this is bbc world news. unit down to our accidental death unit down to christchurch to work with victims. i'm sharanjit leyl in christchurch. in terms of what is available from us in terms of what is available from us to support families and victims, new zealand's prime minister opens we pay a tax—free funeral grant of a book of condolence for victims of the christchurch attacks — writing "together we are one. they are us". up we pay a tax—free funeral grant of up to $6,219 and an additional $4000 she's now discuss tightening gun of funding from the department of justice. we will be working with laws with her cabinet. funeral directors behind the scenes in order to support this so that it is seamless for families. this money can also be used for repatriation purposes. we also pay a 1—off what the public rightly are asking right now is why is it and how is it tax—free survivors going to the deceased's partner, children, and that you should and are currently dependence. approximately $6,600 for able to purchase military style semiautomatic weapons in new partners, $3300 for children, and if the child or dependent is under 16, this money will go to their parent 01’ this money will go to their parent or caregiver. if the deceased had children living in new zealand, those caring for the children can also receive a weekly payments to help with childcare. if the deceased was earning an income in new zealand

when they died, families may be able to get compensation of up to 80% of their earnings to a certain level. we will keep making payments to partners for five years and where there are children up until the age that the child turns 18. and if a child is in full—time study this can continue until they are 21 years of age. if someone lives overseas, they can still get these payments, provided they have a new zealand bank account or an inland revenue number. if i could encourage people to call our number 0800 080273. there are fact sheets on the website. curnow introduced stephen crombie from the ministry of social development. on behalf of the whole ministry family i would like to

express our condolences and centrepiece to the families of the victims and all of those who were involved in that tragic events. our role is to help with the immediate needs of those affected, particularly things like food grants, petrol, clothing, medical fees and prescriptions. 0ver grants, petrol, clothing, medical fees and prescriptions. over the weekend we have run extended hours for our contact centre is to enable people to contact us as soon as possible. —— centres. to date, we have received 63 calls for assistance on individuals, and we assisted with many for food, petrol and clothing, and we of course expect that to rise considerably. in christchurch we have set up a specialist team in both our linwood and wre ke nton service specialist team in both our linwood and wrekenton service centres, they have the necessary skills to deal with the muslim community and have

access to people with the necessary language skills, as there are multiple languages and nationalities involved. but anyone can come into a service centre throughout the country, and ask for assistance. because it is not only the people directly involved in christchurch but of course there is a much broader community across new zealand who are impacted. we also have our contact centre, which is open from 7am to 6pm, 0800 559 009, and that is available for people to come and contact us. our key message is for people to contact us directly, or be encouraged to contact us, and we will be available to assist where required. thank you. thank you, and

ian also from the ministry of education. can i come with my colleagues and behalf of the ministry of education, also share with you our sympathy for the families direct the affected eye this shocking event, and those indirectly affected by it. i would also like to thank the ministry of education staff, particularly in christchurch, during the time of the lockout, who worked directly with schools who are looking after children at that time. i also want to thank the people who worked over the weekends, both at the ministry of education, the tertiary admission authority and education new zealand, to make contact with surgery providers and 2500 schools and over 5000 early learning services. today's breathing will focus on what we are doing with schools and early learning services, and will give you an update on what we have been doing today. 62 schools have so far run

us, including early learning services, to ask for support, and we have prioritised 24 support today. these are schools that have a connection either with children who are victims or parents to our victims and have strong connections to the muslim community. of those 20, we have now completed and a further ten 20, we have now completed and a furtherten are underway 20, we have now completed and a further ten are under way now. we are awaiting confirmation of two schools about appropriate timing. five ece services are a priority one for us today. four are currently being visited and if it is we are keeping in contact with, as it is not yet appropriate to visit. 0verall not yet appropriate to visit. overall i can say that schools and eces are calm and focused on supporting students and their families. the kinds of things we have done this morning have provided support to teachers about how to talk to children, d briefed with teaching and leadership teams about events during the lockdown, provided

translated parent advice sheets and ke pt translated parent advice sheets and kept message is simple and consistent. these are shared messages across health and other services, which will also be supporting schools and ec is. we are providing cultural support advice and support to help engage families back into school and eces. additional staffing request of —— requested by schools are at minimum at this time, but we are responding as necessary. maintaining close contact with 11 schools, and with further visits likely. 0ur contact with 11 schools, and with further visits likely. our focus is immediately on christchurch and then dunedin, but these offers of service are across the country and we are getting expressions of interest for the support for a number of regions. these support that we are making available to christchurch will continue for as long as necessary, and will be made available to the re st of and will be made available to the rest of the country as necessary. thank you. thank you. i can open for

questions. inaudible question. we have dramatic incident teams that comprise people who are trained in understanding the impact of trauma and understanding how behaviour is likely to change as a result of trauma, which is of course never consistent. people respond to it differently. they are particularly skilled about how to respond to those behavioural and psychological changes and they are able to connect teachers and schools with services as they need them to provide counselling or other psychosocial support. often the traumatic incident teams will work with other professionals such as psychologists, social workers, professionals such as psychologists, socialworkers, education professionals such as psychologists, social workers, education advisers and obviously in schools, as teams with teams of teachers. can you tell us with teams of teachers. can you tell us about the national security

terror threat level, what high means, and weather it is likely to drop down? i think this is probably a question better answered by the police this afternoon. just on the 1737 number, you said there had been 540 co nta ct. 1737 number, you said there had been 540 contact. it is usual? that is about five times the usual volumes. ijust got some new figures, but two of today we had over 300 contacts again. the good thing is that whenever there is publicity like this, or when the whenever there is publicity like this, orwhen the prime whenever there is publicity like this, or when the prime minister talks about the number, then there is an upsurge in calls and they are staffed up to accommodate and respond to those calls. inaudible question. it is a mix of phone calls, text messages and web chat. the 38 minute response time, is that the average length? so, the response time... the 38 minutes is the average of a phone session. yes. are there more staff on hand?

absolutely. a number of organisations have made their staff available to support, because this support can be provided off—site, and be done with anybody who has a telephone and a computer. they are well rehearsed that surging up capacity if needed and they have also reached out to organisations with councillors of the ethnicities that have been affect that by the attacks, and also those from a muslim faith. so they are able to respond to a wide range of callers. you have been watching a briefing by the national crisis management centre ministry in the government, basically co—ordinating all of the emergency responses we have heard. several people have in speaking there, representing different parts of the government, and they have set a number of things, including giving emergency visas a number of things, including giving emergency visas for families of the

injured and those who have passed away, of course a very international number of victims that have passed away. do stay with us here on bbc news. hello. it's been a weekend of wild weather. we've seen heavy snowfall, heavy rain that's been causing some flooding across parts of england and wales. strong winds, particularly on saturday. by sunday it was a day of sunshine and showers. now this was the scene in dover, in kent. we had some huge shower clouds. equally, some blue sky and some gusty winds around. so all in all, some very unsettled weather. but the weather is now settling down. as we head on into monday we've got this high pressure building in from the south—west. still some weather fronts trying to move in towards the north—west of the country. so it won't be dry across the board. but, really, through this week we're looking at a much drier weather picture. less windy.

i think you'll be be pleased to hear that things will be turning a little bit milder, too. although it is going to be quite a chilly start to monday. this is dawn. and you can see those temperatures will be subzero in the east for some areas. could be a touch of frost, even down towards the south—east of england. cloudier skies in the west, so temperature is not as low first thing here. and with that cloud in the west there will be a bit of patchy rain on monday across northern ireland, western scotland, and western fringes of england and wales. further east, you're likely to stay dry through the day with some sunny spells, a bit more cloud building during the afternoon. temperatures on monday still not great for the time of year. but a degree or so warmer than we have seen in recent days. 8—12 degrees or so. but at least we've lost that wind chill we've seen recently. looking further ahead through monday evening and overnight into tuesday, again we've got quite a lot of cloud around. could be the odd clearer spell, allowing those temperatures to dip just down into a touch of frost here and there. but for most of us it's looking reasonably mild moving through into tuesday. and a mostly dry start to the day. you may notice a bit of blue on the map. a few spots of rain across parts of northern ireland, scotland, perhaps into wales, too.

that is courtesy of this weather system, it's a warm front that tries to move on from the west on tuesday. a fairly weak affair. and it bumps into the higher pressure that's holding on towards the south. and quite a bit of cloud around. not a bad day on tuesday. a little light rain for scotland and perhaps in the irish sea coasts. towards the south and east is where you're likely to stay dry throughout the day. top temperatures around about 12—14 degrees or so. not bad for the time of year. through the middle of the week, wednesday, the spring equinox. it does look largely settled and dry. there'll be a bit of sunshine breaking through the cloud. it should be generally reasonably mild. so temperatures widely up to 13—14 degrees. in the warmest spots we could see highs up to 16—17 celsius. so gradually things are warming up a little as we head through the week. towards the end of the week, sunnier spells and it's looking much less windy than it has over the past week or so. bye for now.