Daily roundup 24 January: Child poverty, caesareans, and abuse inquiry

More than half of all children in the UK's very poorest areas are now growing up in poverty, a study has found. The Guardian reports that analysis by the End Child Poverty coalition of charities shows that the biggest increases in child poverty in the past two years have occurred in areas already identified as deprivation hotspots. In four parliamentary constituencies - Bethnal Green and Bow, and Poplar and Limehouse in east London, and Ladywood and Hodge Hill in Birmingham - children are for the first time in recent years more likely than not to grow up poor.


Babies who are born by caesarean are 50 per cent more likely to be obese before the age of five, research has found. The Daily Mail reports that they are also more likely to suffer asthma during childhood, while their mothers face greater threat of future miscarriage and infertility. A review on the long-term risks of caesarean sections, which looked at 79 large scientific studies, found that an average of 9.2 in every 100 babies born naturally were obese before the age of five.


A leading figure in the fight against online paedophilia was barred from giving his full evidence to the public inquiry into child abuse yesterday. The Times reports that Jim Gamble, founding head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), was placed under a restriction order by Alexis Jay, chairwoman of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. Gamble has been a critic of the low number of arrests of internet offenders and the gagging order was sought by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which claimed that he planned to disclose "sensitive information".


Angus Council has apologised after a primary school said it would withdraw school meals from pupils if their parents owed more than £10.50 in fees. The BBC reports that the local authority said the wording of a letter issued to parents from Inverbrothock Primary School in Arbroath had "caused some concern".