There's a quiet revolution going on in our Town Halls. With funding slashed, Local Government is tasked with finding new ways to raise money and deliver services, or face failing to comply with its legal obligations. As councils in England are tasked with becoming more self sufficient, File on 4 examines the different approaches councils are taking in an effort to balance the books. As some invest in commercial property others are spinning off traditional council departments into new companies w...
Mar 21, 2017•37 min
Prisons are a crucible for corruption, a former governor claims. Staff are working in the toughest conditions the system has seen in decades. Thousands of experienced staff have left and some areas are struggling to replace them. Morale is falling amid record levels of violence. The use of new psychoactive substances is out of control - fuelling yet more violence. Mobile phones are flooding in, making the flow of drugs even more difficult to contain. So how does contraband make its way onto pris...
Mar 14, 2017•37 min
In January a haulage boss and his mechanic were jailed for a tipper truck crash which killed four people. The brakes on six of the truck's eight wheels weren't working properly. The expert examiner from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency said Grittenham Haulage's vehicle would have been taken off the road if it had been stopped in a roadside check. But are there sufficient roadside and on-site checks to detect safety breaches? File on 4 uncovers cases where unsafe vehicles and drivers were ...
Mar 07, 2017•37 min
With an ageing population the need for carers to help elderly people stay healthy and safe in their own homes has never been greater. From making a meal, to help getting out of bed or having a shower, domiciliary carers provide a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of elderly and vulnerable people. But what happens when things go wrong and carers inflict serious abuse and neglect on the people who depend on them? Lesley Curwen speaks to the families of elderly people who have been neglected in so...
Feb 28, 2017•37 min
Over 300,000 children were excluded from school in England and Wales last year - almost 6 thousand of them permanently. Many of these children will end up in "alternative provision", sometimes known as pupil referral units (PRUs) - schools for kids that the mainstream can't handle. But five years on from the Taylor Review, a report that found 'a flawed system' that failed to provide good education and accountability for 'some of the most vulnerable children in the country' - has anything really ...
Feb 22, 2017•38 min
Two years ago the first independent report into the treatment of whistle-blowers in the NHS was published. The Freedom to Speak Up report was commissioned by the government amid concerns not enough progress had been made to create a more open culture within the NHS following the Mid Staffs inquiry which unearthed the poor care and high mortality rates at Stafford Hospital. The report - which considered evidence from 600 individuals and 43 organisations across the country included chilling accoun...
Feb 07, 2017•37 min
Five people have been found guilty for their roles in bank corruption and fraud costing hundreds of millions of pounds. A sixth, it can now be revealed, had already pleaded guilty. Lynden Scourfield, a middle-ranking banker with Halifax Bank of Scotland, accepted bribes in cash, foreign holidays and sexual entertainment. In exchange he would require small business customers to hire a firm of consultants called Quayside Corporate Services. The consultants claimed to be able to turn the business c...
Jan 31, 2017•37 min
In the UK three people die every day waiting for an organ transplant. People from ethnic minorities face a particular shortage of donors - the NHS aims to achieve 80% consent rates by 2020, but at the moment only 34% of families from ethnic minorities consent to donate organs when asked, and rates of living donation have started to fall. File on 4 finds that a small number of patients are so desperate they will risk their health by looking for a kidney abroad. Most British patients head to Pakis...
Jan 24, 2017•37 min
Revealed: the secret UK immigration dodges on offer on the high street. Theresa May has promised to stick to a promise to bring down net migration to the tens of thousands, and post the vote for Brexit, is under pressure to be tough on immigration. But File on 4 has found a market in fake documentation is helping some migrants who aren't eligible to come here, to get the necessary visas. High street immigration advisers, and even a solicitor tell the programme's undercover researcher how to buy ...
Jan 19, 2017•37 min
File on 4 sets off on a new series to find the forgotten children of Europe's refugee crisis. As winter sets in, Phil Kemp heads to Greece in search of the teenagers who have arrived alone from Syria and Afghanistan, living by their wits on the streets of Athens. The controversial deal struck between the EU and Turkey to return migrants who don't claim asylum or who have their claims rejected - and the closing of borders with Greece - has been blamed for making the situation worse for many migra...
Jan 10, 2017•37 min
With the Government claiming to lead the way in plans to crack down on global corruption, how come so little is being done in Britain to tackle the vast sums of money allegedly laundered through the UK by corrupt foreign officials and international crime gangs? Allan Urry investigates claims that not enough is being done by the UK to tackle the laundering of corrupt assets or to assist nations who ask for help in getting their money back. The programme also hears complaints that British law enfo...
Nov 08, 2016•37 min
The number of people who are homeless is on the rise. In London it shot up almost 80 per cent in 4 years. Latest government figures show councils in England took on 15,000 new homeless households between April and June this year - a 10 per cent increase on the previous year. Increasingly councils are having to use temporary accommodation and even bed and breakfasts to cope with a shortage of affordable accommodation. It has become an increasingly profitable business for landlords. Research this ...
Nov 01, 2016•37 min
This July, days after walking into the top job at number 10, Theresa May renewed her commitment to crack down on modern day slavery, describing it as "the great human rights issue of our time". The 2015 Modern Slavery Act gave prosecutors more options to pursue offenders, it handed judges the ability to dole out life sentences and promised more protection for victims. But in the clamour to tackle modern slavery, has the plight of overseas domestic workers, who toil in the homes of wealthy overse...
Oct 26, 2016•37 min
The world's first tidal lagoon power station in Wales, which was in the Conservative manifesto, has stalled, as the government seems to be baulking at the price. The Swansea Bay lagoon, and five more that would follow around the country, would generate as much electricity as Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. But does the government's commitment to the wave of new nuclear threaten the future of renewable energy in the UK? Jane Deith hears about the options the government's considered to meet...
Oct 18, 2016•37 min
Following the BHS scandal, Allan Urry investigates other cases in which employees claim they've lost out because companies have ditched their full pension fund commitments. It's the job of the Pensions Regulator to ensure employers follow the rules and to protect the benefits of those who've been paying in. So how good are they at keeping your pension safe? The programme untangles the complex financial engineering that goes on as some foreign investors try to wash their hands of any on-going obl...
Oct 11, 2016•37 min
The split and part privatisation of the UK probation system in June 2014 saw huge changes to the service, with high risk offenders managed by the new National Probation Service and low to medium risk offenders managed by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). Two years on, probation officers report a system that has been 'ripped apart', with two sides often failing to communicate. There are concerns over rising caseloads, falling staffing levels and the number of murders committed by offende...
Oct 04, 2016•37 min
Valued at £80 billion, the UK's junior stock market is hyped as the most successful growth market in the world. Government incentives - including stamp duty and inheritance tax breaks - mean that more ordinary UK investors are opting for the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Set up in 1995 to allow smaller companies to raise funds, AIM is a less-regulated alternative to its big brother, the main London Stock Exchange. But it is no stranger to controversy. Once labelled a "casino" by a senior ...
Sep 27, 2016•37 min
For a long time, society didn't want to believe child sex abuse was happening - but now are sex crimes against elderly victims being dismissed in the same way? File on 4 reveals new figures about the scale of alleged sex offences taking place in residential and nursing homes. Whether 5 or 85, should the victims of sexual assault be treated any differently? Claire Savage hears from the families of elderly people, some with a form of dementia, who have been sexually abused by care workers or by ot...
Sep 20, 2016•37 min
Five years after shocking revelations about the abuse of patients at Winterbourne View, File on 4 asks what progress has been made on the promise to get people with learning disabilities and autism out of hospital units and into homes in the community with good support. Families of those still stuck in these units say patients are trapped in the system with no clear plan or apparent will to get them home. For those eventually discharged, almost as many others are admitted - parents say, because ...
Sep 13, 2016•37 min
Earlier this year, the government introduced legislation banning the production, distribution, sale and supply of legal highs. Designed to stop what has been described as a tsunami of chemicals flooding into the UK, it has resulted in the closure of the high street shops which had been selling exotically named substances like Spice, Mamba and China White. So why are they still finding their way onto the streets? File on 4 traces the supply back to labs in China and discovers a myriad of psychoac...
Sep 06, 2016•37 min
Police are investigating allegations of abuse made by people who, as children, were sent for psychiatric treatment at Aston Hall Hospital in Derbyshire. Some patients say they were only sent there because they were difficult to manage or had behavioural problems. The Medical Superintendent is accused of 'experimenting' on his child patients, giving them an anaesthetic called sodium amytal in therapy sessions throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Phil Kemp investigates the history of this treatment, wh...
Jul 19, 2016•37 min
Is the UK putting trade above concerns about human rights in the United Arab Emirates? Britons who claim they were tortured in the Gulf state's prison cells say the UK government failed to fight for them. The foreign office has received 43 cases of alleged abuse of UK citizens in the UAE since 2010. In exclusive interviews, File on 4 hears from those who've got out of detention in Dubai who say they were arrested without charge and subjected to violent treatment and torture. The UK government sa...
Jul 12, 2016•37 min
Successive government procurement strategies have repeatedly promised high quality public buildings made possible through Private Finance Initiatives, but is that what's been delivered? What went wrong in Edinburgh where 17 schools remained closed after the Easter break because of fears walls might collapse on children and staff? Allan Urry reveals new concerns about the extent of fire safety problems in some schools and hospitals because contractors failed to ensure they were built to specifica...
Jul 05, 2016•38 min
Around 2.5m council tenants across the UK have bought their homes since Right to Buy started in 1980. The scheme is now being extended to more than a million housing association tenants in England with the first homes expected to be sold in pilot areas next month. The popularity of right to buy has risen sharply since greater discounts were introduced four years ago, but so too have cases of fraud as people seek to exploit discounts of up to nearly £104,000. Simon Cox goes on the trail of the fr...
Jun 21, 2016•37 min
The recent deaths of children at the hands of family members have revealed some children's social work departments are still failing children some nine years after the death of Baby P. In some regions the reaction of the Government has been to take social workers out of the hands of councils and put them into independent trusts. So what's been going wrong - and will the radical solution coming out of Whitehall really work? Jenny Chryss investigates. Producer: Rob Cave.
Jun 14, 2016•37 min
Over the past five years thousands of patients in England have been given access to new but expensive cancer drugs through a special Cancer Drugs Fund. But critics argue that hundreds of millions have been spent on drugs that offered poor value for money with sometimes limited effects. The Fund is now being reformed but cancer charities have written to the Prime Minister to express deep concern that drugs will now struggle to gain approval. Phil Kemp investigates the record of the Cancer Drugs F...
Jun 07, 2016•38 min
English football clubs enjoy a high profile around the world, leading to many companies vying to do business with them. But have some football clubs entered into financial deals with companies with questionable backgrounds? File on 4 explores whether clubs are vulnerable to companies and individuals who use the reputation of English football to lend credibility to their activities. But what due diligence do clubs undertake when securing such deals? Allan Urry looks at the relationship between so...
May 31, 2016•37 min
For the past 22 years Thomas Bourke has been in prison for a double murder he says he didn't commit. The killings made national headlines in 1993 when two MOT inspectors, Alan Singleton and Simon Bruno, were shot dead at a garage in Stockport, in Greater Manchester. The evidence produced in court against Bourke seemed compelling. Two mechanics at the garage said they had seen him carry out the shooting which the prosecution claimed was motivated by a dispute about his licence to carry out MOT te...
May 24, 2016•37 min
Police forces in England and Wales are to get an additional fifteen hundred firearms officers to help protect the public from terrorism and organised crime. Most of the new officers will be trained within the next two years after the Prime Minister, David Cameron, set aside £143m to boost the country's armed response capability. But is it enough to meet the challenges they face? The number of firearms officers fell from nearly seven thousand in 2009/10 to under six thousand in 2013/14. And, desp...
May 17, 2016•37 min
The Serious Fraud Office has begun an investigation into allegations of corruption in the award of multi-million pound oil contracts in the Middle East. A Monaco based company, Unaoil, denies that it helped British and other companies win contracts by corrupting politicians and government officials. The investigation follows a leak of thousands of emails and other documents. Jane Deith has been given access to the leaked papers and reveals what they tell us about the business of oil. Reporter: J...
May 10, 2016•37 min
