In conjunction with the government’s anti-slavery units the London Evening Standard has issued readers with key signs for the public to look for which could indicate enslavement. In particular the Met police’s Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit and the government’s Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority are currently investigating hand car washes in London where slavery is considered especially likely.

• Is someone always watching the staff?
• Do staff have injuries that indicate assault?
• Do staff seem frightened and/or unwilling to make eye contact?
• Do staff always wear the same old clothes?
• Are staff wearing gloves to protect their hands from chemicals?
• Do staff look starving or neglected? Are the car washes offered for £5 or less?

At four hand car washes in East London staff told officials of sleeping four to a room and working 12-hour days for £3 an hour. Other premises likely to house slaves are nail bars. Continue reading →

The RSPCA has welcomed the government announcement that the current maximum term of six months in prison for cruelty to animals is to be increased to five years.

The six month maximum was set in 1911, more than 100 years ago, by the Protection of Animals Act, and is one of the lowest in Europe. Studies by the Centre for Crime Prevention (CCP) show that custodial sentences are, in any case rarely imposed in animal cruelty cases, in just one in every thirteen cases since 2005.Many of these were handed suspended sentences. One in four of convicted offenders was simply handed a fine, with an average of less than £300. Continue reading →

Charities concerned with the care of the elderly have warned of the frightening extent of the crisis in the care home sector.

A report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) shows that they launched 1,512 enforcement actions against care homes and home helps in 2016/17 – nearly 70% up on the previous 12 months. The actions dealt with concerns about safety, lack of dignity in the treatment of residents by staff, poor staffing levels, lack of food or water and actual abuse of residents. More than 100 operators were struck off the CQC register, forcing them, to close down. Continue reading →

Charities have blamed the easy availability of online pornography for the revelations that child on child sexual assaults have soared by more than 70% over the last four years, with nearly 500 of the 30,000 complaints against schoolchildren in the last four years concerning 10 year-olds and younger. This figure included 225 alleged rapes.

Addiction charity The Reward Foundation has warned that sex acts featured online teach those watching them to want to carry out those acts. While the NSPCC has revealed that a third of all child sexual offences are carried out by children. Teachers have a legal duty to report allegations of sexual assault on children by adults, but not when the assault is by other children.

“Unethical journalists” who conspired against her and “politicians who don’t know what is happening on the street” have been blamed for the 2015 collapse of the Kid’s Company charity by founder Camila Batmanghelidih, who also claimed that she was not responsible for the failure, despite making “lots of mistakes”.

She was speaking to The Sunday Times in an interview ahead of the publication of her autobiography and defended spending £55,000 on one “kid” in his 20s, a drug addict with a long criminal history who she sent to luxury spa Champneys, where he enjoyed a chocolate exfoliation scrub and a cocoa wrap.

Charity collection bags posted through householder’s letterboxes are now banned, if the householder displays a sign advising charities the bags are unwanted.

The ban has been introduced by the Fundraising Regulator following complaints that some households were receiving the dustbin-sized bags up to five times a week, and that even when filled with old clothes and left outside front doors they were not always collected. In addition there were environmental concerns that the unwanted bags often ended up on landfill sites.

Chancellor Philip Hammond could face questions over his moral integrity after he shelved a review of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in bookmakers.

These are highly addictive, with players able to wager £100 every 20 seconds. The nice people at the Treasury like them, as does Mr Hammond, because the huge losses their victims suffer pour more than £400 million in tax on the bookmaker’s profits into the coffers.

Addiction charities want to reduce the amount that can be gambled every 20 seconds from £100 to £5 or less, to decrease the amount of human misery caused.

Meanwhile, and this is totally coincidental of course, it has been revealed that bookmakers are the largest donors of free gifts, meals and booze to MPs…