this is bbc news. the headlines. the reproduction number of coronavirus transmission across the uk has risen above one — as the daily number of confirmed cases hits the highest level since the middle of may. tougher lockdown restrictions for more areas of england — from 15th september, no inter—household contact will be allowed in birmingham, sandwell and solihull. we've got to be very concerned here in the west midlands, we are basically seeing a doubling of the rate of the virus of the last seven days, so action did have to be taken to stop that increase. the government announces that a new covid19 contact—tracing app will be launched in england and wales later this month the uk economy grew by 6.6% injuly, say official figures, but it remains far below pre—pandemic levels.

borisjohnson is due to hold a conference call in the next hour with conservative mps — amid growing anger about his plans to override part of the brexit withdrawal agreement. in the last few minutes we've learned that a total of 3,539 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in the uk — that's the highest daily figure since may the 17th. this comes as data released by the government's scientific advisory group has confirmed that the reproduction number, or r value, of coronavirus transmission across the uk has risen above one, meaning the epidemic is growing. meanwhile — the uk's largest study of coronavirus infections has found the number of cases is now

doubling every week. new lockdown restrictions have been announced in parts of the west midlands which have seen a sharp rise in covid—19 cases. from tuesday, households in birmingham, sandwell and solihull will be banned from mixing together. meanwhile, wales will follow england and scotland and ban indoor gatherings of more than six people from monday. groups of up to 30 will still be allowed to meet outside, unlike other parts of the uk. and facemasks will now be mandatory in shops and in other enclosed public spaces. with more on the uk's rising r number, i've been speaking to our health correspondent, james gallagher. as you how many people on average each person infected past the one on two. if the our number is ten then

someone passes the virus on to ten other people. if the are is below one, that means the epidemic is shrinking, because you're passing it on to progressively fewer people. when it goes above one, that means it is increasing. it means cases are starting to go up. in fairness, wherever you look, you can see that. if you look at the daily nhs testing data, you see a trend of cases going up. if you look at the ons study, that shows cases are up. if you look at the app, where nearly 4 million people are logging their symptoms every day, natures cases are going up. we are very definitely in the new stage of the pandemic in the uk, where we are dealing with rising cases ready for the first time since lockdown. how variable that is the ra across the country? it must be varying to a certain extent, or it would be having these local restrictions. clearly, yes, there are hot spots. you talk about birmingham there, bolton. it's been leicester before. but i was speaking to some

officials quite close to this earlier today and they say you can't think this is just about hotspots now, this is something that is widespread and happening up and down the united kingdom. there is a widespread rise in coronavirus cases. you can't think of it or while there are hotspots, it's not just hotspots. there is a skew towards cities rather than countryside, but it's something you need to be thinking about across the whole of the uk. and that is why, if you think back to just a couple of days ago, we had the rule of six. it is not a lockdown, it is a new series of national policies. but people will be forgiven, i'm guessing, for being a bit confused about this. yes, that important figure of six indoors and outdoors, the people still going to work. being encouraged to go to work. and go back to school and university? it was comes down

to the big question with coronavirus. it's going to be the massive question that we face as we go into what some scientists think is going to be a difficult winter, of how do you balance tackling the violent macro virus versus having a society getting on with our lives. somewhere in between the two, you have to decide what you want to do. do you want to shut down society up until the point we have a vaccine, a rule of one, but nobody wants to live in a world like that. so what you have to do is make difficult decisions, and that is why some places are still opening in some places are closing. thank you very much. we can speak now to the shadow health secretary, jonathan ashworth. he joins us from leicester. a study that knows too well what another lockdown looks like. how concerned are you about the rising number of cases, particularly it

seems among younger people and the need for these extra restrictions to be brought in? i am deeply concerned. very worried indeed and we have seen rates of infection increased amongst younger people, yes, but also beginning to see admissions to hospital beginning to slow the climb up ever so slightly but admissions to hospital are increasing as well. there is some evidence now that infection rates have been climbing at the age brackets also, so it does look like at the start of some degree of resurgence in the virus. back in the beginning of summer i warned the government that unless you fix your testing and tracing we could be in a very serious situation by the autumn. they did not take your advice and have not fixed testing and tracing, i'm urging them again to get a hold and get a grip of this testing fiasco so people can get a testing fiasco so people can get a test and invest in local public health teams so we can have effective contact tracing. even

without that, we as members of the public, as members of communities which is seeing this number rises to we've got to do our part irrespective of whether there is a test entry system in place. absolutely and that's what a clear communication from government about what actual rules are. we had a lack of communication and a bottle from government over who can get a test and who cannot. we fed adverts across the country saying if you feel unwell try and get a test, we've had matt hancock the health secretary telling people that if you are in doubt get a test, with no got them saying only get a test if you've got symptoms, i think people just want to do the right thing and just want to do the right thing and just want to do the right thing and just want clarity from government as to what the right thing is. we've all got to play our part and to wash our hands to wear masks and stick to this new rule, i know the tory mps don't like it but we've all got to

play our part as well to bring these infection rates down. you say conservative mps don't like it but if the conservative government in charge of this and now saying across all parts of the country there will be new restrictions and some will be stronger than others. your experience of being there shows they do eventually work. we've still got some degree of restrictions here, and it has taken a huge toll on our local economy and businesses, and of course people who still cannot meet their loved ones in their garden or in their home for example if they're out of their bubble. this is really difficult, but it has meant that we brought infection rates down. one of the other things we did hear was we did extensive mass testing. that's really what these other areas need like birmingham that have gone into a version of lockdown. we got these problems with the testing regime where people can't get a test, being told to go as far as inverness for a

test or being told to go to edinburgh. this is crazy. the government have got to get a grip on this, if they shamble, and it's not working at the moment. move her for quite a lot of critics that say local responses by authorities in those areas is vital. absolutely. totally agree. the governments have a centralised system. they are outsourcing companies, they have not got any background in testing and tracing people. but they are used to dealing with large—scale projects, aren't they? that's where their skill lies and in dealing with mass systems. but the really skilled people on the public health directors on the ground. they are trained in infectious disease control, and wherever there has been an outbreak, whether it's salmonella

or sexual health infection outbreak, the other experts to do the tracing on the ground, that's what they are trained to do. they should be put in the driving seat and given more back—up and support an investment truly to the contact tracing. they're just not getting a hold of people. when he people to isolate if they've been in touch with someone with a virus. but they also need the support to isolate as well. if you have 80 our contract are not eligible for sick pay you are not taking weeks off work if you are going to lose her wages and can put food on the table. these things are problems in the system that desperately need sorting out. share some advice with your sister city in the west midlands following the experience of the localised lockdown. you will come through this, but it is going to be difficult. but you will come through this no question. but please follow the social distancing advice and around mask wearing hand hygiene,

stick to the groups of six and i know that's difficult but also get the testing and that's the message from the government. get the testing into. this is about protecting people public lives and protecting their health and wellness. so please, government ministers, fix this testing. got to get a grip on it. we will see what they're doing about that right now. the shadow health secretary, thanks for your time this afternoon. households in birmingham have been mad that he make band from mixing following a spike in coronavirus cases. the measures have also been introduced in the neighbouring boroughs of sandwell and solihull. the restrictions will begin on tuesday. liverpool and its surrounding areas have been placed on the government watchlist. labour councillor ian ward is the leader of birmingham city council. hejoins me now. thank you forjoining us, we are just hearing therefrom jonathan

ashworth, the importance of testing in places like esau in lester. what's the provision you are going to be putting in place to access tests ? to be putting in place to access tests? we've introduced a number of walking test locations across the city and some additional drive—through centres as well. but we are supplementing that with an initiative called drop and collect where by we drop off a testing kit at someone's house and then go back at someone's house and then go back a few hours later in order to collect it. and we are beginning to roll that out now across the city in order to drive our testing numbers up, buti order to drive our testing numbers up, but i do agree with what was just said from there is that we need the government to ramp up the availability of testing to get a hold of the virus which we have seen rocket up. it's quite unpleasant

thing to have to do to yourself, to ta ke thing to have to do to yourself, to take that test. you're putting it right to the back of your nose, it's not a nice thing to have to do. how reliable is it if you carry out the tester yourself with no training? while there are guidance notes that are issued with the kids, and what we have seen thus far over the last week when we have been delivering and collecting these kits is that they are managing to be successful. people are getting a result from those test kits, what we need to do is roll this initial initiative which we ran in one word here across the rest of the city we are trying to ramp up the resources in order to do that the more we come back to it when he more capacity from governments as well. you are a labour member, the mayor of the west midlands is a conservative come up to what extent are part of politics getting in the way of what you need to do in birmingham? this is a public health emergency, this is not about party politics. but there's

been huge criticism about the party politics of the westminster conservatives stop you that we have criticism of the government where we don't believe they've handled this pandemic well such as providing ppe or providing food to those shielding during the lockdown. but we are working quite closely with our mayor in order to ensure we are keeping people as safe as the possibly can in the city and that we are carrying out whatever measures we can to keep social distancing and wearing face coverings, regularly washing hands insuring as people move around the city and returned to work there kept as safe as there's between me and the mayor here because they're both concerned with saving lives and keeping people safe. how do you monitor if people are mixing households if you don't want them to? this relies on the common sense and peoples desire to follow the rules. what i would say is that the

rules. what i would say is that the rules now are that you cannot mix households across the city, so certain households cannot gather together in one house either indoors or in private gardens, and we need people to abide by that restriction if we are going to see the virus numbers going down here in birmingham. if you don't need the numbers going down in a few weeks' time you're only going to be faced with even tighter restrictions than the ones that are going to be introduced on tuesday, and no one wa nts to introduced on tuesday, and no one wants to see the economy lockdown again and no one wants to see children and young people denied the opportunity of going back to school. will be talking to andrew mitchell and a moment, why have you included that in these restrictions when a number of cases there is much lower? because what we're seeing from the data is that the virus is moving around, it's not consistent in location. and it's moving around. as we have increased testing what we

are beginning to see his increasing case numbers. to be safe for eve ryo ne we case numbers. to be safe for everyone we are introducing these restrictions across the city as a whole and they don'tjust apply to birmingham, they also being applied to solihull and sandwell. and we must never make this place is a because we upset people if we look at the geography right. thank you very much. let's speak now to the conservative mp, and former chief whip andrew mitchell. he isjoining us now. i hope you heard ian ward possibly explanation there that to be safe it was important to include that in this restriction, what is your view of that? we have to take medical advice and he is right. the west midlands mayor has made it clear across ways of the west midlands the amount of coronavirus is rising and

unfortunately the infection rates does not respect city borders and constituency borders, so although i very much regret that this measure has been taken at think it's a proportionate measure, it will i hope affect the economy and the drive to get the region back on its feet and ensure we preserve jobs wherever he can, i don't think it will affect the drive to do that and i hope that it will slow the infection rates, particularly so that it does not mutate between generations. obviously we are very worried about the big increase amongst young people and the possibility that that might migrate into the older generation were much more vulnerable. i think the measure that has been announced is based on not political advice but medical advice, and we must all abide by the new regulations, and if we don't it will get worse. the body by the new regulation is extremely important. it seems you have been convinced the last couple of days, i was reading

in the birmingham mail that a couple of days ago you were arguing against it being included, why the change of heart? i regret it has been found necessary, and the increases only very marginal since we look to the figures a few days ago and saw that the royal town was one of those areas where there had not been an increase, but there has been an increase, but there has been an increase in the last few days, and i have to accept that for the safety of my constituents. i believe it depends on abiding by these new rules. they are not on total lockdown, they are fortunate in making sure that households don't next. it seems to be one of the drivers of the increases, and so i think taking everything together this is the right answer and we must abide by. i imagine there's many people that travel to birmingham city centre where cases are much higher and will be continue to do that. how worried are they that they

have to keep travelling into the city? we are not hearing that particularly, but you're quite right that's one of the reasons we have to acce pt that's one of the reasons we have to accept our local government boundaries which the disease does not respect. pretty robust in some cases, and this is a lot less bad that it might have been. it's proportionate and that's the key thing. people don't abide by these rules because they are worried about their neighbours snitching on them, they are by these rules because they understand it's in there and their neighbours interests. that's what i think the position has changed since a few days ago when it did not look like there was a strong case for including the royal town but none of the figures have started to rise all the figures have started to rise all the way across the west midlands we have to respect that and take proportionate action that the mayor has announced today. and if they do

abide by the restrictions how soon might they be lifted as far as you are aware from the information you received? i want the experts to make that decision on the basis of medical advice and judgement and not political advice and judgement. it's important to emphasise that the mayor, who leads in these matters for the west midlands and is doing a great job, for the west midlands and is doing a greatjob, and i, and forall purposes it's part of birmingham, andi purposes it's part of birmingham, and i hope that will encourage people to adhere to them, and the more people do adhere to them the quicker we'll be able to move out of these extra regulations. to give it its correct name, the royal town of sutton caulfield. some breaking news now — and restrictions on meetings in indoor household settings are to be extended to people living in lanarkshire, after a rise in covid cases.

they'll apply from midnight. our correspondent jamie mcivorjoins us now. an incident in the past few minutes by the scottish government. a significant extension to the restrictions in scotland. the extensions that already implied in glasgow and some neighbouring council areas have now been extended to north and south lanarkshire with effect from midnight tonight. so places like motherwell and airdrie and corr bridge. identical to the ones already in place in glasgow and the neighbouring council areas and essentially mean that people should not meet people from other households in indoor settings, but people from up to two households as long as there's only a maximum of six people can still meet outdoors at hospitality settings as long as all the guardians is followed. so essentially no visits to friends, neighbours and relatives. is there a

particular focus for a cause of this particular focus for a cause of this particular outbreak? certainly the first minister, nicola sturgeon, at her daily briefing earlier on this afternoon had expressed some concern about the rising number of positive tests, and rising number of infections in the lanarkshire area. over the past ten days with you not concerned about the rising number of infections and the broader glasgow area. now these restrictions which we re area. now these restrictions which were introduced in glasgow and a few other surrounding areas ten days ago now are due to be renewed on monday. thank you very much, jamie in glasgow. boris johnson is due to hold a conference call with conservative mps — amid growing anger about his plans to override part of the brexit withdrawal agreement. a number of backbenchers have threatened to try to amend the proposals when they reach parliament next week. mrjohnson says the changes are necessary to protect the unfettered flow of goods between northern ireland and the rest of the uk. joining me now from westminster is our chief political correspondent, vicki young.

just explain what it is that these mps are so angry about. lots of tory mps are so angry about. lots of tory mps complained they don't get much face time, if you like with the prime minister and downing street, and there's not a great mountain of communication between them, but i think borisjohnson communication between them, but i think boris johnson obviously feels that he's got some explain to do. this comes across to the end of a week where you had thatjaw—dropping moment where cabinet minister stood up moment where cabinet minister stood up the comments and said what we are doing will actually break international law, so that caused a huge amount of consternation among conservative mps, that particular bill will come before the house of commons on monday, detailed assessment of it throughout next week and the week after. of course borisjohnson has a very healthy majority of 80 mps, there have to be a lot of rebels, i don't think we are at that stage yet but having said that there are brexiteers i have spoken to who are fully behind this idea, they hate their

withdrawal agreement think it splits off entry through the ireland to philly of the united kingdom. that was of course probably the point of the whole deal that borisjohnson negotiated and signed in the first place, but they do think that it has not really been explained. it has not really been explained. it has not been explained well enough about why the government are taking this action. they blame the eu, they say the eu is not negotiating in good faith but they are not really living by the spirit of that withdrawal agreement. of course the io com pletely agreement. of course the io completely refutes that and say this isa completely refutes that and say this is a way to behave, even suggesting there might be legal action, and they have said the uk government must stop this. the uk government sticking with it and i think the crucial thing to remember here is that trade talks, that's about the future trade deal rather than what's been signed in the past, they are going to continue next week and there are many ministers who do think that this is partly an negotiating tactic by downing street to put maximum pressure on the eu in the hope of getting some

concessions. and we must mention there's been a trade deal struck with japan. not quite in the level of the eu trade deal, but the government are happy about this. signed and pretty quicktime, three months and it will mean a boost to trade between the countries of about £50 billion in the long term, although japan does £50 billion in the long term, althouthapan does benefit more than the uk from all of this. the international trade secretary is moving working on this and many others. she did not swerve the questions of the government in the law but talked of this trade deal. what i've said is it's very important that we protect the good friday agreement. that is a key aspect of the peace process and that is what we are determined to do. and what i'm announcing today is that we've successfully reached agreement, in principle, on the japan trade deal, which will enable british businesses to have more opportunities overseas.

now, she says that the particular wins for the uk are intact, the credit industries, food and drink and also points out that she's made and also points out that she's made a step towards access to a much larger free—trade area which is the trends pacific partnership. so in the long term they do think that this will reap big rewards for the uk but lots of people pointing out that of course 0.07% of gdp is not a huge amount and know it is pretending that would anyway replace the business done with the eu. thank you very much. the uk economy grew by 6.6 % injuly, the third month in a row that activity increased as lockdown restrictions were eased. but it has still only recovered just over half the output lost because of anti—virus measures. let's get more on that now with andrew sentance, who's a senior adviser to cambridge econometrics and former member of bank of england's monetary policy committee.

thank you forjoining us. 6.6%, how happy should we be to see that number? that the very big monthly jump number? that the very big monthly jump in gdp, we would not normally see that sort of figure cover we might see 0.1 or 0.2%. the reality is we are bouncing back from the streets of your lockdown which cut the output of the economy by about 20%, and we are now probably about 10% down orjust a bit more from where we were back in february. the big question that these figures raise is will be clawed back the rest of it, or will we get stuck somewhere halfway between where we are now and where we were back in february, and still see a loss in the output of the economy? were the options the chancellor has that is disposal to make sure the bounce back from stalling? he provided

quite a lot of support with the furlough scheme, and with very selective tax cuts to try and keep the economy going. i think the big question for economists like myself is if he is going to keep that support and that stimulus going to enable the economy to recover its full potential, and i think there are very mixed messages on that. we had a week or two ago discussion about tax rises. i think that would bea about tax rises. i think that would be a very bad idea, i think the government needs to support the economy for quite a while yet before we think about tax rises or any other measures that might rein in spending. this is a conservative government, they don't like to raise taxes, also particularly want to have to borrow at these eye watering levels, and yet you are encouraging the latter. used a borrowing at eye

watering levels but the rates of interest we are paying our bartering is eye watering the low. so i think there's a short—term benefit from being able to borrow money for now. the question is when the economy sta rts the question is when the economy starts to recover and is properly recovered from the lockdown combat we are in the very early stage of the recovery, the question is what do we do then? that's not a decision for now, that's a decision for next year. more affordable would be this idea of a targeted extended furlough scheme, so it's not a blanket coverage for everybody in this particular pockets, how workable would that be? i think that something that should be considered. for those really a second best alternative. we want to get people back into copper works, when they are furthered they are not working properly. so the best possible

outcome is to ensure that people are back to work properly, and that should be with the government is trying to do. but maybe some selective measures for certain sectors, we have the travel industry for the airline industry has been very badly hit. we know that restau ra nts very badly hit. we know that restaurants in the hospitality sector are still struggling to recover, so these are the areas that government should look out for selective measures, but when for those of the right approach amount quite so sure, i thinking there might be other measures they can take. thanks very much for talking to us. it's six months since the world health organization declared the covid—19 outbreak a pandemic. in total, there have been over 28 million official cases around the world, and it's estimated that more than 900,000 deaths have been linked to coronavirus. how is the pandemic varying throughout the world — and why are the numbers of cases so varied in different countries?

we can speak now to martin mckee, professor of european public health at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine, whojoins me via skype from north london. professor, welcome. briefly, what are the factors that dictate how well a country copes with the pandemic? the first thing to say is that there are real variations in how well countries have coped. that said, we do always have to look carefully at the data because their challenges and making precise interpretations of what is going on, but leave that aside, the first thing to say has been that some countries have been luckier than others in the early stages. a lot of it dependent on whether not you're getting cases imported from china, initially, and then onward spread, critically from northern italy. moving on from that, there are now forming reasons we can identify. the first is the area of politics and

policy. there was quite a lot of work done on this. one of the things i was quite interesting is an anecdotal observation that's been confirmed by empirical evidence, countries headed by female leaders have done better. 0ther countries headed by female leaders have done better. other work again, anecdotally initially within confirmed by research, countries doing populist policies have done worse, generally by men. otherwise, their issues are on trust and messaging that have been associated with having a good effect. the second issue is the science. it is helpful to have a strong scientific community. science and expert you can draw on. there's a question of whether you draw on them or not, as in the case of the united states or brazil, but having them there is important. but there isa them there is important. but there is a risk if you have too much scientific advice, you may hesitate, you may bejuggling scientific advice, you may hesitate, you may be juggling all the

different things, and i think one of the things we perhaps site in england at the beginning was there was perhaps a surface of the evidence but there's also a very clear argument that we needed to wait until we were sure about things. evidence—based medicines and evidence—based policy are highly desirable, but on the other hand, often your having to make the decisions before... the third issue is capacity. do you have the laboratories, the health facilities and so on? important in terms of the response but as important as getting you the comfort to do things. having seen you the comfort to do things. having seen things like what happened in northern italy, countries like the uk said we really have to protect the nhs, whereas in germany, when they have more capacity in the health system, in the laboratories, they could take actions other countries are more elected to do.

the final pointer issues around the context of the population. many people have asked, why has africa done somewhat better than latin america muh for example? and many people are pointing here to different levels of obesity there. we know this is a risk factor, more death. that is not to say there are not other factors. some countries like rwanda and liberia have done very welcome and linked to that, i thing we have seen countries that have had experience with similar diseases, be it sars in southeast asia or mers or the bola. —— ebola... and may be somewhere expose previous coronavirus is. ebola... and may be somewhere expose previous coronavirus islj ebola... and may be somewhere expose previous coronavirus is. i want to ta ke previous coronavirus is. i want to take you, incredibly weekly, to the

point about political leadership. why have female leaders tended to fa re why have female leaders tended to fare better? this is the $64,000 question, but when you look at the characteristics of these leaders, angela merkel, leaders in finland, in taiwan, iceland and elsewhere, perhaps there is, as a man... a degree more of deliberation and the value of life, being more cautionary. but one has to be careful with generalising, but the empirical evidence does support this. professor martin mckee, you've done all the heavy lifting i —— lifting. i hardly had to do a thing! thank you. a 30—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer in newquay. devon and cornwall police say the officer was seriously injured and sustained a number of burns to his arms and legs

following the assault this morning. he's been taken to hospital with severe injuries that are not believed to be life—threatening. the man remains in police custody. having a serious injury here is rare, but it does show, to remind the public, to remind us all, that police officers, they go 24 hours a day, seven days a week out to incidents, they put their life on the line for the community, and we all perhaps need to remember that and afford them the thanks and respect that all the emergency services deserve for what they do for us on a daily basis. today marks 19 years since the world stood still and watched two hijacked airliners crash into the twin towers of the world trade center. today, ceremonies took place across the us to honour the almost 3,000 people who were killed on 9/11. the day's events began with the unfurling of the stars and stripes from the pentagon — the site of the third aircraft collision. this was followed by events at ground zero. due to covid restrictions, the names of those killed were not read out live but instead pre—recorded and broadcast during the ceremony.

finally, president trump addressed the crash site of flight 93, which crashed in a field in pennsylvania after the passengers resisted the hijackers. in the days and weeks after 9/11, citizens of all faiths, backgrounds, colours and creeds came together, prayed together, mourned together and rebuilt it together. the song god bless america became a rallying cry for the nation. we were united by our conviction that america was the world's most exceptional country. two major research projects studying the spread of coronavirus in schools are set to begin within weeks. scientists at bristol university and imperial college london hope the studies will help schools understand much more about how the virus is transmitted. here's our education editor bra nwen jeffreys.

this is the only testing done so far in schools, swab samples taken in the summer term. the level of coronavirus cases was low then. now, all pupils are back in school in england, cases are rising in the wider community but still, little is known about children, so, in bristol, researchers will use saliva tests. 4,000 pupils, 1,000 staff, once a month for six months. i think the main thrust of the study is really to understand the rates of infections, and to be able tojump on them very quickly, so we're giving the head teachers tools to be able to spot infection early and to keep their schools open and permit the continuity of education that is so important to them. catching cases early could mean fewer pupils isolating. another study in london would investigate more, following up on confirmed cases in pupils, looking in detail

at youth and how they pass it on. branwen jeffries, bbc news. schools in england reopened last week. let's find out how they've been getting on and speak to geoff barton, general secretary of the association of school and college leaders union. thank you very much forjoining us, geoff. how open are schools in england? schools are very open. you have had a few cases, may 60 at the beginning of the week, where young people had been sent home and, in extreme cases, schools have been told to close. given we more than 20,000 souls across england, the vast majority hugely have been open and the thing that members sent to me after all of that planning is it is so great to get laughter, seeing smiles of young people and to start to create some semblance of business as usual in education. there is a problem, though, with accessing

tests. tell us about that. it's interesting, because while the week began with that sense of the joy of having children back, by tuesday or wednesday, but we started to hear from some the people was that, actually, the process, they were really clear about. if a child showed symptoms or a loss of a sense of taste or smell, they need to be sent home and have a test, just like we have been hearing nationally in the news, that is really problem has been, the problem actually knowing whether the child is had their test, and if they have had their test, actually having the reassurance about what happens next. that can't bea about what happens next. that can't be a decision about what happens. having to wait on the phone for four hours in some cases try and get through to public health, to have promises some of phone us back and not hearing, and all during that time, the anxiety of kumble should we be doing if there was a child who

has the symptoms, who was in school this morning or yesterday, whenever it is, what should we be doing now? we do need to improve that test and trace process. how widely available are these home testing kits? we were talking about birmingham earlier and they have a large supply of those to help them cope in the next few days. from what i hear, if every school was sent ten of those, our new vice president has 2000 children, so having ten testing kits really is noppert tickly helpful in the guidance from —— and the guidance says it should only be used in extreme cases. what we will be filling at the end of the week as head teachers, teachers and staff have done their bit of the bargain here. we got our children back into school, focusing on what we can do, the educational things, and instead of what might happened

in the future, we really need the test interest to be working so we have the real reassurance we can continue to focus on the things that matter, education. you're trying to minimise the further disruption after five or even six months of school? absolutely. and certainly two weeks ago, as we went into the bank holiday weekend, on the friday evening before schools were going to open on the tuesday, finally, the government responded to her question, where's plan b? what if schools do have to close down, a year group has to be sent home or half a year year group has to be sent home or halfa yeargroup, year group has to be sent home or half a year group, what is the plan b? school leaders are thinking not just about we do with the children in front of us now but what if a some of those children, a small number or large number, have to be educated at home? we have to do better than we did previously and guarantee learning stop does that mean the government is going to provide laptops for those young people? we ask a question, we don't

did a response to that. geoff barton, thank you for your time. well, we have got a statement from the government. it says, "testing capacity is the highest it has ever been, but we are seeing a significant demand for tests. it is vital that children and school staff only get a test if they develop coronavirus symptoms. if a positive case is confirmed in a school, swift action is being taken to ask those who have been in close contact to self—isolate, and public health england's local health protection teams continue to support and advise schools in this situation. children who are self—isolating will receive remote education. we will continue to work with schools to ensure all appropriate steps are taken to keep pupils and staff safe." that's the statement from the government. more now on that breaking news about lockdown restrictions are being extended in lanarkshire. deputy first ministerjohn swinney has been talking about it — and was asked whether another lockdown across the whole of scotland might be needed in the future as infection rates continue to rise.

we took some steps yesterday, in the announcements the first minister made, to apply some further restrictions that will come into effect on monday, which are restricting the number of people who can visit in households in general across the country. that's indicative of some early action that we have to take, and he actually taken the night in relation to lanarkshire is similarly early action. we want to do everything we public entity to avoid further research is being put in place, but that really does rely on public complaints make sure that is the case, and i would encourage members of the public to follow all of the restrictions that have been put in place to give us the best opportunity to try to suppress the virus to the greatest extent possible. john swinney. now on bbc news, the film review.

hello and welcome to the film review with me, mark kermode, rounding up the best movies available for viewing in cinemas and in the home. when times are tough, people often look to the movies to lift their spirits, and what better way to do that than with a romcom — like new release the broken hearts gallery? what? why are you getting into my car? what are you doing? for lyft, silver prius. adolpho, i have had the worst night of my life. this isn't a lyft, this is my car. hello? i'm sorry. no, i'll cancel. you're not adolpho?