this is bbc news, i'm simon mccoy, the headlines at four. the government braces itself for a another possible defeat over the brexit bill in the house of lords. extra funding for schools in england. tomorrow's budget will set aside more than £300 million for school places, which could mean new grammars. former football coach barry bennell is charged with eight further counts of child sex abuse, alleged to have been carried out during the 1980s. charities condemn facebook after a bbc investigation found the social network failed to remove sexualised images of children. cctv footage from australia shows a british backpackerjust before she was rescued by police after allegedly being held captive for more than two months. in the next hour, a coroner concludes that george michael died of natural causes. the singer, who was found dead at his home on christmas day, died from heart and liver disease. and also this hour, canine karaoke,

meet jake the terrier who chases seagulls by day and sings sea shanties by night. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. £320 million will be set aside in tomorrow's budget for new school places in england. the money will help meet the costs of setting up more than 100 schools, some of which could be grammars. labour says the government is failing to address the current funding pressures faced by schools. but theresa may insists it's part of her plan to make a good education accessible to every child. well, of course we have protected the core schools budget. but, crucially, what we're announcing is £500 million of investment in schools, £320 million of which will be new schools. that will create around 70,000 new school places. what this is about is ensuring that

people can know that their child will have a good school place, and all the opportunities that that provides for them. well, what do head teachers make of the plans? john tomsett is the head teacher of huntington secondary school in york, which has around 1,500 pupils. he says he welcomes more investment in education, but it needs to be done in the right way. at the moment, the biggest pressure, the thing that the government really has to focus on is attracting high—quality people to the profession. because as secondary numbers grow, and you can see that bulge coming through from primary school in the growth of numbers, we can have new schools, but if we haven't got great teachers in those schools, then we've got a real problem. and you can go back to the grammar school thing — my worry is that if you are wanting to improve education for every student in an area, in a community, then actually when you look at places where they have grammar schools, overall, the students do worse.

if you look at kent, for instance, the students do worse overall in areas where they have grammar schools, and there's really good data to show that. so my concern would be that there is no really good evidence that grammar schools improve the lot of all the students in the area where they exist. 0ur education correspondent gillian hargreaves explained the significance of the extra spending. it sounds a lot of money to you and me, but in government expenditure a very small amount. i tweeted earlier, how many grammar schools could you get out of £320 million? nobody has responded yet, but i am sure somebody will have an answer! what i think is important about this is that it is all about theresa may as prime minister setting out her stall, saying, as a conservative government, we will be in favour of selection. there will be grammar schools in some parts of the country, but critically, for the least well—off children,

they will get a chance if they are academically able to move up the ladder, in a case that she has argues has not gone on in the past. the government says 140 new schools, but the focus tomorrow is on what theresa may in the telegraph described this morning as a new meritocracy in education. yes, herfeeling is that a grammar school in some of the most deprived areas of the country may act as a real opportunity for children with ability to move on. now, she has said, and so has the education secretary, that it would be a mixed bag so that parents can choose. she's very clear that it is all about choice. but 320 million does not go very far, and the old adage in the conservative party of a grammar school in every town in england, i don't think that is going to happen with £320 million. and labour would point out it is £3 billion behind.

yes, this is all in the context of massive savings in england's schools. the nao said there would be savings of £3 billion in english schools up to 2020. they say head teachers, if they are careful, can do that with things like wise procurement, but unions are saying that when teachers are leaving, they are not being replaced, class sizes are getting bigger, so £320 million is eye—catching, but that is in the context of billions of pounds of cuts that are taking place in schools. gillian hargreaves there, we will be talking to a conservative mp about that story later in the hour. facebook has been strongly criticised after a bbc investigation found it is still failing to remove inappropriate and sexualised images of children. after a series of sexually suggestive pictures and comments were reported to the social networking site, more than 80% of them still remained online.

the nspcc described facebook‘s response as "appalling". facebook says it takes the matter extremely seriously and is continuing to improve its system of removing such content. 0ur correspondent angus crawford reports. the rules are simple. facebook says it removes nudity or sexually suggestive content. but our investigation last year found paedophiles using secret groups to swap obscene images of children. we informed the police, and this man was sent to prison forfour years. facebook told us it had improved its systems, so we put that to the test. but we still found sexualised pictures of children and obscene comments from men. in every single one of these images, there is a real child who is out there today at school probably, and they don't know that the image is being used in this way, and every time it is used

and clicked on by a paedophile, that child is re—victimised. we reported 100 posts that we felt broke facebook‘s own guidelines. only 18 were taken down. 82 images stayed up. they didn't breach "facebook‘s community standards". i find it very disturbing. i find that content unacceptable. i'm concerned that that's been brought to facebook‘s attention, and some of those images have not been dealt with and addressed. and this report, this investigation, it casts grave doubt on the effectiveness of the measures that facebook has in place. 0ne former insider says moderation is a huge task. i think the biggest challenge is one of scale. no—one has policed a site as large as facebook. 1.8 billion people use facebook every month, meaning the company is effectively running the largest police force the world has seen.

facebook asked us to send them examples of what we had reported, so we did. the company then reported us to the police. facebook issued a statement saying... so where does this leave concerned parents? it sends a message that you can't trust facebook‘s methods. parents have told us they tried to raise an issue and got nowhere. it will reinforce their experience. even now groups with inappropriate images and comments about children remain on facebook. questions about how the company moderates content won't go away.

former football coach barry bennell has been charged with eight further counts of child sexual abuse following an investigation by cheshire police. the 63—year—old is due to appear at south cheshire magistrates' court via video—link on march 13th to face the charges, which relate to two victims. the abuse is alleged to have taken place between 1980 and 1987. a coroner has confirmed that the singer george michael died of natural causes. the 53—year—old was found dead at his home on christmas day. 0ur arts correspondent david sillito gave us this update earlier. there have been tests, repeated tests. today, a statement by darren salter saying that george michael died of natural causes from dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver. in essence, heart disease.

myocarditis is well—known as a heart disease that can affect young people, people who seem otherwise healthy, it can lead to sudden death, sometimes of athletes, it has been linked there. so heart disease rather than the many other things that have been speculated about over the last two months or so since he was found dead at his home in goring—on—thames. and given that speculation, as far as police and other authorities are concerned, that is it now? they say there will be no further updates, no inquest. it is natural causes. this is the end of the matter. george michael can finally have his funeral. do we know when that might be? not at the moment, the statement was just made this morning. scotland's deputy first minister has announced legislation that dunne

pointing named person for every child in scotland will be delayed by a year to allow a new bill to be introduced. lastjuly the supreme court in edinburgh ruled that some elements of the original proposals breached a young person's right to privacy and human rights law. lorna gordon can tell us more, there has been so much debate about this proposed system, the named person system, explain what this means, then. it has been a very divisive proposal, to have this keen for every child in scotland up to the age of 18. what the legislation proposed is that every child, from the day they were born up to 18, would have a single point of contact, be that a teacher, health visitor, who would look out for their welfare. the proposals were supported by several major charities, working in the field, but opponents said it was a big piece of legislation that invaded a family's

right to privacy. last year, the supreme court ruled on the legislation, saying that while the aim of the legislation was legitimate, there were concerns about how information about an individual child might be shared. now, john swinney, the deputy first minister and education secretary, just in the last hour or so, has been giving a statement to parliament in edinburgh. he said he has consulted widely, he is proposing delaying the introduction of the legislation by a year to address those concerns, and he says that the changes he is proposing will improve the law while respecting the rights of the child it is trying to protect. in essence, he is saying that only in exceptional circumstances will consent be breached, people will have to give permission, families will have to give permission for information to be shared, and only in exceptional circumstances where there are concerns over the safety ofa there are concerns over the safety of a child, williams asian be shared

without consent. it has been a very controversial piece of legislation, opponents and critics have been giving their views on the changes that he is proposing, the conservative star saying that the scheme should be scrapped, labour are saying that it is doing nothing to rebuild trust in the scheme. john swinney says he has consulted widely and it changes he has proposed, he believes, will address the concerns raised by the supreme court. lorna gordon with the latest, thank you. the headlines on bbc news: the government prepares for another possible defeat over the brexit bill in the house of lords. the councillor will pledge millions of pounds for new school places in england in the budget tomorrow, money that could be used to create new drama schools. former football coach barry bennell is charged with a further eight counts of historical sex abuse. zlatan ibrahimovic has accepted

a three—match ban for violent conduct following an incident with tyrone mings during saturday's1—1 draw at old trafford. the bbc understands leicester city will offer craig shakespeare the manager'sjob until the end of the season. leicester have won both matches since he was named interim manager after claudio ranieri's sacking. and kevin pietersen has signed for surrey to play in the t20 blast, he will play against essex at the oval on july the 19th. i will be back with more on those stories just after half past. a woman from liverpool has been rescued by police in australia after allegedly being held against her will for more than two months. a 22—year—old man from queensland has been charged with several counts of rape and assault. police say they made the arrest when a car being driven by the woman was stopped for a routine check. 0ur correspondent hywel griffith sent this report. moments before her ordeal would end,

this footage shows the woman at the petrol station with a bruised face. she left without paying for her fuel. when the police pulled her over, they could tell something was wrong. she said for weeks she had been violently abused. the police say they found the man hiding in the boot. the pair met at a party in cairns, the violence started onjanuary 2nd. they travelled along the coast before finally being stopped in the outback town of mitchell on march 5th, far from the usual backpacker routes. a lot of the areas where she would have been would have been unknown to her, and she wouldn't have known anyone there. it would have been difficult to make an escape and then to try and link up with people.

from the information we have been provided, she had limited opportunity to do that. 0fficers believe her passport was destroyed. the man has been charged with rape, assault and denial of liberty. in a state which hosts hundreds of thousands of backpackers, the case has caused real distress. you have to be careful, especially in the outback, no signal on your phone, you don't know where the next petrol station will be. the woman is receiving hospital treatment. she has spoken to her family but may need to remain here to give more evidence so the police can piece together what she went through. french officials have confirmed that nobody was killed or seriously injured by an avalanche that struck the alpine ski resort of tignes this morning. initial reports had said

that many people were missing and quoted police as saying the avalanche buried several skiers. bad weather had hampered the rescue operation. iraqi forces say they have seized the main government building in the city centre and other key sites in mosul in a surprise attack on islamic state militants. the latest advance could pave the way for iraqi forces to launch an assault on the densely populated old city, where it's believed several thousand militants are among the remaining civilian population. richard galpin reports. backed by us air power, iraqi troops have fought their way into the heart of western mosul. elite troops spearheading the advance which began over night. apparently catching fighters of islamic state by surprise. it's a symbolic move,

recapturing the government complex, and a branch of the central bank. mosul, iraq's second city, has been in the hands of islamic state for almost three years. but after government forces recaptured the eastern part of the city in january, they have have been advancing into this, the western half. the key objective now — the old city, where is fighters are still holding out. in the intense fighting, government forces have also recaptured other symbolic buildings in the west, including the archaeological museum. two years ago, is militants filmed themselves destroying priceless act facts from ancient civilisation, and they're believed to have stolen

smaller pieces to help finance them. with the iraqi security forces now apparently making significant gains in western mosul, the prime minister, haider al—abadi, came to visit the troops. he must now be hopeful that islamic state's grip on mosul is nearly at an end. so now those iraqi forces must push into the old city. the fighting there could be very difficult — the streets are particularly narrow. but they're not on their own. these are american troops on the ground, just 500 metres from the front line. and it is possible that with so much fire power soon to be concentrated on the old city, some islamic state fighters may try to escape. the energy giant e.on says

it will increase prices for gas and electricity customers by an average of 8.8% from next month. households who only use electricity will see a rise of 13.8% on average from the 26th april. e.on says it's the first such rise in three years and blamed the hike on government social and environmental schemes. they might not have the best of reputations, but could pigeons help us to understand air pollution? researchers at the university of birmingham have created specialised meteorological sensors for the birds who, unlike drones, can fly unrestricted in city skies. as part of our series on tackling air pollution, called so i can breathe, our correspondent graham satchell reports on their research.

can pigeons help us in the battle against air pollution? it sounds far—fetched, but academics at birmingham university are convinced it can. everybody i brought into it, they at first give me the look that maybe you're giving me. it's sort of, "is this for real? is this actually going to work?" we have a superfast temperature sensor... climate scientist rick thomas will attach these tiny sensor packs to the backs of pigeons. if we know the temperatures above the rooftops, we can test the models of urban pollution. time for the test flight. fitting the sensors is a delicate operation. hello, my little friend. they are tiny, just 5% of the pigeon's weight, to protect the welfare of the birds. 0ne pigeon has a tiny camera fitted to record the flight. much is resting on the next few minutes. i feel nervous. this is the first time we've done this. it's the culmination of many months of work to get to this stage. i think they'lljust take off and find their way home. i'll cross my fingers for that. it's the moment of truth.

they look happy enough. they look like pigeons flying to me. did they to you? they will flyjust over a mile. this is the disorienting view from the pigeon—cam. what is it scientists are trying to discover? they already know that nitrous oxide, the pollution that comes out of diesel engines, rises with the heat coming from roads to rooftop level. but what happens to the pollution next? where does it go? to model it, they need accurate data in this microclimate. but how do you get the data? ithought, well, birds, they fly everywhere. they could carry our sensors if they could be tiny and accurate enough. we could start to understand the dispersion of air pollution around the city. just six minutes after taking off, the pigeons are back. 0h, brilliant.

there is an anxious wait as the sensor is retrieved. the light is still flashing. that's a good sign. this is what the data shows — the routes taken by the pigeons and, crucially, the temperature above the rooftops. it will show how it changes across big cities. rick says it will be used by planners to see where we should build hospitals and schools. it could give much more accurate street—by—street air pollution forecasts. i call him number 80. it is not a particularly heroic name, but, pigeon number 80, we salute you and your contribution to the fight against air pollution. the government is facing the prospect of another defeat in the house of lords, perhaps in the next

hour, all about the process of leaving the european union. let's ta ke leaving the european union. let's take a look at the scene, the debate very much continuing there, but the vote might come in the next hour or so. lord lawson talking in the lords, all about an amendment to the brexit bill, which calls for parliament to be given a meaningful vote or —— on any final deal. lord lawson, the former chancellor of the exchequer. we can't talk to vicki young, what is the tone of the debate, would you say? actually, it has been pretty heated for the hours of laws, we have heard from lord lawson there, other former cabinet ministers. —— the house of lords. all taking a keen interest in this, and it is all about who signs off theresa may's final deal. she has promised parliament that they will get a vote at the end of this. the

question is, when will it come? this is what lord heseltine had to say about it. everyone in this house knows that we now face the most momentous peacetime decision of our time. and this amendment, as the noble lord has so clearly set out, secures in law the government's commitment, already made to another place, to ensure that parliament is the ultimate custodian of our national sovereignty. it ensures that parliament has the critical role in determining the future that we will bequeath to generations of young people. and i urge your lordships to support the amendment. but there are others who say this is just an underhand wheeze, really, to try and reverse the referendum result. they say that they would be tying ministers' hands as they go

into the negotiations, that their authority would be undermined if the eu negotiators on the other side of the fence really felt that, actually, in the end, parliament would reject it. this is what anotherformer would reject it. this is what another former conservative minister had to say. i appreciate that i am a minority in this house, notjust because i am a scottish tory, but because i am a scottish tory, but because i am a scottish tory, but because i support the views of the majority of people in this country. this house is absolutely full of people who still haven't come to terms with the results of the referendum, and this is a clever lawyer's confection in order to reverse the assaults of the referendum. that is what we are debating, that is what this is about. ministers are keeping a close eye on all of this, prime minister theresa may went into the house of lords chamber last week to listen to what they were into, i havejust seen david davis and liam fox heading down around the house of lords, so watching very closely,

because at the end of this it goes back to the house of commons, and we will have to see there what conservative remain mps feel about it, and whether they are willing to go along with the changes the house of lords have made. interesting, more from you shortly potentially, thanks for now, vicki young, keeping an eye on that. 0nce thanks for now, vicki young, keeping an eye on that. once there is a vote we will be back, of course. you are watching bbc news. when is the last time you took part in karaoke, and have you ever had to compete against a dog? well, have a listen to this. howling that is jake, a border and irish

terrier cross, and locals at the pub in carnoustie have got used to him singing on his night out. so it is a particular pleasure to be joined by carl nielsen and, of course, jake! and he is wearing his life jacket, which you had better explain, he has a dayjob, doesn't he? which you had better explain, he has a day job, doesn't he? he does, he works at the harbour with me, catching seagulls sniffing out rats, just basically a morale booster around the harbour. and can he sniff out a rat with a song, then? does that bring them out? he is not exactly the pied piper! he sniffs out rats, and we find problems with pests, we call out pest control. so we does thatjob very well, to be honest. and when he gets come, off comes the life jacket and we see another side of jake. absolutely,

like anyone, when you hang your work clothes up, you can relax, and he is the same. as soon as he put the life jacket on, it is work mode. when he ta kes jacket on, it is work mode. when he takes it off, he enjoys himself. how long has he been taking part in the karaoke? 0h, a couple of years now. hejust karaoke? 0h, a couple of years now. he just loves karaoke? 0h, a couple of years now. hejust loves singing, karaoke? 0h, a couple of years now. he just loves singing, you karaoke? 0h, a couple of years now. hejust loves singing, you lose being the centre of a turgid. —— he loves being the centre of attention. does he have favourite artists? he loves pink floyd, he loves the guitar solos on pink floyd. the best bit of the video is that there is another dog who seems in love with him, who isjust watching him. yes, thatis him, who isjust watching him. yes, that is molly, she is besotted with him. it has got his life jacket on, soi him. it has got his life jacket on, so i don't know how lucky we are

going to be, is he in singing mood now? if you want to do it, you can do it. you havejust got to now? if you want to do it, you can do it. you have just got to say cheese, you have got to sing it like a choir boy. # she's... # howling there you go! so does he do duets? no, you have got to go cheese. a bit more schoolboy choirboy! cheese! # cheeeese! # howling go on, you say it! cheese.

well done! laughter. we could go on, but there are people watching so probably best not. thank you very much and jake, of course, the first dog that's done something we wanted wanted it to do while on air! he likes the beach boys. all those yea rs of he likes the beach boys. all those years of journalistic he likes the beach boys. all those years ofjournalistic training...m has been so worth it! well at least you got him to sing. someone else singing for their supper is nick miller. where has he gone? he is not there! oh, there he is.

laughter it just gets better or itjust gets better or worse... do you want me to sing it. i could do with a pint right now.|j you want me to sing it. i could do with a pint right now. i will see you ina with a pint right now. i will see you in a minute! it's on you! a lovely end to the afternoon across central and eastern parts of the uk, but in the west we've got the cloud and some of us have the rain and this evening this rain will be heavy as it pushes its way eastwards across the uk overnight. tops of the hills, northern england and scotland will get snow. the temperatures up and down overnight. it is milder thanit and down overnight. it is milder than it was last night. it takes us on tomorrow morning. a really windy start and day in northern scotland. gales, plenty of showers here. central belt, southern scotland and northern ireland, northern england mostly dry and north wales, north midlands. to the south, we have cloud and rain. it is not going to be raining all the time and it is going to feel a bit milder, but in

some sunshine it will make for another pleasant day and across northern ireland and northern england. there will be sunshine for many of us on thursday. it stays mild and friday too. but by friday, more cloud. that's it. hello. this is bbc news with simon mccoy and jane hill. the headlines at a.33pm: members of the house of lords are preparing to vote on the brexit bill again. the government could face another defeat tonight, on an amendment which calls for a more "meaningful" vote in parliament, on the final eu exit deal. an extra £320 million for new school places in england will be confirmed in tomorrow's budget. the money will go towards the government's existing free school programme, and could be used to support new grammar schools. former professional football coach barry bennell has been charged with eight further counts of non—recent child sexual abuse, following an investigation by cheshire police.

a backpackerfrom liverpool has been rescued by police in australia after she was allegedly held hostage for more than two months. a 22—year—old man has been charged with several counts of rape and assault. a coroner has confirmed the singer george michael died of natural causes. the final post—mortem examination found he died as a result of heart disease and a fatty liver. we are going to have the sports news, but we will bring you one more story before that. the cia in the united states has refused to comment on thousands of documents released by the wikileaks website, purportedly from the agency's cyber—intelligence operations. a cia spokesperson wouldn't say whether the documents were authentic or discuss their contents. experts who have begun examining the papers say their first with me is our security correspondent gordon corera. before we go into what's in them.

how have they been released what do you think we think they are? now, this is what wikileaks say is a group that's involved in hacking into electrical devices. these are technical documents to get into devices like an apple iphone and android and even in one case a samsung smart tv with the claims that mis samsung smart tv with the claims that m15 was involved with the cia in hacking no the smart tvs. the claim is they could make it look like the tv was off when it was still on and because it was internet connected collect audio from the room and send it back. some advanced spy room and send it back. some advanced spy techniques which were developed by the cia and used for their intelligence gathering operations around the world. apparently,

disclosed to the world by the wicky leeks website as it has done in the past. but why now? well, they say they received the documents relatively recently. that they were circulating amongst former us government hackers and contractors and that one of those passed them to wikileaks and that one of those passed them to wikilea ks and they and that one of those passed them to wikileaks and they processed them and then put them up on their website now. the cia won't comment on it. they look realfrom website now. the cia won't comment on it. they look real from first sight and they look plausible. the nsa went through a hugely embarrassing and damaging situation with edward snowden's leaks. these are about its sister agency, the cia, and are likely to be pretty embarrassing for the cia to say why can't it keep some of its most sensitive secrets about its technical methods. anybody with a smart tv, technically, what it says is, they could listen in? possibly. it is worth saying, it is never that

simple. it is a certain type of tv. evenif simple. it is a certain type of tv. even if you read the document, it implies that once it gets updated thenit implies that once it gets updated then it won't work as well and they are struggling with dealing with the technical aspects. it is the kind of thing that spy agencies try and do. ina way thing that spy agencies try and do. in a way we should expect them to try and do these things because theirjob is to collect intelligence, the question is have they gone too far, did they balance and this is the really important question, securing these devices with exploiting them ? question, securing these devices with exploiting them? there is the question for intelligence agencies if you see a vulnerability in a phone, ina if you see a vulnerability in a phone, in a tv, which you could exploit to hack into it, should you tell the company so that they can close it or do you not tell the company so you can exploit it and use it to spy? this is a real tension for intelligence agencies. should they be providing details to the companies to make their products more secure or should they not tell them and exploit the vulnerabilities to spy and there is a debate about

whether they've gone too far one way or the way in exploiting the vulnerabilities and some may say this questions whether they should be doing for to secure consumer products rather than spy on them. they might argue theyjust can't win. gordon, thank you. we are going to catch up with the sports news. here is jj. zlatan ibrahimovic has accepted a three—match ban for violent conduct for elbowing bournemouth‘s tyrone mings. the incident took place during saturday's1—1 draw at old trafford between the sides. it means ibrahimovic will miss monday's fa cup quarter—final at chelsea and premier league games against middlesbrough and west brom. mings has also been charged with violent conduct by the fa, but bournemouth have said they will appeal the charge. bbc sport understands leicester city will offer craig shakespeare the manager's job until the end of the season. leicester have won both matches since shakespeare was named interim manager after claudio ranieri's sacking. ranieri guided leicester to the premier league title last season, but the club has managed

only five league wins under the italian this campaign. arsenal will need to make champions league history tonight and become the first club to overhaul a four—goal first—leg deficit when they line up against bayern munich at the emirates. we may be seeing a different side to arsene wenger. he's asked for a "lucid rage" from his players. the players are ready to fight, but it is always a mixture of a little bit success or a little bit belief, you know, that drops a little bit. i think we live in a world of small margins and if you drop off a little bit, you don't believe side. on the confidence front it looks like you don't want to fight. but these players want to do well. they want to win. england's women face germany in their final game of the she believes cup tonight.

they could win the tournament if results this evening go their way. mark sampson's lionesses go into the game on the back of a 1—0 win over world champions usa at the weekend. ellen white with the goal. a tough game. all three games are tough. all three games are ranked higher than us in the world rankings. the germans we've beaten them once ever and that was the world cup which wasn't too long ago, but we've had tight results against them since and i think it will be another good test, but i think we can beat them. england will look to complete a 3—0 series whitewash when they face the west indies in the final one day international of their tour on thursday. england are being coached by assistant paul farbrace in the absence of trevor bayliss, and he knows how important it is to sign off the series with a victory. it is about getting over the line and winning those game and taking confidence. i think that's one of the big things about this team. winning series is what breeds confidence. they are a tight—knit

group. they enjoy each other‘s company and they want to win, but there is a lot of competition for places in the team and that's a really good thing. 0llie foster have will have more throughout the evening. more now on the news that £320 million will be set aside in tomorrow's budget for new school places in england. the money will help meet the costs of setting up more than a 100 schools — some of which could be grammars. labour criticised the move for failing to address funding pressures faced by all schools. theresa may insists it is part of her plan to make a good education accessible to every child. well, of course, we have protected the core schools budget. but, crucially, what we're announcing is £500 million of investment in schools, £320 million of which will be new schools. that will create around 70,000 new school places. what this is about is ensuring that people can know that their child will have a good school place,

and all the opportunities that that provides for them. joining me now from our westminster studio is valentine mulholland, head of policy at the national association of head teachers. good afternoon. is more money for schools always a good thing? more money for schools is always a good thing. but this is a bitter sweet announcement when we know that schools are this crisis in relation to their revenue funding. we wrote to their revenue funding. we wrote to their revenue funding. we wrote to the chancellor on monday saying that he has got to intervene. he has got to make more funding available to run the schools that already exist and instead we're getting a commitment to the government's pet project of extending selective education through grammar schools and we know that there are some real issues with that. the evidence points to the fact that's going to be favouring certain children, but not disadvantaged children. we do need the school places, but it is

quite a difficult announcement when what we need is revenue funding as well. well, you will have heard the prime minister say her aim is absolutely that every child, no matter where they live, should have access to excellent education. she would argue that is what is driving this? so, if we look at the grammar schools plan. currently in grammar schools, 2.5% of children are onry stool meals compared to 14%. we know most children who pass the 11—plus do that with the help of a lot of tutoring. tutoring is out of reach of many parents and selective education is not what it was in the 70s and 80s when people look back on opportunities for all. it is very difficult and we surveyed our members earlier this year when the government first proposed the idea of extending the current grammar schools and the view, 80% of school leaders felt it was not a good idea and also felt that you cannot assess

and also felt that you cannot assess a child at 11 for their future educational attainment. so, there is nothing in it for you about aspiration at all? are you arguing any aspiration at all? are you arguing a ny extra aspiration at all? are you arguing any extra money pure and simple needs to go to existing schools? well, we need both i am afraid. i wa nt well, we need both i am afraid. i want everything. we do need another 470,000 school places. my concern about the free schools programme which is the only programme to open a new school is the national audit 0ffice confirmed last week that whilst most places are going where they're needed, in some cases schools are being built in areas where they will take children out of existing schools. we have got a shortage in school places and that's got to be addressed by a needs based development of new schools rather than schools that are being driven by ideology. thank you very much for now. we will talk to neil carmichael. he is chair of the

education select committee. good afternoon to you. hello there. great to be here. i'm sure you've heard this argument before, but i hope you could hear the guest from the naht, the emphasis should be on existing schools, that's where there are shortfalls concernly? well, i think, valentine made the point that we need more school places, we've got nine million children going to school now, but soon there will be ten million so we've got to have that extra provision. the question, i think, is really about what kind of schools that we have and the free school argument is certainly one we need to discuss. and i think the idea that all of these schools, the grammar schools might be ambitious andi grammar schools might be ambitious and i think that it is probably necessary for us to think exactly how those schools will be created. did you accept some of her points that a did you accept some of her points thata grammar did you accept some of her points that a grammar school is not as socially beneficial as its exponents might believe when you look at the issue around free school meals and

those sort of indicators? well, we have done that as a select committee. we have looked at the figures and we have said that less than 3% of children going to a grammar school will actually be of free school meal recipient so valentine is right about that. some grammar schools, one in my constituency for example, is looking at other ways of make selections, but as the minister actually told our committee, the perfect test is a holy grail and holy grails as we all know from crocodile dundee are hard it find! so we've got to make sure that we have a much more fluid system and i think that it is that we need to emphasise so when the green paper turns into some legislation, what i'd want to see is more legislation, what i'd want to see is m o re a ccess legislation, what i'd want to see is more access at different levels. more more access at different levels. m o re a ccess more access at different levels. more access at different levels. 0k, because the prime minister keeps coming back to her point that she wa nts coming back to her point that she wants every child, no matter where they live, to have access to an excellent education. shouldn't

education always been about that? absolutely. since 2010, there is 1.8 million more children going to a good or outstanding school which is fantastic. what we need to be able to say that all children can go to a good or outstanding school. and think that's the focus that we should have. ithink think that's the focus that we should have. i think the real issue is what do we need to do? what we need to do is improve the access to young people to skills training and so forth which is the kind of employment opportunities that so many will have and the economy desperately needs. ? well, we may hear something about training, let's see, tomorrow in the budget. the nao warned about an 8% real terms funding gap for schools up real terms funding gap for schools up to 2020. do you have concerns that an announcement with all the paraphernalia around it of an extra 320 million takes people eye offer

the ball are the real problems that the ball are the real problems that the nag the ball are the real problems that the nao is talking about? the ball are the real problems that the nag is talking about? we are talking about is capital and new schools. we need to address the question of revenue in our schools. the new national funding formula is starting to be understood quite clearly as a way forward. we're in a consultation period right now and tha nkfully consultation period right now and thankfully we are because there are some things about the proposals which need to be looked at and one of those things is i think we need to have a definite floor because there are some schools basically really worrying about whether they can carry on at the rate that they are at the moment. so we do need to discuss a floor and i think that would be a very good step in the right direction. all right, neil carmichael, thank you. chair of the education select committee. we may talk to you again after the budget. thank you very much. in a moment a look at how the financial markets in europe closed the day, but first the headlines on bbc news: the government prepares itself

for a another possible defeat over the brexit bill in the house of lords. the chancellor is to pledge millions of pounds for new school places in england in his budget tomorrow. the money could be used to create new grammar schools. former football coach barry bennell is charged with eight further counts of child sexual abuse, alleged to have been carried out during the 1980s. a look at how the markets in europe ended the trading session. well, here in london, the ftse100 has managed to keep its head above water for most of the day, but as we're heading into the close, it has dipped into the negative territory again. one of the biggest fallers on the market this morning was paddy power, bet fair. shares have been down 4.5% after it reported a statutory loss. well, shares that have been doing well are ones in

just eat. that's the food delivery website. shares were up 5% early this morning after it reported a 164% rise in pre—tax profits in 2016. the business is doing pretty well off the back of its foreign business which is becoming profitable for the first time. it had a rocky start to the year, but investors will be pleased with themselves themselves if they got in there at the beginning. now, the latest house price index by halifax shows that house prices rose 5.1% year—on—year in the three months to the end of february. the index also reveals that house prices are now increasing at around half the rate seen a year ago. so in march last year the annual house price growth stood at 10%. e.0n said it will increase its dualfuel 10%. e.0n said it will increase its dual fuel standard variable tariffs by 8.8%. electricity prices will rise by 13.8% and gas prices by

almost 4%. e.0n said that 2.5 million customers will be affected by the increases which comes into effect at the end of april. well, let's get more detailed analysis of those stories with an investment research analyst at the share centre. let's start with e.0n. they're saying prices are going up. they're saying prices are going up. they're blaming they're saying prices are going up. they‘ re blaming it they're saying prices are going up. they're blaming it on environmental and social costs because actually wholesale energy prices haven't gone up. is that quite plausible? also four of the bigger power providers, they haven't been able to delay prices, but british gas have. they have been able to fix it until august. why is that? well, this is a just a reflection of energy companies looking to maximise profit here. but you know, nearly 1496 increase in the price of electricity i think is slightly unjustified. it does seem a bit on the excessive side. the debt for business have said they are willing to act if needed, but i think this is just a

case of, you know, the uk consumer is just case of, you know, the uk consumer isjust going to case of, you know, the uk consumer is just going to be affected by rising costs in various forms. we have had sterling fall. we have got rising import inflation and we've got energy prices reflecting through to the end basket for the customer and there will be toe can yous on priorities such as utility bills such as discretionary spending and this is something that's going to have an i will pact as the year progresses the let's move on to house prices. halifax said there has been a slowdown in house price growth. where are we seeing that? is it regional and what's been causing it? well, we have seen a bit of a slowdown in the london market. the rest of the uk seems to be growing ata rest of the uk seems to be growing at a fairly good pace, but overall it has slowed down and what they're blaming it down to is the fact that affordability has become much more stretched now. so with house prices increasing by so much, but uk average, consumer income only rising

in the region of about 2 percent to 396. in the region of about 2 percent to 3%. it means they are getting stretched. so in terms of the affordability calculation it is not working out. they say they expect a further moderation going forward into the rest of the year. but it is worrying again because itjust suggests that again the uk consumer is being stretched. are we seeing any relation to brexit? there were talks before the vote happened in june brexit? there were talks before the vote happened injune that it would cause biggerfalls. do you think that's going to be triggered when article 50 is triggered? well, originally there was a lot of expectation that the housing market would collapse. it hadn't come through. the uk consumer was relatively buoyant, but what we are seeing is increasing data showing that the uk consumer is beginning to wane in terms of its spending. the last retail sales forjanuary and december were actually very poor and i think going forward, the consumers are becoming more wary of the costs,

costs are going to rise and brexit is going to impact on them. maybe some people are worried aboutjob security going forward. thank you very much forjoining us. well, that's it. a quick look at the markets before we go. the ftse in negative territory after spending most of the day in the green. it dipped in the last couple of hours. paddy bet power down 4.5% after it released its results. it released a loss for 2016. there is a round—up of our top business stories on our website. thank you very much. surgeons in thailand have performed emergency surgery on a turtle after they discovered it had eaten nearly a thousand coins. the operation on the sea turtle is thought to have been the first of its kind and could have saved its life. caroline davies reports. the next time you throw a coin into waterfor luck, take a look at who you might be throwing it at. this turtle was found floating strangely in her pond.

vets weren't sure what was wrong until they carried out a 3g scan and found this — a pile of old coins she had eaten sitting in her stomach. it was so large it wasn't only stopping her swimming properly but had caused the underside of her shell to crack. translation: this is a female turtle that weighs about 59kg and the coins all together weigh 5kg, which accounts for about 10% of her weight. the 25—year—old turtle had eaten a total of 915 coins in several currencies. vets worked for seven hours to remove each one. throwing money onto turtles is thought to bring long life in thailand. the chief surgeon said she was upset when they discovered what had caused the turtle's pain. translation: when i found out, i felt angry that humans, whether or not they meant to do it

or if they did it without thinking, had caused harm to this turtle. the turtle is now recovering in hospital. it's hoped she won't continue to live up to her nickname, 0msin, which in thai means "piggybank". it really has been an award winning hour. it has been the animal hour. we brought you jake and jane and simon singing and nick miller with all the weather. you can't beat it. i'm glad you're happy. in the next couple of days temperatures are heading up. widely into double figures. some spots into the mid—teens. not a huge amount of sunshine by the time we get to friday. let's look at some images from today. first a lovely sunny one

from today. first a lovely sunny one from scarborough on the north yorkshire coast, but in cornwall, you have plenty of cloud and some of us have seen light rain so far. there will be heavy rain across northern ireland and spilling its way eastwards across all parts overnight. a spell of rain for all of us. there will be some snow the higher you are in the hill of northern england and scotland. a lot of the rain will clear later in the night. it will be a milder night. still showers in northern scotla nd night. still showers in northern scotland and they will be around all day tomorrow. some will be heavy. they will be pushed along quickly on a strong to gale force westerly wind as well. elsewhere, in scotland, some good sunny spells, for northern ireland and northern england, a lovely day tomorrow. sunshine around from dawn until dusk. just a bit of patchy cloud. north wales and north

midlands should farewell. further south, east anglia and into the southern half of england, here we have got more cloud and outbreaks of rain during the day. it won't be raining all the time, but there will be pulses of energy working along the weather front here, so it will rainfora the weather front here, so it will rain for a bit. the weather front here, so it will rainfora bit. may the weather front here, so it will rain for a bit. may have a lull and we keep the cloud and we get more rain coming back. that sort of day. the wind arrows indicating the strongest winds across northern scotland, but you can see where the sunny areas, southern scotland and northern ireland, northern england and north wales and the north midlands and more of us into double figures. tomorrow evening, still outbreaks of rain affecting south wales and southern england. still the showers around in northern scotland. it looks similar as thursday begins, but the showers ease from northern scotland. most of the rain has gone on thursday from southern england, but down towards the south—west of england a bit of patchy rain occasionally, but many of us have a fine, dry day with sunny spells. 0n of us have a fine, dry day with sunny spells. on thursday, double temperatures. a similar feel for most of us on friday, but by then,

there will be more cloud around. the weekend looking unsettled with spells of rain or showers, but dry and brighter moments to. we'll keep you updated about the weekend over the next few days, of course. today at 5.00. theresa may faces another defeat by peers over her plans to exit the eu. peers are debating whether to give parliament what's described as a meaningful vote on any brexit deal, and the result a little later today is expected to be close. it is absolutely vital for this house and the other place to have a say. this house is absolutely full of people who still haven't come to terms with the results of the referendum. downing street insists the prime minister is still on track to trigger those brexit negotiations by the end of march. we'll have the very latest from westminster with that debate entering its final stages. the other main stories on bbc news at 5. tomorrow's budget will provide extra

money for new free schools in england, including grammars. but critics warn education funding is in deep crisis.