David Cameron has promised three million new apprenticeships by 2020. But Further Education colleges must deliver them against a background of year-on-year cuts - with the axe likely to fall again in this Autumn's spending review. The National Audit Office has warned more than a quarter of further education colleges could be deemed financially inadequate by the end of the year. And this month MPs on the Public Accounts Committee will launch an inquiry into the financial sustainability of the sec...
Oct 13, 2015•37 min
What does the theft of a billion dollars from Europe's poorest country have to do with a run-down housing estate in Edinburgh? Moldova was robbed of 12% of its GDP by the bafflingly complex financial scam uncovered earlier this year. It involved a web of companies in the ex-Soviet country, with the money thought to have ended up in Russia via Latvian banks. But the trail also goes via a number of UK-registered companies, including one based in the district of north Edinburgh made famous by "Trai...
Oct 06, 2015•37 min
Why is the NHS struggling to get hold of some life-saving medicines for its patients? Allan Urry reveals serious concern over the availability of some drugs used in the treatment of cancer and for pain control. Pharmacists and doctors say they face a daily battle to get access to a range of medicines and either end up buying alternatives at a greater cost to the health service or using less effective alternatives which can compromise patient care. So is the Government doing enough to ensure esse...
Sep 29, 2015•37 min
With the Government cracking down on migrants working illegally, Simon Cox investigates Britain's shadow economy. He meets illegal workers to ask whether the get-tough message is putting them off. And he reveals the ways in which both employers and workers are getting round the law. So can the UK Border Force deliver on ministers' promises to make the UK an "unattractive" place for those who want to work illegally? Reporter: Simon Cox Producer: David Lewis.
Sep 22, 2015•37 min
Controversial charging decisions in the cases of Lord Janner, Operation Elveden and a doctor accused of female genital mutilation have brought a hostile reaction in the media to the Director of Public Prosecutions and increasing concern about the health of her organisation - the Crown Prosecution Service. Over the past five years the CPS has seen budget cuts of over 25% resulting in job losses and internal reforms. Despite this, the organisation maintains that it continues to improve performance...
Sep 15, 2015•37 min
Tea is still the UK's favourite drink - but what's the human cost of a cuppa? In the first of a new series of File on 4, Jane Deith reports from Assam on the plight of workers on tea plantations which help supply some of Britain's best known brands. India is one of the largest tea producers in the world with an industry worth billions of pounds - but critics say pickers often have to endure long working hours and insanitary conditions, leading to poor health and high levels of maternal and infan...
Sep 09, 2015•37 min
Complaints against the police are running at a record high. The vast majority, nine out of ten, are rejected from the start. But when complainants appeal to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, one in 2 cases is overturned. Others - disgruntled with the way they've been treated by the police - sue the force. File on 4 hears from people who've been battling for years to pursue a complaint and who claim the process is unfairly weighted in favour of the police. In the Queen's Speech the Go...
Jul 14, 2015•37 min
Works behind schedule; costs going up; an inquiry into poor performance announced by the industry regulator. It's a depressingly familiar story on our railways. From brand new station escalators at a standstill in Birmingham, to only 10 per cent of trains on time at one of London's busiest stations, even the Chancellor's planned Northern Powerhouse is threatened as line upgrades between Manchester and York are delayed. Allan Urry investigates Network Rail's woes as pressure mounts to deliver £24...
Jul 08, 2015•37 min
The UK's £12 billion pound foreign aid budget is one of the few areas of Government spending protected from cuts. The commitment to spend 0.7% of Britain's gross national income on aid means at least 60 billion pounds will be spent on overseas development in the next five years. Many of these projects are delivered by large companies that receive tens of millions of pounds from DFID (the Department for International Development). They can charge over a thousand pounds a day for a consultant and ...
Jun 30, 2015•37 min
Sixty thousand people have crossed the Mediterranean and made it to Europe so far this year. Frontex, the EU border agency, warns that between 500,000 and 1 million people - Eritreans, Syrians, Afghans, Somalis - could be waiting to leave the shores of Libya for Italy. Its latest report says resources are being devoted to migrants' care but not towards screening and collecting basic information such as their nationality - which means many are quickly moving on to countries like the UK. According...
Jun 23, 2015•37 min
Later this month the medicines regulator, the MHRA, is due to complete its review into the clot-busting drug Alteplase, the frontline treatment used in many cases of stroke. A number of experts in the UK, US and Canada have raised serious doubts about the drug's safety and effectiveness. They are concerned about potentially fatal harm to patients through an increased risk of bleeding in the brain and they question the credibility of scientific research on which Alteplase was licensed. Supporters...
Jun 16, 2015•37 min
With the urgent need for more housing, Britain's planning laws are under pressure like never before. Greenbelt land and even sites designated as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are being earmarked for development. So how far can we protect the countryside when the need for houses is so acute? Allan Urry reveals new figures on scale of the problem and investigates claims that the planning system is being stretched to breaking point. Reporter: Allan Urry Producer: Emma Forde.
Jun 09, 2015•37 min
Next month the National Audit Office is due to report on the outcomes for young people leaving care. There are claims that, under financial pressure, local authorities are pushing too many teenagers into independent living before they're ready. File on 4 investigates new figures that suggest many young care leavers are failing to cope - with large numbers ending up in custody, homeless, sexually exploited or pregnant. Social services chiefs say the welfare of care-leavers must be a key priority ...
Jun 02, 2015•37 min
Mental health services are facing a period of unprecedented change. The Department of Health has committed itself to reducing the disparity between spending on physical and mental illness, and a new payment system means services will be funded differently in the future. In the meantime there are concerns that vulnerable patients are dying because of pressures to release them from hospital too quickly, and a failure to provide adequate support in the community. Can a new focus on what has traditi...
May 19, 2015•37 min
Emma Caldwell was a young woman from a good home who developed an addiction to heroin after the death of her sister and then descended into street prostitution. When her body was found dumped in a ditch in Lanarkshire in May 2005, the police launched an unprecedented murder hunt. But ten years on, after an investigation costing millions of pounds, no one has ever been convicted of her killing. Eamon O Connor investigates what went wrong. Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane.
May 12, 2015•38 min
It's taken a long time to break through the culture of denial, but child sexual exploitation cases from Rochdale to Oxford have shown that grooming of children can happen in any community. There seems to be a growing acceptance that what the Deputy Children's Commissioner says is true: 'there isn't a town, village of hamlet in which children are not being sexually exploited'. Councils that thought they were immune from groomers and traffickers, are now training staff to spot child sexual exploit...
May 05, 2015•37 min
With Britain on heightened alert following Islamist shootings in Paris and Copenhagen, how well prepared are we to deal with a similar attack? Allan Urry discovers how extremists in neighbouring European countries were able to get access to guns and hears concerns about the ready availability of illegal weapons from Eastern Europe and North Africa. So what risk does that pose for the UK? Britain prides itself on tough gun control, but is that enough to prevent determined would-be terrorists gett...
Mar 24, 2015•37 min
Is the pressure on teachers reaching crisis point? Record numbers are leaving the classroom and thousands of teachers recently responded to the Government's workload survey to say they were struggling with their workload. They blamed the pressure of Ofsted inspections and pressure from school management. Official absence statistics are silent on the causes of sick leave - but now File on 4 reveals new figures on the number of teachers off long-term because of stress. Jane Deith hears from those ...
Mar 17, 2015•37 min
In Canada, everything is big - including powerful pension funds such as the Ontario Teachers fund which owns half of Birmingham airport and other large projects around the world. It's all a far cry from the British pension scene, where a hundred local government pension funds each run their own affairs separately and pay costly fees to City firms for investment advice. Many of them still have financial deficits. Taxpayers have been forced to pick up bills to pay off those shortfalls and already ...
Mar 10, 2015•37 min
Secure children's homes look after some of the country's most vulnerable youngsters. Largely run by local authorities, they provide safe accommodation for children placed on custody grounds or for welfare reasons because they present a danger to themselves or others. The demand for places is rising but the number of beds is falling. So where does that leave those they are meant to cater for? With the government currently conducting a review into the system, File on 4 gets rare access to one home...
Mar 03, 2015•37 min
With a growing number of compensation claims arising from cases of historic sexual abuse and more recent high profile cases of sexual grooming, Tim Whewell investigates the key role which insurance companies play. In representing the local authorities where scandals occurred, insurers naturally seek to limit liability but are they doing so at a cost to victims? Lawyers say they have to battle to get access to files and other information - causing further distress and delaying help for those dama...
Feb 24, 2015•37 min
Satellite images reveal the extent to which sites of important historical interest have been looted in Syria. Some of these are in areas controlled by Islamic State where looters are believed to pay a tax to allow them to operate. Iraqi military say evidence from a senior IS member revealed the group is making millions of pounds from the trafficking of looted antiquities Simon Cox investigates the global trade in stolen artefacts and traces smuggling routes through Turkey and Lebanon and onto th...
Feb 17, 2015•37 min
Around 28 thousand people are claiming asylum in the UK. They're accommodated in some of the nation's most deprived areas while their cases are considered. Now, with numbers on the rise, some communities say they're struggling to cope. Allan Urry reports from the Northwest of England where, in some areas, there's concern about growing pressures on health services and schools. In Liverpool the City's Mayor, Joe Anderson, talks of an asylum "apartheid" and says other towns and cities need to take ...
Feb 10, 2015•37 min
Where have all the nurses gone? File on 4 looks at the reasons for the nursing shortage in the NHS in England and the cost of plugging the gaps at a time of peak demand. A decision four years ago to cut training places to save money is still haunting the health service. There's no shortage of people wanting to be nurses but the NHS is badly understaffed. Recruitment in countries like Spain, Portugal and Italy has quadrupled in the last year as NHS trusts fail to find enough domestic nurses. But ...
Jan 27, 2015•37 min
Benefit sanctions are supposed to be part of a system helping people back to work. But critics say they penalise the vulnerable and are among the reasons for the growing use of food banks. So how fair is the Government's system of withholding state payments for those who don't comply with welfare rules? Allan Urry hears from whistleblowers who allege some JobCentrePlus staff are setting claimants up to fail in order to meet internal performance targets. Why did a recovering amputee lose his bene...
Jan 20, 2015•37 min
With serious assaults at a record high, File on 4 investigates the growing tension within Britain's prisons. In the first of a new series, BBC Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw meets recently released prisoners and families of those inside to hear about their safety fears. And he talks to the Prison Officers Association about their concerns for the frontline members who they say are facing unprecedented levels of pressure and danger in a "chaotic" system. The Howard League for Penal Reform h...
Jan 13, 2015•37 min
Is demand for long term nursing about to tip NHS finances over the edge? Under the system of "Continuing Healthcare" people with complex medical needs can claim the costs of nursing and medical help to keep them out of hospital. But the system has become mired in controversy with many people claiming they've been denied funding to which they are entitled. Now there's a deluge of backdated claims against Clinical Commissioning Groups. File on 4 finds the backlog is creating long delays in new ass...
Nov 18, 2014•37 min
The UK generates nearly 300 million tonnes of waste every year. That's rich pickings for criminals who illegally dump what we don't want, damaging the environment and threatening our health. The black market in rubbish is said to be worth a billion pounds. With such huge sums at stake there's concern that organised crime is increasing its grip on the sector. Allan Urry examines the efforts of Britain's Environment Agencies to try to hold the line. But it's tough going at a time when cuts have le...
Nov 11, 2014•37 min
Recent high-profile collapses of high street names such as Comet, Phones4U and other companies have left thousands of people out of work and have cost the taxpayer millions in statutory redundancy payments and unpaid taxes. This week File on 4 goes behind the headlines to examine the role of the companies' private equity backers. Were these failed businesses which were bound to have to close? Or might they have survived for longer under different ownership? Fran Abrams investigates. Producer: Em...
Nov 04, 2014•37 min
As inquiries into child abuse in Rotherham continue, File on 4 investigates claims of a hidden problem of sexual abuse within Britain's Asian communities. While the victims of recent grooming scandals have mostly been white girls, campaigners say Asian boys and girls have also been subjected to abuse over many years. Male and female survivors tell Manveen Rana there's a powerful culture of denial stopping many speaking out and getting justice. They say communities too often close ranks and ostra...
Oct 28, 2014•36 min
