Society
The NHS, public services, and the way Britain lives now.
Short term lets pass 104 million guest nights as bookings rise in every part of the UK
Guests spent 104.6 million nights in platform booked rentals in the year to June 2026, up 10.2 per cent in a year and 22.9 per cent in two years, with almost a quarter of the total concentrated in just nine council areas.
More than 80,000 knives taken off the streets as knife robbery falls by almost a quarter in the worst hit areas
The Home Office put the total removed or seized since July 2024 at 80,190, around 100 a day, with 3,811 handed in during the August surrender drive alone and knife crime across England and Wales down 11 per cent since the General Election.
Three experimental treatments win Innovation Passports, for lung cancer, Huntington's and early Alzheimer's
A gene-silencing therapy, a cancer drug aimed at tumours with no targeted treatment, and an Alzheimer's therapy have entered the UK's fast-support pathway. None is approved, and the regulator stresses that access will depend on evidence still to come.
GPs get £40 million to reach 300,000 vulnerable patients before winter puts them in hospital
Practices will be paid to find the patients most likely to become seriously unwell this winter and support them at home, with health checks, medication reviews and respiratory clinics, in a programme ministers say is meant to keep avoidable admissions down.
Key Stage 3 becomes a phase of its own as schools are told to stop starting GCSEs early
The first three years of secondary school will be restored as a distinct stage under the new National Curriculum, with content slimmed down, absence in Years 7 to 9 named as the problem to fix, and early exam teaching called to a halt.
Burnham sets a new principle on veteran homelessness: no one who served should sleep rough
The Prime Minister will write to councils in England on Armistice Day asking for specific plans to offer accommodation to veterans sleeping rough before Christmas, backed by £8.7 million for eight organisations under the Reducing Veteran Homelessness programme.
The King leads the nation in the two-minute silence as 10,000 veterans march past the Cenotaph
Members of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and senior politicians join the National Service of Remembrance on Whitehall, while 6,500 UK personnel remain deployed overseas and the youngest marcher in the Royal British Legion parade is seven years old.
Severn Stoke flood scheme finishes ahead of schedule, cutting flood risk before winter
The scheme, a new flood bank west of the Worcestershire village with new drainage and a raised section of road, is fully operational months early, in a village where flooding has hit 18 properties, the church, the pub and the A38.
England adopts a plan to be free of bovine TB by 2038, built on vaccines and the end of the badger cull
The Government has formally adopted the long term bovine TB strategy for England, with cattle vaccination aimed for 2030, an expanded badger vaccination force, and 2026 standing as the first year in over a decade with no badgers culled.
Drug poisoning deaths fall for the first time since 2012, as cocaine overtakes heroin
Registrations of drug poisoning deaths in England and Wales totalled 5,519 in 2025, and cocaine overtook heroin or morphine as the substance mentioned most often, a first since the series began in 1993.
TechFirst opens to every secondary school, with 10,000 tech placements backed by major employers
Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and five other employers are backing 10,000 work experience places over three years. The Digital and Technologies Jobs Plan, published the same day, sets a goal of 20,000 entry-level jobs a year.
Planning permission dropped for cross-pavement home chargers, in a saving put at up to £300
Drivers who park on the street can now fit a charger that runs under the pavement from their home without a planning application. Two consultations on renters and on covered car parks run alongside the change.
Medicines regulator takes its AI and MedTech agenda to the United States as a Washington liaison role opens
Jessica Paulsen, the MHRA deputy director for AI and software, will address the AdvaMed conference on Tuesday, setting out a lifecycle approach to regulating AI-enabled medical devices and closer work with the FDA.
Stronger safeguards for wheelchair users as airports act on damaged mobility aids and staff training
More than 1,000 wheelchairs were damaged in transit in 2023. An annual report from the Aviation Accessibility Implementation Group sets out what airlines and airports have changed since, and what the Civil Aviation Bill would add.
Cooper warns of a more challenging NHS winter as £140 million goes into urgent care in England
The money will fund 14 schemes, including urgent treatment centres, same day emergency care, new ambulance fleets and emergency department upgrades. A further 25 new or expanded urgent care sites, announced in April, are set to be ready for winter.
Britain backs a £60 million mission to remove two defunct satellites from orbit by 2032
The UK Active Debris Removal mission will launch a refuellable spacecraft from SaxaVord Spaceport in 2029 to capture two dead satellites and lower them to burn up in the atmosphere. ClearSpace UK is the industry delivery partner, and the public will be invited to name the spacecraft.
Possessing pornography depicting strangulation or incest becomes an offence in England and Wales from 6 November
New offences under the Crime and Policing Act 2026 cover possession and publication of explicit, realistic images in three categories, with maximum penalties of up to three years for possession and five years for publication. Official guidance tells anyone holding covered material to delete it before the offences begin.
Real Living Wage rises to £14.10 an hour, and £15.45 in London, for almost half a million workers
The voluntary rate set by the Living Wage Foundation rises 65p an hour from Thursday, covering workers aged 18 and over at close to 17,000 accredited employers. Employers have until 1 May 2027 to bring the new rates into pay packets.
Car crashes into M&S foodhall at Silverlink at about 2.25pm on Tuesday 13 October, seriously injuring two pedestrians
A man and a woman, both in their 60s, were taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle with serious injuries after a car collided with the front of the Marks and Spencer store at Silverlink Retail Park in Wallsend. The driver, a woman in her 70s, stayed at the scene.
Northern lights reach England’s south coast as skies light up over Devon, Hampshire and Kent
The aurora borealis was visible as far south as Devon, Hampshire and Kent on Friday and Saturday evening, and the Met Office said sightings could continue during clear skies until Tuesday.
Flood and drought taskforce to meet for the first time as winter flood risk rises
More than 50 organisations will join Floods Minister Emma Hardy on Wednesday for the first meeting of the Flood and Drought Resilience Taskforce, after the third drought in five years and ahead of a wetter winter forecast.
Man dies after tiger attack at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Saturday 10 October
A man entered the tiger enclosure at the Doncaster park on Saturday afternoon, was attacked, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The tiger was uninjured, visitors were evacuated, and the park will stay closed on Sunday.
NHS waiting list climbs to nine-month high after the busiest summer on record
An estimated 7.33 million treatments were waiting at the end of July, as A&E departments recorded 7.2 million attendances over the summer and ambulances faced record callouts.