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STORY

More than one in ten dental practices that provided NHS treatment in England in 2017 have since stopped doing so, according to new analysis from the Nuffield Trust. The proportion of dental practices offering general NHS dentistry fell from around 65% in 2017 to 56% in 2026, with nearly 600 practices withdrawing from NHS provision. Over the same period, the number of practices without an NHS general dental contract, largely private or specialist providers, increased by almost 1,000.

The decline was recorded in 41 of England’s 42 integrated care board areas, with particularly large reductions in parts of the South West and East of England. The Nuffield Trust said NHS dental activity also remains below its pre pandemic level, while its wider data shows that in June 2025 only 40% of adults had seen an NHS dentist within the previous two years. The think tank warned that the continuing movement of practices away from NHS work risked creating an increasingly two tier system in which access depended on patients’ ability to pay and where they lived.

The Government said it recognised that too many people were struggling to obtain dental treatment but argued that it was rebuilding NHS dentistry through contract changes, additional treatments and an expansion of the workforce. Reforms introduced from April include changes to payments for urgent and complex treatment, while ministers have also said newly qualified dentists will be required to work in the NHS for at least three years. The Nuffield Trust said the recent contract changes could improve urgent access but argued that more fundamental reform would be needed to reverse the decline in practices willing to provide NHS care.

STORY

An illegal waste site in Sheffield has been cleared after a prosecution by the Environment Agency led to its owner and director being ordered to remove the material. Concept Investments Limited and its director Austin Fitzgerald had admitted offences connected with allowing an illegal waste operation to take place at the former Stanley Works site on Rutland Road.

The Environment Agency first visited the site in July 2022 and found a large quantity of mixed waste. Despite repeated instructions and a formal notice requiring the land to be cleared, further inspections found that waste remained and additional material had accumulated. Complaints were later received about waste being burned at the site, with Sheffield City Council advising the operator to stop because of the impact on nearby residents. The site has now been completely cleared of material including fridges, electrical equipment, soil and stones.

At Sheffield Magistrates’ Court in April, Concept Investments was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay a £2,000 victim surcharge and £5,442 in costs. Fitzgerald received a 12 month community order requiring 140 hours of unpaid work and was ordered to pay £5,442 in costs and a £114 victim surcharge. A 38 year old Sheffield man has separately pleaded guilty to operating the illegal waste site and is due to be sentenced on 16 September. Environment Agency official Ben Hocking said the case should serve as a warning that action would be taken against landowners who allow illegal waste activity on their property.

STORY

Amnesty International UK has backed calls for the Government’s Prevent counter terrorism programme to be abolished, describing discussion about its future as “long overdue”. The human rights organisation was responding to reports that the Green Party’s Crime and Justice Working Group has proposed scrapping Prevent as part of a wider package of criminal justice policies being considered ahead of the party’s autumn conference.

Rebecca Barnes, Racial Justice Campaigner at Amnesty International UK, claimed Prevent was ineffective and discriminatory and disproportionately affected Muslim and racialised communities, as well as children and neurodiverse people. Amnesty said figures released last year showed that despite record numbers of referrals to Prevent, around 80% of cases were not considered to require intervention through Channel, the programme which provides support to people considered vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism. Barnes said she hoped the Greens would adopt the proposal and that other political parties would follow.

The Government continues to defend Prevent, describing it as a critical part of the UK’s counter terrorism strategy and an early intervention programme intended to stop people becoming involved in or supporting terrorism. The Home Office said earlier this month that more than 6,000 people had received interventions intended to steer them away from violent ideologies since 2015. It said the programme allows professionals, families and members of the public to raise concerns about people who may be susceptible to radicalisation and argued that Prevent remains necessary because the terrorist threat facing the UK is continuing to evolve.

STORY

Women’s Aid has warned that new restriction zones for offenders could give victims a false sense of security unless they are backed by effective monitoring and properly resourced probation and police services. The charity said it supported measures which restrict the freedoms of offenders but cautioned that the zones should never be used as an alternative to an appropriate prison sentence.

The new powers allow offenders to be required to remain within specified geographical areas, with restriction zones available as part of community and suspended sentences and as licence conditions following release from prison. The Government has said the approach is intended to place restrictions on offenders rather than victims, with electronic monitoring used to identify breaches. Under wider sentencing reforms, restriction zones can be imposed alongside measures including bans from pubs, public events and driving.

Ellie Daniel, Head of Policy and Survivor Services at Women’s Aid, said effective use of the zones would require robust risk assessments involving victims and specialist support services. She warned that probation services were already stretched and that police responses to breaches would not necessarily be immediate, meaning monitoring could record a breach without preventing it. Women’s Aid said inadequate safeguards could have potentially fatal consequences and called for wider changes to the criminal justice system if the Government is to meet its commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.

STORY

The UK has reaffirmed its support for Ukraine and its right to defend itself against Russia as the country marks the 35th anniversary of its independence. Speaking at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Arron Newble, the UK’s Counsellor for Politico-Military Affairs, said Ukrainians were continuing to defend the sovereignty they chose when the country declared independence on 24 August 1991.

Newble said Russia’s invasion had sought not only to seize Ukrainian territory but also to undermine the country’s identity, sovereignty and culture. He referred to an OSCE Moscow Mechanism report which documented the indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children, as well as attacks on cultural and religious sites and pressure on communities living under Russian occupation. The UK representative said Russia had failed to achieve the political submission or rapid military victory it had sought.

The statement also condemned recent Russian missile and drone attacks, including strikes on 19 and 20 August which the UK said killed at least 17 civilians, followed by a drone attack on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih which it said killed another 16 people and injured more than 130. Newble said the UK would continue supporting Ukraine’s legitimate self-defence and efforts to secure what he described as a just and lasting peace, arguing that Ukrainian resistance was also defending wider European principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the right of countries to determine their own future.

STORY

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has visited HMNB Devonport in Plymouth as the Government prepares to invest £7.1 billion in upgrading the naval base and dockyard. Devonport, described by the Ministry of Defence as the largest naval base in Western Europe, is the only UK facility responsible for the deep maintenance and defuelling of the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet. During the visit, Streeting met Royal Navy personnel and industry workers and viewed facilities being constructed to support future submarine operations.

Plymouth is also due to become home to the Royal Navy’s new Type 26 frigates, while around £500 million has been committed through the Defence Investment Plan to modernise the UK Commando Forces. This will include new high speed boats, drones and autonomous technology. The Devonport programme forms part of Royal Oak, a £26 billion ten year programme to modernise naval infrastructure which the Government says is the largest of its kind since the end of the Cold War.

A further £50 million is being invested in defence projects in Plymouth and the South West through the Plymouth Growth Deal, with the Government saying the funding will support hundreds of jobs and help defence companies develop new technology. Streeting said Devonport was critical to national security and would remain central to British naval power as the Type 26 fleet arrives. Defence Readiness and Industry Minister Luke Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said continued investment in submarines and surface ships would also support jobs and skills in the city.

STORY

Homelessness charity Crisis has criticised Reform UK proposals to remove foreign nationals from social housing and give greater priority to British born workers under the age of 35. Reform has also proposed prioritising married couples with children. Crisis said the changes would not address the underlying shortage of social housing and risked excluding people already facing housing insecurity.

Francesca Albanese, Director of Policy and Social Change at Crisis, said access to social housing for non UK nationals was already heavily restricted and that the overwhelming majority of social tenants were UK citizens. She argued that record waiting lists were primarily the result of too few social homes being built. Crisis cited research suggesting that around 90,000 new social homes a year would be needed to end homelessness in England.

The charity also criticised proposals that could exclude people from social housing because they were not in work. Crisis said this could affect older people, disabled people and carers, noting that nearly half of households moving into social housing include someone with a long term illness or disability. Albanese said increasing the supply of social housing, rather than restricting eligibility further, was the necessary response to the housing crisis.