Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) should be abolished and replaced by a new system, a review of policing in England and Wales has said. The review, led by ex-Met Police Commissioner Lord Stevens and commissioned by Labour, said PCCs should be scrapped in 2016 and more power given to local councillors and local authorities. The review also recommends that some police forces are merged as the current 43-force structure is "untenable", the BBC reports.
The Child Support Agency (CSA) can no longer be used by new applicants as the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) takes over all new child maintenance cases from today. It is the start of the countdown to the transfer of all existing CSA cases to the CMS by next year. The new system, which will include charges for some parents to use the service, will result in thousands of families giving up on maintenance altogether and their children going without vital support, warn charity Gingerbread, which is campaigning against the changes.
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