Daily roundup 13 March: Celibacy, poverty, and age checks

Schools should promote celibacy and abstinence as "positive life choices", the Church of England has said. The BBC reports that the act of refraining from sexual activity is part of the Church's advice for sex education lessons. In a blog post, it also says pupils should be taught the importance of "trust, loyalty and fidelity" in relationships. The government announced last March that compulsory sex and relationships education will be introduced in all secondary schools, and relationships education in all primaries, from 2019.


Former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has warned the Chancellor that he risks undermining the whole purpose of welfare reform if he fails to reverse cuts to universal credit in his spring statement. The Guardian reports that Philip Hammond is under mounting pressure from across the party to use better than expected tax revenues to reverse cuts made after the 2015 election. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that 340,000 people could be taken out of poverty by reversing the cuts to work allowances.


The government has confirmed that a controversial compulsory age verification check for online porn visitors will no longer be introduced in April as planned. The BBC reports that in a statement, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it would now start "later in the year". "We need to take the time to make sure we get it right," added a spokesman.


A "harsh and cruel" father forced his nine-year-old daughter to undergo female genital mutilation with a razor blade as a form of punishment, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. The Times reports that on two separate occasions someone came to the family home and used a razor to cut the girl as she lay on a mat in the hallway and begged for the punishment to stop, the court was told.


Children who try e-cigarettes are 12 times more likely to smoke tobacco, research has found. The Daily Mail reports that researchers from King's College London and Cancer Research UK looked at 1,152 children aged 11 to 18, who were subsequently followed for four to six months - and uncovered strong evidence of a so-called "gateway effect".


International social workers could be brought to Cumbria to help solve a long-running shortage of qualified staff in the county. The News and Star reports that figures published by the Department for Education reveal the social care vacancy rate among those working with children and families stands at around 20 per cent, meaning 57 posts at the local authority are unfilled. Cumbria County Council is set to consider recruiting from countries including India and Poland in a bid to boost staff numbers.