Justice Secretary Liz Truss is set to meet with leaders of the Prison Officers Association to address growing concerns over safety in jails.
Truss is expected to announce plans for prison reforms on Thursday 3 November, and recently told the House of Commons that there was a ‘serious issue with violence and levels of suicide’ in prisons, and stressed that addressing the situation was her top priority.
Figures suggest there are 65 assaults in jails every day. In the year to June, assaults on staff jumped by 43 per cent to 5,954, with 697 of these recorded as serious.

A ‘slow start’ has been made in releasing surplus land to build 160,000 new homes by 2020, a committee report has warned.

A report from the Environment and Rural Affairs Committee has warned that a major reform of the system for managing flood risk is needed.
Despite the government reiterating that it saw no need for organisational change, MPs have argued that the Environment Agency’s recent performance over flooding is poor, and that it should be stripped of its powers.
Instead, such powers should be handed to a new bodies, which would include a UK floods supremo, new flooding and coastal boards and a rivers and coastal authority.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that the time it would to fix the nation’s roads has risen by a third in a decade.

Powys Council is set to apply to the Welsh government to suspend the right to buy scheme for the next five years.

New analysis from Glasgow and Heriot-Watt universities and the Scottish Parliament Information Centre has shown that councils in Scotland are making most of their savings from services used by more disadvantaged residents.

Conservative MPs are set to join the SNP in demanding a debate on postponing disability benefit cuts.

According to figures from the National Audit Office (NAO), HMRC is chasing almost £2 billion in potentially owed taxes from the UK’s richest citizens.

Dozens of leading businesses have become Northern Powerhouse partners in a major boost to the government’s ambitions.
Taking the number of Northern Powerhouse partners to over the 30 mark, these companies have each committed to help the north achieve its full potential – and attract new jobs and investment to the region.

Pembrokeshire council has approved plans to outsource its culture and leisure services due to ‘unprecedented financial pressures’.
With the council hoping the move will ‘generate significant financial savings’, the services will now be run by a charitable trust with a separate subsidiary set to manage tourism.
Libraries, leisure centres and sports pitches will all be run externally in a move consultants say could save up to £1,598,000 over the next five years.