hello, it's wednesday, it's 10 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire and we're live from new broadcasting house. the bank of england has made an emergency cut to interest rates to shore up the economy as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. health minister nadine dorries is the first mp to test positive for the virus. she's self—isolating at home and says she's more worried about her 84—year—old mum. the acting leader of the lib dems says it should act as a wake up call. all our thoughts are with her and wishing her a speedy recovery. i think it shows that coronavirus can hit anyone and it should be a wake—up call. also in the programme, a subject we've covered extensively — family courts and doemstic abuse. in today's budget, 5 million is being set aside to trial a new system combining them the fammily courts and criminal courts in some cases.

we'll talk to zoe dronfield, who has experience of both courts. she suffered a bleed to the brain, a stab wound in her neck and a broken arm inflicted during an eight—hour ordeal at the hands of her ex. sales of these have almost doubled in the last year, but now expert physiotherapists have told this programme that the advice from some menstrual cup manufacturers is incorrect and could scause damage to women's pelvic floors if they are not used properly. there was no warning to say this might have happened, and i had really thoroughly read the instructions, so i thought i was doing everything properly. and it didn't say this was a possible side effect. as it can happen, and it did happen to me and other people, it should be mentioned, for sure.

hi, welcome to the programme. we're live until 11 this morning. plenty to come on coronavirus and the budget today. the question i want to ask you today is about having a prolapse...have you had one? and do you know the reason why? the subject of prolpase is going to come up in our conversation about the use of menstrual cups. do get in touch — use the hashtag #victorialive. first, let's bring you the news. the bank of england has announced an emergency cut in interest rates for the first time since the banking crisis of 2008, to help the economy cope with the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. the bank cut its main lending rate by half a percentage

point to 0.25%, matching its lowest ever level. it's also promised to support banks lending to small and medium—sized businesses, which could free up £190 billion in extra borrowing. the bank of england's role is to help uk businesses and households manage through an economic shock that could prove large and sharp, but should be temporary. it's why the bank is announcing today a comprehensive and timely package of measures to help uk households and businesses bridge across the economic disruption caused by covid-i9. these measures will help keep firms in business and people in jobs and it will prevent a temporary disruption from causing longer lasting economic harm. the rate cut comes just hours ahead of today's budget statement, which is expected to be dominated by the economic effects

of the coronavirus crisis. the new chancellor rishi sunak is expected to unveil measures designed to shore up economic activity and divert extra resources to the nhs to help it deal with the outbreak. there's also likely to be extra money for road and rail. the health minister nadine dorries has been diagnosed with coronavirus. she first showed symptoms last thursday, the same day she attended a reception with the prime minister. ms dorries, who's the first british mp to test positive, is now self—isolating at home while health officials try to trace anyone she's been in contact with. tonight's premier league football match between arsenal and manchester city has been called off because of the coronavirus outbreak. several arsemal players are self—isolating after coming into contact with someone who tested positive. meanwhile, nhs england says it's scaling up its capacity for testing so that 10,000 tests can be done daily, compared to just 1,500 currently. confirmation of any positive results will also be accelerated. 382 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the uk so far and six people have died.

the former vice president of the united states, joe biden, has moved a big step step closer to becoming the democratic party's candidate to take on donald trump in november's us presidential election. he beat his rival, bernie sanders, in at least three of the six states in which party supporters voted for their preferred candidate. the final results are still being verified. mr biden said the party was rallying around his campaign. new rules could spell the death of a "throwaway" culture for products that are bought, used briefly, then binned. the regulations — which are being presented by the european commission — will apply to a range of everyday items such as mobile phones, batteries and packaging. they aim to ensure products are designed and manufactured to last. the duke of sussex appears to have been tricked into speaking about his decision to quit the royal

family by russian hoaxers posing as the climate activist, greta thunberg. clips from two recordings by the pranksters have been played on russian tv, although it's not been confirmed that the voice on the tape is that of the prince. reports suggest that harry also made critical comments about president trump in the phone calls. that is a summary of the main use. now back to victoria. we will have more on that harry hoax story later. the impact of the coronavirus outbreak is hitting home. this morning the bank of england cut interest rates back down to 0.25%, the lowest it's been. last night the health minister and conservative mp, nadine dorries, became the first mp to test positive for coronavirus. she says she's taken all the advised precautions and is self—isolating at home. health workers were attempting to trace people she'd been in contact with. in a tweet she said...

and i had a very brief conversation with nadine dorries this morning to ask if she would come onto the programme today. understandably, she said she wouldnt be able to — her absolute priority was her mum. in the last hour york's mp rachael maskell has confirmed she is self—isolating after meeting with leading dorries last week. she said she hasn't got any symptoms. some people have been asking why the minister was able to get a test when they haven't been able to. one man said he has self isolated after returning from asia but can't get a test. mike, where have you been

travelling and when did you get back to the uk? i was travelling around south asia, indonesia, singapore, thailand, malaysia and brunei, as pa rt thailand, malaysia and brunei, as part of the 75th anniversary commemorations for the end of the second world war in that region. i got back to the uk saturday week, the 29th of february. that was when i landed back in london. and what advice were you given by 111?|j started to get the first symptoms of a cold on monday a week ago and have started off with a headache and a bit of a cold, sniffle, flu—like symptoms. by tuesday, i had a fever of 40.5. so at about 5am on wednesday morning a week ago, i phoned up nhs iii. wednesday morning a week ago, i phoned up nhs 111. they asked if i had a cough at the time. my cough was not severe, so had a cough at the time. my cough was not severe, so they said it was unlikely to be coronavirus and i did not need to self—isolate, but to contact them again if my cough got any worse, which it did by the

friday. by saturday, i called nhs 111 friday. by saturday, i called nhs iii again, at which point they said i should have had a test originally from day one. have you been tested thus far? no. iwas from day one. have you been tested thus far? no. i was told somebody would call me back within 24 hours of saturday afternoon to do the test. nobody called back. i phoned again on monday morning and monday afternoon. 0n again on monday morning and monday afternoon. on tuesday i was finally told there was a system error which meant that none of the tests that should have been issued over the weekend were and that somebody would call me back by the afternoon. that call—back didn't happen. i was then told last night, when a nurse finally got through to me, she said there were now seven days' delay between screening and being told you need to test and actually having the test booked in, let alone being tested. what do you think about that? incredibly frustrating. i am through the west of the virus, i

hope. and again, i haven't been tested yet. so i would love to know what i have. i am showing all the signs of corona, but there was the frustration of not knowing what is happening. but there is also the frustration of not having any answer and being given the runaround and nobody can point you in the right direction or escalate the issue. so iam direction or escalate the issue. so i am stuck in limbo. i have been self—isolating for nearly 11 days now. that is interesting because you set when you first rang, they said you didn't need to self—isolate, but you didn't need to self—isolate, but you ignore that advice and you have stayed within your own accommodation? yeah. my immediate concern was, if this does get worse, a fever of 40.5 degrees and spending three days in bed in a dark room with a cold compress on my head didn't feel normal to me. so i tried as best as possible. it is pretty

tough being stuck indoors nonstop, so tough being stuck indoors nonstop, so there have been a few chips out where i have avoided as much contact as possible. but i am also in the situation where my partner is a teacher and the advice that has been given is that because i have not tested positive and he didn't travel to asia, he doesn't need to self—isolate. so there is a lot of contradiction going on. and what is your reaction to the fact that a health minister has tested positive for coronavirus? my initial reaction is, get well soon and best wishes to her and her elderly mother. anyone who is older is at greater risk. but there is a slight degree of, and i tweeted the actual health secretary matt hancock this morning when i saw the news saying, how is it that nadine dorries and just to get a test when others are waiting up to nine days? and i didn't get a reply, unsurprisingly. you said you have

been given the runaround in terms of trying to get a test. it could just be that they are overwhelmed, do you accept that? that was the exact word used on the phone last night, that they were overwhelmed. i am coming from a position where in singapore on the 20th of february, there was health screening at every major attraction. if you are going into a museum, there was thermal temperature testing for every visitor. you had to show id before you went in. you were signed in on a register. so it is not like this has suddenly snuck up on us. i get that the priority has to be with the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, but how we have been overwhelmed in mid march with a virus that has been around since january, that is there where the frustration is building up for me. january, that is there where the frustration is building up for melj understand your wife is a primary school teacher. is she going to work? yes. that is the official advice. because i have not been

tested, because i have not been able to get a test, there has been no need. that is part of the concern. i have spoken to nhs iii for the best pa rt have spoken to nhs iii for the best part of seven or eight times now and nobody has the answer for that. at the moment i am not showing any signs, but there is an incubation period and i am slightly concerned, as everyone is at the moment, that some cannot get a test and i know of many others. really grateful for your time. sounds like you have been sensible. 373 people have so far contracted the disease in the uk, that's a tenfold increase on this time last week when we had just 39 cases. countries around the world have been adopted a string of measures to try and stem the spread of the virus,

our reporter michael cowan has been tracking the different approaches and is with me now. it's now spread to 115 countries around the world, with over 119,000 cases now confirmed globally. and each country has taken a very different tack in how it controls the spread of the disease. let's start with china. they have taken the lion's share of cases around the world. they have seen well over 80,000, particularly in wuhan, where this all started. they have controlled that by cutting all transport in or out of hubei province, which cut it off from the rest of the country. hubei is almost the same size as the uk, 58 million people who they cut off. but the measures do seem to have worked. they had 19 cases there yesterday. at the peak of the outbreak, they we re at the peak of the outbreak, they were diagnosing thousands of people every day. they also closed all their schools across the country and told people to work from home.

let's move on to south korea. formally, south korea had the biggest outbreak outside of china until it was overtaken by italy. south korea have not cut off com plete south korea have not cut off complete cities or places yet, but they do have a large testing regime. it means that people who don't know they have the virus butjust want a test, they can have one in south korea, so they have the highest testing rate of anywhere in the world, which means they have thousands of people in isolation now. those people who are in isolation, this is unbelievable, have the ability to track these people through an app on their phone. so if you were put into isolation, they will be able to tell exactly where you were and if you

have left the quarantine zone, which would not be your house, an alarm would not be your house, an alarm would go off and they would know. south korea have also seen a dramatic reduction in cases. they are seeing about half the daily rate of cases compared to last week. israel is really interesting because they have hardly got any cases. they have got hardly any cases. they have 76 cases, but they have some of the strictest control measures in the world. anyone attempting to enter israel now, whether they are a citizen or a visitor, will have to self—isolate for two weeks. if they can't prove that they can do that, they might not be allowed entry to they might not be allowed entry to the country. iran has a big problem. iran is one of the worst hit cases outside of china. the official figuresjust over 8000. reporters inside the country have written that they don't believe the official figures. they think they are much higher. last week they closed all their schools. they haven't cut any

of their cities off yet. but last week in another extraordinary move, they temporarily released 54,000 prisoners, an extraordinary move. because in prisons, you are in close confinement and it would spread like wildfire through those prisons. italy? as we know, it is the worst affected place in europe. 0ver 10,000 cases now. on monday, in response to the outbreak, the prime minister locks down the entire country. in practice, that means no intercity travel without explicit consent from the authorities. and thatis consent from the authorities. and that is likely to be for an exceptional circumstance. you can still travel within your regional on buses, but not between cities. they have also closed schools, universities, night clubs and cinemas. and yesterday many airlines, particularly british ones, and now is that they were cutting flights to and from italy. now, germany is comparable with the uk.

they have 1500 cases. they are slightly ahead of us. on monday, the government there asked people to work from home and told them to avoid public transport. they asked them to walk or cycle to work if they could. crucially, germany's health minister said he didn't want to close schools because that might affect health workers from getting into work and helping those who need the care. in contrast, we have 382 confirmed cases. the advice here from officials is to wash your hands for 20 seconds or the amount of time it takes to sing happy birthday twice. the government say that they are constantly reassessing the situation and it is likely that measures could be implemented in this country in the next few days. really interesting. let's talk now to various experts. now we will speak to ricardo mexia vice president of the european public health associations infectious disease

control department, tim france, molecular biologist who runs a global health communications company and professor sian griffiths, a public health professor at the chinese university of hong kong. ricardo, why do you think portugal and israel have very few cases? we have had imported cases and we have started having secondary cases within the country. so we are still in the very early stages of the outbreak in portugal. we are trying to contain those cases by identifying them as early as possible and then doing active tracing on the contacts they had and putting them in home isolation and close monitoring so they are getting a call twice a day to assess whether they developed symptoms. that is currently the approach. eventually, we are considering scaling it up

because we had a strict policy on testing as well. so in the next couple of days, we will expand the testing to the broader population. tim, why have you taken your eight—year—old daughter out of school? well, we are trying to minimise the risk of exposure. good morning, by the way. when we look at how health issues have been addressed around the world in the past addressed around the world in the pa st 25 addressed around the world in the past 25 years, hiv and things like this, we realise that one of the lessons is that you have to do things across many different sectors at the same time. i think many of the country descriptions that your correspondent went through shows that doing things across many sectors is important. while i realise that closing schools is a difficult decision, the reality is, we had one of the other callers saying that his partner is having to

go to school as a teacher. we know school is a risky environment. we know that schools have been strapped for resources over the last ten years. what about chris whitty and patrick vallance? they are the experts. they are not advising that children are removed from school or that schools should close. children are removed from school or that schools should closelj children are removed from school or that schools should close. i agree. lam not that schools should close. i agree. i am not saying schools should close. 0ne i am not saying schools should close. one thing we could do for example, of course it closes disruption to close schools. that is not what i am arguing for, but at the same time, if parents have the opportunity to have their children at home and do home—schooling, why should we be penalised for doing the right thing? just like people who are asked not to go to work even though they might not be eligible for statutory sick pay. why do you think you are being penalised? because we have no idea, we have all

heard stories about the regulations around taking your children out of school without good reason. and we have no idea whether that will be applied. the only person we hear from the government is the secretary of state for health. what about gavin williamson? we know from other health experiences in the world that you have to do things on multiple fronts. and yet it seems that the response so far is being largely driven by numberten response so far is being largely driven by number ten and matt hancock. where are the other departments? it is interesting that you mention that we haven't heard from the other departments. we have heard regularly from chris whitty and patrick vallance. is that not enough for you? no, it is not, because there are two sides of this coin. i because there are two sides of this coin. lam because there are two sides of this coin. i am not saying that chris whitty and others are wrong. i am a scientist, so of course i value

their opinion. but there are public— health and political decisions that need to be made and then there are individual decisions to be made. and unless we try to address this on both fronts, we are going to make a mistake. we are six weeks into the response and we haven't anything about schools and children. looking at the effect on what children can do about climate change, children will take messages home, but it is so disorganised. i have heard from some schools where they can't get hold of hand sanitiser, for example. that isjust wrong. let me bring in a couple of messages. nicola says, i am watching your programme on both my children are displaying all the symptoms of coronavirus. i am are displaying all the symptoms of coronavirus. i am aware are displaying all the symptoms of coronavirus. i am aware that it could be another viral infection but there is no test being offered. i went on nine to 111 and they advised me to speak to a gp, which i did. i was told to keep them at home while they have symptoms. my eldest son had a temperature of 39.5 yesterday, coughing, achy legs and a sore

throat. this is crazy. let me bring in sian. tim is suggesting that from his point of view, he wants the government to be doing more. he feels there should be an attack on multiple fronts. what is your view? good morning. chris whitty is the chief medical officer across government. he advises all the departments. if you look on the public health england government website, there is information about schools and a range of things. and it is backed up by the world health organization information. sometimes it is difficult to apply the information in an individual circumstance and we have to have a discussion. when it comes to the issue of whether there is an infected case in a school, a local public health england team will discuss with the school whether closure is necessary. in general,

closing schools is pretty disruptive. with this virus, the data from wuhan shows that 2% of the cases were in the under 20s and few we re cases were in the under 20s and few were in children, particularly younger children. most of the risk is in the over 70s and the over 80s. so this virus seems not to affect children very much. so although flu is passed on quickly in schools, they are not sure whether coronavirus would be. so what are the benefits and disadvantages of closing schools? we know if schools are closed, someone has to look after the kids. that will usually be after the kids. that will usually be a parent who may work in the health service. so that decreases the supply of health for those who need it in hospital. let me read you a tweet that a number of people are sending. this is from martin. the nhs are only testing people in contact with confirmed cases or who

have travelled from a hotspot. we could have much higher levels in the community, but we don't know because we are not testing widely. do you think that is a fair point? today public health england have announced that they are going to be increasing the number is tested to 10,000 a day and they will be able to give the test results within the day. so the new technology that has been in development since the beginning of the outbreak will be available, and that should help with some of the problems that have been discussed. we have to keep up with the virus and see where it is taking us. it is the first time we have had this virus. that is why you see different responses in different countries. countries take decisions based on a lot of information about their population, about the clustering and severity of the disease, all those issues come into decision—making.

sian griffiths, if a government goes to early with perhaps banning big events, might there be a problem with people complain because they don't believe it is necessary? absolutely. being confined to home, i was self isolated after sars. and you start to kick your heels after a while. you have heard from people on the cruise ships. it is pretty difficult to keep people motivated. so if you go too early with closing cinemas en masse, people might not wa nt cinemas en masse, people might not want to comply. do you think that is coming? it will be a matter of judgment based on the spread of disease, the number of cases and the need to suppress demand. when you are taking those measures, you are trying to break the chain of infection. you are trying to contain

and decrease the number of cases so that services are not under huge pressure. so it is an economic and social balance. and the evidence is that if you move too early, in a country with a democratic system such as the uk, you can't guarantee compliance with self— isolation. such as the uk, you can't guarantee compliance with self—isolation. you need to keep people on board. and it isa need to keep people on board. and it is a matter of us thinking of ourselves, but of our communities and particularly the older people. thank you to all of you for your time. tim, one last thing?|j thank you to all of you for your time. tim, one last thing? ijust wa nt time. tim, one last thing? ijust want to respond to a couple of points. the evidence for going too early is not backed up by what we have seen in taiwan and south korea, which acted very quickly and strategically. but tim, they made very different choices. they have much more surveillance. they use the surveillance cameras all the time.

your personal data is publicly accessed. that might not be a cce pta ble accessed. that might not be acceptable in other places. that is not what i'm i am simply saying that we need to use all of the evidence we need to use all of the evidence we have to respond in as many ways as we can. for example, yesterday the who, unicef and the red cross came out with new advice on schools. and they talked specifically about increasing ventilation in schools and encouraging children to express their concerns and ask questions for their concerns and ask questions for their own mental health. those kinds of things are not even mentioned on the department for education website. it is just the department for education website. it isjust rehashed washing your hands and singing happy birthday. i don't disagree over the need to talk children through this. i think it is important to decrease theirfearand i think it is important to decrease their fear and anxiety and to learn from other places. but i think school closures is quite a drastic

step. public health professor at the chinese university of hong kong and tim france, the molecular biologist who runs a global communications company. and the vice president of the european public health association's infectious disease control department. more messages from you, so many of these. i am a doctor who has had flu—like symptoms since the weekend and currently i am not entitled to a test because i haven't travelled but the chief medical officer said anyone with a slight cold is likely to be isolated next week. do i go into work or do i ta ke next week. do i go into work or do i take last—minute annual leave? it is a quandary. you are the doctor, i can't advise you on that! you've got to do what you think is right, being as sensible as you can be. this person on e—mail says i am a health ca re person on e—mail says i am a health care worker working with cancer patients. told by nhs111, gp and

public health doctor the major london hospital needed testing. not told to isolate. but did as common sense. was also told to attend a&e and did. at that point, the 15th there were no isolation hubs so i returned home as it was clearly u nsafe to returned home as it was clearly unsafe to wait there. let's go to westminster and talk to norman. everyone is asking how did the health minister, nadine dorries, get coronavirus? good question, that is key in trying to trace who else might have been infected and whether nadine dorries infected anyone else because she is a health minister and is dealing with government officials the whole time and presumably has meetings with matt hancock, the health secretary. perhaps more importantly, she also attended the international women's day reception at downing street on thursday night after she began to feel a bit peaky.

that matters because at that event we re that matters because at that event were the great and good female figures from the world of politics, from business, from sport. you had people like dame kelly holmes and the international development secretary and liz truss and alison rose, the chief executive of rbs and they were all there and the prime minister and carrie symonds. there isa minister and carrie symonds. there is a big question about whether any of them have now picked up the virus. so far, none of them have given any indication that they have. but all sorts of questions being asked and we know rachel maskell, labour mac's shadow environment minister saying that she had a meeting with nadine dorries and so she is self isolating and has been advised by 111 to self—isolate. nadine dorries was in the commons on

recently. the overwhelming view is that parliament will not shut up shop because that sends out a terrible signal but there are questions about how far you can allow visitors into parliament and whether mps will have to be stopped from going on foreign trips and that sort of thing. it is an indication of where we are going and how quickly this is now unfolding. this is the backdrop to the budget. infrastructure spending to come, we know, but it will be dominated by coronavirus. yes. the infrastructure spending is the headline the government wanted, the big announcement, but not compared to coronavirus, that totally overs ha d ows coronavirus, that totally overshadows this budget and everything that is going on at westminster because many businesses are facing a real tussle to know whether they can keep going in the

very near future. they need to have some clear guidance, help, in this budget to tide them through and the sort of things that have been mooted is perhaps giving them tax breaks, may be a loan, may be grants and business rates holidays and may be saying to the banks ease off on the lending front and on top of that, the chancellor has already said he is going to make whatever cash the nhs wants available. a huge wodge going to the nhs on top of the extra money and in terms of individuals, what do you do about the millions, andi what do you do about the millions, and i mean millions, of people not covered by sick pay? self employed, those in the gig economy and those who don't earn enough because if you don't and £118 a week, you are not eligible for sick pay. what about people who do the right thing but don't get sick pay? there needs to be some sort of help for them. that

is just nuts and bolts and hugely important for people's everyday lives. yes, infrastructure spending, big announcement but this is the coronavirus budget. thank you. full coverage with andrew neil on the bbc. a number of health care professionals a re bbc. a number of health care professionals are making comments about the fact that nadine dorries, the health minister, has tested positive for coronavirus. jonathan ball is professor of urology at the university of nottingham and asks if she is part of a known or unknown source of transmission chain? don't like to personalise things but the close of this gets to government, the most likely the 10—14 day delay will decrease. not asking for lockdown but more realism. katie from bradford also said the health secretary matt hancock to say i work ina secretary matt hancock to say i work in a hospital, i am currently ill and can't get a test. surely it is more important i am tested, no?

thank you, keep them coming in. you can send an e—mail as well. news just in about the great british bake off, the new co—host is matt lucas joining noel fielding. it will be an absolute scream. matt lucas and noel fielding the co—host of the great british bake off when it comes back for the new series because it sign detox fig announced she was leaving. good luck to them. —— because sandi toksvig. could menstrual cups be contributing to some women suffering from pelvic organ prolapse. we will speak to some women who think that has happened to them. for the past year, this programme has repeatedly shone

a spotlight on the family courts — and the experiences of victims of domestic abuse who find themselves there. our investigation revealed that at least four children had been killed by a parent with a known history of domestic abuse in the space of five years after a family court granted access. and we've heard anecdotally from dozens of parents, lawyers, domstic abuse organisations and mps that the courts are routinely granting unsupervised contact to parents with criminal convictons including even child sex abuse, rape and serious violence. after our coverage, the government announced a review of how the family courts handle cases involving domestic abuse — and today, the chancellor will announce £5 million in the budget for a trial of special domestic abuse courts aimed at tackling some of the issues we've raised. as yet, we don't know the detail of exactly how they will work,

but the government says they will be courts where criminal offences are heard alongside family law cases "in parallel". let's talk to cris mccurley who is a lawyer who specialises in case involving victims of domestic violence and cases involving family court hearings, lucy hadley is from women's aid, labourmp louise haigh is the shadow policing minister and zoe dronfield, who has had experience of both criminal and family courts. welcome, thank you for coming on the programme. louise, you met the releva nt programme. louise, you met the relevant minister recently, you might have more of an understanding than the rest of us of what this new idea might involve. the review was set up following joint campaigning and it has concluded that data is routinely not shared between the family and criminal courts. impossible to believe that the family courts routinely do not take into account offenders and the fact that they might have been convicted

of rape and sexual abuse and domestic violence. it is often com pletely domestic violence. it is often completely ignored. for the victim has to reprove herself go through the trauma she has experience all over again the trauma she has experience all overagain —— or the trauma she has experience all over again —— or the victim. cross—examined by the perpetrator in family court. this is important to tackle this issue to make sure criminal convictions and data is properly shared between the criminal system and family court system. it is also an important step towards accountability and transparency. how can it be more transparent? family court hearings are secret and criminal cases are not, anyone can turn up and watch justice being done. that's right but in criminal cases where there are children involved and victims of rape and sexual abuse, there are protections in place for privacy and that is the case we have always made for the family system that it should be more transparent and there could easily be those protections in place. hopefully this is an important step to make sure there is transparency and accountability and shining a spotlight on the horrendous

practices that are sadly, place in the family system. cris, what do you think? can i start with a snapshot of where domestic abuse services are at the moment. it is relevant to the financial investment that is being proposed. as a result of over a decade of really brutal cuts to familyjustice service, decade of really brutal cuts to family justice service, can justice service, domestic abuse services, they really are under an enormous strain at the moment and that is especially so for bame services. i welcome any investment into these areas but i want to be convinced that this is where the money will most effectively be spent and i have to say, i have my doubts about what i've seen so far being proposed. what are your concerns specifically, cris mccurley? there is a proposal to put i think 10 million into early intervention for the highest risk and highest... violent... offenders.

we very often talk about the need for early intervention in family law cases particularly. but what we are talking about is nipping a problem in the bud before it expands and becoming something much bigger. if somebody is already a high—risk, high violence designated perpetrator, nipping in the blood, early interventionjust perpetrator, nipping in the blood, early intervention just doesn't seem like that's the appropriate action to take. 0k. like that's the appropriate action to take. ok. i like that's the appropriate action to take. 0k. iwould like that's the appropriate action to take. ok. i would need to know more about that. they're ever, your expense with the family court was with a different partner. —— 0k. to the man who was convicted of assaulting you in a criminal case that you have experience of both systems, how do you feel you were treated by both systems? in the criminal court i was dealt with as a victim and witness and i had special measures. however, in family court, i was dealt with as if i was a criminal, as if i had done something wrong and i was responsible for the violence i had received. extremely

different experiences. and, actually, not one i would like to repeat. yeah. you have given us some photographs, which you have said we can show on television, which show the injuries you sustained in the assault, which took place on you. they are really upsetting, so if there are young children around, you may not want them to watch. you are recovering from an attack by a man called jason smith when you were asked to attend a family court hearing involving a previous former partner. had there beenjoint hearing involving a previous former partner. had there been joint cases and joint court, that wouldn't have happened? absolutely. that was one of the things i raise. sorry to pause you, but i am looking at your injuries. 0h, pause you, but i am looking at your injuries. oh, my god. how did you survive? i'm lucky to be here. really? yeah. goodness me. sorry, i interrupted you. i've lost my train of thought. if there were parallel

cases orjoint courts, you wouldn't have been asked to attend a family court hearing while recovering from those injuries in hospital. absolutely. i had to discharge myself in hospital and i was still bruised. when i appeared in family court, it wasn't appropriate. i was still recovering from the injuries and, no, it wouldn't have happened. i spent £14,000 going through that process, which i know many victims don't have the means to do that or the fight to even go through family court. it's a horrific experience, worse than the attack and i actually always say that. do you mean that? yes, i absolutely mean that. i would rather deal with that side of things again, because the criminaljustice syste m again, because the criminaljustice system was different, completely different. i had domestic abuse advocate with me in court. but family court, no, nothing, i had no support whatsoever. lucy, where our women's aid on this idea? as we

heard from zoe, women expressing domestic abuse have vastly different experiences of criminal and family courts and any effort to improve the consistency and safety the victims experience is welcome. as cris mccu rley experience is welcome. as cris mccurley said, there is a massive lack of investment in the could not just side in response to domestic abuse and domestic violence courts under resourced and patchy across the country, as it stands, for criminal cases, in the family court, we've got a situation where the majority of women we speak to have no a ccess majority of women we speak to have no access to special protection measures. really basic things like separate entrances and exits and waiting times to keep them safe in the perpetrator. would this joint pilot address that? louise, do you know the answer to that? we don't know the answer to that? we don't know the answer to that? we don't know the details but hopefully, as zoe said, she received the special measures and protection in the criminal case. bringing them any closer to the criminal system will have to improve the practices. if

most criminaljudges saw what was going on in the family system, they would be horrified. sorry, lucy, i interrupted. i agree. it is important to look at how this could work and it was trialled once before in south london and it didn't have great outcomes but it doesn't mean we shouldn't improve the consistency and information sharing. more urgently, the government should act to get equal access to protection measures across civil, family and criminal courts in the domestic abuse bill going through parliament right now and fund that so all of our courts are up—to—date and up to scratch and can keep victims safe. 0k. hopefully we will find out more detailfrom the 0k. hopefully we will find out more detail from the chancellor. i appreciate your time, each of you. and our actionline website is bbc.co.uk/actionline — if you need help there are loads of organisations listed there who you can contact. there are reports this morning that prince harry has become

the latest victim of russian hoax callers posing as greta thunberg and her dad. according to the sun, during the call, the person, reported to be the duke of sussex, spoke about everything from donald trump and borisjohnson, to his relationship with the royal family. the bbc hasn't heard the full recording and can't verify everything that was in it. but we do have this: i think, for many, many years, we've not been at a tipping point but every year we get closer and once we get over that tipping point, then, you know, it all changes. but at the moment, the fossilfuel you know, it all changes. but at the moment, the fossil fuel industry and certain presidents around the world, are driving completely the wrong agenda. the most important thing to do is, you know, i don't mind saying this to you guys, i think the mere fa ct this to you guys, i think the mere fact that donald trump is pushing the coal industry so big in america, he has blood on his hands. the effect that has on the climate and the island nations are far away, out

of sight, out of mind. but we visited those places and i'm sure you have as well. people's lives have been completely destroyed. people are dying every single month by some form of natural disaster that has been created from this huge change in our climate. i don't know about you but that really did sound like prince harry. let's get more now from our correspondent, sarah rainsford, who's in moscow. the reason we are talking to sarah in moscow will become clear in a moment. firstly, what else its prince harry said to have said to the russian hoaxes? this appears to have been a long call and i spoke to the man claiming to be greta thunberg's father. he says all the quotes that have been released so far accurate but we cannot confirm this was 100% harry in the call but comments that have come out a lot on climate change and supportive comments from the man that appears

to be harry on greta thunberg a's campaign against climate change talking about british politics as well. the prankster told me that the man he says was harry started a conversation about british politics, saying the system in britain was broken. he talked about donald trump, as you heard. he talked about the paparazzi and how difficult it was to marry a prince. an awful lot of topics covered. i have been told the conversation lasted for about an hour at two separate phone calls to prince harry we believe, in canada. the prankster himself said he has made many phone calls in the past, he has reached presidents, heads of states and he said he won't reveal his source and how he got the number. but he said the prince seems to have a lot to get off his chest and he was very open to talking. extraordinary if true. who are the hoaxers? two very well-known russian pra nksters hoaxers? two very well-known russian pranksters who have called people from eltonjohn to the head of the

un, to bernie sanders, to all sorts of characters in the past. posing as greta thunberg and her father and as vladimir putin. buckingham palace has made no comment at all on this phone call. it is simply the hoaxers saying this was prince harry although it does sound like him. they have said that they have managed to trick plenty of people in the past and certainly those that have called have turned out to be true. an extraordinary call and extraordinary they managed to get through in the first place but it seems that harry, if indeed it was him, had an awful lot to say. thank you very much. this is a menstrual cup. some women use them during their periods — you literally put it inside you and it catches the blood. sales of these devices have almost doubled in the last year, but now expert physiotherapists have told this programme that the advice from some menstrual cups manufacturers is incorrect and could cause damage to womens‘ pelvic floors if they are not used properly.

women have told us they believe using a menstrual cup contributed to them having a prolapse — pelvic organ prolapse is when one or more of the organs in the pelvis — like the womb, or bladder — slips down from their normal position and bulges into the vagina. it can cause real pain and discomfort. 0ur reporter anna adams has this... they've been around for decades, but it's only in the last few years that menstrual cups have really started to take off here in the uk. more than 7% of women who have periods now use them. they can last for ten years and they're much greener and cheaper than traditional products. and that's exactly why jenny wanted to use one. she said everyone was recommending them. lots of your friends were using them. yeah. and what were they saying about them ? they were raving about it. even a male friend whose partner was using one at the time said, "how come you aren't

on one of these? this is right up your street. you know, its green. you love green things". i'd never heard of one. so that's when i thought, "well, everybody‘s telling me to do it". sojenny used the cup for three months before she realised something wasn't quite right. i felt something sort of hanging that shouldn't have been there. and i didn't know what it was. what did it feel like? i mean, in terms of something that i could equate it to, it felt like i had a tongue hanging down, if that sounds too graphic, i don't know. it was just like there was something that isn't normally in there hanging out. so, yeah, i thought i'd go to my gp and just double check. i thought there might have been some kind of a lump there or something. there was something physically there that shouldn't have been there and hadn't been there before. and that's when she said it was a minor prolapse. the royal college of gynaecologists and obstetricians say it affects 40% of women over the age of 40. and it occurs when the pelvic organs, the bowels, the bladder and the womb, descend into the vagina. but in mild cases, it can be

treated with physiotherapy. you fold down like that, you reduce the size and you feed it in. the chartered society of physiotherapists says some instructions aren't clear enough. and they're calling for menstrual cups to be better regulated. probably women who've not had children have gone from tampons to cups. it's a very different mechanism to put in and take out the cup as it is to the tampon. so then vaginally... kate lough, who's spent more than 20 years treating women's pelvic floors, says problems could occur when the cup is being incorrectly removed. knitted vagina. find a way that suits you to fold the cup and put it in. in it goes, up like a pop up tent and it's sitting with a suction effect in there, collecting the blood from your period. 0k. so then you have to think, "how do i get this cup out?" if you just pull on the on the end, it's heavily suctioned in and actually, you're going to drag down. and that's not what you need to do. so squeeze the bottom

to release the suction effect through the little holes at the top or put your finger right into your vagina and release the suction at the rim at the top. she says some of the instructions could actually be harmful. i think having looked at some of the information on some of the cups, particularly information about taking the cup out, is not correct and is hard to understand. so using your pelvic floor muscles to bring the cup lower in the vagina is not correct. if you tighten your pelvic floor muscles, the cup will go up. bearing down to push the cup within reach of yourfingers is not good pelvic floor advice. within a week, every month, you're actually bearing down quite heavily. and that's not great because you'll stretch your pelvic floor muscles and it counters the advice that women would be given to avoid prolapse. well, lots of women are able to use menstrual cups without any bad side effects whatsoever. but in the uk, the cups are not

classified as medical devices, which means they're completely unregulated, which is why some manufacturers have conflicting advice. maria is 40. she's had two children but hadn't had any problems with prolapse before she started using a menstrual cup. it's a big thing. it's not like a tampon. it is much bigger than i thought it would be once you open the box. it was a bit uncomfortable for me at first to take it out. you have to do it very slowly and you can feel it sucking you. when she removed the cup, she felt like something was still inside her. i felt a bit of discomfort and i thought, "hold on a minute, haven't i taken it out or is this still in?" so i go to the bathroom, i check it. itjust felt like a big lump. and it felt like my body was coming out and i said, "aha! "you're at a certain age, you've had children,

"you've heard of vaginal prolapse". and i said, "is this what's happening to me?" and then i managed to get an appointment the following week. and the gynecologist did say to me, "you do have a slight vaginal prolapse, but nothing to be scared of. it probably happened because of the cup". she advised not to use it any more because of what had happened to me. the women we spoke to said they should have had more information about menstrual cups and prolapse. there was no warning to say this might have happened, and i had really thoroughly read the instructions. i thought i was doing everything properly and it didn't say this was a possible side effect. as it can happen, and it did happen to me and other people. it should be mentioned for sure. comedian and women's health physiotherapist elaine miller joins me from edinburgh. what a combination. good morning. do

you think there should be more advice, better advice, you think there should be more advice, betteradvice, on the packets ? advice, betteradvice, on the packets? it is important we give better advice about anything to do with managing their pelvic floor and pelvic health. we don't have actual data on whether this is a correlation or causation that women are reporting this. some women find using a cup is beneficial because they reported give them support, particularly if they are doing running exercises. we need more evidence. that's true. in terms of women's pelvic floor is generally, it is not an open conversation we have about prolapse and pelvic floors but it is important to do the right exercises, isn't it? —— pelvic floors. one in three women wet themselves and with we can get women doing pelvic floor exercises, up to 70% of women will be completely dry just by doing that. and if we can't

help them, if they have stress incontinence, six sessions of physio has an 84% cure rate. pelvic floor exercises that are cheap to teach and the only side effects are improved orgasms. is that a scientific fact or are you chucking that in because you are a comedian? not gold standard evidence but there is evidence. laughter the issue of prolapse is a really serious one and it is widespread but women don't talk to other women about their own prolapse. we don't really have a good vehicle for educating women about what happens to their bodies post—childbirth and with menopause. but as your article said, the royal college of gynaecologists say 40% of women over the age of 40 have one. if you do your pelvic floor exercises, it will maintain the prolapse. it won't cure it but it will stop it from getting worse and that is really important. thank you so much for your time, we really appreciated, thank you for being patient and coming on the

programme. pelvic floor campaign, if women's physio and a stand—up comedian. debbie says i have used one of these menstrual cups and liked it until i realised it has caused my prolapse, which i had physio to resolve to relapse. had no idea this was a risk and definitely wouldn't have used one had that risk be made clear in the packaging. rebecca says i have used one of these four years and it has made a huge difference to my periods. sarah, though, is nota fan. huge difference to my periods. sarah, though, is not a fan. thank you for getting in touch. thank you for watching. have a good day, back tomorrow. bbc newsroom live is coming up next. good morning, sunny spells across many parts of england and wales at the moment and further north across scotland, a few more showers around but we have had rainbows spotted by our weather watchers and this beautiful one from the highlands this morning. the showers will feed

their way further south and in northern england and wales, we will see showers turning up this afternoon and sunny spells developing in scotland, northern ireland and the south of england staying largely dry with some sunshine this afternoon. gusty winds, potentially 45 miles an still quite mild across southern areas with temperatures 15 celsius and further north 8 or nine celsius but that cooler air will move its way further south overnight tonight. a much colder night tonight compared to the last few some frost around and with that, some snow and low levels and ice across northern parts into tomorrow morning. further showers here, quite blustery in the north—western areas and further south, sunny spells with one or two showers and it will turn chillier. goodbye.

you're watching bbc newsroom live. it's11am and these are the main stories this morning. the bank of england announces an emergency cut in interest rates to shore up the economy, citing the threat from coronavirus. the bank also says it will free up billions of pounds of extra lending to help support businesses. these measures will help keep firms in business and people injobs and they will prevent a temporary disruption from causing longer lasting economic harm. the bank's moves come as the new chancellor, rishi sunak, prepares to deliver his first budget. he's expected to announce support for the nhs and new spending on infrastructure. i'm here in wakefield getting reaction to that rate cut

—— the hope is