in minneapolis has ignited anti—racism protests around the world, has called for meaningful changes in american policing. philonise floyd told a congressional hearing his brother's death did not have to be in vain. democrats have introduced legislation on police reforms in congress. authorities in delhi have warned that coronavirus infections in the indian capital could shoot up to more than half a million by the end ofjuly. they say the city will need 80,000 hospital beds by then, delhi's current capacity isjustjust 9,000. russian investigators have detained three managers of the norilsk power plant in siberia on suspicion of breaching environmental protection regulations. it follows the spilling of 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil into local rivers and a lake. environmentalists say it's the worst accident of its kind in post—soviet russia.

now on bbc news, wednesday in parliament. hello there and welcome to wednesday in parliament. on this programme, the labour leader says government plans to get children back to school in england lie in tatters. it's no good — the prime minister flailing around trying to blame others. but the prime minister reckons labour is flip—flopping on sending to children to school. he still can't work out whether he's saying schools are not safe enough or whether or not we should be going back more quickly. also on this programme: a former government scientific adviser says locking down for coronavirus a week earlier would have cut the death toll by half. and calls for a public inquiry into claims hundreds of postmasters were wrongly accused

of stealing money. the post office horizon scandal may well be the largest miscarriage ofjustice in our history. but first, the death of african—american george floyd in minneapolis police custody sparked anti—racism demonstrations across the uk. chanting and in bristol, protestors tore down a statue to edward colston, a 17th—century slave trader. at prime minister's questions, the labour leader asked what this government was doing to tackle inequality. sir keir starmer said there had been seven reports into racial inequality in the last three years alone. i spoke last night to black community leaders, and they had a very clear message for the prime minister. "implement the reports you've already got." so can the prime minister now turbo—charge the government's responses and tell us when he will implement the lammy report and the windrush recommendations? the lammy review, chaired by the labour mp david lammy,

looked into the treatment of black, asian and minority ethnic people in the criminaljustice system. boris johnson insisted his government was implementing its recommendations. we are increasing already the number of black and minority ethnic people in the prison service, as david lammy recommended. we are increasing the use of body worn cameras, and we are trying to insure, amongst other things, that young bame people are not immediately prosecuted as a result of the trouble they find themselves in, and we try to make sure that we give people a chance. sir keir moved onto to the coronavirus pandemic and the reopening of schools in england. the education secretary announced on tuesday that a plan to get all primary school children into class for a month before the summer had been abandoned. the current arrangements lie in tatters. parents have lost confidence in the government's approach. millions of children will miss six months worth of schooling and inequality will now go up.

last week, he was telling the house that it was not yet safe for kids to go back to school. this week, he is saying that not enough kids are going back to school. i really think he needs to make up his mind. 97% of the schools that have submitted data are now seeing kids come back to school. and i think we would like to hear from the right honourable gentlemen is a bit of support for that and a bit of encouragement to pupils, and perhaps even encouragement to some of his friends in the left—wing trades unions to help get our schools ready. it's no good — the prime minister flailing around trying to blame others. a month ago today, a month ago today, he made the announcement about schools without consulting relevant parties, without warning about the dates and without any scientific backing for his proposal. it's time he took responsibility for his own failures. it must‘ve occurred

to the government that space would be a problem, that there would be a need for temporary accommodation in classrooms. they built the nightingale hospitals, why are they only starting on schools now? he still can't work out whether he is saying whether schools are not safe enough, or whether we should be going back more quickly. i mean, he can't have it both ways, mr speaker, it's one brief one day, another brief the next. i understand how the legal profession works, but what the public want to have, what the public want to have is some consistency. i want as many children to go back to school as possible, as soon as possible, as quickly as possible when it say. i've been saying that like a broken record for weeks on end. the labour leader said one way the government could help children would be to extend a voucher scheme, which has been providing free school meals during the coronavirus outbreak. because child poverty numbers are so high in this country, 1.3 million children in low income families rely on these vouchers. they mean children who can't go to school because of coronavirus restrictions still get free meals.

the labour government in wales has said it will continue to fund these meals through the summer. yesterday, the education secretary said that won't be the case in england. that's just wrong. it will lead to further inequality. so can i urge the prime minister to reconsider on this point? we don't normally continue with free school meals over the summer holidays, but we are also, of course, and i'm sure that's right, we are also — of course — aware of the particular difficulties faced by vulnerable families, and that's why we are announcing a further £53 million of local welfare assistance to be used by local authorities at their discretion to help the most vunerable families. mr speaker, this government has put its arms around the people of this country throughout this crisis, and have done it's absolute best, has done it's done its absolute best to help. has done its absolute best to help.

and i may say it is not helped by the wobbling of the labour party, the gentleman opposite. borisjohnson said he'd announce further easing of the lockdown later. the snp's westminster leader wondered if that meant relaxing the two metre social distancing rule. sage reported that being exposed to the virus for six seconds at one metre is the same as being exposed for one minute at two metres. that, mr speaker, is a significant increase of risk. will the prime minister continue to ignore the experts? or will he start imploring the advice of those who have actually read the scientific papers? —— following the advice. clearly, as the incidents of the disease comes down, as i think members of sage would confirm, the statistical likelihood of being infected, no matter how close or far you are from somebody who may or may not have coronavirus goes down. the government has already announced some further easing of the lockdown, including the reopening of zoos

and safari parks from monday, a move welcomed by one conservative. allowing zoos, such as africa alive near lowestoft to reopen from the 15th ofjune is very good news. would the prime minister give full consideration to allowing beer gardens to also reopen from the 15th of june? and he said many faced laying off staff. the prime minister said he was sticking to a plan to reopen parts of the hospitality sector onjuly 4. what we don't want to see is a roiling mass of people that can spread the disease. so it's very important that people understand the continuing risks that this country faces. borisjohnson. in a normal year, the exam season would just about be over for millions of gcse and a levels pupils in england, but the pandemic meant the exams were cancelled, and students will now be graded by a hastily created system of teacher assessments. but will the results be fair, particularly to disadvantaged groups? the commons education committee has been investigating starting with what was at stake.

if you miss out on those sort of threshold grades, if you don't get that four in your english or math gcse, you know, you are likely to get employed at the moment. if you don't get into that sixth form, and by the way, sixth form admissions are a bit of a wild west out there. you know come every sixth form college has a different admissions criteria. if you miss out on that, so if you miss out on those grades, that can have lifelong impacts. what extent are you confident that the grade calculations and standardization process eliminates the potential for bias against pupils from lower income backgrounds, those with special needs, or disabilities and boys? right now, we have a system, a predicted grade system instead of exams, that has been untried, untested and unevaluated.

that's a serious concern. the same stereotypes and prejudices, whether they are conscious or unconscious, that teachers have that are excluding pupils — and we know that they exclude pupils disproportionately in terms of race — are not going to go away when they mark students papers, when they predict their grades, and that's significant. it's absolutely obvious that bame communities are going to be harmed by this. but i also think that white working class is also going to be hugely impacted sector. we know that by the age of five, white boys from disadvantaged backgrounds are already 13% behind disadvantaged black boys in phonics. and we know disadvantaged white working—class boys are 40% less likely to go into higher education than disadvantaged black boys, so, i think it's important that when we talk about these issues, we look at "disadvantaged" full stop. the problems look likely to continue into the next school year.

let's hope the virus is enough in control that we can get lots more children back to school in september, but i don't think that's what civil servants are estimating. so we are looking at this or disruption carrying on possibly even beyond september, so beyond the six months. hopefully with more children in school and i think that means we have to ramp up this delivery of broadband and laptops to every child that needs one. i really worry about, it's like a tsunami of anxiety, hitting schools, a million children who are going to be taking gcse and a levels next year. i think it's after this will be more traumatising in this current one. so i would absolutely urge you guys keep pushing for the summer schools, as a former teacher, i am prepared to come out, work over the summer holidays for the students in my community, volunteering anyway that i can, because if we don't, we are going to fail an entire generation of people. in the sunday times, it suggested that schoolchildren may have disruption in terms of next year's exams, and that they've been drawing up contingency plans

for next summer's exams and they may be delayed possibly from may tojuly, or that you might have teenagers not sitting exams for a second year. is this correct, this report? yes, of course. we are...the government needs to consider, and is of course considering the impact on loss of teaching and learning, then we are looking at what that means for the exam system and what can be done, and we will be coming forth as with all of the other policies that we've implemented so far with a full consultation, a full equalities impact assessment on 2021 in the coming weeks. meanwhile, the commons science committee was told that starting lockdown a week earlier could have cut coronavirus—related deaths by half in the uk. the comment came from a former government adviser, professor neil ferguson. the committee chair recalled

what professor ferguson had told him in late march. at the time when the forecasts were made at the beginning of march, you suspected...you had reason to believe that there were fewer cases in the country than there were at the time. professor ferguson said there'd been much heavier "seeding" of the virus than had been realised because people returning with coronavirus from italy and spain were not being checked at the uk border. what we now know, because the epidemic had taken off in italy and spain, the point that we realised it's probably 90% of cases imported into this country where imported by those countries. he said the death level was also higher than he'd predicted because it was assumed that the most vulnerable people, in care homes, would be shielded from the virus but that had not happened. so, were the right decisions taken at the right time, he was asked. the epidemic was doubling every 3—4 days before lockdown interventions were introduced.

so had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half. professor neil ferguson. now, the agriculture bill sets out the future of farming after brexit. some people are pleased to see the back of the eu's common agricultural policy and welcome the government's focus on paying farmers for productivity and protecting the environment. but there are fears that future trade deals could mean food produced under lower standards being sold in the uk, with particular concern about chlorinated chicken and hormone—treated beef — both illegal under eu law. opening a lords debate on the legislation, lord gardiner said the government was alive to the issue. i can confirm that all food — and, again, i emphasise all food — coming into the country will continue to have to meet existing import requirements as the withdrawal act transfers eu standards onto

the uk statute book. that specifically means, my lords, that the import of chlorine—washed chicken and hormone—fed beef, for example, is prohibited. he set out the wider aims of the bill. this agriculture bill is the beginning of a journey that we acknowledge will take time. we will put farmers and land managers at the heart of this journey. it needs to be their project too. it will not work, my lords, if it is not their project too. so we will support them during the agriculture transition, adequately rewarding them for protecting and enhancing the environment and enabling their businesses to prosper in the production of outstanding british food and drink. amendments introducing legal obligations on food standards were rejected by the commons last month, but opposition parties intend to resurrect them. i want to make it clear that dealing with the issue of standards

is one of our top priorities. domestic standards of production are a clear commitment and all imported produce must comply with food, environmental and animal welfare standards that domestic production has to adhere to. a clear majority of the public wants the certainty of the law to put this commitment beyond dispute, with verification and backtracking. existing uk agriculture policy, agreed as members of the european union, has been pivotal in guaranteeing consumers the safety of their food and respecting the welfare of livestock. it's kept out pork from pigs confined in sow stalls, beef from cattle injected with hormones to enhance their growth and chlorinated chicken to wash away the shame of poor husbandry. the government says it's sincere in its commitments to maintaining those standards, so why not put it on the face of the bill? if there is to be one standard

for imports and another for home—produced food, it is vital that labelling regulations are updated to give transparent and full information to the shopper, who tends to buy primarily on price considerations. and care needs to be given to how consumers in cafes and restaurants are properly informed of the origins of their foodstuffs. 0ne conservative said many rural groups were furious that mps had rejected food standards measures. a letter from the joint secretaries of state states, "the uk government will not compromise on our standards." and it goes on, "0ur manifesto is clear," etc. but my lords, none of us would ever be naive enough to view politics as a squeaky—clean business. indeed, its waters are always somewhat murky. a manifesto can be interpreted in many different ways to sooth those implementing it. words and language can have more than one meaning, legislation can be altered by numerous different mechanisms — some not requiring a vote.

another conservative said there was nothing to fear from world trade. 0n the issue of standards, my lords, the government has rightly committed to maintaining them. and a lot of the amendments in this name are driven by protectionism disguised as animal welfare. free trade is a huge export opportunity for agriculture. a green party peer wasn't impressed with the legislation. what we have is a shell, a statement of a few principles. not so bad on their selves, sometimes even admirable, and some have improved since earlier iterations of this legislation. but there are few commitments to action. this is a grade d effort. the agriculture bill will now go on to its detailed committee stage, when peers will attempt to make some changes to it. you're watching wednesday in parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy. earlier this week, a bbc panorama investigation found that the post office prosecuted postmasters over missing money,

despite having evidence that its own computer system could be to blame. hundreds of workers were accused after the horizon system showed cash shortfalls at their post office branches. the government has announced an independent review into the problems, which stretched back many years. but in the commons, mps from all sides said only a judge—led public inquiry could get to the bottom of the scandal. the post office horizon scandal may well be the largest miscarriage ofjustice in our history — 900 prosecutions, each one its own story of dreams crushed, careers ruined, families destroyed, reputations smashed and lives lost, innocent people bankru pted and imprisoned. does the minister agree that monday's panorama programme adds to the sense of a cover—up on a grand scale in the post office,

a trusted national institution? the minister said the review would seek to "understand and acknowledge what went wrong". the government wants to be fully assured, i want to be fully assured that the right lessons are learned for the future and concrete changes have taken place at post office ltd to ensure that it doesn't be repeated. we want to be sure that, through this review, there's a public summary of the failings that occurred at post office ltd, drawing on the judgements and listening to those, as i say, who have been most affected. this is the purpose of the independent review we're in the process of setting up. it's been six months since judges found major issues, including an excessive culture of secrecy, confidentiality — generally in the post office, but specifically relating around horizon — so can the minister explain why we still aren't getting a public inquiry into this scandal? the prime minister told this house on the 26th of february that such an inquiry would be established, but the proposal set out by the minister today falls short of that. it's noble of the minister to offer

himself up as a human shield for the post office in this way, but i hope that when he returns to the department today, he will tell his officials — who, ifear, have not maybe briefed him as well they might have done — and tell also post office senior management that this reviewjust isn't going to cut it. i can't understand why the government want to prolong the agony of this by the halfway house of an independent review. and i add my calls for a judge—led review and one that progresses speedily. does the minister share my amazement that the post office, who have employed these postmasters and postmistresses for years and years and realised that they were decent, hard—working people, suddenly, they didn't all become criminals. did no—one ask the questions? the minister insisted that a review, rather than a public inquiry, was the best way forward. 0ver thejudge—led inquiries

over the last 20 years, the shortest lasted 45 days. that was one minister dealing with two people. this is an incredibly complicated case. the longest inquiry is 13 years in the last 20 years. it cost £600 million in inquiries over the 20 years. 30 years, forgive me. that is why we need something that will be reasonable in its timing, extensive in its remit, to make sure that we do get to the bottom of this at the appropriate time, as quickly as possible. paul scully. in holyrood, the scottish conservative leader once again pressed the first minister over levels of coronavirus testing in care homes. jackson carlaw has raised the subject regularly in recent weeks with nicola sturgeon. why are we still hearing about problems with testing three weeks after the health secretary promised it would be sorted? why is the story we hear in the daily press conferences in edinburgh so different to what we are picking up on the ground, where it matters? i ask if the first minister is confident about this, then she should set out a clear

timetable and a clear deadline for the first round of care home tests to be completed. this is her chance. will she now take it? i'm not sure how much jackson carlaw knows or bothers to find out about how these things actually work on the ground, but when we say that 50,000 staff of care homes have to be tested, of course there has to be a programme of work over time to make that happen. the processes have to be put in place and the resources, which are in place, have to be put in place. that is work that is ongoing. and she said the progress would show up in data published by the government. labour asked about an emergency hospital in glasgow created — but never used — for the coronavirus pandemic. nhs lockdown has resulted in thousands and thousands of patients going without treatment — at least 80,000 alone waiting for surgery. many are waiting anxiously, many are waiting in pain. 0ne resource not yet used but readily available is the £113 million nhs louisa jordan, so can the first minister today update us on her plans for the nhs louisa jordan?

will the lease be extended — and if so, what role does she see it playing in easing pressure as the national health service begins to restart in the weeks ahead? we will ensure that the nhs louisa jordan is there for as long as we may need it, and i can confirm that, as part of the re—mobilization plans, we are looking at whether and to what extent we could use the nhs louisa jordan to do some elective treatments. the welsh government says it's working with local authorities to see if there are things on display in the country which should be removed and put in a museum. the decision follows recent anti—racism protests. statues in bristol and london have already been taken down. speaking in welsh, plaid cymru's leader, adam price, argued that what was commemorated from the past reflected society's values today. so would there be

a wales—wide review? translation: in order to ensure that we do not in any way celebrate slavery, colonialism or racism in our national monuments or our local monuments. translation: i thank adam price once again for raising this important point. we want to educate and remember but not celebrate, and that's why we are working with local authorities and others in wales in order to consider whether there are things that are still being displayed at the moment which would be better placed in a museum. the brexit party leader questioned why an antiracism demonstration was allowed to go ahead

when the current lockdown rules for wales state that people shouldn't travel more than five miles from their homes. this week, as others were fined for travelling a bit more than five miles to see family, at least one labour memberjoined the protest in bute park. why should others obey the lockdown if labour members who impose it break it? i understand and share the anger that they feel, but there are other and better ways to do that in the current circumstances. people should not gather when they are in close proximity with one another and in violation of the rules that we have set. mark drakeford. and that's it from me for now, but do join me next time for a round up of the week here at westminster. but for now from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye.

well, it doesn't look like the weather is in any hurry to settle down over the next day or two. more rain—bearing clouds on the way. in fact, it has already been raining quite heavily across the south—west of england, western parts of wales, all thanks to this weather front that's been moving across the uk. quite sluggishly really. overcast skies across much of the country. for most of us it has just been patchy rain here and there, and the heaviest of the rain has indeed been across parts of cornwall, devon. it is now clearing away from wales. the little bits of pieces further north and actually scotland and northern ireland escaping most of that rain. 10 degrees will be morning temperature. so here are the occasional showers during the middle of the day. a lot of cloud across england and wales, with a few glimmers of brightness. and then we see another spell of rain heading towards eastern parts of the uk, thursday, late afternoon and evening. and that rain is sort of going to barrel across the uk,

across the pennines, into parts of wales but, all the while, scotland and northern ireland escape all of that weather so actually, during thursday, this is where the best weather will be, in northern ireland, and particularly western parts of scotland. low pressure is pretty much stuck end of the week to the south of us, it's stuck around the bay of biscay but, within this area of low pressure, there is actually quite a lot of fairly warm and humid aircircling. that warm and humid air heading our way but, with it, also comes the return of this weather front so that does mean that on friday we are anticipating again a dose of heavy rain, particularly across the south south—west, and into wales as well and, again, the best of the weather will be the further north you are, in fact cracking weather there in the north of scotland but it will be cooler there, around 1a degrees. that weather front will make its journey a little bit further north during saturday and to the south of that, we'll probably see showers breaking up, the possibility of some thunderstorms as well. this is actually humid air streaming in from the south. those temperatures

will be rising. given a bit of sunshine, we could see highs into the mid 20s across the south. 20 degrees or so on saturday in glasgow. but in western scotland, still a lot of sunshine around. and here's sunday — again, the best of the weather i think the further north you are. in the south we still could catch some thunderstorms. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. i'm mike embley, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the brother of george floyd testifies before congress, calling for real change in american policing. my family cry and cry every day and just ask, "why? why?" a virus warning for india's capital. officials say there could be half—a—million coronavirus cases in delhi by the end of next month. russia says a massive diesel spill in the arctic could take years to clean up. plus, rebuilding the bronx. how one new york city borough hopes to bounce back,