to billions of pounds, will add up to billions of pounds, and the budget a couple of weeks ago where the chancellor was talking about debt levels and tough choices being made about spending and so on. so, even though it is not the £10,000 per person that was talked about in the weeks running up to today, because of the number of women involved, it could still be a sizeable bill for the government. fix, sizeable bill for the government. a lot of people may look at this and say, how did this happen? i was allowed to happen? 1 say, how did this happen? i was allowed to happen?— say, how did this happen? i was allowed to happen? i think there is... it is partly— allowed to happen? i think there is... it is partly due _ allowed to happen? i think there is... it is partly due to _ allowed to happen? i think there is... it is partly due to the - is... it is partly due to the complexity of the state pension system, it is not the most straightforward of systems, but it's a fundamentally more complicated women, and certainly has been in the past, because women tend to take time out of the workplace to look after children or care for relatives may be. although you can get credits towards your state pension, it is not always straightforward, and indeed, those systems have changed. although the thought was there,

because the pensions act came in in 1995, and in theory it goes 15 years of notice before the state pension age and started to rise for women in 2010, actually, as the report spells out, the communication was not clear enough, and i think, one of the issuesis enough, and i think, one of the issues is that because the state pension age for women rose over a number of years, which is obviously fairer than number of years, which is obviously fairerthan an number of years, which is obviously fairer than an overnight rise, it meant that individual women, they might know somebody who is, say, six months older or six months younger, but they could have a very different state pension age to them themselves, which is why i think it was very confusing for the individual women to actually work out how they were going to be affected, that is assuming that they knew in the first place that they would be. . ~ knew in the first place that they would be. ., ~ ,., knew in the first place that they would be. ., ~ y., , . knew in the first place that they would be. . ~ ,. , . ., would be. thank you very much for our would be. thank you very much for your time- — would be. thank you very much for your time. thank _ would be. thank you very much for your time. thank you _ would be. thank you very much for your time. thank you for _ would be. thank you very much for your time. thank you forjoining i would be. thank you very much for| your time. thank you forjoining us. you mentioned the women who have been involved. earlier i spoke to karen woodward — one of those women who missed out on her pension. she gave me her reaction to the report. i'm not going to be popping any

champagne corks and blowing up balloons just yet, partly because it took them, what, five, eight years to reach this stage. so how long are we going to have to wait for the figure that we should be receiving? i mean, it kind of makes you think, are they waiting for more of us to pass away so it's going to lessen the bill? is this going to now drag on and on and on? and that is...that is my worry. yes, it's been proven that they they should be compensating us. but when, you know, they're just going to drag it on and on and on and on... we're not going to go away. that's. .. i'm really pleased that about the report, but i'm very cautious as to when.

i mean, angela quite rightly said, if they gave us all that figure that's been touted around, 10,000, it's a huge amount. but what's happened to all the money that we've paid in? i mean, if i'd been able to retire at 60, and again, like a lot of ladies, i found out totally by accident at the age of 58. by then, it was far too late to do anything. totally by accident — a conversation with a friend who'd had a conversation with a friend — and was completely horrified because it was too late to actually do anything. and, you know, what they did was wrong. what they did was absolutely wrong. they could have had a pen and a paper and an envelope and a stamp and sent it to all of us in 1995, when they came up with this decision, and let us all know, and we would have all been

prepared and this... it would have cost them an awful lot less at the time to have actually informed the people properly by sending out a letter than it's going to cost them now. you know, if i'd retired at 60, like i'd always been led to believe, between 60 and 66, i would have had, like, £47,000. 0k. so if, say, the average is a5, times that by 3.8 million women. where's all that money gone? where's it gone? you know, that... they must have the money somewhere that we've all paid in. so where's it gone? karen woodward talking to me

earlier. underthe karen woodward talking to me earlier. under the other big story today. under the other big story today. the bank of england has held interest rates at 5.25% for the fifth time in a row, but cuts are expected later in the year. this has a knock—on effect on what other banks charge their customers for loans such as mortgages, as well as the interest they pay on savings. 0ur economics editor, faisal islam was at the bank of england when the interest rate decision was announced and gave us his analysis. the rates decided by a vote of 8 to 1. i think what's quite interesting is that there were two votes for rises last month, in february. they've now gone, and so there's just one person voting for a cut, eight to hold. that's why they've held. so what you get overall, if you look across the whole committee, is an incremental move towards a cut. and we have had some new language from the governor of the bank of england, andrew bailey, just come in. and this is what he said: "in recent weeks, we've seen further encouraging signs. inflation's coming down.

we've held rates again at 5.25% because we need to be sure that inflation will fall back to our 2% target and stay there. we're not yet at the point where we can cut interest rates, but things are moving in the right direction." and so the impression you get is of a tanker turning around really rather slowly. they were going in one direction for pretty much a year and a half, though those successive interest rate rises brought them to where we are. and now things are on a sort of plateau. and now, the direction of travel at some point clearly will be down. and so it does raise the question, right now, i'm sure viewers have this question, which is, when we're officially in recession, when the bank of england's target is on course to be hit in the next couple of months, why don't theyjust go ahead and do that today or in may? and the answer for that is that they're still a little bit concerned about what's happening in the service sector. that's cafes and restaurants, but also the financial services

we see around me right now. that rate of interest, which is much more associated with the level of wage, that is still...it�*s come down, but it's still above 6%. so it's come down enough for the hawks, the people that think rates should be higher, for them to calm down and say, "you know what, we don't think rates need to be any higher," but it hasn't come down sufficiently for them to actually vote for a cut. so where does that leave us all? well, the bank of england will consider this again in may. that's when they do their new set of forecasts. we still think that, at that point, they won't have had the latest data on where inflation has landed. so i think many expectations are thatjune is maybe a likely moment where you could get a cut. that's definitely not a guarantee. it feels like spring may have finally sprung in parts of the uk, which means flowers are starting to blossom, including at sissinghurst castle in kent.

it's home to world famous gardens that date back to the 1930's. it feels like spring may have finally sprung in parts of the uk, this year, 10,000 freshly—planted daffodils have grown alongside decades—old magnolias. 0ur reporter sara smith has been to take a look. every new bud, each emerging flower feels like a celebration at this time of year. we've made it through the winter. the garden is finally waking up. i guess it's seeing the new shoots emerging from the soil. that's always exciting. it's seeing all the kind of efforts of our winter work that we've done starting to appear. it's the freshness of everything as well. while many of the daffodils here are in their first year, some of the magnolias date back decades, and all the planting follows the vision of this garden's

creators, writer vita sackville—west, and her husband, harold nicholson. their garden and their gardening style, you know, was so interesting and different and unique at the time. they weren't doing the obvious. we were making a garden completely individual, full of personality and character. so it's so important we kind of keep those qualities. it's getting on for 100 years now since vita and harold started work on this garden, him creating the formal lines and herfilling it with her profusion of planting, creating the individual rooms which we can still wander around today. it's from the air that you can see those rooms most clearly. and what goes into them is the result of careful research they wrote letters to each other, perhaps with even shopping lists of what they have seen at a plant fair that they might

like to plant in the garden. so we often draw upon our knowledge from that research. in a few weeks, the whole garden will be overflowing with colour. te flowers compete to catch your eye. for now, every glimpse of a new bud emerging repays ourfaith. summer, howeverslowly, is on the way. is at the weather for daffodils? now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. hello there. well, at this time of year, with light winds and some sunshine, we can get some spring warmth. and that's what we had yesterday. warmest day of the year so far, just shy of 19 degrees in surrey. and it wasn't a bad start today. and surrey is probably one of the areas where we could see the highest values once again. different story further north and west in east renfrewshire. we've already seen some sharp showers here, all tied into this area of low pressure. and along the southern flank, plenty of isobars, so strong to gale—force gusts of winds as well. now, this has been the progress of the rain so far today. it's fairly light and drizzly as it

moves its way across wales and north west england. but we've got some heavier bursts across western scotland and northern ireland, accompanied by gusts of winds in excess of 50 to 60 miles an hour. some brightness by the end of the day in the far north. cloudy with some brief glimpses of sunshine from time to time. so that will have an effect on what we get as our highest value. 16 or 17 degrees, though, not out of the question. through the night tonight, our weather front will continue to sink its way steadily southward. so a blanket of cloud holding those temperatures up. clearer skies and a few scattered showers at further north. so here, we're looking at around four or five degrees as a morning minimum. so we're going to start off tomorrow, then, bright and breezy, with gales or severe gales developing across the far north of scotland. and a rash of showers here. early morning rain across the south east of england will gradually ease away, but it'll take its time in doing so. brighter skies behind and temperatures down a little, 9 to 12 celsius. and that's the story as we go into the weekend.

the milder air is gradually going to be squeezed over to the near continent, low pressure dominates for the start of the weekend, and the wind direction will play its part. it is going to be a blustery day, gusty winds widely, and that'll drive in a rash of showers from the north and west. and yes, with elevation, there could be some wintry showers in there as well. but if you dodge the showers, get a little bit of shelter and some sunshine, it still won't feel too bad. but you can see the wind gusts generally 30 to 45 miles an hour, and that'll make it feel fresher than we've seen of late, 9 to 10 celsius. a little bit quieter as we go into sunday, and hopefully fewer showers around as well. whatever you're doing, have a great weekend.

live from london, this is bbc news. eu leaders are meeting in brussels. they are discussing whether profits from frozen russian assets could be used to help arm ukraine. it comes as russia launches its biggest attack on kyiv since january. in your report finds many british women are owed apologies and thousands of pounds in compensation because of state pension changes. the united states a top diplomat says washington has submitted a draft un security council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza,

linked to the release of hostages. women working in extreme heat are at greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. and after macron pulls the punches, we look at how leaders use their photos are to influence public opinion. hello, i may need welcome to bbc news now —— anitta mcveigh. european union leaders are meeting in brussels, where the war in ukraine is high on the agenda. they're examining this question — could the profits from frozen russian financial assets be used to pay for weapons for ukraine? ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky is also expected to take part. in kyiv, at least 13 people are reported to have been injured as the city came under missile attack during the night.