this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. the headlines at apm: the government's £60 million investigation into allegations against british troops in iraq has failed and must be shut down, according to a report by an influential group of mps. record waiting times in a&e, as the health secretary concedes the nhs in england is facing "completely unacceptable" problems. you know, i'm doing thisjob because i want nhs care to be the safest and best in the world. and that kind of care is completely unacceptable. nobody would want it for members of their own family. "see you in court". the message from president trump as a federal appeals court blocks the attempts to reinstall the travel ban. a 16—year—old girl is among four people arrested by french police on suspicion of plotting an imminent terror attack. police say they found a makeshift laboratory during a search. i'm reeta chakrabarti,

also coming up this hour:. the multi—million—pound cocaine haul washed up on two norfolk beachs. about 360 kilos of the class—a drug were found stashed in holdalls by a passer—by. officers are continuing to search the area. a self—employed plumber wins his battle for basic workers‘ rights at the court of appeal. the ruling could affect thousands of others. and, first it was beyonce and jay z, now the clooneys celebrate as well, as george and amal announce they're expecting twins. good afternoon, and welcome to bbc news. the government's £60 million investigation into british troops in iraq has been a failure and must be shut immediately,

according to a new report by a parliamentary committee. the iraq historic allegations team, which was set up in march 2010 by the government to investigate allegations of abuse and torture by british soldiers in iraq, but the mps say the unit is "unfit for purpose." it has been criticised as a steaming the unstoppable —— seemingly unstoppable perpetuating machine. 0ur political correspondent, carole walker, is in westminster with the latest. really devastating criticism of this investigation team, who have been looking into alleged abuse by british troops in iraq. this is a scathing report. it was due to come out ina scathing report. it was due to come out in a few days' time, but the committee have now decided to release it this afternoon. and it is absolutely scathing. it says that the investigation has lost the confidence of service personnel, the

defence committee and the wider public. it is continually eroding the bonds of trust between those who serve and their civilian masters. and as you say, it goes on to say that as soon as the current workload has been cleared, it should be closed down, and some of the remaining cases, perhaps 60 or so by the summer, could —— should then be switched to be investigated by the service police. the criticism is about the way the enquiries have been conducted. they talk about how this has had a very serious effect on the lives of some of those, their lives have been put on hold, careers damaged, sometimes for years, because of allegations made against them. in many cases without credible supporting evidence. this of course is talking about the lives of serving and former military personnel who have found themselves subject to allegations. now, a large

proportion of the 1500 cases that have been brought before the inquiry over the years were brought by the firm which was led by phil shiner. he is the lawyer who has been struck off after he was found guilty of 12 cases of misconduct. and indeed there is huge criticism of the way that he encouraged people to bring forward allegations against the service personnel, and indeed we have already had a great deal of criticism from the most senior ministers of his involvement in all of this. but the report goes on to say that the government itself, the ministry of defence, cannot escape some of the responsibility for the way the inquiry was set up, which they say has led to these many failings in the way it has been conducted. all eyes will now be on the government as to see what is their reaction to this damning report, whether they do it effectively just shutdown this whole inquiry. yes, and i understand that

the ministry of defence was due in any case to be very shortly making some big announcement about the future of the iraq historic abuse tea m future of the iraq historic abuse team inquiry. we have not yet been able to get a response from ministers. i have been speaking to the ministry of defence, they say they are not in a position to respond just yet. it is clear that ministers at the highest level did have concerns about this inquiry. it was due to be completed in the year 01’ was due to be completed in the year or two, it ballooned, the caseload rose rapidly. as i said, many of those cases were brought by phil shiner‘s legal team. by a firm which has now been closed as a result of him being struck off. but there is a lot of significant detail in this report about the way the enquiries we re report about the way the enquiries were conducted. it says that in some cases the enquiries were intimidatingly, including one

example of a contractor who was brought in to look into allegations, claiming falsely to be a policeman. the committee says it is very deeply concerned about the use of covert surveillance. so it feels that the way being quarries have been conducted has been wrong, that the mod itself must take more responsibility for this —— the way the enquiries have been conducted. it is very cool indeed phil shiner, his lawyers many others, —— very critical. they feel they created this industry of allegations against former and serving military personnel. yes, some big questions 110w personnel. yes, some big questions now for the mod to answer. we do expect a significant response from them in the next couple of days. it's not yet clear whether they are going to bring forward some announcements about the future of this inquiry, or whether they will stick to their own plans to decide what to do about the inquiry team in

their own time. thank you, carol walker. we will wait to see what the government response is. at 5pm, we are going to be talking tojohnny mercer, the tory mp who is on that defence committee, a tory mp and former soldierjohnny mercer, who has been urging the government to get a grid on that historical inquiry team, and partly responsible for the devastating report criticising the iraq inquiry. with me is paul adams. 0ur our world affairs correspondent. paul, just remind us, why was this iraqi historic allegations team set up iraqi historic allegations team set up in the first place? i think this was really because it was at a time, 2010, where, in the wake of the invasion of iraq and the years that followed of british military involvement there, the government was seen to be not investigating a series of what appeared on the face

of it to be very serious allegations about the behaviour of british service personnel in iraq. and so it was left to people like. no, one of two law firms that really made a name for themselves —— people like phil shiner. i think as a result of that, the government felt that, under a certain amount of public pressure, it has to be said, that it needed to show that it too was capable of taking extraordinary measures to investigate allegations involving military personnel. the existing court martial and the kind of military investigation that would normally take place were not adequate. so this was set up, it was crucially separate from the chain of command, and so i think it was, i don't want to use the term knee jerk response, but it was perhaps a response, but it was perhaps a response that the government felt it was forced to take, very much as a result of the work of the dick lee

phil shiner. and of course, —— particularly phil shiner. when he was struck off, just a week ago, the inquiry workload plummeted from many, inquiry workload plummeted from any inquiry workload plummeted from many, many hundred down to just a few dozen. and so the very existence of the enquiries has now become a moot point. it doesn't have a great deal more work to conduct. it may well be that the government will turn around in the next few days and say, you know what, it has run its course. but i think what we saw was a popular feeling a few years ago that somehow the government was failing to get a grip with these widespread allegations, and now the reverse , widespread allegations, and now the reverse, a sense that all of this was very much overblown, that the cases of serious abuse involving british soldiers, there were some very, very serious ones, the death of the hotel worker in basra was perhaps the most gruesome and shocking example. but there was not the widespread, systemic abuse by

british personnel. and in some ways, we have all been rather hoodwinked. we have covered a lot of select committee reports in our time. i don't think i can recall one that is a strongly worded as this. one wonders, at what point did the penny start dropping? it started to drop long before phil shiner was struck off. but that process has taken a while, but board beginning to ask questions about the work of public interest lawyers —— people were beginning to ask questions about public interest lawyers and the other law firm involved some years back. one of the big cases simply fell apart due to lack of evidence. 0nce fell apart due to lack of evidence. once we began to see and hear some of the allegations about the practices involved, of cold calling, paying, looking to find informants and so forth, the whole edifice can to —— began to be undermined. the government set up its own body, which, judging by the report from

the defence committee, was employing some of the same tactics. so i think that's why the defence committee is so angry that's why the defence committee is so angry about this. that the government was sort of forced into taking the measure of setting up this extraordinary body, and then found itself employing some of the same tactics. interestingly, one of the lines from the report saying that it demonstrated a civilian mindset which lacks a sufficient appreciation of the environment of operations. of course, the whole point about the normal process of militaryjustice is that it is done by people who understand the military environment. and by farming get out to a separate body with civilians as part of it —— farming it out, so that you can be seen to be putting some distance and making itan impartial be putting some distance and making it an impartial body, you are perhaps doing away with that crucial operational awareness. and as a result, putting service personnel

through a pretty hellish experience for no good reason. paul, we'll leave it there, many thanks. the health secretaryjeremy hunt says it's "completely unacceptable" that some patients in england are waiting up to 13 hours in a&e. figures show that waiting times in casualty units are worse than at any time in the last decade. mr hunt says he does have an improvement plan, but admits it will take time, and says there's no silver bullet. our health editor hugh pym reports. nhs england figures this winter show the worst waiting—time performance in a&e since records began more than a decade ago. jeremy hunt paid tribute to the work of staff, but said the problems of high patient demand were not unique to the nhs, and all leading health systems were grappling with the same challenge. he said there was no silver bullet. i think it's wrong to suggest to people that these profound challenges, such as we face with an ageing population, are ones where there's a silver bullet where you can solve the problem overnight.

we have a very good plan, it has the support of the nhs. it will take time to deliver. asked about bbc coverage this week of patients enduring lengthy waits in a&e, and an elderly woman having to spend six months in hospital because no care home place was available, he said he didn't want to make excuses, and these examples were completely unacceptable. it is, you know, incredibly frustrating for me. i'm doing thisjob because i want nhs care to be the safest and best in the world. and that kind of care is completely unacceptable, no one would want it for members of their own family. but it's happening in a hospital rated ‘good'. so, what can you do about it? yes, what i think you have to recognise that overall, there are positive things as well as negative things, and there is huge commitment in the nhs to sort out those negative things, and the particular pressure point we have is a&e. what we need to do is to find ways

of treating, particularly people with complex conditions, older people with dementia, treating them at home or in the community. and that is the big direction of change that we've embarked upon. there have been cuts to social care under your government. hasn't that created the problem that we're now seeing? no. what i would say is, on social care, the prime minister has been very clear, we recognise the pressures there, we recognise there is a problem about the sustainability of the social care system, and that has to be addressed, and we are going to do that. more money in the budget? well that's for the chancellor and the prime minister. but, you know, look at what the prime minister said this week — this is an area where there is pressure, and if we're going to have a solution, it needs to be a long—term, sustainable solution, and not a quick fix. but labour's accused the government of losing control of the nhs this winter, with patients paying the price as hospital targets are missed. meanwhile, sir robert francis, who headed the mid—staffordshire inquiry, has said the nhs is in an existential crisis, and that if current pressures

continue, there could be a repeat of the mid—staffs patient care failings. and at az30pm this afternoon, we'll be answering your questions and suggestions on future challenges facing the nhs and looking at what the nhs could be doing to tackle problems like obesity and ageing population. please get in touch — you can text us or send an email, or contact us via twitter using the hashtag #bbcaskthis. we will be bringing you the headlines injust a moment, but before that breaking news from the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, who has announced that the probe into a rock war veterans that we have just been talking about is going to be shutdown after those very damning claims from mps in their report suggesting that there

were, it was simply not worth continuing. the defence secretary sir michael fallon says it will be shutdown. this comes after pressure from mps on that defence select committee. the defence secretary saying that, "we are entering a new stage, the iraq inquiry team will be closed or simply as early as the summer, and a separate investigative body will be created. that will see the royal navy police reabsorb the remaining investigations. and that could be completed as early as next year." that is the latest. the government effectively falling into line with what that defence select committee have suggested with that damning report saying that it should be discontinued as soon as possible, and the government look like they have listened and that is what they

will do. the headlines on bbc news... the defence secretary has announced that the iraqis direct allegations team will close as early as this summer. it follows a scathing report by an influential group of mps. record waiting times in a&e, as the health secretary concedes the nhs in england is facing "completely unacceptable" problems. "see you in court". the message from president trump as a federal appeals court blocks the attempts to reinstall the travel ban. and in sport... the russian athlete mariya savinova has been stripped of her medal by the court of arbitration for sport. she is the second russian finalist to be retrospectively banned the doping offences. she won't be able to compete again until 2019. rugby union six nations continues this weekend. scotland made one change to

the side that beat ireland as they prepare to face france in paris on sunday, with john prepare to face france in paris on sunday, withjohn barclay replacing ryan wilson as flanker. the football association of wales will appeal against their punishment for displaying poppies during a world cup qualifier in november. i'll be back with more on those stories just after az30pm. thank you, john watson. a federal appeals court in the united states has refused to reinstate donald trump's ban on travellers from seven mainly—muslim countries. the controversial immigration reform was suspended last week, when a judge in seattle issued a temporary order. but the president appears determined to continue the legal battle, saying on twitter: "see you in court. the security of our nation is at stake!". david willis reports. the office upon which i'm about to enter... as his controversial pick for attorney general was sworn in, donald trump hailed a new era ofjustice in america. former senatorjeff sessions, now the us‘s top law enforcement officer, may have his work cut out. i'm establishing new vetting

measures to keep radical islamic terrorists out of the united states of america. we don't want them here. donald trump's sudden ban on visitors from seven mainly—muslim nations caused chaos at airports and sparked protests across the us. then, last week, a districtjudge in seattle granted a stay. and now a san francisco—based appeals court has backed that stay, citing, amongst other things, the fact that nobody from those seven nations has actually carried out an attack on the us. the decision infuriated donald trump. "see you in court," he wrote, "the security of our nation is at stake!" prompting the leader of one of the states leading the court challenge, washington governorjay inslee, to reply, "mr president, we just saw you in court, and we beat you." the president is nonetheless convinced he will win. it's a political decision,

we're going to see them in court and i look forward to doing it. so you believe the judge has made... we have a situation where the security of our country is at stake, and it's a very, very serious situation, so i look forward, as ijust said, to seeing them in court. we are a nation of laws, and as i've said, as we have said, from day one, those laws apply to everybody in our country. and that includes the president of the united states. an appeal to the highest court in the land, the us supreme court, now seems likely. but that could put the decision in the hands of a court that's currently evenly divided, and a tied decision would leave the lower court's ruling in place. mr trump maintains his ban is necessary in order to protect the us from the threat of terrorism, but it may yet be proven unconstitutional. and, until he has his day in court, refugees from around the world and citizens of those seven muslim

nations can continue to come into this country. david willis, bbc news, washington. let's talk to our correspondent there, barbara plett usher. and washington is just beginning what's expected to be another day of controversy. let's talk to our correspondent there, barbara plett usher. barbara, he might be president, but he's not having much luck in the courts, is he? no, you can fayyaz got quite a lot of experience in the courts. remember as a businessman, he was notorious for taking disputes to the cause —— you can say he has got. he has come out fighting and is very combative about it. he says the decision is political and disgraceful, he saysjudges decision is political and disgraceful, he says judges do decision is political and disgraceful, he saysjudges do not have the borough tutor review national security decisions taken by the president and he says he is

going continue fighting this in court —— do not have the authority to review. he says that can continue on multiple levels. the executive order is being challenged in different courts so he can continue to defend it in that way. with regards to the specific decision, it was about to maintain the suspension of the ban while the litigation is going on, and it sounds like he's going on, and it sounds like he's going to challenge that as well, which could possibly go all the way to the supreme court, where he may 01’ to the supreme court, where he may or may not win, but the point is all of this is going to take probably quite a long time. even some of his supporters who say it fact the court did overreach with this decision would prefer him to actually step back, rescind the executive order, red rafted, back, rescind the executive order, redrafted, rewrite the most cost it usually questionable parts of it and get on with things, but that does not seem to be his nature at all, certainly not from what we know about his past and what he has said now. just a quick word also on the diplomatic front. it has taken three weeks, but mr trump has finally had a phone conversation with the

chinese president. what's the significance of that, do you think? that's interesting, because there have been quite frosty relations between mr trump and chinese leader ever since he suggested that he was not committed to the one china policy. this is the foundation of relations between china and the united states, in which the us recognises that there is only one china and its capital was in beijing, and not in taiwan. so mr trump has suggested that maybe he wouldn't stick with that. he didn't suggest it, perhaps using it as a bargaining chip to get a better trade deal with china, which did not go over very well at all, because this is the one thing for sure that the chinese do not bargain about, and the chinese leader seemed by giving him the silent treatment. he hasn't had a phone call with him since he was elected, and he has spoken to at least 20 other leaders in the meantime. this is a very important relationships of the united states. although there is challenge is, it is important for to cooperate in terms of economy and

climate change and so on. his advisers convinced him it was the right thing to have this conversation, and the only way to do it would be to commit himself to this one china policy. at least that's what it looks like on the servers. in fact it was decided that in order to deal with the other big issues that the united states need to, he needed to reach out to the chinese leader in this way. you have two are yourself whether he or his advisers would have put this all in place and no reason and then back down with gaining nothing, but from what i've seen so far, it does look that way. thank you, barbara plett usher in washington. let's get more on the iraqis direct allegations team. a discredited £60 million government probe is to be shutdown within months. the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, has announced it after pressure in that report from mps. carol walker is in westminster for us with the latest.

carol? the defence secretary sir michael fallon has now confirmed that the very controversial investigation into allegations of abuse against british soldiers will be closed by the end of the summer. the mod has said beforehand they expected the caseload by the summer to be down to 60. they now say it will be down to 20. and that that stage, the remaining cases will be handed over to serve as police to continue their investigations. this all comes down to the case against phil shiner. he was the lawyer whose legal team were responsible for so many of these allegations. he's been struck off after being found guilty of 12 charges of misconduct. the mod is now saying that much of the case against phil shiner went back to documents and allegations and evidence which the mod themselves uncovered, which they say led to phil shiner wrong we making these

allegations against many service personnel. we have had a response now from sir michael fallon, the defence secretary. let's listen to what he had to say. i'm very pleased to confirm the iraqi historical allegations team that was set up to look into thousands of allegations that have been brought forward against british troops in iraq is now going to be wound up this summer. now going to be wound up this summer. we are able to do that because most of these allegations have now fallen away following the striking off of the dishonest solicitor phil shiner. as a result of the evidence that we put before the solicitors disciplinary tribunal role. there will be a handful of remaining allegations which will now be put over to the servers police to investigate in the normal way. this will be a huge relief to hundreds of british troops who have had these quite unfair allegations hanging overthem. quite unfair allegations hanging over them. they're now being freed of that. and we will put in place

new measures now to ensure this never happens again, that there are proper safeguards to prevent completely malicious and unfounded allegations being made against our brave servicemen and women. that was the defence secretary, sir michael fallon. we have had a statement from the ihat team itself. it says much of the evidence presented in the allegations they have been looking at but now be considered tainted and no longer credible, and even taking account of the seriousness of some of the allegations, it is clear that the number of investigations now required will begin so verbally lower than the 60 previously expected. the statement goes on to confirm that it expects the number to be down to 20 by the summer, and confirms, as the mod has announced, that those remaining cases will be handed over to service police. it is worth remembering that these announcements come on the afternoon that we have had a hugely critical report from the defence select

committee of the house of commons. it said that the whole inquiry had lost the confidence of both the committee, of the public, and of service personnel. it was also very critical of the way the enquiries have been conducted. and it said that the mod could not escape responsibility for the way the inquiry was set up on the way that some of those investigations were carried out. so, a flurry of announcements. we do now know that this investigation will be wound up by the end of the summer. sir michael fallon said there, that will certainly be a huge relief to many service personnel, many of whom have had a very difficult time indeed, as these enquiries have been pursued. that now will be at an end by the summer. thank you, carole walker. well, joining me now via skype is admiral lord west. thank you for joining us. looking at the mps'

damning report into ihat, what went wrong, do you think? well, i don't know what led to this happening, but i think the defence committee have done a really good job looking at what clearly was not working properly, and was actually causing a break between our men and women on the front line, and the the administrators, back in headquarters. it was quite clearly unfair. there were 3500 allegations, for example, none of which were really based on any evidence or anything, and i'm delighted that phil shiner, the solicitor who went around ambulance chasing, that he has been shown for the sort of fraud he was and what he had done. and i don't know how we manage to get in ourselves a position with something setup that so clearly was flawed and damaging to our men and women. i mean, were handing people fall false

allegations on things that have happened many years ago. we really do need to look after our men and women who are putting their lives on the line to protect us in operations abroad. and i'm very, very glad that actually mr fallon has appreciated this and has taken some action. the point was being made by old world affairs chris bond macrolevel earlier that this inquiry was set up in response to a genuine case, and real worry is that that might not have been an isolated case. was the government wrong to have set it up? imean, government wrong to have set it up? i mean, they're clearly were a couple of cases where things went wrong. i mean, that's hardly surprised when you think of the thousands and thousands of people involved, the tensions, the pressure, risk of life, all this sort of thing. and that's always been the case with walls. but to establish this whole apparatus that was conducting enquiries to such an

extraordinarily bad it was wrong and i think it was done wrong way. i think we should have investigated cases in the normal way we always have done, and not set up this great machine that almost in a sense needed cases for it to have investigated. i think there has been pressure, without doubt, from the european court of human rights, because i don't think the europeans have deployed troops fighting in things nearly as much as we have in our country. and trying to leap military operations abroad into a system that really is fit for normal, everyday life in our own countries just doesn't make sense. soi countries just doesn't make sense. so i think the fact that the government wants to delegate from thatis government wants to delegate from that is a very good thing. you said that it was a pity that these cases hadn't been investigated in the normal way, what did you mean by that, through a military court? well, there is a mechanism whereby if instances happen, if they're

brought to attention, they go up through a normal chain of command and are also investigated by our own military police or raf police or naval police. we have free access to media in all those sort of regions pretty well. if something is flagged up, then we investigate it. and quite rightly too, because if something is done which is wrong, then we want to catch the people who did it, punish them to make sure people behave correctly but this got out of hand, the scale of it, the way it was conducting inquiries, and iam way it was conducting inquiries, and i am delighted that the defence committee picked this up and have gone through in such detail and clearly i think they've hit the spot by the fact that the secretary of state has reacted so quickly. how do you view it now, as an attempt at transparency, justice that went wrong? yes, it was trying to achieve something and i think it did it in the wrong way. it set up a mechanism that almost became a beast

in itself, generating cases, investigating them badly, taking things on heresay. it was very poor. i think the next thing we have to turn our sight to is the historic cases in northern ireland where people now, men and women in the military, are being investigated for cases a0 years ago and yet members of the ira and splinter groups for alleged offences aren't being investigated at all. there's something wrong there. we need to re—establish trust between the mod hau rters re—establish trust between the mod haurters and our men and women. —— headquarters. thank you very much. time for a look at the sport. good afternoon. the russian athlete, mariya savinova, who won gold in the 800 metres at the london olympics has been stripped of her medal and banned for doping by the court of arbitration for sport. she is the second russian athlete from the race to be retrospectively banned.

it means all of her results from july 2010 through to august 2013 have been wiped from the records. jenny meadows won bronze at the 2010 european championships and joins us now. what do you make of the news? obviously i was aware the last couple of years that maybe savinova had been doping during my career and today's news is, i guess i have a mixture of elation that i will hopefully get upgraded for a medal and a little bit of sadness and disappointment as a fan of the sport. i was actually a fan of mariya savinova, as well, what she did on the track was fantastic. i feel cheated that what we saw wasn't believable, unfortunately. you touched upon it there, what are the realistic chances that your medal

will be upgraded from bronze to silver? i have got my medal out of the cabinet at home, this is the bronze that i won in amsterdam back in 2010 at those championships, six and a half years ago and i have a real affinity with this medal, i have memories of the event, of the occasion. i think i will get upgraded now, now it's been proven, i have had an upgrade in the past. i was denied a gold medal, it was silver i won on the day, a year after that at the european indoor championships by another russian athlete and i did actually get — it's a case of waiting for the medal to arrive in the post and send this one back. it's worrying, it's the second russian athlete banned who completed in the 800 metres final at london 2012. it is just yet more damming evidence against the state sponsored doping programme that russia were running. yeah. we have

a lwa ys russia were running. yeah. we have always had to use the word alleged up always had to use the word alleged up to this point but it is becoming more clear that that was actually systemic doping going on throughout the sport and the women's 800 metres seems to be that event where doping really does make a big difference. i am hoping now that the ioc, wada ta ke am hoping now that the ioc, wada take this seriously and work with the russian athletics association and ministers to make sure if russia are allowed back into international sport they are competing fair and square by the rules and anyone who com petes square by the rules and anyone who competes against a russian athlete with a russian emblem on their vest can make sure they are competing on that level playing field. we need security for the future generations to make sure that they are competing ona to make sure that they are competing on a true square to make sure that they are competing on a true square run race. thank you. scotla nd

thank you. scotland will make one change to the side that beat ireland as the six nations championship continues this weekend. john barclay replaces the bushed ryan wilson in the back row. scotland haven't beaten france in paris since 1999. don't forget you can watch a special inside six nations sportsday on the news channel at 6.30pm this evening. great britain will face second seeds croatia in the fed cup promotion play—off on saturday. their place was sealed after lativa beat portugal in britain's group which meant gb will top group c having won all of three ties under new captain anne keothavong 3—0. turkey were the latest team to be defeated with laura robson and jocelyn rae rounding off the whitewash in the doubles after singles victories for heather watson and johanna konta. that's all the sport. we've been asking for your questions and suggestions on future challenges facing the nhs.

what do you think the nhs could be doing to help tackle problems such as obesity, and to cope with an ageing population? we've got two experts here to answer your questions — consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist shree datta, who is the british medical association's lead on obesity; and from the health foundation and nigel edwards, ceo of the nuffield trust. but first, as part of our special coverage of the nhs, we took a look at how technology is helping to improve access to care for elderly patients like pauline alderson. what can i do for you today? well, i am concerned about my legs. they get quite swollen and hot. by using modern technology 79—year—old pauline alderson can be assessed for swollen legs without having to leave the comfort of her care home. bring the camera down again so i can look at her feet.

a secure video link means she can be seen by a nurse at airedale hospital immediately, rather than risk an unnecessary trip to hospital or her gp. it would be very useful for me not able to get out and waiting sometimes for a fortnight before you can have a gp appointment. with me is nigel edwards, ceo of the nuffield trust — a health think tank — and shree datta, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist — and the bmas lead on obesity. before we get into viewers' questions, obesity and the ageing population, they're seen widely as key reasons why the nhs is struggling at the moment, is that how you see it? absolutely. they are two separate problems but increasingly they present as one. what i am finding as a clinician on a day—to—day basis is there is a direct impact on the amount of obesity i am seeing and the management plans that i am putting

infor my management plans that i am putting in for my patients. at the other end of the scale the patients i am seeing are also getting older so we have two complex problems which are gradually coming together over time. is that how you see it, these two crucial problems that are just causing so many financial shortages for the nhs? yes, it is ageing. the population has been ageing but unfortunately it is not getting that much healthier as it has been ageing. this period of healthy years you get has not been growing at the rate of life expectancy so patients are coming in with more complex problems that take longer to sort out and need more skills to deal with and often more intensive and often more expensive treatment as a consequence. often more expensive treatment as a consequence. let's run through some questions. the first one is someone texting us with this comment that it is time to bring back geriatric hospitals so the elderly get the ca re hospitals so the elderly get the care they deserve, not cram everyone under the same roof. i remember having three hospitals in one town,

maternity, and a general hospital and geriatric. you can't have eve ryo ne and geriatric. you can't have everyone under the same roofs that the right analysis? i understand where this viewer is coming from. u nfortu nately, where this viewer is coming from. unfortunately, as nigel has already alluded to, if you look at the patients we are dealing with, they come with complex pathologies, so being able to get different specialist opinions under the same roof is incredibly helpful for each individual patient. i think for today's patient that is more important than having separate hospitals with separate skills sets. better to have big hospitals with all those specialists together? hospitals are not great places for anybody, frankly and particularly not that good for old people if they don't need to be there. we should be focussing more on getting people out once they've had their immediate treatment into an appropriate setting which probably, most of the time is home, ratherthan setting which probably, most of the time is home, rather than what we used to do is park people in hospitals and years ago i used to

run one of those and the level of ca re run one of those and the level of care people were getting was not great, those people would have been better off in a much more homely environment. eric says for 30 years it's been common knowledge there would be an increase in the older element of the population, why has the government failed to maked a kwat preparation for that increase? in other words, they saw it coming, surely they should have been more prepared? well, like many things in life, you deal with the problems you are faced with. if we are busy dealing with a current winter precious of the nhs, and the current waiting time and the shortages and staff, we a re waiting time and the shortages and staff, we are busy dealing with that. it would be wonderful to be able to plan ahead and plan for future problems but unfortunately when you are busy running that hamster wheel on a day—to—day basis those problems suddenly seem a distant problem as opposed to the immediate problems that we are facing now. do you think more should have been done? it's notjust the health service that's been caught

out, as people have aged they're not remained as healthy as we hoped, that's one thing. we have got caught out on social care. we have not put enough money into social care and we have done the same in pensions. we are seeing the payback now for a very short—term viewpoint in the way that british government has tended to work. social care seems increasingly to be the key to this in some ways. absolutely. i think there needs to bejoined up thinking, as in most cases. i don't thinking, as in most cases. i don't think it'sjust as thinking, as in most cases. i don't think it's just as simple as throwing extra money. we need to look at the resources that we have and where we could work better, both in social care and also in hospital care. is it sometimes the wrong people in hospital, people who shouldn't be in hospital who are there? there is always a minority of patients who perhaps would be better served elsewhere. but those are the areas that we do focus in on, particularly under circumstances such as winter pressures. another texter has got in touch to say this,

i think the national health service needs more doctors to tackle this enormous pressure, one of the easy ways of doing this is to recruit doctors from other countries. the main obstruction to achieving that is that high test scores are needed and if the general medical council reduced the score byjust half a point they would get a huge number of doctors who could make a remarkable difference. is it about bringing in more foreign doctors? that sounds like an easy solution? the first thing to say is i totally agree with the need to increase the number of doctors we have got and nurses on the shop floor. there is no disagreement there. the question is should we actually be growing our own doctors or should we be resorting to doctors from other countries? we have to maintain the standards of care in the uk for all our patients. that includes good communication skills and i believe thatis communication skills and i believe that is one of the reasons why the general medical council has a set

standard of competency in terms of doctors coming to this country to practise. it comes back to patient safety. also with the bma dispute with the government we heard a lot of young doctors saying they were going to leave the health service and the country. and go to places like australia. precisely. we would be better off concentrating on making the nhs an attractive place to work for the doctors we trained, rather than stealing doctors from other countries who also often need them, often more than we do, to be honest. it assumes we have the money to bring in more doctors. it is all money. another question from linda. isn't the answer to an ageing population to give more money to care to stop letting more people arrive in the country who haven't paid anything into the system and who are adding to the problem for the national health service? well, i certainly agree that we do need to look at the financial resources in the nhs. but it is not just financial resources in the nhs. but it is notjust about financial resources in the nhs. but it is not just about throwing financial resources in the nhs. but it is notjust about throwing money at the nhs. it is about looking at

how much of that money goes into providing direct patient care as opposed to management, research, etc. those are all important, but being able to provide direct first line care to our patients immediately is really what we should be focussing on. in regards to people coming into the country, well, i don't think it isjust people coming into the country, well, i don't think it is just the nhs and pressures that allows it, i think that's far bigger a conversation to be having. indeed, we have just spoken about the importance of having doctors adequate staffing hospitals and general practices per se so we may not be in a position to be able to develop our own home grown doctors in the short—term. develop our own home grown doctors in the short-term. there is a myth here. it is one, if you read below the line in a lot of the tabloid papers you will see comments that say we are being swamped by immigrants. the facts are that while there are a few hot spots in say maternity, most migrants are paying

tax so aring the nhs, they are fitter than the general population. and tend to be younger. but the really important thing is without the immigrants that currently support the social care system, quite a lot of the health system and quite a lot of the health system and quite a lot of the health system and quite a lot of our doctors we would be in very, very serious trouble. so rather than immigration being a burden on the nhs, in many ways it is the only thing keeping the nhs and the social care system from falling apart dmreetly. the recent devaluation of the pound which has cut many people's pay by 1520% may mean that we are about to see a very serious impact from a slowing down of our ability to recruit those people. so i think people worrying about immigration, they're worrying about immigration, they're worrying about the wrong end of the telescope and are about to discover some quite uncomfortable facts, i am afraid. all right. everton asks, does not the past closures of many accident and emergency departments and beds over the years not have an impact,

trying to treat more patients with less money, what would you say about the closure of departments?” less money, what would you say about the closure of departments? i would have to argue it is notjust simply about quantity, it is also about quality. if we are having difficulty staffing the current number of a&e units we have then i don't see that being solved by opening more a&e units. we need to focus on being able to provide an effective and efficient healthcare service for patients wherever they go. we don't necessarily need more beds which we are unable to staff safely and therefore not able to provide a good high quality standard of care for our patients, that's the bottom line. a&e has been very much in the news this week. is it sometimes the wrong people going to a&e, that's been referred to by the government and the health secretary, sometimes people who shouldn't be at a&e are there? we are plagued here by simplistic explanations of complex problems. the minor patients who go

to a&e are perhaps putting some pressure on it but on the whole they're not the people who we are seeing the stories about long waits. these are the complex patients who need very skilled inpatient care and they're waiting often because we can't discharge people at the other end. we need to change the way that general practice works so it can give more appointments on the day people want it, not necessarily late at night or early in the morning, but being able to say there is an appointment this afternoon, not in three weeks' time. you need to get the back door sorted out, i think to some extent the problems in a&e — we have vast numbers of silos... be careful you are sitting next to a specialist! well, a specialist which has been less prone to that phenomenon, in fact, but the thing on the beds is interesting, we have been closing beds consistently over

the years. the rate has slowed a bit. it goes down one or 2% every year. we are pushing more patients through a smaller resource. it is not — it's like a motorway, if you double the amount of traffic going through by making it run at three times the speed it used to, don't be surprised if from time to time it gets chaotic with pile—ups and people come and close some of the exits from time to time, which is quite a right analogy for what's been happening. you are long experienced in the health service, jeremy hunt was saying there was no silver bullet, but do you think there is something you would say in a nutshell that would improve the nhs or getting it out of the malaise right now, is it more money, what is it? no, as with anything, ithink right now, is it more money, what is it? no, as with anything, i think we need a multipronged approach. yes,

money is always helpful but we need to look at where the finances are going and we need to look at the efficiency within the service. we need to make sure that money is getting to our patients and that's where the problem actually lies, looking at the system as a whole and really drawing down into detail. i think that will be the solution that we need to pursue in more detail. we started off talking about obesity. you can't stop an ageing population but i suppose there are measures the government can take to stop obesity? health promotion, good education and dare i say it, a tax on sugar, potentially, maybe worthwhile looking at certainly. all right. we will leave it there. thank you so much for coming in and talking to us. and exploring in detail there the problems of the nhs and answers viewers' questions. ina

if europe closed the day. first the headlines. the defence secretary has announced that the iraq historic allegations team will close as early as this summer. it follows a scathing report by an influential group of mps. record waiting times in a&e as the health secretary concedes the nhs in england is facing completely unacceptable problems. see you in court, the message from president trump as a federal appeals court blocks the attempts to reinstall his travel ban. as britain prepares to leave the european union, there are a range of voices influencing the debate. a key part of the referendum campaign focussed on the voice of businesses. the bbc‘s business team has been focussing on various sectors to see how they are reacting. today, we are looking into the fishing industry. let's join vishala sri—pathma who is in grimsby. that's right, i am here in grimsby

one of the largest ports for fishing in the country. there are about ten fishing trawlers here. historically the town's been reliant on the industry. there are green shoots of new businesses popping up. joining me now is joe new businesses popping up. joining me now isjoe who runs a mystery murder games business here in grimsby. why do you think most of the wards here voted for brexit?” don't think they voted for brexit for any immigration issues, i think it was purely was they wanted a change in the current government and this was the quickest way of getting a change, people wanted a change, they're not a change, people wanted a change, they‘ re not happy a change, people wanted a change, they're not happy with the way things are, it's not necessarily about the fish. they wanted a change and brexit offered that change the fastest. what industries here are there for people? there has been a

huge change, we always had a lot of import export in grimsby, that's still the case. there is a lot of stuff coming through here. up on the docks there is a silo full of orange juice from south america, so a lot of stuff we use and buy in local shops comes in through grimsby docks every day. in terms of a trade deal post—brexit what kind of assurances would businesses like you want from the government in terms of what would help you and grimsby as a town? the biggest assurance we have is the import export remains as it is the import export remains as it is at the moment for glims grimsby, it's easy to do, they make it, just an easy process for us, there is a lot of things that could change potentially with brexit and vat being one of the main things. i was down chatting to my accountant, vat isa down chatting to my accountant, vat is a european thing, if vat is gone what does that mean for import and export. how easy will it be to sell

in other markets. there is accountancy and tax wise that could change a lot with brexit. we want to know that everything will be facilitated and as easy as possible to maintain that momentum. we hear about the drop in the pound and has made exports more attractive, have you found that? yeah, we have been working on exports with the department for the last couple of yea rs, department for the last couple of yea rs , we department for the last couple of yea rs, we have department for the last couple of years, we have seen department for the last couple of years, we have seen about 50% growth in export, especially to the us and australia and new zealand. we are certainly doing a lot more of exports. the pound being less money everything in america gives us more pounds for the dlas, so that's been good. but on the downside everything we import has gone up. paper, ink, all the things that are the main stay of the manufacturing companies, all the things we buy in to manufacture with have gone up in price. it's that balancing act between how much can you sell and

importand between how much can you sell and import and that's complicated and difficult. thank you very much. that brings an end to our business coverage here in grimsby, which is just as well because i can see a large dark cloud coming towards us. back to the studio. take cover! that's the weather in grimsby. we have already had the forecast. let's get the rest of the country's forecast. it's famous for great fish and chips, you would need to get some fish and chips in grimsby today, it's bitter out there. that wind coming straight in off the north sea and it's brought showers. this was yorkshire a few hours ago with snow lying on the ground. that's what we have seen in terms of the showers. not too many but they've brought a dusting of rain, sleet and snow with them as they moved in off the north sea. this will be the story into the weekend, plenty of showers spilling in off the north sea. plenty of them through the night tonight and they

will be of snow overnight as temperatures fall away. so again a chance of waking up to a dusting, maybe as much as three to five centimetres on higher ground. through scotland and northern ireland a frost under clearer skies and temperatures falling below freezing. a chilly start for all of us. a lot of cloud around. maybe the far west across cornwall and parts of pembrokeshire might see some glimpses of brighter, sunnier spells but it's not going to be very warm. the showers rolling in off the north sea, snow to start with and then turning to rain through the day. northern ireland, scotland starting off cold and frosty but you will have the sunshine and keep some brighter sunnier spots through the afternoon, as well. a frequent rash of showers continuing and underneath the cloud and rain, sleet and snow it's going to feel grim. further west slightly brighter but one or two isolated showers.

out of saturday night we could see more snow, particularly across the pennines and down to the peak district. again it turns back to rain on the coastline. the winds will strengthen. plenty of cloud the further west you are and again another pretty cold day. if you are out and about on the touchline watching the kids or even participating you will need extra layers, i suspect. there are signs of things getting just that little bit warmer as we move monday into tuesday but more importantly we will see some sunshine, as well. that milderair is see some sunshine, as well. that milder air is set to continue to be the theme through the latter stages of next week, we may even see double digits. that's the forecast. i have a weekend of decorating planned, so iam a weekend of decorating planned, so i am pleased with this miserable bit of weather that i am forecasting. see you in half an hour. today at five: the investigation into the alleged abuse of iraqi civilians by british soldiers is to be closed within months. the announcement by the defence

secretary, in the last hour, came after a report by mps branded the £60 million investigation an "unmitigated failure". this will be a huge relief to hundreds of british troops who have had these quite unfair allegations hanging over them. they're now being freed of that. mps accused the iraq historic allegations team of using intimidation to bring spurious cases against war veterans. we'll have the latest, and we'll be talking to the mpjohnny mercer, who led the investigation into the iraq historic allegations inquiry. the other main stories on bbc news at five: the health secretaryjeremy hunt concedes that the problems facing the nhs are completely unacceptable, but there was a plan