Hospital death probe woman named

16 July 2011 Last updated at 16:01 GMT Tracey Arden's brother Gary said news of the investigation was a shock

A 44-year-old grandmother has been named as one of three patients whose deaths at a Stockport hospital are being investigated by police.

Tracey Arden, from Stockport, and two men, aged 71 and 84, died following the deliberate contamination of saline solution at Stepping Hill Hospital.

Police were alerted when insulin was discovered in a batch of 36 saline ampoules that had been tampered with.

Detectives said the deaths were being treated as unexplained.

Officers are awaiting the results of post-mortem examinations.

Eleven patients who survived the effects of the medication are to be interviewed by police.

Concerns were raised on Tuesday when an experienced nurse at the hospital reported a higher than normal number of patients with low blood sugar levels on her ward.

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We have someone deliberately contaminating saline in the one place that people should feel they are being most cared for”

End Quote Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney Insulin was subsequently found in a batch of 36 saline ampoules in a hospital storeroom.

Multiple sclerosis patient Ms Arden, a mother-of-two and grandmother, died on 7 July.

Her parents, Keith and June, visited her on that afternoon but were later called by hospital staff and told she had "taken a turn for the worse".

By the time they arrived back at Stepping Hill their daughter had died.

Ms Arden's funeral has been delayed while police investigate.

Her brother, Gary Arden, said news of the investigation was a shock as the family had initially been told she had died from a lung and chest infection related to her multiple sclerosis.

The contamination of the saline was not restricted to a single ward, the hospital said

"We accepted that as a family, that her time had come and that was the cause," he said.

"At this point in time my hope for me and my family is that the investigation takes its due course and we find that Tracey has nothing to do with this. "

The two male victims died this week. The 71-year-old man is believed to have been terminally ill while the nature of the 84-year-old man's illness has not been disclosed.

Greater Manchester Police said it was focusing its investigation from 7 July onwards but would review previous deaths at the hospital if new information came to light.

Increased security measures have been put in place at the hospital to protect patients currently receiving treatment there.

Anyone entering may now be searched and police are interviewing staff and visitors.

Chris Burke, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust's chief executive, said: "We have increased security both in terms of access to the hospital and access to medicines and already replaced all saline ampoules across the hospital.

"We are doing all we can to protect our patients and ensure their safety while under our care."

Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "We have someone deliberately contaminating saline in the one place that people should feel they are being most cared for.

"I want to reassure everyone connected to the hospital - staff, patients, visitors and the wider community - that we are determined to prevent further harm and to bring the offender to justice."

Mr Sweeney said police were still waiting to find out if the contamination of the saline "contributed to the deaths of these three people".

Mark Hunter, MP for Cheadle, said: "This is obviously a very serious matter, I have to say I think the hospital have acted entirely responsibly, acted very promptly calling the police in as soon as they knew there was a problem."

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New UK nuclear plant sites named

23 June 2011 Last updated at 13:34 GMT The Sellafield nuclear plant handles nuclear material and is part of a generation of older sites Ministers have announced plans for the next generation of UK nuclear plants.

The government confirmed a list of eight sites it deems suitable for new power stations by 2025, all of which are adjacent to existing nuclear sites.

The sites are: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey.

The announcement comes three months after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The future of nuclear as a power source for countries around the world was called into question after the disaster which occurred in March when a Japanese earthquake and tsunami rocked the reactors at Fukushima, leaving radioactivity leaking from the plant.

The proposals for new UK nuclear power plants are part of a series of national policy statements on energy which have been published following a public consultation.

'Affordable energy'

The plans will be debated and voted on in Parliament, but ministers are hopeful that, with a pro-nuclear majority in the Commons, they will win the argument.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry said: "Around a quarter of the UK's generating capacity is due to close by the end of this decade. We need to replace this with secure, low carbon, affordable energy.

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We believe the nuclear programme is not safe - and Fukushima is the latest example of that - but it's also not needed”

End Quote Andreas Speck Kick Nuclear - Stop New Nuclear alliance "This will require over ?100bn worth of investment in electricity generation alone. This means twice as much investment in energy infrastructure in this decade as was achieved in the last decade."

Mr Hendry said industry "needs as much certainty as possible to make such big investments," adding that the plans "set out our energy need to help guide the planning process, so that if acceptable proposals come forward in appropriate places, they will not face unnecessary hold-ups".

Hinkley blockade

Andreas Speck from Stop New Nuclear - an alliance of eight groups opposed to the plants - said campaigners had expected the government to go ahead with its plans despite Fukushima.

"It was always clear," he said.

But Mr Speck said Stop New Nuclear would continue to oppose the plants "more than ever" and would blockade the Hinkley Point site on 3 October.

EDF Energy has already submitted planning applications to the West Somerset District Council for preparatory work on the planned new reactor at the site.

If EDF could be made to abandon its plans at Hinkley, the alliance hoped work at the other proposed sites would also be stopped, Mr Speck said.

"We believe the nuclear programme is not safe - and Fukushima is the latest example of that - but it's also not needed," he said.

Mr Speck said power could be generated without the use of nuclear energy, which he said was expensive and provided too few carbon reductions.

Divisive issue

The issue of nuclear power divided Conservatives and Liberal Democrats when they entered government together.

The coalition deal allowed a Lib Dem spokesman to speak out against any new nuclear plants, while Lib Dem MPs could abstain on the issue.

However, Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has since given his backing to new reactors.

He stressed that they would not be subsidised by the taxpayer, although MPs have warned that reform of the electricity market could favour nuclear power and amount to a hidden subsidy.

The new reactors are designed to maintain electricity supplies and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

It will come as an older generation of power stations is shut down.

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Injunction doubts as Giggs named

24 May 2011 Last updated at 12:24 GMT The injunction had blocked the disclosure of details about the alleged affair The future use of injunctions could be in doubt after the naming in Parliament of a footballer who tried to use one to hide an alleged affair.

Lib Dem MP John Hemming named Manchester United star Ryan Giggs in a Commons question on privacy orders.

The prime minister has called for a review into the use of injunctions, calling it "unsustainable".

BBC legal affairs correspondent Clive Coleman said the system was now looking "weak and fractured".

Using parliamentary privilege to break the court order, Mr Hemming said it would not be practical to imprison the 75,000 Twitter users who had named the player.

The High Court rejected two attempts on Monday to overturn the ban, the first after a Scottish paper named the footballer on Sunday, and the second after Mr Hemming's action.

Media lawyers think it is likely that the publishers of the Sun newspaper will try to get it lifted again on Tuesday.

'Law not working'

The player obtained the order against ex-Big Brother contestant Imogen Thomas, who is a former Miss Wales, and the Sun.

The footballer's lawyers have also obtained a High Court order asking Twitter to reveal details of users who had revealed his identity after thousands named him.

Continue reading the main story Clive Coleman Legal correspondent, BBC News

There now seems to be a recipe for melting court injunctions.

The ingredients? Press speculation about the order; publication online through social networking sites; and the intervention of a member of parliament using the protection of parliamentary privilege.

Celebrities and public figures will be far less prepared to apply for injunctions.

And lawyers will have to caution their clients heavily about the very significant risks involved.

If the injunction system is ineffective, the government will have to find an alternative. They are bound under the European Convention on Human Rights to protect the right to private and family life.

If they cannot find a way of doing that, it is inevitable that cases will be taken to the European Court of Human Rights by people complaining the government have failed to protect their right to privacy.

The Attorney General Dominic Grieve has updated the Cabinet following the announcement of joint committee of peers and MPs to investigate the use of privacy orders.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said David Cameron had described what was happening as unsustainable, with privacy law evolving through judgements and information circulating on the internet.

He said the committee had been established at it was a complicated issue and required serious thought.

Our correspondent said if no solution could be found there could be a stream of cases going to the European Court of Human Rights complaining that the government had failed to protect their right to privacy.

Conservative MP John Whittingdale who will chair the committee on privacy, said ministers needed to act quickly.

"The internet is already distributing names of people who have injunctions on a daily basis. The law is clearly not working. And that's not a situation we can allowed to continue for long," he said.

Parliamentary privilege protects MPs and peers from prosecution for statements made in the House of Commons or House of Lords.

Addressing MPs on Monday, Mr Hemming said: "Mr Speaker, with about 75,000 people having named Ryan Giggs it is obviously impracticable to imprison them all."

House of Commons speaker John Bercow interrupted the MP saying: "Let me just say to the honourable gentleman, I know he's already done it, but occasions such as this are occasions for raising the issues of principle involved, not seeking to flout for whatever purpose."

Twitter threat

John Hemming later told the BBC why he had named Mr Giggs.

"Basically when he... showed that he was going to go after relatively normal people and try and prosecute them, for gossiping about him on a matter of trivia, I think he has to be held to account for that," he said.

Lib Dem MP John Hemming named Ryan Giggs during a debate in Parliament

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, expressed disapproval of Mr Hemming during Deputy Prime Minister's questions in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

"I don't think anyone should be above the rule of law and if we don't like the law in this place then we should act as legislators to change the law, not flout it," he said.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile said some Twitter users "can and possibly should" be brought before the court for contempt, if they're found to have breached the gagging order.

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Obviously the San Francisco-based site did not set out to be at the centre of a British media firestorm”

End Quote Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent Publicist Max Clifford, who is representing Miss Thomas, said the irony was if Giggs had not taken out a super-injunction, the alleged affair would probably not have become public.

"It's only because of that, and of course the fact that, in that super-injunction that he got to protect his privacy and that of his family, he named Imogen, that the whole thing started down that trail that led to it coming out in Parliament," he told ITV's Daybreak.

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Marine killed in Helmand is named

16 May 2011 Last updated at 18:21 GMT Marine Mead was killed by a bomb in the Nad Ali district of Helmand Province A Royal Marine killed by an explosion in Afghanistan on Sunday has been named by the Ministry of Defence.

Marine Nigel Dean Mead, of Lima Company, 42 Commando Royal Marines, was killed while searching a compound in Helmand province.

His mother Amanda said the 19-year-old from Carmarthen was "one in a hundred million".

His death takes the number of British military killed in operations in Afghanistan since 2001 to 365.

His mother added: "I could never write enough words that would truly say how much I loved and thought of you, you're not a one in a million son you are one in a hundred million."

Marine Mead, who was on his first tour of Afghanistan, joined the marines when he left school and was the youngest to pass out of his troop.

His father, Philip said: "Our Dean, our boy, our little Big Man, our hero always wanted to be a Royal Marine and he turned out to be one of the best. I am speechless at our tragic loss, but until we meet again you will forever be in our hearts."

Lt Col Ewen Murchison, Commanding Officer 42 Commando, said Marine Mead was "the epitome of a Royal Marines Commando".

"A young man with considerable inner strength, he was selfless, warm hearted, utterly professional and took enormous pride in his job," he said.

"Despite this being his first tour of Afghanistan, he was a marksman of note and an inspiration to those who worked closely with him."

Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox, said he was "deeply saddened" to hear of Marine Mead's death.

"The tributes from his fellow Royal Marines and family describe an exemplary young man with incredible enthusiasm who was committed to his duty and his friends. My thoughts and prayers are with Marine Mead's family and friends at this tragic time."

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