counting the cost of knife crime — the number of young victims admitted to hospitals in england has risen by more than 50% in five years. also coming up — we'll look ahead to another day of six nations matches. scotland will be hoping to build on their victory against italy as they host ireland at murrayfield. the department for transport has terminated a controversial contract to provide extra ferries in the event of a no—deal brexit. seaborne freight was awarded the £13 million contract in december. it had no ships and had never run a ferry service. last month, the transport secretary chris grayling said "i make no apologies for supporting

a new british business". an irish shipping line which was planning to back the company has pulled out. the government says it is already in advanced talks with a number of companies to secure additional freight capacity in the event of no—deal. with me now is our news correspondent simonjones. you have been following this story, how big a difficulty was the company facing in terms of finding the capacity to fulfil this contract in a relatively short amount of time? as soon as the contract was signed backin as soon as the contract was signed back in december, questions were being raised, this was a very firm with no fairies, no experience of running ferry services. it wanted to operate from the port of ramsgate selling to ostend, belgium, the ramsgate port has not been used in yea rs, ramsgate port has not been used in years, the mayor of ostend said they are not ready for the ferries. people saying, why are you doing

this? the government said it did its duty of id believe the firm was ready and capable. seaborne freight we re ready and capable. seaborne freight were staying up until recently they would have two ferries ready by the time of brexit and four come the summer. time of brexit and four come the summer. the idea was it could be usedif summer. the idea was it could be used if there were problems between dover and calais and there were long queues around dover as an alternative route to get goods into the uk. charlie elphick was not unduly critical of the government for trying to get them on board but... saying the government wants to focus on dover— calais or close enough to actually keep lorries running. all about capacity. the reason ramsgate to ostend never

really worked as a ferry route, more driving, a longerjourney. this was pa rt driving, a longerjourney. this was part of the government because my contingency planning, but that has changed overnight. it said it had been given reassurances in the past by an irish ferry firm backing seaborne freight but the irish firm moving away from this. department for transport saying they have no confidence this contract can be fulfilled come brexit. no money handed over to seaborne freight. the taxpayer has not lost out. dover mp charlie elphick, i spoke to him a short time ago and he said it is a distraction. what you have to do in terms of the government is concentrate keeping dover to calais flooring. —— flowing. joining me now from his middlesbrough constituency is shadow transport secretary andy mcdonald. are you disappointed by this news? i

am disappointed but not surprised. the due diligence process we were told about is clearly in tatters, totally a nd told about is clearly in tatters, totally and utterly deficient. i asked, what on earth does chris grayling have to do before he is sacked? yet again, another episode ina long sacked? yet again, another episode in a long catalogue of catastrophes on his watch. this is quite ridiculous, a weakened prime minister has not got the ability to sack one of the very few friends she has in government. this is a national embarrassment. not as if we are saying it's now, we were saying for months this would not work. when it first raised its head some months ago, we said it would not work and that has proved to be right. did not think to communicate with ramsgate itself and find out whether it was

doable and he has been banned from calais and i think he should be banned from the dft because he is heaping humiliation after humiliation on our country and it is time to go. you will be pressing this case presumably in the house of commons next week but in the meantime, the issue is one of ensuring there is some kind of deal on brexit. in a sense, this potential crisis is in labour's hands to solve, isn't it? if you lent theresa may your vote, she was able to get her vote through, no risk of controls imposed on dover? that is whyjeremy corbyn wrote to theresa may and set out clearly a rational, coherent plan to secure a deal with the european union. you have heard the noises from brussels that they see a great deal of merit in what is being said. conservative mps have said this is the basis for

a sensible discussion. if she removes her red lines and starts to try to garner a consensus in the house of commons, it is therefore her and she should be doing that right now instead of digging her heels in and telling the world nothing has changed. is the danger your rhetoric about chris grayling and seaborne freight will put off other companies to be involved?” don't think there is anything i can say to damage chris grayling's reputation anymore, it is at the bottom. this is a national embarrassment for us, people won't have confidence in us as nation. there is capacity elsewhere, harwich international amongst others, why is he not having conversations where they have the ability to take roll on roll off ferries, perhaps there are solutions there. due diligence lies in tatters. in yourjudgment, are those moves commercially viable

comedy roots? fine for the government to explore those options, but if it is economically not good for us, you are saying there are other options? it must be explored. so you don't know? i did go to harwich international and had a conversation, sat down with hutchinson international who own harwich international. i have had the preliminary discussions. i would suggest chris grayling does the selfsame thing and explore whether that presents a realistic opportunity. but carry out proper due diligence, whatever option he wa nts to due diligence, whatever option he wants to explore. we have real concerns about what it will mean for dover port if those ferries are loaded with wagons that roll up to calais, there is no advance notice

of what is on them, they simply allocate themselves the best available cue and some of them have multiple consignments it customer relations, tariff free or otherwise, 54 relations, tariff free or otherwise, 5a fields of data require completion. get your head around that. think about what damage that would cause to the flow of goods. the government said earlier this week in the context of a new deal brexit it would give perhaps another couple of months were people with half till it might be able to drive through without checks and would have 24—hour is to fill out forms and submit them electronically.” have 24—hour is to fill out forms and submit them electronically. i am afraid that is fantasyland. if you could do that for a couple of months, what would you do in the third or the fourth month when the decision had been made to reinstate customs declarations? i am afraid the infrastructure simply does not exist and if you can speak to people

in the business, if they are going to produce changes of this magnitude, they would need years to introduce it, not a couple of weeks. shadow transport secretary labour in middlesbrough, thank you forjoining us. a former executive at sir philip green's arcadia group, was paid more than £1 million after accusing him of groping her, according to new claims in the daily telegraph. the newspaper says, several other former employees received six figure payments after alleging inappropriate behaviour. sir philip categorically denies he is guilty of any unlawful sexual or racist behaviour. caroline rigby reports. sir philip green, the boss of topshop, is one of britain's best—known businessmen. yesterday, a judge let him drop his injunction against the daily telegraph after a legal battle lasting six months. today, more claims about his conduct appear in the newspaper. the telegraph says one senior female executive at sir philip green's arcadia group was paid more than £1 million after he called her "a naughty girl", slapped on the bottom, and groped her. another executive, who's black, received around £1 million

after sir philip allegedly made derogatory remarks about his dreadlocks and told him he was still throwing spears in thejungle, the paper claims. the paper says to other women got six—figure pay—outs after complaining of inappropriate behaviour. the telegraph has not named the five complainants. they are still bound by nondisclosure agreements, ndas. it claims some of the events were witnessed by other staff and reported to hr. sir philip has accused the newspaper pursuing a vendetta against him and his employees. as well as harassing staff. he denies his behaviour amounted to any kind of crime or misconduct. caroline rigby, bbc news. joining us now is mark stephens, head of media law at howard kennedy and an expert in nondislosure agreements. people signing up to these ndas

disadvantage. but a counter argument, quite useful? for their original purpose, useful. you could keep trade secrets, your customer lists, you could gag someone from telling them about that. if you worked at coca—cola, you could not sell the formula to pepsi, for example. in commercial that one understands the importance. but ingenious and highly paid lawyers, and as one i can speak with authority, have expanded that. they are used now to cover up inappropriate behaviours, often where there is a power imbalance. that is where the problem is because

the people signing up to these are people who have been abused. and just want to get out. they want to leave. they will sign anything to get out. i was listening to... it is said those people have lawyers, down to the lawyers to negotiate with other lawyers. victims of bad behaviour by their employer are actually losing out by this?” behaviour by their employer are actually losing out by this? i am fond of edward garnier but he has missed the point. i suspect it is because he hasn't sat in a room with people. it is not about the quality of the wiring. you can have expert lawyers on both sides but if your client is sing to you, just sign anything, i want out of this. this is an abusive situation, i need money to tide me over to a newjob,

i cannot work there, to the best you can. on the other side, if you are acting for the abuser, the employer, they are saying, shut this person up, they are saying, shut this person up. gagged they are saying, shut this person up, gagged them, there is a reputation at risk. do not speak to the press at any cost. we are seeing people being effectively gagged. what do you make of philip green's argument... unfair pressure on people who have already signed ndas, they will now come under pressure to talk about what happened even if they just want to forget it, move talk about what happened even if theyjust want to forget it, move on in their lives, do not want a future employer to know about it.” in their lives, do not want a future employer to know about it. i have been involved in a number of cases involving harvey weinstein, producing ndas on the photocopier there were so many of them. some of

there were so many of them. some of the women have made it abundantly clear they do not wish to speak, they have not. some of the people haven't realised it was the large number of nondisclosure agreements, very similar organisations and problems. as a consequence, they do now want to speak out. this leads me to one of the issues for reform. there is no transparency reporting. it is important that if there is just one case that perhaps that can be dealt with. if there is if you like a hot spot, a cluster of ndas affecting one individual, that should be reported. certainly hr should be reported. certainly hr should know. there is the renumeration... we are seeing that kind of reporting in america. if the americans can get it right in terms of employment law, we certainly should. the us envoy, stephen biegun, says he's held three days of productive talks in north korea to prepare for the second

meeting between president trump and kimjong—un. speaking after arriving in south korea, mr biegun said the us and north korea still had some work to do before the summit which, it's been announced, will be in the vietnamese city of hanoi later this month. seven people have been sentenced to life in prison for twojihadist attacks in tunisia in 2015. 21 foreign tourists were killed at the bardo museum in tunis. 38 people died — 30 of them british — when a gunman attacked a beach resort near sousse. police have shot a man as they arrested a group for allegedly holding a woman captive. the man, thought to be in his 20s, was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound after an officer opened fire near blackheath in south east london in the early hours of this morning. he was arrested along with a further six men. the wounded man's injuries are not thought to be life—threatening. the family of the pilot whose plane crashed with the footballer emiliano sala on board

are trying to raise £300,000 to find his body. the aircraft disappeared off the channel islands on 21st january and yesterday a body recovered from the wreckage was confirmed to be that of the footballer. pilot david ibbotson's family say they want to be able to lay him to rest and are appealing for donations to an online fundraising page. just over a thousand stabbing victims aged between ten and 19 spent at a least one night in hospital in the 12 months to last march. there's been a 54% rise in the number of young people treated for knife wounds in england over the past five years, according to nhs figures. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw reports. the youngest victim to die in a knife attack this year, jaden moodie was stabbed to death after being knocked off a moped. an 18—year—old man has been charged with murder. jaden wasjust14. doctors say they're treating increasing numbers of people for knife wounds and the victims are getting younger. what has changed is that we are seeing a lot more adolescents and young people who

have severe injuries. that used to be an occasional occurrence and it is now the norm. i expect to admit somebody of school age in the care of our service this week as a matter of course. the figures for hospital admissions for injuries from knives or sharp objects show there were almost 5,000 people treated for stab wounds last year. over 1,000 of them were aged 10—19. that's a rise of 54% compared with five years earlier. another trend doctors have observed is that more girls are involved in knife crime. some victims face threats that footage of their stabbing will be posted online. there's a shift in what we're seeing. i'm seeing young women who have come in having had their mobile phones taken off them in an attack and having the attack filmed. it is part of a humiliation and this is what will happen to you — if you say anything, we will put it on the internet. doctors say the rise in knife crime is putting extra pressure

on emergency services. the home office has set up a serious violence strategy to tackle the problem and has launched a review of the links between violent crime and the trade in illegal drugs. danny shaw, bbc news. joining me know is patrick green, ceo of the ben kinsella trust — a charity wokring to prevent knife crime. it works to prevent knife crime. thanks for coming in. what is the most disturbing thing about these figures? it is the number of young people, 10—19, that are in these figures coming through from trauma units, they are nearly doubling. we are seeing a real crisis at that very early age. that is the worrying trend. we think we need to do far more to stop young people carrying knives. our ethos is that no child

is born carrying a knife. it is a learned behaviour. we need to do more to help young people unlearn bad behaviours and hold on to good behaviours and stop carrying knives. what is happening in terms of the popularity of carrying knives? is it learned behaviour from siblings, what is driving it? there are a number of issues driving it. it is not one simple issue. that is part of the problem in dealing with it. in terms of young people when we speak to them on a daily basis, protection is the most common answer we get from young people. behind thatis we get from young people. behind that is fear, young people are fearful. it is protection. if you feel there are more knives out there, the only thing you can do is protect yourself. if we are friends, if you are carrying a knife, i will probably carry one. it grows and grows. what do you make of the government's talk, and we are in the early stage of this, of knife crime

prevention orders? we would need to see a little bit more in terms of what those orders mean. at the high end, for habitual knife carriers who are involved in criminal activity, giving police extra powers is a good thing. we would have some questions in terms of their use on younger people, 12 years of age, no criminal record. without grip, early intervention has been shown to be very successful in helping young people make decisions and turn their lives around. there are other measures that are really successful and can be put in place. i think there is discussion still to go on about prevention. what are the implications of this in terms of the role that health service people can play in terms of treating these young people? is it an opportunity to talk to them or is that not appropriate? ? it is very appropriate. the nhs are doing a

fantasticjob, appropriate. the nhs are doing a fantastic job, the trauma appropriate. the nhs are doing a fantasticjob, the trauma surgeons who are saving lives using better techniques and i know a number of surgeons who give up their spare time to talk to young people and tell them the reality of what a stabbing means in terms of physical injury and mental trauma. there are some great charities, st giles trust and red thread, and people who work and red thread, and people who work and come in at what they call the teachable moment, after something has happened to you, they come and break the cycle. there is just not enough of that sort of work. thank you very much. sport and for a full round—up, from the bbc sport centre, here's olly foster. good morning. it's another six nations weekend. england take on france tomorrow, wales face italy this afternoon, but before that, the champions ireland, they face scotland at murrayfield. scotland are looking to make it two wins out of two but the irish will be looking for a response after their opening defeat to the english. austin halewood reports. they have waited two decades for a title.

scotland's stronghold has been battered and often broken. but those days are past now, a force in the north is rising once again. a new hope at the helm, a team that plays without fear, but now the competition takes a step up as the irish come to town. still licking their wounds, battered and bruised after a dublin demolition. the champions a back and they have a point to prove. the pressure will come from within their own group, to improve from last week, they were disappointed with the loss and how they played, but we were expecting an excellent ireland performance going into this game, whether they had won or lost at the weekend. a grand slam and a famous victory over the all—blacks, it looked as though all roads were leading to japan, but now they have been thrown off course. talks of the world cup are on hold, the focus

very much on the here and now. the last thing you want to do is try to chase the championship, going to scotland, against such a tough team. we have to build our way into the game, we cannot be chasing things and trying to get instant results. you have got to earn whatever you get up there because they give so little away. scotland's tournament started in style, a 30 point gap over the italians had murrayfield believing once again, until three italian tries in seven minutes confirmed there is room to improve. this weekend's fixture is one steeped in history on both sides have called on experience. full—back rob kearney is one of five changes to the irish team, while a hat—trick was not enough to keep blair kinghorn in the scottish side. he is replaced by british lion sean maitland. a scottish victory on saturday would be their eighth in a row at home in the six nations.

a first for 44 years, but records for murrayfield faithful are not as important as trophies, but if the scots can topple the irish, their credentials as title challengers really will be confirmed. wales should have it much easier than last week. they looked down and out in paris but came from 16 points to beat the french. they are in rome to face the italians and they've rung the changes, ten in all. george north is rested. centre jonathan davies will also captain wales for the first time in his career. and there are four players starting a six nations match for the first time. another busy day in the premier league. seven matches in all. black armbands will be worn in today's premier league and football league matches in memory of cardiff city striker emiliano sala whose body was recovered from the wreckage of a plane in the english channel. there will also be a minute's silence at st mary's where cardiff face southampton in their first game since sala's death was confirmed. manchester united, who still haven't lost under ole gunnar solskjaer,

are at fulham in the early kick—off. with manchester city playing tomorrow, all eyes are on liverpool, at home to bournemouth, and a point would take them back to the top of the table but they've drawn their last two, and the manager knows that they need more than that. i don't think that anybody thought that we would be top of the league with 12 points between us and another team and three games to go, it would be end of april or something like that. it was clear that it would be tight until the end. good news still that we are in that. but of course we have to, for the only chance to improve our position, even though it is a good position is by winning football games. great britain's fed cup team have had a brilliant week to reach the europe—africa zone play—off final in bath. jo konta won her singles rubber against hungary after katie boulter had also won hers in three sets. great britain remain unbeaten in the tournament. a victory against serbia later today would earn

them a place in april's world group 2 play—off where they will get the chance of promotion to the second tier of women's team tennis. england's final test gets going in the caribbean later. they've already lost the series but will be looking to avoid a whitewash against the windies. after losing the first two tests in barbados and antigua, they're in st lucia. ben stokes is expected to be fit but ben foakes, the wicketkeeper, has been dropped in favour of keatonjennings. you can follow that on the bbc sport website, and all the football and cricket. let's get more on that horse racing story, as 174 racing stables across britain are in lockdown this weekend and all meetings have been cancelled following an outbreak of equine flu. six cases have been confirmed so far at a stables in cheshire as the authorities work to contain the highly contagious illness.

the shutdown will continue until wednesday and marks the biggest loss of racing fixtures since the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001. bbc sport's frank keogh joins us now. he's been following the story for sport online. how serious is this for the industry? really serious. we are in the middle of the six—day shutdown, till at least wednesday. that could go on further. the rumour mill is suggesting that next weekend's racing would be in danger, which might take the break to the two week mark or longer. 174 racing stables nationwide are unlocked and at the moment. that means the transport movements are restricted. this is allaim to movements are restricted. this is all aim to control the spread of equine influenza, horse flu, which is very similar to human flu. we are talking runny noses, coughs, high temperatures. the difference being that most humans are not elite athletes and most of these thoroughbreds are. what about the

option of vaccination, has not not been used in horse racing? yes, and in fact britain is ahead of the game in this. there was a big outbreak in australia about 12 years ago, where lots of the flu spread among unvaccinated horses. they are vaccinated here. three of the horses at donald mccain's cheshire stables that have the flu, they were vaccinated, and they were the horses that sparked this lockdown situation, so we had four meetings abandoned, first on thursday, and that was extended to another 23, taking us through to wednesday, but we think that a mutated form of the virus or a different strain of flu means that vaccinations are not 100%, they do not work on every single occasion, so they are trying to get to the bottom of it at the

moment. the other thing we need to remember is that horse racing does not just affect the trainers and jockeys, it affects all those other ancillary industries that are depending on —— that are dependent on the meetings taking place. yes, there are caterers, bookmakers, betting, but also, there are other horse industries, breeding, eventing, i think i heard a figure earlier on that there is something like 95,000 horses in the country, but only 16,000 of those are racehorses, so all those racehorses are going into lockdown, but the other events are going on, and some people are questioning the isolation of horses. it is all very well isolating the racehorses, but what about the others? . isolating the racehorses, but what about the others?. i learned this morning that an eight county has been affected in somerset. that is not a racing establishment, it is not a racing establishment, it is not a racing establishment, it is not a thoroughbred, but it goes to show that maybe mike has affected various areas since the beginning of

the year because that is a different counties. thanks very much for being with us to talk us through the implications of this lockdown in horse racing. thanks. 21—year old singer michael rice has been chosen to fly the flag for the uk at this year's eurovision song contest in israel. he'll be singing bigger than us at this year's competition, having triumphed over six contestants in a public vote last night. it's been 22 years since the uk last won the compeitition. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. calming down over the next few days. still quite windy. but plenty of sunshine. some showers mainly for