The midnight collapse of the Government's plans for the West Coast main railway line once again raises questions about the outsourcing of public services to private providers. Public bodies of all kinds now face massive budget cuts and are under pressure to deliver savings. As a result, across the country, public services of all kinds are now up for tender in the hope they can be delivered more cheaply by the private sector. With relatively straightforward things such as refuse collection, there...
Oct 23, 2012•37 min
The ultra-conservative Salafist movement, which is said to be the fastest growing branch of Islam, has been blamed for being behind many of the recent violent protests over an anti-Muslim film which appeared on the internet. Jenny Cuffe investigates the spread of Salafism across the countries of the Arab Spring. She asks what threat it poses to democracy in the whole region and also examines concerns in Europe that Salafists now represent a significant security risk. Presenter: Jenny Cuffe Produ...
Oct 16, 2012•37 min
A criminal gang was recently jailed for one of the biggest ever alcohol smuggling rackets in the UK. It's become big business for organised crime according to HMRC, with tax losses in unpaid duty as high as £1.2 billion per year. MP's are demanding tougher action. But these are highly complex frauds, which take years to investigate. Allan Urry examines the scale of the challenge facing the authorities, and reveals the extent to which criminals have penetrated the legitimate market in beer, wine ...
Oct 09, 2012•37 min
How far should undercover police officers go to gather intelligence? Jane Deith talks exclusively to women suing the Metropolitan police claiming they were tricked into long standing relationships with undercover officers. The unmasking of undercover cop Mark Kennedy who'd been infiltrating environmental protest groups has led to revelations that other officers had relationships with woman they were spying on. The women argue that the state agents they fell in love with used them physically and ...
Oct 02, 2012•37 min
In the first of a new series, Gerry Northam investigates the rising number of so called "green on blue" attacks in which Afghan soldiers and policemen have turned their guns on British and other international troops. With more than 50 NATO troops killed in insider attacks this year, is enough being done to protect those working as mentors? The US has invested over $50 billion on developing independent Afghan security forces but according to a US Government audit, the majority of Afghan troops re...
Sep 25, 2012•37 min
World health chiefs have branded diesel exhaust emissions a major cause of cancer. Despite the efforts of car-makers to filter out the most noxious substances, these fumes still play a big part in causing air pollution. Britain has the second worst respiratory death rates in Europe and has long been under notice from Brussels to clean up its act. So why are most UK areas in breach of legal limits? And do ministers have any clear plan to reduce the huge annual total of resulting deaths? Julian O'...
Aug 07, 2012•37 min
Figures released this month reveal almost 9000 new tuberculosis cases in the United Kingdom last year, the highest level since the 1970s. The disease has risen by more than a third in the past decade. In parts of London, Birmingham and other cities it is already at the level of high-risk countries in the developing world. Yet in most of the rest of Europe TB rates have been steadily falling in recent years. Health experts have found that cases of TB remain static among people of all ethnicities ...
Jul 31, 2012•37 min
Thousands of British troops have been deployed to conflict zones since 2001, in the so-called War on Terror. Research is now beginning to confirm what many people have suspected - that a sizeable minority of returning soldiers - one in ten - are displaying increased levels of violence. This is impacting on families through domestic abuse and is raising the risk of people in the wider community becoming victims. With two years to go before frontline troops are pulled out of Afghanistan, is the Ar...
Jul 24, 2012•37 min
The EU has allocated millions of pounds in grants to help our towns and cities regenerate. So why are some complaining they can't get their hands on the cash? European rules mean Britain has to put up an equal amount of money. But, as Allan Urry reveals, cuts at Westminster and in town halls around the country mean that some projects have either stalled or been abandoned because no "matched funding" is available. Critics of the Government say up to a billion pounds of regeneration money will end...
Jul 17, 2012•38 min
It was the Paul Hickson scandal in the mid 90s which first brought the issue of sexual abuse in sport to the public eye. The Olympic swimming coach was jailed for 17 years for raping and sexually abusing young girls he trained. The case led to the setting up of the Child Protection in Sport Unit and the introduction of safeguarding measures in most sports. But, more than a decade on, the problem hasn't gone away and this edition of File on 4 reveals new figures which show how many allegations of...
Jul 10, 2012•38 min
The Arab world's newest governments are desperate to retrieve billions banked in Britain by despots including Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The money, they say, was stolen from their people and is needed to rebuild shattered economies. In 'File on 4' Jenny Cuffe reports on the Arab nations' mounting impatience at the lengthy and costly process of investigation demanded to prove that assets were illicitly obtained by the now deposed leaders, their families and associates. Al...
Jul 03, 2012•37 min
Ofsted has a new, hard-line chief inspector and a new, tougher inspection regime - and in the past few months that has led to a spike in the number of schools deemed inadequate. Predictably, there has been a corresponding wave of anger in schools - with a growing number taking to the courts to challenge the inspectors' views? So are the inspectors really up to the job? And who inspects the inspectors? Fran Abrams investigates. Producer: Rob Cave.
Jun 26, 2012•37 min
Ministers want to extend secret hearings to Britain's civil courts - so judges can deal with the increasing number of cases involving the intelligence services. Justice Secretary Ken Clarke says it is the only way that judges can hear the testimony of spies working for MI5, MI6 or GCHQ. Getting them to give evidence in open court is not an option, he says. A small number of courts already hold secret sessions to consider appeals from individuals facing deportation on evidence compiled by the sec...
Jun 19, 2012•37 min
Hospital waiting times are a key measure of success for the NHS. But do the official figures accurately reflect the reality for patients across the UK? In Scotland the waiting time data has been called into question after a hospital trust was exposed for manipulating the figures in order to hit its targets. There's now an investigation to see if the practice has become widespread. In England the Health Secretary has hailed latest statistics showing a fall in the number of people waiting for trea...
Jun 12, 2012•37 min
Is institutional racism still alive in the police? Black and Asian officers claim discrimination is thwarting progress through the ranks and destroying promising careers.
Jun 05, 2012•37 min
After details of people under witness protection were leaked to a private investigator, Allan Urry asks if police are doing enough to protect witnesses whose lives are at risk.
Mar 27, 2012•37 min
To the west of Edinburgh, construction of the new £1.5bn Forth road bridge will use steel from Poland, Spain and China. A local steel plant near Motherwell lost out as part of a consortium bidding for the work. It says the contract could have secured hundreds of local jobs. Officials insist that they have to follow EU rules which state that any company across the single market can bid for public contracts. But analysts complain that UK authorities interpret these rules more narrowly than their E...
Mar 20, 2012•38 min
How strong is the government's commitment to ending schemes set up to minimise tax? A number of schemes have proved popular in the private sector, including Employee Benefit Trusts. These have been used by football clubs for tax planning purposes, but are now in the sights of HMRC as it attempts to recoup what it sees as unpaid tax. But how widespread are these trust schemes and why are they so popular with companies that have large government contracts? As the Treasury reviews tax avoidance by ...
Mar 13, 2012•37 min
In the last two months, three fathers have killed their partners, children and themselves. File on 4 investigates what drives these men to take such drastic action. The programme talks to relatives, expert forensic psychiatrists and academics to try to find out why they became so-called 'family annihilators'. It looks at new research into such cases which points to a link to unemployment rates and the levels of gun ownership. It will also ask whether authorities like the health service and polic...
Mar 07, 2012•37 min
Their judgments send markets into freefall. It is alleged that their mistakes led to the Enron collapse and the 2008 financial crisis. They are the credit rating agencies. Who exactly are they and what exactly do they do? Is this exploration of the complex world of the "Big Three" rating agencies, BBC Chief Economics Correspondent Hugh Pym takes listeners behind the scenes of the world economy. Through revealing interviews with insiders and former analysts at Standard and Poor's (S&P), Moody...
Feb 28, 2012•37 min
New NHS research has revealed the shocking toll of preventable deaths caused by just one medical condition. Diabetes - in which the body fails to control blood sugar levels safely - is causing 24,000 needless deaths a year in England alone. It's not just the old and middle-aged who are at risk. Young women with diabetes are 6 to 9 times more likely to die than their age group overall. And many more young people who don't die will develop life threatening diseases later due to failure to manage t...
Feb 21, 2012•37 min
With the EU poised to ban oil imports from Iran, Allan Urry assesses the impact of international sanctions on Britain and Europe. Designed to curb Iran's nuclear programme, the oil embargo could further push up the cost of fuel. Iranian companies are involved in a number of joint ventures that bring energy into European homes and factories: File on 4 examines what will happen to these vital projects as the new round of trade restrictions begins to bite. And British companies that trade legitimat...
Feb 14, 2012•37 min
Dutch and American scientists have succeeded in mutating a deadly bird-flu virus to make it easily transmissible to humans. If it got out, it could start a fatal epidemic. They keep it securely locked away in their laboratories, but want to publish the biological recipe for making it. In an unprecedented move, the U.S. government is pressing them to keep the details of their experiments secret for fear that bio-terrorists could use the organism to kill hundreds of millions of people. In the UK t...
Feb 07, 2012•37 min
Inquests in England are increasingly hearing a new term to explain deaths in police custody: Excited Delirium. It's a diagnosis with origins in the United States, where it has been associated with consumption of massive doses of cocaine. People with ED are said to possess super-human strength and to be largely impervious to pain. They behave bizarrely, sometimes destructively.They often seem paranoid and frequently resist arrest. As police struggle to restrain them they overheat and die. But cri...
Jan 31, 2012•37 min
Jenny Cuffe talks to foster parents who find themselves battling with local authorities over the children in their care. They describe a Kafkaesque nightmare where doors are shut, telephone calls and emails unanswered, even court orders are ignored. Meanwhile, vulnerable children are treated as pawns as social workers move them from one place to another. In one case investigated by File on 4, foster parents who offered to care for four siblings were denied the financial and practical support the...
Jan 24, 2012•37 min
Are families getting justice in the coroner's court? Ann Alexander investigates concerns about the conduct of inquests in England and Wales and asks why there is so much variation in behaviour of coroners and the rigour of their investigations. Under the current system, it is up to the coroner what evidence he or she relies on, but this can leave families unhappy at the verdict and with little hope of appeal. The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 included long awaited reforms to the coronial system....
Nov 15, 2011•37 min
With plans for future use of London's Olympic stadium in disarray, Allan Urry asks whether taxpayers' billions will leave a lasting legacy from 2012. London's successful bid to stage the 2012 Olympics placed great emphasis on the benefits it could create for Britain and its capital city. Not only should the Games bequeath impressive new sporting facilities to the people of London, but the event and its aftermath was expected to kick-start economic development in the East End -- still one of the ...
Nov 08, 2011•37 min
The Justice Secretary Ken Clarke wants more jobs for convicts. He told his party conference: "If we want prison to work, then our prisoners have got to be working". He encourages private companies to open workshops inside prisons, where inmates would be 'properly paid' for hard work, would pay their due of taxes and help fund victims' support. Mr Clarke points to a metal factory in a Merseyside prison where prisoners work a 40 hour week and learn skills which could make them more employable on r...
Nov 01, 2011•37 min
World leaders preparing for the G20 conference are facing a threat to the global economy from the on-going Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. But as they try to avert further economic catastrophe some investors see opportunities to profit from the mayhem. Michael Robinson reveals how on-going economic volatility and uncertainty can also present golden investment opportunities - and how, through complex trades, bets and investments, some find cash in the current crisis. Producer: Gail Champion Repor...
Oct 25, 2011•37 min
Earlier this year, an imam working in Stoke-on-Trent was jailed for raping a 12 year old boy at his mosque. In the wake of the case, File on 4 investigates whether the thousands of children who visit mosques and madrassas each week to study the Quran are being properly protected. The leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain has warned that without urgent action, his religion could face an "avalanche" of historic cases similar to the ones which have swamped the Roman Catholic church. Alre...
Oct 18, 2011•37 min
