tax inspectors are warning that the elderly and vulnerable are being targeted in a scam involving itunes gift cards. the fraudsters — pretending to be from hm revenue and customs — encourage victims to pay the bill with the vouchers. now on bbc news... bbc parliament's programme looking back at the week in westminster. hello and welcome to the week in parliament. coming up, carillion‘s senior executives seem lost for words. and you are still all right? all of you, are you? the brexit debate gets a bit shouty. stand up to the man,

to the eu and get on with leaving! and 100 years after the first women get the vote, female mps are still suffering abuse. what this is about is about misogynists seeking to silence women who dare to speak out. but first, the chairman of the collapsed construction firm carillion has told mps how upset he is at the firm's demise. the company which provided services for schools, hospitals, and prisons went into liquidation last month. an array of senior executives gave a joint committee of mps their side of the story. but the chairs of those committees were not impressed, saying afterwards that the directors were "delusional characters" who "maintained that everything was hunky dory" until it all went suddenly and unforeseeably wrong. words cannot describe the depth of my despair. i am devastated. by the impact that the collapse has had and as i said, on the pensioners, on customers, on suppliers, on staff. we have had one session where

everyone is pointing figures, your main evidence so far is that you had these advisers, and ineffective pointed the finger at them, but what is your, what is your responsibility for the collapse ? full and complete. no question in my mind about that. full responsibility, no question, and if i look back, there are things i would do differently. i am asking whether you think it isjustified at a time when the share price of the company is falling quite substantially, whether it is right to increase the renumeration of the chief executive... it was right at the time because we wanted to retain the chief executive in that business, in a period when the sector was volatile.

do think that decision was right? i have thought a lot about many of the decisions that we would have made, and i think that decision was correct. all of you sitting here, with multi—million pounds of payment from the company over a period of years, and you say how sad and disappointed you are, but what actions do you take to show that? because it isjust words, is it not? it isjust words, i am saddened by i am disappointed, which i could do things differently, but the money is in the bank but it does not for the people who are retired or coming for retirement? all four of you have done rather well from the company, which you then in different ways helped to crash. does that not move you at all? i mean, why should we believe you, that you feel so sad about all of this? it does not extend to your chequebook.

i am genuinely shocked and saddened by the events. igenuinely am. and i am very happy to engage with the company and understand what. .. you do not have to wait for someone to have an engagement with you, it is part of your dna. is it not? it is, but i do need to understand what the position is, i do not know what the position is today. it is clear, is it not? as she said, pensioners are taking cuts people are not going to get paid for contrast, other people have lost theirjobs, you are still all right. all of you. are you not? carillion‘s executives, lost for words there. well, the next day it was

the turn of the government. the liaison committee which is made up of the chairs of all the other committees summoned the cabinet office minister. but he was being very cautious in his answers. this exchange was typical. one of the lessons from the financial crisis, was to have more tougher rules about being able to pull back bonuses, and when things go wrong at a business, do you think we should look again at the claw—back arrangements for bonuses so that we can get some of that money back? again, sitting here today, i am open—minded on that, but there have been serious allegations of misconduct by the board and former board members of them. those are being independently investigated by the receiver and it would be wrong for a minister to make any comment that could be prejudicial of the findings on that. i know this isn't the first time

i've said this and it won't be the last, but it's been a big week for brexit. theresa may chaired two key meetings with senior ministers. the brexit cabinet committee sketched out what the future relationship between the uk and eu might look like. what conclusion they came to, they haven't told me, but the issue came up several times in the commons. first, in a spirited intervention by one dup mp, echoing the words of his father during the troubles. does the minister agree that it is time the government demonstrated that no surrender attitude to the bureaucrats who bully us over airflights, passenger duty and everything else and stand up to them and stand up to the eu and get on with leaving it. well, that plea came moments before the start of prime minister's questions where the matter was raised again. the prime minister will be aware that all free—trade agreements involve some customs checks and therefore infrastructure at frontiers which will be

completely incompatible with maintaining an open border between northern ireland and the time subcommittee is getting around to discussing this, could the pm explain to the house at why she's so opposed to the uk remaining in a customs union with the eu when not only would these be better for the british economy, than a vague partnership whatever that is, but would also help to ensure that that border remained as it is today, which is what we all want. the uk's leaving the eu, that means relieving the single market, we are leaving the customs union, because if we were members of it, we would not be able to do trade around the rest of the world. and we are going to have an independent trade policy and due the deals. and he asks me about the arrangements, well i have second, say to look at the paper that was published by the government last summer.

and a question about reports that the eu could suspend "certain benefits" during any transition phase, came from the other end of the brexit spectrum. in the committee last december i wonder about ultimatums from the eu, and again would she be good enough to be very robust in discussing the matters and the brexit committees, i'm sure she will be, in order to ensure that we repudiate any of these threats. as i said from the beginning, we will hear all sorts of things being said about positions being taken. what matters is the position that we take in the negotiations as we sit down and the best deal we have shown that we can do that we did in december, i would do it again. jeremy corbyn‘s battleground of choice for this week's prime minister's questions was crime figures. last month the office for national statistics said the number of violent crimes and sex offences recorded by police in england and wales has risen sharply over the past year. but the separate crime survey, based on people's experiences, suggested

crime was continuing to fall. and with that in mind, battle commenced, with a particularly pithy question. with crime rising, does the pm regret cutting down police officers? what we have seen seem from the crime survey, is that crime is now down at record low levels. that is, that is what is being achieved and it has been achieved by a conservative government that has been protecting the budget. the chief constable says we do not have the resources to keep residents safe, the position is a scandal. too many people do not feel safe and too many people are not safe. we just had the highest rise in recorded crime for a quarter of a century. the chief constable of lancaster said that the cuts make it much more difficult to keep people safe.

is he wrong? can i say to the right honourable gentleman, on this issue of recording crime, it because when i was home secretary, i asked them to look at the recording of crime, to make sure that police forces were doing it properly and indeed, some changes were made as a result of that. so we now see the better recording of a crime and we also see, 450 million pounds extra being made available to the police. but what have we seen? the creation of the national crime agency, our police taking more notice to protect multiple victims, doing more on modern slavery and domestic violence. taking issues seriously, that they were not taking seriously before. if you ask to look at unrecorded crime and they tell you

what is going on, the least you could do is act out what they tell you. this week marked a 100 years of the representation of the people act, which gave women over 30 who had property, the right to vote. and in a debate to mark the centenary, the commons was awash with the white, purple and green emblem of the suffrage movement. i am proud to be part of the most diverse house of commons in british history. we have our second female prime minister. a third of those attending cabinet are women and we have the highest ever number of female mps. outside of politics, we have seen so much progress since 1918. more women are in a more diverse range ofjobs than ever before, and are increasingly at the top of their field. i was hoping that the minister was going to make an announcement today that the government was going to issue maybe an official apology to the women of the suffragette movement or a pardon maybe,

for those who were wrongly imprisoned. and sexually assaulted in their battle to get women the vote. but instead, all we have is another announcement — how utterly disappointing. i would be doing a disservice to suffragette who stood up for the causes which are more thanjust getting a book for women, if i did not say that today we still have a government that pursues policies like the rape clause, and social security cuts, which hit budgets — 85% of the cuts have come from their pockets, and we are yet to see a justice for the campaigners. i support the government move to asked the lord commission to consider the case for making it and that went to the brain and abused parliamentary candidate. what this is about, is about misogynist seeking to silence women who dare to speak out. particularly, this against younger women and black women. voters have the right to choose who they want, man

or woman, to represent them. and once that representative is elected to parliament, it is their right and duty to be able to get on with the job without being subjected to intimidation, threats, or violence. this is about our democracy. so i hope members on all sides of the house will give this their full support. and women mps past and present... were in westminster hall on tuesday to mark that centenary. the suffrage campaigns were led by women, but some male supporters played a key role. in a film for bbc parliament, the former deputy speaker natascha engel reports on the votes for women campaign and the men who backed the cause. we got thousands of petitions from 1866 to 1918 signed by more than 3 million women. they were undermined, questions raised about their

manliness, their fitness for their careers. they tried to rush the building. they will go down in history as the man who tortured innocent women. hunger strikes. from his first election he introduced a women's suffrage bill every year. but this was the great opportunity. this is also a story about parliament. campaigners needed to win allies from the all—male parliaments of the day. we will be looking at why the politicians have eventually agreed to change the law. and the film, suffragette allies, is on bbc parliament on sunday evening at half—past—eight. mps who are found to have bullied or harassed their staff could be suspended and voters could force them to face a by—election.

the leader of the commons announced a package of measures to tackle misconduct at westminster. the working group was formed to bring about change. it is a right, not a privilege, to be treated with dignity and respect at work. this ambitious report is a major step towards a safer and more professional environment. this is a significant, substantial document that has managed to secure all partisan support, and signal the beginning of the end of the poison is culture that has characterised so many relationships of this house. victims will now have a process to make formal complaints independent of the political parties and that is the key feature of what is being designed and delivered today. the media spotlight can be very harsh on a member of parliament on the basis just of an accusation made. but it can also be very harsh on a complainant. we have to bear that in mind.

publication of the accused's name might bring forth corroborating evidence of what otherwise might be one person's word against the other. where should the difficult balance lie? my honourable friend will appreciate that this has been an incredibly difficult balancing act. what we all made clear, all of us on the working group is that the commitment to protecting the interests of the complainants would be at the heart of this. and that means very often that complainant does not want and will not come forward with a complaint if they then run the risk of being hounded by the media and having a trial in the full glare of the public spotlight. and that was one of the core areas that we sought to address. what that inevitably means is that there are compromises. would you not agree that we need consent training but also mandatory sanctions available

for those members were not persuaded to take it up because quite frankly, those members who are likely to be resistant to taking up training are those who need it most? the training we've mentioned in consent and unconscious bias in how to recruit and how to employ people and what constitutes harassment, all of these things are vital. they will be available as compulsory sanctions and we will be seeking means to encourage people across the estate to take them up voluntarily where we can't make it mandatory. the head of the parole board has said action is needed to make the reasons for its decisions public and its judgments easier to challenge. the comments come in the wake of the decision to releasejohn worboys. worboys was jailed indefinitely in 2009, with a minimum term of eight years, for drugging and sexually assaulting women. two of his victims have been given the go—ahead to challenge his release

at a judicial review next month. the government has ordered a review of the transparency of parole board decisions. we could do much more than we do at present. to explain individual decisions. but there are a number of risks to doing that. and they need to be carefully explored and considered. it's an awareness and education programme. what proposals can you second to train yourself? there are a number of different steps that we are in the process of taking. i think there is... we need to have information accessible about the process in a number of different formats and it different platforms. i think we should use, we are talking about some very impressive stuff from other jurisdictions. written information that can be produced to be much

improved. what we can't do and we're absolutely... approved by parliament earlier, is explain anything about any individual case. even the most basic things. for an example, talking about completely different cases, you have victims ask for information about licence conditions.. we have information about licence conditions that would reassure them. they would find them comforting. and we can't tell them. we can go much further. in explaining our decisions to people so they have a real sense of what we are doing. they may not like what we are doing, or they may agree with what we have done. but at least they have a basis to know why they do agree or not. then it makes a challenge process better.

you can challenge it at the moment. so then you have to crowd fund.. that he said needed to change. it's undignified to me. i don't think it's acceptable. but we can't make every decision twice. professor nick hardwick. it's not often a reality tv star is called to give evidence in front of a parliamentary committee. but on tuesday the model katie price appeared before mps to make an impassioned plea for criminal action to be taken against malicious trolling on social media. katie price has long campaigned on behalf of her son, harvey, who has several disabilities. what i am thinking is it's bad. what goes in people's had when what they want to do this to an innocent child who can't reply back. i went to the police. i went to the police twice

and they arrested two people, got their computers, microphones, and the police were embarrassed because it got to the point where they couldn't take it any further because they could not charge because there was nothing in place. they had to drop the cases. since then, it has continued and got worse. my petition, i have 220,000 signatures. a lot of people say that i don't... we are not fans of yours. we don't like you, but what you are doing is amazing. because it will help a lot of people. i know that you sit there and agree with me, really. now, you'll remember civil servants came under fire for pessimistic treasury reports about the effects of brexit. on bbc radio, the tory backbencher jacob rees—mogg accused civil servants of "fiddling the figures". so can the treasury be trusted? a labour peer took up the issue. my lords, given that the downing street at number 10 and the prime minister have failed

to slap down those ministers and those mps their own party that had made these disgraceful slurs, is it too much to ask for the prime minister finally to show leadership? i think i have done on and off 20 years more than anyone else in this house with many discontinuities. and i have never had occasion to question the impartiality or the objectivity of civil servants. they have spoken truth onto power and quite often said things i did not want to hear. but i would never accuse them of some of the accusations that have recently been levied against them. we should be proud of our civil service. and i reject these smears that have been made against them. he will be familiar with this document, the treasury analysis of may 2016 forecasting the complete collapse of the british economy if we were to vote to leave. i have maintained this document

as propaganda from top to bottom. and it turns out to be utterly untrue and reality. my noble friend praises the objectivity of those who produce government statistics. can i ask asked my noble friend this. if i continue to criticise the mandarins and the ministers who approved the statistics and this document, does that make me a snake oil salesman or a 1930s german nazi or a bit of both? he impugned pm partiality and good faith of our civil servants. they behave as president trump does in the united states with regard to the fbi. while i don't often want to open up a fresher front from the despatch box. but president trump, i hope will read what my noble friend... hasjust said. and finally, the recently—appointed secretary of state for digital,

culture, media and sport fully embraced the digital part of his new brief by becoming the first mp to launch his very own smartphone app. the matt hancock app features picture galleries and videos of him. it also allows users to sign up as friends and chat with other fans of the matt hancock app. but there've been concerns about the apps privacy policy and whether it complies with the data protection act. what action does the secretary of state think should be taken as the app which prevents key provisions of the data protection act and is not gdpr compliant? i think that all apps should be compliant with the law and i am delighted to say that the matt hancock app is, mr speaker. exactly because the app i am talking about is not. it doesn't belong to them. it is named after him. the general public

needs protecting, mr speaker, from their privacy being invaded by matt hancock, their information being shared with third parties by matt hancock, and their private photos being accessed by matt hancock. will he undertake to ensure that matt hancock complies fully with all data protections in the future and why he thinks other people should abide by their legal obligations to data protection if matt hancock doesn't? of course the app does comply. more importantly, i think we should use digital communications mr speaker to communicate with our constituents in all their modern forms. i am delighted by the response of the app has had so far is bigger than i could have possibly imagined. and i look forward to communicating with our decisions over matt hancock for years. so the shadow culture secretary had a question. matt hancock singing the praises of, matt hancock.

and that's it. parliament is on a short half—term break so we are too. we'll be back in a week's time. but for now, from me, mandy baker, goodbye. clouds looming on the horizon and we have seen a lot of cloud and rain this morning but it has been brightening up in some areas, however, later this evening and overnight there is more bad weather on away. strong winds, rain and snow expected in scotland. the big picture, across the atlantic, this weather front is crossing the country and we have another weather front forming in the atlantic and here are the blue arrows showing the colder air streaming from the north atla ntic colder air streaming from the north atlantic in canada and again talking

southwards and this is where the weather front is forming and you can see this cloud and this is what i am talking about, this area will be sweeping across the country during the course of this evening and overnight and we will see the rain and snow and gale force winds. we are in between weather system is, we have this gap in the weather with the sun coming out, this earlier weather front and this is the next one and is blue arrows coincide with those wintry showers you can see here. just above my head. the next low pressure, the rain and snow mixing and across northern ireland, scotla nd mixing and across northern ireland, scotland will have a covering and these isobars squeezing together will mean gale force winds around the irish sea, through the north—west of england, yorkshire, into parts of eastern england so we can see this swathe of gale force winds blowing through azarenka years away. behind it, snow showers. plenty of them, sunday is a very

brisk day, quite a few snow showers getting into scotland, parts of northern ireland with some of them sneaking into merseyside and the midlands and even a few flurries fleeting in the wind in the south. it will not feel like a degrees in london, it will feel colder and barely above freezing across the north. this shows us how cold the errors, thejet north. this shows us how cold the errors, the jet stream, north. this shows us how cold the errors, thejet stream, this north. this shows us how cold the errors, the jet stream, this sunday night into monday, you can see how far side the milder air has been pushed to the cold air is well—established as we go into monday and here are the snow showers another weather system is stuck in this cold air and when we get weather fronts stuck in cold air, that spells trouble. later on monday, this is the afternoon, into tuesday morning, we could be talking about a covering of snow like this in some northern parts of the country. we are not done with the snow yet. it could be heading our way. this is bbc news.

the headlines at three o'clock. the head of oxfam denies a cover—up over claims that haiti aid workers paid for sex, as ministers order a review. oxfa m oxfam was actually proactive in going to the british public, the department for international development and the charity commission, to explain that there had been serious misconduct and we had been serious misconduct and we had taken action. israel attacks dozens of syrian targets after one of its f—16 jets came under anti—aircraft fire and crashed. at least 18 people are dead and 60

injured as a double—decker bus overturns in hong kong. also in the next hour... britain's bid for an olympic title at the 2018 winter olympics.