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Tougher guidelines on grooming and online sex offences
Sex offenders will have no protection if they sleep with a child over the age of 13 and claimed they consented, according to new sentencing guidelines.
They see the removal of "ostensible consent" - the idea a child over the age of 13 can agree to sex - while greater emphasis will be placed on grooming by individuals and gangs.
According to the new guidelines:
- A new term has been spawned to take the effect of technology into account. An aggravating factor is "recording the crime", as filming and photographing victims has become more common.
- Offending committed remotely, such as via a webcam, is also included.
- Judges will also have to take into account aspects such as offenders lying about their age, grooming via social media or asking children to share indecent photos of themselves.
BMA: Majority of GPs provide high quality care
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association's general practice committee, has said anecdotes of poor practice must not be used to distort reality.
– Dr Chaand Nagpaul from the British Medical AssociationWhile most patients receive high-quality care from their GP, we need to understand where and why shortcomings in a small number of practices exist, and the BMA is committed to working with the chief inspector to improve standards.
It's important, however, that anecdotes of poor practice are not used to distort the reality, which is that the overwhelming majority of hard-working GPs provide high-quality care which is appreciated by patients.
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GP practices to undergo tougher inspections
Professor Steve Field, of health regulator CQC, is to introduce new-style inspections of GP practices, which will start in April 2014 and will involve a CQC inspector, a GP, a practice nurse or practice manager and a trainee GP.
Inspectors will visit every clinical commissioning group area in England once every six months, inspecting a quarter of the practices in that area.Every practice will have been inspected by April 2016 and given Ofsted-style ratings.
From January, new inspections will also focus on GP out-of-hours services.
– Professor Steve FieldWe need to make sure that everyone, from the most well-off to the most disadvantaged, can get access to really good primary medical care; this is something which I intend to champion as chief inspector.
When something goes wrong in general practice, it has the potential to affect thousands of local people.
GPs don't work in isolation, so we will also be considering the quality of communication between out-of-hours care and other local services, including GP practices, care homes and emergency services.
Sex-offending celebrities to be 'made example of'
New sentencing guidelines could include tougher penalties for celebrities who commit sex crimes in order to make an example of them, the Sentencing Council has said.
The star's past behaviour may also work against them as "good character" may be seen as a means to commit a predatory sexual offence, the Sentencing Council said.
In practice, this means in the future the likes of disgraced Lost Prophets front man Ian Watkins, who used his fame to commit crimes against women and children, could receive more severe sentences.
The new guidelines place more emphasis on the long-term, psychological impact on the victims and cover over 50 offences, including rape, child sex offences and trafficking.
Sentencing Council chairman Lord Justice Treacy said: "This guideline will make real changes to the way offenders are sentenced for these very serious, sensitive and complex offences."
"It will help judges and magistrates sentence in a way which protects our communities from this kind of offending and the suffering it causes."
Queues, out-of-date medicine and no GPs
Among the catalogue failures at GP surgeries found by health regulator inspectors were:
- In one Birmingham practice, people were queuing outside to make an appointment.
- At one practice, both GPs had referred each other to the GMC for incompetence. They were no longer working in the practice.
- In another practice in Leeds, the inspectors turned up but there were no GPs.
- At Dale Surgery in Sneinton in Nottinghamshire, inspectors found maggots and other insects, as well as dust and cobwebs.The surgery immediately sorted out the problem but inspectors said there was "no regular, effective and on-going monitoring of these standards".
- Some GPs left private medical files laying around, had medicines that were out of date, filthy treatment rooms and employed staff who had not undergone criminal record checks.
GP surgery problems 'could put patients' lives at risk'
The health regulator's inspections report comes as Professor Steve Field, the CQC's new chief inspector of general practice, set out his new approach for the inspection and regulation of GPs and GP out-of-hours services.
"We found some surgeries where there were out of date vaccines in the fridge," he said, adding that people who wrongly think they are immune could become "very, very poorly and then die".
He said a woman who thought she was immune to German measles due to vaccination could potentially give birth to a deaf and blind baby.
"You are talking about problems which can damage this generation and the next generation," he said.
Prof Field said patients across the board had difficulties getting appointments.
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Inspections uncover failings at GP practices
The health regulator, The Care Quality Commission (CQC), has uncovered a catalogue of failings at some GP practices with medicines stored in a way that puts children and patients at risk of infection and rooms so dirty they had maggots.
CQC carried out inspections at 1,000 GP practices in England and found examples of "very poor care" that put patients at risk. While many people received an excellent service, a third of surgeries (34%) failed to meet at least one of the required standards on good practice and protecting patients.
In nine practices "there were very serious failings that could potentially affect thousands of people", the CQC said, and in 90 practices follow-up inspections had to be ordered to ensure improvements were made.
Some GPs left private medical files laying around, had medicines that were out of date, filthy treatment rooms and employed staff who had not undergone criminal record checks.
Music production company champions artistic freedom
Svana Gisla, Head of Music Video at Black Dog Films - the company responsible for producing videos for Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines and Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball, says they champion artistic freedom.
In an interview with ITV's Tonight programme, she said: "What's offensive to one person is not offensive to another. You can’t ask an artist to conform to your own sensibility, I wouldn't ask you to conform to what I find offensive.
"As a mother, all I can say is I'm not necessarily a huge fan of all the images that we produce in videos but I'm a huge fan of the choice the artist has to make them."
Watch the Tonight programme 'Pop, Sex and Videotape' - Thursday, 7.30pm on ITV
Poll: 83% want age ratings for explicit online pop videos
More than four in five Britons appear to believe that online pop music videos containing sexual or explicit content should be subject to the age ratings and regulations, a poll suggests.
An exclusive poll for the Tonight programme, conducted by ComRes, found that 8% of those questioned did not believe that the content should be subject to age ratings and regulation.
Watch the Tonight programme 'Pop, Sex and Videotape' - Thursday, 7.30pm on ITV
Lennox against exposing kids to explicit music videos
Singer-songwriter Annie Lennox has spoken out against children being exposed to explicit and sexualised music videos.
In an interview with ITV's Tonight programme, she said: "Personally I don't think it is appropriate that... that very young kids are exposed to entertainment in the form of pornography and what am I saying that I think is pornographic?
"I think it is when, and I am being specific, it's when you stand simulating masturbation with your clothes on or off... or bending over with your derriere in the air and thrusting your pelvis that's pretty hard core."
Watch the Tonight programme 'Pop, Sex and Videotape' - Thursday, 7.30pm on ITV
