president xi jinping wraps up the national people's congress saying only socialism can solve china's problems. during his thirty—five minute address to the 3000 delegates, he spelt out his party's message to self—ruled taiwan that no chinese land will be separated from the mainland. president trump has outlined plans to combat america's opioid epidemic, including introducing the death penalty for drug dealers in certain circumstances. over—prescription of opioid painkillers such as morphine and codeine has created a nationwide addiction crisis. police in texas say a serial bomber is on the loose in the city of austin. three parcel bombs earlier this month killed two african—american men, and wounded an hispanic woman. in the latest attack on sunday, a bomb seriously injured two white men. now on bbc news, monday in parliament. hello and welcome to monday

in parliament, our look at the best of the day in the commons and the lords. on this programme, britain and the eu reach agreement on the transitional period after brexit. arguments shift to what the future might hold for the port of dover. there is no degree of customs check whatsoever that can prevent dover from becoming less of a car park and in fact most of kent from becoming a car park. labour challenges ministers to do more to end the laundering of so—called "dirty" russian money through britain. what will the government now do to ensure that the enforcement agencies are fully resourced to tackle this scourge on our society? and there are calls for a cystic fibrosis drug to be made

available on the nhs. there are lots of hard big stories from people who are six years old and younger who are sharing their frustration with the people i'm speaking for today. but first, it's been a significant moment in the long saga of brexit: the uk and the eu have reached a deal over the almost two—year transition period, due to start in march 2019 when the uk formally leaves the eu. agreement is still needed over how britain's ports and borders will operate once the transition period ends. a university study has claimed that just two extra minutes of checks on vehicles could lead to 29—mile long tailbacks on roads around dover. but on the bbc‘s question time on thursday, the transport secretary chris grayling insisted that there would be no checks at the border. in the commons, the labour chair of the brexit committee believed this was a change of policy. he quoted mr grayling.

we don't check lorries now and we're not going to be checking lorries in dover in the future. given that the government is committed to leaving the customs union but that all free—trade agreements involve some checks that borders, how exactly can this be squared with no checks at all? which border crossings will be covered by the no checks policy? will itjust be railroad ports, for example? 0n the issue, what the secretary of state for transport had to say last thursday, he said in addition to the remarks of the right honourable gentleman has raised, we will not under any circumstances create a hard border in dover that requires us to stop every lorry in the port of dover. this, of course, mr speaker, is absolutely right. can the minister give a single example of a nation which does not rely on either a customs union agreement or on customs enforcement at its border? what are the government's plans to manage our trade relationships, protect our own producers, or uphold environmental protections without either a customs agreement or border enforcement? i am fully familiar with

the importance of a frictionless border and of course, the other important news that we've had today, mr speaker, is that we have concluded, subject to the european council meeting shortly, an implementation period for these particular arrangements, which will of course, give us additional, valuable time to provide certainty to businesses but also to make sure we have all the arrangements in place for a successful customs arrangement going forward. the port of dover reckons that 99% of the traffic goes to and from the european union and it takes these massive, great lorries on average two minutes to get through. the other 1% goes to the rest of the world and it takes an average 20 minutes to get through. there is no degree of customs check whatsoever that can prevent dover from becoming less than a car park and in fact, most of kent from becoming a car park.

i urge the minister to reject the representations in the analogue parties opposite that seem to have a dystopian vision for analogue borders where every single load is stopped. and as the constituency representative for the port of dover, can i urge him to embrace digital borders so that we have frictionless trade, risk—based stopping of trade and inspections where necessary, and postponement of checks to workplaces and audits? and in this way, this dystopian desire of the party opposite for dover and kent to be turned into a car can be avoided, but only with investment. and can i urge him to make the appropriate investment in systems to make that vision a reality as soon as possible? will my right honourable friend take as inspiration the workings of dp world, the deepwater port of the south of essex where thousands of lorries' worth of containers flow into the country from outside the customs union swiftly, slickly, and smoothly, and will he look upon that as a potential solution

for our border in dover? i thank my honourable friend for that point and i have no doubt that that isjust one other example of where facilitations in technology can insure the goods move across a customs frontier efficiently. mel stride on matters of brexit. and there will be more brexit later in the programme. strong appeals have been made by mps for a cystic fibrosis drug, 0rkambi, to be made available on the nhs in england. cystic fibrosis affects more than ten thousand people across the uk. it's a genetic condition affecting mostly the lungs, but can also affect other organs. the 0rkambi drug can slow down the decline of the lungs. it costs, however, around £100,000 a patient. because there is a restricted amount of people, fortunately, that suffer from this condition, the research, the development still has to go in and it's not like you are developing the next ibuprofen or cancer drug which is going to go out to millions

and millions of people. this is going out to 70,000 people in the world and so therefore in order to build their research and development budget, they need to have reasonable costs, but nonetheless, of course, they do need to be reasonable costs. on friday, nhs england has said, following advice, the nhs has asked this particular drug company to review its proposed pricing. unless this happens, further progress at this time is frankly unlikely. " frankly unlikely. " what sort of hope does a blunt statement like that give people with cystic fibrosis? he makes the important point that actually, if people have access to this drug, they can reduce the number of times they had to go to hospital and it would be very helpful if we had an understanding of the cost of those hospital admissions and what that would be,

offset against the drug. wouldn't he agree with me on that point? this is a very important point and one that i hope the minister will take into account, because we shouldn'tjust be looking at the cost of providing 0rkambi, we should be looking at the savings that is housed in other areas as well. it should be available to everyone that needs it and that is sad that money is getting in the way of people's health improving. can i add the voice of one of my 6—year—old constituents who will not benefit from 0rkambi, but recognises that if we don't get this right, the other treatments that might help her will be subject to similar concerns, similar delays? she'sjust six years old but she doesn't need this kind of delay. does she agree with me that this is notjust about 0rkambi, but how we deal with these

life—changing drugs i understand the power of them to make such a difference? i thank the honourable member for that intervention there. i absolutely agree with her and there are lots of heartbreaking stories from people who are 6—year—olds and even younger who share in the frustrations of the people that i am speaking for today. but i must now declare a personal interest, as my now 16—month—old granddaughter was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis shortly after she was born. 0n hearing about this debate, my daughter—in—law enlisted all her friends and family to sign the petition. even though she knows that 0rkambi will not help her daughter, but it is vertex who are developing new treatments all the time and the use of 0rkambi can only hope that research. yes, the nhs is in discussions with vertex about 0rkambi. vertex has approached the nhs england with a proposed deal to reduce its prices. whilst i can't share the details of this proposal due to the commercial confidentiality nature of them, believe you me, i wish i could. i can assure members that the level that is proposed, the products are still far from cost—effective. therefore, there is more talking to do. last week, nhs england made a counter proposal which would ensure that the drugs

could be used at a price that is cost—effective. i understand nhs england has agreed to meet with vertex, ijolly well hope so. of course it is not over e—mail. to discuss this counterproposal. following the poisoning attack in salisbury, labour is challenging the government to do more to end the laundering of so—called "dirty" russian money through london. responding to an urgent question, the minister said there was a "long list" of government actions — including measures making it easier to confiscate assets and support for an amendment to legislation going through parliament which could allow sanctions to be imposed on russians alleged to be involved in the death of the lawyer, sergei magnitsky. this government has taken a real steps to tackle criminal finance in this country. whoever the cooks are, wherever they are from, and no matter what nationality, we will pursue them and their cash.

despite all the minister has said, the national crime agency estimates that still £90 billion worth of money from the rest of the world has been laundered through the city each year, while the un estimates £100 billion has been lost in british overseas territories. there was, he said, still a major problem. there is minimal checking of the uk's own registry of company ownership. indeed, it was possible for a journalist to set up a company called crooked crook limited. 634,000 suspicious activity reports filed since october 2015. what will the government now do to ensure that the enforcement agencies are fully resourced to tackle this scourge in our society? what we shouldn't forget, we sought over the weekend mr speaker, what this really is about is a distraction by the labour party from its woeful response last week, an attempt by the shadow chancellor to say, nothing to see here, look over there, it is all about oligarchs. the government, he said, was determined to deal with the problem of "dirty money". one of the complaints was that the unexplained wealth order was not used by this

government and it is one of their demand that they made over the weekend. the unexplained wealth order was used in under two weeks of it running into legislation on the 31st of january. it was served against an overseas oligarch on £22 million of property. that was action within a fortnight. i welcome what the minister said about the amendment, but can i ask them to confirm to the house that it will be genuinely tough and able to allow the authorities to seize money very quickly? in congratulating the government on its support and moving towards the magnitsky amendment, and ijust point out that there are three elements there? firstly, asset seizures, second, visa bans, and thirdly and very importantly, a public list of named individuals which makes it difficult for those names to access finance and encourages others not to get on the list? has the government compiled a list of politically

exposed people from russia, like their own first deputy prime minister, who could be the subject of an unexplained wealth orders, and if they have that list, will it be published? the right honourable gentleman will know that individuals who may or not be subject of investigation or operations against them are not people that i would come to the house and publish. it could threaten our ability to have an effect on then. needless to say to the right honourable member, that it is our determination to make sure that we use intelligence—led policing to find money and to deal with those individuals, whether they are from here or from abroad. france, germany, switzerland, spain, many, many other countries have open criminal investigations into the people who were directly responsible for the brutal murderof sergei. why is the united kingdom the only country not to have done so? i want to raise another issue with the minister and that is the tier one investor

visas, the golden visas. anybody who gets one of those visas needs to demonstrate they've got £2 million worth, that they had £2 million that they wish to invest in the uk. we know that russia is one of the two top countries taking advantage of these tier one investor visas. what steps is the minister going to take so that we understand where the £2 million plus comes from, so that we can be assured that it is not dirty money and these are not unsavoury individuals? we do have the powers in our visa regime already to take action and we will, quite rightly, as she says, be looking at that tier to make sure that we do better due diligence, if we need to on where the money comes from. you're watching our round—up of the day in the commons and the lords. still to come: an mp says the number of school—children carrying knives is rising dramatically. now, it's three and a half years behind schedule,

costing much more than anticipated and has had lower take—up than predicted. the modernisation of the home office's disclosure and barring service, the dbs, is not going well in the view of the spending watchdog, the national audit office. dbs is the successor organisation to the criminal records bureau. the poor progress of the modernisation programme has now been scrutinised by the commons public accounts committee. if your view is that this contract is still recoverable or deliverable, my words rather than yours, but you understand where i'm going, at what point — where does this contract have to get in order for you to recommend stopping or pausing? because i see a contract that is 46 months behind schedule, plus and growing, a contract that's 200 million in part, or in part

£200 million over cost. so how many millions more does a contract have to be over cost or how much longer does the contract have to be undelivered before somebody goes "that's it, we can't do it"? in terms of the functionalities required for the remainder of the lease, a large part of the functionalities have been developed. there is very little that is required to be built into the system. there is going to be a lot more testing that is required to take place, so i don't believe that this contract requires to be stopped. it is recoverable, it is implementable. can ijust move on, then, well, to you, sir philip? you have, as mr rowley said, disavowed yourself of the 2012 contract. you've just acknowledged the 2014 contract was a problem. you look a little embarrassed about the failure of this contract. and it's another it project failure in a department that you became permanent secretary of less than a year ago. aren't you rather worried about the capability of your department to let these large contracts, esn, esn, e borders, for example,

as other examples of contracts from the home office... i think there are many, many excellent projects which are being delivered by the home office and are delivered in a way that fits within a framework of to time, to cost, good engagement... 0k, you're talking about the good ones. of course you want to. i could get waylaid and ask you to detail them, but what i'm talking about today is this particular contract. and i think mr rowley has highlighted very effectively that there were a number of problems, and you've agreed with a lot of that concern. i don't think anyone‘s saying that the noe is wrong and didn't things go wrong here, but this is on top of esn, which we have seen you about now a number of times, and other contracts. aren't you concerned about the capability of the home office to let these large it contracts effectively? governance is stronger in the home office, governance and scrutiny is stronger of major programmes now

than it was in 2012, markedly so. so can i ask sort of specifically what you have personally done, when you have seen these failures, what have you personally done to try and stop this happening again? have you implemented any changes since you arrived? yes. so i would, without... i put additional emphasis on developing the programme project management profession, i have strengthened and simplified governance within the department, i have strengthened the management information and management reporting. i have done a number of things to make very clear within the department the importance of getting our major change programmes right. it is a work in progress. sir philip rutnam. back to brexit now, because fears that human trafficking victims and female victims of violence could be left without protection once the uk is out of the eu have been voiced in the house of lords.

peers have completed their eighth day of debate on the details of the eu withdrawal bill, the legislation designed to stop britain being left in a legal limbo when the country exits this time next year. a human rights lawyer saw a series of dangers, facing women particularly, after march 2019. after exit day, women subject to violence could lose significant legal rights and protections, such as european protection orders, as well as a whole host of other measures aimed at tackling human trafficking, female genital mutilation and other crimes which disproportionately affect women. given the gravity of what we're discussing, namely how to protect abused women fleeing the country in which they live to escape an abuser, i hope to hear how the government is expecting to continue protection for these women and girls post—brexit. but violence against women and girls, it has not featured in any brexit—related papers. so could the noble lady, the minister, please tell us what provisions are being made to continue cooperation and data sharing on known and suspected

perpetrators of human trafficking, fgm, sexual exploitation of children, and a whole host of benefits which cross—eu cooperation has brought us until now? i support this amendment and am concerned about a number of matters, particularly the european protection order and european arrest warrants, both of which are important weapons in the issues in relation to domestic violence. the situation of a person that has been trafficked is desperate, stripped of agency, power and dignity, often in an unfamiliar country with little way out. this is an issue which significantly affects women and girls. of all the victims of human trafficking in europe, 70% are women and 11% girls. so a focus on tackling violence

against women rightly seeks to address human trafficking. information sharing is the key to safety and security across the eu, and it is essential that we maintain our current access to exchange law enforcement intelligence from other european nations. we know too, though, that this is possible outside of the eu as a number of countries, such as norway, switzerland and the us, have operational agreements with europol. we are wholly committed to working with local commissioners to deliver a secure future for violence against women and girls services. now as part of the negotiations, we will discuss with the eu member states how best to continue cooperation on a range of issues, including the european arrest warrant and europol. an appeal has been made for the government to take seriously the issue of young people taking knives to school.

the number of knives being carried by school children has reached epidemic proportions, in the words of a labour mp. she's fearful that efforts to combat the rise could be hampered by cuts to school budgets. the matter came up at education question time in the commons. knife carrying in schools across the uk is up 42%, and yet in my constituency in croydon, and i expect across the country, at least three quarters of head teachers have had to cut staff, special needs provision and support life mentoring, which are all crucial in preventing crime. now that this epidemic has infiltrated our schools, will he admit that school cuts are threatening our children's safety? you've heard the secretary of state regarding school finance. all i would say to the honourable lady is that the department is working with the home office, and of course other stakeholders, police, ofsted and health and safety, etc, on updating our school security

guidance to make clear the risks of carrying knives and to provide advice on dealing with this really important issue. it is unacceptable to actually carry a knife in school. youth violence is up, mental health issues among young people is up, yet the number of qualified school nurses is down. now, the evidence shows that this can be part of addressing the root causes of youth violence. can we have qualified school nurses in every school as one step to tackling this issue? the honourable lady knows we are making further investment in mental health in schools to make sure that every school is able to deal with that issue in a way that is appropriate. and nhs officials are being accused of being woefully ignorant of the dangers of over dependence on prescription drugs. peers called for the government to provide a network of support for people affected. 0pioids, like morphine, tramadol and fenta nyl, are super—strength painkillers, which can be highly addictive

and can even kill if misused. gps in england prescribed nearly 24 million opioid—based painkillers in 2017, according to data from nhs digital. many, many patients are suffering huge damage as a result of overdependence, often because they've been prescribed a particular medicine for too long a period. my lords, there appears to be woeful ignorance amongst many people in the health service about this impact of dependence. there are no national programmes for supporting people. instead, people rely on local charities, who are grossly underfunded. my lords, doesn't he think it's time for a national action plan, a national help line, support for local charities and getting the nhs to start taking this seriously? the health minister said the government had ordered public health england to conduct a review into prescription levels. there's been a doubling of the use of serious painkillers and indeed, deaths due to opiates of all kinds

has risen about two thirds in the last five years. of course, that's illegal. we do agree. that's why the review is taking place. i think it's premature to say what the outcomes of that review will be, but it is undoubtedly the case that we do need a comprehensive approach to dealing with this problem. so with the shortage of mental health service in the nhs, gps often have no alternative but to prescribe drugs. shouldn't the government have to address that shortage in both of those areas? i think the link between mental illness and gp prescribing will be one of the things investigated in the review. we do know we need better mental health services in this country, but i think it is worth pointing out that are we increasing investment, introducing new waiting time standards and services are getting better. is the noble minister aware of the very powerful evidence

from the united states that one of the most effective ways of reducing dependency on opioids is, in fact, to legalize cannabis for the relief of pain? cannabis is, of course, far less addictive, far less dangerous and yet incredibly effective for large numbers of patients. well, i would definitely be straying into home office territory by commenting. i would point that cannabis remains illegal in this country and the phe review's scope is to work within the drug strategy. the review by public health england into prescription levels is due to report in spring next year. well, that's it for this programme. mandy baker will be here for the rest of the week. but for now, from me, keith macdougall, goodbye. hello there. 0ur weather's showing signs of catching up on the season, going from something that has felt

a bit more like winter to something more springlike over the next few days. now, over the weekend, london temperatures barely got above freezing. we've had that heavy snow as well. there's a trend to seeing things warm up and by thursday, temperatures should reach double figures in the capital. of course, the big change has been this area of high pressure, which brought us the mini beast from the east. that same area of high pressure has now just sunk to the south—west of the uk. and so, we're dragging in some slightly less cold air. that will continue to be the case over the next couple of days. 0n the satellite picture, we're looking at an area of cloud sinking its way southwards at the moment and that cloud is just thick enough to bring us a few light showers, so for the early risers there is a potential of catching one or two showers across parts of the midlands, east anglia and south—east england. i wouldn't be surprised to see an odd flake falling from it, given that the temperatures for most of us are at or below freezing. and a particularly cold start to the day in scotland,

where temperatures potentially down as low as —8 in the coldest spots. now, for tuesday, we'll have a cloudy start to the day for most of england. should be sunny for western wales, northern ireland and scotland. a decent amount of showers. with this cloud, one or two showers pushing on towards the midlands for a time during the day, but the cloud will tend to shrink and shrivel, with some sunshine either side of it as we go on through the afternoon. for many of us, a decent kind of day. those temperatures up to nine degrees in london. that was tuesday's weather. now, as we get towards wednesday, we start to drag in some milder air off the atlantic, but with that comes the threat of some rain. before that arrives, it's going to be another fairly cold night, particularly across england and wales. the temperatures not as low in scotland and northern ireland, where we'll have that increasingly cloudy look to the weather, with outbreaks of rain skirting into northern ireland. the rain heavy at times and quite persistent across the western side of scotland.

a few breaks in the cloud, the best of any sunshine probably across central and eastern parts of england. we are looking at highs of around nine degrees in london again, but the temperatures in scotland and northern ireland are reaching double figures. ten or 11 degrees in the warmest spots, and that warming trend continues on into thursday. thursday, well, potentially a little bit of rain around, getting close to eastern england. so it could be quite wet for some. but there will be some brighter spells. the weather going downhill further west, as the next band of rain works in. temperatures pretty much across the board will be reaching double figures. that's your latest weather. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers

in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: dealing with the opioid epidemic — president trump says traffickers should face the death penalty. police hunt a serial bomber wanted for the parcel bomb attacks in austin, texas. homes destroyed, cattle killed and thousands of acres of land devastated by wildfires in south—west australia. and president xijinping wraps up the national people's congress saying only socialism can solve china's problems.