this is bbc news. the headlines: combating electoral fraud — pilot schemes will require voters in some parts of the country to show id before casting their ballot. the children's commissioner for england warns that four in five young carers aren't receiving the help they need from social services. russian crash investigators examine a recovered flight data recorder recovered from the black sea, to try and discover why the military plane came down on sunday. the prevent anti—extremism programme is defended by leicestershire's chief constable — simon cole says some of the criticism of the scheme is "hysterical". also this hour, tributes are paid to the actress, liz smith, who's died at the age of 95. does this thing play cassettes as well? no nana, it'sjust cds. the bafta winner played nana in the royle family. one of her co—stars, the actress suejohnston,

said she was "devastated at her passing". and coming up in half an hour, we celebrate the lives of those who left us this year, including david bowie, in review 2016: we remember part two. good afternoon. welcome to bbc news. some voters in england are to be asked to provide photographic proof of identity before being allowed to vote. the measure is to be piloted as part of efforts to curb electoral fraud. a government—commissioned report, published in august, concluded that the authorities sometimes turned a blind eye to fraud in areas with large pakistani or bangladeshi communities, because

of "over—sensitivities about ethnicity and religion". here's our political correspondent, tom bateman. an election victory, but one steeped in claims of corruption. lutfur rahman became mayor of tower hamlets two years ago. the people of this borough willjudge me on my record. he wasjudged instead by an election court, which threw him out of office. it heard claims of voter fraud and intimidation. the case helped bring about a wider review of election practice, carried out by the former communities secretary sir eric pickles. he called for the introduction of id checks at polling stations in england. today, the government backed his proposals. electoral fraud has the potential to undermine confidence in our system, which is why we need to ensure that when it comes to vulnerable individuals in certain communities who want to be able to exercise their individual right to vote, they are given the opportunity of doing so without the possibility

of intimidation. the report said authorities were turning a blind eye to corruption, what he called the worrying and covert spread of electoral fraud. he accused some bodies of a state of denial and failing to challenge alleged vote rigging because of political correctness. he saw evidence of pressure put on vulnerable people to vote according to the will of elders in some communities of pakistani and bangladeshi background. the plans mean voters will have to bring photo id, like a passport, or proof of address in trial areas of england at local elections in 2018. but labour said changes to the voting register had already harmed the party, and some claimed the announcement today would make things worse. the people most likely not to have a passport or driving licence are going to be the poorest, and i suspect that is going to, like the decision to knock a lot of people off the electoral register, hit the labour party. the number of voter—fraud

claims is relatively low. the government hopes today's plans will help reduce it further. earlier i spoke to sir eric pickles, who wrote the report which recommended the changes, and i asked him if he had any concerns that these proposals might put people off voting, and whether we should be encouraging people to take part in the democratic process instead. i agree we should be encouraging people, but we want to avoid people voting on your behalf, we want to avoid people impersonating others. and we want to avoid elections being taken by the use of fraud. now all i'm really suggesting is exactly the same kind of proof that he would haveif same kind of proof that he would have if you want to wander down to the post office to pick up a parcel.

i'm asking nothing more onerous than that. but you are asking for a form of identification that some people simply might not have. you know that some people won't have a driving licence or a passport, they may not even have a utility bill. those people are disenfranchised, aren't they? it is not an exclusive list. if you are young, you may have a student card. you may have —— want to show proof of identity so you can purchase alcohol. you might be able to produce something, a document say, from your member of parliament, oi’ say, from your member of parliament, orfrom a doctor, to say say, from your member of parliament, or from a doctor, to say that you are the pressing you say you are. the list is not extensive. the last thing we want to do is to prevent people voting. after all, most people voting. after all, most people who go to the polling station ta ke people who go to the polling station take their polling card and they think they need their polling card to vote, which they don't. so i

don't think this is going to change the world. it willjust make our voting that a bit safer. the electoral reform society has said that mandatory voter id is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. of course there have been cases of electoral fraud but those cases can be dealt with locally. this is a massive change process for actually a relatively small problem?‘ massive change process for actually a relatively small problem? , well, it's not such a big change. people ta ke it's not such a big change. people take their polling card. it's not unusual in other countries to do this. international observers of our elections have warned us that our trust —based system is peculiarly vulnerable. my concern is primarily on local elections. widespread fraud is possible. it's possible to take several wards over by the use of fraud. when you do that, you control the local authority. if you control the local authority. if you control the local authority. if you control the local authority, you can control

procurement and contracts. you have hundreds of millions of pounds in your hands. you will know that some members of the labour party and others have made the point that going back to the form of the ide, this is disenfranchising particularly poorer people. —— ide. ken livingstone saying this will hurt the labour party above anybody else. is that part of the plan? as far as else. is that part of the plan? as faras i'm aware, else. is that part of the plan? as far as i'm aware, i don't think mr livingstone is a member of the labour party. the official labour party are supporting this measure. it makes an awful lot of sense. it is labour that have been peculiarly vulnerable to these kind of attacks. many labour mps have been urging me in private that the government should be doing exactly this. i think there is broad consensus. it is only those who are perhaps on the

fringe of politics you see anything sinister in this. that says more about them than it does about these very common sensible ideas. sur eric pickles. that smacks eric pickles. the children's commissioner for england says the vast majority of young carers receive no support from local authority social services. anne longfield says four out of five young carers are under the radar. the local government association says funding cuts mean councils are being forced to make difficult decisions. helena lee reports. this is daniel, one of thousands of young carers in england. he's ten and lives with his mum, florella, who has a brain tumour. daniel is her main carer at home. when he's not at school, he helps around the house, but he constantly worries about his mum when he isn't there. i started becoming more responsible and i started doing the cleaning. started doing cooking better. i started paying more attention to what my mum was doing. then, because i wasn't around, i was always

worried about how she was. today's report by the children's commissioner found, of the 160,000 young carers in england, just over 128,000 children aged five to 17 may not be known to local authorities. and councils identified 160 young carers in england who are under the age of five. this is often systematic support for vulnerable family members who may have mental illness or physical disabilities. they need to be able to flourish at school, they need to be able to enjoy childhood and grow up, whilst they're still offering the familial support that you would expect. the local government association says funding cuts to children's services means councils are being forced to make difficult decisions about what support they are able to provide. but it says all young carers should receive an assessment to find out if they need help.

i've been talking to counsellor with brit —— councillor richard watts. i began by asking him what he thinks of those figures about hidden young carers. i don't think it is fair to describe that number of young carers as under the radar. every young carers should be getting an assessment to find out what needs they have. i see no evidence that is not happening. we do know that the very majorfunding not happening. we do know that the very major funding cuts not happening. we do know that the very majorfunding cuts imposed on local authorities in the past few yea rs local authorities in the past few years m ea ns local authorities in the past few years means that councils often only have the money to support those young carers most in need. people watching will of course understand the situation with council budgets. that is probably almost a given. by the same token they will have seen this report that young boy, ten

yea rs this report that young boy, ten years old, looking after his mother because she has a brain tumour. they will think, how is this possible britain in 2016? that young boy should be at school working hard, and when he's not doing that, should be having a nice time with his friends like any ten—year—old. how is it possible that a child is left to look after a parent? that young boy clearly does an incredible job in the most difficult of circumstances. he should be getting a lot of support to help them. families like that in the most pressing need to get a lot of support from the local authorities and a whole range of other people from the nhs, local schools and other people in an area. however, the real problem we face is the funding cuts mean it is hard to deliver that level of support for everyone. perhaps if the circumstances were less pressing... to your mind, however regrettable,

will it always be the circumstance that some young people, perhaps not quite as young as that young boy, but some young people are going to be on the situation is not dissimilar to that one, and that there simply is not, unless there is dramatic political change, there would not be the resources to perhaps help them as best as they should be helped ? perhaps help them as best as they should be helped? children's services in this country are facing a£2 services in this country are facing a £2 billion shortfall in money. local councils have to keep children safe as well as support carers and a whole range of other stuff. if young carers are going to be supported properly, we would welcome that. we do recognise that many families were needs are not pressing, young children will want to look after their children, —— family, but they will need support. if we are going to provide support to more families than we do at present, we have i to need some more funding. councillor

richard what's. england's chief nursing officer has urged the nhs to invest more in caring for people at home. professorjane cummings says money is being wasted on keeping elderly patients in hospital unnecessarily. she says reform is needed to make sure patients don't get caught between different parts of the system. a senior police officer has defended the government's often criticised anti—extremism programme known as prevent. he says some criticism has been hysterical. leicestershire chief constable, simon cole, who is one of those in charge of implementing the strategy, said prevent was "absolutely fundamental" to britain's counter—terrorism efforts. miqdaad versi is from the muslim council of britain — i asked him whether he accepts that the prevent programme is providing a useful tool. what we have to recognise is that when the ex—head of m15 security services says prevent is clearly not working, we have to take that on board and change this policy. we

wa nt board and change this policy. we want a policy that keeps us safe and secure but is effective. the joint committee on civil rights says it may be counter—productive. that is not something we work —— that is not something we want. let's talk to people on the ground, those who know they are talking —— what they're talking about. let's be transparent, let's create trust and we can keep ourselves safe. prevent has been running for a few years. what in it can be improved to make it work better, or doesn't have to be scrapped? many people have been talking about it being scrapped, not just people on the ground, but andy burnham, the former labour home secretary, diane abbott has said something similar. what we need at the minimum is an independent review to look at this and identify all of the key challenges. so we need to look at prevent from the start and

think about why the muslim community seems to be targeted in particular. why is it there is a perception on the ground that religiosity is seen asa sign the ground that religiosity is seen as a sign of extremism? in their guide for what is best practice on identifying radicalisation, they say that if a young boy has a koran in his room, the holy book of the muslim communities, in their room, thatis muslim communities, in their room, that is a sign of radicalisation. that was part of a case brought up. i identify that? why is that important? these problems cause a lack of trust and mean there is a problem. we want something that keeps us safe. the headlines on bbc news: ministers have rejected criticism that plans to require voters to show id at polling stations are a "sledgehammer to crack a nut". eight out of ten young carers are not receiving the help they need from social services, according to the children's commissioner for england. russian crash investigators examine a recovered flight data recorder recovered from the black sea to try

and discover why the military plane came down on sunday. sport now and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here's steve wyeth. good afternoon. chelsea's lead at the top of the premier league is an impressive one, but if could be trimmed to six points this evening, if liverpool beat stoke in the only game in the top flight. jurgen klopp hopes his players, and the fans, are well prepared after the extra day off before their festive football. atmosphere changes everything, so hopefully all our supporters are recharged after the 25th and the 26th, full of good food and in the best mood for this game, and give everything you can! stoke beat liverpool injanuary in the league cup, but otherwise don't have a great

record at anfield — although their manager doesn't consider history a factor. it took us a0 years to get a win there. so we hope it's not going to be as long next time. no, i don't think there is any pressure on us. we are going with the intention of getting a positive result. we never go there with the intention of protecting what we have got. at some point in the game we will have opportunities ourselves. it is about staying in the game and taking our opportunities when they present themselves. brighton are back on top of the championship after their 3—0 win over qpr. they were looking to capitalise on newcastle's slip—up at home last night. they went ahead thanks to this cracker from sam baldock. brighton with then awarded

a penalty in the second half for this foul on dale stephens. glenn murray stepped up to make it two. it was all going wrong for qpr, who had defender nedum 0nuoha sent off. brighton added a third. 3—0 how it finished. brighton lead newcastle by two points. they are under way in the other game in the championship. it is currently scoreless between derby county and birmingham city. there are two games in the scottish premiership today. amber rudd —— aberdeen against hamilton academical still goalless. later, hearts host kilmarnock. lancashire director of cricket and head coach ashley giles has been released from his contract

to allow him to rejoin warwickshire. giles — who steered lancashire to promotion to division one of the county championship, and the t20 blast title during his time at old trafford — takes up the role of sport director with his home county in the new year. england forward chris robshaw has withdrawn from the harlequins team to play gloucester today at twickenham, due to injury. that's the only fixture in the premiership. in the pro12 there's an all welsh encounter as 0spreys play scarlets. it is currently 3—3. trainer colin tizzard has claimed his second major victory in as many days after native river won the welsh grand national. after thistle cracker claimed the king george yesterday, native river was favoured for the welsh national. he held off a late charge to win at

chepstow. john hunt describes the closing stages. what a performance! the top flight has one the welsh national. —— won. that's all sport for now. i'll have more for you here later. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, says the syrian government is holding talks with the opposition, but the main opposition group says it has no knowledge of any negotiations. mr lavrov did not specify which groups were taking part in talks nor did he say where they were taking place. i'm joined from beirut by our middle east correspondent, lina sinjab. what do you think sir dave —— sergey lavrov is referring to? he didn't

specify which opposition the government is talking to. so far we know that the syrian government has a favoured opposition based in damascus, also supported by russia. we have heard some statements coming out from damascus that there are meetings taking place. but at the same time the russians, with the turks and the iranians, are trying to set up a plant from moving forward with the political solution forward with the political solution for syria. they basically said there will be meetings taking place in kaza khsta n will be meetings taking place in kazakhstan later next month, before official negotiations will take place in geneva. that if all succeeds, and the syrian government is willing to sit down with the real opposition backed by the west that is based in istanbul, they

themselves say they have not been contacted jet. they have not been reached out to buy the russians nor the government. we are waiting to see what kind of development will come. the opposition in syria, as we referred to it, is of course a diverse group. we are not talking about one homogenous opposition. in terms of looking at 2017 and whether they may be talks and any mass —— any prospect of success, that is one of the issues? definitely. if we're talking about the opposition based outside syria calling for a change in syria, calling for it the removal of president besar asyad —— president bashar al—assad... also you have the other fighters on the ground. that is on one side of the opposition. then you have the

government supported opposition who are not real opposition because they are not real opposition because they are calling for change within the government under the leadership of president bashar al—assad. they will most likely be talking to them rather than the other sites. thank you. rescue teams have recovered one of the flight recorders from a russian military plane that crashed into the black sea shortly after ta ke—off on sunday. the russian defence ministry said an engine, landing gearand parts of the fuselage had also been found. all 92 people on board the aircraft are thought to have died when it came down near the resort of sochi. angus crawford reports. recovered from the sea bed, twisted and broken, part of the plane's fuselage. thousands of people are still involved in the search, scouring the area where the tupolev 15a came down. sonar traces show part

of the aircraft in shallow water a mile out to sea. specialist teams have found one of the plane's black boxes. it has been taken away for analysis. air accident investigators have begun monitoring the plane's last movements. the military flight from moscow to syria had more than 90 passengers and crew on board. it touched down to refuel in sochi, but crashed shortly after taking off again. translation: all found parts have been taken ashore and handed over to investigators. the search operation has gone on for 2a hours with no breaks. during the day, one more body was found and recovered. soldiers and civilians died side—by—side, all travelling to syria for new year celebrations.

0n board were more than 60 members of the russian army's world—famous choir. at their base in moscow, people have been laying flowers and lighting candles. a national day of mourning was declared. in sochi, recovery teams use the latest technology. the cause of the crash is unknown. pilot error or mechanical failure is a focus for investigators. terrorism has been all but ruled out. in the waters of the black sea, the search for a nswers waters of the black sea, the search for answers continues. the actress liz smith, best known for playing nana in the bbc sitcom, the royle family, has died, at the age of 95. she acted in numerous television series and films, and won a bafta for her role in a private function in 1985.

earlier i spoke to the actress sue johnston, who played her daughter barbara in the show the royle family. what a privileged life i've had to work with liz smith. she was hilarious. rather eccentric. and the most wonderful actress. and she was the most generous friend. i can't stop heaping praise on her and thinking how much i'm going to miss, and how much were all going to miss her really. she had of that awful laugh. she had the most awful cranky laugh. she had the most awful cranky laugh. but what i love about liz was, we'd finished filming the royle family, and she would take off her grey wig, she would wash her hair,

and she would be miss a sophisticated. she was like a mary quant figure. she had the most beautiful haircut, stylish clothes. and nana she wasn't. but when she put that week on and got on the sofa, she became manner. absolutely amazing. and she loved it. she loved everything about being an actor. she never forgot my cleaver giving her the chance to be an actor. because she struggled for years. she had a very ha rd she struggled for years. she had a very hard life. she was on her own with the kids. she had to take on all sorts of work because she wasn't getting much work as an actor. it wasn't until mike leigh get the break it took off if you like. i remember her in a private function and the thought of her playing nana, to me, i was so excited. and she

lived up to her reputation. she was just wonderful. i went to see her not long ago when she was done in worthing in our home. and i took her out in the wheelchair. we went down the front. because it was barbara and nana, people were so delighted to see her. and she loved it. and people were just so generous. they we re people were just so generous. they were coming to talk to her. it was my loving memory of that day we shared in margate. the actress sue johnston remembering liz smith with great affection. liz smith, who died on christmas eve at the age of 95. good afternoon. it has been a decent day. the weather has died down. plenty more try whether to come. at

times quite chilly. there has been some sunshine around today. you can see a some sunshine around today. you can seeafairamount some sunshine around today. you can see a fair amount of high cloud. that has turned the sunshine hazy. more in the way of cloud in parts of northern ireland and scotland. where we have the clearest skies, towards central and eastern parts of england, we would develop a frost overnight. later in the night we are likely to see patches of fog. 0vernight, close to freezing in towns and cities. —a and minus five degrees in part of the countryside. this patchy fog could make it a little bit tricky if you are heading back to work after the christmas break. some of that fog could linger across parts of the midland —— midlands. mildertowards across parts of the midland —— midlands. milder towards the north—west. perhaps some rain for the western isles. that's it from me. john hammond will be here in half an hour. hello.

this is bbc news with jane hill. the headlines at 3.30pm: voters in some parts of england are to be asked to provide proof of id before casting their ballots as part of efforts to curb electoral fraud. the scheme is to be trialled during the 2018 local elections. russian crash investigators examine a recovered flight data recorder recovered from the black sea to try and discover why the military plane came down on sunday. it's thought all 92 people on board died when the plane crashed shortly after take—off from sochi. as many as four in five young carers are going "under the radar" and receive no support from local authority social services, according to the children's commissioner for england.