you up—to—date including weather warnings which have been issued for the fog and i will be back with more details in half an hour's time. this is bbc news. the headlines: ministers reject criticism that plans to require voters to show id at polling stations are a "sledgehammer to crack a nut". 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. why, do you have cassettes?

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 we look at how the people of cumbria and lancashire coped with flooding last winter. 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 we 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. 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 you 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. we will be speaking to labour's cat smith later in the programme. 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. england's chief nursing officer has urged the nhs to invest more in caring for people at home.

jane 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. i'm joined from our cardiff newsroom by labour's cat smith, the shadow minister for voter engagement. that's to discuss the new pilot scheme aimed at tackling electoral fraud. thank you forjoining us. what are your thoughts on the pilot? labour's thoughts are that while we do need to reflect the electoral fraud where it takes place, this is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. the numbers of incidences of impersonation are very low. this would make it more difficult for millions of voters to cast a vote.

3.5 million people do not have the required forms of identification that are going to be trialled by this government. it's notjust that. if you are to be on your way home from work and he remembered there was an election on, you can'tjust going to your polling station and cast their vote. you would have to pick up some ide. it will drive down turnout. you said labour's thoughts on it, and yetjim fitzpatrick says he does not have any issues as most people carry and edification. most people carry and edification. most people but not all people carry identification. to have a strong democracy, we need to increase participation in elections by making it more convenient for people to vote. that is not to say that where electoral fraud takes place, vote. that is not to say that where electoralfraud takes place, we shouldn't be firm with it. we could have a national telephone line for people to report instances where

they feel electoral fraud is taking place. we could give the police more resources . place. we could give the police more resources. but requiring every single elector in this country to turn up at a polling station with one of the required forms of identification, when many people do not have these forms of identification, is very much taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut. does electoral fraud needs to a sledgehammer to crack a nut. does electoralfraud needs to be addressed? absolutely. where it ta kes addressed? absolutely. where it takes place, we should be addressing it. there is no doubt about that. the measures are very much extreme compared to the scale of the problem. we should have a proportionate response to the problem. something proportionate would be a telephone line or recommendations around postal votes in the report, which are reasonable and are already best practice by political parties anyway. for instance, not allowing an individual to hand in more than a certain number of postal vote at a polling station would be a reasonable measure to combat fraud. eric

pickles did highlight 50 recommendations and he was cautious about them, which is why he said he wa nted about them, which is why he said he wanted it to be a pilot. well, if those pilot? go ahead, i suspect we will see a decline in the number of people turning out to vote. 3.5 million people do not have the required forms of identification. that is the total number of people who cast a ballot in london at the last general election. that's an awful lot of people for whom you're making it difficult if not impossible to take part in the electoral process. the way we strengthen our democracy is by increasing turnout, by encouraging people to turn out and not erecting hurdles like this. you say labour supports measures to tackle electoral fraud and will be backing a number of the reasonable proposals. so what are the reasonable proposals you agree with? they would be some of the things i have just outlined, restricting the

number of postal votes once they are completed, restricting the number of postal votes you could hand in at a polling station. it would also be reasonable to make sure police forces have the resources to investigate whether allegations of fraud were made, and that people would find it easier to report such insta nces would find it easier to report such instances if there was a resort at polling stations. thank you for joining us. 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 154 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 2h 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. on 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 answers continues. 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. what it's about is putting an arm around people who might otherwise face some difficult choices. the kind of cases that prevent teams are dealing with, and we are talking about 20 referrals a day, are things like a young man from the midlands who is thinking he might travel to fight in syria, people become concerned about him. there are referring to prevent. prevent works with that individual and he chooses not to travel. the people he was travelling to meet, we believe, are dead. this is very real stuff. miqdaad versi is from

the muslim council of britain — my my colleague, jane hill, spoke to him earlier. she 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 want a policy that keeps us safe and secure but is effective. the joint committee on civil rights says it may be counter—productive. —— thejoint —— the joint committee on —— thejoint committee on human rights. that is not something we want. let's talk to people on the ground, those who know 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?

—— or does it 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 as a sign of extremism? 0fsted, 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, that is a sign of radicalisation. that was part of a case brought up. why 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 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. liverpool can cut chelsea's lead at the top of the premier league to six points this evening if they beat

stoke. 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 an emphatic 3—0 win over qpr in the first of two games today. they were looking to capitalise on newcastle's slip up at home last night and went ahead thanks to a cracker from sam baldock. brighton were then awarded a penalty early in the second half, for this foul on dale stephens, and baldock‘s strike partner glenn murray stepped up to make it 2—0. it was all going wrong for rangers, who had defender nedum 0nouha sent off shortly before anthony knockaert rounded off the scoring for the seagulls — dedicating the goal to his late father who passed away earlier this year. brighton lead newcastle by two points. they are a displaced —— eight points better off than reading. it is still derby county and birmingham scoreless. they have

played an hour. it has not been the best game so far. there are two games in the scottish premiership today. as taylor gave aberdeen lead over hamilton. —— abbey —— ash taylor. dougie imrie equalised for hamilton. 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. 0spreys have just moved ahead against scarlets. trainer colin tizzard has claimed his second major victory in as many days after native river won the welsh grand national. after thistlecrack claimed the king george yesterday, native river was favourite for the welsh national and hit the front with 13 left to jump. he held off a late charge from raz de maree to win at chepstow. bbc radio 5 live'sjon hunt describes the closing stages. richard johnson in the saddle. what a performance. native river has won the welsh grand national from bars to murray. that's all sport for now. i'll have more for you here later. thank you very much, steve.

29 turkish police officers are going on trial in istanbul, charged with involvement in july's failed coup. they're charged with seeking to overthrow the government. the trial is the most significant to date, with more than a—thousand indictments prepared. with 40,000 others in detention, these trials are set to be the most far—reaching legal process in modern turkish history. 0ur correspondent, selin girit, is in istanbul for us. how have the trials been going so far today? it has been a slow start, if we can call it as such, because we are talking about 29 police officers tried today. first, the indictments were read out and then their defences were read out. this is going to take years probably to com plete

is going to take years probably to complete this legal process. already indictments have been prepared against 1200 people. we are talking about over 41,000 people already under arrest. there are investigations carried out on about 100,000 people. this is going to be a very significant and very large court case in turkey. the significant start was today in istanbul but it will take years to complete. a number of small-scale trials have also been taking place in recent weeks. what do we know about those? have we had verdicts or is it too early to say? it is too early to say. yesterday, for example, ina early to say. yesterday, for example, in a south—western town 60 army officers, their trials started. it is too early to say. no conviction has yet taken place. but all of these people are accused of

attempting to author of the government in thejuly 15 coup. they are accused of and some are charged with allegedly being members of an organisation of an islamic cleric based in the united states. the government accuses fatullah ghulam and his followers of being behind this coup attempt back injuly, a charge they deny. the government says they are a terrorist organisation. all of these people are tried with those accusations. 29 police officers that came to court this morning in istanbul, if convicted, 21 of them would be facing three life sentences and eight of them would be facing seven to 15 years injail. serious charges. this could be a very significant watershed moment for turkey because the critics are saying the crackdown and the trial

is getting out of hand. every opponent of the president are being either prosecuted, sacked or arrested. thank you. george michael's publicist says the star's family and friends have been touched beyond words by the outpouring of love since his death on christmas day. details have emerged of his unpublicised charity work. it has been revealed he worked undercover ata been revealed he worked undercover at a homeless shelter and spent yea rs at a homeless shelter and spent years donating money to organisations. 0ne years donating money to organisations. one of the charities to benefit from george michael over the years was childline. he donated the years was childline. he donated the royalties from his chart—topping single, jesus to a child, to the charity. his involvement was something he kept very private. ben moore spoke to its founder, tim esther rantzen. george michael will have helped hundreds of thousands of vulnerable, desperate children, who

never knew that because of his generosity, they were able to reach out to childline and we were able to save lives and protect them from pain. he absolutely understood the importance of reaching out to children who have nowhere else to turn. i don't know why, i don't know what it was in his own heart. maybe he felt their pain, may be understood from a personal perspective, although i did meet him and talk to him about our work, i understood he really wanted to keep this a secret. he was —— it was an intensely personal gift. he didn't wa nt intensely personal gift. he didn't want razzmatazz or publicity. he just wanted to help and he did, year after year after year. it sounds like it was not a one—off, but something he did regularly and over many years? yes, he did. he gave us the royalties to jesus to many years? yes, he did. he gave us the royalties tojesus to a child, and incredibly beautiful song. for

many people it is identified with christmas, which makes his death this christmas is so tragic and so poignant. then he gave us gift after gift to make sure that we could be there for as many children as possible. how much was it, can you put a figure on it? i think it was millions. somewhere around 2 million. it meant we could answer more children. was it he who approached you ? more children. was it he who approached you? he approached us. we didn't go around with our begging bowl at all. he knew about our work and got in touch with us. from the beginning i was told this was something he wanted to keep private. i had something he wanted to keep private. ihada something he wanted to keep private. i had a very quiet lunch with him talking about our work, our ambition is to help children. from then on, he was like, if you like, our on angel who was there when we needed him. dame esther rantzen. 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. daniela relph looks back at her life. what is she? she's a vegetarian, nana. 0h! could you have some wafer—thin ham? could she have wafer—thin ham, barbara? the unforgettable nana speakman. liz smith was the eccentric, loveable centre of the royle family. very unusual taste! i put in a bit of ta—ra—sa—la—ma—ta as well! in the vicar of dibley, more of her perfect comic timing. happy birthday, frank. do you want to put me in a home? success came late for liz smith. a single mother of two children in a series of part—time jobs, she didn't start acting properly until she was 50. what a nuisance for you. it was like a wonderful realisation that at last i was being given a chance.

it had come. it had come at last. last night. what was it? what was what? that cheese. it was cheese. i know it was flaming cheese! she owed that first acting role to the director mike leigh. she loved being batty old ladies, because in a way she was a batty old lady, except that underneath the eccentricity she was a really focussed person, but she loved it. the more eccentric, the better. she adored being a bonkers person. does this thing play cassettes as well? she may have started late, but made up for it. don't do it so curly this time, barbara. last time it was just likejeremy clarkson. never more so than as nana speakman. liz smith at her scatty and brilliant best. a group of conservationists say that the world's

fastest land animal, the cheetah, is rapidly heading for extinction. the zoological society of london says cheetah numbers in the world are falling because of human encroachment onto their habitat. they say it's "crunch time" for the cats, with only an estimated 7,000 left in africa and just 50 in iran. now the weather. we are in for a very frosty night indeed. the fog will become a big issue particularly across england and wales. by morning some disruption i think is possible. check out bbc radio local radio stations for updates. no fog at the moment. the frost will start to develop from midnight onwards. there will be some exceptions. some western fringes willof escape and much of northern ireland and scotland, where it will be milderment across the heart of england and wales, fog and a hard