The multi-billion pound AASC contract is the Government's ten-year blueprint for how those seeking asylum in the UK are treated while they await a yes or no for their refugee status. After a year under the pressures of Covid , the contract has become mired in controversy. Former army barracks which have been repurposed as temporary holding centres for those applying for asylum have experienced fires, Covid-19 outbreaks and resident protests, and in other parts of the country, private landlords a...
Mar 16, 2021•36 min
Prior to the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s presence on international social media was largely to promote a positive image of its country – trying to ‘change the climate’ rather than seeking to sow confusion and division. But this is changing. In this investigation by File on 4 and BBC Monitoring, Paul Kenyon and Krassimira Twigg examine China’s new strategy of aggressively pushing disinformation on social media platforms through the use of ‘wolf warrior’ dip...
Mar 09, 2021•36 min
The shipping industry is worth millions to the British economy and we depend on it for most of our goods. File on 4 lifts the lid on the dangerous and polluting world of shipbreaking and investigates why ships once owned by UK companies end their lives on beaches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Editor, Maggie Latham Producer, Jim Booth Reporter, Kate West
Mar 02, 2021•36 min
Millions of us each year pick up our phone and swipe right in the hope of finding ‘the one’, and with the pandemic limiting even the most basic of social interactions, statistics suggest more of us are using apps than ever before. For the majority of us these apps are a useful tool to connect in a busy world, but to criminals they serve as a playground to hunt for the vulnerable. From romance fraud to sexual predators, Livvy Haydock investigates the dangers these app’s pose, if big tech does eno...
Feb 23, 2021•36 min
Sarah (not her real name) first deliberately hurt herself at the age of 11 and continued for more than six years, twice ending up in hospital. Now 18 and on the road to recovery, she says her experience shows the shortcomings in how teachers, parents, and the health system respond to self-harm. File on 4 analysis of hospital admissions for self-harm reveals a system under growing pressure as more and more pre-teens are hurting themselves so badly they need a hospital bed. In telling Sarah’s stor...
Feb 16, 2021•37 min
After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, reserves of personal protective equipment quickly dried up. Stories about frontline staff lacking the kit they needed made headlines night after night and photos of nurses wearing bin bags for protection began circulating on social media. In response, the government began hunting down new supplies just as global demand surged. It started using emergency powers to award PPE contracts worth tens of millions of pounds without opening them to competition, leading to ...
Feb 09, 2021•36 min
When Prime Minister Boris Johnson said three households would be allowed to mix for 5 days over Christmas, experts and NHS bosses warned the health service would be overwhelmed by cases of Covid 19. Editors of the Health Service Journal and the British medical Journal BMJ said they believed the relaxation of the rules would cost many lives. Three days before Christmas the government was forced to scrap the plans for London and much of South East England when scientists revealed a new coronavirus...
Feb 02, 2021•36 min
A year ago this week, the first reported case of Covid-19 was recorded in the UK. Within weeks frontline medics faced their toughest ever test. Doctors and nurses in intensive care units recorded diaries for a powerful and insightful episode of File on 4 which illustrated the true scale of the challenge they faced. So one year on, how do they think they coped? What have they learned about themselves and the National Health Service which many warn could be overwhelmed by the current second wave o...
Jan 26, 2021•36 min
Women are seen as the caring, nurturing sex, safe to be left in charge of children. But stigma and stereotyping around female perpetrated abuse means it can be seen as a lesser crime, with many victims deeply reluctant to report their ordeal to the authorities. Experts tell File on 4 that current case numbers are the ‘tip of the iceberg’, while the early indicators of abuse, like online grooming and social media befriending, can be brushed aside when the abuser is a woman. File on 4 hears from a...
Jan 19, 2021•36 min
In the age of social media and the selfie, the perfect look is everything. That's what influencers tell their followers. Some are also happy to provide a 'how-to guide' to obtaining the perfect body. What they don't mention though, is that they are cashing in, being paid by clinics to promote procedures, some of which are risky and dangerous. It’s a story that begins on social media. Young women posting online about their experiences of plastic surgery. The online videos, posted to their followe...
Jan 12, 2021•37 min
Back in 2018, File on 4 revealed the story of Bethany – an autistic teenager who had been locked in a hospital room alone for two years, her only contact with the outside world through a hatch. What happened to her and others with learning disabilities who have been promised care in therapeutic community settings? Following what NHS England called the ‘appalling scandal’ at Winterbourne View, the Government promised to close up to half of all inpatient beds for people with a learning disability ...
Nov 10, 2020•37 min
In January, Reynhard Sinaga was convicted of 159 sexual offences against 48 different men over the course of four trials. But according to police, there’s evidence he abused more than 200 men whilst living as a student in Manchester. He preyed on vulnerable young men, drugged them until they were unconscious and raped them while recording most of his abuse on his phone. Most of his victims woke up with no memory of what had been done to them - oblivious until the police turned up at their doors ...
Nov 03, 2020•37 min
Are court backlogs creating miscarriages of justice? When the UK locked down, so did its court system, adding to a backlog that’s left defendants, witnesses and victims facing long waits for trials. Helen Grady speaks to people inside the justice system to find out how it’s coped with the pandemic - from delays in making courts covid-secure to a lack of PPE and overcrowding in prisons. We hear stories from prisons under lockdown and talk to lawyers who fear delays are leading to abuses of the cr...
Oct 27, 2020•37 min
For decades there was a boom in tax avoidance where people were paid using loans – and lowered their tax bills in the process. The boom went bust when the government clamped down, leaving some users with vast tax bills. Many of those people now owe life-changing amounts to HMRC yet campaigners say there has been insufficient action against the companies that promoted the schemes. But while some individuals face ruin, File On 4 has discovered that the businesses behind some of those loan schemes ...
Oct 20, 2020•37 min
An investigation into a network of companies involved in VAT fraud within Leicester's garment manufacturing industry. After questions were raised in the summer about slave wages and unsafe working practices, File on 4 has now found a network of companies involved in a cash laundering scheme. Insiders say VAT fraud is endemic among garment suppliers within the city and there are concerns that millions in tax revenue are being lost each year. So how does it operate and why isn't more being done to...
Oct 13, 2020•37 min
During the pandemic, more and more of our lives have been lived online. But that has also led to a sharp rise in the number of people being targeted by internet trolls. According to one survey, nearly half of women and non binary people reported experiencing online abuse since the beginning of COVID-19 and a third said it had got worse since the pandemic. So who are the people behind these often anonymous attacks? Journalist Sali Hughes has been a target of trolls herself. She sets out to find w...
Oct 06, 2020•37 min
MPs and supporters are calling for an overhaul of the way English football is governed after a series of clubs were hit by financial problems. Bolton wanderers, Wigan Athletic and Charlton have all flirted with financial disaster while Bury FC were expelled from the Football League altogether after problems with creditors. File on 4 hears claims that the root of the problem is the Owners' and Directors' Test used to assess those who want to take control of football clubs Reporter: Adrian Goldber...
Sep 29, 2020•37 min
Six months since Britain was instructed to ‘stay at home’, File on 4 examines the decisions that affect new mothers and their babies and asks if the potential for long term damage outweighs the risk of spreading the virus. For pregnant women, many of the hospital restrictions implemented at the height of the pandemic remain. Many women must attend antenatal scans or go through early labour on their own, while their birth partners wait outside. Others have had to receive the worst possible news a...
Sep 22, 2020•37 min
Last month Alex Sartain took a homemade gun and shot his neighbour James Nash dead in his front garden. The 34 year old then fled on his motorbike before he lost control and fatally crashed on a winding tree-lined road. His family had made repeated requests to mental health services for help as they saw his condition deteriorate. But they say no help was forthcoming and days later he killed 42-year-old James, a popular artist and children’s author. Alex Sartain's family say the mechanic suffered...
Sep 15, 2020•37 min
After Coronavirus, the survivors left with life-changing and long term conditions. The physical and psychological aftermath of Covid 19 and the pressure on rehabilitation services. Nearly 3 million people in the UK have had symptomatic coronavirus. More than one hundred thousand so severely, they needed hospital treatment. This is a new disease, so doctors are guessing when it comes to the symptoms people will have long term. But it’s clear this virus has a sting in its tail. The sickest patient...
Sep 08, 2020•37 min
How does an abused teenager get a criminal record while her abusers walk free? This is untold story of the Rochdale grooming scandal - how one young woman has been denied justice and how her attackers are still at large. For the very first time, 'Daisy' tells her harrowing story to File on 4. How, from the age of 12, she was groomed, raped and abused by a gang of men. The abuse led her to be involved in some criminal behaviour - but when the police investigated and she told them what was happeni...
Jul 14, 2020•37 min
Lockdown is easing now as worries about physical ill-health recede. But could the stress and anxiety of the last few months lead to a second wave of the epidemic - one centred on the nation's mental health? File on 4 investigates the impact coronavirus has had on those already diagnosed with serious mental illness, and others for whom depression and anxiety are entirely new experiences. The programme looks at provision of mental health services during the crisis, hearing stories of early release...
Jul 07, 2020•37 min
With the words ‘I can’t breathe’ reverberating around the world, the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK has put the issue of racial justice at the top of the political agenda. Twenty-one years after the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence labelled the Metropolitan Police ‘institutionally racist’, File on 4 explores concerns black, Asian and ethnic minority officers still face discrimination in the service. Police forces in England and Wales are in the middle of an unprecede...
Jun 30, 2020•37 min
Last year, a 16-year-old boy from Durham became the youngest person ever convicted of planning a terrorist attack in the UK, spurring reporter Daniel De Simone to delve deeper into this shadowy world. Police say right-wing extremism is the fastest growing terrorist threat - and that the coronavirus pandemic may be leaving teens vulnerable to radicalisation. As he investigates the movement, Daniel reveals the inner-workings of these militant extreme right-wing groups who seek to spark a race war ...
Jun 23, 2020•37 min
Since the UK went into coronavirus lockdown something strange has been happening –attacks on telephone masts and telecom workers are being reported all across the country. That’s because some people think that 5G can make you sick –from corona virus to cancer and a whole host of other symptoms. Even more worryingly, some scientists say they can prove that it’s harmful. But at a time when many businesses are struggling, could this apparent threat be helping to fuel a whole industry of strange and...
Jun 16, 2020•37 min
While Britain and France were brought to a standstill during the coronavirus lockdown, record numbers of migrants in Calais were on the move, boarding small boats to make perilous journeys to the UK. But what is motivating migrants to risk their lives and take to the sea in such numbers? File on 4 investigates conditions on the ground for migrants in northern France and hears claims a lack of food and sanitation, already a major issue in the informal camps, has been exacerbated by coronavirus. R...
Jun 09, 2020•37 min
The covid-19 pandemic continues to have a profound effect on society - including the world of serious organised crime. The closure of international borders and global lockdown has made some criminal activities impossible while at the same time creating opportunities for new ones. While law enforcement around the world grapple with this new challenge, criminals seek to profit from the pandemic. In this episode of File on 4, reporter Paul Connolly examines how the global crisis has changed organis...
Jun 02, 2020•37 min
From the Olympics to Euro 2020, the world’s biggest sporting events have fallen like dominoes because of coronavirus. But as the global pandemic was declared and most European countries closed their sports stadiums, the UK allowed events to carry on with hundreds of thousands of fans coming together to watch everything from Champions League football to the Cheltenham Gold Cup. File on 4 casts a forensic eye over the decisions that were made before the UK went into lockdown, speaks to those at th...
May 26, 2020•37 min
The awful impact of Covid-19 on the lives of care home residents and staff is now well understood. But many in the industry believe the authorities, both local and national, didn't recognise the threat of the virus on the most vulnerable elderly early enough and didn't react quickly enough to stop it spreading through their homes. File on 4 hears from those who say opportunities to collect and share information were missed, that vital PPE supplies weren't secured quickly enough and that a policy...
May 19, 2020•37 min
They’re the intensive care staff we see on the TV news. In their protective equipment, we can’t see their expressions – even their own colleagues find it hard to recognise them behind their masks. We can’t read their faces, but we can hear their thoughts - as they record a series of diaries as the weeks in the grip of the virus go by. In these recordings for File on 4, doctors and nurses take off their masks and reveal their private emotions and professional fears. They talk from the heart, shar...
May 12, 2020•37 min
