Daily roundup: School travel, cancer treatment, and charity merger

Schoolchildren are spending almost 50 per cent more time inside a car on the morning school run today than their parents' generation did. Research from the transport charity Sustrans, based on government figures, showed that primary school children now spend an average of 26 hours a year being driven to school, compared with 18 hours in 1995. Sustrans said safety fears were prompting more parents to drive their children, with the proportion of pupils taking the car rising from 40 to 46 per cent, reports the Guardian.

The parents of a five year old boy with terminal cancer have been freed from custody in Madrid after efforts to extradite the couple to the UK on suspicion of child neglect were abandoned. They were arrested after taking their son from Southampton General Hospital without doctors' consent last week, in order to seek proton beam treatment abroad. The BBC reports that the boy can receive treatment at the Proton Therapy Center in Prague and that a UK cancer specialist will be flown out to Spain to give his parents advice on the best course of action.