent invitations via the NHS app where they will also be able to book appointments.
Texts messages and letters will be sent to those without the app so everyone is targeted.

Sewage

Independent
Water companies face unlimited fines under government plans to crack down on the sewage blighting English rivers and coastlines.
Days after it was revealed that the firms had pumped waste for more than 1.75 million hours last year – an average of 824 spills a day – ministers say they want to make polluters pay.
Two years ago, Southern Water was fined £90m after it pleaded guilty to thousands of illegal discharges of sewage across Kent, Hampshire and Sussex.
Now ministers want to remove a cap on civil penalties for water companies, making fines unlimited. The money would be used to clean up waterways.
Environment secretary Therese Coffey, who has faced calls to resign over the controversy, admitted that “more needs to be done” to protect rivers and coastal waters.
“I want to make sure that regulators have the powers and tools to take tough action against companies that are breaking the rules, and to do so more quickly,” she said.
“I will be making sure that money from higher fines and penalties – taken from water company profits, not customers – is channelled directly back into the rivers, lakes and streams where it is needed,” she added.

BBC News
Water companies could face unlimited fines for dumping sewage under government plans due to be unveiled in the coming days.
Ministers want to lift a cap of £250,000 for penalties for firms that release sewage into rivers and the sea.
Releases of untreated waste are legal in some cases, but they also pose risks to human health and to ecosystems.
Official figures show an average of 825 sewage spills per day into England’s waterways in the last year.
Latest figures from the Environment Agency (EA) showed a total of 301,081 sewage spills in 2022. This represented a 19% decrease from 2021 – but the EA put the drop largely down to drier weather, rather than the actions of water companies.
In the coming days, ministers are set to announce plans to “make polluters pay” – addressing all sources of pollution, including from plastics and chemicals used in farming.

Scottish independence

Express
The Scottish Tories have written to the country’s top civil servant to protest over the appointment of a minister for independence. Humza Yousaf pledged to create the role during the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon and this week gave the job to SNP MSP Jamie Hepburn.
In a letter to Permanent Secretary John Paul Marks, Scottish Tory constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said money should not be being spent on independence after the Supreme Court ruling last year that the Scottish Parliament does not have the power to hold another referendum.
He said: “This is not an appropriate use of taxpayer funding as it is not an area where the Scottish Government can action any policy that it has the power to deliver.”
Mr Cameron went on to say it would be “reasonable” for the Permanent Secretary to “consider formally objecting to such a spending proposal”, before asking Mr Marks if he had done so and been subsequently overruled.
He added: “I consider this matter to be of significant public interest, not least in light of the taxpayers’ money being spent on this appointment.”

Russia

ITV News
Russia becoming president of the United Nations Security Council is a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning,” Ukraine’s foreign minister has said.
On Saturday, Russia took over from Mozambique as the leader of the United Nation’s top body.
Each of the body’s 15 members assumes the presidency for a month, on a rotating pattern.
Russia’s presidency means the Council – which is responsible for maintaining international peace and security – is now headed by a country whose president is subject to an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

Independent
Ukraine has lashed out at the start of Russia’s month-long UNSecurity Council presidency.
Russia has taken up the monthly presidency of the 15-member UN Security Council from Saturday, in line with a rotation that has been unaffected by the Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia’s tenure was “a slap in the face to the international community.”
“I urge the current UNSC members to thwart any Russian attempts to abuse its presidency,” he said on Twitter, calling Russia “an outlaw on the UNSC.”
Earlier, Russia’s presidency was also criticised by the US.
“A country that flagrantly violates the UN Charter and invades its neighbour has no place on the UN Security Council,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday.
Speaking about the Russian presidency of the council, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said: “It is hard to imagine something more evident that proves the complete bankruptcy of such institutions.”

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